Wow, a mutant virus? This analogy may sound like a ringing bell for another cat fight on the playground, but Acer founder and retired chairman Stan Shih is actually semi-praising Apple here. Speaking at the launch of an Acer touch-themed design competition, Shih said that while Apple's taking the "revolution" highway to tackle the PC market, Acer's success has always depended on its time-consuming but more pragmatic "evolution" strategy, and it'll keep doing so to lay the ground for the next 30 years or so. Here's how China Times paraphrased Shih: "Apple is like a mutant virus, escaping from the traditional structure of the PC industry, but the industry will still eventually build up immunity, thus further blocking this trend, and we believe the size of the non-Apple camp will exceed Apple's, because this is how the industry normally evolves." Assuming the second half of Shih's quote refers to the tablet market share, this certainly echoes the words of his good friend JT Wang. That said, this is also the man who's boldly predicted that all American PC brands will be gone within 20 years, but there's no promise that Apple won't be kicking out a few more revolutions in the coming years. Anyway, doesn't Acer have more to worry about for the mean time?

CE-Oh no he didn't!: Acer founder characterizes Apple as a mutant virus originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 10:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As Google’s Chrome browser celebrates its second anniversary, we thought it appropriate to commemorate the occasion with some handy tips and tricks.

Here are 10 tried and tested hints that will help you to get the most out of Chrome by taking advantage of some of its more functional tools and time-saving setups.

Read through the suggestions below and let us know which ones you’ll be trying out, or any tricks we haven’t included, in the comments box.

1. Open Multiple Pages on Startup

Rather than just one trusty homepage, you can get Chrome to open several pages as it starts up, giving you instant access to whatever sites and services you prefer to start your day with.

It’s easy to setup. Just click on the wrench icon on the top right of your browser window, select “Options” and under the “Basic” tab check the box where it says “on startup… open the following pages.”

If you click “Add” it brings up a list of recently browsed sites to choose from, or you can manually enter a URL in the box at the top.

Now, the next time you fire up your browser, those pages will be automatically loaded in the order in which you entered them, saving you some precious time.

2. Pin Tabs in Place on the Browser Bar

If you are going to be using a site or service a lot in one web session, you can “pin” a tab in Chrome, which will shrink the window down to the size of the favicon, leaving more room for multi-tasking. It also prevents tabs from getting lost on the side of the screen when you have many open at once.

To do this, right-click on the tab you want to pin and hit “Pin tab.” To enlarge the tab, just right-click and hit “Pin tab” again to uncheck the option.

3. Turn Your Favorite Websites into “Desktop Apps”

There’s another option open to you in Chrome if you want fast access to a favorite site — turn the site into what could be loosely described as a desktop app.

To do this, navigate to the site you want to desktop-ize, head over to the wrench icon on the top right of your browser window, select “Tools” and then click on “Create application shortcuts.”

This will then bring up a window that gives you the option to create shortcuts on your desktop, in your start menu, or on the quick launch bar and you can check or un-check the boxes to make your selection.

If you opt for desktop you’ll instantly see an icon for the site appear on your desktop display, as per the grab below:

Now, double-clicking on that icon will load up that website in a separate window with no navigation tabs, giving it the feel of a native desktop application — so it could be great for webmail services.

4. Add a Home Button to the Toolbar

Chrome boasts a minimalist design that many love, but there are some users who just need to have a “home” button to click.

Adding a home button to Chrome is very easy — just click on the wrench icon at the top-right, select “Options,” and under the basic tab you’ll see a check box for “show Home button on the toolbar.” Hit it and you’ll never be homeless again.

5. Carry Out Calculations in the Omnibox

In addition to being a URL bar and a search field, Chrome’s “omnibox” is also a basic calculator. Rather than load up your computer’s calculator, Google or Wolfram Alpha, you can just type your mathematical query into the omnibox and the result will show up where you’d normally see auto-suggestions.

Beyond simple sums, this also works for unit conversions like feet-to-meters, pints-to-liters, etc,.

6. Use AutoFill to Auto-Complete an Address

If you find yourself typing your address time and time again, you might want to consider Chrome’s AutoFill options which can remember it and save you the repeat effort.

To activate the feature, click on the wrench icon, select “Options,” then click on the “Personal Stuff,” then choose “AutoFill options.” By selecting “Add address,” you can enter your details. The next time you are presented with a form, you won’t have to manually type it all in.

You can also choose to add a credit card via AutoFill, but for security reasons we’d advise thinking twice before going down that route.

7. Use Chrome URLs to See History, Bookmarks & Downloads

Chrome can show you some of your browser data and settings via special Chrome URLs, which is a handy way to see the info in your browser — especially as all options are searchable.

You can view your bookmarks, downloads and history by typing “chrome://bookmarks,” “chrome://downloads,” or “chrome://history” in the omnibox.

8. Make a Favicon-Only Bookmarks Bar

There’s yet another cool way to get quick access to your favorite, or most-visited sites in Chrome. Plus, it looks pretty cool.

You can get Chrome to display your bookmarked sites in the toolbar, but by deleting the site’s name from the bookmark settings, the browser will just show the site’s favicons, making for a colorful display along the top of your window.

To get this going, you’ll first need to make sure you have the bookmarks bar displayed. You can check this by clicking the wrench icon, selecting “Tools” and then ticking “Always show bookmarks bar.”

Once you’ve done this, as you add new sites to your bookmarks, be sure to delete the text in the name box, as per the screen shot below, for a favicon-only list.

Alternatively, to edit existing bookmarks so that they display favicon-only, go to “chrome://bookmarks,” right-click on the bookmark, select “Edit” and then delete the text in the name box.

To add the bookmarks to your bookmark bar, simply drag and drop them from your bookmarks list.

9. Sync Your Chrome Settings to Your Google Account

This isn’t the most exciting tip, but it’s darn useful if you work or play across multiple computers. You can sync your Chrome settings to your Google account so all those preferences you’ve taken time to set up, and all the bookmarks you’ve saved along the way, will follow you wherever you go online.

Simply click the wrench icon, go to “Options” and under “Personal Stuff” you can “Set up sync” by signing in to your Google account. This will now mean all your Chrome settings will sync wherever you sign in with your Google account.

10. Play a Trick on Your Chrome-Using Buddies

If you’ve a buddy or a work-mate who uses Chrome, you can use the “developer tools” functionality to play a really clever trick on them, should they step away from their computer at any time.

When on a webpage, right-click and choose “Inspect element.” This will split the screen to view the page code. In this view, you can select and over-type the text that appears on the page and replace it with wording of your own choosing, or even change measurements, colors, etc. if you’ve got a basic grasp of HTML.

Here are a few more familiar webpages we “edited” via the “Inspect element” function. As you can imagine, a sneaky couple of minutes at a friend’s computer as they wander off for a comfort break and you could really have them going.

More Google Chrome Resources from Mashable:

- 7 Cool Chrome Extensions for Twitter
- 8 of the Best Chrome Extensions for Web Designers
- 10 Firefox Extensions Google Chrome Should Have Too
- 6 Killer Google Chrome Extensions for Social Media Addicts

Image courtesy of Deviant Art, domox.

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An anonymous reader pointed us to an article talking about Google TV and AppleTV challenging the major networks and taking their place in your living room. It'll be a tough battle, amusingly waged on cable company wires in many major markets.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

#free Aquariums in Fort Lauderdale, shelving in Boston, wood fencing in Omaha—free stuff is out there, waiting to be picked up and put to good use. Free search and email alert service Ecofreek combs at least 45 sites for such freebies. More »

Apple definitely surprised us this morning by relaxing its restrictions on third-party iOS development tools and publishing its app review guidelines, but that's nothing compared to the almost shockingly blunt tone of the guidelines themselves. We're still poring over them and we'll post highlights as we go, but grab the PDF for yourselves at the source link now and we'll do this thing together after the break.

Continue reading Apple's App Store Review Guidelines: 'we don't need any more fart apps'

Apple's App Store Review Guidelines: 'we don't need any more fart apps' originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 09:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Expect to see some changes to Boxee when its $199 D-Link-built Box ships in November, as Lead Apps Developer / Community evangelist Rob Spectre tells NewTeeVee that among them will be a new Webkit based browser. The current Mozilla based browser is clearly useful for some quick & unblocked Hulu viewing, but still doesn't render many sites properly. According to Spectre, HTML5 "absolutely should be the future for the browsers you use on your TV," with competition from Google TV we can see why he'd say that, and it should be ready to stream video from even more sites that don't build Boxee apps. The desktop versions of the software will get the new browser in version 1.0 after the Boxee Box is released, so make sure your comparison charts are appropriately updated.

Boxee's new browser is built on Webkit and HTML5 ready originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 09:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tootech writes "In a case of "physician, heal thyself," the agency — which forms the operational arm of DHS's National Cyber Security Division, or NCSD — failed to keep its own systems up to date with the latest software patches. Auditors working for the DHS inspector general ran a sweep of US-CERT using the vulnerability scanner Nessus and turned up 1,085 instances of 202 high-risk security holes. "The majority of the high-risk vulnerabilities involved application and operating system and security software patches that had not been deployed on computer systems located in Virginia," reads the report from assistant inspector general Frank Deffer."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

#downloads Windows: SlimDrivers is a feature-packed drivers management tool for Windows. You can download new drivers and install them, schedule future scans, and archive your old drivers for easy rollback in case problems crop up. More »

Back in June, Google released version 5.2 of Google Earth, which introduced us to some great new features such as tracks, elevation profiles and a variety of other enhancements.

Now, just shy of three months later, Google Earth 5.2 has come out of beta. Most of you were likely running version 5.2.1.1547, and it's now been updated to version 5.2.1.1588. The update tool inside of Google Earth isn't showing it yet, but if you head over to earth.google.com and download it from there you'll be getting the latest version.

Most of the updates are minor bug fixes, but Google is taking this opportunity to show off a few Google Earth Pro features in a bit more detail: Vector Regionation and Image Regionation. Simply put, these are ways to allow you to view vast amounts of information on the screen; Google Earth will show less detail when you're far away, and slowly add more info as you zoom in.

You can read about both features on the Google Lat Long Blog, or watch the video below for more information about Vector Regionation:

It may be facing an uphill battle against the likes of Amazon, but it looks like Kobo's footprint is only continuing to get bigger, with it now matching Amazon with a desktop application of its own for Windows and Mac. That will naturally let you access your current library and buy new books from the Kobo eBook Store, and maintain bookmarks from your Kobo eReader or other devices using the Kobo app. Otherwise, the application is about as simple as you'd expect, with it boasting some basic font customization options and a full-screen mode for some distraction-free reading -- and it's free, of course. Head on past the break for the complete press release, and hit up the link below to download the application.

Continue reading Kobo rolls out desktop application for Windows and Mac

Kobo rolls out desktop application for Windows and Mac originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 09:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mobile social network Flirtomatic (“the world’s number one flirting company”) today announced somewhat of a milestone: It's passed the 3 million global user mark and, perhaps more noteworthy, recently surpassed 1 million users in the U.S. Furthermore, citing a study by the mobile media measurement firm Ground Truth, the London-based company says that over the summer, Flirtomatic accounted for 65% of the season’s audience for mobile dating in the US (I didn't know dating sites had seasons), out flirting traditional players such as eHarmony and match.com. That's impressive although it also speaks volumes to the vulnerability of said players, many of whom charge for access as well as an additional premium for mobile.

This series is brought to you by HTC EVO 4G, America’s first 4G phone. Only from Sprint. The “First to Know” series keeps you in the know on what’s happening now in the world of social media and technology.

Welcome to this morning’s edition of “First To Know,” a series in which we keep you in the know on what’s happening in the digital world. We’re keeping our eyes on three particular stories of interest today.

iOS 4.1 JailBreak Has Arrived

Shortly after iOS 4.1 became available for iPhone and iPod touch users on Wednesday, a hacker called “pod2g” claims he’s found an exploit that will allow users to jailbreak the newly patched OS. What’s unusual about this jailbreak is that it is a boot ROM exploit, meaning that it targets a low-level part of the OS and that Apple will have to update its hardware, rather than its software, to fix it.

T-Mobile G2 Specs Revealed

Details about the successor to the first-ever Android phone, the T-Mobile G1, have finally been revealed.

Although the T-Mobile G2 doesn’t promise to be as remarkable as its predecessor, it does support HSPA+, making it T-Mobile’s first 4G/3.5G smartphone. It also sports a standard 3.7-inch screen, 800 MHz Snapdragon CPU, a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus (which is also capable of recording HD video), 4GB of internal memory, 8GB of external memory (which can be expanded to 32GB), a 3.5mm headphone jack, Bluetooth and Flash support, and a full QWERTY keyboard.

While the exact launch date has not yet been revealed, pre-orders will be available in limited quantities “later this month,” the company said.

Max Mara Launches iPad App

Max Mara has debuted its first app for the iPad, dubbed “Decode the Cube iApp,” which challenges users to solve a virtual, 3-D mechanical puzzle very much like a Rubik’s Cube. Once all of the pieces are aligned, users can preview the fashion company’s fall collection — centered around a core item, a puffy, lightweight “Cube jacket” — and enter to win a trip to Milan.

The app [iTunes link] is part of a wider digital strategy Max Mara has committed to, a spokesperson for the company informed us. The apparel manufacturer launched a Facebook page in late August, and during New York City’s Fashion’s Night Out celebration on Friday, its flagship store will be furnished with iPad terminals that visitors can use to play the game before trying on the signature Cube jacket.

Further News

• According to a recent post from Twitter infrastructure employee John Kalucki, the highly anticipated User Streams API product will be moved from a closed beta to an open beta testing period in the near future.
• At a recent conference, New York Times Publisher and Chairman Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., proclaimed what many in the media world already suspected: “We will stop printing The New York Times sometime in the future, date TBD,” he said. Although the printing presses may eventually stop, the news industry isn’t going anywhere.

Series supported by HTC EVO 4G

This series is brought to you by HTC EVO 4G, America’s first 4G phone. Only from Sprint. The “First to Know” series keeps you in the know on what’s happening now in the world of social media and technology.

More About: android, first to know series, iOS, ios 4.1, ipad app, jailbreak, jailbreaking, maxmara, T-Mobile, T-Mobile G2

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The black box that is the Apple review process is creaking open. In a very brief release, Apple has essentially relaxed the requirement that developers use Apple’s own development tools “as long as the resulting apps do not download any code.” They’ve also published some review guidelines, allowing programmers to understand just what will go on behind the curtains in Cupertino.

What does this mean? Well, in the updated SDK license, circa April of this year, a number of paragraphs essentially banned outside development tools including systems that ported Flash, Silverlight, Java, and other platforms to the iPhone. Now, presumably, any app that runs on the iPhone, regardless of source, will be considered. The language is so mushy that it’s still unclear what this actually means.

Read more…

Apple has issued a statement that will be like music to the ears of iOS application developers.

The company has published the App Store Review Guidelines, which should help developers understand why their app has been rejected (and give them some idea of how to avoid being rejected before submitting).

In the past, Apple has often been criticized for being strict, unfair and ambiguous at times with its App Store policies. Now, we’ll finally be able to decipher the inner workings of Apple’s app approval process.

Furthermore, Apple is “relaxing all restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code.” Back in April, when the debate about Flash on the iPhone was still raging, Steve Jobs was strongly against using third party development tools to create iOS apps.

“We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform,” he wrote in an open letter on Flash.

The sections of Apple’s Developer Program license that have changed are 3.3.1, 3.3.2 and 3.3.9, and it will take a while to fully understand what, exactly, this means for developers. More to come.

More About: adobe, apple, development, Flash, iOS

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Intel is to launch its first chip with built-in graphics, while established phone chipmaker ARM releases a fast new chip.

Crossing the wires now—the Amazon Kindle will be available in Best Buy stores sometime this autumn. This probably makes sense for a few reasons.

Lookout, a company that offers security data backup services for smartphones, is growing rapidly. Less than two months after the startup surpassed one million users, the company has crossed the 2 million registered users mark. It took just over six months to reach 1 million users.

Lookout, which recently raised $11 million from Accel, Khosla and others, says the growth in smartphone adoption, mobile app downloads and increased consumer awareness of mobile security threats have made consumers aware of the security threats on mobile phones.

While smartphone use is growing rapidly, there are security risks associated with the increased data and application usage on these devices. Similar to a PC, users need to protect their phones from malware, viruses, data loss and more. Lookout’s web-based, cloud-connected application indentifies and block threats on a consumer’s phone. Users simply download the software to a device, and it will act as a virus protector much like security software downloaded to a computer.

Lookout also recently launched the App Genome Project which identifies applications that carry the same characteristics of established dangerous applications, quickly isolate them, and protect users. To date, Lookout has analyzed over 300,000 apps.

In less than one year in business, the company has also found lost or stolen phones for users more than 700,000 times, with a phone found every 15 seconds over the past two months. And Lookout has backed-up over 130 million photos and backed-up over 625 million contacts.

Lookout is of course riding on the growth in smartphone adoption, and the increased use of apps on these phones. For now Lookout, which is on more than 400 mobile networks in 170 countries, is only available for BlackBerry, Android and Windows Mobile devices. Lookout has over 80% of its users on Android and BlackBerry with the remaining users on Windows Mobile. And 70% of users are in the US.

CrunchBase InformationLookoutInformation provided by CrunchBase

#recipes With two hours left until the guests arrive, you need a chocolate dessert that doesn't use flour. Foodpickle, a foodie answers webapp by the crowd-sourced recipe site food52, is a great place to ask such questions and get inspired by answers. More »

theodp writes "In response to a complaint, Rackspace has shut down the websites of the Dove World Outreach Center, a small 50-member church which has received national and international criticism for a planned book burning of the Quran on the anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. The center 'violated the hate-speech provision of our acceptable-use policy,' explained Rackspace spokesman Dan Goodgame. 'This is not a constitutional issue. This is a contract issue,' said Goodgame, who added he did not know how long it had hosted the church's sites. Not quite the same thing, but would Kurt Westergaard's cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad also violate Rackspace's AUP? How about Christopher Hitchens' Slate articles? Could articles from one-time Rackspace poster child The Onion pass muster?"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Woah, who saw this coming? Apple has changed its super-controversial stance on third party developer tools for iOS apps, now allowing any and all comers (which would obviously include Adobe Flash CS5), "as long as the resulting apps do not download any code." Apple's also publishing its App Store Review Guidelines at long last, which will give developers a better idea of how their apps are going to be scrutinized by Apple before they submit them. We're sure we'll be hearing plenty in the coming weeks as developers and arm chair analysts rifle through Apple's so-far-secretive guidelines, but mostly we're just excited to see what sort of innovation and development accessibility we've been missing out on while these third party tools have been off the market. The full (and brief) release can be found after the break.

Meanwhile, it seems like it's time for a little recap:

• Apple's iPhone lockdown: apps must be written in one of three languages, Adobe in the hurt locker
• Adobe says iPhone / iPad adoption and 'alternative technologies' (cough, HTML5) could harm its business
• Steve Jobs responds directly to developer over new iPhone SDK rules, cites blog for explanation
• Steve Jobs publishes some 'thoughts on Flash'... many, many thoughts on Flash
• Adobe's CEO: Jobs' Flash letter is a 'smokescreen' for 'cumbersome' restrictions (update: video)
• Adobe decries Apple's 'walled garden,' yet pledges 'best tools' for HTML5
• Adobe targets Apple in ad campaign launched today, publishes open letter from founders
• Steve Jobs' D8 interview: the video highlights (updated)
• Adobe's CEO: 'we've moved on' from Apple's argument, and Flash still rules

Continue reading Apple backpedaling on some iOS development restrictions, will allow third party tools

Apple backpedaling on some iOS development restrictions, will allow third party tools originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 08:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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