Firefox 3 Download Day June 17th
Firefox 3 will be available to be downloaded on Tuesday June 17, 2008. Mozilla is declaring this day as download day to set the record for most software downloads in a 24 hour period.
The New 3G iPhone
Steve Jobs today announced that Apple will be finally releasing a newer iPhone on a 3G network. For those of you who do not know a 3G network is the third generation of networks particularly for mobile devices. The new iPhone will be available in July for $199. This is a big drop from the initial $599 when the iPhone launched last year. Other new features of the new iPhone include a GPS, a store to allow users to download third party applications which was not available on the previous iPhone.
Facebook To Become Open Source
Facebook will become apparently will become open source this week. According to an article on Techcrunch.This means that any social networking site can use Facebook’s applications to have them run on their own social networking site as well. I think this is a good idea. I actually was surprised that this did not happen already. I think Facebook is an excellent example of what can be done with open source applications. I find Facebook unique not for its Social Networking features, but more for its applications within a larger application. I find that as a major stand out feature of Facebook.
Videocard Fun
I recently replaced the video card in my PC this past week because the fans had on the video card had quit running properly and was causing the video card to overheat. Which resulted in my computer beeping at me and then shutting down every time I played World of Warcraft which is not a really graphically intense game. I thought this would be an opportunity to provide information on the different video card configurations.
The first one is on video configuration this means there is no video card but rather the video output comes from the motherboard. This configuration is beneficial for the non-gamer because it does not demand real time rendering of video. If a gamer wants this two use this configuration one would tend to see slow, and jagged movement on the more high end games.
The other configuration is having an actual videocard in an actual slot on your memory card. There were many different configurations of video card technlogies since the beginning so I will only mention the more recent ones.
One technology that is not really used anymore is AGP or Accelerated Graphics Port. This technology was a dedicated port on the computers graphics board dedicated to graphics. This has been replaced by PCI-Express.
PCI-Express was designed to replace the traditional PCI, PCIx, and AGP. PCI express set a point to point technology to replace the bus which are called lanes. Without getting two detailed this means it runs much faster than traditional buses.
With that being said when choosing a memory card note it has its own dedicated video memory. Obviously the higher number the faster the card such as 256 vs. 512MB. Take this all into account as preliminary account for video cards.
Google Browser Sync
If your like me you use one or more computers, and obviously you want to the browser to act the same way on multiple machines. If you use Firefox there is an extension to sync all of them and it will remember all your bookmarks, history, tabs, etc. This makes it convenient not to have remember which computer you were using last. You can download this extension for your browser here.
Google Friend Connect
Just when you think Google has thought of everything even more interesting comes along. With Google Friend Connect allows website creators to enable social networking features into their website. Google allows the website creator to use technology already implemented by Google to help attract visitors to your site and be connected with others. I saw the timing of this pretty ironic because just finished a six month research project on social networking and thought to myself when will the next step happen. We all have different social networking sites we have to join and become a member but when will we all be connected with all the sites in a more direct way maybe Google Friend Connect is a step in that direction time will tell.
Internet as a Platform
I think more and more we are going to be seeing the Internet as a platform as opposed to the traditional way we get our software. The traditional way meaning the user goes to the store and buys an actual hard copy disc and installs the software on the computer. This new way I see it users will be using the Internet for “software” or applications. With all the Web 2.0 technology out there we have found new ways to communicate we are using the Internet more and more interesting ways. Who thought 5 years ago that sites like MySpace & Facebook would be the way kids spend the better part of their time with others.
Imagine going to a website and installing an application not onto your hard drive but into your browser. This would be similar to the same way Firefox or Facebook performs or even place it on your desktop. Which is applications within applications. It seems that companies are spending loads and loads of time obsessed with pirates hacking their software this is why software costs so much. In this situation it would limit that behavior a bit, and limit the rise of software costs.
This is being done with Adobe Air which lets the user install applications that typically would have required an Internet browser but lets them use the services right on the desktop. A user can install an application for Ebay or YouTube without having to go to your Internet browser.
HD Radio
I was at work yesterday and I noticed they now sell shelf systems for HD Radio. I decided to try it out for a bit, and I was not impressed at all. I fell it is just marketing hype as a competitor to Satellite Radio yes Satellite Radio you do pay for but you get a lot more, and commerical free on the music stations. It seems to be all HD Radio is that it display the songs, and some stations have another band, and the audio quality is a little better but not by a whole lot. So my recommendation would be stick with your current radio or go with Satellite Radio.
Grand Theft AUto IV & The OpenSource Game
I recently purchased Grand Theft Auto IV for Xbox 360 and I do think it is a great game. Of course it has its controversy, but that being said it is aimed at a certain audience, the mature gaming crowd. In my opinion the thing that really innovates Grand Theft Auto series since Grand Theft Auto III back in 2001 for the Playstation 2 is the openness of the game-play as the entire environment is open for gamers to explore and experiment with. That is what makes the Grand Theft Auto series unique, and that the gaming world in this game is just so huge. It is not restricted to a linear style of game-play that forces the gamer to do follow a set path. This is also true in other forms of software is what they would call open source. In this sense open source refers to pretty much the same thing, not having the software have to work certain ways the user has options in order to change it to the way they wanted it to work.
Maybe we can now view Grand Theft Auto as a from of the open source game.
Xbox Live Prepping Servers for GTA IV release
Grand Theft Auto IV will be released on Tuesday, April 29, 2008. According to Kotaku Microsoft will be prepping their servers for the expected increase of traffic on the Xbox Live Servers. This is following the days and weeks after Christmas with unstable servers on Xbox Live which was the result of so many new users getting Xbox 360’s for Christmas Presents. Microsoft is adding hardware, for the increased usage, with addition of the Xbox Live upgrades current users have received on their Xbox 360 consoles in order to prepare for a (hopefully) smooth transition.
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