The Tech Central

Feedburner Updates Free Stats Package

johntp — Thu, 25 May 2006 18:38:53 +0000

Feedburner has announced a couple of updates to what they are offering in their free stats package including ‘Live Hits’, the ability to see the last 25 hits via your feed and how long the 25 hits were over and what agent they used to read your feed and ‘Yesterdays News’ ,the ability to track your subscribers on different platforms historically.

You can find more info at their blog

via ProBlogger.net

Tags: blog, blogging, blogs, feed, feedburner, feeds, stats, syndication

Yahoo to Test Finance Widget

johntp — Sat, 20 May 2006 10:10:29 +0000

Steve Rubel reports that Yahoo Finance will begin testing a new widget that will allow bloggers and other websites to put real time stock quotes and charts on their sites.

Initial testing will begin in June. Publishers will be able to select any combination of quotes, charts and news. Up to ten companies can be included, and there are at least two options for customizing the chart.

I am not so interested. What do you think?

via TechCrunch

Tags: yahoo, stocks, charts, finance, widget

A new feature on Google Blog Search

johntp — Fri, 19 May 2006 14:20:50 +0000

Today a new feature was launched on Google Blog Search that lets us narrow our search by date,i.e, by Last hour,by Last 12 hours,by Last day,by Past week and by Past month. You can also search by choosing start and end dates by yourself.

Using this feature, you can also track blog posts on your favorite topics according to when those items were posted. They have also incorporated some improvements in search quality that should make your blog-search experience even better.

I just used it, it’s a great feature for Google Blog Search

via Google Blog

Tags: google, blog, search, blogging, blog, blogs, blogger

Get an account at WordPress.com without a blog

johntp — Fri, 19 May 2006 13:59:50 +0000

It has now become possible to get a WordPress.com account without getting a free WordPress blog. WordPress.com has updated the registration page

If you ask me, I say this is a good idea as it helps bloggers who want an API key for the Akismet plugin without getting a blog. You can also leave comments on blogs that require sign-in, without getting a blog for yourself.

This is useful for WordPress.com also as they can now save system resources on empty blogs

Tags: wordpress.com, wordpress, blog, weblog, wp

Google Web Toolkit (Beta) : Making AJAX development easier

johntp — Wed, 17 May 2006 17:53:31 +0000

Google donates OpenSource software development tool with all the AJAX fun in it, makes creating AJAX applications much easier. With Google Web Toolkit (Beta) , you can develop and debug your own AJAX applications in Java code using the Java development tools of your choice. When you deploy your application to production, the GWT compiler simply translates your Java application to browser-compliant JavaScript and HTML.

Tags: google, web, ajax, toolkit, html, javascript

Shuttle for WordPress Launched

johntp — Mon, 15 May 2006 01:49:10 +0000

The Shuttle project began over a year and a half ago, aiming to beautify the WordPress administration panel. With the help of Khaled Abou Alfa, Michaeil Heilemann, Chris J Davis, Joshua Sigar, Joen Asmussen, Ryan Boren and Bryan Veloso (all top-notch designers), Shuttle has finally taken off. To get a better sense of what Shuttle is, I recommend you take a look at some of the screenshots. Shuttle is not a plugin you can download, instead it will be integrated into the next version of WordPress. The Shuttle team has worked closely with Matt Mullenwegg, lead WordPress developer, to seamlessly incorporate their efforts into WordPress.

Tags: wordpress, shuttle

Windows Media Player v11 Public Preview Beta Screenshots

johntp — Sat, 13 May 2006 19:26:09 +0000

Microsoft is planning a Public Preview Beta of Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP on Wednesday, May 17th. Users will be able to download the beta from here.

Here are some screenshots:

Tags: windows, microsoft, windows media player

Gmail gets new feature

johntp — Fri, 12 May 2006 12:01:59 +0000

Users of Gmail will soon experience a new feature called Gmail Pictures. The new feature basically lets you see who has emailed you, almost like an avatar in instant messengers.

The new feature won’t be available for all users at once, it will be rolled out slowly just like the chat feature did.

What are Gmail pictures?

Gmail pictures allow you to put a face to a name, by showing user-selected pictures when you roll over a name in your inbox, Contacts, or Quick Contacts list. You can choose your own photo for yourself and for your contacts, suggest a photo for a contact to use, or see what your friends have selected for themselves.

Gmail pictures can be configured to show to all users who you email or who email you, or they can be limited to only those users who are able see when you’re online. You can see a full list of users who can see your online status from the All Contacts tab of your Contacts page – they’ll be listed with a colored ball next to their name.

Wow.. I can hardly wait to the the new feature in action

Source: Google, ZD Net

Tags: google,gmail,pictures

Four new Google Products

johntp — Thu, 11 May 2006 01:42:06 +0000

Google just anounced four new products of which three are launched- Google Co-op,Google Desktop 4,Google Notebook and Google Trends.

Google Co-op helps Google improve search by letting people and organizations label web pages and create specialized links related to their unique expertise.

Google Desktop 4 gives you another way to improve search, by personalizing your desktop. The new feature “Google Gadgets” deliver an array of information–ranging from games and media players to weather updates and news–straight to your desktop.

Google Notebook is a personal browser tool that lets you clip text, images, and links from the pages you’re searching, save clippings to an online notebook, and then share notebooks with others.

Google Trends is a tool that gives you a peek into search popularity of whatever term you type in. It also lets you compare the popularity of the terms you type in.

Here’s a screenshot of Google Trends

via Google’s Blog

Tags: desktop, google, notebook, products, search, trends

Sony unveils PS3 pricing

johntp — Tue, 09 May 2006 17:39:40 +0000

Sony revealed the PS3’s pricing and release dates at a pre-E3 press conference held in Los Angeles yesterday. The system will come in two bundles. PS3 with a 20GB hard drive (confirmed RRP of AU$829) and one with a 60GB HDD (confirmed RRP of AU$999). The Australian launch date will come one week after the Japan release for Sony’s next generation games console. European territories and US will also receive the PS3 on 17 November. The almost simultaneous worldwide launch date is a stark contrast to Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which was released in Australia a number of months after its US release.

The PS3, which is based on the Cell processor, will play CDs, DVDs and include a Blu-ray drive. While the 20GB PS3 has all of the basic power and functionality of its more expensive sibling (including a Blu-ray drive), the 60GB bundle comes with card slots (Memory Stick, SD, Compact Flash), built-in Bluetooth, built-in 802.11b/g wireless, HDMI support, as well as ethernet compatibility. Further, it includes Dolby digital surround sound functionality and supports high-definition video up to 1080p.

The console also can run up to seven wireless controllers at once, and all PS3s will come with a built-in hard drive, either 60GB or 20GB. And finally, it supports USB, Sony memory sticks, secure digital (SD) and CompactFlash. Sony has also taken a leaf out of Nintendo’s book with its PS3 controller, equipping it with built-in motion sensitivity that can be used to control games.

Source: News.com, Cnet.com

Tags: ps3,sony,playstation