Archive for February, 2009
Posted by Admin on February 25, 2009 at 18:32 pm
Yesterday Apple released the new Safari 4 Beta, I downloaded it and tested it out. So far I love it, the browser is really fast and look and feel of it is really nice. Apple have added many new features like “Top Sites”, Browsing your history in coverflow, and tabs are now on the top of the window. Let me get into detail about the new features in the Safari 4 Beta.
Once you launch the browser you are greeted with a new page called “Top Sites”, it shows your most visited websites in a nice interface. If you wish to add websites yourself then just open two Safari windows (one with Top Sites open and the other with the website you wish to add) click edit on the Top Sites page then just drag and drop the favicon (little icon next to URL) into Top Sites. That’s it, it’s that easy. You can also change the size of the thumbnails by clicking edit and selecting small, medium, or large. You can also search your history from the Top Sites page. When you search your results will show up in coverflow right inside Safari!
Like I said when searching history it will show you the results in coverflow, but that’s not it. If you open your Bookmarks you will see that all of you bookmarks have thumbnails (the thumbnail is a screenshot of the website). Coverflow works exactly like coverflow in iTunes or Finder just like we would expect.
Something most people don’t like about the new Safari 4 Beta is the tabs. The tabs are now on the top, here is a screenshot so you can see what I mean:
I personally don’t mind the tabs up there because I know that will get used to them. This also saves some space for the webpages that you are viewing. If you absolutely hate the tabs at the top you can reverse that by opening Terminal on a Mac and typing this in:
defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4TabBarIsOnTop -bool NO
Done. Now your tabs are back the way they were in Safari 3, if you want to change it back to the original just type the same thing but instead of NO change it to YES.
My default browser is now Safari 4 (Beta). I used to use FireFox but I really think Safari 4 is better and faster. Keep in mind this is still the Beta version so you might find some bugs. If you do report them to Apple, there is a built in Report a Bug button in the toolbar in Safari 4. Let me know what you guys think of Safari 4, did you switch? How do you like the new features? To download the Safari 4 Beta just click the button below!
Posted by Admin on February 22, 2009 at 10:21 am
I got an e-mail the other day asking how I made the Toolbar page on the site link to the download page of the toolbar. If you don’t know what I mean click the Toolbar button and you will see. I thought this might help out some of you, so I decided to make a blog post and not just reply to the e-mail.
By default Wordpress doesn’t have the option to link a Wordpress page you create via the Wordpress dashboard to an external URL, meaning a website anywhere on the web. This is very useful if you want to link to let’s say your twitter or youtube and you don’t want to make a page with a link in it but you want the button to just link to that page. This is very easy to do with a Wordpress plug- in that you can download and install on your blog, this plug-in is called “Page Links to”.
Download “Page Links to” here
Once you install and activate this plug-in all you have to do is make a page from your Wordpress dashboard and under the text box you should have a new tab at the very bottom titled “Page Links to” click to expand it and just type in the URL of the website you want the page to link to, don’t forget the http:// or it will NOT work. That’s it now the button will link to the URL of your choice.
Here are just step by step instructions I found on the developer’s website:
- Upgrade to WordPress 2.6 or higher
- Upload
page-links-to.php to your /wp-content/plugins/ directory
- Activate the “Page Links To” plugin in your WordPress administration interface
- Create (or edit) a page to have a title of your choosing, and a parent page of your choosing (leave the content blank — it won’t be used)
- Down below, find the Page Links To meta box and add the URL you’d like it to link to
Posted by Admin on February 17, 2009 at 17:59 pm
Yes they are, the Switcheasy rebel essentials are now available on Switcheasy’s website. If you own a rebel, or rebel touch for your iPhone 3G or iPod Touch 2G then you might want to take a look at this new product.
Do you love your rebel? Have you ever wished you can have all the colors? Well now you can without spending nearly as much cash. A rebel essential is the “back bone” of your rebel, you can order more in different colors to change them from time to time. Or if you are in a situation where that piece snaps then you can just order a new one for only $4.99. They come in 5 different colors and they are, black, white, red, orange, and purple.
To order one of the Rebel Essentials for your iPod touch 2G or iPhone 3G, you can visit Switcheasy’s website/store here. I think Switheasy will add more colors later on, when they do I will let you guys know.
Posted by Ryan on February 15, 2009 at 19:10 pm
Do you think Jailbreaking should be illegal? Well Apple, Inc. thinks it should. They believe that when Jailbreaking you are violating what you allowed to do with the firmware of your devices. Many people are split between whether it is illegal or not. Another reason why many people believe that Apple has decided to do this is because of the amount of complaints from Developers of their apps being cracked, which you can only get through Jailbreaking your device. Smule, an App Store Developer alone has made a total of 3.9 million dollars of revenue from their apps after the 30% cut that Apple takes. Even if their apps may be cracked and being downloaded through a program called Installous by Hackulo.us. This is still a huge amount of money for a company to be making through an app in the App Store. I personally want to know where you stand in this controversy. Comment below with what you think the outcome of this situation should be.
Do you think Apple will come after the people who provide the tools for Jailbreaking? Will Apple come after people have downloaded cracked apps? Will Jailbreaking ever fully be considered Jailbreaking? How will Apple inforce this?
Posted by Admin on February 15, 2009 at 13:53 pm
What program do you use to capture video from your HDV or DV camcorder? I used to use my video editing
software, Premier Pro. But I had trouble with it, when I capture and then import the video to edit, the audio and video are out of sync. I googled the problem and saw many people had the same problem so I looked for an alternative to use just to capturing. I saw many people in forums referring to a piece of software called “HDV Split” so I downloaded it and gave it a try. Unfortunately the program is only for Windows as far as I know.
What I really like about HDV Split is that when capturing it splits the clips so it’s not just one long recording. It is a very simple application, very easy to use, and does exactly what it claims to do. Capture and split HDV and DV video. Just connect your camcorder via firewire, HDV Split will recognize it and you are ready to capture from your tape.
If you need a simple video capturing tool, then I highly recommend HDV Split. I use it to just capture the video form my Canon Vixia HV30 and then import the video into my editing software to edit. If you know any software like HDV Split for Mac, or anything that you think is better than HDV Split, just leave a comment and let us all know.
Download HDV Split here.
Posted by Admin on February 11, 2009 at 19:43 pm
You might have noticed that if you go to saltytech.com on your iPhone or iPod Touch it looks like you are in an iPhone app. This is because I am using a Word Press plug-in called WPtouch. Basically this plug-in optimizes your Word Press blog for the iPhone and the iPod Touch, it also speeds up the website. This is very handy when you are on EDGE or 3G on your iPhone. On the top of the web page you have a banner with the name of your blog and logo. The logo is customizable; just replace the home image in the images folder of the plug-in. To make your logo they include a .PSD template with all the effects to make your logo look “cool”, all you do is add an image. I used my favicon. If you don’t have Photoshop you can download the trial or use GIMP which is free and opens .PSD files.
To download GIMP click here.
The titles, tags, author, and categories of each blog post are displayed on the main page along with the publication date and the number of comments on the blog post. To read a “preview” of a post just tap the little arrow that’s next to the title. If you want to read the whole post just tap on the title and it will take you to the page with the full article, pictures, and comments. You can also comment on the posts yourself not just read them.
The plug-in features a search bar which you can show and hide by taping on the “Search” button at the top. It will search posts by tag and category, just like the regular Word Press search. There is also a menu button next to the Search button taping it will bring up a drop-down menu that you decide what’s in it. I have a RSS Feed button, e-mail button (Taping it opens Mail, to send the admin of the blog an e-mail), and I also have the Home button which just takes you to the Home page of the blog.
Here are some pictures of WPtouch in action:
If your visitor doesn’t like the way the website looks with this plug-in they can scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and just tap “Normal View”, this will load the blog the same way you see it on your computer.
That’s it, if you have a Word Press blog I highly recommend downloading and installing this plug-in. It will speed up your website a little, like I said this is great for 3G or EDGE users. And if your visitors don’t like the mobile look, remember they can always switch back to Normal View.
Download the latest version of WPtouch here.
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