Entries from August 2007 ↓

Digg Gets A Major Makeover  —  Changes to the Digg template and feature set discussed by Kevin Rose August 22 are now live.  —  The biggest change with the new look Digg is the inclusion of video on the front page.  Other changes include tweaks to page and story summary layouts, streamlined navigation, and more customization options.

Source:   TechCrunch

Author:   Duncan Riley

Link:   http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/08/27/digg-gets-a…

Techmeme permalink

When most people think of free web analytics, they immediately think of Google Analytics. But there are many other free, innovative statistic tools available on the web. These tools measure everything from user behavior, to search engine traffic, to real-time visitor tracking, and more. The following ten products may provide valuable data when analyzing your website traffic.

Clicky

Clicky is a clean, all-encompassing analytics package. The service is tailored for small websites and blogs. It’s easy to implement and contains advanced features such as real-time visitor tracking and in-depth content analysis.

Enquisite

Enquisite is focused specifically on incoming search engine and PPC traffic. It provides in-depth statistics including page position, landing pages, and specific geographic data.

CrazyEgg

CrazyEgg provides the ability to track, evaluate, and optimize your site based on where your visitors click. Heatmaps and overlays quickly provide perspective into user behavior and habits.

103bees

103bees is a real-time search engine analysis and statistics tool. It is highly focused on natural search engine traffic and the analysis of keywords and terms for SEO purposes.

Measure Map

Measure Map provides free, easy-to-understand web stats for bloggers. Currently the site isn’t offering new accounts, but you can enter your e-mail for future notice. Owned by Google and some of its technology was ported to Google Analytics.

whos.amung.us

Whos.amung.us is an attractive, real-time visitor counter. It displays the total number of visitors on your site at any given moment. The easy-to-install widget requires no registration.

FeedBurner

Feedburner, as many already know, is tailored for blogs. In-depth feed statistics and general blog statistics are provided in a slick, intuitive interface. Now owned by Google.

Snoop

Snoop offers real-time visitor tracking. The service streams the page-to-page activity of visitors right to your desktop. Advanced features include audible event triggering and name tag integration.

ClickTale

ClickTale literally records the actions and activity of visitors. The website owner can then analyze the video footage to understand user behavior and increase the usability of the site.

MyBlogLog

MyBlogLog is essentially a social network for blogs. However, the service also provides valuable statistics; including onsite clicking habits and referral information. Owned by Yahoo.

Conclusion

There are many ways to monitor user activity beyond the capabilities of a generic stats package. The niche offerings listed above can provide insight and understanding, to help optimize your traffic and create a more compelling online experience.

Of course there are many other great Web analytics products out there - please list your favorites in the comments.

The thin client. Not the sexiest computing application ever, is it? Nor is it art. Pano Logic’s Pano virtualization box, however, is both sex and art. All 9 cubic inches of it.

Keeping it simple by having its operating system served from afar, the box is basically a single, simple chipset that shuttles your mouse clicks and keyboard taps to the virtualizing machine, which spits back the updated desktop for display by your Pano box. Unlike other thin clients, there’s not even a byte of software running locally: the VMWare setup is burned into silicon. It outputs 1600×1200 through a VGA port, has 3 USB ports for keyboards and mice, and an ethernet jack to hook up to the real computing muscle.

Pricing starts at $20 a month per box. And when it’s old and dead, you have a nicest paperweight in the office.

Product Page [Pano Logic]

Pano Logic Unveils Virtual Desktop[InfoWorld]

This image resizing and manipulation demonstration is sort of jaw dropping, particularly as the video goes on. The related paper, written by Dr. Ariel Shamir and Dr. Shai Avidan is available here.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Is there anything more annoying than stubbing your toe on the side of your bed? Yes there is—all your wires getting in a hefty mess is infinitely more aggravating. Cordhog understands our pain and have devised this ingenious solution. It is a ball like structure that wires wrap around and that is it! Much like football (ours, not yours), all the best things in life are pretty simple and this is testament to the solution. It reminds me of those little histone proteins the DNA coils itself around all tight and cute; now we can all have histone wire solutions to prove how incredibly geeky we are.

The annoyance of messy wires may not hurt on the outside, but a wired disarray will slowly kill you on the inside. (Take it from me, I know). To tidy your colossal cable clutter you shall have to set aside, a very reasonable, $6 for six Cordhogs. That’s Mark’s Christmas gift sorted! [Uber Review].

[UPDATED 11:30AM EST: There was an error in the PayPal donation address. Check the correct address and new info after the jump.] Today was the fourth time someone has claimed a 100% unlocking method for the iPhone. All four methods work great, but there’s a problem with all of them: they cost money. We don’t know how much the software methods will cost exactly, but we know one thing for sure: there is going to be a free alternative. If you want to get it soon, keep reading.

To summarize, there are now four methods to 100% unlock the iPhone:

The Forged SIM Method
Description: 100% unlocks the iPhone by forging a new SIM card. It only works if you have a V1-type SIM card in your current phone. Full functionality. Doesn’t void the warranty.
Released: MON AUG 6 2007
Cost: $96 + shipping.

The Turbo SIM Method
Description: 100% unlocks the iPhone with a small card called TurboSIM. Works with any SIM card and carrier. Full functionality. Doesn’t void the warranty.
Released: TUE AUG 14 2007
Cost: $80 including FedEx shipping - currently unavailable from Bladox, available from other providers.

The hardware soldering method
Description: 100% unlocks the iPhone by opening and soldering some parts. Works with any SIM card and carrier. Full functionality. Voids the warranty.
Released: TUE AUG 21 2007
Cost: Whatever cost you value your time at, plus the possibility of a broken iPhone and a voided warranty.

The commercial software method
Description: 100% unlocks the iPhone with a software program. Works with any SIM card and carrier. Full functionality. Doesn’t void the warranty.
Released: FRI AUG 24 2007
Cost: UNKNOWN.

Personally, my iPhone has been 100% unlocked for a week now thanks to the TurboSIM method—and it works great. The method was simple and painless.

But my question is: why pay anyone else while all these methods have been possible thanks to the hard work of the iPhone Dev Team.

• They were the ones who hacked the file system
• They reverse engineered the baseband chip.
• They developed the tools that have make the hacks and other applications possible.
• They extracted the key, the full content of the radio memory, bringing the possibility of the software unlock you are saw announced today.

Despite all those methods, the iPhone Dev Team have continued to work to bring new stuff every day, making possible things like the NES emulator, MAME and many other cool software and necessary utilities to keep expanding the platform.

We think this is amazing. And that’s why we think we should support them in any way we can, by donating money or time. That’s the only way we are going to keep advancing iPhone software development to the point of perfection and, more importantly, the only way to set the iPhone free.

For real and for everyone. No commercial interests involved.

And while my iPhone has been 100%-unlocked using the Vodafone network for a week now, all I can say is fuck it, I’m donating. I can tell you that many of us here at the Giz will be doing the same.

To donate money: use PayPal and send any amount you want to:

iphone.devteam@googlemail.com (yes, it’s googlemail.com, not gmail.com)

IMPORTANT: as the subject of the transfer, don’t mention the word “hack” or “hacking” as PayPal is very sensitive about these things. Use iPhone Development Team Donation as the subject so it can be clearly identified

Short FAQ

Q: Will the stuff you find out be freely available on the forum and the wiki?
A: Simply, yes.

Q: Why do you think you can do this?
A: Simply remember the AppleTV. Many good hacks, including running OSX on your aTV came from here.

Q: Isn’t that illegal?
A: No, we don’t live within the US, there are a lot free countries that allow you to break or modify stuff on your own.

Q: Were can we talk on the iPhone hacking?
A: join #iphone at irc.osx86.hu

Q: Where is the money going?
A: Not much left, hosting is paid, and other stuff around the project, most of the time we run minus.

To donate time: if you have plenty of programming talent, join the effort in their IRC Channel or in the Hackint0sh forums.

Nikon also announced the D300 today, as was heavily rumored. Its latest prosumer DSLR is loaded with a 12.3 megapixel DX format CMOS sensor (the one Sony just announced), 6fps burst—it goes up to 8 with the optional battery pack, HDMI support with 1080i playback, 200-3200 ISO range, live view and a 3-inch viewfinder (the same as the D3's). It too is shipping in November, with a body-only price of $1799. This is a lot of camera for less than half of what the D3 costs.

NIKON D300 DIGITAL SLR CAMERA: MAJOR FEATURES

New DX-format CMOS image sensor with 12.3 effective megapixels
The D300 features a new 12.3 effective megapixel DX-format CMOS sensor that produces high quality images with fine detail and sharp resolution throughout its sensitivity range of ISO 200 to 3200. The camera’s ISO range can be extended using its built-in options of Lo-1 and Hi-1 for the equivalent of ISO 100 and ISO 6400 respectively. The CMOS sensor’s integrated A/D converter features the ability to select between 12-bit and 14-bit conversion, making it possible to shoot 14-bit NEF (RAW) format images.

High-speed performance
The D300 offers professional level high-speed performance with a shutter release time lag of only 45 milliseconds, camera start-up time of 0.13 second, and continuous shooting speed of approximately six frames per second. This speed can also be boosted to eight frames per second when using Nikon’s optional Multi-Power Battery Pack MB-D10*. The D300 can sustain continuous high-speed shooting for bursts of up to 100 shots** at full 12.3 megapixel resolution, and it supports next generation UDMA high speed memory cards.

New EXPEED Image Processing System
Similar to the Nikon D3, the D300 features the new EXPEED Image Processing System that is central to the speed and processing power of the camera. EXPEED delivers optimized performance for the camera and its features and ensures high-image quality and high-speed image processing.

Versatile new Picture Control System
The D300 features Nikon’s versatile Picture Control System that allows photographers to fine-tune and adjust fundamental rendering options for their pictures so they can define the exact tone, sharpening, brightness and saturation they prefer. They can then port these settings to any other Nikon camera featuring the Picture Control System, such as the recently introduced D3, so that even when shooting with different cameras, they can get consistent tones for all their pictures.

New 51-point auto focus system
The D300 features Nikon’s Multi-CAM 3500DX auto focus sensor module, with 51 AF points, including 15 cross-type sensors that are located in the center of the frame. These cross-type sensors work with all NIKKOR lenses, including those with apertures as small as f/5.6. The D300’s auto focus system is closely linked with the camera’s innovative Scene Recognition System to deliver greater accuracy in subject detection and focus tracking performance.

Revolutionary new Scene Recognition System
Nikon’s D300 features a revolutionary new Scene Recognition System that greatly enhances the accuracy of, auto exposure, auto white balance detection and auto focus in the camera. The Scene Recognition System uses the camera’s built in 1,005-pixel RGB metering sensor to recognize the subject or scene being photographed and detect any movement. This information helps optimize exposure and white balance settings for the recognized subject and also enables the camera to assign appropriate AF points based on any movement of the subject, ensuring highly precise auto focus tracking performance.

Super-density, 3-inch VGA, TFT LCD monitor with 920,000 dot resolution
The D300 features a gorgeous, ultra high-definition 3-inch LCD monitor with 920,000 dot resolution. The monitor provides a 170-degree viewing angle and is very effective in confirming focus on pictures as well as framing a shot using the camera’s new LiveView modes.

LiveView shooting with two optimized modes
Two new LiveView modes in the D300 enable photographers to compose their shot using the camera’s ultra-high resolution LCD monitor. The Tripod mode is designed for precise focus and accuracy when the camera is on a stable platform and the subject is not moving. In this mode, the camera focuses on the subject using focal-plane contrast and any point on the LCD screen can be selected as the focus point for the picture. The second mode, called Handheld mode, allows photographers to use the camera’s conventional TTL focusing system, with all 51-points and 15 cross-type points available. When using this mode, the camera activates focusing immediately when the shutter button is pressed, to ensure accurate focus.

Active D-Lighting
Nikon’s D-Lighting feature in its digital SLR cameras has proved to be a popular way for photographers to quickly compensate for dark areas of a picture after it is taken, without adversely affecting its highlights. The D300 features a new Active D-Lighting mode that, when enabled, provides remarkable real-time highlight and shadow correction with optimized image contrast. Active D-Lighting produces broader tone reproduction in both shadows and highlights by controlling highlights and exposure compensation while applying localized tone control technology to achieve a more pleasing level of contrast across the entire image. And because the advantages of Active D-Lighting are applied as images are captured, image editing time can be shortened.

Self-cleaning Sensor Unit for efficient dust reduction
The D300 is the first Nikon digital SLR camera to employ a Self-cleaning Sensor Unit. Four different resonance frequencies vibrate the optical low pass filter in front of the image sensor to shake particles free and reduce the presence of dust in the camera.

Large, bright viewfinder that achieves 100% frame coverage
The D300’s new eye-level pentaprism viewfinder offers virtually 100 percent frame coverage and 0.94x magnification for comfortable and precise composition.

Fine-tune adjustment for auto focus
Photographers who need to make small adjustments to correct differences in focusing can do so using the D300’s built-in capability to adjust focus specific to a lens. The camera offers the option of either setting compensation for a specific lens so adjustment in focus is only enabled when that particular lens is used, or the camera can apply a uniform level of compensation for any lens used with the camera. Users can store settings for up to 20 different lenses if they prefer to fine-tune the camera’s focusing based on specific lenses.

Reliable and durable
The D300 incorporates several features designed to ensure the camera performs reliably and consistently under demanding conditions. The camera’s chassis is constructed of highly durable magnesium alloy and the body features numerous seals to protect the camera against dust and moisture. The camera’s shutter mechanism is tested to 150,000 cycles, assuring a long life of consistent performance.

Exclusive Wireless Transmitter WT-4A (optional)
The D300 is compatible with Nikon’s new WT-4A wireless transmitter that provides support for wired LAN (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX) and wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11a/b/g,). When using the D300 in LiveView mode, the WT-4A can transmit a remote view from the camera and also support continuous shooting through a wireless or wired connection using Nikon’s Camera Control Pro 2 software (optional).

Multi-Power Battery Pack MB-D10 (optional)
The D300 is also compatible with the optional new Multi-Power Battery Pack MB-D10. This battery pack supports three types of batteries and features sequential power supply with auto-switching to the battery installed inside the camera body. When used, the battery pack can boost the D300’s high-speed continuous shooting to eight frames per second* for up to 100 consecutive shots**.

[Nikon]

Tafiti is a new experimental search site from Microsoft. It has rich visualizations and aims to meet the needs of people doing research on the Web. Tafiti runs on the Silverlight browser plug-in platform (Microsoft’s answer to Adobe’s Flash) and requires you to install Silverlight if you haven’t already. The underlying search engine is Microsoft’s Live Search.

AltSearchEngines editor Charles Knight has an overview of Tafiti. I checked it out too and found it to be an interesting visual experiment, along the lines of other visual search interfaces like Ms. Dewey (a Flash-based talking search engine developed by Microsoft). Microsoft knows that it needs to innovate in search to have any chance of making inroads into Google, so this is another experiment along those lines. Indeed the latest Hitwise stats show Microsoft falling even more behind Google and Yahoo:

Tafiti won’t ever be a mainstream search engine, because ultimately speed and efficiency are what most punters want in a search engine - and Google continues to deliver on those things. However I can see Tafiti becoming a nice niche search engine for researchers, given more iterations. It may well contribute some technology to a future version of Live Search too.

MyLifeBrand is a new social network aggregator that will set itself apart by offering tools for managing your networks directly through its service, as well as enabling you to create groups within MyLifeBrand.

You can add up to eight different social networks into your MyLifeBrand account, granting access to your favorite sites that it supports, including MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Meebo and Bebo. From here, you can keep tabs on all of the social networks you’ve added, as each one receives its own tab for your profile, and opens up in an iFrame within MyLifeBrand’s site. Easily navigate through your social networking accounts as your sign in information is stored with MyLifeBrand and you won’t have to login each time.

You can also keep up with your friends for each network, as they can all be imported into your MyLifeBrand account. Filter the Friends view to see only those from a particular network, or check them all out at once, similar to Wink. An icon will display beside each friend’s thumbnail to indicate which social network they’re member to. You can also use MyLifeBrand to manage your online photos, and create and manage groups within MyLifeBrand as well.

Additionally, MyLifeBrand is looking to offer even more than these social network aggregating tools. A white label solution as well as an inter-network advertisement system are peripheral services that MyLifeBrand hopes will gain traction in order to support its service as a business, while also providing the social networking tools some deem to be the future of online communities. The downfall for sites such as MyLifeBrand is the operational stance of working with your social networks within an iFrame, which could be a hindrance to some.

Another weak spot for MyLifeBrand is the existence of too many facets to its service, from artist to celebrity to sponsor accounts. This could be confusing to some, or may mean that MyLifeBrand isn’t doing one thing well enough. Others in this space include Tabber, 8hands, and PeekYou.

Recommended: Piczo Stuff at Mashcodes!

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If you wanted to install third-party native software in your iPhone but you didn't had the necessary technical knowledge or courage, the newly updated iPhone Installer.app will make it so easy that it will be hard to resist. We have tried it in Mac OS X and, as you will see in the tutorial after the jump, it works perfectly —including the installation of applications over Wi-Fi and EDGE.

Once you download the application from the link below, you only have to connect your iPhone to your Mac (PowerPC and Intel will work, we have tried both) and run the script from the Mac OS X Terminal. Doing this is quite simple:

Preparation

• Download the installation file to your desktop.
• Connect your iPhone to your computer using the provided cable.
• Deactivate the iPhone automatic synchronization in iTunes before proceeding and close iTunes.

Steps
• Go to Utilities in your Applications folder and find Terminal.
• Double-click on Terminal.
• In the Terminal, go to the folder that contains the application installation script. You can easily do this by typing cd in the command line, then space, then dragging the iPhoneInstaller folder. This will automatically paste the path in the Terminal. If you saved the iPhoneInstaller folder to your desktop like we told you, it will look something like this:

cd /Users/your_user_name/Desktop/iPhoneInstaller/

Hit the return key to change to that folder.
• Now run the script, which is called get_installer.sh, by typing the following:

./get_installer.sh

• The script will now run, asking you what version of firmware do you have. If you updated your iPhone, you will have 1.0.1. If not, select 1.0 by typing the option.
• The script will automatically download the necessary restore file from the Apple servers.
• When it's done, it will prompt you to hold the home button (with the square) and the power button (on the top) at the same time (hold first the home, then hold the power).
• When the message "Connect to iTunes" appear in your iPhone, release the buttons and let the thing do its magic.

The iPhone will restart and you will find a new icon in your home screen:

You can disconnect the iPhone now. If you want, enable automatic sync in iTunes before disconnecting.

Now you will be able to install applications from the Installer. This is extremely simple. Just open the Installer application and select the software you want to install.

One more thing: before installing any new applications, you may want to update the Installer itself by clicking on the “Update” tab.

What’s next? More iPhone applications coming soon, with or without Apple’s blessing. [Nullriver]