Swype for Symbian^1 now available via Nokia Beta Labs
Posted by Cj in 
Swype, an alternative text entry system, is now available, via Nokia Beta Labs, for most Nokia S60 5th Edition devices. Swype works by tracing one continuous finger (or stylus) movement, across an on-screen QWERTY keyboard, when entering a word. It provides, potentially, a much faster and more accurate way of entering text on touchscreen devices, albeit with a small initial learning curve.
Swype is relatively simple to use, but also offers a lot of power-user functionality for more advanced users (e.g. custom dictionary, multi-language support). Key features include double tap editing (to correct mistakes), auto-correction (spelling spacing and capitalisation), a 65,000-word ‘learning’ dictionary (easily add your own words, email addresses, etc. so they become ‘Swypable’), and automatic help (detects if you are having problems and offers assistance).
Apple’s New iPod shuffle
Apple has launched a new version of their tiniest music player, the iPod shuffle. The new shuffle resembles the design of the second generation model but is slightly smaller. Users can now use their own headphones with the player which wasn’t possible with the previous generation model. It has a clip on the back so it is wearable. The new shuffle retains the Voice-over functionality which tells you which song, album or playlist you are listening to. The latest shuffle also supports Genius playlists.
The new iPod shuffle will be sold in five different colors and in only one capacity: 2GB. The battery life is rated at 15 hours.
Google Launches SketchUp 8 3D Modeling Software
Google on Wednesday announced a new version of its 3D modeling software, SketchUp 8.
New features include model geo-location integration with Google Maps, more accurate terrain and color aerial imagery, improved photo matching for model building, and integration with Google Building Maker, a 3D modeling tool for adding buildings to Google Earth.
SketchUp is intended for designing anything from furniture to urban landscapes. Its users share their creations online in Google 3D Warehouse. In addition to the free downloadable version, a Pro version with added features needed by engineers and design professionals sells for $495, with updates from previous versions available for $95.
“We’ve spent months building powerful new tools, fine-tuning functionality and making sure SketchUp 8 continues to be the most intuitive 3D modeler on the planet,” Google said in a statement.
New features in the Pro version include solid addition and subtraction tools, a tool for creating angular dimensions in LayOut 3, and DWG/DXF export and import of LayOut 3 drawings so that CAD and other 3D modeler software can open them. LayOut 3 is a companion app to SketchUp.
The free version of SketchUp 8, along with more detailed info on all the new features are available at sketchup.google.com, and the Pro version is available for purchase on the Google SketchUp Pro page.
The software is available in English, French, Italian, Spanish and German with more languages to be released in the weeks to come.
Source: PC Mag
No more Facebook chat on IE6
Another reason to Upgrade to the latest Internet Explorer or use another browser.
Since its launch two years ago, Chat has grown from a small feature into one of the most widely used tools on Facebook. People around the world use it to share quick updates with people nearby and to stay in touch over long distances with friends and loved ones. And the more that people chat, the more we need to do to keep the application running smoothly.
We know you want Chat to be hassle-free and uninterrupted. In the coming weeks, we will be making important improvements in the way connections are established and messages are sent, so that Chat will be much more stable for you and your friends.
The biggest improvements come from changes that aren’t supported on older web browsers. After evaluating the alternatives, we’ve decided to make rapid improvements and provide the best Chat experience possible, which means we will no longer support Internet Explorer 6 browsers.
You got until Sept. 15, 2010, if you want to continue using features like Facebook Chat you need to Upgrade to the Latest Internet Explorer or choose another browser.
Your choices are Chrome, Firefox or Opera. All these browsers work well with Facebook and all these browsers will get substantial updates and different looks over the next few months.
Internet Explorer 9 ?
ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley thinks she stumbled upon the user interface for Internet Explorer 9, spying a screenshot on Microsoft Russia’s press website. If this is the real deal, the next IE will look like the lovechild of Google Chrome and Firefox 4.
From Firefox 4, IE9 reportedly takes the oversized back button, translucent window and tremendous amount of wasted space above the navigation bar (seriously, it’s just an empty row with window management at the end, and the next Firefox is just as guilty). From Chrome, IE9 may derive the omnibar for search and URLs, and a series of menu icons on the right side of the screen.
Call phones from Gmail
Gmail voice and video chat makes it easy to stay in touch with friends and family using your computer’s microphone and speakers. But until now, this required both people to be at their computers, signed into Gmail at the same time. Given that most of us don’t spend all day in front of our computers, we thought, “wouldn’t it be nice if you could call people directly on their phones?” Starting today, you can call any phone right from Gmail.
Calls to the U.S. and Canada will be free for at least the rest of the year and calls to other countries will be billed at our very low rates. We worked hard to make these rates really cheap (see comparison table) with calls to the U.K., France, Germany, China, Japan—and many more countries—for as little as $0.02 per minute.
Firefox 3.6 likely the last for PowerPC Macs
The current version of Firefox will likely be the end of the road for people using PowerPC Macs.
A final decision will be based on usage data that’s better than what Mozilla possesses right now, but technical difficulties raised by Firefox 4 improvements mean at a minimum that it’s a strong possibility only Intel-based Macs will be able to run the new browser.
"I am gathering data on the number of PPC users we have, but the likely outcome is that we will not be supporting PPC [PowerPC] for Firefox 4," said Mike Beltzner, Mozilla’s director of Firefox, in a mailing list posting on Tuesday.
Major changes are a fact of life in the computing industry, but it’s never easy to decide when users of older technology should no longer be supported. Keeping new software compatible with old hardware–and conversely, making sure new hardware can run old software–can be an expensive proposition when there are few users of the older technology left.
But Mozilla’s Firefox now is used by hundreds of millions of people, and even a small fraction of them can be a large number in absolute terms. It’s a plight of widely used software; for comparison, Microsoft has extended the lifespan of Windows XP several times beyond its original plans.
Dropping support for older machines, of course, can make those with the machines angry. Mozilla faced disgruntlement when it decided to cut off Firefox support for Mac OS X 10.4 after version 3.6. Using an old browser also exposes people to security risks, though Mozilla maintains older Firefox incarnations for a time after new versions supplant them.