Tecverse

A Rainbow in Your Hand

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:04:48 +0000

An ingenious ‘old tech’ method of creating a three dimensional rainbow in your hands. Rainbow in Your Hand is book published in Japan that makes use of old style animation to generate a rainbow. “This book started as a personal project in summer 2007, and was soon published from a Japanese bookstore “Utrecht”. It’s a flipbook, but rather than seeing animation, it creates a 3D rainbow in your hand. Since being published it has been featured on Japanese TV, Newspapers, major news & blogsites like yahoo news, coolhunting and found. This book won this years NY ADC silver cube.” explains the author.

Share/Save

undreds of Twitter Accounts Hacked [WARNING]

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:04:15 +0000

It seems hundreds of Twitter accounts have started to Tweet out “weight loss” product spam today. Via Mashable, read more…

Share/Save

Ubuntu Identity Overhaul

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:58:58 +0000

A new logo, a new identity. The upcoming release of Ubuntu 10.04 and Ubuntu is set to receive a major identity upgrade, from it’s logo through to its design. “We’re drawn to Light because it denotes both warmth and clarity, and intrigued by the idea that “light” is a good value in software. Good software is “light” in the sense that it uses your resources efficiently, runs quickly, and can easily be reshaped as needed.” explains Mark Shuttle worth who along with a small team of designers who are behind the recent Ubuntu re branding.

The Brand

Beginning with the logo the Ubuntu brand identity receives a remarkable upgrade, along with a brand new typeface.

Along with the Ubuntu community websites following the new look

Desktop

The new Ubuntu identity will also be carried into the upcoming release of 10.04’s desktop aesthetic. The lynx it set to receive a brand new default theme in both light and dark variations

Along with a brand new and fantastically stylish boot screen.

The Website

And last but not the least, the new Ubuntu website will also take on the new branding in a highly good looking manner.

Share/Save

Is Apple out of good ideas?

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:38:03 +0000

Patents are very important — they help the small guys with really great ideas protect themselves. They give those people and companies a real chance in a world that’s dominated by large organizations that build their business on stealing great ideas. That said, holding a patent isn’t a sure-fire way to protect yourself, but it certainly helps. Via ZDNet, read more

Share/Save

46 Firefox Features You Might Not Know About

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:26:45 +0000

Firefox, an open source application that needs no introduction. A browser that has succesfully been eating away it it’s competitors market share since the early parts of the decade. Firefox with it’s theming and extenibility is an incredibly adaptible and customizable browser. As of version 3 a lot of work has gone into a set of new features, mainly for HTML 5 and CSS 3.

Paul Rouget over at Mozilla Hacks has decided to compile a list of 46 features that many may be unaware of. While this list is mainly aimed at web developers, it will still surely find use among the tech curious crowd. View the full list here

Share/Save

Prototype Microsoft Mobile Surface PC one-ups iPhone

admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:39:02 +0000

Microsoft Corp. researchers have shrunk down its Surface tabletop computer into a pocket-sized package that, with the aid of a few accessories, one-ups conventional touchscreen devices like Apple Inc.’s iPhone. Via Computerworld, read more…

Share/Save

Death to IE6, No More Google Support

admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:24:37 +0000

Internet Explorer 6, the thorn in the side of many web developers and designers, through its rampant internet standards defiant rendering. Many developers will agree that the elimination of this decade old browser will most defiantly be a good thing. Internet Explore 6 support was dropped by Google as of 1 March, meaning that Google docs, Google Apps, Gmail and all other Google services will no longer support the ageing browser in an effort to introduce new features to these services.It is surprising to see that even though IE6 market share has dropped to an extreme low, many low tech small to medium sized business still use this browser. Internet Explorer 6 is probably the most security flawed browser still in use today.

There is no doubt that IE6 is the longest reigning browser in history, however for the sake of web evolution and computer safety it is time that this browser be disbanded from use. There are many ways to upgrade, one can either visit the Internet Explorer download page and upgrade to the latest version 8 of Internet Explorer, or perhaps try a more internet standards compliant browser such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.

Share/Save

The Inevitable Firefox vs Chrome debate

admin — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:17:13 +0000

With the Chrome browser gaining market share, with it’s innovative feature set and interface, it is heating up competition for the open source giant, Firefox. Firefox, initially paved the way for an alternative browser lifestyle that many internet surfers enjoy today. It’s quite easily filled a need that Internet Explorer couldn’t, mainly being security and innovative ergonomics.

While Firefox has grown substantially in market share over the past few years, it has also managed to create a credible and solid reputation for the world of open source software. Then recently Chrome bounced into the browser scene, and has also shown considerable market share growth and introduced some very interesting and useful features.

The ‘versus’ argument, when comparing any two very good products in most cases has a negligible conclusion, which is the case with the Firefox vs Google Chrome debate. Both browsers offer similar features and are both developed with aggressive innovation and attention to security.

Firefox has grown a loyal user base who will most probably not just ditch the fox in a hurry. Firefox was a salvation to many for the Explorer 6 downfalls and with every new release of Firefox it just gets better. It is an extremely reliable and sturdy browser that allows for almost infinite customization through it’s wonderful extensibility.

Extensibility is a key feature to a successful browser and Google realised this quite quickly, and therefore later on in Chrome’s development the browser introduces add on features. The Chrome browser, like many other Google products demonstrates a certain level of creativity in its features as from early Chrome versions the browser had features previously unseen in any other browser, while it is true that Firefox has caught up and implemented similar functionality.

The main difference between the two is potentially the way Chrome is orientated, it is very online media friendly and obviously integrates well with Google Services. While Firefox tends to be a more one size fits all browser, as it performs well in all fields where Chrome is exceptional in certain.

After deep thought, a Firefox vs Chrome debate isn’t feasible as both these browser deserve merit for their efforts in constantly advancing the frontier of internet browsing technology. They both have their strengths and they both have almost identical features. The decision between the two, in most cases, has nothing to do with the operational aspects of each browser but the brand and identity that each browser carries.

We at Tecverse, absolutely love the Google Chrome however, Firefox will in the foreseeable future remain our default browser of choice!

Share/Save

Google: We Screwed Up With Buzz, Stay Tuned

admin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:50:42 +0000

Google, after scrambling to alter certain features and add new settings to Buzz several times since its launch a week ago, has admitted that it rushed the service out the door. However, the search giant says it’s working hard to adapt to what users want and has set up a “war room” dedicated to responding as quickly as possible. Via GigaOM, Read more…

Share/Save

Google Maps Adds Experimental New Features

admin — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 12:53:27 +0000

The Google Maps service just recently got a ‘labs’ section, much like Gmail and other Google Services. Along with the introduction of labs to their maps offerings, Google has released a collection of nine innovative labs features the Google maps service.

All nine labs features are available to try but are disabled by default as there are still beta services.

An overview of the new labs offerings for Google Maps:
Smart Zoom - Prevents a user from zooming in too close where no images are available for the zoom level
Drag ‘n’ Zoom - Provides a smarter method of zooming into specific areas of a map by dragging a square with your mouse which will then cause the map viewer to resize and zoom into that area
Rotatable Maps - Adds the ability to rotate the orientation of the map
Aerial Imagery – Enables high resolution aerial photography overlays
Back to Beta - This feature adds a beta label to the Google Maps logo, Most definitely for the Google hard core fans.
LatLng Marker – Add latitude and longitude markers
LatLng Tooltip – Display the pointer’s latitude and longitude
Where in the World Game – Play a game that test’s your geographical knowledge of the world
What’s Around Here - A secondary search result that enables you to perform searched within searches or searches of search results. Useful for searching within a specific area

Share/Save