Entropy

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Another info packed post with some exciting news making waves in the technology world.

• 3G iPhone update
• Vista - uptake inevitable
• Twitter rising
• Javascript curvy corners
• Worthy mentions

3G iPhone update

We have reported previously on speculation regarding the launch date of the 3G iPhone, now more information is starting to filter through. One hot topic drawing much attention is the price the new model will go on the market for. $199. While this price is contract dependant, it is still a hefty saving of $200. Apple are also expecting huge sales, with reports coming in that they have ordered 25million units to be manufactured by the same company, Foxconn, that put the first gen iPhone on shelves. 3 million of which will be ready for sale by the end of May.

the author of the story also says that the new phones will be available in “8-gigabit-memory and… 16-gigabit-memory” versions (for $399 and $499, respectively), so take that as you like. In addition to these discounts, the source says the new iPhone will be 2.5mm thinner than the previous iteration, although we understand that right after telling Fortune this information, the “person” burst into a cloud of rainbow-colored sparkles and went flying off into the night sky.

Vista - uptake inevitable

Let’s not beat around the bush on this subject. Vista has been a disappointment. I personally prefer it to Windows XP, but I am not the majority in this issue. XP is end of life with it being pulled from sale in the near future. Once this happens what choices do consumers have other than linux distros? You can order a new pc with Ubuntu, for example, installed. While Ubuntu is a worthy alternative, you must again remember about a corporate roll out of a new desktop environment. I know that companies have switched to linux over windows solutions, but the majority have been in the server market. We are talking about the average employee having to make the change and with that comes training (read expenses). I find Ubuntu quite easy to navigate and fx uses it on his laptop, but not everyone adjusts well. A computerworld article goes into more detail on this topic, while another reminds us about current uptake problems.

“They are sort of in a ‘caught between a rock and a hard place’ situation,” said Gray. Administrators may not want to move to Vista, but neither of the alternatives — the older XP and the not-even-officially-scheduled Windows 7 — is attractive, he said.

Twitter Rising.

Seen as pointless by some and indisposable by others, the stats don’t lie. Twitter usage is rising. I think the number of mashups using the API to do abstract things with what users are pumping into the system has a direct influence on the stats. Repeat users loyal to the service are also a big  influence in the increase of market share seen by Twitter, which is a healthy sign the site is gaining a strong foothold in the social network arena. fx and I were actually throwing around an idea for a Twitter mashup, so you might see something from us in the future putting a spin on what people are doing.

The chart makes the growth look impressive - and it is. However, to put things into context, the site ranked #439 among Social Networks and Forums last week and #4309 among All Categories of websites. Twitter’s size is notoriously difficult to measure as there are so many access points (mobile phones in particular). However, the website traffic data does give some idea of the rate of growth and also reveals that the service still hasn’t reached mainstream adoption.

Javascript curvy corners.

The rounded look of Web 2.0 designs can be a pain at the best of times. Most of the time you will need a few images combined in a bit of CSS to pull it off.  Being able to apply curvy corners on the fly is a huge step in the right direction, and Curvy Corners offer just that.

curvyCorners will automatically pickup style information from the DIV element. So for example if you give the DIV a 2px black border in a stylesheet then the borders will be automatically added to the rounded corners.

Worthy Mentions

Seeing as we have covered some news on Twitter, why not give you the Linux desktop options to make Tweeting easier - 6 Twitter clients for the Linux desktop and one for the road.

Twitter is a popular social networking utility that’s gaining popularity as a micro-blogging tool. Registered users can post messages — also called Tweets — via the Web interface, but many prefer to use desktop applications that offer additional functionality and move Tweeting out of the browser entirely.

Cool web stuff for April 2008 brought to you by WebKak - April 2008 round up of cool web stuff.

Well before we kick off with yet more cool web apps & stuff next month, it’s time for a round-up of the most popular posts for the month of April

Mighty Mouse Easter Egg

Since it’s Easter for a lot of people, and there are still things to be done, I don’t want to keep you waiting. Today, I just found an older picture of Apple’s Mighty Mouse, and I think it’s something great to see. Yes, it’s a hardware Easter Egg. No, this is not a fake image, is a picture made more than 2 years ago, but I guess this is still true today.

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LifeHacker has a post up today for creating a live (encrypted) backup of Outlook Mail –

Unfortunately Outlook isn’t great about backing up your PST file while Outlook is running, but Vinod has found a simple solution: Set a rule in Outlook to keep a separate copy of your incoming email in a separate PST file on an encrypted, external thumb drive. The encrypted part is optional, but it’s a smart move if you want to keep that data secure (check out our guide to encrypting data with TrueCrypt for details on how to set up an encrypted drive). Head to the post for specifics on what seems like a perfect Outlook backup solution. For a different approach, check out previously mentioned Outlook Personal Folders Backup Tool.

Read the full article at LifeHacker.

Microsoft’s Mesh went into beta last night, a new platform for synching files and folders between any Windows (R) device. Sign up for the beta here - its limited to 10,000 people.

Mesh lets you set up a virtual desktop online, and connect different computers to it. Put any file into a Mesh folder and it automatically syncs between the online desktop and every connected computer. Select a file or folder and you can easily share its contents—photos, videos, music, documents—with any friend or family member. You can also remotely control a connected computer from the Live Mesh desktop. Right now, this works with any computer, as long as it is running Windows XP or Vista. But the longer-term vision is to truly make this work with any device. Mac and mobile versions are coming later this year. And eventually, anything from Xboxes and DVRs to digital picture frames and printers could be connected through Mesh. Continue at TechCrunch…

. . . Live Mesh, a new services platform technology that will also become part of Windows Live, further extends the Windows / Windows Mobile / Windows Live experience by bringing your devices together to work in concert with one another using the web as a hub, enabling:

Unified Device Management – Users will register their devices through a simple, web-based service. Once a part of a user‟s device mesh, whenever they happen to connect to the internet the devices “report in” to the service – e.g. for status, health, location, and to exchange/synchronize information. Mesh-aware device configuration/personalization will be done through the web, and full remote control of a device (e.g. remote desktop) will be available from anywhere.

Unified Application Management – Installation and management of “mesh-aware” applications on any or all devices, along
with their application settings and data, will be simple and transparent for the user. Individuals will now enjoy the centralized
cross-device purchase/deployment experience formerly available only within the enterprise environment.

Unified Data Management – Folders and files (e.g. documents and media) will be automatically synchronized and made available across any or all devices, as well as through the web. Because every folder can now have an extended web presence, even PC-based documents and media can now have a social mesh element to them.

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Syncplicity [LifeHacker] is a freeware, Windows only (currently) application which keeps folders and files on your computer synchronized across a network. Example uses include tasks such as

• Code: synchronize your code automatically between your home machine and work laptop without commiting it (to svn etc).
• Automatic backups: synchronize your important data to a backup machine automatically without the need for exporting etc.
• My Documents: sync your various my documents to your work computer and your laptop which you use for travelling

As you can see, the uses of a tool like this go beyond simply sharing documents. I, however, am waiting for DropBox.

FastStone Capture is a screenshot taking and editing application. It allows you to take a screenshot of your desktop (or a portion of it) and edit that. For example, in the image below notes have been added and sections highlighted.

LifeHacker points out that the latest version of this is no longer free, but the link below is for the “handily portable freeware version“, which is.

FastStone Capture Freeware v5.3

Notepad2 is a notepad.exe replacement for Windows; with a whole lot more features. The key here is that its still very much a notepad - no huge memory usage, no long loading time, and its simple to use.

“Get code syntax highlighting, regular expression search, better text selection options, and support for Unix and Mac-created text files in Notepad2, which can run standalone from a thumb drive. You can even replace Windows Notepad entirely with Notepad2, though it takes a few steps—here’s a tutorial on how for XP users, and one for Vista users.” Read on at LifeHacker ..

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LifeHacker has the uberlist on tweaks and apps to pimp your desktop out. There are some great ones for Mac and Windows actually, my personal favourite being the tip to embed text documents onto your desktop.

For something that you look at every day of your working life, your computer desktop doesn’t get as much attention as it deserves. That’s too bad, considering that the desktop can do a lot more than display wallpaper and hold shortcut icons. From widgets to workflows, from calendars to computer stats and beyond, you can do a whole lot on your desktop without manually starting up a single program. Hit the jump for our top 10 list of applications and tweaks that make your desktop a truly useful place to land. Read on…

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HardOCP has a full review/test of Crysis on identical machines running DX9 and DX10; with full numbers; FPS and all other changes graphed, documented and more - its a great article comparing the two.

“Crysis, 5 months later. No excuses about immature drivers or API issues. We look at how Crysis DX9 compares to Crysis DX10 and what GPU is best for it. We analyze real gameplay and IQ. Did DX10 deliver on its promises? Should we stick with it?”

Through the several pages they compare various numerics, screenshots, quality and more; finally to arrive at the conclusion –

“NVIDIA GPU based video cards have no real-world gameplay differences between DX9 and DX10, so there is no reason not to run in DX10. AMD ATI GPU based video cards do suffer a performance penalty for using DX10. If you are running an NVIDA GPU based video card, continue to run in DX10, but if you are running an AMD ATI GPU based video card you might want to consider running in DX9 for the best Crysis experience.

We feel that HardOCP should not let AMD’s poor DX10 performance retard our testing. DX10 is the future whether we like it or not, and we want to encourage game developers to continue to push the envelope and provide a good gaming experience. We also want to encourage NVIDIA and AMD to continue to develop and mature their DX10 drivers in both single and multi-GPU configurations for games.”

See their full review at HardOCP.

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Freeware RegShot (LH Featured) allows you to take snapshots of your Windows registry and compare the differences (much like diff would). This is a great tool if you want to roll back changes, or see what changes an application or changes inside an application make to the registry. From darker purposes, to debugging, to safety this neat app is a must have for any Windows geek.

Image from Wikipedia

There are a lot of reasons to run a slim Windows install; using less space because you only need the essentials for VMWare Fusion as LifeHacker suggests - perhaps performance reasons. But either way, LifeHacker has a great guide on doing it with nLite; GameXP and more.

That means that the virtual machine will run more quickly and take up fewer resources on my Mac.

On the other hand, a lightweight Windows install is also perfect for older hardware that just can’t keep up with XP. In fact, your hardware doesn’t even have to be that bad to still enjoy benefits of this process. A slimmed down Windows install is also appealing for the performance gains it affords, because it allows your computer to allocate more memory and resources to individual programs rather than the operating system as a whole.

Read more at LifeHacker.