Internet
Microsoft Office 2010 To Include Free Online Web Versions
July 13, 2009
Microsoft have recently upped their game against Google with the release of the Bing search engine, it would now that they intend to start competing more strongly against Google Docs with their next office suite, Microsoft Office 2010.
The next version of Microsoft Office 2010, which typically includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint (plus some others depending on the package you get) will include web versions of these Office applications which will be available for people to use free of charge – the only requirement will be that you login using your Windows Live account, which if you haven’t already got one, are free to register for.
Continue reading »7 Social Network Aggregators
July 9, 2009
Managing the potentially hundreds of online profiles that are now available to us can be bit daunting, and, in a worse case scenario, lead to a social network fatigue (that or you hit your PC repeatedly). There is, of course, help at hand, and as the rise of the social network has increased at an ecer quicker rate, there has been a growth in services designed to help you combine your online life into one easy to manage Ocean Finance-esque package.
Here’s seven of the best:
Continue reading »Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 TV Adverts
July 8, 2009
We’re not huge fans of TV adverts here at Zath, however when it comes to technology and internet-based companies trying to dip their toe into the old-fashioned TV advertising format, it’s generally worth taking a look at – if only for the comedic value alone!
This time Microsoft is once more having another go at creating TV adverts for their recent Internet Explorer 8 release – after their previous “funny TV commercials” with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld, followed by the more mainstream “I’m a PC” campaign and then the recent Bing TV advertising – I thought it might be interesting to see what direction they took…
Continue reading »7 Techies To Follow On Twitter
July 8, 2009
It can be tough starting on Twitter, knowing who follow can be one of the most prominent barriers to entry for many people. Indeed, a recent Nielsen study claimed that 40% of first time Twitter users left their accounts neglected after a month.
This could be down to the fact that there’s no ‘guide’ as such, to help you locate people who have similar interests to you, so you find yourself in an echo chamber and bore of the service very quickly. So, here at Zath we’ve scratched our heads and come up with seven people you should follow to get your twitter tech juices flowing:
Continue reading »Pirate Bay Sale Opens New Chapter In Saga Or Ends It?
July 8, 2009
Yes the Pirate Bay Four are back again, everybody’s favourite copyright-hating illegal-download-endorsing quartet is back to your Zath page as the story (that surely will be made into a film, or at least a book) continues to rumble on – but even we didn’t really see this twist coming: The Pirate Bay has been sold.
With a price tag of around £4.7 million it didn’t come cheap, but the Swedish software firm ‘Global Gaming Factory X’ who made their money through a series of internet cafés and gaming venues hope to develop the business model (I’ll come back to this later) to one that will be not only profitable, but legal.
Continue reading »Google Mail Is Finally Out Of Beta!
July 7, 2009
Ever since Google released its webmail service; Google Mail over 5 years ago it’s still been in beta for the entire time, in fact it had become somewhat of an ongoing joke in certain sections of the tech-world that Google Mail was still ‘technically’ in development and had not officially been released as a finished product or service.
Well it looks as though Google now finally believe that they’ve developed it to such a point whereby they can tear off that beta tag from the logo and continue to develop it as a proper live service (the service already provides more features than any other webmail service including Google Mail Themes and Google Mail Voice and Video Chat) – perhaps they’re hoping to gain more market share from the other big webmail systems such as Hotmail and Yahoo – has that dastardly beta tag been putting off huge numbers of potential users?
Continue reading »Tetris Friends Online Celebrates 25th Anniversary With New Game Modes!
July 7, 2009
A few months ago we covered the newly launched Tetris website called “Tetris Friends” which is a site dedicated to letting you play free online Tetris games – a game that is ever-popular because this game is a true classic and has just recently celebrated its 25th anniversary and it’s still going strong with new generations being able to experience it for the first time!
Therefore, how best would you mark an occasion like this? Why you release 3 new game modes for Tetris players everywhere to play for free anywhere in the world on the Web!
Continue reading »Google Street View Update – Smart Navigation
July 4, 2009
The Google Street View interface has recently had some “Smart Navigation” improvements made to it which have certainly been a welcome addition to the service as beforehand as good as we thought it was here at Zath, it could still get a little annoying to use for any extended length of time.
YouTube Upload Limits Increased
July 3, 2009
You don’t need me to tell you how big YouTube is – and with millions of hours worth of videos being uploaded every day it’s only getting bigger, and with the relatively recent introduction of high definition (HD) videos the file sizes are also following the trend of increasing in side.
So all those of you out there that like to use your HD recording ability and sharing it with the world will be glad to know that YouTube have decided to increase their upload limit allowing people to upload up to 2GB worth of video (doubling the previous 1GB maximum figure).
Continue reading »Masked Passwords – Security Over Usability?
July 1, 2009
The masking of passwords is one of those things that we don’t really think about – it’s safe to say that 99.99% of the time you enter passwords on a website the letters/numbers are blanked out with nice stars or circles – surely this helps to promote Internet safety and a way to Get Safe Online?
But isn’t this just common sense? Surely having it as a failsafe in case someone is looking over your shoulder isn’t such a bad idea? Well according to a couple of experts in the field not only are they pointless, but can also be counterproductive with regards to security and are calling for the end of them.
Continue reading »‘The Video Bay’ Is Released As Trial Drags On
June 29, 2009
Over the last few months we have followed trial of the “Pirate Bay Four” and seen how, although they did ultimately find them guilty, it has brought shame on the Swedish judicial system after a series of claims questioning the neutrality of the judges amid the already lengthy and convoluted trial.
As such it is unsurprising that (as we predicted) the story is back again, and with a few more variables just for good measure. Of course this has a lot to do with the fact that it is in the interest of the Pirate Bay founders to keep the story on the agenda, and I’m sure the timing of “The Video Bay” release (which I will cover later) is not coincidental.
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Firebox Gadgets & Gifts – New Website Design!
June 23, 2009
One of our favourite online gadget retailers, Firebox.com has given its website a face-lift!
No doubt, you’ll have heard about Firebox before, especially if you’re in the UK, either here on Zath or through other means – Firebox are one of our favourite purveyors of hi-tech gadgets, some lower-tech gadgets and even some things which you’d have a hard time of classing as a gadget at all, but none-the-less there’s lots of great fun products and cool stuff for you to purchase either for yourself or as a present for someone else!
So what’s been changed to make using their website and shopping with “the Firebox” better?
Continue reading »Twitter Gives Daily Mail A Stupid Answer To Its Stupid Question
June 23, 2009
Now here’s something to remember for any news sites out there (especially the Daily Mail) that like to run polls on topical issues and the like – don’t ask loaded questions! Or to put it a better way, don’t ask a stupid question or you’ll just get a stupid answer, especially online given how social networks such as Twitter can quickly spread information!
Bing TV Advert
June 18, 2009
Microsoft recently re-launched their search engine business with their Bing “decision engine” which they’re hoping will start to make dent into Google’s current overwhelming market share – Bing is already more popular than Yahoo!
Although you can use Bing wherever you are in the world, some of the main features are only being targeted towards the US-based users to begin with and as such Microsoft have been running a Bing TV advert on some of the American TV networks.
Continue reading »Opera Unite – A Web Revolution?
June 17, 2009
If there’s one phrase that we have heard far too much of over the last few months (apart from credit crunch) it’s ‘revolutionising the web’. Numerous companies, most notable Google with their Wave, claim that their ideas will change the way we think about the internet, and what we do on it.
And so Opera (with 15 years of ‘browser innovation’ behind them, including having the impressive Opera Mobile 9.5) have released their plan, and it comes in the shape of Unite which essentially turns any computer running Opera – admittedly not many at the moment – into a web server. Although this may sound simple or even irrelevant it could well spell the future for internet browsing.
Continue reading »Facebook Vanity or Insanity URLs?
June 16, 2009
Nothing pleases me more than stupidity. My feelings towards its existence, however, are weirdly balanced. I sit pleasantly between cackling like a witch at how much stupid people need to be charged Stupid Tax and feeling happy that there’s a portion of the human population that keeps us all entertained. They’re a necessary evil and I can tolerate their dumb behaviour… just about. There’s definitely an art to it and since everyone else has jumped on this bandwagon, I thought it only fair for me to do the same. Given that I am the intentional Queen of Silly, I’ve spent a little while collecting together the most ridiculous and unquestionably some of the most stupid Facebook (vanity) URLs that have been registered since its launch at 5am (BST) on Saturday 12th June 2009.
Here’s the list of the best/worst (depending on how you view it):
UPDATE: Please note some of the following vanity URLs have now been changed/deleted – clearly some people didn’t like their choices!
Continue reading »Virgin Media Unveil Illegal-Download Busting Subscription Service
June 15, 2009
Easily the biggest problem that the music industry over the last decade has been the exponential growth in the illegal downloading and sharing of music which attracts millions of eager internet users with the offer of free music and practically no chance of being caught/prosecuted.
Not that the music industry hasn’t tried – the corpses of dead attempts litter the musical history books for the last five years – through methods as diverse as tying tracks to credit cards and unpopular as digital rights management (DRM) but as of yet they have been unsuccessful. So step up Virgin Media with their attempt to solve the conundrum.
Continue reading »Twitter’s Verified Accounts For Famous Celebrities
June 13, 2009
The popular social networking tool is currently in its beta phases to create Twitter accounts, which they are referring to as verified accounts – a bit like what Paypal does to authenticate users, except not so damn complicated. They are apparently having trouble with false accounts being created, especially for celebrities, whereby identities are faked and tweets are just simply not from that user.
Facebook Vanity URL Names – A New Land Rush?
June 11, 2009
If you can remember back to the time when everybody used MySpace (yes, it was a while ago…) then you will probably recall that everybody had individual “vanity URLs”, and it was through these that people easily found each other.
However Facebook have finally cottoned on to the fact that it was a good idea and have decided to introduce a username scheme that will not only allow you to have your personalised vanity URL for your Facebook profile, but it will also be used in, according to Facebook, “numerous other ways”.
Continue reading »Bing Search Engine More Popular Than Yahoo?
June 9, 2009
The top three search engine websites over the last few years have been fairly consistent – Google have been out in the lead with Yahoo and MSN trailing quite a way behind, not that they haven’t been trying to make up some of the ground between them.
Recently we had Ask’s attempt to claw back market share with the re-introduction of Ask Jeeves (which as of yet hasn’t done anything remarkable) and now its Microsoft’s turn to revamp the search engine that has so far been only semi-successful: Live search has now become Bing.
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