I’ve had mp3skull bookmarked forever now, but more and more lately I find myself using it to find download links for singles (rather than full albums). Full albums just aren’t worth it anymore especially when I only seem to like one or two songs off of a 15-track disc.
So that’s where mp3skull comes in. Use it to enlarge your DJ tracklist, or just use it to skirt paying $1.99 for higher bitrate mp3s. It’s just a nice site I’d like to share and add to my collection here on the site.
(Via Doobybrain.com.)
Last time, I discussed the things that shaped the web design industry in 2010. Now, let’s look forward to what’s ahead this year. I won’t be making crazy, outlandish predictions; instead, I’ll be talking about things that will likely continue to exert an ever-increasing influence on our industry this year.
Flash? I can hear people seriously questioning my mental state right now. How can Flash be a major influence this year? ‘But…but…but Flash is fighting to survive amidst HTML5 APIs,’ you must be saying to yourself. But that is where the key is.
If Flash does die, it will die fighting. And, as we all know, the best innovations happen when companies are fighting for their survival. Think about how Apple almost went bankrupt in the 90s, and now they are industry innovators with products such as iTunes, iPad, Macbook Air, and iPhone.
I doubt Flash will ever vanish from the web completely, even amidst open technologies like JavaScript and HTML. With this battle ahead, Flash must prove its worth; it must innovate, stand up, and say, ‘Look, this is what I can do for you that HTML5 and JavaScript won’t be able to.’
Adobe, the company that owns Flash, knows that it’s under serious threat against open HTML5 APIs such as canvas, audio, and video that leverage JavaScript for creating rich media components with animation and dynamic drawing capabilities — an area that their product has been primarily fulfilling.
Because of this realization, they’re one of the first companies working on creating an HTML5 editor/IDE, starting with their HTML5 prototyping tool (codenamed Edge). They have also incorporated HTML5 canvas-exporting capabilities in Flash CS5.
Adobe has continued the development of Flash to increase its performance, especially on mobile devices with the release of Flash Player 10.1 for mobile devices.
Expect to see something out of Flash this year, whether its innovation, a repurposing of the technology, or a significant drop in usage.
I regularly pick up and read a newspaper, but it would certainly be true that I am among a declining number of people who are doing so.
An industry that has significantly influenced and inspired web designers and content-driven websites (such as blogs, for example), the traditional print medium is under threat.
But it’s fighting back.
Among those under threat are print companies that produce content in a more disposable form, such as newspapers and magazines where speed and timeliness is crucial.
From paywalls to mobile apps, companies in the printed world are exploring ways to adapt to the web so that they may continue delivering the quality content they’re known to produce. If The Times, for example, can make their paywall work, then don’t be surprised to see other similar print media companies throwing up paywalls across the web and potentially influencing the culture of free content on the internet.
A big area where newspapers and magazines are focusing on is the Mobile Web. Reading a magazine on the desktop isn’t that great of an experience, but sitting with an iPad while you have your morning coffee and breakfast can easily compare to the experience. iPad apps, accompanied by subscription-based payment models, are seen as the key focus for a number of print media outlets.
It’s not just a case of traditional media being ported to apps either; the first iPad-only magazine, called Project, has already been released.
As traditionally print-based companies feel the threat from the internet, we might see innovations in the ways their websites seek monetization and revenue. Even content-driven sites, already increasingly less reliant on internet-advertisement monetization, may take cue from a medium that has heavily influenced their own. We have seen recently, for example, the Tuts+ network, which got its start on the web, offering subscription-based premium content much like The Times and the New York Times paywall.
Described as the ‘next frontier of the browser wars,’ by ReadWriteWeb, hardware acceleration is set to bring a whole new realm of speed to your browser. Opening up previously untapped processing power in your computer will enrich our browsing experience.
Widely touted by Microsoft in IE9, hardware acceleration (or hardware-accelerated browsers) is set to improve the power and speed of your browser, boosting the performance of rendering times, JavaScript performance, and HTML5 animation, audio, and video performance.
And it’s not just IE, Google Chrome and Firefox are coming out with their own hardware-accelerated browser features. Google Chrome, for example, has Tabpose and other GPU-accelerated compositing features in the works. Likewise, Firefox 4 has full hardware acceleration.
From a user’s perspective, we’re set to see improvements in the speed and quality of graphics rendering. The ability to utilize hardware more fully will mean an even richer web experience.
Watching TV on the internet and accessing the internet on your TV are the two primary ways the internet and the television industry are working together. TV on the web is already on demand with web services such as Hulu, Netflix, Fancast, and BBC iPlayer.
TV advertising revenues will inevitably drop as people increasingly watch their shows on demand rather than at their scheduled time with the programmed ads. Bandwidth is also an issue: Streaming HD video through the internet can be taxing on internet service providers.
The second focus is having the internet on your television set so that you can watch streaming video on your awesome flatscreen TV while taking advantage of the web’s interactive and socially-networked features. We have Apple TV, Google TV, internet-capable TVs, and gaming consoles such as Xbox, PlayStation, and Wii; the number of options for getting the web in your TV is near endless.
Expect industry leaders to investigate new compression and encoding technologies to assist the speed and file size of delivery of TV through the web. Expect even more innovation in the TV/web space this year.
The internet no longer sits on your desktop, and everybody from your kids to your grandmother uses the internet. You carry the internet around in your pocket, in your laptop or netbook, and in your tablet; it’s only natural that technology companies will want to take advantage of this.
Facebook has stepped into the space last year; and now, they already have over 100 million Facebook mobile users. Gowalla rolled out their latest iteration not so long ago, along with some very interesting features that highlight the power of location-awareness. The Notes feature in Gowalla, for example, allows users to leave notes about a particular location that a friend can pick up when they visit the area (e.g., ‘Dad, don’t forget to pick up milk when you come here to Costco’).
There are now also plenty of ‘near me’ applications such the SoleSearch iPhone app that uses GPS data to show you boutique sneaker retail stores near you (the app was initially built by shoe enthusiasts/entrepreneurs with no programming experience). The task management iPhone app, Omnifocus, shows great use of location awareness by allowing you to create tasks with specific locations so that your to-do lists have improved context that can increase your productivity.
We’ll see more location-aware apps that will serve you relevant information and features depending on where you are at any given moment. Combine location-aware features with other upcoming technologies such as barcode scanning, book cover recognition, Google’s speech recognition API, and augmented reality — and the possibilities suddenly becomes countless.
No doubt, an increase of pushed, location-aware content for smart phones and similar devices informing you of nearby points of interest will only rise in popularity. We’ll also see content tailored to your current location while you browse websites on your mobile phone, and even more innovation focused in this space.
(Via Six Revisions.)
If you have ever experienced identity theft yourself or even know someone who has, you know the experience can be a harrowing one. Criminals can open accounts in your name and impersonate you for a multitude of reasons – none of which are good. While thieves have been performing identity theft for a long-time offline the volume of personal information found online is astounding and these days a would-be identity thief only needs to log in from the comfort of his or her home to do their misdeeds.
That leaves the burden upon you to protect your personal information while using the internet. The only perfect way to protect yourself online and prevent identity theft is to not use it at all, but since you are reading this, I will assume that you are pretty net savvy and spend a good deal of time online. Let’s go over some tips to protect and prevent identity theft online.
A Phishing website is one that presents itself as a legitimate business website however in reality is a fake one looking for your information. They may look for a username and password but also could be looking for your name, social security number, address, and other personal information. Be vigilant if a site asks for the following information:
The request for information could be legit (for example, if you are applying for a credit card); but if it was unsolicited that should be a big red flag. If you have a question whether the site is a real one for a company, visit the organization’s main web page and call their number to ask.
Backdoors, keyloggers and other nefarious programs can allow entry to your system and they can be installed in any number of ways. The only way to be sure to protect against them is to install both anti-virus and anti-malware; vendors these days often have solutions which include both. For a current list of our top recommended anti-virus and anti-malware programs, check out MakeUseOf’s 10 best anti-virus programs.
While OpenDNS is a great way to speed up your internet connection it also has a feature that is less sexy but definitely more practical. That is that OpenDNS makes a great content filtering solution which can alert you when you visit a website which has been marked as dangerous by the awesome Phishtank service.
Another method criminals may use to obtain your personal information is by logging into your email and other online accounts and glean information from there. That is the reason that it is so important to maintain password security across all of your online accounts. Generating a secure password is the first step to prevent identity theft by keeping your accounts secure, and then Lastpass or Keepass will assist you in remembering them.
While one of the reasons that the internet is so great is that you can find sites that sell about everything, how do you know that a company will keep your information secure? You might check to see if the site is safe using one of the link checkers we mentioned or run it by the Web of Trust who also provides a browser plugin.
Social media is great and I use it all of the time, so please don’t get me wrong. But be careful how much information you give out to the general public while sharing what you are eating. I’ve seen people check into banks occasionally on FourSquare; this is bad because it lets anyone know who you use for your bank and makes you an easy target for identity theft. The private information listed above should never be divulged on social media sites as well as other information people could use to obtain that private data from you.
Part of being vigilant about identity theft is making sure someone doesn’t already have your information and is using it – the sooner you catch it the better. If you are in the United States you can get a Free Annual Credit Report, if you are in another location your country may offer a similar service.
There are a number of reasons to secure your wireless network and one of the main ones is to reduce fraud and identity theft. If you leave your wireless network open (not securing it with WPA encryption) and without a password, not only can an attacker use your network without your knowledge but can also view your website usage. This can allow them to easily build a detailed profile of you (and your family) and the websites you visit. Even if some information is encrypted (your credit card number for example) many sites do not encrypt login information and just the website names alone can help give an attacker information about you. Adding a password to your wireless network protects against this.
Similar to only shopping on reputable sites, you should only run software that come from known sources. If you download games/screensavers/warez/cracks from disreputable websites they may include backdoors and trojans that your antivirus may or may not catch. The sites mentioned above are a start but always be aware and of course keep your antivirus updated especially if you frequent those websites.
(Via MakeUseOf.com.)
K Multimedia are on a roll right now, I’m a massive fan of Amplitube 3 but then they released an iPad version of Amplitube and it just looks like iPad’s were designed to run Amplitube rather than the other way around. Aside from being visually stunning it also has the most amazing amp models too and now IK Multimedia have announced a new version for NAMM 2011 of their Fender licensed amp collection called AmpliTube Fender™ for iPad, iPhone and iPod. As you can hear the emulations of classic Fender amps and effects are incredibly realistic as we have come to expect from Amplitube but the combination of beautiful graphics and the tactile interface make it worth buying an iP
Leo really nailed it first time didn’t he, the Telecaster is such a simple, beautiful and timeless design worthy of a 60th Anniversary Celebration. It features an ash body, tinted maple neck and fretboard with modern 9.5’ radius and medium jumbo frets, American Vintage Telecaster single-coil pickups, modern tuners, American Standard bridge with bent steel saddles and stamped brass plate, black pickguard, Blackguard Blonde thin-skin lacquer finish, commemorative neckplate, and Fender/SKB® molded case.
The rich history of Fender guitars begins with the Telecaster, an enduring marvel of form and function; of style and substance. Still elegantly simple after six decades, it is the versatile voice of remarkably diverse and creative players worldwide.
Officially named the Telecaster in February 1951, the world’s first successful solid-body electric guitar turns 60. It revolutionized guitar playing, changed the sound of music and became a signature instrument for guitarists worldwide. The 60th Anniversary Telecaster blends modern Tele® technology with vintage looks for a best-of-both-worlds, collectible U.S.-made instrument.
To further distinguish it as a special instrument created for the occasion, the 60th Anniversary Telecaster bears a commemorative chrome neck plate honoring six decades of enduring Fender legacy.
Check out Fender.com for more info.
(Via Guitar Noize.)
Here’s one of the coolest products from CES: PixelOptics glasses that automatically change into bifocals when you tilt your head.
This is a godsend for those of us ‘of a certain age.’ Who wants to reveal their crotchety oldness by wearing glasses with that telltale boundary in the lens between close-up and faraway vision? Not me.
PixelOptics comes to the rescue with these electronic glasses, whose breakthrough emPower lenses use a layer of transparent liquid crystal to electronically change the lens’s optical properties to suit either nearsighted or farsighted vision.
When you’re looking straight ahead, your head is usually close to level, and a tiny accelerometer automatically sets the lenses for faraway vision. Tilt your head down to read something, and the lenses adjust for near vision. If that auto-change capability doesn’t appeal to you, you can manually adjust the visual properties of the glasses.
When we visited PixelOptics at CES, company reps told us the PixelOptics emPower lenses, manufactured by Panasonic, use exactly the same lens-grinding techniques as conventional glasses, bringing the total price of a pair of glasses down to a relatively reasonable range. They told us after you’ve charged the glasses in their inductive charger, the battery will last for three days.
The downside? You have to pay $1,200 for a pair of these glasses, considerably more than the fanciest conventional bifocals. Another slight issue is that charger felt awfully cheap and flimsy for a $1,200 product, but that would be easy enough to fix.
Those quibbles aside, it’s hard to believe the glasses’ designers fit all those sophisticated electronics and circuitry inside the temples of these futuristic specs. And just think — you won’t have that annoying line across your field of vision, nor will you need to adapt to that weird feeling of wearing bifocals.
Take a look at the stylish frames in the gallery below; they’re looking good, and exude quality. Sign me up now, because PixelOptics says they’ll be available in April.
(Via Mashable!.)
The Wall Street Journal has now confirmed the arrival of Verizon iPhones by the end of January. Verizon recently sent out invitations to a press event in New York on January 11th with rumors saying that this event will be the debut of iPhone of Verizon. (more…)
(Via ZiggyTek Blog.)
Everyone dreads being the recipient of a computer virus, but not everyone minds studying them. There are researchers who spend a lot of time looking into different types of computer viruses and related security threats in order to determine how they’re programmed, how they do damage, and how they spread. Personally, I find this field interesting, and I enjoy reading about the different types of viruses in existence.
But even if you don’t know much care, basic knowledge about security threats can be useful. It’s sometimes hard to know how a risk must be dealt with before you know its consequences. With a computer virus, however, the consequence is sometimes complete loss of your data or identity theft – so it’s best to learn sooner rather than later!
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