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Sky Player – Access is NOT so easy

Posted on: 02-12-2009
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Category : IT, gadget, internet, web 2.0

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Not so easy

Not so easy

For some reason best know to itself my Sky+ HD box decided to record only the second half of Stargate Universe this week. :-(

No problem I thought, I’ll watch it on the much flaunted updated Sky Player that integrates with Windows 7 which was launched on the 19th November. Installation and registration onto my ASRock Nettop went fine and all initially appeared OK…

Sky's Sales Pitch

Sky's Sales Pitch

I log into the system and only see last weeks episode of Stargate Universe which is a real shame as nobody seems to have added this weeks episode yet (other series I have check before have been OK) . Now I’ll have to wait until they update it before I can watch the whole episode. Poot!

Whilst installing Sky Player it I did notice a few other oddities…

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Bring Everything To Your Homepage: 44tips.com Review

Posted on: 29-11-2009
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Category : review, web 2.0

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

So we do have our own daily visited websites. I can’t live without my daily dose of Techcrunch and Lifehacker. And then, there are the usual ones – Facebook, Twitter, GMail etc. Now, although browsers like Chrome, Opera and Firefox with addons do allow users to have a start up Fast-Dial page which has links to those highly visited links, there is still a big link missing in the amount of stuff we want. Of course, that void has been filled to some extent by the father of all start-up pages – iGoogle. iGoogle is highly customisable, with gadgets, widgets and feeds. You can add a lot of stuff to keep your iGoolge engaging, but again, adding too much stuff makes it cluttered and takes ages to load. And not to forget, you have Themes on iGoogle.

Enter a new alternative to iGoogle – 44tips.com, a website run by some awesome developers at picturesque Amsterdam [ I am imagining that they have an awesome view in their office :) ] The first thing you notice about the UI [user interface] on 44tips is that the site design is simplistic, clutter-free and quite minimal – yet, pretty. The colours are basic dark grey and Orange with a twang. Both remind me of Firefox somehow, which means-it works for me. Let’s explore the usability and the features on this website, and if it is worth making it your homepage. Shall we?

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Windows Live Planet: We don’t need no (more) Social Network

Posted on: 17-08-2009
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Category : microsoft, web 2.0

Tags: , , , , , ,

Windows Live Planet
Who the F needs another Social Network? @Microsoft -Seriously?

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5 reasons why I Like the new Facebook

Posted on: 24-03-2009
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Category : web 2.0

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After the redesign of the social networking website giant Facebook went live on the 14th of March, the entire blogosphere as well as the users went berserk. The initial reaction was totally negative, with forums and groups on facebook itself showing negative poll results. ( In a poll on a ” Hate the New Facebook Look” group, out of 800,000 members who participated in the poll, 94% gave a thumbs-down to the new design, and only 5% liked it) The new design is being termed as “Twitter-look-a-like”, and indeed with the new news stream on a users home page showing updates which is very much like Twitter’s own followers page, there are some similarities between the two. No one can deny that Facebook is certainly bothered by the phenomenon that Twitter is turning out to be. And certainly because of CEO Mark Zuckerberg failed to buy out Twitter, Facebook’s new mission seems to be undermining Twitter.

Facebook ReDesign

But now almost after a week, when the smoke has faded away and users have already got accustomed to the new look or redesign of Facebook, here’s some reason to cheer up. Here are 5 reasons why I like the new Facebook and possibly you could as well. 

1. The News Feed can be filtered.

In the Home page, where we see the Twitter Like feed of the activities of the friend of a user, it displays all the activites of friends. This display can be filtered as well, based on Filters available, such as : Photos, Links, Videos etc. I have some more filters in my profile viz. YouTube, Twitter, Flixster, LivingSocial etc. If you have grouped your friends ( I have grouped them such as :-Social Network Contacts, University, School, Work etc.), then the NewsFeed could also display feed from only the members of those group.

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Quake Live is ON. I am in the Queue

Posted on: 24-02-2009
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Category : web 2.0

Tags: , ,

Wanna frag ‘em online through your browser? Here it is. QUAKE ONLINE is LIVE, or should I say, QUAKE LIVE is ONLINE. Here is the link. But as you can see, just after a long time-taking (as in wait time, rather than lengthy pages of questionairres) I am still waiting in the queue to get in and get my first bot burnt down by my plasma gun. My number is 24775. 

QuakeLive

So, anyone who has been able to get in and started the fragging? See you on the other side!!!

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Skype Video Downgrade?

Posted on: 06-02-2009
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Category : internet, review, web 2.0

Tags: , , ,

Skype 4

Back in the day, we all used phones to communicate. Then Skype came along and changed the world. Sure, there were other systems before it, but Skype had it all sewn up with a neat little package that bundled the hallowed VOIP with a simple interface and of course – It was free!! Later, video was added (that Beta seemed to last forever!) and the whole thing really took off. Skype has always had some big hitters looking over its shoulder with the likes of the goliath Windows Messenger (Currently in its ‘Live’ incarnation) and the Gmail (With its flexibility and low resource usage) to name but a few.

With this in mind the major release of Skype 4.0 was much anticipated… What new wonders can we behold?… Well, I can tell you one thing – if you’re expecting better video you may be sadly disappointed.  :-\

Last week if you’d have asked me what my preferred video calling software was I’d have said Gmail and Skype were pretty much 50/50, this week however it has to be Gmail. The new Skype 4.0 video looks like a nasty police photo-fit or, worse, a deliberately pixelated news item. Yes it gets a little better if you give it a few minutes but the previous video was clearly better (IMHO). They have, however, done a good job with the voice side of things which is undoubtedly smooth, and sure, there are some new whistles and bells to play with (the “Open” or “Open with Video” seems so obvious now) but why would you release an update with worse performance on the one thing everybody stares at???…

Now if only Google could make their video a little more resilient to all those sudden crashes….

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Bad review: 8Hands Social Networking Client Beta

Posted on: 28-01-2009
(1)

Category : review, web 2.0

Tags: , ,

Unless I am extremely tormented and harassed by an application, I tend to remain on the good side of review. But this little application install has been a nightmare. Extremely dodgy, unfriendly and useless. I am talking about the latest beta release of the Social Networking Client-8hands for Windows. It supposedly claims to integrate all your social networking needs and bring Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Blogger, Wordpress, et al under one giant umbrella, conveniently operating them from one client (at least what they claim). 

8hands

I got to know about this app, through DownloadSquad’s post on 8hands. First things first, the app needed some update of Microsoft .Net to be installed on my machine, and a reboot. Ok, no complaints. Once installed, the application required me to make an account to login, giving in my e-mail credentials. No activation link from email required. Ok, cool so-far. Setting up Twitter easy as it goes. Click the twitter icon, enter username and password. Done! 

Facebook next. Enter user-login (email address) and password. Doesn’t accept. Tried again, doesn’t accept. Signed out of Facebook from browser, and then tried login in 8hands, doesn’t work. Tried 3 more times, whilst I was updating my frustation on Twitter via 8hands (Get my twitter feed here) . If I cannot get my facebook set-up here, what’s the damn use?

Went to Start, Programs, 8hands— No uninstall exe. Went to Ctrl-Panel, Add-Remove Programs. Found 8hands. Removed. 

The other thing I noticed while I was updating Twitter through 8hands was that the messages were getting updated quite well on twitter, but there was no updates on the client itself. I could not wait for them to get updated, and hence hit the uninstall button. If anyone can set-up their Facebook account here, please let me know. Cheers and DONOT install. 

P.S. The image means , 8hands doesn’t require Refresh. Yeah right!

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Tech Shots: Browser Wars

Posted on: 19-01-2009
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Category : web 2.0

Tags: , , , ,

Sometimes a single picture is very well self-explanatory. Let this one speak for itself.

Image courtesy: Pixel Labs

Browser Wars

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