Flock 0.5.12 – The UPDATE

Just a week after Flock 0.5.11 was released,the Flock Devs have released Flock 0.5.12. Flock 0.5.12 has been released to address a few bugs in Flock 0.5.11. Users of Flock 0.5.11 who also used McAfee VirusScan had spellbound.jar deleted from their chrome folder because McAfee VirusScan thought it was a generic malware. Some users including myself reported this to the Flock Devs and it was discovered that it was a false positive so Lloyd and the other devs have re-ordered spellbound.jar. This was the major bug that was fixed in this new release. Other bugs that were fixed included the breakage of the collections topbar from international characters in favorites.

The upgrade from Flock 0.5.11 to Flock 0.5.12 was really smooth this time. You didn’t have to go delete your old Flock profile or even go download the installer. The auto-update system worked really fine. I am sure this is very good news for Mac users of Flock since most of them lost their blog drafts when they upgraded from Flock 0.4.10 to Flock 0.5.11

Flock is getting nearer and nearer to the 1.0(beta) stage despite all the nay-sayers.

To the Flock Devs,awesome job and keep it up.You guys are the best.

Technorati Tags: flock, bugs, open source,

Flock 0.5.11

Flock 0.5.11 has been released with quite a number of improvements. Toolinux.com (A french site) has a headline that sums up what i fell about this new release.The headline says  “Flock 0.5.11 est encore plus….sexy” . I guess there is no need to translate that into english because it pretty much is very easy to understand.

Some of the new features/improvements included in this release are

1. The addition of private favorite service,Shadows
2. Importation of Firefox settings
3. Flickr Photo Uploader
4. A new blog engine,TinyMCE

The whole list can be found here.

My favorite new feature is the addition of Shadows to the bookmarking/favorites service.In the previous release,we had only del.icio.us as the online bookmarking/favorite service.I love del.ico.us but I hate its inability to let you have both public and private bookmarks. This new Flock release supports both Shadows and del.ico.us so you can choose between the two. Also,you can choose to store the favorite online or locally.

Another new feature that I love is the addition of so more topbars.There is now a maps topbar that allows to drag an adress to it and it will map for you. Unfortunately, the topbar uses yahoo maps so users in europe and other continents wont find much use for it since yahoo maps has limited coverage in europe and other continents.Also,the shelf has been added to the topbar menu and your can store tidbits there

Also, Flock has now bundled TinyMCE as the blog editor.Much better better than the old blog editor but Performancing has more features than it has so  I will stick to Performancing for now.

There is also a Flickr photo Uploader topbar which allows you to upload images from your computer to Flickr via it.My only qualm with it is that,you can’t upload images from web images directly to flickr from it.

Also with the Flickr photo browser topbar,you can now search by text or tags or by user.

So far,though Flock is my primary browser and I use for long streaches of time each day,it hasnt yet crashed on me.

I will in a later post, blog about the extensions that I can’t live without in Flock.

Please download the Flock Browser here.

Gotta go now,Sorry for the shitty post.

PS: This post reflects what I found and thought to be important in the new release but I am sure lots of you have other new features that you love.Sorry,I couldn’t talk more about those features.

Technorati Tags: flock, flock 0.5.11, browser, topbar, TinyMCE, Shadows, del.ico.us,

The Flock browser has flown.

Flock 0.5.11 has been released this evening.I wrote about flock here.More features have been introduced.I will blog more about it after i test it out tonight.i will also blog tommorow about Peekko,an extension for both flock and firefox which allows you to chat about websites but through the irc interface.

Technorati Tags: flock, browser, firefox,

µTorrent is creating a WebUI

       I just found out that the  µTorrent development team is creating a Web based graphic interface for  µTorrent. The project is in its alpha testing phase and it allows you to remotely monitor your bittorent downloads. This webUI can be accesed through the port on which you run  µTorrent.  You would access the webUI through your IP.So, if your IP address is 64.233.167.99, and you run µTorrent on port 666, you can run µTorrent on port 666 through your web browser at  http://64.233.167.99:666/gui/index.html   from any PC.
       The webUI will be locked with a configurable password to allow only authorised people to remotely monitor and control your downloads. The webUI is accessible through Firefox 1.5.1 and through Opera 9.0TP2 and also through IE.

Here is a screenshot,someone took of it whilst using the webUI in Opera 9.0TP2:

More can be found out about this here.

Technorati Tags: µTorrent, bittorent, webUI, torrent, filesharing, utorrent

SONGBIRD: A BOOT IN ITUNES’ ASS

Before I say a word about Songbird,here is a screenshot to feast your eyes on: Are you done feasting your eyes on it? If you are done then read on.As I said earlier,Songbird was released this morning as a proof of concept.The first word I muttered when I saw it was WOW!!! The shiny black alone won many people over to download it.So,..Songbird is a media player just like Apple’s iTunes (Songbird likes almost exactly like iTunes) but with a twist. Unlike Apple’s iTunes which connects you to one store and makes you buy all your music needs from that store, Songbird gives you many choices in search of a music shop.Songbird allows you to connect to and buy music from a very wide range of shops.Songbird allows you to connect to 9(nine) music stores by default but more are going to be added,I am sure.Also,since Songbird is built on the same platform (XULRunner) as Firefox,Songbird functions as a special web browser that detects available media on websites that you visit.Songbird plays any kind of music file that you can throw at it.Also,Songbird is extensible.Modules called extensions can be added to it to be enhanced.Some people are claiming it is a memory hog and it crashes when you start it and open its window immediately,but that hasn’t yet happened to me.When I start Songbird and I maximise the window immediately,nothing happens.Also,its memory footprint is really small on my pc even though I have lots of processes running.The only time Songbird crashed on my pc was when I tried to change the defualt theme whilst I was playing a music file. Also,another bug i noticed in Songbird is that,sometimes the playback time exceeds the specified time.For example,if I am playing Rammstein’s-Du Hast,the file is shown to be 3 minutes long but sometimes playback goes on for about 30 seconds more.Also,a preferences or another tab should be made available to allow configuration of Songbird because not all users know that you can also edit Songbird by going to about:config Songbird is a proof-of-concept so users shouldn’t expect really high standards from it.Also Songbird is for only Windows right now but versions of it for other OSes are in the making and will be released real soon. Though,i hope it moves beyond a proof of concept really soon. The Songbird website was fatally ravished by the traffic so the website is offline but you can download it on different mirrors.Here is a mirror.Boing Boing had an interview with the leader of the dev team here. PS: You got to love the Songbird logo.It shows a birds with headphones on listening to music and farting.I can only guess why the bird is not smiling and is farting.Here is a picture of the logo.

Technorati Tags: songbird, free, itunes, music, XULRunner, DRM

THE SONGBIRD HAS ARRIVED

Finally,the long awaited release of the Songbird media player has arrived.For you who don’t know what it is(duh),it is a media player built on firefox’s browser engine.It is open source and will run on all platforms but currently runs on only Windows.It is highly customizable with moudules created by users called extensions.I am testing it out and will blog more about it later in the day.It looks and acts like iTunes on steroids. Here is a screenshot of it : Technorati Tags: songbird, open source, media player, itunes, gecko, free,

PUBLIC SERVICE MESSAGE

I have just got hold of a new server and so I am gradually moving my posts and stuff there. WLM invite seekers should visit that site for the invites.The new blog is at http://killeroid.profusehost.net/
To all my readers,don’t worry because I am still going to post and update this blog regularly without fail though I will also submit the same posts to that blog.I will fully move to that blog at the end of this year.Thanks a lot.

BLUMMY

Blummy is a simple mini app that lets you organize your bookmarklets under one bookmark.Almost all of us have lots of bookmarklets on our bookmark toolbar and we are tied of it.Blummy has a drop down menu consisting of widgets/bookmarklets called blummlets which use ajax to provide rich functionality. Blummy comes pre-configured with some bookmarklets/blummlets like del.icio.us,shadows,blogmarks,etc. You can also create your own bookmarklets/blummlets. Blummy works on almost every web page.You manage your bummlets form the blummy website.You can drag blummlets created by other users on to your personal blummy to use them.
Here is a screenshot of blummy in use:

Technorati Tags: blummy, bookmarklets, javascript, ajax

NEW FEATURES IN CHATSUM

Chatsum,the awesome firefox extension that I wrote about here and here has implemented some new features that it previously lacked.The Chatsum community has been crying for these features and more in chatsum since chatsum was released. So the Chatsum developers have introduced :

1. Scrolling in chat window
2. User preferences(eg. For openong likns in same window or new tab)
3. Live “Users in this room” list
4. Dynamic transcript timestamps

The absence of scrolling in the chat window was a major pain in the rear ends of most chatsum users and its implementation is a huge relief.
As George,one of the devs say,let the stalking begin!!!

Technorati Tags: chat, firefox, firefox extensions, chatsum

MA.GNOLIA:Social bookmarking with a twist

I got an invite to the private beta test of Ma.gnolia somewhere last week. Ma.gnolia is a new social bookmarking service with a twist. Ma.gnolia describes itself as “Found in the new search”. When I first saw it,I thought,it was one of those ridiculous del.icio.us wannabees with extra dots and vowels.(As someone asked,”Where does that darned dot go again?”) . But that isn’t so, Ma.gnolia does have a twist indeed.It allows you to save your bookmarks publicly and privately.Then, Ma.gnolia also allows you to interact with other users in the community by joining groups,making contacts,creating member profiles and sharing boomarks in groups. It is extremely easy to make contacts with other users.You just go to their profile pages and click on an icon to make them your contacts.From then,you can see their recent bookmarks on your page.You can also create groups or join some groups.After you join a group or create one,you can also see the most recent bookmarks from the group on your frontpage.You can aslo see the most recent bookamarks from the Ma.gnolia community. Each bookmark on Ma.gnolia has it owns page you can rate it and also see a preview of the webpage.Also the page shows the name of users that have it on their bookmarks.Also,when bookmarking pages,you can add tags to these pages.Ma.gnolia has a tags page which allows you to see you tags,your contact’s tags,your group’s tags and everyone’s top tags.Most used tags are in bold and in bigger fonts. Also on the profile pages of each Ma.gnolia user,you can find his/her top tags,a bio that the user wrote about him/herself,the user’s recent bookmarks,his/her contacts and groups. Finally,Ma.gnolia allows you to import bookamarks from your browser.Currently,you cannot import bookamrks from Del.icio.us, Blinklist, Furl or Simpy though plans are in place to allow this soon.Ma.gnolia is also creating an API. My only gripes with Ma.gnolia is that,it takes some time before the bookmarks you upload appear on your bookmarks.There is a bookmarklet for your borwser that allows you to add bookmarks to Ma.gnolia from your borwser. There are rumors in the works saying that a toolbar/bookmarklet like the del.icio.us one is being created. Ma.gnolia is currently an invite only beta. You can sign up for an invite on its webpage. A more indepth review can be found here. A screenshot of Ma.gnolia: Technorati Tags: ma.gnolia, social bookmarking, web 2.0, bookmarking,

Giveaway: Limited Edition iPods

I am back again folks.Sorry again for not keeping up with the posting.As I said yesterday,I am going to post a lot about these new beta services that I am testing out but first,I need to inform all of you about the Uneasysilence Limited Ipod giveaway.You may ask,what am I doing talking about about a give away on a blog? The answer is that, I’d love for you bloggers and active blog readers to be rewarded for your efforts.You may ask,whats the deal? Here is the deal(I am quoting directly from the uneasysilence blog page):

Ladies and Gentlemen, its time for a classic UNEASYsilence giveaway and this is the best one we have ever done.

We are giving away iPods, but not just ANY iPod. This giveaway is for a limited edition UNEASYsilence iPod nano. This iPod nano has the UNEASYsilence logo beautifully anodized on the back, and comes with an generous iTunes music store gift certificate. I am making an extremely limited number of these iPods – but the number is dictated based on buzz. Not even Derek or I will have one, this will only go out to our loyal readers.

What are the rules? Well you have to subscribe to the feed, that is how the winners in round one will find out who won. This is only required for the first round of giveaways. Also, since this is based on buzz, leave a comment on THIS entry saying who or other site you told about this giveaway. The greater the buzz, the more iPods we give away.

Enjoy and good luck. Contest open to the world, UNEASYsilence will foot the domestic shipping charges, if someone outside the UNited States wins, they have the option to pay for the additional shipping (Which should be nominal). The winners will be announced on Friday Feb 10th via our feed.

Don’t have a feed reader? Get the headlines delivered to you via email or view them in any web browser. See our other feed options in the left column of the screen.

Any questions, please write us at tips@uneasysilence.com

Winners will be choosen at random from the comments below…

Also for the love of god, keep those pods at less then 85 decibels

So please grab your feedreaders and run off to grab the feeds and hope you are a winner.

Technorati Tags: giveaway, ipod, free, blog, uneasysilence,

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Sorry folks,I know I haven’t been blogging up to expectations for the passt month.I have been extremely busy and have also been trying some new beta services out.Tommorow,I am going to blog Ma.gnolia which is another social bookmarking site with a twist. Also I will talk more about the new features in Chatsum and also talk about the new Gtalkr. There are lots of other sites that I will review.So please hold on to your pants till tommorow.Thanks a lot.

*END OF PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT*

Technorati Tags: ma.gnlia, chatsum, gtalkr, social bookmarking