Tag Archives: facebook

Seven features that make the Palm Pre better than the iPhone

There was a glow on the face of every Palm employee we saw today, and deservedly so: the new Palm Pre is a hail mary product. It’s probably going to save the company.

And it is, in many ways, better than the iPhone.

via Seven features that make the Palm Pre better than the iPhone – Boing Boing Gadgets.

UPDATE 3: Video courtesy Ars:

UPDATE 1: Oops, forget the all-important specs… Kudos to iLounge.

Palm today introduced its latest handset, named the Pre. Featuring a 3.1-inch, 480×320 touchscreen, a dedicated gesture area below the display, a vertical slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and more, the device is aimed at the same market as the iPhone. Other technical features include high-speed wireless (EV-DO Rev. A or HSDPA, depending on the model and carrier), GPS, Wi-Fi, a 3-megapixel camera with LED flash, 3.5mm headphone jack, microUSB connector, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR with A2DP, 8GB of internal storage, an accelerometer, ambient light and proximity sensors, a removable rechargeable battery, and an optional wireless charger. Pre is exclusive at launch to Sprint.

Folks, I’m not going to kid you on this one – Apple actually have a real fight on their hands here, for these three reasons:

Firstly, it runs Linux. This, in and of itself, will silence all those “the iPhone is locked down, proprietary, user’s can’t do what they want without jailbreaking, etc, etc” people who think Apple is the worst thing since the drop toilet. SQLite features as the database here.

Secondly – it has all the “wow” features needed to knock the iPhone of it’s most gigantic pedestal. The menu bar *cough*DOCK*cough* apparently has this cool feature where you slide your finger up from below the screen, and the dock pops up with your finger. This is possible because the touchscreen (with built-in) multitouch actually extends BELOW the actual LCD – which makes for cool features like this. And you thought Shazam was cool… this feature blows Shazam out of the water. Like Shazam, it’s one of those “OMGZ THATS AWESOME” times when words escape you and you’re left with nothing but pure adoration.

And finally, Facebook and Gmail – the integration is said to be “top notch”. None of this “have facebook as a seperate app on another home screen” business like the iPhone – instead, imagine being able to send a photo or text to Facebook from withthin every photo management app, every mail application, every web page, with the same features being applied to Gmail. PLus, you can choose to pull down your contact’s Facebook’s profile pic, so that when they call you, you can see their lovely face as it shows on Facebook. ZOMG! AWESOME!

…and I lied, there are actually four things. System-wide COPY and PASTE is the last feature that will make this a serious “iPhone Killer”.

Hopefully, it’ll have the hardware to match up to the software. The only way I can see this becoming a massive fail is due to a sloppy processor, or a battery life that just doesn’t quite cut it.

It’s for these four reasons that Apple had better make iPhone OS 3.0 a dammmmed good release. A couple of things for them to work on: MobileMe (integration? Don’t make me laugh), iWork.Com (a mobile version is a good start, now we need more integration), App Store (it’s far from perfect), Push Notifications (please don’t make this into another MobileMe fiasco…), and FRIGGIN COPY AND PASTE! SRSLY!

…and hopefully, something awesome that will blow us all away, like battery life that doesn’t actually suck, full-bluetooth capabilities, a user-accessible file system (instead of each file storeage app having it’s own… wtf) or even a dash of multi-core iPhones…

I’m scared. Scared at how badly Apple could have just lost the smartphone war, especially after it was doing so well… Scared at how easily it was to expose and exploit the disadvantages of the iPhone… Scared at how much of a contender Palm have come back as. Scared of how Android will respond to this new opponent.

UPDATE 2:
Links for further reading:
gdgt’s Palm Keynote live blog (lots of pics)
Engadget’s Hands On with the Palm Pre
Engadget’s In-Depth Impressions on the Palm Pre
Engadget’s Ominously Titled “The Palm Pre”

Apple. Do us proud!

Average Macworld is Average.

C’mon, Phil.

We didn’t want huge product demos. We didn’t want explanations of every single new feature. We didn’t want the constant stalling, the in-depth promos, or any of that stuff. Most of all, we didn’t want to pay $2100 for 4GB more RAM in our new MacBook Pro 17″, a machine that already costs $4499. 😮

$2100 for 4GB more RAM in the new 17.

$2100 for 4GB more RAM in the new 17".

…nor did we want to pay extra for a matte screen. 😮

$90 more for a matte screen? GTFO.

$90 more for a matte screen? GTFO.

We wanted new products. We wanted an iPhone OS 3.0 demo. We wanted Snow Leopard, Mac Minis, and an iMac speed bump.

What we got was 8 hour battery life. What we got was iLife 09, iWork 09, and the Keynote Remote. What we got was iWork.com, DRM-free iTunes Music, and the iTunes Music Store available over 3G/EDGE networks.

Sure, the updating of the 17″ MBP to a Aluminium Unibody with dual graphics cards for $100 more was nice of Apple, but I’m currently sitting on the fence – 8 hour battery life vs inbuilt battery. 😕

iWork 09? Meh, could be better. With the addition of iWork.com, this can be seen as an above-average update. Collaboration, sticky notes, and more!

Download the Trial today!

Download the Trial today!

iLife 09 actually looks alright. I have now fallen in love with iPhoto all over again – and now believe that the Mac platform rules for that kind of thing. You can’t go past Facebook/Flickr integration.

Facebook integration for the win!

Facebook integration for the win!

…those tagged names now come down to your iPhoto! Also new is geo-tagging, “Faces” (awesome new facial recognition), and “Places” (which obviously links into the geo-tagging). All come with that special Apple polish we all know and love!

Faces, and Places.

Faces, and Places.

The other thing that got me excited was the iWork updates. Full screen Pages, new text transitions in Keynote, and some funky features I didn’t really care about in Numbers.

iCONic.

iCONic.

New features in Pages 09

New features in Pages '09

New features in Keynote 09

New features in Keynote '09

However, the introduction of the Mac Box Set was a really huge improvement, but something they should have done a while ago.

They should have called it the Macs Box Set, as in Max. Box. Set.

They should have called it the Macs Box Set, as in Max. Box. Set.

One more thing – DRM-free iTunes music! You can upgrade your music right now for 50c per song to DRM free, which comes in 256kbps AAC.

I can haz DRM-free Music plz? Kthx.

I can haz DRM-free Music plz? Kthx.

However, even with all the song and dance, I couldn’t feel there was something missing. Where is our Mac Mini update? Where were the iMac speed bumps? Where was the multi-touch Mighty Mouse, Aiport updates (thanks, adamd), or Cinema Displays, Mac Pros, Home Media Server, or the Mac Tablet, iPhone Nano, or even the fabled Mac Pro Mini?

End of the day, it’s just another Macworld keynote. For now, download the iWork 09 trial (warning, it’s 500MB), and enjoy the rest of your day.

W32.Koobface.A : Virus Solution and Removal

Systems Affected: Windows – AllHow to Remove W32.Koobface.A:

1. Temporarily Disable System Restore (Windows Me/XP). [how to]

2. Update the virus definitions.

3. Reboot computer in SafeMode [how to]

4. Run a full system scan and clean/delete all infected file(s)

5. Delete/Modify any values added to the registry. [how to edit registry]

Navigate to and delete the following registry entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Run\”systray” = “c:\windows\mstre6.exe”

6. Exit registry editor and restart the computer.

7. In order to make sure that threat is completely eliminated from your computer, carry out a full scan of your computer using AntiVirus and Antispyware Software. Another way to delete the virus using various Antivirus Program without the need to install can be done with Online Virus Scanner.

via W32.Koobface.A : Virus Solution and Removal.

Sick of Koobface? I’m sick of your annoying Wall posts, too…

For all those Windows users out there.

Srsly, just get a Mac. I’m not kidding.

Connect with Facebook Connect

Connect with Facebook Connect.

So, you might have seen the huge “Login using Facebook” button on the sidebar. It’s right below the freshbytes logo, and when you click it, it logs you into this site with your Facebook profile. Don’t worry, I don’t automatically download all of your profile pics or anything freaky like that, nor can I change any of your settings, view anything you don’t want me to view, or invade your privacy in any way, it’s just an easier way for you to comment without having a login for freshbytes.

Simply put, if you have facebook, you can now post comments on this site without logging into this site.

In the interests of full disclosure, any comments you post to Facebook will now be posted to your Facebook wall if you choose to login via the Facebook Connect button.

In my original testing of this new WordPress Plugin, I found it irritating that the profile page borked the layout of the site. However, this has now been fixed, and the profile page now shows in the correct location.

Yet the only annoying thing that remains is the fact that if you choose to logout of freshbytes (when you’re logged in via facebook connect) is that you also get logged out of facebook. It’s something I want to try and fix, as it’s completely not cool, but as of this moment, I really can’t be bothered diving into the code to get that done. If I have to deal with it, so do you. 😀

At the end of the day, it’s completely up to you whether you use this plugin or not. Use it, don’t use it, hey, I don’t care.

It would be awesome if I could get some more people in the “Last Visitors” column, though.

AHAHA! Epic fail on my part. Oops.

In a fit reminiscent of the fail whale, I managed to publish this post to the wrong blog… Epic lulz. How does that happen, anyway?! 😛

If you want, you can read the full post over at freshbytes. Hit this link up for more.

Sociable! » Facebook Connect WordPress Plugin

WordPress plugin that allows direct integration of WordPress blogs with Facebook using Facebook Connect:

* Build a community

* Login using your Facebook account

* Send comments to Facebook profile feed

* Invite your friends to the blog community

* See last visitors

via Sociable! – The Social Media Blog » Facebook Connect WordPress Plugin.

Thanks to Sociable!, freshbytes now has the ultimate in Facebook integration. Now, whenever you comment on freshbytes (and you’ve logged in via the FaceBook connect button), your comment will show up on your Wall – thus telling the world that you’re a fan of freshbytes.

It’s just an easier way to connect, I guess.

Bear in mind that the freshbytes implementation is only-half-broken – the profile page messes up the layout of the site, but I’ll try and fix that when I have some more free time, as it’s no small job.

Meanwhile, jump over there and check it out for yourself.

www.freshbytes.com.au

Social Networking – Hugely Overrated.

Some of you might know that I’ve now got a Facebook. While I think it’s fairly cool for keeping in touch with people you know from years gone by, it’s also a little weird.

It’s great for keeping in touch because you can interact with people you know (and might not know) in different ways. It’s like the online forum for non-geeks in that you can see photos of them, see what they’re saying to/about others as well as see what’s being said to/about them.

However – it’s also really weird. It’s weird ‘cos you can see everything about a person – some personal info is supposed to be kept personal, you know? Maybe it’s just me, but whenever I view photos that someone else has put up, or look at their profile, I just feel like I’m stalking them – even though I have the very best of intentions (Hey, I’m just checking out a pic of myself!). It’s an eerie feeling.

I guess social networking (in and of itself) is alright, though. There’s nothing vehemently wrong about chatting to long-lost friends, or people you used to go to school with, but have since lost touch with. It’s okay to occasionally touch base with them, say hi, and ask how they’re doing. Just so long as you don’t poke them too often. (At this point, I’d link you to an Urban Dictionary definiton, but it’s far too vulgar to be linked here. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about, though. 😉 )

But where to draw the line? What constitutes a facebook friend? Someone you’ve talked to once? Twice? More than three times? Or how about: a “friend” who you’ve seen in the hallways at school, but never actually talked to? Someone who’s in your class, but you’ve never heard them speak in public? Someone who you’ve said “Hi!” to once, and then never spoken to that person again due to the negative response you got? Someone you know only by reputation?

What about accepting friends? Do you accept someone who knows you, but you don’t know them? Do you accept someone who you don’t particularly like?

I guess that when it comes to social networking, there are no hard and fast rules about what you can and can’t do. If you want to have as many friends as possible, go right ahead. You’ll then experience such phenomena akin to the Facebook Effect, but hey – not my problem.

Talking about awkward, friend acceptance/rejection, there’s the term Facebook Limbo:

The electronic space between accepting and rejecting a facebook friendship. In facebook limbo, the user fails to accept or reject friend requests from would-be facebook friends from a variety of sources (e.g., random annoying classmates, despised work associates, ex-girlfriends, etc), because the user is uncertain if he or she will have to interact with these individuals in the future.

I’m experiencing this now with a couple of people that I know. I’m getting hugely paranoid that a) they don’t want me as a friend, or b) they just haven’t logged on to facebook in a while. Surely you know if someone has rejected you as a friend, though. I’ve asked a couple of people, and none of them seem to have been rejected by people, so yeah. If you know the answer to the question “Do you know if someone has rejected you as a facebook friend?”, then please stick it in comments, and maybe I’ll be your facebook friend.

Finding a good profile pic is harder than I thought, as well! You want to look good, but not so good so that you look like a metrosexual. You want to be seen, but not attract attention to yourself. You want to show yourself off in the best possible light, doing something you love. For me, that’s wearing funky tee’s with awesome slogans, with blue zinc cream and a scrolling LED name badge. I am indeed awesome. 😀

I mean, really. I am awesome.

Comments below.

A quick aside: Urban Dictionary was down, just as I’m trying to link things. Epic lulz, cos 503 errors aren’t fun!

Some more interesting Urban Dictionary links about Facebook:
Facebook Boyfriend
Facebook Breakup
Facebook Disease