Google has just released the latest and more stable release of its Chrome Browser for Windows PC.  This means that Chrome browser users will now have access to more than 1,500 extensions available at the Chrome browser extension gallery. Extensions, in case you’re not aware are just like Firefox’s add-ons or plug-ins.  It adds useful functionality to the Chrome browser. An example of Google Chrome extensions include notifications.

To locate extensions that might be useful, find them at the Chrome browser extension gallery and click install. The process runs quickly and before you know it, the extension is already on your Google Chrome browser.

In addition to extensions, the latest version of Google Chrome OS for Windows PC also has bookmark sync.  This feature allows you to sync your Google Chrome browser across all the computers you use, be it at home or in the office. More information can be found in this handy guide.

Other features that the latest release of of Google Chrome OS for PC include – integration of new HTML5 APIs such as LocalStorage, Database API and more.

And the new Google Chrome OS is faster as well and registers a significant 42% difference from last year.

When the Google Nexus One was released it was expected that the phone despite having a touchscreen feature would lack one importantant and most sought after functionality – full multitouch feature with gesture like pinch-and-zoom control. But of course, Google will not want to get into trouble and put the feature on the Nexus One since Apple has patented the technology. So, we have to contend with the “-” and “+” zoom control in the Nexus One.

But this didn’t stop the folks from XDA-Developers though and worked doubly hard as soon as they got hold of their Nexus One units and now has finally released a Nexus One add-on that would enable full multitouch gesture like pinch and zoom, on the phone’s native browser at least.

Sounds exciting right? While I don’t really know the merit of this thing, still some of you might want to try this one out. Be forwarned though the the procedures outlined by the XDA Developers might accidentally brick your Nexus One. So, exercise extreme caution.

In addition, the said Nexus One add-on requires rooting of your Nexus One first. As soon as you’ve settled with that, here are the steps on how to enable multitouch functionality on your Nexus One’s browser. Good luck!

Step 1: Follow the step by step guide posted here to root your Nexus One if you haven’t already.

Step 2: Download all the required files for Nexus One multitouch add-on from the source linkhere.

Step 3: Now simply add these files by running the following commands:

adb shell stop 
adb remount 
adb shell rm /system/app/Browser.odex 
adb push Browser.apk /system/app 
adb push com.cyanogenmod.android.jar /system/framework 
adb push com.cyanogenmod.android.xml /system/etc/permissions 
adb shell reboot

Step 4: That’s about it! Once your phone has rebooted, run the browser to try out all the multitouch goodness!

 

UStream, the same video service which made some significant ground-breaking feature earlier with the Avatar premiere and their New Year’s Eve  live coverage is offering yet again another new service. This time it’s a live video streaming format with specific featured performers.

But don’t get your hopes so high yet though, as this new service will be on a pay-per-view basis. Just like in any live performance acts, you need to purchase a ticket to be able to watch the shows on UStream’s Live Video platform. Ticket prices for UStream’s Live Video events will start from $5 and could possibly go higher depending on the featured acts.

To kick off the its new Live Video Platform, UStream is bringing in comedian Dane Cook with his stand-up routine entitled “ISolated INcident.” Tickets are available for $5 and the event  is happening on February 6, 6:30 p.m. EST.

Aside from being able to watch the whole show online, paying users will also get other freebies including the chance to chat with other fans right on the Live Video Platform itself. You can also ask Dane Cook questions as well as access some backstage content. All in all, UStream promises to bring in 5 hours of entertainment in exchange for your $5 bucks.

But this is just the start. UStream hopes to get some other big acts to be featured on their Live Video platform.

Interested?  you may grab your tickets to this gig by visiting this link.

 

Alright Firefox users,  the latest version of your favorite browser is officially out. Firefox 3.6 finally goes out into the open and brings with it some new cutting edge features including support for a wide variety of web standards as well as access to more than 6,000 free add-ons.

According to Mozilla, Firefox 3.6 is 20% faster than Firefox 3.5, thanks to extensive under the hood work that improved its performance when doing your daily web routine such as email, uplaoding photos, social networking and more. Firefox 3.6 also promises to deliver new features including customizable Persona themes, plugin updates, improved JavaScript performance and more.

From the users’ side, here are the new features that you should expect from Firefox 3.6:

• Personas: Personalize the look of your Firefox by selecting new themes called Personas in a single click and without a restart
• Plugin Updater: To keep you safe from potential security vulnerabilities, Firefox will now detect out of date plugins
• Stability improvements: Firefox 3.6 significantly decreased crashes caused by third party software – all without sacrificing our extensibility in any way
• Form Complete: When filling out an online form, Firefox suggests information for fields based on your common answers in similar field
• Performance: Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness, and startup time
• Open Video and Audio: With the world’s best implementation of HTML 5 audio and video support, now video can be displayed full screen and supports poster frames

If you’re a developer, here are the goodies for you:

• Support for the latest HTML5 specification, including the File API for local file handling
• Font Support: In addition to OpenType and TrueType fonts, 3.6 now supports the new Web Open Font Format (WOFF)
• CSS gradients: Supports linear and radial CSS gradients which allow for a smoother transition between colors
• Device orientation: Firefox 3.6 exposes the orientation of the laptop or device to Web pages

Alright, you know the drill, download Firefox 3.6 from here.

YouTube is currently testing out a new layout of its video page, a more simplified and streamline video page if I may say so – all for the hopes of offering the best possible watching experience to users. The new video page is currently on an opt-in  basis, but anyone can try it out even if their primary language is not English. However, all the elements in the video page will be in English.  Like any of its opt-in feature, you can easily go back to the old video page via a single click.

So, what does the new video page offers? There’s quite a lot actually and these include:

Streamlined look and functionality - The new YouTube video page is now more subdued, stripped down, and simpler than before.  The redesign was aimed at offering advanced features in the highest way possible for users. The new YouTube video page focuses more on the video rather than the add-on elements that you see on a normal YouTube video page.

Smarter “next up” video list – This is a pretty cool feature of the new YouTube video home page. It takes into consideration how you found a particular video and will queue your next video to watch based on how you arrived at the current video. For example if you’ve used the search facility, the rest of the search results will be placed on the right side of the video page – making it easier for  you to check out the rest of the video search results.

Less cluttered design and united description and stats – You can now find more specific information about the video you’re watching in one place – underneath the video. If you click on “description”, you’d see more information about the video you are currently watchin.

Action Bar  is Now Cleaner -  The new YouTube video home page now has a cleaner “sharing” action bar. Sharing, rating, saving or flagging a video are now all grouped in one place.

Simpler Video Rating Scheme – Yes, it’s now a matter of selecting – “like or don’t like. Sound s familiar? In addition, if you like a video, it will be automatically added to your favorites.

New labels for video size and video quality controls - Aside from the usual selection of how you want to view a video, YouTube is also offering new size control .

Search while you watch – While watching a video, you can conduct a search and the results will be displayed on the right side of the page.

More prominent channel/subscriber placement and a new “see more videos” feature –

The “subscribe” button is now placed on the top of the video, right near the title. In addition, there’s is now an arrow next to the number of uploads on the person’s channel to let you view more videos from uploaded by that person.  Hence it’s now easier to find other videos.

If you want to try out the new YouTube video page, click here.

Today’s news headlines is definitely going to Nokia’s big surprise to date. How about this?  - turn-by-turn navigation on all its smartphones via the new Ovi Maps available worldwide and free forever. Well not really forever I supposed. Maybe for as long as your Nokia smartphones are working and functional and for as long as Nokia keeps on creating new smartphones that you’d eventually end up buying.

So according to the news, starting March 2010, all new GPS-enabled Nokia smartphones will come installed with the new version of Ovi Maps. This means that those smartphones will be able to provide you with free global sat-nav feature, or turn-by-turn walk and drive navigational maps.

As for the current crop of Nokia smartphones, the new Nokia Ovi Maps can be immediately installed. So, if you own any of these Nokia smartphones right now, you might as well get the new Nokia Ovi Maps up and running on them. These smartphones include Nokia N97 mini, 5800 XpressMusic, 5800 Navigation Edition, E52, E55, E72, 5230, 6710 Navigator, 6730 classic and X6. And Nokia promises to add more handsets into the list. More →

Just a quick note to follow-up on the latest development about New York Times plan of introducing a paid model for its online newspaper.  It is now official, NYT will be rolling out the paid-metered model beginning in 2010.

The metered model approach to making its loyal readers pay for their access to the New York Times will give users free access to a set number of articles per month. NYT will start charging users online when they’ve access more than the number of free articles.  According to NYT, this is their way of creating a second revenue stream that will somehow help in preserving the online newspaper. Furthermore, offering the NYT online on a paid subscription basis will also give them the flexibility to keep an appropriate ratio between free and paid content – hence helping them stay connected to the Internet.

To prepare the online NYT, new online infrastructure will be designed.  The good news is,  those who subscribe  to the print NYT will continue to have free access to the online NYT, even when the paid model system is already implemented.

NYT Chairman Arthur Sulzberger expressed confidence that the loyal NYT users would not mind the paid model since it will help the NYT improve on its content.

“Our audiences are very loyal and we believe that our readers will pay for our award-winning digital content and services.”

Pricing and other details about the new paid model will be released in the coming months. In the meantime, you’ge 11 more months of free access to the NYT online, so make the most of it.

 

ViVo, a video communication solutions provider for enterprise and Skype has just teamed up to bring real-time video communication and collaboration a reality. To make this possible, a new ViVu plug-in for Skype, called VuRoom was launched by Vivo.

VuRoom is built on the Skype platform and provides users witn instant multi-user video conferencing. This is designed to help remote business users to collaborate in real-time in the comforts of their respective offices. Hence allowing business entities to save valuable time and money.

So, how does VuRoom works? It’s quite simple actually. To enable VuRoom’s multi-user video conferencing expeirence, the meeting host needs to download and install the VuRoom plug-in. The host will then need to select the contacts they want to communicate/collaborate with and then initiate a “call group” command. Once the call confirmation pops up the session will commence.

What’s good about VuRoom is that other participants are not required to have the ViVo plug-in installed on their machine. Any participant can join the video conference by simply clicking on a specific URL for the video conference session. What’s more, whoever is presenting during the video conference will have the right to share their interface with other users.

VuRoom integrates well with most streaming video and conference solutions. It is hosted in the cloud and can be considered as iVaaS or interactive Video-as-a-Service. VuRoom can be used for both small web conferences to a bigger corporate training session.

If you’re interested with this service, VuRoom is currently available for both Windows and Mac users. VuRoom cost $9.95/month. You may register for a 30-day free trial if you can’t decide immediately whether to pay for VuRoom or not.

Lookie here, Motorola has just brought in the first Android-powered phone ever to hit the Korean market and it goes by the monicker – the MOTOROI. This was made possible through a deal between Motorola and SK Telecom of Korea. While Motorola may have succeeded in becoming the first company to bring an Android smartphone to Koreans, it however faces tough challenge from local Korean mobile phone manufacturers who are also planning to launch their own Android devices.

But first, Motorola will also have to deal first with the iPhone which launched earlier in the Korean markets. Unfortunately for Motorola, the iPhone may have already gained quite a significant part of the Korean mobile market. In fact, it is said that the iPhone might have ignited the Koreans interest for smartphones.

Still, Motorola seemed poised to conquer the Korean mobile market by bringing out the MOTOROI loaded with features that every smartphone savvy will surely love. Apart from the Android OS, the MOTOROI also boasts of a 3.7-inch display, a whooping 8 megapixel camera with Xenon flash and a 720p HD camcorder. This feature becomes the first among Korean mobile phone users.

In addition, the MOTOROI will also have a terrestial digital multimedia broadcasting service which is very popular today in Korea.

Other features of the MOTOROI include 8GB of external memory which can be expanded up to 32GB. And since it is an Android phone, the MOTOROI will have access to thousands of Android apps available at the Android market  including some Korean-language applications.

The MOTOROI is expected to be priced at around $800 when it goes out in Korea sometime in April 2010.

 

I’ve hearing about Kevin Rose’s latest project called Square for quite some time now but only got the chance to really find out what’s it all about just now. Square is a small gadget/tool that works with iPhone and a corresponding app which will in turn allow you to accept credit card payments. Very much the same way that establishments used those credit card transaction machines.

It’s a pretty clever idea actually. Who would have thought that you can use your iPhone to accept credit card payments. You can just imagine how useful this would be if you’re in remote places where credit card machines don’t exist. With an iPhone running on 3G or Wi-Fi perhaps, small businesses can elect to use the iPhone instead of the usual credit card machine.

So, how does the Square gadget really works? It’s quite simple actually. You just plug in the device onto your iPhone using the headphone port. Then you need to launch the Square app on your iPhone, swipe your credit card on the Square device, wait for the app to process and then you can start entering the necessary transaction details.

What’s cool about this device is that you can actually sign the transaction by writing your signature on the iPhone screen and voila! Your credit card transaction will be proccessed.

Cool right? But wait, there’s more.  You can also email transaction receipts to your clients after processing the credit card payment. The Square tool will be coming out in a few months.

Via