Technology Effect

Apple on Thursday issued the first beta of Mac OS X 10.6.7, the next security and maintenance update for its Snow Leopard operating system, to developers for testing. The first beta is dubbed Build 10J842 is a 338.6MB download in its delta form. People familiar with the first beta said that its documentation notes there are no known issues with the software. Developers have reportedly been asked to focus on AirPort, Bonjour, SMB file sharing, and graphics drivers. The first beta arrived just weeks after Apple released Mac OS X 10.6.6 for Snow Leopard. That update brought the Mac App Store, a new digital download destination to obtain software for the Mac platform. While it is unknown what new features or fixes might come in Mac OS X 10.6.7, the Mac App Store will likely prove to be the last major feature added to Snow Leopard. Apple has already begun to hype Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, its next major operating system release. Lion will bring features from iOS, including a ...

  The 2011 calendar year will finally be the year that the iPad gets some serious competition in the tablet space – and Acer is not going to take it lying down. At CES 2011 earlier this month, we had a chance to get up close and personal with the Acer 7-inch Android tablet. It’ll launch with Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS (hopefully upgrade-able to Android 3.0 Honeycomb) and will be powered by the next-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon dual-core processor clocked at an impressive 1.2 GHz and capable of “asynchronous clocking”.  We didn’t get any time to play with the custom Acer UI 4.5, but the hardware itself bodes well for Acer’s fight against the mighty Apple iPad.   First off, you’ll notice that there’s only one navigation button on the tablet. The single “Home” button adorns the front face of the tablet as a touch-sensitive capacitive button, which lights up from underneath like an orange-hued beacon to help you navigate the Android Honeycomb OS. Sure, tablets ...

It’s a bit hard for me to believe it, but here it is. That LG’s T-mobile G-Late tablet that we haven’t seen much of during the announcement at CES? Looks like the new LG tablet may be even more impressive device then Motorola Xoom. According to GPS&Co, they contacted LG France for more info, and this is what LG spokesman told them about some of the G-Slate specs: Display size – 8.9 inch 3D (!!) display allowing to view 3D content without glasses 3D recording capability (?!) LG Tegra 2 dual-core CPU USB port and HDMI connector I don’t know about you, but all this G-Slate 3D this and 3D that, sounds a bit too good to be true for a tablet in 1H 2011. Still, according to Pocket-Lint ,  LG does really have a mobile device with a 3D display coming out shortly, and can’t wait to tell us about it.  So it might as well be G-Slate. Well, it’s not a long wait anymore. Mobile World Congress is just 3 weeks away and we will definitely hea...

From our forums comes this interesting question:    "Is it possible to download the contents of an ATmega168/328, essentially backing it up so that it can somehow be restored later?    For example: Let's say I have lost the source code to a very useful program currently residing on a 328, but I need to flash it with a different sketch temporarily, then restore that original sketch. This would be useful in the case that the chip was soldered directly onto a board - a big mess to try to replace.    Is this possible in some way, perhaps by altering an ISP programmer?" The answer is that yes indeed, it is possible-- with a couple of exceptions that are worth mentioning. And on occasion, it's even very useful. Reading out the flash memory is straightforward with an AVR ISP programmer, such as the USBtinyISP, using avrdude from the command line. You'll need to have a copy of the AVR toolchain-- or at l...

As part of our planning for Natty+1, we’ll need to find some space on the CD for Qt libraries, and we will evaluate applications developed with Qt for inclusion on the CD and default install of Ubuntu. Ease of use, and effective integration, are key values in our user experience. We care that the applications we choose are harmonious with one another and the system as a whole. Historically, that has meant that we’ve given very strong preference to applications written using Gtk, because a certain amount of harmony comes by default from the use of the same developer toolkit. That said, with OpenOffice and Firefox having been there from the start, Gtk is clearly not an absolute requirement. What I’m arguing now is that it’s the values which are important, and the toolkit is only a means to that end . We should evaluate apps on the basis of how well they meet the requirement, not prejudice them on the basis of technical choices made by the developer. In evaluating an app for t...

by limbo_ Microsoft XP Support Via Remote by Expert I have been having issues with my Windows XP for a while and I decided to go online to figure what really was the best way of getting online XP support . I really wanted to hear from my peer group as to what they had in their experience as users found to be the best form of XP support. Before I really get into what I found from other online XP help users, I found recommendations from some (obviously tech savvy) users suggesting that I take a tutorial on Microsoft’s website. I don’t know about this…to feel comforted and helped you need to feel that someone is out there thinking of your problem. Just wandering through tutorials may somewhat explain a feature or two of windows XP but is certainly no substitute for online XP support. A tutorial is certainly not going to help me when I need to troubleshoot a Windows XP error. Online XP support may be of better use. Hey, its not that my mind is made up but I know what I want ...

ProCSSor – Advanced CSS Prettifier ProCSSor is a useful tool that will 'prettify' and format CSS files on the fly. ProCSSor – Advanced CSS Prettifier → ScriptSrc.net Tired of hunting down the script tag for the latest version of your Javascript Library of choice? ScriptSrc allows you to copy the latest library (jQuery, MooTools, YUI…) script tags. ScriptSrc.net → HTMLform.com With HTMLform.com all you have to do is design your HTML form and you will get a Zip file that can be very easy installed in your website, with everything needed to make it work: a form that can be embedded in any webpage, a small but very potent database to suit your needs, a tool for checking data online and a button for exporting to CSV and Excel formats. HTMLform.com → Spritebox Spritebox is a WYSIWYG tool to quickly and easily create CSS classes and IDs from a single sprite image. Spritebox → HTML Purifier HTML Purifier is a standards-compliant HTML filter library written in PHP. ...