I got so much inspiration from the presenters and other attendees at the conference; getting back to basics and realizing that you need to be the driving force behind ideas is what it’s all about. Don’t wait for the requirements of your projects to innovate, you’ll never get what you want out of that, unless you get lucky with a few here and there. What I really learned was that the fun lies in the exploration of new concepts and teqhniques, not in the “this doesn’t fit my current project, so I wont look at it” attitude. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve skipped over something just because I didn’t think I could use it right then and there. Keeping the big picture in mind – innovation, integration, and imagination – is key for me.

Here’s a link to the talks that were there. You can follow the links to get back to phparchitect, and all the awesome presenters that were there! If you’re a coder, you have to go to this thing next year, it was quite alot of fun!
http://cw.mtacon.com/schedule/city/new-york

Sure, sure, the kids are all excited about iTunes LP and their fancy “lyrics” and “album art.” You know what we’re psyched about? Finally being able to manage our iPhone apps directly from iTunes 9. It works pretty much exactly as you’d expect, although we were able to make it do some minorly wonky things — and we’re psyched about the AutoFill-esque music sync feature that fills any remaining space on your phone with music.

We’re also pumped about the new Home Sharing fearture in iTunes 9, which lets you transfer content between five different machines directly without screwing around with network shares or USB drives. We’ve seriously been waiting for a feature like this since iTunes sharing was first launched — it also works exactly like you’d expect, and we think it’ll make managing media across multiple machines much, much easier.

I just realized the other day that the amount I’ve spent on Logitech Equipment in the last few years would buy me almost two new laptops (Acer Aspire I @ $300/ea). Beyond the fact that this is a fantastic company that has produced phenomenal interface equipment, I found it interesting how much money I’ve spent not so much with this one company, but that my spending on devices and gadgets has gone through the roof over the last few years. I just read about a new development in the ‘Cloud Computing’ field of modular components for all gadgets, and realize how ludicrous that market is going to become in the next 3-5 years.

The article I read mentioned that there are a few companies working on modular components for all electronic devices, such as battery, cpu/processor modules, etc. I consider that great news, as I’ve gotten quite sick of how compartmentalized the device market has been ever since its inception. I mean, seriously, how many different connector types do they have to make to send essentially the same charge voltage to a Lithium-Ion battery on a cell phone? It’s things like these that need to go: charge chords, connectors, adapters, etc.

I look forward to the days that may lie ahead, where I won’t have a cellphone, mp3 player, remote, streaming media device, etc to have to keep track of, all I have is my other ‘Brain(s)’. For home, you can stack a few of the CPU and memory modules together for extra power serving up HI DEF media throughout the house, as well as using a (GACK) chord to just tap right into your home electrical service. From there, for recharging the portable module batteries – inductive surfaces (which can also be used for all of your movable kitchen accessories: blender, coffee maker/grinder, etc).

Market adoption of a set of standards for this which uses all current technologies as a base would be sweet, but I can’t hope too far in that area. If anyone has 500M they’d like to drop on me, I’d be happy to help

Just read in the new Maximum PC about EFI now being available for OSX on any PC, sawwweeet! The price isn’t too too bad, considering what you will have access too, but I would honestly wait until it drops down as it takes more market share. Here’s the retail link to buy, keep an eye on this good stuff! I would honestly even look into buying the Motherboard combo from that company, looks like a solid deal all around. For the Uubernerds out there, check this article out from Intel. If anyone buys this hardware please add your comments here I’d love to hear about it! Happy OsX’ing!

Man am I glad I went onto torrents a few weeks ago and grabbed the ISO for the W7 beta, almost makes the $120 I wasted on Vista Home Premium in a Panic worth it!

But Before you read this, I’m going to make an OSX plug: There is a new portable technology out there called EFT (Extensable Firmware Tech) that allows you to run OSX on ANY PC build! So seriously, after reading this, check out this link before you start planning on renewing your subscription to the Windows Colossus.

First and foremost, this OS is w/o doubt a nice improvement over XP. The sad and depressing (and all too typical of Microsoft) thing is that it took ALMOST TEN YEARS and Billions of dollars to accomplish. This is a pathetic failure, and although this OS is usable, ie not like Vista, it is a sad day in the history of this company that they are only now just barely beginning to approach the shadow of competition with apple’s awesome port of BSD Unix (OSX).

W7 64B has clean support for non-64B programs, very well done. So far, very very little will not run on this machine. I have recently taken a shining to Aptana Studio, which doesn’t seem to work right (yet), but other than that, I have plenty of other IDE’s I use and enjoy, so this certainly doesn’t hold me up. There are two folders, one for X86, and one for 64Bit. So far, the only 64B install I have is Photoshop, and honestly, I dont see a huge improvement in speed over 32B. But I think having an OS that takes advantage of hardware that’s been available for years can’t hurt, and the boys at redmond seem to be finally getting the memory and resource thing figured out; I have encountered far less hangups on this machine in the time I’ve been using W7.

One thing I really like about W7 is the windowing system. Here’s a nice shot of the neat rollover previews you now get when your shortcut icons have an active item or items open:

This also works well with multiple folders open as well:

Even cooler, rolling over the rollover previews shows you a quick view of the window w/o having to go into it! On a sidenote, I’ve been told Vista Does this already, but it’s either not available in home premium, or I just never enabled it, etc. W7 came out of the box like this, although I do have ultimate.

Another feature I really like is libraries, which allow you to keep track of directories or groups of directories and files, which I use quite a bit for projects. Let’s say you have your code files, your legal documents, spreadsheets, etc, all in distinct places, but want quick views by project to those files. Libraries helps you get that done very easy by adding library folders with references to each top level directory or file you want to have in that particular group. Good stuff.

For drivers, I haven’t really had any trouble with any devices I’ve installed, and you’re talking about a whizzbang tecchie Uubernerd with serious gadgetItis, so that’s saying something If you’re holding back on XP b/c of this, I would say jump right in, the waters fine; however, some older programs and hardware might have a little trouble.

All in all, honestly I do feel W7 is worth the purchase this coming fall, however, I would really love to check out OSX w/o having to get locked into a Steve Jobs nightmare box I can’t tweak the hardware on! (yes i know about the G5, i dont have 3 grand or whatever ridiculous amount they charge to get a PC-like box, lame!)

If you haven’t upgraded from XP yet b/c of the bad Vista news, I would say 7 is the one for you. If you already have Vista like my sorry arse, and feel ripped off like I do, download Release Candidate 7 and enjoy it free for a year!

Skype is coming to the iPhone on Tuesday and BlackBerry devices in May. While we’ve seen plenty of Skype-capable apps on the iPhone, the poor, often echo-infected calls should be easily bested by the official Skype App that doesn’t need the extra audio transcoding workaround required by the existing crop of unofficial apps. The Skype app works over WiFi only (not over EDGE or 3G data) and supports calls to SkypeOut contacts in addition to many of the other features you’ve used from the desktop client. iPod touch owners will require earphones with an embedded mic to talk. CNET has a hands-on preview of the App which you can view by clicking here.

While still unoffical and a rumor, GigaOM reports Skype for iPhone client will be launched as early as next week, and with CTIA kicking off on April 1st, we’d say the timing is just about ideal. Of course, we’ve already seen a variety of alternatives for bringing Skype and other VoIP apps to Apple’s phone, but by and large, they’ve been very unimpressive. We believe this is even more plausable due to the new push improvements and iPhone Os 3.0 around the corner. There’s no word on pricing (we’re hoping for free) or any other tasty tidbits, but you can bet we’ll be keeping tabs on this one.

Much of the iPhone OS 3.0 news seemed developer-centric, but there are certainly plenty of consumer implications down the road, along with long-awaited functions like copy and paste, A2DP, MMS and universal Spotlight search. Improvements include:

App and developer functionality

• Peer-to-peer connectivity over Bluetooth for gaming and other info-swapping.
• Paid apps will have the potential to be subscription fee-based, and can include optional paid content that can be bought from right inside the app.
• Developers can now build apps that call out to Google Maps, and can also finally bring Apple-blessed turn-by-turn to the phone.
• Devs can also connect with hardware accessories over in their apps now, such as a blood pressure monitor — or perhaps a keyboard? Connectivity works through the dock connector or over Bluetooth.
• Long-promised push functionality will at last be included, but apps won’t run in the background.
• Developers can add streaming video and audio to their apps, along with in-game voice use.

General functionality

• Cut, copy and paste. At last! You can shake the phone to undo and redo the action, and it works with both text and photos, allowing Mail to send multiple photos at a time.
• MMS, along with forward and delete for multiple messages.
• A2DP stereo Bluetooth.
• Unlocked Bluetooth functionality on 2G iPod touch.
• Spotlight has been added to a new home screen page to the left of existing pages, allowing for universal search on the phone.
• Tethering is built into 3.0, and Apple will work with carriers on that — who will have the last say on its implementation, most likely.
• App Store will be available in 77 countries.
• Parental controls for TV shows, movies and App Store apps.
• Auto-login for WiFi hotspots.

Apple apps

• A new app called Voice Memos which lets you record notes and reminders.
• A revised Stocks app, with news stories and a landscape view.
• Landscape view available for Mail, Text and Notes.
• CalDAV support has been added to Calendar, along with subscriptions support in the .ics format.
• Apple’s major apps have all been expanded with search functionality.
• Note syncing to Mac and PC.
• YouTube account support.
• Form auto-fill.
• Phishing protection.
• Shake the shuffle iPod playback.

A developer beta of OS 3.0 is available today, and the 3.0 update will be coming to consumers this summer as a free update to all iPhone 3G customers. It’ll also work for 1st gen iPhone owners, though they won’t receive A2DP or MMS due to hardware limitations. iPod touch owners will be able to update for $9.95, just like last time.

iPhone OS 3.0 Presentation

Check out the apple presentation here if our copy of the video is not working.

Besides all the work going into putting the finishing touches on Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft is keeping itself busy preparing for Office 14. Whereas you’ll get IE 8 as a free download, and pay a pretty penny for Windows 7, the company looks like it’s splitting the difference for Office 14, revealing that it will be available in a version supported by embedded advertisements.

Microsoft said that a version of Office with ads would be a solution to the problem of how to make money off the millions of people pirating its products. If people are going to be using the software without paying for it up front, the company at least wants them watching the ads, letting it generate an ongoing stream of revenue from advertisers.

While that sounds like an innovative solution, and certainly seems better than doing nothing at all about piracy, it doesn’t look like it adds up into a sound strategy. The plan was mentioned as an additional revenue stream to traditional licenses, suggesting that if the plan takes off, it will be released separately from the full, paid version. It’s pretty safe to assume that the ad-supported copy would be somewhat stripped down from full functionality, as a lack of ads alone doesn’t seem enough to drive sales. Pirates being pirates, even if there’s a free option available, they’re likely to continue copying the paid version.

We’re curious to see if Microsoft actually follows through with the plan, though as Office 14 won’t be out until 2010, we’ve still got a bit of a wait in store. Unfortunately, we do not yet have a screenshot but will post one once we do. Feel free to drop a line and let us know your opinion.

There’s yet another case of heavy handedness from Apple in rejecting potential apps from the iPhone store. The creators of South Park have put almost all of their back episodes online at South Park Studios for Flash-based streaming, and last year it was announced to fans that they would be putting together an iPhone app to give mobile users access to that content.

Now Boing Boing is reporting that the app is “dead in the water” because Apple has rejected it twice for being “potentially offensive.” Goodness knows there’s a lot of offensive content on the App Store, so it’s really hard to see how Apple is holding any kind of line of good taste here (if that even applies in this case). Boing Boing’s original post from last year announcing the app reveals something of how nice the interface was going to be. I can’t help but hope that the evolving standards of the app store that eventually allowed in applications like RSS Player (which was previous banned as Podcaster) will come round for the South Park app. I can’t wait for the backlash in one of the many episodes from now to 2011 being produced.

According to ZDNet UK, the Mozilla Foundation’s Developer Tools Lab, formed in October, has released its first prototype project – a web-based, collaborative code-editing framework named Bespin, after the planet where Cloud City is located in the Star Wars universe.

Dion Almaer and Ben Galbraith, the leaders of the Developer Tools Lab, said the aim of the project is to follow the example of tools such as Google Apps in shifting desktop-based tasks to the Internet.

Almaer said in a blog post: “As a challenge, we wanted to take on an interesting project that you would normally think of as a desktop application, and see if it would fly on the web. Being developers, why not develop something that we know and use every day? Our code editor.”

Shifting the code editor to the web should make it easier for developers to collaborate, and one goal of the project is to enable live-coding sessions, Almaer said.

The tool is browser-based, so developers should be able to access it from any device using a standards-compliant browser, he said. Other high-level goals include ease of use, integration of the command line, standards compliance and extensibility, he said.

The initial release is only a preview, intended to get users and other developers involved, and Mozilla’s initial focus was on performance, Almaer said.

Mozilla said: “The initial prototype framework… includes support for basic editing features, such as syntax highlighting, large file sizes, undo/redo, previewing files in the browser [and] importing/exporting projects.”

Bespin 0.1 supports commands similar to those used in Ubiquity, a Mozilla Firefox browser extension that allows users to execute a variety of tasks simply by typing a command into the browser. The developers plan eventually to unite Bespin and Ubiquity, Almaer said.

He wrote: “Bespin commands look like Ubiquity commands, and we want to fully integrate them.”

The project is accessible from Mozilla Labs’s website, and requires a browser that implements an HTML 5 feature called Canvas. The developers said they have tested Bespin on Firefox 3 and WebKit Nightly, a test version of the open-source framework underlying Apple’s Safari browser.

Something significant has obviously delayed the original September launch of push notifications, Apple’s solution to not allowing apps to run in the background. MacRumors hears that Apple is considering allowing real background processes instead.

Android and especially the Pre have made background apps and the true multitasking they allow look a lot sexier, and the iPhone’s one-app-at-a-time paradigm more restrictive, even with the innovative compromise of push notifications.

Push notifications, for the uninitiated, would allow apps like AIM to send you notifications (through Apple) of say, new IMs via an SMS-like prompt, even while the application isn’t running. So you could kind of think of the app as running in the cloud, essentially. Not multitasking by any means, but for some an acceptable compromise on battery-draining background apps.

MacRumors says that if what they’re hearing is true, and Apple allows apps to run in the background, it would happen with the iPhone 3.0 software. On the current iPhones, it would likely be restricted to one or two processes at a time, but with the beefier hardware of the next-gen iPhone, it’d be less restricted.

Having apps actually run in the background might actually be worth the longer wait.

Remember that screenshot we saw cirulating the web of all those different Windows 7 versions (pictured above)? Well guess what? It’s worse than you could have possibly imagined. View the actual SKUs after the break.

The following will be the actual new SKUs for the OS:

• Windows 7 Starter (limited to three apps concurrently)
• Windows 7 Home Basic (for emerging markets)
• Windows 7 Home Premium (adds Aero, Touch, Media Center)
• Windows 7 Professional (Remote Desktop host, Mobility Center, Presentation mode)
• Windows 7 Enterprise (volume license only, boot from virtual drive, BitLocker)
• Windows 7 Ultimate (limited availability, includes everything)

This information has been confirmed by Microsoft… who never listens. At least most consumers will only see Home Premium and Professional options at retail, which is more akin to the XP options of yore, and means WMC will be “baseline” for most PCs.

It has been an uphill battle for new browsers to break ground in this Microsoft world of ours. Do to the fact ie comes with all windows based machines most end users do not know there are any other browsers on the market. Firefox however has been gaining major ground on the Internet Explorers of the past. Most users switch to Firefox because of its invulnerability to spyware (in the beginning) once they got used to tabbed browsing IE was never touched again. The IE 7 came out sporting its own tabbed browsing, but again loyal fire fox users loved there plugins. Then Firefox 3 came out and infuriated the masses, I for one hate the new Firefox but agree it is faster. The memory dumping is killing me a few windows open and my task manager says it is using 280k memory resources.

The trial version of the next Windows operating system has won a key endorsement from a software expert at chipmaker Intel (NSDQ: INTC), a company that, despite being one of Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)’s closest partners, was so leery of Vista that at one point it banned the widely maligned OS from its corporate workstations.

Windows 7 and companion OS Windows Server 2008, at least when it comes to the beta versions, are a whole different ball game from Vista, said Intel software developer Doug Holland, in a company blog post this week.

“I have now been using the Windows Server 2008 R2 beta and Windows 7 beta builds for some time and have found them to be incredibly stable,” said Holland, who in previous posts has pointed out that Windows 7 will scale to support a whopping 256 processor cores.

Vista maxed out at 64 cores with the high-end 64-bit version.
Holland says he’s so pleased with the Windows Server 2008 beta, which Microsoft released last week along with the Windows 7 beta, that he’s using it as the main OS on his personal laptops and desktops “and would do so also on my corporate notebook if our IT department allowed.”

Corporate IT organizations don’t typically allow employees to run beta software on their PCs.

A warm reception for Windows 7 at Intel would be welcome news for Microsoft. In an embarrassment for Redmond, Intel CEO Paul Otellini stated publicly in 2007 that his company didn’t plan to upgrade its internal systems to Vista and that it would stick with Windows XP.

The statement, from one of the world’s most powerful tech executives, reinforced the notion that Vista was not business friendly. Vista adoption among large enterprises has been almost nonexistent since the OS debuted two years ago as corporate IT chiefs have complained about its hardware requirements and lack of compatibility with older software.

Microsoft is counting on Windows 7, which according to early reports is lighter and more user-friendly than Vista, to restore its reputation in the business market. An endorsement from Intel could go a long way toward that.

Visit informationweek.com for a gallery of Windows 7.

Blog authors around the world, Google would like to remind you that it’s your blog, your data. Now that Blogger allows users the ability to export all contents of their blog, the Data Liberation team would like to announce the Google Blog Converters project. This new Open Source project provides the ability to easily move blog posts and comments from service to service. This initial release provides Python libraries and runnable scripts that convert between the export formats of Blogger, LiveJournal, MovableType, and WordPress.

In addition, the source code includes templates for hosting these conversions on Google App Engine. Future additions to the project will include support for BlogML and synchronization tools between various services that do not provide a import/export feature but do provide APIs for accessing and modifying blog contents.

We’re excited to provide this level of control for your personal blog data. Contributions to the project are always welcomed and encouraged, so check out our source code (download, 2.7 MB zipped) and let us know what you think. We look forward to your feedback in our discussion group.

One of the best things of being in Madrid is El Prado, which has some of the most amazing paintings ever. Now you can see them in Google Earth, at a stunning 14-billion-pixel resolution. Video after the break.

The amazing images are 14 gigapixels, 1,400 times the resolution of a 10 megapixel camera. As you can see in this video, Madpixel doesn’t use any special camera, but a machine-controlled digital camera and algorithms to compensate for deformation and stitch the final result. Zooming in to see the masters’ technique and the detail in the painting is just mindblowing.

I just got back from vacation and there it was on my doorstep, saweetA! My special thanks goes out to T-Mobile for getting this pre-order to me 2 days before they were supposed to. I’ve only spent a few hours with this beauty so far, but I’m in geek heaven. We have some photos after the jump.

I never really coded much in java, but the elegance of the Android framework is really making me want to sink my teeth into it and see what I can come up with. I’m very impressed with this first commercial packaging of the Android framework, and can’t wait to continue updating this handset as the community adds more polish, and ever sweeter apps to it!

First of all, this is NOT an iPhone, so if you’ve wanted that handset, I would still recommend getting one of those: there are very specific features to the iPhone that are very unique, and set it apart from the rest, such as the elegant browsing and zooming features for the web, and the automatic screen rotation when you turn the unit. The G1 does not have this, but I’m still ecstatic over this gadget, I’m confident that as I learn more about its capabilities, I’ll be happy with it despite its small lack of features that the iPhone does have. Mostly, it’s the open framework aspect of it that I like, and that the framework doesn’t have to be tied to the device, hence the name ‘Open Handset Alliance’ that the Android project falls under. So that being said, and me having gushed about Android, let’s get into the actual features of the handset.

The foldout screen and full Qwerty board was a big selling point for me. The trackball mouse is also very well done, and can get you places quickly, as well as help you with editing text. The combination of buttons and touchscreen is also very well done, and I think this is what sets this unit apart from the iPhone. One thing I never liked about Mac products is the idiotic mentality of, well, they only need one button, or no buttons at all. I’m a pc guy, I right click… and I like my buttons. I do use the touchscreen on this handset a lot however I also use it in combination with the buttons, and that’s just slick.

As far as memory is concerned, this is where the handset falls flat on its face. First of all, no internal flash memory? For $300, I should be getting at least a few gigs, 4 would be nice. This is a huge improvement suggestion for the next unit. Also, the microSD card is annoying, and hard to get to. I have 4 regular sized SD cards totaling 8GB of memory that I’d really like to use with this handset, but no dice. The one positive aspect of this is that flash memory is always getting cheaper, so I should be able to pick up a 4GB microSD card for about $30-$50.

The back of the unit comes off easily for battery replacement, and SIM card access… so no complaints there. The phone also comes with a full stereo headset, which I was so happy to have right out of the box. It also uses the micro USB port, which is great, as this opens up the device to be used with many other products that use this connector.

As you also might have guessed, the unit comes with bluetooth capability, and I’ve also already got it reading from my wireless network at home, setup was very easy. My next mission is to find out how to get skype running on this beast!

Check out the perdy packaging it comes in below:

Since this a site relevant to technology & entertainment it is my pleasure to introduce something that integrates a little of both. GameBattles.com is home to over a million competitive gamers whom battle their way up the ranks of MLG and of course for prize money and bragging rights.

Truimage recently released a wordpress plugin that enables these gamers whom have clan sites to show their stripes. The plugin is simple to use, has preloaded themes and is packed with the ability to customize it further using cascading stylesheets to create your own themes.

Check out the plugin at http://www.truimage.net/2008/09/gb-team-stats/

Well it finally hit. After the last firmware update my Iphone was pretty happy. There was the occasional App Crash but my reception seemed a lot better and it dropped less calls. Here is a quick review on some of the stuff I noticed from my Iphone.

Let’s start with the Apps. At times with the old firmware they didn’t seem to load that fast in particular Critter Crunch. Which if you haven’t tried this game yet it’s a classic for the Iphone. Anywho 2.1 makes this game fly. It loads a lot faster and doesn’t crash. All the Apps seem to run a lot smoother. Oh and might I add the backup is so much faster. Thank God!!!

Onwards to the reception. In my area according the ATT Map I’m in shit ville for 3g. Which basically means I would get lucky to have 1 bar. This resulted in my generally switching back to…. EDGE so I wouldn’t miss calls of any sorts. 2.0.2 totally helped but 2.1 solved the problem. I currently have 3 bars on 3g and have seen even max out in the house. I drove around and was Maxed out everywhere. Another thing which I don’t know if it was an intended fix was the switching from Edge to 3g. Normally I would do it manually like. It seems though when the connection is in question it automatically does it for me. I left it on 3g for the all of Friday and well the reception has been great!!

So additional features to note one that totally makes things great is the Ipod side of the phone. Usually it would just display the Track Name. I don’t know about everyone else but for myself I have a lot of strange tunes a lot of which are in other languages. I don’t necessarily remember all the Song Names. Well they added the Album Name to populate underneath the Track Name. This so helps!! So looking through your Playlist becomes a breeze especially when you like what’s the album called again

Overall it seems that Apple has ironed out a lot of the bugs. This is by no means a complete fix. I still need Copy Paste and I wouldn’t mind a find feature either. For now though it seems that they’ve worked out the Iphone and made it function like it should. I’ve been happy with my phone sense I got it but this is like Icing on the Cake……(insert portal joke here)