Technology

Motorola Milestone 2.01 update hits Europe

So does the camera work now?

French Motorola Milestone users have been the happy recipients of the anticipated Android 2.0.1 software update.

Beginning on Jan 21, French Moto Milestone users are the first in Europe to get the latest version of the Google Android OS. UK users will have to wait for an unspecified time to get their hands on the update, according to Motorola. There is “no complete schedule included at this time for other regions”, according to company sources.

The first firmware update for Moto’s flagship Android 2.0 fixes a veriety of bugs, including camera auto-focus, audio effects for the media player and a 3d landscape. More »

Open Tabs At The Right

A change in the default behavior is often problematic for many users. Firefox 3.6 has introduced a change in the way new tabs are opened. Before Firefox 3.6 tabs were always opened at the right in the web browser which meant that tabs were added as a new tab at the end of the tabbar in the Internet browser.

In Firefox 3.6 however only new tabs are opened at the far right of the tabbar while new tabs that are opened from existing tabs, e.g. by middle-clicking a link in an already open tab, are opened next to the tab containing the link.

That feels like inconsistent behavior to some Firefox users. Those who prefer the old way of opening new tabs (all at the right end) can make Firefox 3.6 change that behavior to the default behavior of previous Firefox versions. More »

Opera Releases Third Opera 10.5 Snapshot

The Opera developers have released a new snapshot release of the upcoming Opera 10.5 web browser. The last snapshot caused troubles for many users who experienced crashes among other things. One could say that it is not seldom that pre-alpha releases show that behavior.

One reason why the developers might have decided to release the third snapshot that close after the last one could have been the crashes that user’s experienced.

This new release fixes lots of the crashes that have been experienced by the users. It makes use of a new version of the Presto engine which the devs call a major update with over a hundred bug fixes and improvements. More »

Fixing Windows Update Error 0×80072ee2

A friend’s computer running Windows 7 had been recently infected with the rootkit TDSS which resulted in redirects in all web browsers to affiliate sites.The problem is commonly known as Google redirects and the issue had been fixed back then.

My friend contacted me again after the cleanup asking for help because Windows Update was not working anymore. Whenever Windows Update was used it would run for a long time and display the error 0×80072ee2 in the end.

A quick research on the Internet revealed that this error message was related to connection problems to the Windows Update servers. More »

Google Nexus One gets multi-touch thanks to hacker

Does this make the Nexus One an iPhone beater?

One thing sadly lacking from Google’s lovingly crafted Nexus One smartphone is that which arguably sets the iPhone apart – multi-touch. The ability to prod two digits at the screen and control your browsing and general mobile experience with Godlike control has been part of the Apple handset’s roster since its birth, but it’s a feature that has sadly been lacking on Android phones.

Until now, that is. A US hacker by the name Cyanogen has snuck in through a back door on the Google Nexus One, shifted some wires, flicked a couple of switches (as is our understanding of hacking) and come out the other side having enabled multi-touch goodness.

Google has just dropped Android software 2.1 (which the Nexus runs on) into the open source trough, making it rife for hacking and modding. This is the first, and is described as a simple job. More »

Lenovo LePhone to launch in China this May

LePhone resistant to Google’s powers-of-persuasion

Lenovo is ignoring the current rift between Google and China as it prepares to launch its first mobile phone, the Android-based LePhone to the Chinese market.

The company says its LePhone will be available on three Chinese service providers, China Unicom, China Mobile and China Telecom, this coming May.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the LePhone will become available to “overseas markets” later this year.
More »

Get to know Linux: File compression

How many times have you come across a .tar, .tgz, or .bz2 file in Linux and had no idea what to do with it? Or what it was? Most users of computers know what the .zip file is. Simple, it’s a compressed file. And to uncompress you generally double click it or right click and select Extract. Most people recognize that from the world of Windows. But did you know that file compression/decompression is just as easy in the world of Linux? It is. The only problem is that most don’t recognize what files are, in fact, compressed files, archives, or compressed archives.

In this article I am going to de-mystify Linux file compression and archiving for you. By the end of the article you’ll be compressing and decompressing files in your sleep. And, as a bonus, you’ll know how to do this both via command line and GUI. More »

Mannheim city to sue Mikogo co-founder over Twitter name

Yesterday, the founder of popular screen-sharing app Mikogo shared with the world that he was threatened to be sued by the city of Mannheim if he does not stop using his twitter name, which is http://twitter.com/mannheim.  His name is Mark Zondler, but he and the company is based in Mannheim. Does any of you think this is pretty unfair from the city?

First of all, what if your name was Daniel Mannheim? Could they sue you for using your own name? Also, the Twitter account is not abused, or used in any way to undermine the city, and even if it were, we have freedom of speech, so still! More »

Improve Firefox Private Browsing With Private Browsing Window Add-on

The Mozilla developers have added private browsing to the Firefox web browser since version 3.5. This basically allows a Firefox users to switch to a mode where no records of the web browsing session will be stored on the computer system. The way it is implemented is different from the incognito mode in the Google Chrome web browser. Firefox users can only use the private browsing mode if they agree to close all open windows and tabs in the web browser which means that there is not a way to work with a normal Firefox session and one private browsing session in another window.

This behavior is changed by the Firefox add-on Private Browsing Window which – as the name suggests – provides the means to launch a private browsing session in a new window without closing the standard session first. More »

Windows Explorer New Menu Manager

Many applications that get installed in the Windows operating system add entries to the context menu of Windows Explorer. One of those menus that are often modified is the New menu which can be used to create new files in Windows Explorer. Some of those options are added by the Windows operating system during installation while others are added by third party installations.

Examples of new menu options are to create a new text document, a new shortcut or contact. Applications like Microsoft Office add further options to the new menu including those to create new word, Excel or PowerPoint documents. More »