Opera 10 is quietly being sampled out to beta testers

Download Opera 10 Alpha

From the Opera Website:

“Note that this alpha release is not intended to show off the full feature set of Opera 10—that will be a while off. It is the first public release of the Opera Presto 2.2 rendering engine, which will be present in Opera 10, made available so you can start trying out some of the new Web technology support. ”

We love to play with shiny new toys so we downloaded Opera 10 alpha for a spin.  This is a nice browser.  Most of the compatibility problems with Opera’s famous strict standards adherence are gone.

Speed is way way up!

The classic Opera speed dial is even better.

While Opera 10 is probably, today, not a good choice for your default browser, this is absolutely worth a look. In fact, I have no bugs to report in my use and this story was just published using it.  That’s better than Apple Safari 4 with which I could not publish anything.

I will publish a speed test report comparing it to Explorer 8, Firefox 3.1, Apple Safari 4 and Google Chrome when it gets to be Opera 10 Beta instead of Alpha.

Popularity: 15% [?]

I saw that Apple has released Safari 4 Beta

I love the way that Apple approaches design and I keep hoping upon hope that they will someday deliver a better, faster  browser instead of one that seems fast for a few things but cannot be your day to day default browser.

I think Firefox is great, fast and ugly.  I know you can skin it, etc.  You cannot turn an ugly troll like Firefox and Explorer into a princess like Safari 4 Beta.  You also cannot teach that princess (Safari 4) to walk and chew gum at the same time. Continue Reading

Popularity: 18% [?]

Apple, “We deliver freedom from choice. In the age of Open Source, we give you closed, proprietary products.”

I have a low opinion of Apple’s technical capabilities and here’s why:

Brief History:

• Apple releases Appletalk Remote Access which was stolen from Microcom’s MNP4 and then had 2 bytes switched so Apple could make it proprietary. Then Apple broke the compression in other ways to make sure industry standard devices could not function.  They licensed that ‘technology’ to third party vendors who wanted compatibility. All this while the internet and TCP/IP was starting to explode!  I know, I was there. I consulted to the ARA team at Apple. Continue Reading
  

  Popularity: 15% [?]

I’ve used Avid, Adobe Premier, Pinnacle and even open source/free video editors. What I have not used before is video editing software that is as intuitive as Sony Vegas 9 Movie Studio Platinum. Ok, so it’s probably only intuitive to people who have experience in video editing, but having had projects using many different systems, I am very impressed with Sony’s offering.

Without consulting a manual or reading anything about it at all, I’ve just assumed that it works like a video editing software and viola, it does.  No strange quirks or annoyances, just productivity. All the menus, structure and symbols in the user interface are easy to interpret and follow industry standards (possibly the first time Sony has bothered with things like that). Continue Reading

Popularity: 18% [?]

Windows 7 Beta - One Month In, What Do We Know Now?

It’s been about a month since we loaded version Microsoft Windows 7 Beta version 7000 (official Microsoft Windows 7 Beta) on our test computers here at the office.

I thought it might help people if I shared a list of what seems to work, what has problems and what we did to get things going.  Here is our list and our install notes.

At the end of the article we give our top tips for Microsoft Windows 7 Beta Compatibility for your applications and games.

If you have any additions, things you’d like us to test or problems, please use the comments and we’ll get you an answer on every single item. Continue Reading

Popularity: 20% [?]

Garmin GPS Nuvi 350 Series Report

Garmin really does dominate the GPS business these days.  Looking at the Google search statistics for it versus it’s competition shows that it has nearly 10 times the search volume of competitors TomTom and Magellan.  I knew they were popular, but really 10x? That’s a powerful brand.

The Garmin GPS Nuvi 350 is a mid level unit designed for easy mounting in cars but can be used as a portable GPS as well.  It’s extremely well priced for the functions included, but one might wonder if a few dollars more for the 360 series might now be a better buy.  Among the feature upgrades included in the Garmin GPS 360 are blutooth hands-free phone connections. Continue Reading

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It’s been an interesting day.  I’ve had a job related assignment to review online backup services including the free backup online and online data backup services that you’re starting to see advertised now more and more heavily.

We tested three well known online backup service products on Windows 7 and Windows Vista SP2.  The results were not pretty.  I found I could not recommend any of them.  In fact, they were so new and so unfinished, that I am not allowed to even name them or discuss them here.

I posted as much on a message board (forum) I hang out on and got a response in just a few minutes that I should try Mozy.  Good call. Continue Reading

Popularity: 17% [?]

AVG, my personal absolute best pick for Antivirus and Anti Spyware for Windows 7 / Vista suffered an attack on their website which as of this writing is still not repaired. I’ve attempted to reach the contacts their and let them know, but nobody is answering the technical contact telephone number.

In addition to modifying the home page, they have disabled all the downloads and insterted a . in front of the clickable links for trial download of AVG 8.

They are a high profile target to be sure and they are certainly not the first anti virus antispyware company to be hacked. Their products are still the best I’ve ever used and on Windows 7, not a single bug, not a single problem and all third party applications report the system as clean as well.

I still highly (yes my mother uses it) reccomend their AVG 8 for Windows Vista and Windows 7 Beta.

See if it’s still hacked and if not, download the NEW AVG 8 FREE TRIAL becuase it’s fantastic! AVG WEBSITE

Popularity: 19% [?]

Amazon Kindle 2 Reader

Check out thes hot new pictures of the AmazonKindle 2 Reader.  Just leaked pictures show the product to be announced (reportedly) on Feb-9.

Amazon has upgraded the Kindle 2 Reader with a thinner, lighter design, metal back plate and quite ipod style design cues.  It even comes with stereo audio and headphone jacks.

It’s EV-DO wireless equipped & 2gb memory.  It looks like a form factor upgrade more than a core technology upgrade.  That’s good, becuase I found the original Amazon Kindle reader too bulky, boxy and more than a little retro. Continue Reading

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Yahoo Search Marketing Promotion.  This deal is no deal. Where I am from it’s called fraud.

Recently I was asked to set up an online advertising campaign to promote a friends business.  I was going to set up a Google Adwords account for them, but I saw this great offer from Yahoo Search Marketing Small Business and decided that I’d set up both an Adwords account and a Yahoo Search Marketing account using this advertiser coupon / bonus / credit. Continue Reading

Popularity: 15% [?]