Internet

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Yahoo, fresh from its battle with Microsoft, has launched Fire Eagle out of private beta.
Fire Eagle is an open platform that promises to help users take their location to the Web while giving them the ability to easily control how and where their location data is shared.
According to Yahoo, because it’s open, any networked service can use Fire Eagle to respond to a user’s location - to help them find their friends, annotate the world or find nearby services or local information.
For users, say Yahoo Fire Eagle acts as an interface for managing location information and deciding how - and with whom - to share it.
Users can authorise Web, mobile or desktop applications to update their location automatically, or they can do it themselves manually on the Fire Eagle Web or mobile sites.
Then they can decide how much of that information to share with their favourite services. At any time they can hide themselves, change their sharing preferences or delete any of their stored information.
Partners already working with the new platform include Dash, Dopplr, Loki and Movable Type.
Dash is a two-way, Internet-connected GPS navigation system offering an innovative solution to traffic monitoring while Dopplr is a service for intelligent travelers that helps them make the most of their trips by sharing their travel plans with the people they trust.
Loki adds your location into your favourite social networks so you can share it with your friends such as Facebook, Twitter, Fire Eagle, RSS Feeds and more.

From pocket-lint

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A number of web sites that use SiteMeter tracking code to monitor the number of visitors to their site are reporting that the code is causing Internet Explorer browsers to crash when users visit their sites.

I haven’t spent time testing a lot of sites, but the Gawker Media sites all seem to be affected. These include Gawker, Valleywag, Gizmodo and Lifehacker, among others.

The problem appears to be affecting IE 5.5, 6.0 and 7.0. Internet surfers using IE to access a site that has SiteMeter tracking it receive a message saying the site cannot be loaded and “operation aborted.” The issue seems to have begun late afternoon Friday.

SiteMeter has not responded to a request for comment and so far has posted no announcement to its web site addressing the issue. But SiteMeter’s blog has a few posts published earlier this week referencing its move to a new platform and changes to its tracking code.

A number of sites are reporting that once they remove the SiteMeter code, the problem disappears and their page loads fine in IE.

From Blog.wired

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W3C publications can be downloaded in either .PDF or stone tablet.

Let’s face it, unless you’re rocking the BlackBerry Bold, browsing the web on your BlackBerry is usually a frightening experience: things don’t work, page formatting is often weird and some pages are just too damn big to download. Thankfully, the W3C, which develops guidelines for website standards, has published the details of new standards that will make it easier for people to browse the Web on mobile devices, hopefully ensuring that even low-end BlackBerry users won’t be left in the lurch.

Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 provides steps for content authors to face the challenges of hardware and software diversity, device constraints and bandwidth limitations. In addition, the W3C has also released a XHTML Basic 1.1 Recommendation, providing a convergence in mobile markup languages, including those developed by the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA).

To view both new mobile web standards, head to the World Wide Web Consortium website.

From BlackBerry Cool

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Former Google search experts have revealed what they hope will be a threat to their previous employer’s dominant search service. The new engine is named Cuil, after the Gaelic word for “wisdom.” It’s perhaps not the catchiest name ever, but neither was Google, before it became a household name. The people at Cuil claim the new search engine uses far fewer servers than the search leader, yet indexes a much larger chunk of the Web. It also purports to produce more relevant search results, because the information it returns in response to queries is based on organization of ideas rather than link popularity. A final—and important—differentiator from Google is that Cuil, according to the company, doesn’t collect information on its users’ search histories or IP addresses. Of course, that last advantage is significant only if the product is worth using.

For more information visit http://www.pcmag.com

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We all want our kids to be computer savvy, but it doesn’t make sense to turn 2-year-old Timmy loose on the family computer. Murphy’s Law guarantees that by randomly pounding the keyboard he’ll manage to delete your files, disable Windows entirely, or end up on a shocking porn site. Hoopah Kidview Explorer 6 keeps the kids (2 to 10 years old) out of your files while entertaining them with child-safe sites. The app even includes a kid-friendly whitelist e-mail system.

On installation Hoopah prompts you to add an entry for each child, specifying his or her name, birth month, and a picture. The program-supplied pictures are somewhat odd and the selection process awkward, but fortunately you can choose one of your own pictures. Based on the child’s age Hoopah configures appropriate settings; you change them later, if you wish. The Hoopah environment relies on Flash, Shockwave, and QuickTime, so the installer automates the process of installing these, if they’re not present. That’s it—you’re ready to let the kids loose.

For more information visit www.pcmag.com

Those of you need Firefox 3 on the go can now get a portable USB edition of the browser from PortableApps.com. The download lets you launch Firefox from your USB and lets you bring all your extensions and bookmarks with you while making sure that the computer you’re using doesn’t end up saving your info. The file is 8MB and free (though, as with all open source stuff, I’m sure the folks at PortableApps would love it if you threw them a few bucks).

From http://gizmodo.com

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Skype has announced a new version of its chat software as it moves to simplifying finding friends and setting up the software to make calls for its 309 million registered users.
The new software, version 4.0, adds a number of new features including greater support for more hardware, video and letting people connect with friends say Skype.
“We’re sharing this beta with you a little earlier than normal because we know it’s a big change, and sometimes change can take some getting used to. We’re going to spend the whole summer listening to your feedback and making changes so that when we do launch the final version, we’ll make sure it’s perfect.”
“Because we’re releasing it early, a few little things aren’t available in today’s beta: full history and contact groups are two examples”, said Mike Bartlett the company’s development manager.

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For more information visit www.pocket-lint.co.uk

On May 30 th Samsung will launch a new portal and software called Emodio. This software seems to be just another media player but centered around Samsungs products offering features specific to their MP3 players. Users will be able to share UCI’s (User Creative Interfaces) with what I’m assuming to be a new UIC generation tool. There is also additional support for Datacasts or basically RSS feeds and the interesting edition of “Text To Speech” features that will allow you to convert txt files to MP3.

The site is rather confusing on its true goals and features since it was obviously written by someone whose first language is not English. Buy the whole aim of the site seems to be targeted at “The Digital Privilege for the Emotional Generation” (I kid you not that’s what the site says), yes as in Emo. This is a definite cultural ignorance on Samsung’s part seeing how bright fun and happy the site has been made, then trying to associate it with the Emo subculture. Regardless, the software looks like it could bring some cool functions to the P2.

It is available but extremely slow on Samsung’s site, so we uploaded it as a Torrent you can download here.

From Anything But iPod

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Google announced this week that Sony has adopted the Youtube APIs on the Sony PS3.
More and more devices like video cameras or mobile phones have now direct upload features for Youtube, so why not also a gaming console.
The Sony PS3 YouTube integration allows game developers to create games that enable direct upload of in-game video captures to YouTube.
This will allow you to share and show-off your gaming skills on the largest video platform out there.
This YouTube upload functionality can be incorporated not only into new PS3 game titles, but also existing PS3 titles that have the ability to receive network updates.
Sony has already added YouTube functionality to Mainichi Issho, a popular game with PS3 users in Japan.
More details on the Youtube Developer API blog. More Sony PS3 coverage.

From www.i4u.com

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Sharp has just announced two feature packed LCD TVs, both showcase a 1920×1080 resolution with a “sub-6ms” response time, a full range of ports (including DVI-D and HDCP-compatible HDMI), optional speakers, and a 1,500:1 contrast ratio on TL-M4600 and 2,000:1 on the TL-M5200. Both also boast fanless internal cooling systems to keep the noise down and, perhaps most notably, LAN connectivity complete with a built-in web browser. Today even the toilet seats can check your email for you so why leave the LCD TVs at a distance. It mostly looks like these are to be used for commercial purposes only, but if you do wish to purchase any of these Prices to these babies are $4000 for the 46-incher and $5,000 for the 52-inch model.

From Newlaunches