Geek Brigade

Foxkeh's Wallpaper For October

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Hammad Baig) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 10:22:00 +0000

Foxkeh is a cute little mascot born in japan. As a mascot of Mozilla Japan, Foxkeh supports promotional campaign for Firefox in Japan. Foxkeh launches a calendar wallpaper every month. Desktop wallpaper for October 2009 is here. The calendar wallpaper is fruity and juicy.

You can get the wallpaper from Foxkeh's blog. Its available in most resolutions for most screen sizes and ratios.

Download the wallpaper from Foxkeh's blog.

http://foxkeh.jp/downloads/wallpapers/

Firefox 3.6 Gets Video Full Screen Feature Built In

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Hammad Baig) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 10:15:00 +0000

Firefox 3.6 pre-beta now features a full screen option for videos embedded using the <video> tag. Right click the video and select Full Screen from context menu. Press Esc to return to normal screen.

This full screen option is better than the current Full Screen extension as it takes less time to switch and the current version forced a full video restart when switching modes.

Google Docs: Translate Google Spreadsheets Now

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Hammad Baig) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 10:08:00 +0000

Google keeps on introducing new features in its apps. These features are not are not only exciting but also very useful. Earlier this week, Google Docs has introduced two new functions to Google spreadsheets to add translation and language detection capabilities.

Have a look at the following two functions

GoogleTranslate("Hola, ¿cómo estás?","es","en") gives "Hi, how are you"
DetectLanguage("Hola, ¿cómo estás?") gives "es"

Lets look at what the above two functions mean. First function GoogleTranslate("Hola, ¿cómo estás?","es","en") translates the text from one language to another. Lets break down this function; the first field is the text that you want to translate, in this case its "Hola, ¿cómo estás?". The second field is the two letter language code, "es" is the language code for Spanish. Third field is naturally the language code of the language in which you want you text to be translated, "en" is the code for Engilsh. So, at the end "Hola, ¿cómo estás?", which is in Spanish is translated into English, and the translation is "Hi, how are you?" If the last field is left empty, the text will be translated into the language of the spreadsheet.

The second function DetectLanguage("Hola, ¿cómo estás?") outputs the two letter language code of the text.

These functions are exciting and very useful if you want to translate; For example, comments on your blog or website etc.

If you hover over a cell with translated text, the original text is displayed.

So, use these features for your benefit and enjoy!

18mm F3.5 lens for Canon DSLRs From Carl Zeiss

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Hammad Baig) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:12:00 +0000

Carl Zeiss has announced a new ultra-wide-angle lens for Canon EOS users: the Distagon T* 3,5/18.
While the focal length is only 18mm, the lens packs a lot in. With a 99°-angle view, the extremely wide-angle lens is meant for full-frame sensor cameras, especially for shooting landscape and architecture. The lens also features an anti-reflective coating so that it is not affected by reflections or stray light. The company promises that with this coating, the product will still deliver “razor-sharp images even under the toughest lighting conditions or with wide aperture settings.”

Read More

LG announces GW620 Android smartphone

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Hammad Baig) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:10:00 +0000

Last week we heard all about the upcoming Motorola CLIQ Android device coming to T-Mobile USA and this week kicks off with some more Android phone news. LG announced the upcoming LG-GW620 that will be available in the fourth quarter of this year in Europe. This is LG’s first Android smarphone and follows on the heels of their Windows Mobile announcement stating that at least 13 new smartphones will be released over the next 16 months running the Windows Mobile OS.

Read More

Thinnest Bluetooth Powered Keyboard From Microsoft

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Hammad Baig) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 10:03:00 +0000

icrosoft announced today its thinnest keyboard dubbed "Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 6000", which if you didn't notice in the name is designed exclusively for Bluetooth enabled PC's. The keyboard itself is just a few millimeters thicker than an AAA battery, with Microsoft's Comfort Curve design for a more natural wrist posture when typing.

Check it out:

Images courtesy PressPass

"The design tenets of compact, clean and refined really set the stage for the success of the keyboard," said Chris Kujawski, industrial designer for Microsoft Hardware. "There is nothing extraneous about the design. We removed everything that didn't fit with those ideas and ended up with something we're really proud of — a compact, sophisticated keyboard that pairs perfectly with Bluetooth computers."

According to Microsoft's press release, one of the top consumer complaints when using a notebook of a netbook is the lack of a number pad. So Microsoft has shipped a stand-alone Bluetooth powered number pad as well as a carrying case with the Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 6000.

The keyboard will be available in October of this year with an estimated retail price of $89.96 for both the keyboard and number pad, and $44.95 for the number pad itself. Both are backed by a worldwide three year limited hardware warranty from Microsoft.

Font Manager For Linux

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Hammad Baig) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 09:58:00 +0000

Although designed with the GNOME desktop environment in mind, Font Manager (for Linux) should work well with most major desktop environments such as XFCE, Enlightenment, and even KDE, as long as PyGTK is available.

Font Manager currently allows the user to:

* Preview installed fonts
* Easily activate and de-activate installed fonts
* Specify different directories to search for fonts
* Group fonts into "Collections", and easily activate or de-activate groups of fonts
* Export "Collections" to an archive for easy backup, sharing, etc.
* Provides quick access to the users font folder so that font installation or removal can be done by drag and drop
* It can also display basic information about the selected font, detailed information if gnome-font-viewer is available

In the future Font Manager intends to allow the user to:

* Export "Collections" to a PDF "fontbook"
* Compare fonts

Download: Fedora 11 (.rpm) | Ubuntu 9.04, Linux Mint 7 .(deb package) | More info

Via webupd8

Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala Alpha 5 released

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Hammad Baig) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 09:50:00 +0000

Welcome to Karmic Koala Alpha 5, which will in time become Ubuntu 9.10.

Pre-releases of Karmic are *not* encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting, and fixing bugs.

Alpha 5 is the fifth in a series of milestone CD images that will be released throughout the Karmic development cycle. The Alpha images are known to be reasonably free of showstopper CD build or installer bugs, while representing a very recent snapshot of Karmic. You can download it here:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/karmic/alpha-5/ (Ubuntu)
http://uec-images.ubuntu.com/releases/karmic/alpha-5/ (Ubuntu Server for UEC and EC2)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ports/releases/karmic/alpha-5/ (Ubuntu ARM)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/karmic/alpha-5/ (Kubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/karmic/alpha-5/ (Xubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/mythbuntu/releases/karmic/alpha-5/ (Mythbuntu)

See http://wiki.ubuntu.com/Mirrors for a list of mirrors.

Alpha 5 includes a number of software updates that are ready for large-scale testing. This is quite an early set of images, so you should expect some bugs. For a list of known bugs (that you don’t need to report if you encounter), please see:

http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/karmic/alpha5

If you’re interested in following the changes as we further develop Karmic, have a look at the karmic-changes mailing list:

http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/karmic-changes

Full Story

MMS Comes To iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Hammad Baig) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:52:00 +0000

AT&T announced today it will be launching Multimedia Messaging Service or MMS to the iPhone on September 25, 2009.

The long awaited update to the iPhone, since its announcement of the 3.0 firmware back in May, was to bring MMS to the iPhone. Most carriers immediately supported MMS, however AT&T stated it would not be supporting it in June with the rest of the carriers. AT&T said it planned to launch the service by the end of summer.

AT&T said the reason for not launching the MMS service in June was to see if their network could handle the increase in traffic. The last couple of months, AT&T has been upgrading their network to handle the increase in traffic once MMS goes live, saying there will be an "exponentially increase traffic."

AT&T did mention that the MMS will be enabled through a software update. This update is said to launch on September 25, 2009 and could be just for AT&T customers or the anticipated release of the iPhone 3.1 firmware that has been in beta for some time.

There is still no set date on when tethering will be launched, although the company has said it will be available "in the future."

Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 Arrives

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Hammad Baig) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:27:00 +0000

The lone warrior of the Xperia series, the Xperia X1, finally gets a morale booster in the form of its younger, feature packed cousin, the newly announced Xperia X2.
While we have been hearing the imminent arrival of the Xperia X2 for ages now, it was yesterday on the occasion of Nokia World 09 that Sony Ericsson chose to make the arrival of the phone official. Interestingly, yesterday was also when HTC announced that it will launch its first Windows Mobile 6 based device, the HTC Mega, next month. So, it seems the arrival of Windows Mobile 6.5 is more or less confirmed early next month.

Coming back to the Xperia X2, apart from being one of the first phones to run Windows Mobile 6.5, it might also be the first Windows Mobile device to sport an 8.1 megapixel camera and bringing hordes of multimedia prowess to the otherwise staid and businesslike platform. The arrival of Windows Mobile 6.5 means that the X2 will ship with Microsoft Office Mobile, Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and Internet Explorer Mobile preloaded. The X2 also boasts of the new SlideView feature, which provides quick access to frequently used phone activities . We would love to see how well this works. One of the distinguishing features of the Xperia X1 was its various panels. They were, however, let down, thanks to the poor implementation. The X2 carries forward the same pedigree and comes with 14 stock panels. Many others are available for download.

As for the other features, here we go!

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE connectivity (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
Tri-band UMTS/HSPA connectivity (900/1900/2100 MHz, or 850/1900/2100 MHz for the X2a)
3.2 inch TFT touchscreen display with 480 x 800 pixels
Full QWERTY keyboard
Wi-Fi, DNLA Certified
Google search
Google Maps
Stereo Bluetooth
Stereo speakers
PlayNow arena
TV out
8.1MP camera with autofocus, touch focus, image stabilizer, flash and geotagging
3D games, motion gaming
110MB of internal memory
MicroSD card support 4GB card included
110 x 54 x 16 mm
115 grams

The Xperia X2 comes with the following accessories in the box . MH500 Stereo Portable Handsfree, USB cable, TV out cable, battery and a battery charger.

The phone is expected to be out next month, probably on Oct. 6, which more or less seems to be the official date of the arrival of Windows Mobile 6.5. The pricing of the phone is yet to be announced.

A video preview of the phone is posted below.

Source: newwin

LG Announces 3 New Windows Mobile Phones

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Hammad Baig) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:24:00 +0000

After the announcement of the HTC Mega and the Xperia X2, here come more Windows Mobile phones! It s now the turn of Korean manufacturer LG to announce its newest Windows Mobile based handsets.
Out of the three handsets, LG has only made one, the GW 550 public. The other two devices are unnamed, mysterious ones that should see their announcements soon. The GW 550 is a decent smartphone that shares uncanny resemblance to the likes of the Nokia E71 and the recently launched Samsung Omnia Pro 7320. It comes with a landscape QVGA display, full QWERTY keyboard, HSDPA support, and a 3MP camera. What we know of the other two devices is that they would be a full touchscreen device , and a touch slider with QWERTY keyboard . The three phones will come equipped with LG s proprietary S Class interface. The other two devices will also be announced in the coming weeks

LG also said that it has plans to launch as many as 13 new handsets by the end of 2010.

Source: newwin

Red Hat Enterprise 5.4 Released

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Hammad Baig) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 07:22:00 +0000

Red Hat is pleased to announce the availability of the latest update to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, release 5.4 (with kernel-2.6.18-164.el5) for a family of products including:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Advanced Platform for x86, AMD64/Intel® 64, Itanium Processor Family, Power Systems and System z
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Server for x86, AMD64/Intel® 64, Itanium Processor Family, Power Systems and System z
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Desktop for x86 and AMD64/Intel® 64

The following list summarizes improvements to this release:

Hardware
- 10 GigE drivers with GRO support
- FCoE support on standard NICs
- SR I/OV support
System
- Kernel tracepoints for systemtap use
- Per process I/O accounting
- FIEMAP support
Virtualization
- Hypervisor scalability to 192 CPUS and 1GB hugepages
- Additional hypervisor - Kernel Based Virtual Machine (KVM)

Enjoy the latest update to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

News source: Red Hat
View : Press Release
View : A Technical Introduction To Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 (PDF file, 572707 bytes)
Video: Webcast

Ovi SDK Launched

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Hammad Baig) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:11:00 +0000

STUTTGART, Germany - Creating applications for Nokia devices has just got a whole lot easier. This morning on the second day of Nokia World 09 the Ovi SDK Beta was unveiled, along with a new navigation API. What’s more the new SDK will enable developers to deploy applications across multiple devices, quickly and easily. The new navigation API offers developers the opportunity to bring navigation directly into applications.

The new web-based toolbox offers developers an SDK which will not only enable them to develop for Symbian and Maemo but also for the web. It also brings in a new, distinct, user interface made up of a series of libraries, alongside integrated Ovi features. The Ovi SDK Beta utilizes standard web-based technologies including HTML, CSS and Javascript.

Forming part of the SDK is the Ovi Navigation Player API. This sits alongside the previously launched Ovi Maps Player API which developers have already being using to create innovative new applications. Adding navigation to the mix offers a wealth of new app opportunities (apportunities anyone?) including the ability to guide app users to specific destinations.

The SDK Beta is available now by invitation, go to Forum Nokia to register your interest.

Longer Battery Life For Windows 7

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Hammad Baig) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:37:00 +0000

At an event in San Francisco yesterday, Wintel claimed that upcoming processors, and Windows 7's improved power management will provide longer battery life, and better performance in certain programs.

They demonstrated power drain by playing a DVD on two identically configured ThinkPad T400s: one with Windows 7 (15.6 watts), the other with Windows Vista (20.5 watts). That could translate to about 1.4 hours of increased battery life.

The improvement comes through "timer coalescing", which lets one processor core sleep as long as possible if it's not needed.

The big gains should come when Intel's Arrandale (laptop Core i7/i5) chip hits later this year, possibly with Windows 7 on October 22. The dual-core processor (based on the 32nm Westmere shrink of Nehalem) is able to execute two threads per core.

So, yup, November is looking like a good time to pick up a new laptop. [PC Mag and PC World]

Lubuntu Launched

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Hammad Baig) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:33:00 +0000

The Lubuntu project (Ubuntu based on LXDE) just published it's first ISO. LXDE is a very lightweight and minimal desktop environment using the openbox window manager, the PcManFM file manager, and a very select list of default applications. It is compatible with basic freedesktop standards and all needed parts are already packaged in Ubuntu today.

Lubuntu is based on Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) and these are some of the applications that come with it:

· Linux Kernel 2.6.31 RC8
· Openbox 3.4.7.2
· Firefox 3.5.2
· Pidgin 2.5.8
· Aqualung R-1061
· Xfburn 0.4.2

The final version is planned to be synchronized with the Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala, and is scheduled for the 29th of October, 2009.

The Lubuntu project started in March 2009, with the purpose of creating a lighter and less resource demanding alternative to the Xubuntu operating system, using the LXDE desktop environment. The ultimate goal of this project is to join the ranks of Kubuntu and Xubuntu and become an officially supported derivative of Ubuntu.

KDE 4.3.1 Released

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Hammad Baig) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:22:00 +0000

KDE 4.3.1 has been released.

Users of our latest development release, Karmic, can upgrade to the latest packages.

Users of our stable 9.04 release can install it from the Kubuntu Backports PPA.

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-ppa/backports/ubuntu jaunty main

It is strongly recommended that you verify the integrity of these packages by installing the archive's GPG key. You may do this by saving the PUBLIC KEY BLOCK available from this page to a file and importing it from the authentication tab in KPackageKit's software sources window.

Then refresh and do a full upgrade.

Internet Explorer Posts Largest Loss Since 2..8

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Hammad Baig) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:12:00 +0000

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser posted its largest market share loss last month since 2008, Web metrics company Net Applications said on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Google’s Chrome continues to gain on Apple’s Safari, closing within 1.25 percentage points. At its current pace, Chrome will replace Safari as the No. 3 browser in less than a year.

Internet Explorer dropped 1.1 percentage points last month, to 66.6 percent. The slide was the browser’s steepest since last November, when it dropped by 2 percentage points, according to Net Applications.

In the last 12 months, IE has lost 8.6 points of browser share.

Of that lost market share, Mozilla’s Firefox stood to benefit the most, taking about half that lost share to claim 23.3 percent of the market, nearly matching its record 23.8 percent set in April.

Here’s the breakdown of last month:

Internet Explorer: 66.6%
Mozilla Firefox: 23.3%
Apple Safari: 4.1%
Google Chrome: 2.9%
Opera: 2.1%

The takeaway here? IE continues to lose dominance without much to support it. Since these statistics were taken last month, there’s no Windows 7 to consider, no Snow Leopard, and a lot of netbooks — mostly running Windows XP — flooding the market.

uTorrent 1.8.4 Released

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Hammad Baig) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 09:45:00 +0000

µTorrent is an efficient and feature rich BitTorrent client for Windows sporting a very small footprint. It was designed to use as little cpu, memory and space as possible while offering all the functionality expected from advanced clients. With µTorrent, you can download files faster and contribute by sharing files and bandwidth. Additionally, µTorrent supports the Protocol Encryption joint specification (compatible with Azureus 2.4.0.0 and above, BitComet 0.63 and above) and peer exchange.

Changelog:

Fix: Installer crash after download
Fix: Crash when peers disconnect from a magnet-link torrent right as we received the metadata

News source: Official website
Download: µTorrent 1.8.4

Skype 2.1 For Linux Launched

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Hammad Baig) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 09:27:00 +0000

Linux gets new beta version of Skype. Skype first added support for video nearly 2 years ago to Skype 2.0 beta for Linux, and now that the Linux version of the popular VoIP client has hit 2.1 beta, Skype has cranked up the audio and video quality a bit. Now Skype for Linux uses the same SILK audio codec as the Windows and Mac clients, and packs support for high quality video.

Skype 2.1 beta for Linux also supports sending SMS messages, organizing contacts within contact groups, and a few chat enhancements. The update also brings support for Pulse Audio.

Skype 2.1 for Linux is available for Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, and OpenSUSE.

Opera 10 Trailer

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Hammad Baig) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 09:24:00 +0000

Install FireFox 3.5 On Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Hammad Baig) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 06:39:00 +0000

To install the latest Firefox 3.5 (final) or Firefox 3.6 in Ubuntu, open a terminal and:

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"

Then add the Launchpad PPA GPG key:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 247510BE

Or use the automatic Launchpad PPA script to add the GPG key.

And finally, install Firefox 3.5 final:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install firefox-3.5

or:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install firefox-3.6

If you already have a version of Firefox 3.5 installed from a repo:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

How to Install Chromium Browser on Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Hammad Baig) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 06:19:00 +0000

1. Fist of all install repositories to /etc/apt/sources.list file similar to this:-

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu {your version of Ubuntu} main

Where {your version of Ubuntu} could be hardy, intrepid, jaunty or karmic. There are several ways this can be achieved. Probably the simplest and most meaningful way for most Ubuntu users is to edit the file manually by using the command:-

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Alternatively Kubuntu users may use:-

sudo kate /etc/apt/sources.list

2. Then you need to install PPA's public key. Do this by typing the following command into your terminal:-

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 4E5E17B5

3. Update the system; run the following command on terminal

sudo apt-get update

4. Finally run installation command from terminal

sudo apt-get install chromium-browser

5. That's it! If the installer does not create a menu item for your new browser then you can always launch it from the comand line, thus:-

chromium-browser

Best new features in OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Hammad Baig) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 09:05:00 +0000

Many of Snow Leopard's changes are under the hood - new architecture that provides a foundation for the Mac going forward.

But while there's no Spotlight, Time Machine or Quick Look equivalent this time round, Snow Leopard still packs in new user-oriented features, big and small. Here are our favourites.

1. Exchange support
The biggie for corporate types, and word on the street is Snow Leopard's Exchange support works beautifully. It certainly makes Microsoft's Office 2010 announcement ("We'll be doing Exchange things, too!") look a bit sad.

2. Better stacks
Dock stacks viewed as grids now have a scroll bar if there are many items. You can also move up and down the folder hierarchy within the stack.

3. Dock Exposé
Click-hold a Dock app icon and its open windows show in Exposé. Even minimised windows are shown, displayed smaller and under a subtle horizontal line.

4. Minimised window options
To take advantage of Dock Exposé and not clutter the Dock with minimised windows, you can set 'Minimize windows into application icon' in the Dock System Preferences pane.

Skype 2.1 Beta for Linux

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Hammad Baig) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 08:35:00 +0000

Skype 2.1 Beta for Linux has been released yesterday, bringing a lot of new features, including:

High Quality Video support.
Skype's SILK audio codec.
PulseAudio support.
SMS sending support.
Chat messages editing/removing support.
Contact groups support.
Typing notification in chat.
Chat picture support (add/change/remove) for group conversations.
Mood messages are visible in contact list and tooltip.
Video/Mobile icons are visible in contact list.
Bookmarked Chats are visible in contact list.
Contact labels/tags.

Download Skype 2.1 Beta for Linux (packages available: Ubuntu and Debian .deb, Fedora .rpm, OpenSUSE .rpm and source files).

via Web Upd8

Bing SDK for iPhone and Mac released as open source

noreply@blogger.com (Ali Hammad Baig) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:20:00 +0000

Want to get in on all the iPhone app glory, but with the goodness of Bing? Now you can, using the Bing iPhone and Mac SDK, available on CodePlex as open source under the Microsoft Public License (MS-PL). According to a post on the Bing Community blog:

The SDK provides:

* The ability to easily query Bing from within your Cocoa or Cocoa Touch application.

* Perform both synchronous and asynchronous queries.

* Search Bing for Web, Image, Video, News, and Phonebook results.

(via TechCrunch)