Technology Guides

Microsoft’s new browser, Internet Explorer 8, or IE8, is being released to web developers for testing purposes, but basically anyone can get it. The first public beta aims to introduce consumers to 5 new features available on the new browser from Microsoft. Activities, WebSlices, Favourites Bar, Improved Phishing Filter, and Automatic Crash Recovery are the five main improvements on the new browser. It maintains though the same core from Internet Explorer 7. Microsoft was just planning on building on top of a fairly successful browser, so don’t expect any major overhauls. For this article I will go over the five major adjustments on the new browser.

Activities

Probably one of the biggest features on IE8, Activities aims to provide easy access to performing tasks such as mapping addresses, putting things on blog, or doing any sort of activity you can think of. When first setting it up, they had a list of default providers for certain activities. For example, if you right clicked an address and chose to map it, it would directly go to Live Maps. If you don’t like Live Maps you can always change the provider. At first there were only Microsoft programs, but now they have expanded slightly with Google, Facebook, Stumbleupon, MSNBC, and others. My only beef is that you can’t add your own providor with just the URL, such as blogging with WordPress.

Improved Phishing Filter

As the sub-title states, Microsoft has finally got some sort of decent phishing filter to combat today’s evil enemies on the web. It not only blocks sites known to be phishing ones, but it also blocks sites known to be malicious with harmful downloads. It takes McAfee SiteAdvisor a step further from just listing the danger level.

Internet Explorer 8

Automatic Crash Recovery

While a key feature on Firefox, Explorer has yet to include this feature until this release. I myself have many times found myself in a position in Firefox when I’ve had multiple tabs open and then all of a sudden the browser crashes. I find it not a big deal though because I can just restart as my tabs are saved. On Internet Explorer it takes that a step forward by automatically restarting your browser as if nothing happened. One benefit of Firefox not restarting by itself, is it gives me a wake up call to maybe consider getting off the computer.

Favourites Bar

The Favourites Bar in IE8 replaces the Links Bar. It’s basically what the name says, all your favourites that you want monitored go here. On top of that though, you can also place feeds, WebSlices and documents all on there for quick, one-click access. When the WebSlices or feeds are updated, it will appear in a bold formatting to let you know of the update content. Like the old Links Bar, you can drag links from the web page and insert it directly onto the bar. Now you can do that, plus insert it from the address bar.

WebSlices

WebSlices is the second most hyped about feature on IE8 after Activities.  The bad part about it is, is that it only works with certain websites such as Facebook or eBay. It’s much like an RSS feed but works with different things. RSS feeds look at posts whereas WebSlices focuses on more interactive things such as auctions and weather. It works with the Favourites Bar as when you see the content you want to be constantly updated on you click the icon and it will appear there. Whenever it’s updated, the icon will appear bold. The cool thing is, when you click it, it doesn’t open a new page just yet, it just gives you a preview, giving you the option to either open the full page or delete the WebSlice, all from the comfort of your current page.

Conclusion

Internet Explorer 8 is definitly an improvement over the previous version even though it’s in beta 1. There are still some quirks to work out like the speed of it and maybe introduce some new websites to WebSlices because it’s something they can take advantage of. I’ll still stick to Firefox 3.0 because of it’s simplicity yet raw power with all the add-ons. But it’s now nice to know if I want a change of pace, I can open up IE8. To download the beta 1 go to Internet Explorer 8 Home Page (opens in a new window).

With Rogers bringing the iPhone to Canada on July 11th, the other service providers had to do something, and do something quick. So Bell presents to Canada, the Samsung Instinct. While it isn’t necessarily quick, as it debuts sometime on August 8th, the Samsung Instinct offers much of the same features that the iPhone does, representing a true iPhone killer in my mind. One key flaw that the Instinct has though is that it can’t be used as a tethered device where the phone is used to get wireless signals for a laptop. Another difference, although not that big in my mind is the fact it only supports up to 8GB of storage with it’s microSD card. With bigger and bigger mp3 devices out on the market, I can imagine this will be a selling point for the iPhone for many people.

Samsung Instinct

Potential customers will be enticed by the lower price point of the actual phone and plans. The phone will start at $149.95 with a 3-year contract but is available with 1,2 and no contract as well with the highest price point being $449.95. The plans are also cheaper than the iPhones’ starting as low as $40 a month and with more to offer, it’s obviously a much better deal. “The lowest price plan for the Instinct includes 100 minutes of local calls for $20; 1,000 minutes of voice calls from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. and weekends (Fridays from 9 p.m. to Mondays at 7 a.m.); an $8.95 monthly system access fee; 75 cents for 911 emergency calls, and the $10 unlimited Internet plan. The monthly total comes to $39.70 before taxes.”Globe and Mail.

The Instinct has a full-touch screen with haptic feedback, meaning it responds when keys are pressed, and connects to the EV-DO Rev A high-speed data network. It also supports Web browsing and Internet e-mail (including Hotmail and Gmail accounts), as well as attachments. Features such as the global positioning system as well as live and on-demand TV.

Update: Rogers has announced new lower data plans to combat the negative criticsm it has received for its pricing. It’s only a limited time offer from July 11 to the end of August and will be available to all 3G phone purchases in that time frame. Previously a 6GB data plan would have cost you $100 but now they are offering a $30 plan. It’s still no match for Bell’s offer of $10 for unlimited data but it’s a step in the right direction.

You’ve now bought that expensive mp3 player and you’ve loaded all your songs onto it, yet when you go to listen to them it doesn’t come out as nice as you’d expected. That’s because you are using those crummy old earbuds the “Big Companies” gave you. Most people are foolish enough to keep on using them, but I on the other hand have myself a pair of Sony headphones that do a good job of canceling out the noise. However, they aren’t true noise canceling headphones as they just try to do the job with padded ear muffs. They do provide much better sound then your average earbuds and headphones but sadly I’ll have to give them away this summer as my brother wants them back. So today I’ll review 3 of my favourite headphones as replacements. All of them aren’t new to the game except for Creative but they are all respected brands (Creative, Sony, and Bose). They all offer different qualities: the Creative is more value based, whereas the Sony and Bose give you more, but at a higher price tag. The Sony offers over the ear headphones, whereas Bose offers on the ear.

Bose QuietComfort 3

Bose set out to make smaller, more versatile headphones when compared to its sibling, the QuietComfort 2, which is still on sale by the way. They did that but had to sacrifice a bit of sound quality, although not much to make a huge impact. The headphones offer memory foam as an offset to reduce the effect of switching to an on ear design. It does press on your ears a bit more but I find it’s a better and more comfortable fit than the over the ear since I wear glasses. Like the Sony model, the QuietComfort 3 only offers the noise canceling feature turned on, so if your battery runs out, no music. One thing to note though is that the QC3′s come with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that they say will last you 20 hours on a full charge and it comes out for easy recharging. That’s plenty for a plane trip or just walking the streets of downtown. $350.

Bose Quiet Comfort 3

Sony MDR-NC500D

These headphones are obviously bigger than the QC3 and compare in size to most noise canceling headphones like the Creative Aurvana. They offer a slick, black design, and over the ear comfort (for some). The cushy padding along the cups and adjustable band make for quality comfort but all this does not necessarily justify it’s price tag of $450. Like the QC3, you are forced to use the noise canceling feature all the time but with approx. 16 hours of battery life and options to extend it with a battery pack that support 2AA batteries, that feature shouldn’t be a worry, although I do admit, it’s another gadget to charge and not something that’s burned into our brains like charging cell phones, and even those we forgot to charge once in a while. The big plus on these headphones is the noise canceling feature that surpasses the Bose.

“it uses what’s known as feedback type noise canceling, meaning the microphone is placed near the ear rather than on the outside of the earcup (known as “feedforward”). This allows the unit to better analyze what sounds are actually coming straight at the eardrum, whereas the feedforward has to estimate what the sound will be once it reaches the ear. Thus, a feedback type can more accurately adjust to environmental noise, increasing the effectiveness of the noise cancellation.” -CNET

There’s a digital aspect to it as well where the digital equalizer and software engine analyze the outside to noise to better understand what type of noise isolation to use whether it be airplane, train, or downtown. These two features of noise cancellation, are the reasons why Sony prices this model so high.

Creative Aurvana X-Fi

This last headphone model is not necessarily the worst, but it does have the lowest price tag which will have some readers smiling. This is more of a value based buy but it has some very good features that would make it seem that you aren’t skimping on the product. The bad part of these headphones is they aren’t as portable and they let a lot of sound get out for all the world to hear. They, however do a good job at enhancing the bass through Creatives X-Fi technology and do a good job to keep other noises out. The main difference maker on this model, is that it offers the ability to switch between noise canceling feature on or off. This means you can listen to music without the feature and if you’re out of battery. I believe that these offer slightly better sound than the Sony and Bose but only because of the size. $250.

Creative Aurvana

Conclusion

From what I’ve written hear, you can probably tell what I’m going to say here. All my choices here are fairly expensive so if you are in the market for noise canceling headphones and can pay this much here is what you should buy. For buyers interested in a compact set for use with mp3 players and music phones, the Bose QuietComfort 3s’ are the way to go (Bose offers adapters for music phones). For buyers interested in a value based set of headphones and don’t mind the size, then the Creative Aurvana X-Fi headphones are for you. Finally if you are a buyer who is really picky about keeping outside noise out then the Sony set is destined for you. Happy Buying!

There has been an age old question that’s been asked in the consumer industry and that is whether or not the ink that is made from manufacturers’ is better than third party vendors such as DollarInk. Let’s review the benefits of replacement ink: it’s cheaper and claims to yield as many prints as the OEM version (original equipment manufacturer) and be just as good quality. The OEM version however, claims that the premium ink is worth paying for as it has better quality and lasts longer. Let’s put it to the test.

Replacement Ink vs. OEM

While right off the bat, you save about 50% the sticker price, you aren’t necessarily getting the most bang for your buck. Replacement ink provides you with more prints yet most of the time, it doesn’t provide you with as good a quality printout as an OEM cartridge would. This means more vertical banding, less colours, and a more washed out picture. Another disadvantage of replacement ink is it doesn’t last as long. When put under a UV ray for an extended period of time, studies show a dramatic loss of picture from replacement ink printouts, sometimes over 50% loss of image.

Conclusion

Personally, printers are cheap enough now for you to purchase two of them and use premium ink from the OEM on one of them and replacement ink on the other. Because face it, not all of your printouts need to be crystal clear or stay there forever. An added benefit to this situation is the replacement ink gets used to its best ability, printing out as many copies as possible. You can use it as a test printer for images, and use it to print out unimportant lists and other documents that don’t need to last long and are only seen by you. There is a system out there for you, to use both types of inks and these are only a few suggestions. Good luck printing.

Sony has long been reputable for it’s camera’s which have been spun-off, to be included in their Sony Ericsson phones, one of which I’m a proud owner of. They take great pictures and are always on the cutting edge of technology. This camera is no exception to that rule, the W300 launched as one the only point-and-shoot camera’s with 13.6 megapixels, killing any rumours that the race for the most megapixels was dying.

Look

The camera is coated with ultra-high titanium with a high-end finish that will cover up and prevent most of the scratches and fingerprints you put its way. The camera comes in only one colour which is black so surprisingly, Sony hasn’t offered an array of colours that sometimes include pink.

Usability

For the older generation, Sony has taken into consideration that the baby boomers eyes are not as good as they used to be and can’t fully utilize the LCD screen, especially outside. My parents never use the LCD screen because they can’t see it, so they are forced to use the viewfinder. It makes it very easy for them to eliminate competition if they don’t have a viewfinder. The W300 is still in the running as it is accompanied with a viewfinder just over the 2.7” LCD screen.

The layout of the buttons and controls are always an important factor to consider when purchasing a camera. If you can’t get the right settings quick, the opportunity might have passed. The LCD screen takes a huge portion of the back of the camera so Sony was forced to place all the controls on the right and thus it may lack much freedom. So if you’ve got chubby fingers or maybe a little bit clumsy, this might not be good for you. The buttons seem to be squished together as their are a lot of them in a small compact area. The zoom is in the top right hand corner, and below that is a turn-table for the scene selection (which to be honest, isn’t used that much anyway), and at the bottom right is D-pad for menu movement and selection.

There are two buttons on the bottom for easy access to two things. The first is to review your pictures and videos taken which is much better than the timeline access where you have to push the button sideways to change from shooting mode, to slideshow mode, to video mode. The second button is to use the feature PHOTOMUSIC. It allows for a more creative slideshow letting you upload up to 8 tracks, each 5 minutes in length and play them alongside your photos.

Features

Along with PhotoMusic, Sony has included many intelligent features like SmileShutter, double anti-blur protection, in-camera retouching, and a wide array of scene modes. My favourite scene mode has to be the burst mode that can shoot 5 frames per second for those high action moments. The camera includes 13 scene modes, so you can really experiment with this camera. The SmileShutter is a useful feature as it allows you to give up control to the camera as to when it takes the picture. Obviously by the name you can tell, that when everybody you’ve selected has a smile on, the camera captures the picture. Now all we need is an eye shutter to work in combination with the SmileShutter technology so everybody is smiling and eyes open when the picture is taken. A friend of mine has a Sony camera with in-camera retouching capabilities much like this one does. It’s very handy to make simple adjustments to your photo like: cropping, red-eye removal, adding effects, and recolouring.

Conclusion

For the price of approx. $349, this camera is an absolute steal. It’s got 13.6 megapixels, Super HAD™ CCD imager and the precision-crafted Carl Zeiss® Vario-Tessar® lens. It further enhances picture quality with the Bionz Imaging Processor. Enabling high image resolution and fast reflex, this state-of-the-art processor achieves crisp, clean images by improving noise reduction. On top of that you can view your digital photos directly from the LCD screen or plug your camera into a Full HD TV for an eye-opening experience. For a point and shoot camera, I would look no further than this camera.

When Yahoo first acquired the rights to use Rocketmail in 1997 it never dreamed of using it today, to try and help push forward in Web 2.0. With Facebook and Myspace continuing to dominate peoples way of communication, companies like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft are trying to find ways to bring the young generation back and make things seem relevant again. One way to do that, is to offer a new email address where the options are unlimited in terms of what’s before the @ symbol. The most recent company to do this was Microsoft with @live.ca and the more popular rollout was with Google and Gmail (@gmail.com). Now Yahoo plans to do it again, but with two choices, Rocketmail and YMail.

These two domains will be available for you to acquire 4pm Thursday June 19, 2008 at the main Yahoo Mail page.

Why bother with this you ask. We’ll all the mail clients are being pushed back by the younger generation and so Yahoo is losing traffic which is the backbone of their advertising revenue. Without traffic, Yahoo loses tons of money. “There are lots of companies trying to extend the e-mail box further and have it be your dashboard for your personal life,” he said. “It keeps your brand attached to the user experience.”

Get your new domain name today, and be sure to spread the word.

I downloaded Windows Folder Share in a bid to sync my computer with my one downstairs almost instantly. After trying and failing with many other applications, I was pleased to find this was set up nicely in the beginning. First off, you need to download the application, FolderShare, for all of the computers you want access to and be able to sync with one another. With this, you need a user account that surprisingly does not have to be a Live account. The great thing, and drawback is you don’t sync the whole computer, rather you sync individual folders.

Once the account was created, and the application was downloaded on both my laptop and desktop, I found an easy to use interface that showed me the computers that were online and what I could do with them. With FolderShare, you can share folders not only with your computers, but you can share folders with friends. Basically there are two things you can do right off the bat from the main menu: sync folders with your friends or your computers.

Sync With Friends

First create a personal library to share with your friends. This really means, pick the folder which you’d like to be able to share with your friends. You can choose from any of the computers that are online at that time. All of your computers might not be available because they might be turned off and therefore you won’t have access to them at that time. Then you’ll click the folder which you’d like to share and at the bottom hit “Create Library Here”. Then add all the emails and their associated permissions (4 to choose from) and send out those invitations. They would then download the application and then pick where they’d like to sync your folder, on their computer. Once they’ve chosen it will start syncing intitially as Foldershare placeholder file and then over a short period of time they will become their true files. In literally seconds, files will automatically show up if you change it on one computer which is amazing for a free beta program.

Sync Across Your Computers

To sync across your computers you do need the application on both computers but it’s very easy to do. First on one computer choose the folder you’d like to share and hit “Create Library Here”. Then choose the other computer you want to sync with that folder. You’re done and automatically the files will be there next time you go to that computer.

At first, it might be a little daunting to understand how it works because the new language “library” might be confusing. Another improvement that might be in the works is the folder selection. For example if you want to share the folder called “Pictures” you have to click it and then hit “Create Library Here” even though it shows no files or folders.

On July 11th, American and Canadian consumers will be able to purchase the 3G versions of the Apple iPhone. Even people who bought the 2.5G iPhone on or after May 27 will be able to switch their phone with the 3G phone for no cost at all except their old, inferior iPhone. In the US, it will cost consumers there $199 for the 8GB version and $299 for the 16GB version and should be north of that, north of the border where I’ve been hearing $299 for the base version. Why should Canadians pay more for the phone though? We already pay more monthly with Rogers APRU (Average Revenue Per User) at $72 compared to AT&T’s current ARPU of just $49. With the new spectrum being auctioned off, it should lower prices but after the iPhone release, analysts are expecting an ARPU rise of $30 or more.

Back to the phone though. The Apple version of 3G technology will blow away the previous generation of that technology, EDGE, and even beat current 3G speeds with 36% faster pageloads than competitors like the Nokia N95. It will be open to 3rd party apps and the phone will be available internationally. Battery power wasn’t forgotten in the development of this version unlike the new Blackberry, which from rumours seems to lack a decent battery life. The 3G iPhone will have 300 hours of standby, 9 hours of 2G talk, 5 hours of 3G talk, 24 hours of audio, and 7 hours of video.

GPS is going to be standard, using A-GPS, which works in conjunction with regular satellite GPS data and cell towers for much faster location times. On top of that, they’ve thrown Wi-Fi into the mix to lock up your exact location. Apple isn’t fooling around here with so many solid features being rolled into one, at a cheaper and slightly smaller package. Although there isn’t a user interface change or exterior change, Apple still presents a good product to the market.