Microsoft Silverlight

If you recently run a windows update check, you may realise there's a new component to update, that is Microsoft Silverlight. If you are not sure, go to control panel and click on add/remove icon and see whether Microsoft Silverlight is in the program list or not? If you don't see it in the program list, run windows update now or click here.

What is Microsoft Silverlight?

"Microsoft Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. Silverlight offers a flexible programming model that supports AJAX, VB, C#, Python, and Ruby, and integrates with existing Web applications. Silverlight supports fast, cost-effective delivery of high-quality video to all major browsers running on the Mac OS or Windows"

If you have installed Silverlight, some rich-content websites you visit will request you to enable silverlight application. Microsoft created Silverlight to enable developers to build rich multimedia interactive web contents within that platform. There will more applications build within Silverlight coming soon.

Click here for more info on Microsoft Silverlight.

Apple iPhone & iPod Touch

Recently, Steve Jobs announced in upgrading the storage memory for both revolutionary iPhone and iPod Touch. iPhone now comes in 8GB and 16GB which double the memory from it's previous models. As for iPod Touch also double its memory from 16GB to 32GB. Simply amazing how Apple can please their customers.

iPhone and iPod Touch is the first in the world which uses the Multi-Touch user interface. It means you can use more than 1 finger simultaneously to navigate the touch screen on the device.

At the moment we can't get the iPhone in Asia yet. But I managed to check out the iPod Touch which is similar to iPhone, except without the phone function. iPhone is sold exclusively by AT&T and Apple. So the phone is SIM locked to AT&T network only. I can see many Asians already using the iPhone which was bought from the US and they managed to unlock the SIM somehow.

Apple also introduce movie rental feature in their new iTunes 7.6. You can use your iPhone to buy music or rent a movie and watch it immediately.

The main thing iPhone is lacking is, it does not have word processor and spreadsheet softwares. Of course, people usually use Microsoft Office as a common platform for sharing. It is a very entertaining device but not so friendly for business use. Apple is opening its iPhone to developers to develop 3rd party software for it. So, we shall see.

Last year, Apple had sold 1.1 million iPhones within 6 months since the launch in June 2007. They are cutting a bigger slice of the mobile phone market share.

Apple never stop impressing their fans. I believe the next generation of iPhone is on its way very soon.

How Google Makes Money?

Have you ever wonder this: "Hey! How the hell does Google makes so much money?"

Google was incorporated by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998. The company went public in 2004 and raised USD1.67b. At that time, for a 6 years old company, it's spectacular! Google has made hundred of their staff millionaires overnight after it went public. Their share price soars. Investor find Google has a strong growth plan and it currently dominates 40% of the internet search market.

So, where does the money comes from? Google is a search engine company. People do searches and they will say this "Just Google it". When you do a search in Google, do you realise on the right hand side of the search results is the sponsored links? Advertisers pay Google for showing their ads if the specific keywords is searched. This is called Pay Per Click (PPC) advertisement. Google has the product name called Google Adwords to cater this business. Advertisers will tell Google to show their ads if their selected keywords is searched. They can also instruct Google to show their ads in certain region or countries specifically.

PPC advertising is more effective than putting a banner in a website. What's the difference? If you put a banner in a website, you are not targeting general audience. You will not know how many viewed your banner and how many converted into sales. PPC is very targeted and you only pay Google when they click on your ads. Adwords will tell you how many impressions and clicks for your ads.

There are 200 million searches in Google daily. So now you know how the big chunk of money going to Google every day?

There's another Google product called Google Adsense, where Google pay website owners to place Google Ads. If their visitors click on the Ads in their website, the website owner will get paid. Simple as that. If you see on the right hand side of my blog, you can find some Google sponsored ads.

Besides that, Google is leveraging on other applications like Gmail, Google earth, Google maps, Picasa & etc to expand their advertisement coverage. Did you realised that in your Gmail, you also can find advertisements. Whenever you open an email, Gmail will show related ads based on your keywords in your email contents. Try it and see.

I am both Adwords and Adsense user. I use Adwords to promote Clickbank and Amazon products. And I use Adsense to generate revenue in my blog site.

Google also developed many free applications. Most of the applications are embedded their advertising features in it. Click on the logo below to see the applications:

I think Google did a pretty good job and revolutionize the search engine industry.

So, do you think Google deserve the money? You do the judge.

AVG Antivirus Software

Do you have antivirus software installed in your PC? I'm sure you do. If not, you will be exposed to threats of viruses.

Problem 1
But, most antivirus softwares are quite costly to obtain the license. If you buy a branded PC like Dell, HP, Acer, etc, it will come with maybe 12-24 months antivirus license. What happen after that? You will not be able to update the virus definition.

Problem 2
High security antivirus softwares like Symantec & McAfee, takes up a hefty memory. It will definitely slow down your overall system performance.

I found something which might delight you all by solving both problems above.

AVG antivirus by Grisoft, is a free software and with free virus definition download support.

It's amazing that such software are given out free and it really does not suck up your memory. You must be thinking whether it's effective or not, right? So far, I have been using it since 2004, my PC has not been infected by any serious viruses. And yes, they do prompt and warn you if AVG found any virus threat in your system.

It has the basic function, like schedule system scanning and virus definition updating. It even scan your incoming mails in Microsoft Outlook. I am just impress.

What about adwares and spywares? If you are using an original windows licensed copy, then you can download the Windows Defender which act as a firewall for your system. You can update your system using Windows Update Software, if you don't have a copy yet.

Wala! Best of both worlds. Free software & it does not make your system sluggish. Go and try it yourself. It's risk free anyway.

Rapidshare

"With 220 Gigabit/s of Internet connectivity and 4.5 Petabytes of storage, RapidShare is one of the biggest and fastest web hosters world wide."

"1-Click web hosting for free. With our 1-Click web hosting solution you can put your files online for free with just one click fast and easy. You decide, who will be able to access your file. Only people knowing the exact download URL are able to download your file. Your file will be deleted when it has not been accessed for more than 90 days or you use your delete link."

If you never heard about Rapidshare before, then let me introduce to you the rocking file sharing server ever. I use rapidshare to download HD movies, musics & TV series. I subscribe to the premium account so that I can download mutiple files at one time with accelerated speed. The premium account price is 4.50 EUR per month. If you subscribe longer, they will give you a discount.

Rapidshare allows you to upload and share your files with a max file size of 100mb per file. However you can upload unlimited files to the server for free. Basically, rapidshare uses 2 main file formats for file sharing, that is winrar and hj split files.

The speed of downloading is amazing. I usually get 120kbps for single file download. I can download a 700MB DVD rip movie in 2 hours tops (if no broken link).

As default, windows does not have a good software to track your multiple downloads. And if you download breaks or you accidently closes the window, that's it. All gone. You have to redo it again. I use Free Download Manager to manage my mutiple downloads and it resumes when it breaks or the next time I turn back on my pc. The best part is this software is absolutely free!

The reason why rapidshare download faster than torrent is because rapidshare downloads from a high speed centralise server. If you use torrent, you are actually downloading from a different individual PCs or servers for a different files. And if the other end cancel the seeding, your download speed will drop or even stop. Rapidshare does not stop the downloading and the speed is quite consistent as it centralise the downloading from the main server.

Rapidshare has 4.5 Petabytes of storage space. (1 GB=1000 MB, 1TB=1000 GB, 1PB=1000TB=1,000,000GB)

I use rapidshare to download my favourite TV series, Heroes (720p HD). There are many forums and blogs which share their rapidshare files. Just google it and add the word rapidshare after the search term, and most of the time I get what I'm looking for.

I think the Internet is man's greatest invention. It beats the wheel big time!

HD-DVD is history! It's final.

Toshiba on 19 Feb surrendered in the high-definition format war against Sony-backed Blu-ray, saying it would no longer make or market HD DVD players and recorders.

This will be the end of the HD format war. I predicts that Sony Blu-ray will go on full force in production and sales after wining the battle. With economies of scale in place, Blu-ray player and disc prices will drop pretty soon.

Let me bring you back to the late 70s, early 80s on the VHS (bottom) vs Betamax (top) format battle. Sony Betamax lost in this format battle. You can find the details in wikipedia. So, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. That's life.

Bose® SoundDock Portable for iPod

To all iPod fans: Sick of listening your iPod musics using the tiny white earphones?

Bose released their second generation SoundDock Portable system.

The previous generation uses only AC to power up the system. This one uses 2 power sources, that is AC and lithium battery. This makes the system truly portable now, I say. It also comes in a rotating dock to make it sleek looking without the dock sticking out. This will make transporting easy. It also charges your iPod while it docks on it. It is compatible with almost all generation of iPods. Bose makes this system even slimmer and sleeker. At the front, there is a battery colour indicator which tells you battery gauge. If you are on AC, it will charge both the system battery and your iPod.

Does this reminds you of Apple TV remote (right)? It's so straight forward and easy to press. Simplicity is the key. SoundDock remote, not only turn on and off the system, it also controls the basic function on your iPod.

Besides iPod, this system allows other devices to connect to it. At the back of this system includes a 3.5mm sound input jack. This makes it scalable.

The sound quality is excellent!

BOSE - "Better Sound Through Research"

Gmail Keyboard Shortcuts

I am sure most of us here have a gmail account. Gmail is reaching whopping 6.5GB mail space. I came to know that there's a customise keyboard shortcuts built-in. So this will save you on the clicking and prolonged your mouse's life.... ;)

What you need to do is log into Gmail and click on Settings. Under the General tab, check Keyboard shortcuts on. Click here to see the table of useful shortcut keys.

Don't you just love Google's applications?

Panasonic Lumix TZ4 & TZ5

This is one of my favourite digital camera. I am using Lumix TZ1 which was bought in 2005. This camera has served me well. It takes good quality pictures and excellent video with zoom and sound.

The 2nd generation was the Lumix TZ2 and TZ3 which was launched in 2006. Now here comes the next generation of TZ series, the TZ5. It was launched on 29 Jan 2008.

Here are some of the highlights in features:

· Intelligent Exposure – With this new feature, photos will no longer be under- or over-exposed. Instead, the TZ5 and TZ4, instantly analyze the framed image and adjusts the brightness in areas that are too dark because of dim lighting, backlighting or the use of the flash. The camera will automatically adjust the brightness accordingly.

· Digital Red-eye Correction*– This feature helps to eliminate the red-eye problem that sometimes results when taking flash shots at the night. Incorporated into the built-in flash, the camera emits a small preliminary flash before the main flash, detects red-eye and will digitally correct it.

· MEGA O.I.S. – Gyrosensors detect hand-shake and the lens system shifts to compensate, helping to prevent hand-shake from creating a blurry image.

· Intelligent ISO – With Intelligent ISO, the TZ4 and TZ5 can determine if the photo subject is moving and change the ISO setting and shutter speed accordingly, thus giving a blur-free photo.

· Intelligent Scene Selector – Intelligent Scene Selector senses the ambient conditions, recognizes the shooting environment and will automatically select the appropriate scene mode from: Scenery, Portrait, Macro, Night Portrait or Night Scenery mode. This intuitive technology, helps the consumer use the most common scene modes that are built into the camera, but often go unused, without making any manual adjustments.

· Face Detection – Panasonic’s Face Detection detects faces anywhere in the frame and automatically chooses the optimal focus and exposure settings so portraits come out clear and crisp. Detecting up to 15 faces, Panasonic’s Face Detection can even track a face if the subject is moving.

· Continuous AF – The Continuous AF (auto focus) system maintains focus on the subject even without pressing a shutter button halfway, thus minimizing the AF time.

This camera is capable of taking High Definition motion pictures (720p) and accept SD High Capacity cards up to 16GB. It uses the new generation of processing chip, the Venus Engine IV.

I just love the design and functionality of this camera. Lumix rocks!

HD Format War Over Soon??

I just read the news that Toshiba is ceasing their HD-DVD disc format because they are losing market share against Sony Blu-ray. So, is this going to be the end of the HD format war?

I don't understand why in the first place these 2 companies cannot come into compromise to settle this before launching their individual formats? There are many victims in this war, for example microsoft xbox 360 HD-DVD player.

Other victims will be Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios and Dreamworks. I pity those ppl who paid RM2k-3k for a HD-DVD player. Those people, who bought HD-DVD discs can keep it for the museum and show it to your kids or grand kids. ;)

So, ladies and gentlemen, the moral of this story is, don't buy new tech with no standardisation of formats. Either one party will suffer!

Another lesson to learn is the word 'Economies of Scale - a decrease in cost as supply increases'. For a good example is the HDTV LCD/Plasma TVs. 2-3 years ago, a 42 inch LCD TV cost more than RM10k. Now? RM5k already can get one. This applies to Blu-Ray players which is cost about RM3-4k now. Look back at DVD players in the 90s......nostalgia.....

Let other people be the victim of the new techs and I will enjoy it the economies of scale when more people are buying it and the price will drop. Having said that, sometimes, the tech crave is too much to handle....if you know what I mean...hehehh.... ;)