Filed under: Features, Social Software, Microblogging

Let's do it!

Okay, let's get right to the juicy stuff: Twitter's long-awaited business model is finally going to kick in soon, according to Twitter's head of project management and monetization (say that title ten times fast!) Anamitra Banerji. Twitter's plan for ads isn't to slap them obnoxiously on the main page, though. Instead, they're going the Google route, and placing the ads within search results.

That should provide enough ad views and clickthroughs to make Twitter some dough, while keeping the ads at least somewhat relevant to users. But will they be UGLY? We don't know yet, although Techcrunch pondered some possible design options. One thing is certain, though: people will be royally cheesed off if the ads look like regular tweets. Customers hate feeling like someone's trying to trick them (the customer writing this column sure does, anyway). In apps news: Seesmic's new Twitter app for BlackBerry now integrates the company's latest purchase, Ping.fm. In case you're not familiar with Ping, it's a way of pushing your status updates to several services at once -- convenient! Possibly spammy, but convenient! Seesmic for Blackberry also includes multiple account support and photo uploading, amongst other nifty features.

Twitter's geotagging features are about to become a lot more useful. Instead of tagging tweets with your coordinates, you'll soon be able to tag them with the name of a place. That offers a lot more flexibility and privacy than the current system, and it's also reminiscent of location-based services like Foursquare. It would be awesome to have your Foursquare checkins set a Twitter geotag, instead of sending out an annoying tweet about where you just checked in, and this is the first step.

Twitter has also opened its API firehose -- unlimited, realtime developer access to Twitter data -- to a small group of new companies. Ellerdale, Collecta, Kosmix, Scoopter, twazzup, CrowdEye and Chann Search are the lucky recipients of this VIP access. I've barely heard of any of these operations, but you can do a lot with firehose access, and I'm sure we'll be learning more about them once they start developing new apps.

Twitter isn't just an Anglocentric phenomenon. According to a new study by social media stats-crunchers Semiocast, only 50% of tweets are in English. That says a lot, both about Twitter's impressive spread and its ongoing initiative to translate Twitter.com into several world languages. Although English is still Twitter's most popular language, there are also large numbers of tweets in Japanese (14%), Portuguese (9%), Malay (6%) and Spanish (4%). You can check out the rest of the study in PDF format.

That's Twitter news you can use for the first week of March! Tune in next Twitter Tuesday, when we might know more about those "nifty" new Twitter.com features that Alex Payne teased us with over the weekend. Same Twitter time, same Twitter channel!

Twitter Tuesday - this week's Twitter news, apps and more originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Twitter - Collecta - Kosmix - Google - CrowdEye

Filed under: Design, Developer

Replacing the color scheme for a site using CSS can be an annoying task. The same color may be used for several elements across the file, and you need to search and replace for it. Color is represented by hex codes, which is not very visual. This is not a problem heavyweight web developers have -- they're usually set up with advanced text editors which feature built-in color pickers.

Users just starting out with CSS, however, often have to struggle with the color codes and with visualizing how the scheme fits together. CSSColorEditor (another great find from MakeUseOf) aims to help with this exact issue. It's a simple one-purpose tool, which lets you load a local CSS file, change its colors using a visual color picker, and then spews that same file out with different colors. The color swatches are too small for my liking, but they still give you a clue as to what the scheme would end up looking (I'm color-blind, so don't judge me in the comments!)

Another minor UI niggle is that the picker dialog itself does not have an "OK" button. Where you would expect that button to be, there's actually a link leading you to another site. That's kind of weird, too.

CSSColorEditor lets you ... edit CSS colors (visually) originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Download Squad - Color scheme - Design - Cascading Style Sheets - MakeUseOf

Filed under: Fun, Time-Wasters, Education

So, the Winter Olympic games were just concluded a few days ago. Did you have enough? No? Well, now you can reflect back to past Olympics with the New York Times' Flash retrospective of all past torches.

You can see both Winter and Summer Games torches from 1936 till the present. Did you know that up until 1992, Summer and Winter games were both held on the same year? It's also interesting to see how the shape of the torch morphed over time and became less and less 'torch-like', until today it seems more like a sci-fi sword than a torch. Maybe in a few years it'll look like an Olympic light saber.

(On related news, you should check out The Big Picture Olympics photos, both part one and part two. Fantastic images!)

Check out Olympic torches since 1936 to this day - Time Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Winter Olympic Games - New York Times - Sport - Summer Olympic Games - Summer Games

Filed under: Audio, iPhone

I'm not shy about my love of Grooveshark. No one pays me to say it, it's just the best streaming music app I've used -- and it's fully functional in Canada unlike some of its geotarded cousins in the audio game.

They caused a bit of a ruckus recently when they decided to push their iPhone app -- which had been roundly denied by Apple -- via Cydia, doing an end run around Jobs and Co.

There are two things to know about the app. First, it's awesome. It's quite possibly the greatest thing I've ever installed on my jailbroken iPod touch. Second, there's just no way Apple would ever have approved Grooveshark the way it was released. As much as I enjoy the ability to make single songs and entire playlists available offline with the push of a button, it's not the kind of functionality Apple wants on its devices.

ed: as pointed out by commenters, Spotify -- which was approved -- does offline music as well. I've reached out to Grooveshark Josh Bonnain for some clarification about what went down. It's also worth noting that both Palm and Blackberry approved Grooveshark.

That said, if you're using a jailbroken device, find Grooveshark and install it. The app is pure mobile music goodness, and the missing piece in Grooveshark's all-around awesomeness puzzle.

Apart from providing fast access to your playlists and favorite songs, you've also got Grooveshark's entire library at your disposal via the search screen. You can also favorite, like, and dislike tunes while you listen.

Have a look at the screenshots after the break, and see what you're missing if you don't have a jailbroken iPhone or iPod!

Now if they could just put an end to those nasty record label lawsuits... I'm not shy about my love of Grooveshark. No one pays me to say it, it's just the best streaming music app I've used -- and it's fully functional in Canada unlike some of its geotarded cousins in the audio game.

They caused a bit of a ruckus recently when they decided to push their iPhone app -- which had been roundly denied by Apple -- via Cydia, doing an end run around Jobs and Co.

There are two things to know about the app. First, it's awesome. It's quite possibly the greatest thing I've ever installed on my jailbroken iPod touch. Second, there's just no way Apple would ever have approved Grooveshark the way it was released. As much as I enjoy the ability to make single songs and entire playlists available offline with the push of a button, it's not the kind of functionality Apple wants on its devices.

ed: as pointed out by commenters, Spotify -- which was approved -- does offline music as well. I've reached out to Grooveshark Josh Bonnain for some clarification about what went down. It's also worth noting that both Palm and Blackberry approved Grooveshark.

That said, if you're using a jailbroken device, find Grooveshark and install it. The app is pure mobile music goodness, and the missing piece in Grooveshark's all-around awesomeness puzzle.

Apart from providing fast access to your playlists and favorite songs, you've also got Grooveshark's entire library at your disposal via the search screen. You can also favorite, like, and dislike tunes while you listen.

Have a look at the screenshots after the break, and see what you're missing if you don't have a jailbroken iPhone or iPod!

Now if they could just put an end to those nasty record label lawsuits...

Grooveshark's iPhone app is unbelievably awesome, but totally unapprovable originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple - IPhone - Grooveshark - Download Squad - IPod Touch

Filed under: Utilities, Microsoft

Not only will the next version of Microsoft Exchange transcribe telephone calls, it'll go one step further: Microsoft is also trying to translate telephone calls in real time. You're speaking English, she's speaking Russian -- but you can both understand each other! HOW COOL IS THAT?

It was only a matter of time, of course -- and Google's also working on the same tech -- but still, watch the video and tell me you're not impressed. I experienced a similar sensation to when I saw the real-time translation in the Google Wave tech demo -- it's that kind of tingling... that prickling sensation, where the words that articulate your thoughts are just out of reach, on the tip of your tongue.

Just imagine the possibilities when real-time language translation becomes a reality. It's not far off; a year, maybe two. It's simply a matter of processing power, nothing more. I'm thinking of the universal translators that appear in Star Trek and Dr Who. Imagine travelling anywhere in the world, or the universe, and being able to understand what's being said. Obviously it wouldn't be as large as a phone -- perhaps an earpiece, or sub-cranial implant... hmm...

Microsoft reveals translating phone that works in almost-real-time originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft - Translation - Star Trek - Google Wave - Google

Filed under: Security, News

With the Pwn2Own hacking contest coming up at Vancouver's CanSecWest security conference later this month, Italian computer security blog OneITSecurity took some time to interview Charlie Miller. Miller, in case you're not familiar, is a security expert who has won Pwn2Own two years running by hacking Apple's Safari browser with incredible speed. Safari isn't the only target -- this year, all major browsers and a selection of mobile operating systems will serve as Pwn2Own challenges - but it's fair to say that Miller knows a thing or two about keeping your browser secure.

Here are the highlights from Miller's interview:

He thinks Windows 7 will prove more secure than OS X Snow Leopard this year, in part because it doesn't have Java and Flash enabled by default. Windows' full ASLR (address space layout randomization) also gives it a security advantage.

When asked what he thought would make the safest OS and browser combo, he opted for Chrome or IE8 on Windows 7, with no Flash installed, although "there probably isn't enough difference between the browsers to get worked up about."

For my money, the juiciest quote from the interview was "The main thing is not to install Flash!"

On the mobile side, Miller guessed that the iPhone 3GS would be more easily exploitable than the Motorola Droid, mainly because the iPhone's been around longer, and has been subjected to more extensive security research.

You can check out Miller's full answers (in English or Italian!) at OneITSecurity.

Reigning Pwn2Own champion: "The main thing is not to install Flash!" originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple - iPhone - Windows 7 - Operating system - Flash

Way back in January at the Consumer Electronics Show, Palm announced the webOS 1.4 update for Pre and Pixi devices, and late last week it finally dropped. The biggest new feature is the much-craved video recording and sharing (complete with Facebook and YouTube uploading), though the Palm release notes show there's a fair amount more in the update:

• Mobile Hotspot application, that turns your phone into a 3G-connected WiFi hotspot, is included with the update
• Secure Erase option, for safely removing private data from the device
• Customisable calendar alert sounds
• Numerous performance enhancements
• Preparations for the forthcoming Flash plugin for webOS (which is coming soon to the App Catalog).

The update, which weighs in around 38MB, is available via webOS software update -- and if your Pre or Pixi is connected to a WiFi or 3G network, the update will download in the background. Best of all, it's available for Sprint customers in the US as well as European carriers O2 and Movistar.
[Via Engadget]

Palm webOS update 1.4 goes live for Pre and Pixi users originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pixi - Palm - WebOS - YouTube - Facebook

Filed under: Browsers

After a weekend of furiously updated release candidates, Opera has turned version 10.50 loose on the general web-browsing public.

You can download Opera 10.50 for Windows from Opera's site -- and if you're running an older version of the browser you should seriously consider upgrading. 10.50 is an excellent browser, and it's been winning fans with its speed ever since the new Carakan JavaScript engine was bolted on.

10.50 is the best effort from Opera to date -- hands down. I've not encountered any of the site-crippling incompatibilities (which I'm not blaming on Opera) that I had in the past, and even our own CMS loves the new version. Apart from the speed everyone is raving about, Opera's trademark personalization and tweaking options are phenomenal. If you haven't tried it, open opera:config in your browser and dig in.

Roll in additional features like integrated torrent downloading, Link synchronization, Unite, and Turbo, and Opera 10.50 has something for everyone -- from casual users to browser-punishing enthusiasts.

If you've put off trying Opera before, now is the time. Take 10.50 for a spin and share your thoughts!

The fat lady sings: Opera 10.50 final now available for Windows originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Opera - Opera 10.50 - Download Squad - Web browser - Software release life cycle

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Google

As the last few vestiges of sanity left the rocky outcrops of Mayor Bill Bunten's brain, he decreed: "Let our fair city (formerly known as Topeka) henceforth be known by the mad moniker GOOGLE, KANSAS!!"

Just kidding; he didn't say that exactly (probably). But Topeka is going to be called Google, for the entire month of March. Why? you ask -- or cry, or wail -- well, it's obvious if you think about it: Google's Fiber for Communities. We covered it last month, but never did we expect to see whole damn cities courting corporate masters. I mean, we all know that deals are made behind closed doors, but... 'Welcome to Google, Kansas'... really?

I am now eagerly awaiting Microsoft, Mass., in some run-down district that can't afford word processing software in its schools -- or perhaps Photoshop, replacing Podunk in Michigan... it's only a matter of time. Damn sell-outs.

[via NY Times]

Welcome to Google, Kansas. No, it's not a new office... it's a town originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kansas - Google - Microsoft - Download Squad - Topeka Kansas

Filed under: Windows, Google, Browsers

Those of you running Google Chrome's half-stable, half-dev-channel beta version now have access to two features which cropped up a while back on the developer and Chromium nightly builds.

Auto-translate has landed in Google Chrome Beta 4.1 for Windows, as has the improved content control panel in Chrome's wrench menu. If you're a grizzled Firefox vet and have been missing NoScript (or you've put off trying Chrome because of its absence), the new controls will be a welcome addition.

Head to options -> under the hood -> content settings, and click the JavaScript tab. You can then add domains to your allow and block lists, or even disable JavaScript entirely if you choose. It's not the same kind of control NoScript provides, but it's an excellent option for Chrome users and it's built right in.

The content panel also provides better control over cookies, images, plugins, and pop-up windows -- all of which can be blacklisted or whitelisted by domain as with scripts. Google has put together a short YouTube clip detailing the privacy-friendly features which you can view after the break.

To download the latest Google Chrome beta version, head over to this page. The full release details are available on Google's official blog post.

Google Chrome 4.1 Beta adds auto-translate, basic NoScript, improved content controls originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 07:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Chrome - JavaScript - Software release life cycle - Google Chrome beta - Download Squad