I though I’d share with you guys an RSS reader that I started using recently called Feedly. Basically it’s and add-on for most browsers including Chrome and Firefox which combines all your RSS feeds into one incredible place that by far surpasses generic readers such as Google.
Here is a screenshot:
What I like most about is that it also combines other services such as GMail and Twitter into the same package so you’re getting all of your information in the one place instead of having several tabs open.
It’s free and its easy to set up once you have installed it as an add-on. Click here to download Feedly.
It has been amazing that Google have been able to pump out 4 releases of a browser that has only been in the market for a little over a year. Compare that to Firefox, which took over six years to reach 3.6.
We’ve improved performance scores on Google Chrome by 30% since our current stable release, as measured by Mozilla’s Dromeao DOM Core Tests, and by 400% since our first stable release.” – Idan Avraham and Anton Muhin
Expectedly, Google Chome 4 is currently only available for the Windows platform. Reports have come in that it works just fine with the latest release of Windows, despite the fact that it only specifies XP/Vista as being currently supported.
I guess there are tons of Linux users that were waiting for this kind of project; Marcan42 is developing Usbmuxd, that it is capable to synchronize your iPhone/iPod Touche with your Linux distribution.
Well there are a few applications already available that are capable to achieve this functionality, but at a small cost, iPhone must be jailbreaked. Usbmuxd represents a library that will be in charge to generate the communication with the device and your machine. Usbmuxd name actually was created from “USB multiplexing daemon”.
Using this daemon, plus other Linux libraries, you will be able to proxy requests from the USB cable to the specific port on the iPhone. Here are some of the libraries involved:
libusb-1.0 provides an advanced API to access USB devices under Linux, replacing the old libusb-0.1 API
usbmuxd coordinates application access to the device and talks the specific iPhone/iTouch USB protocol
libiphone implements the Apple-specific protocols that are tunneled through usbmuxd: it can launch services through lockdown, retrieve device info, send notifications, and access the filesystem via AFC.
iFuse and gvfs-backend-afc both provide access to AFC to regular Linux apps. iFuse does this by mounting via FUSE, while gvfs-backend-afc is obviously a backend for gVFS.
libgpod (the library that traditionally has managed music databases for iPods) is being extended to support the new SQLite format, the new hash, and also to talk to libiphone to properly put the device in to and out of sync mode.
Ok, I know, if you are not a Linux user, some of these concepts might confuse you; but you can be certain about one thing: it is so great to have the opportunity to use your favorite technology and gadgets no matter which platform are you using.
As many of you already should know, Windows 7 media, as it was for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, includes all the versions inside the same disc. But, the difference from Vista is that Windows 7 does not let you choose from the different versions available when you install the operating system.
Windows 7 Edition Switcher will let you easily do that, and the possibility, for example, to switch from Windows 7 Home to Ultimate.
This new and simple app will let you convert any Windows 7 ISO file to the version that you need, and it only takes a few clicks.
Just select the patch from the zip file that you downloaded from the website, select the ISO file that you wish to convert and done.
A lot of people have big issues converting files from PDF format to any other format. Today, I wanted to run through converter programs which change PDF files to JPG (image) files for both Mac and PC.
Zamzar
Zamzar is probably the most well known file conversion site. The process is simplicity personified: Choose the file to convert then choose the format to convert to (e.g. JPG) then enter your email address to receive the converted file then convert. The minuses with the free service are that the file size is limited to 100MB with just 5 simultaneous conversions. Also, you might feel a wee bit uneasy uploading sensitive data without encryption support.
YouConvertIt
YouConvertIt is a new site that lets you upload 5 files at a time and then convert them from PDF to JPG format.
Neevia Document Converter
Neevia Technology has a web interface which facilitates the conversion of PDF documents to image files. Select the conversion settings and upload your file. The converted file can be rendered in the browser or can be downloaded via an email link. Two dropdowns further give you control over image quality and resolution. The only visible restriction is the 1MB file upload size limit.
If you are wary of uploading sensitive files over the net, you need to look beyond the online solutions to something much more local. Thankfully these three pieces of free software take up the task.
PDF-Xchange Viewer
PDF-Xchange Viewer is a light feature-rich PDF document reader. The free version of the software is a capable document handler with most of the standard features expected. Add comments and annotations, mark-up pages with texts and objects, type within the PDF document along with plug-ins for both IE and Firefox are also included.
But the feature which interests us is the ability of the software to export a file or a page to the supported image formats like JPEG, BMP, TIFF, PNG and more.
Open the PDF file in the viewer, click on File – Export to Image and the dialog opens up where you can set the pages to convert, the image type to convert to and the destination folder. More importantly, the ‘Export Mode’ setting allows you to designate the number of image files for the subject PDF file. The ‘Page Zoom’, ‘Resolution’ and ‘Page Background’ also allow added finishing touches.
Many sites such as MegaVideo, Vreel and other offer the ability to watch some of our favourite TV shows and Movies. However, does that time limit put in place by Megavideo bother you? Or how about just wanting to watch it on your iPod? So why not download the videos? Oh yeah, they charge you for that.
Well, here at Crenk we have a quick, easy and FREE way to download videos from sites like Megavideo.
1. Get the video’s URL. Most players offer this next to the embed code for the video etc… or in the address bar in the browser. In Megavideo it’s one of the options along the bottom of the screen.
3. Enter the space provided at Clip Nabber. Press ‘Nab It!”
4. Then (required for Megavideo only), go back to the video page and right click outside of the video and view the page’s source. Or, click edit in the Browser’s menu and select to view it there. Select all of the code and paste it into the HTML box that appeared in ClipNabber.
5. Press ‘Nab It!” again.
6. Click on the link to download the video.
Now chances are that Clip Nabber has given you a .FLV video which can only be played in Real Player. To convert this into an .mp4 or .avi, use this video converter.
There are only a few things in your life that you are condemned to repeat it over and over, re installing operating systems it is definitely one of them. And this task never comes alone; you are condemned also to installing your common apps all over again. That’s where Ninite appears, providing you in one installer all the applications of your choice.
As simple as it sounds, Ninite will let you decide from several applications already loaded (don’t worry, I’m pretty sure that the 90% apps will appear there) and generates automatically one installer with all of them.
The another great thing I found is that you just need to visit Ninite home page, select your apps (no registration needed) and click on “Get Installer”.
In case you were asking, here are my selected apps:
Just a few days after Windows 7 official release, we now have tons of tools available to optimize our Windows 7 experience. And Microsoft Store offers us: Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool, which will let us burn an ISO Windows 7 image into a DVD or, my favorite choice, a USB flash.
This represents a new approach by Microsoft to insert Windows 7 into the netbooks world, that by default never include an optical CD/DVD ROM.
The usability provided by the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool it is quite simple as well: You will need, of course, the Windows 7 ISO file (extracted from the DVD or downloaded from Microsoft); select to create a DVD disc or a bootable USB drive and complete the wizard.
An important note about the USB option is that it will use the entire flash drive to build this bootable image, meaning that you better move those files from your portable drive.
I guess you are running out of excuses for not using Windows 7 right?
Archos is presenting the first Tablet PC with Windows 7 incorporated, natively: Archos 9 PCTablet. Taking advantage of the touch-screen technology included within the new operating system. Now, with Windows 7 out in the market, you should expect to see a lot of these products in the next few months.
The netbooks seems that they are going to take the market (Windows 7 was already built thinking in netbooks), but having this devices available already, including a great OS like Windows 7, sounds like an excellent idea to me.
There has been a hugeamount of hype around Microsoft and their new Windows 7 operating system, and today is the big launch day! The reactions so far from users and reviewers have been mostly positive and to me it looks like Windows 7 is a great improvement from XP and the huge issue of Vista.
A lot of people are really looking forward to getting their hands on Windows 7 when it comes out. In the mean time there are a lot of people wanting to replicate Windows 7 in other operating system (not really sure why!). Here is a new Windows 7 transformation pack for Ubuntu.
Download Win7 Transformation Pack for Ubuntu from here
Even though all the rumors said that we were going to have an official beta of Firefox 3.6, as we’ve discussed earlier, Mozilla will be releasing a 3.6 build, but as an early beta.
This “test build”, that should contain several bugs, will be a small preview of the real 3.6 beta that will be available to the public on October 21st (yes, one day before Windows 7 official release to the public). To take a nice preview of what’s coming in 3.6, you can access Mozilla FTP and download the build.
As we’ve said earlier, Firefox 3.6 (codename Namoroka) won’t bring us big changes, the features that you’ll find here:
Lightweight themes with Vista-like interface.
Improvements in TraceMonkey JavaScript engine
Bookmark synchronization
Optimized session restore feature.
Enhanced page rendering.
New additions for CSS.
Previews of tabs
We’ll have to wait for 3.7 to expect major differences.
