Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Friday, June 04, 2010

Rumor: YouTube Close To Adding Live-Streaming Functionality? [YouTube]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5555227/rumor-youtube-close-to-adding-live+streaming-functionality

Rumor: YouTube Close To Adding Live-Streaming Functionality? After live-streaming U2 concerts, Indian cricket and even Tiger Woods' confession, it looks like YouTube might be close to opening up live-streaming for all. Screenshots of a new YouTube toolbar with 'Live Stream' added suggest so, anyway.

TechCrunch spotted the toolbar addition on a YouTube employee's help page, so it's possible this employee uses it when enabling streaming for CitizenTube events, such as Tiger Woods' apology to his fans earlier this year, for his extra-marital naughtiness.

While of course there'd be massive problems with copyright and bandwidth issues if YouTube ever opened up full live-streaming for everyone, it's been rumored for so long now that it'd be crazy if they withheld the functionality to actually push this through. [TechCrunch]

Rumor: YouTube Close To Adding Live-Streaming Functionality?

Huawei S7 runs 1GHz Snapdragon and Android 2.1 like a champ (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/03/huawei-s7-runs-1ghz-snapdragon-and-android-2-1-like-a-champ-at-c/

Another small mystery, solved. We caught a glimpse of Huawei's relatively undercover S7 tablet back in March, but little was known about what would actually power the device and what operating system would be pre-installed. Here at Computex, we learned the facts on both of those points. Sitting pretty at Qualcomm's booth, the S7 was shown boasting a 1GHz MSM8250 Snapdragon processor, and our hunting around in the settings confirmed that Android 2.1 was loaded onboard. The Qualcomm reps didn't have any other hard specifications available on the 7-incher (beyond those that we already knew), but we were able to spot a volume rocker, internal speaker, 3.5mm headphone jack, microSD card slot, USB connector and a fancy kickstand around back for sitting a spell and watching multimedia. During our time with the device, we instantly fell in love with the depressible side buttons, and the capacitive touchscreen was as responsive as they come. The whole thing felt speedy and light enough for our liking, and frankly, it was easily one of our favorite tablets at the entire show. We're still no closer to nailing down a price or release date, but at least you now know it's worth your while to keep an eye out for both. Vid's after the break.

Gallery: Huawei S7 Android 2.1 tablet running Snapdragon at Computex 2010

Continue reading Huawei S7 runs 1GHz Snapdragon and Android 2.1 like a champ (video)

Huawei S7 runs 1GHz Snapdragon and Android 2.1 like a champ (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Jun 2010 22:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | | Email this | Comments

Thursday, June 03, 2010

DownThemAll 2.0 Beta Adds Great New Features to the Killer Download Manager [Downloads]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5554473/downthemall-20-beta-adds-lots-of-awesomeness-to-great-add+on

DownThemAll 2.0 Beta Adds Great New Features to the Killer Download Manager Firefox: DownThemAll, the Firefox extension that lets you automate and supercharge your downloads, is getting a big upgrade with a 2.0 release. Download throttling, private browsing support, Flash and HTML5 video grabbing, and lots more power user additions are on the way.

DownThemAll, for the unfamiliar, is a Firefox add-on that's a serious time saver. Find a web page full of images, MP3s, program files, or other things you need to grab all at once, or just grab those items starting with "Fi," and you can pull it off. The developer suggests it's a preview release, and not to use it with work/production systems, but those with a tolerance of quirks can find the following new stuff inside:

Speed limits – Allow to define maximum download speeds:

Global preference

Per Server

Per Download

Per Server download limits

Mirror Management – Add/Remove/Edit download locations (mirrors)

Firefox Private Browsing Mode support

Parsing of text-only links

and integration

Media-Sniffing: When enabled flv and and other videos will be recognized (http/https only)

DownThemAll! Selector – Select links and images by clicking

Fine grained queue control: Remove/Remove complete by filters

Metalink 4 (IETF) support

Support for partial checksums and recovery from Metalinks

Manager toolbar now has two modes: Icons, Icons and text

Video DownloadHelper integration (in cooperation with mig, the VDH author)

Lots of small features

It is, in other words, a full upgrade of DownThemAll's already significant powers, and very helpful for those who would otherwise do a lot of right-click downloading. It's a free download, works wherever Firefox does.

DownThemAll! 2.0 beta 1 [via Kabatology]

Best Web-Based Conferencing Tool? [Hive Five Call For Contenders]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5554250/best-web+based-conferencing-tool

Best Web-Based Conferencing Tool? Communication and collaboration are important facets of getting things done in the modern age. This week we want to hear about your favorite web-based conferencing tools.

Photo by clix.

When it comes time to connect with colleagues, friends, and family, what's your go-to tool when seeing and hearing a distant party is important?

Hive Five nominations take place in the comments, where you post your favorite tool for the job. We get hundreds of comments, so to make your nomination clear, please include it at the top of your comment like so: VOTE: Web-Based Conferencing Tool. Please don't include your vote in a reply to another commenter. Instead, make your vote and reply separate comments. If you don't follow this format, we may not count your vote. To prevent tampering with the results, votes from first-time commenters may not be counted. After you've made your nomination, let us know what makes it stand out from the competition.

About the Hive Five: The Hive Five feature series asks readers to answer the most frequently asked question we get: "Which tool is the best?" Once a week we'll put out a call for contenders looking for the best solution to a certain problem, then YOU tell us your favorite tools to get the job done. Every weekend, we'll report back with the top five recommendations and give you a chance to vote on which is best. For an example, check out last week's Five Best Computer Diagnostic Tools.

ASUS debuts WirelessHD-equipped G73JW and G53 laptops, we go eyes-on

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/03/asus-debuts-wirelesshd-equipped-g73jw-and-g53-laptops-we-go-eye/

We already took a closer look at ASUS' minty fresh ROG G53 gaming laptop earlier in the week, but it was the outfit's 17-inch version (the G73JW, predictably) used to showcase a new partnership with SiBEAM. The aforesaid rigs are the world's first laptops to integrate SiBEAM's 60GHz WirelessHD technology, essentially doing exactly what Intel's WiDi does. For those unfamiliar with either technology, it enables the laptop to beam 1080p content directly to a receiver box (that tube you see above, which will be attached via HDMI in theory) from up to 30 meters away. Both machines are slated to be slinging HD sans cabling this Fall, though pricing for the upgraded beasts wasn't available just yet. Still, we were treated to a demonstration over at the outfit's Computex booth, and while it was dangerously close to the receiver, HD content still was streaming without a hitch. Granted, we've seen nothing but great things from other WirelessHD applications in the past, but it's still lovely to see it humming along so nicely within a full-fledged computer. Have a look yourself just past the break.

Gallery: ASUS G73JW WirelessHD laptop at Computex 2010