Download VLC Media Player 0.9.0

VLC is one of the most well-known media players out there, and it’s been almost 4 years since they’ve released a major new version. VLC 0.9.0 is on the horizon, and it packs in 2 years of development. So you can expect some great things. But Windows 98/ME and Mac OS X 10.3.9 are no longer supported operating systems.



One of the biggest things would have to be the revamped interface seen in the screenshot. Other improvements include:

• Improved playlist support: Shoutcast TV listings, Audioscrobbler/Last.FM support (in supported countries), album art, and more


• Better tag support


• Supports most types of subtitles


• New and enhanced filters


• Improved mouse gestures


• Full support for meta data editing (ID3v2, Ogg/Vorbis, AAC, APEv1/2) 


• and much more

You can grab a download of the pre release VLC Media Player 0.9.0, or you can wait for it to reach final form.

Become a Firefox extension Editor

Mozilla is looking for editors for the extensions to its popular browser Firefox. The release of Firefox 3 caused an onslaught of new/updated extensions to get submitted to the site, and they just can’t keep up with the vast quantity of submissions. As of yesterday there were 215 extension updates waiting to get published, and another 461 extensions that are waiting to make their way out of the sandbox.

You can also become a Firefox extension Editor, if you have spare time and want to help others.

How do I become an editor?

These are the necessary steps involved:

1. Read the Editors' Guide completely.
2. Begin testing sandbox extensions and writing reviews of them. Do not skip this step! Mozilla will look over the reviews you have done in the sandbox.
3. When you feel you have enough experience with how the site works, send an email to amo-editors at mozilla.org with the subject "AMO Editor Application" and the below information.
4. Please be patient for a response. They will request that at least 2 existing editors or admins look over your reviews and vouch for you.

 Visit this website for more details.

Gold plated computer keyboard from Japan

Japanese company Wazakura Koubou is releasing a gold plated computer keyboard KAGAYAKI to appeal to all those who love gold. The keys are plated with 99.99% pure gold and you can find the Kagayaki golden keyboard retailing at the vendor’s online store and Sofmap PC shops in Japan.



The keyboard comes with a two-port USB hub and is priced at 28,875 yen.



Check out the pictures and let us know what you think of this gold plated keyboard.

World's best selling phone handset

You might be thinking that world's best selling phone handset would be a mid-range Nokia or Sony Ericcson or Samsung or any other model. But you would be surprised to know that World's best selling phone handset is  Nokia 1100.





From Wikipedia:

The Nokia 1100 is a durable ultrabasic GSM mobile phone produced by Nokia with a 96 x 65 monochrome screen. It is targeted towards developing countries and users who do not require advanced features beyond making calls and SMS text messages, alarm clock, reminders, etc.



Over 200 million Nokia 1100 cellphones have been sold since its launch in late 2003, making it the world's best selling phone handset, as well as the best selling consumer electronics device in the world, beating Sony's Playstation 2 (125 million), Apple's iPod (170 million), Motorola's RAZR (100 million), and LG's Chocolate (10 million).

Source: Wikipedia

Download VLC media player 0.8.6i

VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player that supports various audio and video formats (MPEG-4, MPEG-2, MPEG-1, DivX, mp3, ogg, etc.) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network. It doesn't need any external codec or program to work.



From Developer's site:

We are pleased to announce the release of VLC media player 0.8.6i. This is a bugfix release. VLC media player 0.8.6h and earlier versions suffer from security vulnerabilities in the WAV demuxer.

This release also includes improved audio visualizations on FreeBSD and miscellaneous bug fixes in multiple modules. We strongly recommend all users to update to this new version.

What's new , Download VLC media player 0.8.6i (Windows)

Microsoft cuts Xbox 360 price, releases new model

Microsoft has cut the price of its best-selling Xbox 360 Pro model game console with a 20 gigabyte hard drive to $299 from $349.

The company also introduced a new Xbox 360 model with a 60 gigabyte hard drive, which will go on sale in stores in the U.S. and Canada for $349 in early August.

Microsoft announced the price cut and a new model before the start of this week's E3 video game industry trade show in Los Angeles. The price cut was widely reported in game industry blogs since last week. The company last cut the price of the Xbox Pro in August, from $399 to $349, prior to the release of blockbuster title, Halo 3, the following month.

So are you planning to buy XBox 360 after this price cut? Let us know by your valuable comments!

Tracks Missing or Stolen Laptops for Free

Lose your laptop these days and you lose part of your life. But now, researchers at the University of Washington and the University of California, San Diego, have found a way to give you a shot at getting your life back. On Monday, they plan to launch a new laptop tracking service, called Adeona that is free and private.



Adeona is designed to use the Open Source OpenDHT distributed storage service to store location updates sent by a small software client installed on an owner's laptop. The client continually monitors the current location of the laptop, gathering information (such as IP addresses and local network topology) that can be used to identify its current location. At the same time, it is easy for an owner to retrieve location information.



Adeona has three main properties:

• Private: Adeona uses state-of-the-art cryptographic mechanisms to ensure that the owner is the only party that can use the system to reveal the locations visited by a device.


• Reliable: Adeona uses a community-based remote storage facility, ensuring retrievability of recent location updates.


• Open source and free: Adeona's software is licensed under GPLv2. While your locations are secret, the tracking system's design is not.

The Mac OS X version also has an option to capture pictures of the laptop user or thief using the built-in iSight camera and the freeware tool isightcapture.



So go ahead and protect your laptop before its too late. And let us know your opinion on this service too.



Download Adeona for Windows and Mac



Technorati Tags: Laptop, locate stolen laptop

Speed up adobe reader or switch to Foxit Reader

As a follow up to my previous post, that tells how to speed up Adobe Reader I have decided to write about its better alternative Foxit Reader and compare it with Adobe Reader.





Firstly, the latest version of Adobe Reader is about 33.5 Mb while Foxit Reader setup is only about 3.0 MB. Clearly, Foxit Reader has no frills attached and also does not provide all those redundant plugins that are provided by default in Adobe Reader. Also, the startup time varies considerably which is about 10 seconds for Adobe Reader while only 1-2 seconds for Foxt Reader. A primary reason is that adobe loads all the plug-ins which greatly increases its loading time.



Adobe, aside from the waiting time, crashes about 50% of the time I use it; however, Foxit hasn't crashed on me once.



Another great feature of Foxit is that you can highlight text in a PDF as well as leave notes (like post-its) on text - all within the free version of the software. The current version of Foxit Reader is a significant improvement over Adobe Reader, adds useful features, has a small foot print and is easy to use.



Foxit Reader also works brillantly when paired with PDF Download extension of Firefox. Here are the steps needed to integrate Foxit with Firefox’s PDF Download Extension:



    * Once PDF Download has been installed a new selection, “PDF Download - Options” will appear in your  Tools menu. Select this option.

    * On the ‘General Tab’, for Default Action, select ‘Open PDF‘

    * On the ‘PDF opening’ Tab, for the PDF File Opening, select ‘Use this viewer‘

    * Click ‘Browse’ in Windows Explorer locate the Foxit Reader (FoxitReader.exe) and click ‘OK’

    * Click ‘OK’ again to exit out of the PDF Download - Options.



Now whenever you come across a PDF File, Firefox will automatically load in the Foxit Reader, a process which depending on your system speed with be nearly instant to a couple seconds. Note: Firefox downloads the PDF File in order to open it.



All in all, Foxit reader wins the battle being a less stressful PDF reader. Have your say on this topic, if you liked Foxit Reader or Adobe Reader, by commenting.



Download Foxit Reader 2.3



If you liked this article, please take a moment to Digg this or subscribe to our RSS feed using the link on left pane!

Gmail to No Longer Auto Add Contacts

Google has finally realized that it's a bad idea to automatically add to the list of Gmail contacts all the people you've sent an email. An updated version of Gmail's contact manager has a separate section for the people you've emailed. It is called as "suggested contacts".

"My Contacts is a place to import, store and view all of the contact information that's important to you. You can also create your own groups of contacts to easily email many people at once. We add people you've emailed to Suggested Contacts. You can move contacts from Suggested Contacts into My Contacts at any time."

There's an option to automatically move suggested contacts into My Contacts if you frequently email them, but the previous behavior doesn't seem to be an option.

I think this feature should have been encorporated much before, prefarably in the Beta stage. But still better late then never!

You can access the updated Gmail contacts here.

Prevent sending email from outlook without subject

If you are a Microsoft Outlook 2003 user and you often tend to forget putting in the subject while writing an e-mail, this trick will definately help you a lot.



Steps to prevent sending an e-mail in Ms-Outlook without keeping subject field empty:



1. Open your Microsoft outlook

2. Press Alt+F11. This opens the Visual Basic editor and then Press Ctrl+R which in turn opens Project-Project 1 (left side).

3. On the Left Pane, one can see “Microsoft Outlook Objects” or “Project1″, expand this. Now one can see the “ThisOutLookSession”.

4. Double click on “ThisOutLookSession”. It will open up a code pane.

5. Copy and Paste the following code in the right pane. (Code Pane)  and save it.

Private Sub Application_ItemSend(ByVal Item As Object, Cancel As Boolean)

Dim strSubject As String

strSubject = Item.Subject

If Len(Trim(strSubject)) = 0 Then

Prompt$ = “Subject is Empty. Are you sure you want to send the Mail?”

If MsgBox(Prompt$, vbYesNo + vbQuestion + vbMsgBoxSetForeground, “Check for Subject”) = vbNo Then

Cancel = True

End If

End If

End Sub

Keep in mind, to be able to run this script everyday, please enable your outlook macros. For this, go to Tools > Macro > Security and Set the Security Level to medium.

View Windows Vista Reliability Index

Windows Reliability and Performance Monitor is a useful utility inside Windows Vista that helps you analyze the performance of your Vista machine over time. Using this utility, you can easily get to know about hardware devices and software programs that are creating problems on your system or causing the machine to shut down unexpectedly.



Vista’s Reliability Monitor makes it easy to track your system’s stability over time. This can  be a big help in troubleshooting problems because it allows you to determine what the problem was and when it occurred.



To view your Vista Reliability Index, type perfmon in the Windows Run dialog. Next switch to the Reliability Monitor under Monitory Tools and note the score and share with us via comments.

Links

Here are some of the links of websites of different niches which are worth checking:

Ephoto Bay Free Image Hosting
Ephoto bay is a free photo hosting and sharing service that allows you to easily upload, hotlink and share your images on facebook, myspace, ebay, blogs and message boards. No account required, upload your photos today!

Trip Vietnam
Vietnam trip, vietnam trip planner, trip vietnam, travel vietnam, tours vietnam, vietnam tour, vietnam travel, vietnam hotels, hotel vietnam .


More To be added

Block XP SP 3 and Vista SP1 From Windows Automatic Updates

If you are happy and content with Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista and you don't want that automatic updates should install XP SP3 or Vista SP1 on your computer then you can use this tool from Intelliadmin.

Just select “Prevent Vista SP1, or Windows XP 3 from installing” and click Apply. You can also use this tool to revert back to the original setting to allow Vista SP1, or Windows XP 3 to install.

Download IntelliAdmin Service Pack Blocker

how to speed up OpenOffice

OpenOffice is a great alternative to Microsoft Office. Here is a breif tutorial to speed up OpenOffice and decrease its loading time:

1. Start OpenOffice (it doesn't matter which application you load, Calc, Impress, or Writer will all work)


2. Click Tools>Options


3. Select Java menu and uncheck "Use a Java runtime environment"


4. Select the Memory Tab and change the following options:

• Number of steps: 30


• Use for Open Office: 128


• Memory per Object: 20


• Number of Objects: 20

Next time you start an OpenOffice.org application it should open much more quickly. But it will also eat up more memory. If you have enough memore (more than 1 GB) then this trick will definately reduce the loading time of OpenOffice from 10 sec to about 2 to 3 seconds.

Internet to be 100 times faster with scratch

Scientists in Australia have developed what they claim is a small scratch on a piece of glass, which could make the internet nearly 100 times faster and give users unlimited, error-free access anywhere in the world.

After some four years of development, which was spawned by the idea of a small scratch on a piece of glass, a team working out of the University of Sydney claims to have created a near-instantaneous and error-free method of providing online users with unlimited Net access anywhere in the world.

"The scratched glass we have developed is actually a Photonic Integrated Circuit. This circuit uses the 'scratch' as a guide or a switching path for information - kind of like when trains are switched from one track to another - except this switch takes only one picoseconds to change tracks.


The lightning-fast replacement will be capable of downloading entire feature films within seconds. It will have speeds about 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection.

David Britton, professor of physics at Glasgow University and a leading figure in the grid project, believes grid technologies "could revolutionize society".

"With this kind of computing power, future generations can collaborate and communicate in ways older people like me cannot even imagine," he said.

Yahoo Opens Its Search Technology to Third Parties

Yahoo will allow other Web sites to use its technology to build their own search services in a new revenue-sharing scheme announced on Thursday.

Yahoo said it would release the beta version of an API (application programming interface) on Thursday that Web sites can use to build services based on its search infrastructure and algorithms, including the ability to re-rank results and control how they are presented.

A publisher could use the API to build a search service that specializes in a particular topic, such as sports, for example. Or it could use the API to give users a better way to search the content on its Web site -- or potentially even to build a rival to Yahoo.

The API will be available to any Web developer, along with tools for combining data from Yahoo's search indexes with data from other sources on the Web.

Download iTunes 7.7 with App Store Support

Apple has released iTunes 7.7 which is a requirement for anyone planning to buy a iPhone 3G. The iTunes Music Store offers Windows users the same online music store as Mac users, with the same music catalog, the same personal-use rights, and the same 99-cents-per-song pricing. With music from all five major music companies and more than 600 independent labels, the iTunes Music Store catalog now offers more than 1,000,000 songs.



Purchasing and playing videos is almost identical to performing the same actions with music, so seasoned users will have no trouble. The workflow is equally similar for purchasing and installing iPhone applications from the App Store. Old popular features remain intact including seamless iPod integration, smart playlists, CD burning, label printing, the ability to rip files in multiple formats (except WMA), network sharing, and, of course, the enormously successful iTunes Store.



Download size is around 60 MB but a must have utility for iPhone users.



Related :

Download iPhone Firmware 2.0

iPhone 3G: Launch Time and Plans

Download iPhone Firmware 2.0

MacRumors has grabbed a direct download link for the new iPhone 2.0 firmware on Apple’s servers so that you can make use of the new App Store. The first thing you’ll need to do is download the iphone firmware 2.0, and then perform a little trick:

In order to install the firmware, you will have to do it manually by pressing the Option key when pressing the “Check for Update” button in iTunes. Then select the .ipsw file manually. If for some reason your download is a “.zip” file, rename it to “.ipsw” before proceeding.

Warning: This update apparently erases all of the data on your iPhone. Unfortunately this does not work on the iPod Touch.



Related: iPhone 3G: Launch Time and Plans

Download ZoneAlarm Security Suite 8.0.003.000 Beta

ZoneAlarm Security Suite is the easy-to-use, comprehensive security solution that is based on the world's best firewall to keep out hackers, viruses, worms, and other threats. It combines the most popular firewall with antivirus, Web site filtering, privacy protection, instant messaging security and more to provide the best overall protection of any PC security suite.



ZoneAlarm Security Suite is comprehensive, all-in-one suite is a tightly integrated set of advanced security layers that, together, create the most secure protection in the industry. Uniquely engineered to prevent threats from getting on a PC in the first place, it has won more major awards than any other security software on the market. The suite combines the robust security features computer experts demand with automatic functions that make it simple enough for novices to use.

Download : ZoneAlarm Security Suite 8.0.003.000

Download Winamp v5.54 Build 2145

Winamp has just released it new version. In case you don't know what Winaamp is. Winamp is a fast, flexible, high-fidelity media player for Windows. Winamp supports playback of many audio (MP3, OGG, AAC, WAV, MOD, XM, S3M, IT, MIDI, etc) and video types (AVI, ASF, MPEG, NSV), audio visualization and audio effect plug-ins, an advanced media library, Internet radio and TV support, CD ripping, and CD burning.



Changes in Winamp 5.54:

* New: [in_swf] Adobe Shockwave Flash (SWF, RTMP) playback support

* New: [gen_dropbox] Winamp DropBox alpha (use: Ctrl-Shift-D)

* New: [Online Services] AOL Radio featuring CBS Radio (requires in_flv)

* Updated: Bento skin v1.2

* Updated: freetype 2.3.7

* Updated: libpng 1.2.28

* Updated: [enc_lame] LAME 3.98

and many other improvements!



Download Winamp v5.54 Build 2145