.::REALITYRECALL::.

With all of the high-profile privacy lapses we’ve been seeing lately, no one would blame you for wanting to keep your Google searches, well, your Google searches. Google’s new beta service does just that, protecting your queries with SSL encryption. More »









Google – search – Search Engines – Encryption – Security

The Saskatchewan government is “encouraged” by the enthusiasm it’s seeing across the province as officials consider whether to build a new stadium in Regina, a provincial cabinet minister says.

Saskatchewan’s privacy commissioner says he’s surprised to learn Google may have downloaded internet data from homes in the province – and he doesn’t want to see it happen again.

After a long and successful run of advertising the Mac and Justin Long, the “I’m a Mac”, Apple marketing series has been discontinued, according to Mac Rumors. The long-running campaign featured various conversations between a “Mac” and a “PC” in which the PC consistently came under passive-aggressive attack from…

We’ve shown you one way to extract images from PowerPoint presentations, but with new versions of Microsoft Office, the process is even easier—all you need to do is change the extension of your documents. More »

Google might be trying to shake up video on the web by releasing the WebM video format and VP8 codec under a royalty-free open-source license, but we’ve already heard the format’s uncomfortably close relationship to H.264 might cause some patent concerns, and the MPEG-LA, which licenses the H.264 patents, doesn’t seem to be sitting still. CEO Larry Horn told All Things Digital that MPEG-LA is looking into forming a patent pool in order to license vendors who want stay clear of any patent disputes while using WebM — the idea would be to avoid any patent liability down the road by simply paying for a license now, especially since Google doesn’t seem to be promising anything when it comes to protection from lawsuits. We’d wager all this means WebM will go from royalty-free to patent-encumbered just as soon as MPEG-LA gets its paperwork in order — the same thing essentially happened to Microsoft when it tried to release the VC-1 format royalty-free — and that means video on the web might soon be right back where it started. We’ll see what happens.

Google’s WebM video format might not be so free after all, says MPEG-LA originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 May 2010 11:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says North Korea must face international consequences for its actions after “overwhelming” evidence showed one of its submarines sank a South Korean warship.

Thanks to some handy tricks in the Google Labs bag you can easily add an HTML signature complete with images and save it for future use without plug-ins or outside help. More »









HTML – Google – Data Formats – Markup Languages – FAQs Help and Tutorials

Google hopes to sidestep the entire HTML5 video debate with a new, open source, royalty free format called WebM. But will Apple ever support it? Judging by to the latest missive from Steve’s iPad, things don’t look great. More »

Google is done playing catch-up. Today they’re setting the agenda: With Android Froyo, Google TV, mobile ads and streaming media, Google isn't just matching Apple—they're taking the lead. More »

An American consumer protection agency says claims over the safety and benefits of indoor tanning are false and deceptive and has forced the Indoor Tanning Association to stop making certain statements.

When the iPad was first announced back in January, consumers looked at the device as a possible failure.  With a lack of features at launch, like a built-in webcam and flash, many expected the device to be the next Microsoft Origami.

Not many expected the iPad to take off as it did, where…

Earlier today at Google I/O, the company announced that its web browser, Chrome, was now 70 million users strong. That’s a big number, and up more than 100% in the past year. But wait a second, let’s get some perspective. Enter, Mozilla’s Asa Dotzler.

As he points out on his blog this evening, while Chrome may be at 70 million active users, Firefox is at nearly 370 million active users. And while Chrome grew by 40 million users in the past year, Firefox gained over 100 million new users in the same span — yes, more users than Chrome has total. He also made a nice chart to underscore his point.

Earlier this week we asked you if Windows 7 vindicated Microsoft from Vista, in light of a regarded customer satisfaction survey. The result was overwhelmingly positive in favor of Windows 7. Over 78 percent of readers said that they were satisfied, saying that it makes up for their Windows Vista experience. Only about 12 percent of readers found it to be a marginal improvement, and 5 percent said that Vista left a lingering bad taste in their mouth. If you’re barely or not satisfied, try optimizing your experience by checking out our Windows 7 tips and tricks. Even if you are happy with the operating system, check it out to make sure you’re not missing out on all of Windows 7’s nifty little features. More »

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

At Google I/O this morning, the topic of discussion was mobile; specifically, the Android mobile platform. As of this morning, there are more than 60 consumer devices running on Android, more than 100,000 new activations per day, 50,000 apps in the Android marketplace, and 180,000 registered developers working on apps. Not too shabby.

As the platform continues its rapid growth, Google has announced a number of very significant improvements will be coming to the next version, numbered 2.2 but nicknamed “FroYo,” which address key issues Android has dealt with in the past.

1) Improved Speed — Just as it was rumored, the next version of Android will have a JIT compiler, responsible for a significant (2x-5x) speed boost.

2) Better Enterprise Support — The platform has lagged behind Windows Mobile and BlackBerry in terms of enterprise functionality, but FroYo will include over 20 new enterprise features. These include better Exchange support, with auto-discovery, improved security, and GAL lookup, and new device admin APIs.

3) Cloud-to-Device API — Google services, Chrome extensions, and soon-to-be released Chrome apps will be able to sync with your Android device. If you need directions from Google Maps, it can be sent directly.

4) Tethering — This was also a rumored feature for a few weeks. The feature will be in the “settings” menu, and clicking “portable wi-fi hotspot.”

5) New Browser — The Javascript interpreter in Chrome will be used in FroYo’s native browser, offering a 2x-3x Javascript performance boost. Google’s Vic Gundotra said it will be the fastest mobile browser available.

6) Install apps on SD memory — One of the main problems people had with Android was that you could not install apps on your removable memory card, you were limited to the device’s physical memory, which in some cases was quite limited. In FroYo, apps can be moved to, and launched from, the phone’s SD card.

7) Flash 10.1 and AIR support — This one is not a surprise, as Adobe and Google have both said this would be coming.

8) Web-based Android Market — Without a doubt one of the weakest aspects of consuming apps on the Android Platform was that you were limited to only seeing what was shown on your mobile device’s screen, which in most cases is not very appealing.

9) App auto-updating — When an app you downloaded gets updated, you would get a notification that there was an update available in the Market. You’d have to navigate to the market and click OK three or four times per update just to get it installed. In FroYo, there will be an “Update All” icon, and the ability to check “allow automatic updating” when you download a new app. Apps can be purchased on the Web-based store and synced down to your Android device.

10) Music Sync — Even though it’s got a decent media player, Android devices have never had the music power that iPhone has with its built-in iPod functionality. With FroYo, however, users will be able to sync their local music collection with their Android device and stream wirelessly.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

For more than six years, Opportunity has toiled away on the Red Planet — and it shows no signs of slowing down.