Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 5th Jan 2006 19:12 UTC
"Tomorrow Google will announce a new commercial video download service, according to multiple sources. In related news Google will also take the wraps off of Google Pack, a bundle of applications that will be made available for download in a single installation bundle. Sources tell us that Google pack will feature a Google-tweaked version of Firefox, Adobe Acrobat Reader, antivirus software from Symantec, AdAware, Trillian, and Google's own offerings, including Google Desktop Search, Picasa, Google Earth, Google Talk, and all of the toolbar action you can shake a stick at. Oh, and I left out one other item: the RealPlayer."
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Member since:2005-07-22
"This sounds like a good idea, the Real player thing sounds weird, but understandable to some degree. I've used Real Player before, it's a decent player, but a pain in the butt to use sometimes (won't go into details to stay on topic, but I got rid of it)."
Yeah, realplayer is a mess. I think they should have included real alternative, quicktime alternative, and media player classic instead.
Also, isn't Symantec Antivirus a product that you have to pay for? I wasn't aware of any free versions before now.
Member since:2006-01-06
RealPlayer formerly was a mess, especially in it's RealOne incarnation, but 10.5 is perfectly fine, and three times smaller than iTunes to download, which considering all it's functionality (if you like an all-in-one) is pretty good. The spying is there still, but it's optional, id est a few checkboxes that install tracking cookies to IE.
The only problem I have with RealPlayer at the moment is that for Ogg Vorbis support in the Windows version you need to install a patch, and unfortunately while that means you can play the files, RealPlayer is still unable to read Vorbis comments (maybe Real read the book though and decided they don't want to know what Vorbis thinks about music).
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/19/13 23:02 UTC, submitted by M.Onty
"Microsoft has sensationally abandoned its controversial plans to restrict the sharing of XBox One games, and has also removed daily online authentication requirements for its forthcoming console", reports The Guardian. They had no choice. Still a good move.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/19/13 22:28 UTC
"A snippet of code in the Steam digital distribution platform has revealed that Valve may be planning to let users easily share their games with friends in the future. The Verge has verified the code's authenticity, which was originally spotted by a member of the NeoGAF gaming forum; the code references a 'shared game library' and a notification that would alert a user when their games are currently in use by a borrower." This would change the, uh, game.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:33 UTC
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
Linked by Anonymous on 06/18/13 22:26 UTC
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:25 UTC
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:45 UTC
"I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:32 UTC, submitted by poundsmack
A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)".
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:58 UTC
"The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:52 UTC
"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 21:03 UTC
Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm: "Well, I'm not sure I would have sold the company to HP. That's for sure. Talk about a waste. Not that I had any choice because when you sell a company you don't get to decide that. Obviously, the board and shareholders decide that. If we had known they were just going to shut it down and never really give it a chance to flourish, what would have been the point of selling the company? I think the deal we had with Verizon really hurt us, but who knew that at the time? These things are all hindsight."More News »
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Member since:
2005-10-18
This is interesting news, and it seems like that’s all the news we're getting from Google lately. Interesting, but no cigar.
This sounds like a good idea, the Real player thing sounds weird, but understandable to some degree. I've used Real Player before, it's a decent player, but a pain in the butt to use sometimes (won't go into details to stay on topic, but I got rid of it). I'm guessing that a lot of the softwares in the pack, ASSUMING this is all for real, are heavily modded.
A modded Firefox sounds interesting and is probably what Google would use to sell the entire thing. Perhaps with the Internet accelerator that I read about that Google offers built directly into Firefox? I hope that you can select which components to install, cause some of those products are useless to me.
I'm sure Google would release this stuff to other platforms/OSs.
We just have to wait on Google's word. At a press conference sometime soon:
Either a: "yeah, we are going to support all these platforms!" or a: "No, this is just a rumor guys, sorry to disappoint you."
I'm starting to wonder if these rumors are done intentionally by Google as a form of advertising.... Sounds evil, but I still love Google
--ZaNkY