Byte Into It - 19 Dec 07

Digg - Google releases Zeitgeist 2007

Anna Nicole Smith, facebook, the iPhone were all top searches in 2007. See who else made the list...

Best of 2007: Top 7 Coolest Web Apps

While everyone is trying to create their ultimate list of the winners and losers of 2007, please allow us to take a different, utterly subjective route, and choose the coolest web applications of 2007

The 15 Biggest Tech Disappointments of 2007 - Yahoo! News

From on-demand video services that were overly demanding, to underwhelming operating-system updates, 2007 was full of disappointments.

Slashdot | Vista Named Year's Most Disappointing Product

PC Magazine has declared that Windows Vista is the most disappointing product of 2007. Quoting: 'Five years in the making and this is the best Microsoft could do?... No wonder so many users are clinging to XP like shipwrecked sailors to a life raft, while others who made the upgrade are switching back. And when the fastest Vista notebook PC World has ever tested is an Apple MacBook Pro, there's something deeply wrong with the universe

Comic Life 1.4: Image Adjustment, New Styles, and More | MacApper

Comic Life, Plasq’s fantastic comic creation application has been updated to version 1.4. For the uninitiated, the Apple Design Award winning Comic Life allows you to take photos and turn them into comics–complete with speech bubbles, panels, and stylized text.

Digg - KDE 4.0 to be Released in January

The KDE Release Team has decided to release KDE 4.0 this coming January. The release was originally planned for mid-December. The KDE developers want to solve a couple of essential issues before releasing

Linux is about to take over the low end of PCs

Opinion -- Sometimes, several unrelated changes come to a head at the same time, with a result no one could have predicted. The PC market is at such a tipping point right now and the result will be millions of Linux-powered PCs in users' hands.Four trends: user-friendly Linux
desktops, useful under-$500 laptops and desktops,
broadband, and business-ready Internet office applications. Put them
together and you have a revolution.

EeePC Blog - eeeXubuntu: Ubuntu for the Asus EeePC

an enterprising soul has taken on the task of customizing Ubuntu (or more specifically Xubuntu) for use on the EeePC. While Ubuntu worked reasonably well on the EeePC before, there were plenty of additional steps necessary to get WiFi working as well as reducing the number of writes to the slightly fragile Solid State Drive. Along with these fixes eeeXubuntu also makes it much easier to install Xubuntu from a USB drive rather than an external CD-ROM drive.

Featured Windows Download: Take Control of an Unresponsive PC with AntiFreeze

Windows only: Take control of your unresponsive computer next time it freezes up with freeware system tray app AntiFreeze. After you've installed it, just wait for the next time your computer hangs and hit Alt-Ctrl-Win-Home to activate AntiFreeze, suspend your running programs, and free up your memory and CPU cycles. You can then use AntiFreeze's interface to selectively resume processes or end the process that you suspect is to blame.

Television: Watch Full-Length Television Online with OpenHulu

You may have already heard of Hulu, a closed beta, on-demand TV service from NBC Universal and News Corp. designed to stream the latest new shows from NBC, Fox, Bravo, Sci Fi, and more YouTube-style. But you may not have heard of OpenHulu, a Hulu clone that's attempting to embed every video from Hulu (which is part of how Hulu is designed to work) so you don't need an invitation to Hulu to enjoy the free, on-demand TV.

Access Linux Files from Windows with Linux Reader | Lifehacker Australia

Windows only: Dual-booters have long been able to get at their Windows-formatted files, but Windows certainly doesn't make it easy to go the other way 'round. Enter Linux Reader, a free Windows application that emulates the look and feel of the Windows XP Explorer and allows read-only access to ext2 and ext3-formatted drives, the most common formats for Linux installations. Linux Reader can also search through Linux images and mount images for browsing, and runs as a stand-alone application—for a driver-based reading tool, check out Ext2 Installable File System. Linux Reader is a free download for Windows 98 and later.

Lifehacker's 2007 Guide to Free Software and Webapps | Lifehacker Australia

As we wrap up the year 2007, it's the perfect time to put together an authoritative guide to our favourite pieces of free software and web services for common computing tasks on every platform.

Lifehacker Top 10: Top 10 New and Improved Apps of 2007

top 10 best new and improved desktop and web applications of 2007.

The ACCC shares its views on next generation telecommunications networks - Telecommunications - www.itnews.com.au

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has issued for public consultation two papers related to next generation telecommunications networks.

The first is a draft decision on a 15-year special access undertaking given by the G9 for its proposed fibre-to-the-node network upgrade, with initial access prices of up to $29 to $50 per month (depending on the speed offered). This first paper also provides guidance on access to FTTN networks more generally.

Games Radar - DS news - Nintendo DS - Lumps of coal are better than these utterly disappointing gifts

the worst presents for gamers are awful games, because you know the gift giver’s hands were inches away from a title you actually would’ve wanted to play

Popular Mechanics

10 Tech Concepts You Need to Know for 2008

10 Worst Gadgets of 2007 - Palm Foleo - Apple TV - LG Chocolate - Microsoft Zune - Popular Mechanics

To responsibly critique art, wrote W. H. Auden, requires "an inclination to praise rather than blame, and regret when a complete rejection is required...."

Featured Firefox Extension: Take Online Media Offline with UnPlug

Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): Save embedded media like audio, video, or even Flash games to your desktop with the UnPlug Firefox extension. Just browse to a page you want to grab media from, click the little smiling fish (or go to Tools -> UnPlug), and find and download the media on that page you want. UnPlug is similar to previously mentioned Video Downloader extension, which means it should work just as well to download videos from YouTube, MySpace, Google Video, and all the rest of your favorite video sites. UnPlug is free, works wherever Firefox does.

Second Life CTO Cory Ondrejka leaves the company - Boing Boing

citing irreconcilable differences in the technical development of SL, Chief Technical Officer Cory Ondrejka has just left the company after being there since 2000. He was a strong force behind the open sourcing of the viewer code, and was leading the effort to open source the servers that comprise the world's fabric.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Google debuts knowledge project

Google has kicked off a project to create an authoritative store of information about any and every topic.

The search giant has already started inviting people to write about the subject on which they are known to be an expert.

Google said it would not act as editor for the project but will provide the tools and infrastructure for the pages.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Weblogs rack up a decade of posts

The word "weblog" celebrates the 10th anniversary of it being coined on 17 December 1997.

The word was created by Jorn Barger to describe what he was doing with his pioneering Robot Wisdom web page.

The word was an abbreviation for the "logging" of interesting "web" sites that Mr Barger featured on his regularly updated journal.

A decade on and blog-watching firm Technorati reports it is tracking more than 70 million web logs.

Report: 95 percent of all e-mail has that spammy smell

This news will come as a shock to none, but the volume of spam has continued to rise throughout 2007. So much so, in fact, that spam researchers say that electronic junk mail has long surpassed the volume of human-issued e-mail this year, despite efforts to thwart it. One company, Barracuda Networks, goes so far as to say that spam now accounts for 90 to 95 percent of all e-mail, with no end in sight.

63 percent of US population now plays video games, says report

While most of the press reporting on games focuses on the more sensational and negative aspects of the hobby, the NPD Group has just released Expanding the Games Market, a report that shows that an increasing number of people see gaming as a viable and fun hobby. The report also notes that while gaming might be a more isolated activity for the "hardcore" market, most gamers use their hobby as a way to connect with their friends and family.

PlayForSure becomes "Certified for Windows Vista"

Microsoft's PlaysForSure has always been a model of how to run a DRM ecosystem: launch a new scheme with logo, convince device makers to sign up, launch your own online music store that uses said ecosystem, drop your music store, launch your own device which uses incompatible DRM, launch new music store with same incompatible DRM, then change branding of ecosystem logo. On second thought, perhaps there's room for improvement here.

Microsoft has just announced a change in the PlaysForSure branding
that adds even more confusion to the DRM ecosystem. Instead of looking
for the triangular PlaysForSure logo, consumers are now supposed to
look for the "Certified for Windows Vista" logo that is used for plenty
of other devices.

The obvious problem here is that PlaysForSure has nothing to do with
Vista, and has in fact been used for years on XP. While never gaining
much traction among music download stores, it has become the DRM of
choice for subscription plans. Now, users of those plans who still run
XP should look for the "Certified for Windows Vista" logo the next time
they purchase a new player. That shouldn't confuse anyone.

Hot, sexy bot sweet-talks personal data out of chatters

As if there needed to be another reason to be wary of chat rooms geared toward meeting people and having flirtatious, cyber-relations with them, doing so can now put you at increased risk of identity theft. CyberLover.ru, a new site out of Russia, boasts that buyers of its software will be able to trick unsuspecting marks into handing over their personal information. CyberLover.ru's sexy bot can allegedly drum up salacious conversations using 10 different personalities that are so life-like that the victims will hand over their photos, phone numbers, and more at the drop of a negligee. The program can also be tailored towards either gender, and be used to obtain other forms of data, says the company.

Against odds, iPhone overtakes Windows Mobile sales in Q3

Earlier this month, we learned that the iPhone's MobileSafari already claims more than twice the market share of Internet Explorer on Windows Mobile and Windows CE devices combined.

New numbers compiled by Canalys and quietly published by Symbian, however, show that the iPhone snagged 27 percent of smartphone sales from July to September, the device's first full quarter on the market. This puts it in second place in overall sales during Q3 2007, behind the number one BlackBerry but ahead of Windows Mobile.

Digg - Movable Type is Open Source

Movable Type is open source. This means you can freely modify, redistribute, and use Movable Type for any purpose you choose.

Digg - The Next Social Network: WordPress

Could open-source blogging platform WordPress serve as your next social networking profile? Chris Messina, co-founder of Citizen Agency, thinks so. He’s started a project called DiSo, for distributed social networking, that aims to “build a social network with its skin inside out.” DiSo will first look to WordPress as its foundation.

Cheat Sheets: Quick Reference to Windows Alt Codes

Need to type a women's symbol, musical note, copyright, trademark, or Greek letter on Windows? You need the right "alt code," a series of numbers you type while you hold down the Alt key. Reader Nathan writes in with a helpful PDF cheat sheet that lists characters you've never seen before, as well as the Wikipedia Alt Codes entry for bookmarking.

Slashdot | Major Australian ISP Pulls OpenOffice

Australia's largest Internet service provider Telstra BigPond has removed OpenOffice from its unmetered file download area following the launch of its own, free, hosted, office application, BigPond Office. The removal of OpenOffice was brought to TECH.BLORGE's attention by a reader, who complained to Telstra BigPond's support department about no longer being able to download OpenOffice updates. The support people were quite open about why OpenOffice was no longer available, i.e. because it was perceived to be competitive with BigPond Office

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Byte Into It - 12 Dec 07

Here comes the supercomputer on a chip - Technology - theage.com.au

IBM says it has made a breakthrough in converting electrical signals into light pulses that brings closer the day when supercomputing, which now requires huge machines, will be done on a single chip. Using light instead of wires to send information between
the cores could be as much as 100 times faster and use 10 times
less power than wires.

Nokia wants to ape Apple, get cut of wireless contracts

How much Nokia wants out of each contract and what happens when wireless carriers don't play along is unclear. Part of the leverage Apple surely uses to score its deal is the iPhone's buzz-worthy appeal, as up to 50 percent of iPhone buyers in the US, UK, France, and Germany are new contracts. That translates into a massive boost to wireless carrier revenues, out of which they can afford a percentage to scratch Apple's back with. Nokia, however, makes both high-end phones that are on par with the iPhone's profit margins, as well as bargain-bin or "free with contract" phones that might not rake in as many customers or offer as much negotiating headroom for the wireless carriers.

Nokia's unlimited "Comes With Music" plan misses the boat due to DRM

Universal announced a promising new business model last month that will allow
device manufacturers to offer an all-you-can-eat music subscription
service with devices. Called Total Music by Universal, the label's plan
is to charge manufacturers or wireless carriers a subscription fee of
about $5 per month for each device sold, which then gets rolled into
the cost of a device or any accompanying service charges, thus
appearing as a free one-year music subscription to the consumer. Today,
Nokia announced that it has become the first device manufacturer to hop
on board this new plan, branding it "Comes With Music." The only
problem is that the potential for a revolution has been deflated by the
same recurring villain: DRM. Ars learned that Nokia's Comes With Music
implementation will still be handicapped by DRM. In fact, Nokia chose
Microsoft's PlaysForSure DRM, a system even the Redmond software maker
itself has chosen not to support on its Zune and Zune Marketplace DRM
ecosystem. This means that even though users can keep tracks after
their subscription runs out, Comes With Music tracks won't be
compatible at all with the iPod and Zune.Tracks can be downloaded via Nokia's phones or PCs, and the DRMed
tracks will remain playable even after the one-year subscription period
finishes. Here's the kicker though: In order to renew the subscription
and regain access to new music for another year, Nokia says consumers
can purchase a new device. Burning a CD of any track(s) will require an
upgrade purchase for each track.

Nokia wants W3C to remove Ogg from upcoming HTML5 standard

The World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C, a group devoted to publishing web
standards, recently moved to approve the Ogg video and audio formats
for inclusion into the forthcoming HTML5 standard. Nokia, maker of
mobile phones and mobile multimedia services, has taken exception to
this proposal, writing a position paper (PDF) and raising a formal
issue at the W3's web site, claiming that Ogg support should be
"deleted" from the spec in order to "avoid any patent issues."
Most people, if they recognize Ogg at all, would consider it to be an
open-source counterpart to proprietary multimedia technology, so what
exactly is going on here?

Western Digital network drives crippled -- no serving any multimedia files - Boing Boing

Western Digital is disabling sharing of any avi, divx, mp3, mpeg, and many
other files on its network connected devices; due to unverifiable media
license authentication'. Just wondering -- who needs a 1 Terabyte
network-connected hard drive that is prohibited from serving most media
files? Perhaps somebody with 220 million pages of .txt files they need
to share?

Drive cradle makes it easy to swap around SATA drives - Boing Boing

StorageDepot's SATA Hard Drive Cradle lets you plunk drive in it, write/read with
them, unmount them and yank 'em out, then stick in the next one. The USB SATA cradle is an
external hard drive cradle, for hot swapping 2.5" and 3.5" SATA hard
drives. It works with both types of hard drive, and both SATA I and
SATA II hard drives.

ClearPlay DVD player censors sex scenes - Hardware - www.itnews.com.au

US firm ClearPlay has launched a content-filtering DVD player which can
automatically remove 'objectionable' scenes from movies..
The ClearPlay DVD player allows parents to edit out content such as
profanity, violence, sex and nudity during DVD playback.
The device creates filtering information on a movie-by-movie basis, and
parents can load the filters into the DVD player using a USB stick.
Filters for the latest DVD releases can be constantly updated,
providing adults with control over what they and their children watch.
The ClearPlay DVD player includes more than 2,500 ClearPlay movie
filters and a subscription to 12 months of unlimited updates as new
titles are released.

Microsoft says Vista SP1 won't fix compatibility issues - Operating Systems - www.itnews.com.au

"Applications that have compatibility issues with Windows Vista today will most
likely continue to have the same issues with Windows Vista with SP1,"
Microsoft warns in a new whitepaper on Vista Service Pack 1.
As a result, Microsoft says businesses needn't bother waiting for SP1's
final release -- slated for early next year -- to test new applications
on Vista, because the results won't change much.

Microsoft's changes to how WGA handles flagged installs don't go far enough

Microsoft has announced some much-needed changes to how Windows Genuine Advantage
will handle PCs suspected of running pirated software. Beginning with
Vista's first Service Pack, due during the first quarter of 2008,
failed WGA checks will no longer result in having the PC's
functionality disabled. Instead, users will get what Microsoft
describes as "clear and recurring notices" that they're using
counterfeit software.It's great to see Microsoft making changes to how WGA works, but the
fundamental problems arising from forcing users to undergo periodic
checks to ensure that they're running legitimately-acquired software
are still there. Despite the name, there's no Genuine Advantage for
users who pass WGA's tests—that clean bill of health for your Vista
install can still be erased by what should be innocuous hardware
upgrades.

Wireless keyboard encryption easily broken, say researchers

Security researchers at Dreamlab Technologies AG and Remote-exploit.org have documented a method for eavesdropping, decrypting data, and
sniffing keyboard strokes when using a wireless keyboard transmitting
at 27MHz. The team validated its test results using Microsoft's
Wireless Optical Desktop 1000 and Wireless Optical Desktop 2000, and
believes the same method would work on the Wireless Optical 3000, 4000,
and the Wireless Laser Desktop series. Logitech models are still under
investigation, but the general—and troubling—implication of the paper
is that such vulnerabilities are likely to be widespread. When the keyboard transmits a data packet to the base receiver, only the actual keystroke data is encrypted—both the metaflag (use of Alt, Shift, or Ctrl) and identifier bits are sent in the clear. As for the keystroke data, it's encrypted in a one-byte USB Hid code and a single byteof random data generated when the k eyboard synchronizes with the receiver. Encryption keys are not changed at any time interval, save when an end-user reassociates the keyboard. Because there are only 256 possible key values, intercepted keystrokes can be translated by brute force without any need to actually break the encryption key; the research team was able to decrypt the transmitted data and recover the encryption key within only 20-50 keystrokes. This has the practical effect of rendering keyboard encryption meaningless—it's literally simpler to ignore it than it is to break it.

Microsoft's Office Live Workspace nets mixed reviews

Microsoft has finally tossed its hat into the ring with Office Live Workspaces. Marketed towards home, small business and educational users, Office Live Workspaces more or less endows Microsoft's cash cow Office suite with a free hosted service for sharing and collaborating on Office documents.

Microsoft feeling heat from Linux in budget flash PC market

Microsoft announced plans today to expand support for Windows XP on budget
flash-storage computing devices with an eye towards getting Windows XP
running on the OLPC. Microsoft's newfound interest in this space is
largely a response to growing demand for inexpensive subnotebook
hardware that uses flash-based storage. Manufacturers of such devices
are increasingly adopting Linux instead of Windows because Linux is
free and easier to adapt for use on systems with limited computing
power and storage capacity. Microsoft likely views the rising
popularity of Linux-based budget mobile hardware in the developing
world as a significant competitive threat.

Adobe's PDF now an ISO standard

At the end of January 2007, Adobe submitted its Portable Document Format
(PDF) to the ISO. Now, as the year winds to a close, Adobe has
announced that PDF 1.7 has been approved by the ISO and will become the
ISO 32000 standard (DIS). According to a blog post by Adobe PDF
architect and senior principal scientist Jim King, the standard was
approved by a vote of 13:1From
this point forward, the ISO, rather than Adobe, is in charge of the PDF specification and any changes that are
incorporated into it.

LinkedIn Opens Up - Business - www.itnews.com.au

LinkedIn, the networking site for business professionals, has opened its service
to outside developers to create business applications.
It hopes to attract developers through a new program called its
Intelligent Applications platform. The program will let outside
developers create software for LinkedIn as well as embed features of
LinkedIn, such as finding business contacts, directly from partner Web
sites.
LinkedIn is also participating in Google's OpenSocial developer network
that seeks to create a way for all developers to write software that
will work on all platforms. MySpace is also a member of OpenSocial.

Lifehacker Gift Guide 2007 | Lifehacker Australia

It's not easy finding the right gift for everyone on your list, especially
if you've got a lot of people to buy for, so today we're taking a look
at gifts small and large—from under $10 to the over $50 set—perfect for
the life-hacking loved one on your list (even if that's you).

Avoid signing your rights away with EULAlyzer | Lifehacker Australia

It's a little app which you can use to scan End User License Agreements (you
know those things that most people just scroll through and hit
'agree'). Simply cut and paste the EULA into the program, and it will
flag any suspect phrases for you to check.

IFPI's European Christmas list: content filtering and P2P blocking

In a recent memo to European legislators, the worldwide music lobby laid out its vision of a world in which all ISPs adopted three "feasible and reasonable options" to help address copyright infringement on their networks.It's a familiar troika: content filtering of audio files using fingerprinting technology, protocol blocking of "specific P2P services that are known to be predominately infringing," and blocking access to specific web sites such as AllOfMP3 (as in Denmark) and The Pirate Bay. The plan is neither "burdensome or expensive," says IFPI, and it doesn't cause any problems for "regular service." Sadly (and shockingly!), ISPs in question haven't warmed to the plan voluntarily. As IFPI so delicately puts it, "This cooperation has not been sufficiently forthcoming from ISPs in Europe so far."

Fark.com trying to get trademark on "Not Safe For Work"

Abbreviations, acronyms, and memes fall in and out of fashion on the Internet all of the time. Some stand the test of time, including phrases like "not safe for work" (NSFW), which is used in forums, chatrooms, and blogs across the world to warn folks that something they're about to see could give the boss fits. Late last month, offbeat news site Fark.com filed for a trademark on the phrase with the US Patent and Trademark Office.Fark is seeking exclusive rights over the phrase as it's currently used across the Internet.

Verizon hit with GPL copyright lawsuit over router software

Open-source software is very attractive for companies looking to expand their services or quickly get new offerings to market, in part because it's free. Unfortunately, some companies tend to overlook the software license commonly attached to open-source software, the GPL. Verizon is the latest company to do so, and its use of an OSS package in a wireless router has led to a copyright infringement lawsuit from the Software Freedom Law Center.

Congress' copyright reform: seize computers, boost penalties, spend money

A bipartisan group of Congressmen (and one woman) introduced a major bill aimed at boosting US intellectual property laws and the penalties that go along with them. While much of the legislation targets industrial counterfeiting and knockoff drugs, it also allows the government to seize people's computers. In addition to strengthening both civil and criminal penalties for
copyright and trademark infringement, the bill
proposes creation of the Office of the United States Intellectual
Property Enforcement Representative (USIPER). This is a new executive
branch office tasked with coordinating IP enforcement at the national
and international level. To do this work internationally, the bill also
authorizes US intellectual property officers to be sent to other
countries in order to assist with crackdowns there. In addition, the
Department of Justice gets additional funding and a new unit to help
prosecute IP crimes.

Judge refuses to entertain Lime Wire conspiracy theories against RIAA

P2P provider Lime Wire found itself on the receiving end of a judicial beatdown yesterday as a federal judge tossed the company's claims against the RIAA.The case began back in 2006, when the RIAA sued Lime Wire just days after the music and movie businesses settled with Kazaa. Lime Wire decided to fight the case, and as part of the resulting legal battle, countersued the music industry for a host of antitrust violations

Facebook's Beacon was illegal as well as dumb - Boing Boing

James sez, "Everyone knows that Facebook's Beacon application was a privacy disaster. But it was also probably illegal. I've written up an analysis of Beacon under a 1988 law that flatly prohibits video stores from telling people what their customers rented. Every time Blockbuster spammed your friends list with an announcement about your latest online video purchase, it was violating that law. At a minimum $2,500 fine per violation, this could be a pretty serious legal problem for Blockbuster and Facebook

Patent Office upholds key TiVo patent at issue in EchoStar lawsuit

TiVo sued EchoStar in 2005 over the DVRs the satellite company manufactures and sells for its Dish Network. In April 2006, a jury found EchoStar liable for patent infringement and awarded TiVo $73 million in damages. In August of that year, TiVo obtained an injunction against EchoStar, ordering it to stop selling DVRs and disable the DVR functionality on its products within 30 days. The judge also upped the damage award to $90 million.

College sues Google for patent infringement over distributed search

The patent in question covers technology developed by Dr. Kenneth Baclawski, a computer science professor at Northeastern. Baclawski's patent was filed back in 1994 and was approved in 1997, and it described as "a distributed computer database system including a front end computer and a plurality of computer nodes interconnected by a network into a search engine."The system's "home node" accepts search queries and breaks each query down into fragments that are sent out to various other backend nodes for processing. Each node runs a search on its particular fragment and then sends the results upstream to the home node, which reassembles them all and returns a result to the user.

Why the RIAA may be afraid of targeting Harvard students

Factor in hostility towards the RIAA's campaign on the part of Harvard Law School
professors Charles Nesson and John Palfrey, who run the law school's Berkman Center for Internet & Society.
Responding to the RIAA's claim that its litigation strategy has
"invigorated a meaningful conversation on college campuses about music
theft, its consequences and the numerous ways to enjoy legal music,"
the profs called on Harvard to not betray the "trust and privacy" of its students.Should the RIAA decide to send prelitigation settlement letters to Harvard, chances are good that 1) the letters will not be passed on, and 2) some of the best and brightest at Harvard Law School will get involved in a big way. That doesn't look too appealing, especially when the campaign isn't going as smoothly as the RIAA would like.

RIAA: Those CD rips of yours are still "unauthorized"

Those
MP3 and AAC files that you've ripped from your CD collection are still
"unauthorized copies" in the eyes of the recording industry. In a brief
filed late last week, the RIAA said that the MP3 files on a PC owned by
a file-sharing defendant who had admitted to ripping them himself were
"unauthorized copies."

Report: EMI looking to slash funding for RIAA, IFPI

One of the Big Four labels is apparently unhappy with its return on investment when it comes to funding industry trade groups such as the IFPI and RIAA. British label EMI, which was recently purchased by a private equity fund, is reportedly considering a significant cut to the amount of money it provides the trade groups on an annual basis.

Cover-up? Special investigator "cures" virus with 7-stage hard drive wipe

The head of the Office of Special Counsel who is currently leading an investigation into allegations against Karl Rove is taking fire over allegations that he improperly and illegally disposed of documents and files. The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is an independent federal agency
tasked with protecting the rights of whistleblowers or other
complainants that work for the federal government, investigating
whether or not government employees have properly followed restrictions
on their political activity, and defending the reemployment rights of
returning war veterans.On April 23, 2007, Scott Bloch, the head of the OSC, launched a wide investigation into the political activities of Karl Rove. Scott Bloch, however, hasn't risen to his current position without
controversies of his own. Although no findings of fact have been
released as of this writing, Bloch has been under investigation since
2005 for improperly dismissing issues brought to the OSC's attention by
whistleblowers and then failing to protect said employees from
retaliation.

FCC asked to bar cellular carriers from blocking SMS traffic

In September, Verizon caused an uproar when it refused to provide short codes (used to send messages to multiple subscribers at once) to NARAL Pro-Choice America so that the group could send out opt-in alerts. Verizon initially cited its policy prohibiting "highly controversial" messages from being distributed on its network, but quickly reversed course in the wake of massive public outcry. A Verizon spokesperson called it an "isolated incident."

SneakPeek Pro: a Quick Look plug-in for design types

SneakPeek Pro opens Quick Look's eyes by adding support for Illustrator, InDesign, and EPS files, but it also adds some useful metadata for those who need to see more than just a pretty picture. Users can choose to view what fonts, swatches, and images are used in the document, and SneakPeek Pro even brings simple file icon previews for these formats to the rest of the Finder.To make all these features easy to adjust, SneakPeek Pro installs as a System Preferences pane and allows you to toggle just about every feature, including which file types it previews and whether to include all the extra file info in Quick Look. One drawback, however, is that SpeakPeek Pro requires files to be made with CS3 apps if you want to view things like fonts and swatches in Quick Look.

That said, SneakPeek Pro comes with a 15-day unlimited demo period, and a full license can be had with a $5 discount during its introductory period for $14.95.

Win a Wii to go with your Wii Transfer for Mac

Wii Transfer, made by Riverfold Software allows Wii owners to view pictures, and listen to music and videos stored on their Macs from their Wii console. The software also allows users to convert video for playback on their Wii directly from an SD card. For those obsessive savers, the software also allows users to back up their saved game files.

Google thinks different by opening Mac Developer Playground

Google unveiled its officially unofficial sandbox for Mac developers today. Dubbed Mac Developer Playground, it's more or less a specific section of Google Code at which various projects from Google's Mac-oriented developers are highlighted. The company is clear, however, on just what is going on here: save for the mature and supported MacFUSE file system project by Amit Singh, this truly is just a playground; everything else is unsupported experimentation and needs to be approached as such.

Coolest IPhone App Ever: ProRemote Pro Tools Controller May Be Coolest iPhone App Ever (UPDATED)

ProRemote converts the iPhone or the iPod touch in a wireless control for Pro Tools LE with realtime feedback. While this may seem limited to the audio world, it shows that having this kind of power in such a tiny package could solve the problems of many users.

RIAA: Those CD rips of yours are still "unauthorized"

Those MP3 and AAC files that you've ripped from your CD collection are still
"unauthorized copies" in the eyes of the recording industry. In a brief
filed late last week, the RIAA said that the MP3 files on a PC owned by
a file-sharing defendant who had admitted to ripping them himself were
"unauthorized copies."

Exclusive Lifehacker Interview: Quicksilver's Creator on the Future of QS

Quicksilver as an Open Source Project and Its Roadmap

Apple’s secret weapon: Apple TV 2.0 | The Apple Core | ZDNet.com

Apple is rumored to be close to announcing movie rentals via the iTunes Store and Apple TV is perfect platform. Add a 1TB hard drive and BitTorrent downloading technology and you have the beginnings of a great living room experience. Enable the iPhone and iPod touch as a remote control for Apple TV 2.0 to replace the bogus “gum stick” remote and they’ll surely have a hit on their hands.

8 Predictions for Macworld 2008

Predictions are fun

Mac Rumors: Apple Ultra-Portable MacBook Rumor Roundup

As rumors start to build for Macworld San Francisco 2008, the most consistent rumor appears to be one of an ultra-portable Apple notebook computer.

Apple crowned “Best PC” in Australia’s biggest tech survey - Hardware - www.itnews.com.au

Apple has edged out PC stalwarts Dell and HP to take the “Best PC” award in Australia’s biggest ever consumer technology survey.

Featured Mac Download: Anxiety Task Manager Integrates with iCal and Mail

Despite its unfortunate name, task manager Anxiety is a slick, good-looking, lightweight way to keep track of your to-do lists. Since Leopard now includes a "calendar store," or central repository of tasks from both iCal and Mail.app, Anxiety taps into those lists and displays the items on your desktop. Add, change or check off a to-do in Anxiety, iCal or Mail? And the info updates across all three applications. Neat. Anxiety is a free download (donations encouraged) for Mac OS X Leopard only.

Featured Mac Download: Speed Up iCal Entries with Do-It

Do-It provides a quick and simple way to create new iCal appointments without the clicking frenzy required with iCal's default interface. Just launch it whenever you want to add a new appointment, fill out the details (the form is completely Tab-friendly), hit enter and go back to whatever you were doing. It's a simple but wonderful improvement to iCal if the default behavior has ever gotten on your nerves. Do-It is a free download, Mac OS X only.

Mac OS X Leopard

Undocumented code in Leopard looks like it's set up to load Windows application files—prompting rumors that that Mac of yours will be able to run Windows programs natively someday.

Featured Mac Download: Sync Your Windows Mobile Device and Mac with SyncMate

Sync Your Windows Mobile Device and your Mac with freeware application SyncMate. In addition to syncing (which includes Address Book, iCal, bookmarks, notes, music, and photos), SyncMate boasts application installing, SMS management, and video and image conversion when copying to the device. Previously the go-to software for a Windows-Mobile-to-Mac sync was an application called Missing Sync, and despite its great features and interface, it costs a hefty $39.95. SyncMate—though still in beta—promises most of the same features but won't cost you a dime.

Digg - New VLC 0.8.6d Looks Awesome in Leopard

If you aren't using VLC to play video files, you should be, and if you are, you need to check out this update! The transition to and from full screen playback is also a nice touch.

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Byte Into It - 05 Dec 07

BBC NEWS | Europe | Rise in broadband use in Europe

A total of 42% of households in the EU now have a broadband connection, according to an official survey.That represents a 12 percentage point rise on the figure for 2006.

The survey, carried out by national statistics offices across Europe, also appears to confirm a gender gap in use of the internet as people become older.

Almost one-third of men over the age of 55 use the internet at least once a week while the figure for women is less than one-fifth.

MPAA's University wiretapping product taken down for violating copyright - Boing Boing

The MPAA's "University Toolkit" (a piece of monitoring software that universities are being asked to install on their networks to spy on students' communications) has been taken down, due to copyright violations. The Toolkit is based on the GPL-licensed Xubuntu operating system (a flavor of Linux). The GPL requires anyone who makes a program based on GPL'ed code has to release the source code for their program and license it under the GPL. The MPAA refused multiple requests to provide the sources for their spyware, so an Ubuntu developer sent a DMCA notice to the MPAA's ISP and demanded that the material be taken down as infringing.

Windows XP SP3 to include Vista elements, researchers say - Operating Systems - www.itnews.com.au

Windows XP SP3 does ship with all-new features, not just patches and hotfixes," said researchers at NeoSmart, a nonprofit group that tracks computer technology. Most of the new features are "backported from Windows Vista," according to NeoSmart.Specifically, product keys don't need to be entered during setup.

Vista's Network Access Protection modules also will show up in XP SP3. The system verifies a computer's "health" before allowing it access to a network.

XP SP3 also will include the Microsoft Kernel Mode Cryptographic Module, which is meant to "provide easy access to multiple cryptographic algorithms,".

Microsoft is in a bit of a Catch-22 with XP. The more it strengthens the OS, the less reason users have to upgrade to the newer Windows Vista.

Adobe unveils Flash Media Server 3 product line - Networking - www.itnews.com.au

Adobe Systems on Tuesday introduced the Flash Media Server 3 product line, cutting prices on the software used to stream applications and Flash-encoded video to Web sites..The platform upgrade, scheduled to ship in January, comprises a streaming server edition and an interactive server edition.

The latest platform supports the video compression standard H.264, which provides higher quality video. In addition, FMS 3 supports the AAC audio format used in Apple's iTunes software.

In general, FMS 3 provides the tools for streaming video and audio to Adobe's Flash player and Flash Lite, which is the player edition for mobile phones and other handheld gadgets.

Apple QuickTime exploit goes wild - Security - www.itnews.com.au

Attackers have begun targeting an unpatched flaw in Apple's QuickTime multimedia player. Researchers at Symantec reported that an exploit for the vulnerability was discovered on a pornographic website over the weekend. The security firm believes that other sites are also serving the attack.The vulnerability lies in the way QuickTime handles Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) data from streaming media files. When the user visits the pornographic site, a small iframe tag within the HTML code redirects the user to the exploit site, which then launches the RTSP attack and installs malware on the user's system.

Symantec urged users to turn their browsers to the highest security settings and use a player other than QuickTime to run streaming media files. Advanced users can also set their firewalls to block outgoing traffic from common RTSP ports. see:

http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2007/12/04/wide-open-quicktime-flaw-welcomes-new-attackers

Apple has yet to release an update to patch the flaw. The company has a policy of not commenting on security vulnerabilities until a fix has been issued.

Microsoft warns of web proxy flaw - Security - www.itnews.com.au

Microsoft said that the problem occurs when the WPAD servers for third-level domains (such as .co.uk) and deeper cannot be found. The user is then redirected to a WPAD server for a higher domain.This can eventually lead the user to access a WPAD server outside the intended domain, possibly to one that has been compromised by a hacker.

All current versions of Windows and Internet Explorer are affected by the flaw, which was discovered by researcher Beau Butler. Microsoft has not received any reports of attacks targeting the vulnerability in the wild.

Users can mitigate the problem by disabling 'automatically detect settings' in Internet Explorer. Microsoft noted that users whose ISP uses a connection specific DNS suffix are not affected.

Sites which use a top-level domain, such as .com or .gov, are not at risk neither are those with a trusted WPAD server.

Facebook backs down on ad plans - Internet - www.itnews.com.au

Social networking site Facebook has cancelled its advertising program, that showed what members were purchasing from ecommerce web sites..The advertising system, dubbed Beacon, let partner sites like eBay and Sony advertise the fact that someone had bought something from them. Users can click on a Beacon box on the site if they want to keep their purchases secret, but in many cases the box disappears after 20 seconds and consent is assumed to have been given.

This aroused the ire of campaign groups like MoveOn.org, which organised a Facebook group with over 59,000 members protesting the system. Protesters complained that the system assumed consent, and Facebook has said user will actively have to opt into the system in the future

Google claims drop-off in Gmail spam - Security - www.itnews.com.au

The number of spam advertising messages sent to email users is levelling off, according to a software engineer at Google's Gmail service..Brad Taylor said that the percentage of spam transmitted through Gmail had waned over the past year, although he declined to release any figures.

Taylor has overseen Gmail's spam filter since the service launched in 2004

Microsoft drops details on Silverlight 2.0 - Software - www.itnews.com.au

Microsoft is planning a major update to its Silverlight Web presentation technology designed to take better advantage of the company's .NET development environment -- a move that should make it easier for programmers to create rich media applications for the Internet..Silverlight 2.0 "will include a cross-platform, cross-browser version of the .NET Framework," confirmed Scott Guthrie, a Microsoft general manager, in a blog post this week.

With .NET support built into Silverlight, developers will be able to use Visual Studio and other Microsoft tools to create multimedia applications compatible with a number of Web browsers

TiVo partners to enter PC TV tuner market - Software - www.itnews.com.au

Nero, a maker of DVD-burning software, has agreed to develop software that will bring TiVo's popular digital video recording software and program guide to the PC, a move that would create a competitor to Microsoft's Windows Media Center.The partnership announced is the latest example of how TiVo is trying to move into other markets as sales of its DVR machines are increasingly threatened by cable, satellite, and telephone companies offering similar devices with their television subscription services.

Apple's Tiger upgrade causing 'catastrophic failure', users report - Software - www.itnews.com.au

Users of Apple's Tiger operating system -- predecessor to the more recent Leopard OS -- are reporting that the software grinds to an unrecoverable halt when upgraded to the latest version.According to posts appearing in the discussion forum on Apple's support Web site, Macs upgraded to version 10.4.11 of Tiger are freezing up and refusing to reboot without a clean installation.

The culprit, according to some posters on the forum and published reports, may be Boot Camp -- a utility that allows Mac users to run Microsoft Windows on their computers. Some users recommend eliminating the utility before upgrading to the latest version of Tiger.

Gmail: Gmail Adds Colored Labels (Without Greasemonkey)

Colored labels do more than look pretty, of course—a well-arranged variety enables your eye to jump quickly to important emails and know when certain types of messages are becoming clutter. The web interface has also been updated with "x" buttons available to quickly remove labels from individual messages. Finally, the Official Gmail Blog notes that the development team is working to add "folder-y-ish functionality." Time will tell how labels, folders and filters will mesh together

Gmail: Gmail Adds AIM Support to Chat

Not only did Google add colored labels to Gmail today, they're rolling out AIM compatibility in chat, too. The new AOL Instant Messenger support lets you log into your AIM account to chat with your AIM buddies right inside Gmail.

Digital Video: Xbox 360 Update Supports DivX and XviD Video Playback

Microsoft released an update to the Xbox 360 today that introduces several feature updates to the Xbox, most notably support for DivX and XviD video playback without the need to transcode the video to WMV format

Slashdot | Verizon Embraces Google's Android

BusinessWeek has up an article on Verizon's decision to fully support Android. After passing on the iPhone, the company says they're going to open their network to more devices, move their network to GSM-based radio technology (LTE), and now support Android. 'In an open-access model, though, Verizon Wireless won't offer the same level of customer service as it does for the roughly 50 phone models featured in its handset lineup. Though the company will insist on testing all phones developed to run on its network in the open-access program, Verizon plans only to ensure the wireless connection is working for customers who buy those devices.

Slashdot | Crime Wave Thwarted in Second Life

The Mercury News reports that a vulnerability in the way Second Life protects a user's money has been identified. Risks for users are reportedly limited because the researchers say the flaw can be quickly patched. The flaw exploits a known problem with Apple's QuickTime - when a virtual character passes by an infected object planted by hackers, the Second Life software activates QuickTime so it can play the video or picture. Hackers can direct the Second Life software to a malicious Web site that then allows them to 'take over the user's avatar and force it to hand over its Linden cash. Second Life is recommending that users disable streaming video playback in the Second Life viewer except when you are attending a known and trusted venue.

Really, truly official: Google to bid on 700MHz spectrum

Chris Sacca, Google's head of special initiatives, stressed again in a blog post what Google has been saying throughout the year: "open access" rules on some of the spectrum will make this auction one of the most important in recent memory."Regardless of how the auction unfolds, we think it's important to put our money where our principles are," he wrote. "Consumers deserve more choices and more competition than they have in the wireless world today. And at a time when so many Americans don't have access to the Internet, this auction provides an unprecedented opportunity to bring the riches of the Net to more people."

TiVo to bust out of the living room and onto your PC

TiVo is poised to break out from the confines of the set-top box and into the PC. The DVR maker and Nero, creators of the popular CD- and DVD-burning software, are partnering to bring TiVo to upcoming versions of Nero. The newly announced agreement means that TiVo's much-loved interface and ease of use will be available to owners of any PC with a TV tuner card or USB dongle.

Google Maps for mobile gains location-seeking abilities sans GPS

it has rolled out a new beta to its mobile mapping service that will allow users to automatically determine their location without GPS.Called "My Location," the feature comes as part of the release of version 2.0 of Google Maps for mobile. My Location uses cell tower ID information to determine (approximately) where you are. Google says that it uses special "Google-developed-algorithms" to determine this, which sounds like fancy talk for triangulation (a supported phone can determine how far it is from the three closest cell towers and then pinpoint the approximate spot of the caller).

That brings us to the next point: My Location won't work on all phones (sorry, RAZR users), although the technology is supported in most smartphones, all color BlackBerrys, all Symbian Series 60s (third edition), most Windows Mobile devices, newer Sony Ericssons, and some Motorolas. My Location also works in conjunction with GPS

EFF proves Comcast is screwing with BitTorrent, releases instructions for testing your own ISP - Boing Boing

A pair of new Electronic Frontier Foundation reports prove that Comcast is degrading and interfering with BitTorrent, and shows how you can use free software to test your own ISP to see if it is doing the same

Speaking: Learn to Pronounce Words with HowJSay

Pronunciation search site HowJSay offers instant audio of a huge catalog of words correctly read. Although the words seem to be read mostly by British speakers, American English alternatives are provided for most words

Featured Windows Download: Schedule Startup Programs with Startup Delayer

Windows only: Freeware application Startup Delayer does exactly what it sounds like—it allows you to force programs that normally load at Windows login to wait a specific amount of time before starting. That means larger applications that drag down the boot process can wait until the system's a bit more responsive, and the wealth of utilities some folks use can be spaced out to help you start actually working faster. Startup Delayer also serves as a straight-ahead startup manager for those who dislike the built-in Windows version, giving you control over process priority and window sizes. Startup Delayer is a free download (with requests for donation on closing) for Windows 98 and later only

Featured Windows Download: Put PuTTY in the Tray with PuTTY Tray

Windows only: Manage your PuTTY sessions from the tray with freeware stand-alone app PuTTY Tray. In addition to sending sessions to the tray, PuTTY Tray adds transparency, URL hyperlinking, always on top and automatic session reconnects. Though subtle, everyday users of PuTTY should find these enhancements very refreshing. PuTTY Tray carries the same look and feel as the original PuTTY with the aforementioned features spliced throughout the configuration pane. PuTTY Tray is a free download for Windows only.

Featured Windows Download: Decrypt Your DVD's Copy Protection with DVD43

Windows only: Freeware application DVD43 decrypts DVDs and CDs, removing most copy protections schemes so you can interact with the media using whatever ripping or copying application you please (similar to the shareware alternative AnyDVD). DVD43 runs in your system tray, detects when you've inserted a new DVD, and automatically removes the encryption (the smiley face turns green when it succeeds).

Featured Windows Download: Keep Track of Drivers the Easy Way with DriverView

Windows only: See your device drivers and their versions at a glance and back up your "just works" drivers list with DriverView, a free application for Windows systems. The all-in-one-window view is itself a helpful upgrade from looking through devices individually in the Device Manager, but the real value here is in the list generation. Create an HTML-formatted backup list for your future troubleshooting needs or export to text to show friends or forum members just what's gone wrong. DriverView is a free download and works with Windows Vista, XP and 2000.

Featured Windows Download: Synchronize Folders with SyncToy 2.0

Windows only: Synchronize the contents of two folders, either across your home network or on the same PC with a free utility from Microsoft, SyncToy. The 2.0 beta's been released and gotten smarter since the first time we pointed out SyncToy, adding smart drive letter detection (for when your USB drive gets assigned a different drive letter when you plug it in) and a more robust mechanism to include or exclude files from the synchronize action. Great for sync'ing files from your desktop to a USB drive or between two different computers on your home network

Sony PS3 tops Nintendo Wii in Japan for first time - Hardware - www.itnews.com.au

Sony's PlayStation 3 outsold Nintendo's Wii game console in Japan in November for the first time, raising the prospect that Sony might regain its dominance in the global videogame market.

Slashdot | Heavily Discounted Zune Outpacing iPod Sales

Yahoo Tech is reporting that the Microsoft Zune, having been heavily discounted for the holiday season, 'is currently Amazon's top-selling music player, beating out the new iPod Nano and the 80GB iPod on the 'Bestsellers in Electronics' list.

Geek to Live: Top Windows tweaks

by Gina Trapani - I've got a list of the most important Windows customizations that make my PC feel like a place I can get work done in more smoothly and easily. Hop in for a quick ride around Windows dialogs, tabs, menus and toolbars to get your XP fitting like a glove.

Digg - Open source hardware gift guide

Looking to give gifts this year that are open source? Here's MAKE Magazines "Open Source Hardware" gift guide. Open source 3D printers, TV-turn-off devices, iPod chargers, music players, Wi-Fi companions, educational electronic kits and more.

Digg - Engadget's Holiday Gift Guide: for Her

Engadget's guide on what to get for her. Everything from a Wii Play to a Pink iPhone. Worth checking out if you need some ideas

Ars Technica 2007 Gaming Gift Guide: Page 1

the hardware and software that caught our eye this year from each of the big boys, and we'll cover PC gaming at the end.

Gaming monolith birthed with merger of Activision and Blizzard

Activision has announced that the gaming giant would be merging with Vivendi Games to form one monolithic gaming company called Activision Blizzard.

Gamasutra - Eidos Announces Deus Ex 3 , Talks New Montreal Studio

Developer-publisher Eidos has revealed that its new studio in Montreal, Québec, first announced earlier this year, has opened its doors to the public, and the company is inaugurating the facility with the announcement of its first project: a third installment of the futuristic first person-shooter/RPG Deus Ex.

BUSTED: 27 Most Dangerous Gaming Myths Feature on GamePro.com

GamePro shatters 27 video game myths in this popular reoccurring series. This article: HD-DVD versus Blu-ray, HDMI versus component, the PS3 as a failure, and more!

Slashdot | Adverjournalism - The Role of Ad Dollars in Media

The Gamer 2.0 site has a look into the role of advertising in gaming journalism, with a few reflections especially topical given the Jeff Gerstmann controversy. From the article: 'It should come as no surprise that just about every gaming forum on the internet is ablaze right now following the news of GameSpot's termination of long-time editor, Jeff Gerstmann. This article, however, is not an exposé or look into what really happened at GameSpot this week. Rather, consider this a look at the direction of gaming journalism, advertising, and how this all plays a role in the content you read.

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Byte Into It - 28 Nov 07

Digg - Is this the most newbie-friendly/easy distro so far? Linux Mint 4.0 Daryna

Linux Mint 4.0 is a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon that has lots of packages in its repositories (like multimedia codecs, Adobe Flash, Adobe Reader, Skype, Google Earth, etc.) that are relatively hard to install on other distributions; it therefore provides a user-friendly desktop experience even for complete Linux newbies.

Digg - DirectX 9.0c on Linux with Wine

A howto about installing DirectX 9.0c into Wine, the diagnostics program (dxdiag.exe) passes each of the test that is included in the standard DirectX install.. after the install only five dlls need to be set as builtin Wine dlls and the rest can be run as native Windows dlls. While this is not 100% DirectX on Linux, it is 95+%

Only Ubuntu Linux: Howto Tweak Ubuntu

This tool is for ubuntu which makes it easy to change hidden system and desktop settings.Ubuntu Tweak is only for GNOME desktop environment.This is still under heavy development and very good utility for ubuntu users.

Digg - Firefox 3 vs. Firefox 2

comparison of Firefox 3 with Firefox 2

Linux Tip: Discover More Linux Alternatives at Linux App Finder

The Linux App Finder is an organized, extensive list of programs that includes screenshots, desktop environment information, and links to source and download sites. Even more handy is the searchable list of Windows and OS X "equivalents," organized by the names of proprietary software. If you're new to Linux or have given up trying to find a certain kind of application, Linux App Finder is worth a look.

Speed up your GMail and GCal | Lifehacker Australia

Here's a nice little tip for speeding up your GMail and Google Calendar, and it's incredibly simple too. You can refresh the view by clicking the Gmail (or GCal) logo on the top left of your screen. This refreshes the view without reloading the page so it's much faster.

First look at ASUS Eee PC | Lifehacker Australia

# The OS is a simplified version of the Xandros Linux distro
# It's running Open Office with 40 built-in apps ranging from Firefox to Skype
# The Media Player can play DivX and .avi files
# 15 second boot time, 5 second shutdown
- battery time is quoted at up to 5 hours
# it's aimed at kids but its size makes it a worthwhile contender for a laptop replacement - the keyboard is small for a laptop, but huge for a PDA

Google's mobile guru talks Android | Lifehacker Australia

instead of a Google phone, Google's delivered  is Android, an open software mobile phone. Google's fostering development on the platform by releasing a developer kit and offering $US10 million in prizes for the best software developed for the new platform.

ZDNet has today published an interview with Andy Rubin, head of mobile platforms at Google, where he talks about Android, Linux, the iPhone and the "Dream" prototype phone.

Find Critically-Acclaimed Torrents at PickyPirate | Lifehacker Australia

BitTorrent search sites like The Pirate Bay can help you find recently-released tunes, flicks and video games, but deciding which are worth the hefty downloads usually involves digging in more mainstream channels. Enter PickyPirate, a mashup website that matches scores from review compilation sites Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes to download links from torrent search sites The Pirate Bay and Mininova. For casual torrent browsers, the site could be a nice reminder of what's floating around and save a few clicks on the way to a download.

Hot Image Your PC's Hard Drive with DriveImage XML | Lifehacker Australia

free utility DriveImage XML can save a full, working snapshot of your Windows hard drive while you work on it. When your PC crashes and burns or just slows down over time, the best insurance you can have is a mirror image of your operating system, complete with drivers, user settings, software applications, and documents in one place.

Ex-AT&T employee: NSA snooping Internet traffic too

In addition to listening in on phone calls, the National Security Agency has also been monitoring the Internet traffic of US residents, according to a retired AT&T engineer. Whistleblower and ex-AT&T employee Mark Klein said that the telecom has been diverting IP traffic to a secret NSA listening room in San Francisco.

Infringement in perspective: major movie bust fine dwarfed by RIAA tab

If a woman found to have shared 24 songs over KaZaA was ordered to pay $9,250 for each track, what do you think an appropriate fine for uploading the first copy of The Simpsons Movie to the Internet? According to an Australian magistrate, AUS$1,000, or about US$890.

U R SUED: Patent holding company targets 131 companies over SMS patents

Sometimes, it seems as if licensing and patent holding companies are holding a secret contest between themselves to see who can pack in the most defendants into a patent lawsuit. Technology Patents LLC may be the new champion for suing 131 companies worldwide—the list goes on and on, naming companies like Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile, Telstra, AT&T, Cincinnati Bell, Motorola, Microsoft, Helio, Taiwan Mobile, O2, Rogers Wireless, China Resources Peoples Telephone Company, Yahoo, Sprint, and everyone in between. The company and its founder, Aris Mardirossian, are suing over what he believes to be infringement on two of his patents that address international text messaging.

Judge tosses options backdating lawsuit by Apple shareholders

back in January, Apple shareholders (including the New York City Employees' Retirement System) filed a class action suit against Apple. They alleged that the backdating of stock options violated securities laws, misled shareholders, and caused shares of AAPL to decline in value. Judge Jeremy Fogel issued his ruling yesterday, in which he granted Apple's motion to dismiss the case.

Setback for wiretapping plaintiffs bodes well for EFF class action

A federal appeals court has dealt a setback to plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the NSA's warrantless surveillance program, ruling that the state secrets privilege precludes the use of evidence gleaned from a classified document inadvertently given to a Muslim charity accused of terrorist ties. But in a hopeful sign for the Electronic Frontier Foundation's pending class action lawsuit against AT&T, the three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit took a dim view of the government's broader claim that the very existence of the so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program was a state secret.

RIAA told to show cause why .edu subpoenas shouldn't be quashed

A federal judge in Washington, DC, has handed the RIAA another setback in its campaign against on-campus file-sharing. In Arista v. Does 1-19, a case brought against 19 George Washington University students by the Big Four record labels, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has ordered the RIAA to show cause why the ex parte subpoenas issued to GWU shouldn't be quashed.

EFF, others ask Supreme Court to reinstate "patent exhaustion doctrine"

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Consumers Union, and Public Knowledge have joined forces and filed an amicus brief (PDF) in a pending Supreme Court case that could help set limits on the number of times in a single supply chain that a patent holder can profit from its patents.

Overly-broad copyright law has made USA a "nation of infringers"

How many copyright violations does an average user commit in a single day? John Tehranian, a law professor at the University of Utah, calculates in a new paper that he rings up $12.45 million in liability (PDF) over the course of an average day. The gap between what the law allows and what social norms permit is so great now that "we are, technically speaking, a nation of infringers."

T-Mobile forced to sell unlocked iPhones in Germany

T-Mobile Germany announced this morning that it would begin selling iPhones without a contract or a SIM lock that would restrict the device to its network. Those SIM-unlocked iPhones will be available starting today, in fact, but they won't run cheap. T-Mobile is selling them for €999 (just under US$1,500).

The insanity of France's anti-file-sharing plan: L'État, c'est IFPI

It's hard to engage in file-sharing if you don't have any Internet access. That's the threat behind a new memorandum of understanding between the government, ISPs, and Big Content in France that would see repeat P2P infringers lose their Internet connections. In exchange, the French music industry would make its French-language archive freely available available sans DRM. In addition, DVDs would be on store shelves within six months of a film's theatrical release, instead of the current seven and a half months.

Microsoft criticizes "Vista Capable" plaintiffs for focus on tiny sticker

The plaintiffs claim that the entire "Windows Vista Capable" program was little more than a marketing campaign designed to keep profits high during the transition from XP to Vista. The "Windows Vista Capable" sticker told consumers that "their soon-to-be-obsolete XP PCs were 'Windows Vista Capable' state-of-the-art," said the class action request.

Google launches custom search - Internet - www.itnews.com.au

The Google Custom Search Platform, which allows organisations to add Google search functionality to their web sites is now available internationally.

The new downloadable search platform will be less expensive and simpler to obtain than the search product currently supplied by Google, the plug-in appliance, which was launched in April 2006, according to the firm. The Custom Search Platform is also purely for websites, whereas the Google Search Appliance can index documents held internally by firms.

Google-mobiles start snapping Aussie cities - Internet - www.itnews.com.au

Camera-shy pedestrians should be advised to stay indoors this summer as a fleet of Google-mobiles equipped with roof-mounted cameras trawl Australian capital cities snapping locales for the Internet search giant’s Google Street View.

The cars will be doing the rounds in Australian capital cities, taking 360 degree panoramic street-level photographs to be used on Google Maps’ Street View feature.

How your creepy ex-co-workers will kill Facebook - Internet - www.itnews.com.au

Cory Doctorow describes how Facebook and other social networks have built-in self-destructs: They make it easy for you to be found by the people you're looking to avoid.

Digg - How a Computer for the Poor Got Stomped by Tech Giants

From its inception, One Laptop Per Child posed a threat to the personal-computing dominance of software giant Microsoft and chip maker Intel. The team (drawn from MIT) designed a machine that didn't use Windows or Intel chips

Digg - Zune 2.1 firmware available now!

Are you one of the many who snagged an el cheapo, first generation Zune 30GB off of Woot or a big box fire sale? Or -- gasp -- paid full price? Good, the moment you've been waiting for has arrived. All the new features and interface bumps of your second generation peers are just a click away

Split personalties: new hypervisor/flash combos mean an OS is just one way to boot

Let's call it the "widgetification" of the computer: with a suitably-sized chunk of flash memory, you can instantly boot a stateless, safe machine that connects directly to a network and provides a fixed suite of task-specific functions—web browsing, media playback, VoIP, or even the execution of a specific HPC kernel. So you could say that in the recent rash of embedded hypervisor announcements we're seeing the rise of the computer-as-multifunction-widget, to revisit the widget vs. platform dichotomy

Merlin Mann's productivity talk at IDEO - Boing Boing

Productivity guy Merlin Mann did a great presentation for IDEO, a great design shop. He talks about how to regulate the technological systems in your life, and how to get the people around you to play along

Broken DRM scheme: $45 million; trampling fair use: priceless

Macrovision, the DRM firm perhaps best known recently for creating security holes in Windows with its SafeDisc DRM, has purchased the intellectual property surrounding the BD+ DRM scheme used by Blu-ray to thwart attempts at copying. For $45 million, Macrovision will get ownership of the Self-Protecting Digital Content (SPDC) technology that forms the basis for BD+ as well as associated patents owned by Cryptography Research.

UK retailers to record labels: DRM is killing us

In response to declining music sales in the UK, the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) has called for the music industry to put an end to DRM. The organization—which represents retailers who sell music and DVDs—blames draconian digital copy protection technologies for the slow growth of the digital music market.

Big Content asks presidential candidates for more restrictive copyright laws

The Copyright Alliance, which counts the MPAA and RIAA amongst its members, has sent letters and questionnaires to presidential candidates in an effort to determine where they stand on issues relating to intellectual property law. In a copy of the letter seen by Ars, Copyright Alliance executive director Patrick Ross says he speaks "on behalf of the 11 million Americans employed in the creative industries," and asserts that piracy reduction is essential.

Nokia N810: unboxing and first impressions

The N810 is a bit smaller than the N800, which makes it more comfortable to use and easier to tote around in a pocket.

Pirate Bay laughs off three-pronged legal assault

The Pirate Bay faces three separate legal challenges this holiday season, though site administrators tell Ars that they're not worried by any of the pending cases. A Swedish prosecutor wants to take down the site, though, and Prince has set his lawyers on the same task.

Microsoft "learning" from WGA failures, but the lesson should be: kill it

The introduction of Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) anti-piracy program was met with emotions ranging from indifference to outright anger by legitimate Windows users. Certainly those who were falsely accused of pirating Windows had something to be upset about, as did the people who suffered from the service being unavailable earlier this year. Even those that have not been caught in the WGA snare are uncomfortable with it: the idea of a low-level system process watching your system for signs of piracy so it can reduce the functionality of your system is just a little Orwellian.

What does the Microsoft "partnership" with Facebook mean for users? | Linux Journal

Here's the key fact: Facebook's users are not its customers. They're the targets to which Facebook's customers aim advertising. In old media this was no big deal. But Facebook isn't just a "medium". It's a vast walled garden where the social activity of members and visitors constantly improves the ability of advertisers to "target" both.

This is a Good Thing only if it works for everybody — including both those targeted as well as those doing the targeting. And if users are actually involved, they have some important questions:

* What happens to my identity-related information?
* How is it used, and by whom?
* How much control do I have over my data (or data about myself) — including what Facebook "partners" do with that data?

Jeremiah Owyang visits these questions in his latest post, How Microsoft got their Passport after all.

Google preps magic GDrive | The Register

The GDrive rumors have resurfaced. This morning, The Wall Street Journal reported that Google is preparing an online storage service capable of housing all the files you now store on your very own hard drive.

According to The Journal, the service could allow access from both PCs and mobile phones, and it could be released "a few months from now."

Power-hungry Google launches green energy scheme - Technology - theage.com.au

Google is expanding into alternative energy in its most ambitious effort yet to ease the environmental strain caused by the company's voracious appetite for power to run its massive computing centres.

Why is the iPlayer a multi million pound disaster? | The Register

The story of the BBC's iPlayer is of a multi-million pound failure that took years to complete, and was designed for a world that never arrived. More was spent on the project than many Silicon Valley startups ever burn through, but only now can we begin to piece together how this disaster unfolded.

When the iPlayer was commissioned in 2003, it was just one baffling part of an ambitious £130m effort to digitise the Corporation's broadcasting and archive infrastructure. It's an often lamented fact that the BBC wiped hundreds of 1960s episodes of its era-defining music show Top of the Pops, including early Beatles performances, and many other popular programmes.

The scope of the restructure was welcomed: it would be hard for anyone who values the BBC's place in society to argue against preserving and making available the huge investment in quality programming by licence fee payers over the last 50 years.

The iPlayer was envisaged as the flagship internet "delivery platform". It would dole out this national treasure to us in a controlled manner, it was promised, and fire a revolution in how Big TV works online.

Byte Into It - 21 Nov 07

Social Television Links

• operator11.com


• justin.tv


• kyte.tv

ABC mobile phone application for election results

• abc.net.au/mobile

Twine: The First Mainstream Semantic Web App?

described as a "knowledge networking" application. It has aspects of social networking, wikis, blogging, knowledge management systems - but its defining feature is that it's built with Semantic Web technologies.The aim of Twine is to enable people to share knowledge and information. At first glance it is very much like Wikipedia, but there is a whole lot more smarts to the system.It's not based around socializing, but to share and organize information you're interested in. Using Twine, you can add content via wiki functionality (there are many post types), you can email content into the system, and "collect" something (as an object, e.g. a book object).

Twine

Use Twine to better leverage and contribute to the collective intelligence of your friends, colleagues, groups and teams. Twine ties it all together.

Blu-ray’s DRM crown jewel tarnished with crack of BD+

One advantage that backers of Blu-ray have touted in the format battle with HD DVD is its extra helping of "unbreakable" DRM called BD+. It's not unbreakable after all. SlySoft, makers of AnyDVD, have released a new beta of their AnyDVD HD disc ripping application that it claims can successfully crack and rip Blu-ray discs protected by BD+.

Paramount and Warner Bros. market $3 DVDs in China

Paramount has become the newest movie studio to make efforts to compete with pirates by offering low-cost, legitimate DVDs in China. New movie titles will go on sale some two months after their theater debut in the US, and for only $3. Paramount will also be joining forces with an unlikely partner in order to combat piracy: competitor Warner Bros., which already has outlets set up in China to sell DVDs.

Networks want to nobble ad-skipping - Technology - theage.com.au

The free-to-air television industry has declared war on ad-skipping personal video recorders as it prepares to release a free electronic program guide for the first time. Despite releasing the guide, the industry is pressuring PVR makers to limit the advertisement-skipping functions of their products before they are authorised to access it. The networks have threatened legal action under Australian copyright law, but manufacturers say Australia-specific modifications to the advertisement-skipping features would not be possible as their products are made for global markets.

Slashdot | 90% of IT Professionals Don't Want Vista

A survey by King Research has found that Ninety percent of IT professionals have concerns using Vista, with compatibility, stability and cost being their key reasons. Interestingly, forty four percent of companies surveyed are considering switching to non-Windows operating systems, and nine percent of those have already started moving to their selected alternative. "The concerns about Vista specified by participants were overwhelmingly related to stability. Stability in general was frequently cited, as well as compatibility with the business software that would need to run on Vista," said Diane Hagglund of King Research.

Virtual Visa cards for secure online shopping | Lifehacker Australia

For those wary of using their credit card online, our mates at Gizmodo AU have written up the new Visa Virtual Prepaid (VCARD) - which works as a virtual debit card. You buy a card of the value you want (with a $5.50 set up fee) - and if you want, you only have to use it once and then ditch it.

Microsoft Launches Windows Live Domain Apps | Lifehacker Australia

Microsoft has quietly launched a free for-your-domain apps suite, Windows Live Community Builder, that offers a number of Windows Live services customised for domain owners, including Live Mail, photo sharing, calendars, the LiveDrive online storage app and more. The services offered indicate a clear attempt to match up with Google Apps, but users of Windows Live and other Microsoft applications may be to get more out of this suite—alerts, central contact lists, the "Spaces" page builder and other features. The Live Community Builder requires a free sign-up and a registered domain name.

Monitor Application Usage with RescueTime | Lifehacker Australia

Windows and Mac only: Monitor your computer activity easily and efficiently with freeware application RescueTime. Just install the application and let it run in the background so that it can capture data for your online activity and application usage, then check the dashboard and view graphs and charts about your habits. Beyond the rich set of analytics provided, RescueTime also knows when you're away and will not collect any data during that time. If you really want to know how you're spending your time while you're "working," RescueTime is a solid choice. RescueTime is a freeware application for Windows and Mac, requires a free registration to download.

Give or get tech support at Fixya | Lifehacker Australia

In beta at the moment, Fixya is aiming to be a one-stop-shop for people seeking tech support, user guides and repair guides for products from a range of vendors. Rather than a tech support business, Fixya is designed as a community, where users provide both the questions and the answers. You can browse the database of already answered questions, or pose your own question to the community of registered experts. Experts are users who have registered with the site and nominated their own area of expertise. They can post answers to the site, or help users directly via online chat. The success of a site like this will be in attracting knowledgable people who can provide decent answers to user questions. The site encourages people to sign up and answer questions by paying them. It's not a huge amount, a few bucks per answer posted to the site. I noticed that the Top Expert on the site has already racked up 300 solved problems, so the incentive scheme seems to be working to attract problem solvers to the site.

Ditch Your Taskbar for Minimised Thumbnails with miniMize | Lifehacker Australia

Windows only: Freeware application miniMize creates thumbnail images of your minimised application on your desktop, providing an interesting and customisable alternative to the Windows taskbar. Similar to previously mentioned ThumbWin, miniMize boasts virtually all of the same features in addition to an arguably improved interface. If thumbnails on the desktop sound to you like clutter, miniMize won't be for you. If you like the idea of ditching your taskbar for minimised thumbnails, miniMize or ThumbWin should do the job. miniMize is freeware, Windows only.

iiNet cuts the cord and delivers nation-wide Naked DSL - Telecommunications - www.itnews.com.au

iiNet has unveiled its long awaited and Australia’s first nation-wide Naked DSL broadband service which eliminates the need to pay telephone line rental for ADSL2+ internet access. iiNet's Naked DSL offering has been positioned for both home and business users and is bundled with the ISP’s iiTalk VOIP product, allowing customers to retain their existing phone number. The bundle offers free local and national phone calls over the VoIP service. It is worth noting that upload traffic appears to be counted as part of your monthly limit.

Internet could face meltdown by 2010 - Internet - www.itnews.com.au

The internet could suffer drastic slowdown by 2010 as the sheer scale of data carried exceeds the ability of the network to handle it. Analyst house Nemertes Research Group has spent the last year analysing both data flows over the internet and the core infrastructure that carries it and concluded that in three to five years serious bottlenecks will occur. "Our findings indicate that although core fiber and switching/routing resources will scale nicely to support virtually any conceivable user demand, internet access infrastructure, specifically in North America, will likely cease to be adequate for supporting demand within the next three to five years," reads the report, 'The internet singularity, delayed.' "We estimate the financial investment required by access providers to “bridge the gap” between demand and capacity ranges from $42bn to $55bn, or roughly 60 – 70 per cent more than service providers currently plan to invest."

BBC NEWS | Technology | Warning over net address limits

Internet Service Providers urgently need to roll out the next generation of net addresses for online devices, internet pioneer Vint Cerf has said. Every device that goes online is allocated a unique IP address but the pool of numbers is finite and due to run out around 2010. A new system, called IPv6, has been awaiting roll out for 10 years. Unless IPv6 is switched on in the coming years, some devices might not be able to go online, Mr Cerf has warned.

Search: Find Anything Online with Search Operators

Search operators—those commands that engines use to narrow down what you're looking for—are pretty useful. The HybridSEM weblog goes into extreme detail about the various search operators that work for Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Looking for a video on MSN about monsters? Use the feature:video monsters operator. If you're a searchaholic, this guide comes in pretty handy, and you'll certainly learn a thing or two about how to find things more easily on the 'net.

Featured Firefox Extension: Save a Link for Later with Read It Later

Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox): Keep track of your daily to-read list with the Read it Later Firefox extension. Similar to previously mentioned Readeroo—which integrates directly with Del.icio.us—Read it Later takes a slightly different approach, keeping your reading list local until you read it and decide whether or not you want to bookmark it. If you do, you have the option to bookmark on any number of popular bookmarking sites, from Del.icio.us to Digg. The drawback is that Read it Later doesn't currently sync across browsers, which would be a nice touch. Read it Later is free, works wherever Firefox does

Miro 1.0: the free and open future of video on the net - Boing Boing

Miro, the open and free video player, has gone 1.0, and launched in a polished, slick package for Windows, Linux and MacOS. Miro (formerly Democracy Player) is the open and free alternative to Joost, Windows Media Player and iTunes for getting, watching and organizing your video. In place of DRM and proprietary formats, Miro uses the VLC video-engine to play practically every video format under the sun. It has over 2,700 channels of free content (and does extensive outreach to indie creators to get their material front-and-center in Miro's excellent channel-guide). And it uses BitTorrent to download, which means that the creators you love won't get clobbered by bandwidth bills when their videos get popular.

Daily Show writer explains writers' strike -- if digital content isn't worth anything, how come Viacom is suing YouTube for $1 billion? - Boing Boing

In this youtube, Daily Show writer Jason Rothman delivers an hilarious monologue about the Writers' Guild strike against the studios, who claim that they can't compensate writers for digital media because no one knows how much this stuff is worth. The clip delivers a Daily Show-style montage of coverage from the $1 billion+ Viacom lawsuit against YouTube, including clips of Viacom's CEO talking about how digital content is worth tons of money and getting paid is the name of the game. The clip includes a nice guest appearance from Daily Show correspondents, too.

Obama's innovation plan a Christmas list for the geekerati—analysis

Barack Obama's campaign has now released a relatively comprehensive and extremely ambitious technology document (PDF) that lays out a whole slew of general and specific proposals for doing everything from reforming the patent system to implementing a national broadband policy. In releasing this "technology and innovation plan,"

Digg - Opera Mini 4 released

After three beta releases Opera Mini 4 is finally here!

HOWTO Use Creative Commons licenses - Boing Boing

"Creative Commons" explains the fundamentals of using CC licenses for people who are interested in the idea but haven't tried it yet.

Slashdot | Wikipedia Begets Veropedia

"October saw the launch of Veropedia, a collaborative effort to collect the best of Wikipedia's content, clean it up, vet it, and save it in a quality stable version that cannot be edited. To qualify for inclusion in Veropedia, a Wikipedia article must contain no cleanup tags, no "citation needed" tags, no disambiguation links, no dead external links, and no fair use images after which candidates for inclusion are reviewed by recognized academics and experts. One big difference with Wikipedia is that Veropedia is registered as a for profit corporation and earns money from advertising on the site. Veropedia is supposed to help improve the quality of Wikipedia because contributors must improve an article on Wikipedia, fixing up all the flaws, until a quality version can be imported to Veropedia. To date Veropedia contains about 3,800 articles."

Flashback | Lifehacker Australia

You love to read the Wikipedia, but do you write it?

Digg - Electronics + YouTube = Engineer Resource [Google Ajax API]

Your Electronics Open Source blog, used the new Google Ajax API to make an electronics project video-page. The Electronics Engineer can bookmark this page, and everyone can grab this idea (code) to insert video-related content in own Blog.

laptop TV | Lifehacker Australia

CNET reporter Elinor Mills has a computer but no TV and runs down how she watches television on the laptop on the cheap. See also "6 ways to catch your favourite TV shows online".

FileMaker diversifies, offering yet another OS X personal database app

FileMaker has launched a brand-new product, called Bento, which is being billed as an easy-to-use "information manager" that will use databases to store all of your bits and pieces. The new application includes lots of templates and themes for organizing all different types of information, and also allows users to easily customize the various templates and displays. Actually, the applications looks much more like something that Apple itself would release, three-pane interface and all. If you'd like to play with Bento, FileMaker has already released a preview version of the application, and says that the full version is expected to launch of January or February. Both the beta and the final version are Leopard-only, since they use Core Animation as well as other Leopard tricks.

Mac OS X 10.4.11 lands, along with iPhoto 7.1.1

The latest update to Mac OS X Tiger, 10.4.11, was finally released this afternoon at a medium-hefty ~130MB for Intel users (just under 70MB for PPC). The update includes a long list of improvements that affect both PowerPC and Intel users.

Check Software Update: 10.5.1 is upon us

Mac OS X 10.5.1 should be appearing in Software Update shortly, bringing a whole slew of improvements. Here's a brief rundown of what's covered: * Password-protected AirPort disks now show up in the Finder sidebar, and an issue with saved passwords for wireless networks is resolved * Back to My Mac reliability improvements * Tweaks to Disk Utility, including improvements to disk partitioning when multiple RAID sets are created on the same drive * Tweaks and fixes for iCal and Mail * Fixes a bug where Windows shared folders are sometimes read-only over SMB * Printing and security fixes * Time Machine tweaks

Top 10 Quicksilver Plug-ins | Lifehacker Australia

check out top 10 favourite Quicksilver plug-ins, and how to set them up.

Digg - Terminal Codes for Leopard Tweaking

Beautify your Leopard with single liner terminal codes.

Digg - Top 15 Leopard Hints

It’s been almost a month since Leopard was officially released, and in that month we’ve had some time to play with the OS and get to know it.

Batch Process Images with Photo Drop | Lifehacker Australia

Mac OS X only: Resize, rotate or convert multiple digital images at once with Photo Drop, a small utility that creates programmable image editing droplets. Launch Photo Drop and set the actions you want to perform, like rotating, padding, cropping, resizing, resampling or adding copyright or other meta info and save your droplet. Then, drag and drop any number of images onto the droplet, which processes them and saves them. Great for making high-res digital photos fit for email, watermarking your stuff or resizing a group of images for your blog, Photo Drop is a free download (donations encouraged) for Mac only.

http://macapper.com/2007/11/17/dockulicious-customize-your-dock-in-a-jiffy/

http://macapper.com/2007/11/17/tip-stack-your-recent-items-in-leopard/

http://macapper.com/2007/11/18/imagewell-33-leopard-ilife-08-compatible/

http://macapper.com/2007/11/15/seashore-freeware-image-editing-for-mac/

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