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Grab Java, Get MSN Toolbar Free

Mark Edward Soper — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:58:05 -0600

It's an all-too-familiar marketing ploy: download a utility you really want, and get a toolbar for your browser free. This week, Microsoft joined the "download one, get one free" bandwagon, but with a twist: Redmond announced a deal with Sun Microsystems to offer the MSN Toolbar to US users of Internet Explorer whenever they download the Java Runtime Environment. MSN Toolbar offers one-click access to Live Search, direct access to Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger, and stories from the MSN network. If you hate toolbars, or your browser's already running your favorite toolbar, you can opt out of the MSN toolbar.

This Microsoft plus Sun pairing represents a big "win" for Microsoft, as Google's toolbar was previously being offered as the freebie with Java. As El Reg points out, this sort of thing is nothing new for Sun and Java. Java's also been used to deliver offers of OpenOffice and the Yahoo! toobar (the latter to Mozilla Firefox browser users only).

So, how do you feel about these combo deals? Would you rather get a coupon for free french fries, or are you comfortable with getting "two for one" downloads"? Join us after the jump and sound off.

Google Reaffirms Its Commitment to Linux with the Launch of Picasa 3

Justin Kerr — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 00:02:13 -0500

Many Windows users have been running Picasa 3 for the past several weeks now, but Picasa development for Linux has always seemly lagged behind. This all changed on Thursday with a public beta release of Picasa 3 with support for all the major Linux distributions. According to the feature overview, the new version includes many of the new editing and retouching features missing in the previous version as well as a tighter integration with Picasa Web. For Linux users looking to further automate the process of importing photos you will also appreciate the auto detect feature that runs each time you plug in your camera. In a blog post by Google Software Engineer Lei Zhang he reminds the Linux community of Google’s commitment to their platform. Some of its largest contributions have been in the form of patches for the open source WINE project with over 2700 fixes. WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator) is an application for Linux which allows users to execute programs written for Microsoft Windows. Want to learn more? Check out the November print edition of Maximum PC on sale now for an excellent how to guide on using WINE for gaming in Linux.

Picasa 3.0 Beta: More Speed, Better Photo Repairs and Better RAW Support

Mark Edward Soper — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 22:44:07 -0500

This week, Google unveiled a public beta of its Picasa 3.0 photo-sharing software. Picasa 3.0 offers a huge number of new and improved features that will appeal to both point and shoot and DSLR users. I was particularly impressed by the following:

A new photo viewer that integrates with Windows Explorer and supports PNG, TGA and RAW formats as well as JPEG, TIFF, BMP, and GIF. The preview window displays thumbnails of other photos in the folder for faster navigation and offers one-click editing in Picasa, one-click uploading, or a one-click slideshow. Even on my less than swift single-core laptop, it displays Canon CR2 RAW files much faster than Windows Live Photo Gallery does. Google tested Picasa 3.0 on systems with up to 1 million photos, and it shows.
The ability to display image metadata for RAW files from within Picasa.
The enhanced photo collage creator with six preset designs along with easy drag and drop repositioning and image rotation. It's so good that I wonder if Microsoft Research's new AutoCollage 2008 (which costs $19.95) can compete.
Improved photo editing tools such as the retouching tool (good for removing scratches and dust) and the tuning tool, which features highlight, shadow, fill light, color picker, and color temperature controls. If you don't want to learn (or pay for) Adobe Photoshop Elements, you can do quite well in fixing less-than-perfect photos.

To see the photo viewer in action, and to find out where to learn more (or just get your hands on Picasa 3.0), join us after the jump.

Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta Available for Windows Mobile

Pulkit Chandna — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:27:13 -0500

Last month, Opera Software had announced that the long awaited and much delayed Opera Mobile 9.5 was undergoing alpha testing and the beta version would become available for download on July 15th, 2008. And, miraculously enough, Opera didn’t disappoint this time around and stuck to its promise.

Just to let you know, this release doesn’t offer support for non-touchscreen Windows Mobile phones. You can download the new browser for free and catch a glimpse of the various enhancements. I believe that this news might not excite those who own an Opera 9.5-bearing HTC Diamond or have downloaded a ripped version of the browser.

MTV Breathing Life into Invincible, Turning it into an Audio-Visual Comic

Pulkit Chandna — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:36:54 -0500

MTV is busy optimizing popular comic book Invincible, using a process called Bomb-xx, for distribution through iTunes, Xbox Live and MTV Mobile, besides airing it on MTV2. The enhanced version of the comic book will not be a conventional animation but, on the contrary, an audio visual compilation prepared using actual scans of the comic.

One can perceive it to be something between a usual comic and an animated cartoon. The first six installments of the series will become available through the abovementioned digital distribution services on August 22.

It is indeed a novel idea as this way the peculiarities of the comic might not be compromised as is usually the case when a comic is turned into an animated cartoon. Not all comics travel well across to TV screens just like most videogames turn out to be contemptible movies.

Kindle Lights up Amazon with 12% of Book Sales

Pulkit Chandna — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:38:50 -0500

Amazon’s proprietary wireless reading device Kindle has been rather successful. It remained out of stock for months after being launched in November, 2007, despite being criticized heavily for its lack of WiFi, ugly design and limited PDF support. Now it is fast emerging as a popular electronic book reader, if a Time magazine report is to be believed.

A source inside Amazon told Time that Kindle accounts for 12% of sales of the roughly 130k titles that are both available physically and as Kindle downloads. Kindle’s share has doubled from May, when Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos had claimed it to be 6%. It is good to hear that digital distribution threatens to change the landscape of the books publishing industry as well. However, Kindle is far from perfect and its design and features need nothing less than an overhaul.

Download Day, Take 2 (Updated with final stats)

Mark Edward Soper — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:43:55 -0500

Couldn't download Firefox yesterday? You still have time to help set the world record. Get clicking!

Thanks to the redefinition of "Day" as "a 24-hour period" - and thanks also to the problems everyone in the world had in logging onto the Spread Firefox website yesterday, Download Day continues, with close to 7,000,000 downloads as of posting time.

Originally, Download Day was scheduled to start at 10:00AM PDT yesterday, and end 24 hours later. However, if you read yesterday's installment of "how to bring a website to its knees", you know that things didn't work out exactly as planned.

The Ultimate Guide to Movie Download Services

Michael Brown & Will Smith — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:57:50 -0500

Home-entertainment technology has lent new meaning to the phrase ‘home box office,’ but can any of the new on-demand Internet movie services really deliver the big-screen experience? We examine the top eight options to find out .