A new beta of the iPhone 2.1 firmware is seeding to developers, say reports. The code is mainly said to contain bug fixes, but Apple has allegedly confirmed that it contains an early version of background push notification. The technology is a workaround for the lack of background processes on the iPhone, but should nevertheless provide advantage...
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Second iPhone 2.1 beta seeding to developers
Second iPhone 2.1 beta seeding to developers
A new beta of the iPhone 2.1 firmware is seeding to developers, say reports. The code is mainly said to contain bug fixes, but Apple has allegedly confirmed that it contains an early version of background push notification. The technology is a workaround for the lack of background processes on the iPhone, but should nevertheless provide advantage...
A new beta of the iPhone 2.1 firmware is seeding to developers, say reports. The code is mainly said to contain bug fixes, but Apple has allegedly confirmed that it contains an early version of background push notification. The technology is a workaround for the lack of background processes on the iPhone, but should nevertheless provide advantage...
MacBreak 93: Studio: Quick DVD Menu
MacBreak 93: Studio: Quick DVD Menu
Steve Martin shows us how to make a simple menu from an existing video stream.
Steve Martin shows us how to make a simple menu from an existing video stream.
Apple posts Lexmark Printer Driver 1.1
Apple posts Lexmark Printer Driver 1.1
Apple has released Lexmark Printer Driver Update 1.1, which includes the latest drivers for the Lexmark line of printers. The 71MB update was released Tuesday and is only visible when a Lexmark printer is connected, or a print queue has been created for an earlier Lexmark driver....
Apple has released Lexmark Printer Driver Update 1.1, which includes the latest drivers for the Lexmark line of printers. The 71MB update was released Tuesday and is only visible when a Lexmark printer is connected, or a print queue has been created for an earlier Lexmark driver....
GBTV #0329 (small) | GeekBrief.TV
GBTV #0329 (small) | GeekBrief.TV
Apple AirPort Express was updated to 802.11n so it's faster and has a longer range. Boston Dynamics has a video of the BigDog robot and it's the most lifelike robot movement we've seen. The full video is here.
Shuttle is famous for making small form factor barebones PCs. They have a new one, the KPC with Linux and components already installed. The Swiftpoint Slider is a mouse in a new form factor. It's tiny and controlled by a thumb.
Bluelock is a Windows app that locks your PC when you walk away with a paired Bluetooth device in your pocket. Desktopple Pro from FoggyNoggin.com is a desktop hiding app.
Duke Beattie won the Big Trip logo contest. The story of why we picked his design is at BigTrip.TV.
Apple AirPort Express was updated to 802.11n so it's faster and has a longer range. Boston Dynamics has a video of the BigDog robot and it's the most lifelike robot movement we've seen. The full video is here.
Shuttle is famous for making small form factor barebones PCs. They have a new one, the KPC with Linux and components already installed. The Swiftpoint Slider is a mouse in a new form factor. It's tiny and controlled by a thumb.
Bluelock is a Windows app that locks your PC when you walk away with a paired Bluetooth device in your pocket. Desktopple Pro from FoggyNoggin.com is a desktop hiding app.
Duke Beattie won the Big Trip logo contest. The story of why we picked his design is at BigTrip.TV.
Netgear rolls out Wireless-N Upgrade Kit
Netgear rolls out Wireless-N Upgrade Kit
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments 
Filed under: Wireless
Netgear looks to be doing its part to bring every last home network into the Wireless-N fold, with the company now rolling out its appropriately-named Wireless-N Upgrade Kit, which includes a 5GHz Wireless-N HD Access Point (WNHDE111) and that RangeMax Dual-Band Wireless-N USB adapter (WNDA3100) that made an appearance at the FCC earlier this year. Like most such kits, the included Access Point can function either as a standalone bridge (including with a game console or media receiver) or as a full-fledged 5GHz Wireless-N access point when it's connected to an existing router or gateway. There's also not many surprises with the USB adapter, although it does boast some "patented metamaterial micro-antennas," which promise to out-do other non-metamaterial 802.11n adapters. If that's got you sold, you can pick up the kit right now for $149.
[Via BIOS]
[Via BIOS]
RSS/Copyright Debate
RSS/Copyright Debate
Is RSS syndication honestly a threat to copyrights and those trying to protect them? It’s beginning to look that way.
(more…)
Is RSS syndication honestly a threat to copyrights and those trying to protect them? It’s beginning to look that way.
(more…)
Beverly Hills, 90210 iPod nano
Beverly Hills, 90210 iPod nano
Beverly Hills, 90210 is a show that is near and dear to many people's hearts... at least I assume so, because how else do you explain this Beverly Hills, 90210 limited edition iPod nano? CBS is selling 2000 of these suckers for $269. For your money you get an 8 gig iPod nano engraved with a picture of the 90210 cast and a slogan of your choice (as long as it is 30 characters or less) and all the normal accessories that come with an iPod nano. If a 4 gig iPod nano is more your speed, you're in luck because you can get one of them for $219.
I think I'll be passing on this iPod nano, but CBS has a whole line of iPods branded with various shows. They have everything from CSI iPods to Amazing Race iPods. I will pay good money for a Barney Miller iPod nano (which I have helpfully mocked up to the right. Oh, Wojciehowicz, you card!).
[via Engadget]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Filed under: iPod Family, Odds and ends
Beverly Hills, 90210 is a show that is near and dear to many people's hearts... at least I assume so, because how else do you explain this Beverly Hills, 90210 limited edition iPod nano? CBS is selling 2000 of these suckers for $269. For your money you get an 8 gig iPod nano engraved with a picture of the 90210 cast and a slogan of your choice (as long as it is 30 characters or less) and all the normal accessories that come with an iPod nano. If a 4 gig iPod nano is more your speed, you're in luck because you can get one of them for $219.I think I'll be passing on this iPod nano, but CBS has a whole line of iPods branded with various shows. They have everything from CSI iPods to Amazing Race iPods. I will pay good money for a Barney Miller iPod nano (which I have helpfully mocked up to the right. Oh, Wojciehowicz, you card!).
[via Engadget]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Manage Your Money Safely with ClearCheckbook
Manage Your Money Safely with ClearCheckbook
There are numerous ways to manage your money, Wesabe, Mint, just to mention a few but I have always found these to be a bit limiting. Mint for example requires your bank account information which is a major drawback. I always speak up against all this privacy obsession, but while I don’t care if [...]
There are numerous ways to manage your money, Wesabe, Mint, just to mention a few but I have always found these to be a bit limiting. Mint for example requires your bank account information which is a major drawback. I always speak up against all this privacy obsession, but while I don’t care if [...]
There are numerous ways to manage your money, Wesabe, Mint, just to mention a few but I have always found these to be a bit limiting. Mint for example requires your bank account information which is a major drawback.
I always speak up against all this privacy obsession, but while I don’t care if someone gets to my personal thoughts, I do care if they get to my money. There is a heated debate about Mint’s safety and policies and even if you don’t mind that part, if you have bank accounts outside the US, Mint won’t work anyway.
Enter ClearCheckbook, stage right, one of the best money management apps I’ve seen in a while that won’t require you to surrender all your personal info. Manage multiple accounts, savings, credit cards, cash, Paypal and so on easily, with overviews, statistics and summaries readily available. Of course the negative side of the app is that you need to do everything manually. You don’t have to share your info, but this means the app doesn’t pull anything from your bank account either. For me this is a huge positive side to things because it gives me much more flexibility. Let me show you a bit more about this extremely helpful application.
Setting up
I needed a simple but effective app to tighten my grip on my expenses and ClearCheckbook impressed me right from the start. With the simple few step process you will set up your accounts in no time, designating an initial sum for each. Since you are not tied to your bank accounts you can create “fictional” accounts for anything you wish. If you like to put $20 in a jar each month you can create an account named “jar” and designate an initial sum. You will be able to add transactions in the same way. While this seems like a weird use of the application it is very life-like, you could even use it to track a loan you gave to someone. To add an initial fund to a credit card account you will need to either withdraw or deposit that amount while all other accounts have an “initial amount” option. There are a few reasons why this is technically more accurate, but I see no reason why it is complicated. Nevertheless, it’s still pretty easy to set up stuff. You can even modify the initial sum at any time if you want to reset your account, or balance it.
Daily use
Of course setting up is all nice and easy, but the real task is to track your daily expenses right? I’ve only been using ClearCheckbook for a week, but since I have been moving I used it heavily. It manages to really help you, and not bog you down with micromanagement. Just click on add an entry, choose account, amount, date, category and name. Adding an item takes about 10 seconds for me, even if I add a new category and spend some time on the transaction name, so you won’t spend minutes and hours pushing sums about.
The Summary screen is also great for daily use, showing a list of recent transactions, which can be filtered by certain categories. You can also view your account balances and the total, a great place to get some at a glance info about how you stand financially.
The summary screen also enables quick editing of items (just click and go, nice inline editing implemented), you can modify every aspect, plus you get the option to jive an entry. Jiving basically means checking that the amount matches your bank statement. Since you aren’t pulling data from your account but editing manually, this is a nice function to have. However if you have a lot of transactions, I doubt you want to spend 3 hours each month to go through all your entries. If you find a discrepancy between your ClearCheckbook and your real account, just add correction transactions for the relevant amount.
Reports
Actually reports are not that important to me, but they are a cool way to visualize your account and see when your earnings are going up or down in general. You can see total spending compared to withdrawals, then by account, you can even take a look at spending by category. My current standing there is Food - 90%, Hygiene - 10%. Is that something I should hide? As you use it more and more these statistics become more and more relevant and useful, if you have 2-3 transactions daily you should have some usable data within a month.
That’s about it for reports, which is enough for me, but what is a real help is the search option which let’s you find any transaction, at any time, for any amount. Searches are quick and productive, you’ll be able to find that “lost” transaction in seconds.
Management Tools
What surprised me are the amount of tools ClearCheckbook offers. CheckBot for example is a way to interact with your account using different platforms, like AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Gtalk, or even your mobile phone, which can be a great asset if you’re on the run.
You can also set up reminders and recurring transactions. For people like me this is a blessing, I am not the best in keeping track of my monthly bills and so on. Now I can just input them and off I go, worry free. Spending limits can provide the same auto-regulators that some people need, and while they don’t actually stop you from spending, they might make you sit down and think about it.
There are some other nice features like importing, a sort of notepad, refreshing accounts and so on, plus some basic features like managing categories and accounts of course.
Is ClearCheckbook right for me?
Well, this is up for you to decide. Give it a go and share your experiences, thoughts, rival products in the comments. For me this is the perfect solution since I can add any account from the cash in my hand to the money in my Paypal account to my allocated Poker funds.
There are no privacy concerns or at least ones that could compromise your real account and although you have to manually add stuff, this can be done pretty quickly and easily. I think I like this much more that other apps out there, but let us know what you think!
(By) Daniel changes his signature lines all the time because although he has a blog about organization, Hack Your Day, he can be a bit all over the place at times. He also has a blog management service called Blogtastique which helps newbie and pro bloggers in anything they need.”
More from MakeUseOf.com :
- MakeUseOf Directory : Read about up-to 5 truly useful web apps on a daily basis.
- MakeUseOf ‘Geeky Fun’: - Fun Geeky Pics, Cartoons and Videos.
Related posts
LG's BD300 Network Blu-ray player to stream Netflix in September
LG's BD300 Network Blu-ray player to stream Netflix in September
We've been following the rumor since January, today it's official: LG's BD300 Network Blu-ray Disc Player will begin streaming Netflix movies in the US this September. The player will cost "well under $500" and allow Netflix members to stream more than 12,000 standard definition TV and films through the device at no additional increase to their monthly paid subscriptions. Members will use the Netflix website to add movies or TV to their individual instant queues. Movies will begin playing in as little as 30 seconds when selected from the TV where users can browse, make selections, read synopses, rate movies, and fast-forward / rewind video streams using the BD300's remote control. While specs on the player itself are scarce, we do know that it supports BD Live and LG's SimpLink technology to integrate easily with LG TVs and AV products. One thing's for sure, with this deal announced and those with Roku and the Xbox 360 in the bag, it looks like Netflix is grown-up and ready for the digital age.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments 
Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Portable Video
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
MacBreak 76: Studio: Motion 3 Paint
MacBreak 76: Studio: Motion 3 Paint
Mark Spencer returns to show us the new paint features in Motion 3.
Mark Spencer returns to show us the new paint features in Motion 3.
Manage Your Money Safely with ClearCheckbook
Manage Your Money Safely with ClearCheckbook
There are numerous ways to manage your money, Wesabe, Mint, just to mention a few but I have always found these to be a bit limiting. Mint for example requires your bank account information which is a major drawback. I always speak up against all this privacy obsession, but while I don’t care if [...]
There are numerous ways to manage your money, Wesabe, Mint, just to mention a few but I have always found these to be a bit limiting. Mint for example requires your bank account information which is a major drawback. I always speak up against all this privacy obsession, but while I don’t care if [...]
There are numerous ways to manage your money, Wesabe, Mint, just to mention a few but I have always found these to be a bit limiting. Mint for example requires your bank account information which is a major drawback.
I always speak up against all this privacy obsession, but while I don’t care if someone gets to my personal thoughts, I do care if they get to my money. There is a heated debate about Mint’s safety and policies and even if you don’t mind that part, if you have bank accounts outside the US, Mint won’t work anyway.
Enter ClearCheckbook, stage right, one of the best money management apps I’ve seen in a while that won’t require you to surrender all your personal info. Manage multiple accounts, savings, credit cards, cash, Paypal and so on easily, with overviews, statistics and summaries readily available. Of course the negative side of the app is that you need to do everything manually. You don’t have to share your info, but this means the app doesn’t pull anything from your bank account either. For me this is a huge positive side to things because it gives me much more flexibility. Let me show you a bit more about this extremely helpful application.
Setting up
I needed a simple but effective app to tighten my grip on my expenses and ClearCheckbook impressed me right from the start. With the simple few step process you will set up your accounts in no time, designating an initial sum for each. Since you are not tied to your bank accounts you can create “fictional” accounts for anything you wish. If you like to put $20 in a jar each month you can create an account named “jar” and designate an initial sum. You will be able to add transactions in the same way. While this seems like a weird use of the application it is very life-like, you could even use it to track a loan you gave to someone. To add an initial fund to a credit card account you will need to either withdraw or deposit that amount while all other accounts have an “initial amount” option. There are a few reasons why this is technically more accurate, but I see no reason why it is complicated. Nevertheless, it’s still pretty easy to set up stuff. You can even modify the initial sum at any time if you want to reset your account, or balance it.
Daily use
Of course setting up is all nice and easy, but the real task is to track your daily expenses right? I’ve only been using ClearCheckbook for a week, but since I have been moving I used it heavily. It manages to really help you, and not bog you down with micromanagement. Just click on add an entry, choose account, amount, date, category and name. Adding an item takes about 10 seconds for me, even if I add a new category and spend some time on the transaction name, so you won’t spend minutes and hours pushing sums about.
The Summary screen is also great for daily use, showing a list of recent transactions, which can be filtered by certain categories. You can also view your account balances and the total, a great place to get some at a glance info about how you stand financially.
The summary screen also enables quick editing of items (just click and go, nice inline editing implemented), you can modify every aspect, plus you get the option to jive an entry. Jiving basically means checking that the amount matches your bank statement. Since you aren’t pulling data from your account but editing manually, this is a nice function to have. However if you have a lot of transactions, I doubt you want to spend 3 hours each month to go through all your entries. If you find a discrepancy between your ClearCheckbook and your real account, just add correction transactions for the relevant amount.
Reports
Actually reports are not that important to me, but they are a cool way to visualize your account and see when your earnings are going up or down in general. You can see total spending compared to withdrawals, then by account, you can even take a look at spending by category. My current standing there is Food - 90%, Hygiene - 10%. Is that something I should hide? As you use it more and more these statistics become more and more relevant and useful, if you have 2-3 transactions daily you should have some usable data within a month.
That’s about it for reports, which is enough for me, but what is a real help is the search option which let’s you find any transaction, at any time, for any amount. Searches are quick and productive, you’ll be able to find that “lost” transaction in seconds.
Management Tools
What surprised me are the amount of tools ClearCheckbook offers. CheckBot for example is a way to interact with your account using different platforms, like AIM, MSN, Yahoo, Gtalk, or even your mobile phone, which can be a great asset if you’re on the run.
You can also set up reminders and recurring transactions. For people like me this is a blessing, I am not the best in keeping track of my monthly bills and so on. Now I can just input them and off I go, worry free. Spending limits can provide the same auto-regulators that some people need, and while they don’t actually stop you from spending, they might make you sit down and think about it.
There are some other nice features like importing, a sort of notepad, refreshing accounts and so on, plus some basic features like managing categories and accounts of course.
Is ClearCheckbook right for me?
Well, this is up for you to decide. Give it a go and share your experiences, thoughts, rival products in the comments. For me this is the perfect solution since I can add any account from the cash in my hand to the money in my Paypal account to my allocated Poker funds.
There are no privacy concerns or at least ones that could compromise your real account and although you have to manually add stuff, this can be done pretty quickly and easily. I think I like this much more that other apps out there, but let us know what you think!
(By) Daniel changes his signature lines all the time because although he has a blog about organization, Hack Your Day, he can be a bit all over the place at times. He also has a blog management service called Blogtastique which helps newbie and pro bloggers in anything they need.”
More from MakeUseOf.com :
- MakeUseOf Directory : Read about up-to 5 truly useful web apps on a daily basis.
- MakeUseOf ‘Geeky Fun’: - Fun Geeky Pics, Cartoons and Videos.
Related posts
NY Bar Association to continue Mac-free policy
Lawyers taking bar exams in New York have once again foregone the use of a Mac this year, according to information from the state's Board of Law Examiners. Since 2003, people taking the exam have been given the option of using special software, which can be preloaded on notebooks for answering the essay and MPT sections of the test. The Board has...
Read More
MacBreak 81: iPhone Camping
MacBreak 81: iPhone Camping
Merlin chats with buyers in line outside the Apple store in San Francisco waiting to buy the new iPhone.
Merlin chats with buyers in line outside the Apple store in San Francisco waiting to buy the new iPhone.
VMware and Parallels for Virtual Machines
It doesn't matter if you're running on Windows or Mac OS X - every power user needs either Parallels or VMware (or both). There's never been an easier way to test software without destroying your primary operating system's stability. Think of how many times you wish you could press a 'reverse' button on your computer. Plus, there's no easier way to try new Linux distributions - see what all the fuss is about. Run Windows in OS X, run Linux in Windows, but the best way to do either is with VMware and/or Parallels. Read More
Adobe ships Lightroom 2
Filed under: Software
Adobe announced today that Lightroom 2, a major update to their photography workflow app, is now available. Lightroom 2 will cost you $299, with an upgrade price of $99, but it includes a host of new features, improvements, and general whizbangery.The biggest news for Mac users is that Lightroom 2 is Adobe's first native 64-bit app for OS X. Also new in Lightroom 2:
- Libraries can span harddrives
- Customizable print templates
- Smart Collections to automatically organize photos
Lightroom 2 requires OS X 10.4 or above, and a 1 GHz G4 processor or better.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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