Archive for the ‘Technology Reviews’ Category

Well it looks like Apple finally took the plunge and as of Version 3, the famous Mac browser is now available for Windows XP and Windows Vista.  I took the liberty of installing it on both my work computer and home laptop and must say that it works pretty well on Windows.

Although I love Macs and Safari is the default Mac browser, I’m a FireFox user and have no real reason to change that, so I don’t see Safari being used very often if at all.

The interface is nice and clean like it’s always been, and Safari is a very quick browser that takes up very little resources.  One thing that I’ve been complaining about and that really annoys me is when I’m on a webpage and wanting to go to a new one and click on the address bar for the first time it doesn’t highlight the entire address like it does in FireFox and Internet Explorer.  Just a small annoyance, but an annoyance nonetheless.

You can download the new beta today and check it out, who knows, maybe you’ll like it.

As most of you already know the iPhone is slated to be released June 20th in the United States, which means that Apple has some new television ads that really make me want one now!

Just recently Windows has released a Beta 2 version of it’s Windows Live Writer, and all I can say is that it’s about damn time.  When Windows Live Writer was initially released I really enjoyed the idea of being able to blog while not having to actually go to my site to do it, don’t get my wrong I don’t mind going to my site and blogging but sometimes it’s just easily to load a nice sleek program and do it there.

I used Live Writer for a few weeks and the fact that it was in beta kept coming back to haunt me with multiple problems including how images were uploaded into my blog posts, but after testing the Beta 2 version for the last few days I’m definitely back on the Live Write band wagon.

The application looks much nicer than it’s predecessor with the typical gradients of Windows Live, and has a plethora of brand new features that will make your blogging experience 100% enjoyable.

New Authoring Capabilities

• Inline spell checking
• Table editing
• Ability to add categories
• Page authoring for WordPress and TypePad
• Support for excerpts and extended entries
• Improved hyperlinking and image insertion
• Paste Special

Integration and Compatibility

• SharePoint 2007 support
• New APIs enabling custom extensions by weblog providers
• Automatic synchronization of local and online edits
• Integration with Windows Live Gallery
• Support for Blogger Labels

Plus…

• New look and feel
• Available in 6 languages
• Improved accessibility and keyboard support
• Many other frequently requested enhancements!

Agreeing with the majority of what I’ve seen thus far the inline spell checking is and absolute godsend and truly makes my life so much easier (Yes, I use FireFox so it has inline spell checking anyway, but as I’ve said before, I don’t always like to load up my browser to make a blog post).

GigaTribe, also known as TribalWeb, is a peer 2 peer desktop application that allows you to setup and share files and folders with your friends in a completely safe and secure environment. All you need to do is is have the software installed, both users, and you can add as many friends as you’d like to be able to share with. You can then setup what folders you’d like to share with your friends and they can then browse through those files and download any that they’d like. Due to the fact that the software is P2P there is currently no limit on file sizes which makes this a great alternative for things such as instant messengers, but keep in mind that without the premium version you can only download one file at a time, which for the most part shouldn’t effect you too much.

As I stated previously the transfers are completely secure using 128-bit blowfish encryption which means that no one can snoop around and see what you’re transferring. Also, only the people that you have invited to your list can see and browse your files, leaving you with the peace of mind knowing your privacy is safe.

The software itself was incredibly easy to install and setup that only took me about 2 minutes from the initial install until the program was actually running. The only thing that I would keep in mind when installing software like this is that you may need to port-forward your router to your local IP, if you have a router of course. The software does it’s best to take care of this for but may or may not get things right, but even if it doesn’t it allows you to either set your own port to use, or use the default port which is displayed in clear view.

What I really liked to see after the program start up was an initial test user that I could easily add and learn the functionality and interface before using it for the first time with an actual human being which saved me a lot of stupid mistakes. You can easily setup individual groups in which you set separate permissions for each user, just in case you need to prohibit file downloads/views to only certain users (This feature can be great in an office environment). Even more, you can password protect shares for even more security (Available in the Premium Version only).

Chatting with your friends is also a great function that all P2P programs should have, and GigaTribe is no exception. Overall I’m really impressed with this software and as a gift from GigaTribe from all of you devoted Super Justin.com users we’re offering 5 Free Premium Licenses! All you need to do is comment on this post with the username you used to signup for the product and we’ll get your upgraded right away. For more information on what you get with a Premium License you can check that out here.

Only with a Premium License can you get multi-source downloads which search other users on your friends list for the file you’re trying to download so you’re able to download simultaneously from two different clients.

We’ve all heard or even read one of the many O’Reilly Publishings, and now we can experience them like never before. The O’Reilly School of Technology has just opened up and offers many different courses and certificates to choose from for any level of learner.

The courses range from HTML/CSS all the way up to .Net and C#, with some Javascript, PHP, C, and VBscript in between, not to mention that’s only a portion of what is offered. Each course is 40 hours of work, and range from $298 USD to $498 USD for the more sophisticated languages. You can also bundle similiar courses together for a small discount and earn a certificate in that specified area.

O’Reilly has a great reputation behind them and this was an obvious step for them to take in offering online schooling to the masses, which is not only ingenious but quite affordable for them to do. Also, if your in the Illinois area, the University of Illinois and the O’Reilly School of Technology have partnered up to offer the Certificate of Professional Development by taking specific courses. This is a great opportunity for people that are out of school and want to refresh themselves in different areas.

I wouldn’t recommend this type of thing as a replacement for a local university or college which can often times be better for you.

Skype released version 3.0 today.

Not much has changed accept for some interface changes, that really do spice it up.  Skype is a great program that has really revolutionized the idea of VOIP as well as internet communication.

I use it for family in different provinces, and it’s great for business communication for long distance communication.

Calling PC to PC is free, and with only small fees to call mobile and landline phones.  You can also purchase a phone number so that people can call you from mobile phones and landline phones.

The one thing that I really dislike about WinXP is the fact that customization is really inhibited unless you use third party software such as Windows Blinds or StyleXP, so when new WinXP themes are released directly from Microsoft, it excites me a tad.

To go along with the launch of the Zune Microsoft has put together a Zune WinXP Theme, that I must say looks pretty friggin good.

The theme is Black with Orange as it’s accent color, and looks amazing in my opinion.  I aways switched between the standard Blue/Green template and the Olive color, but I think I’ll stick with this one.

It comes with a background of a crowd at an event, but I took that off and replaced it with something that I would actually like looking at :). 

Wellm I’d like to start off by wishing a very Happy Birthday to Email!  That’s right Email is now 35 years old and going pretty darn strong.  The first email was sent out in late 1971, but unfortunately no one remembers what it was about.  I’m sure it wasn’t anything important, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was spam :).

The Wii was released last Monday so it’s been 8 days for people around the world to test out the next-gen system that really made Nintendo a front runner for console sales atop Microsoft and Sony.  It’s only been 8 days with the new Wii-mote and people are already complaining about how out of shape they are :).

According to some people that have been enjoying the gameplay of the Wii and the action packed games that require to physical activity, they have been experiencing muscle aches, well, because they are so gosh darn out of shape.

This just goes to show how North American’s are so out of shape.  But this also brings up another point.  Will the Wii help most people as it does seem to provide some Cardiovascular activity?  This would be an interesting thought and we’ll have to wait to see what type of physical gain one can expect from the Wii.

Microsoft has released a preview for it’s new photosynth technology.  Due to the fact that it’s only a technical preview, not even in beta yet, some computers might not run it properly as some hardware may not be supported yet.  The site itself only works in Internet Explorer after a certain point…go figure.

The idea behind photosynth is quite ingenious and my hats off to Microsoft on this one, although I’m sure the idea has been introduced and implemented before, this is Microsoft we’re talking about here so it’s probably either gonna really suck, or be really awesome.  I’m hoping the latter.  Back to the idea, basically it’s taking a large collection of images of a place or an object and finding the similarities between each one,  then it reconstructs the image into a three-dimensional space…How F’ing cool is that.

This is taken directly from the Photosynth site:

With Photosynth you can:

• Walk or fly through a scene to see photos from any angle.
• Seamlessly zoom in or out of a photo whether it’s megapixels or gigapixels in size.
• See where pictures were taken in relation to one another.
• Find similar photos to the one you’re currently viewing.
• Send a collection - or a particular view of one - to a friend.

Alright so as most of you already know the Playstation 3 was officially released yesterday all accross North America. 

My apartment just happens to be located right behind the local Walmart, so as you can imagine there was a lineup outside on Thursday night to be the first in on Friday morning.  The funny thing was that they only had 2 for the release!  I live in PEI, Canada so the demand got pushed back a bit and most stores only had about 2 - 3 in stock for the release.

I can just imagine what it was like Friday morning with everyone running to try to get one and only 2 being available, I giggled a little bit inside when I found out

Did any of you pick one up?  How is the gameplay?

I usually don’t post gadgetry, but I felt that this deserved it.  I just bought a new digital camera as I was wanting to start taking pictures at gatherings and such, and I found this quite cheap camera for $185.99 CAD + tax, it’s the Canon Powershot A430.  It’s the lowest in Canon’s A-series, and I really have to say if this is the lowest module in the series than I can’t even imagine how good the other modules could be.

The quality is truly amazing, and the camera itself is chalk full of the best features you could ever ask for.  If anyone is looking for a cheap digital camera, without giving up the quality, get this camera, it’s amazing.

Check out my pictures: www.justinpics.com