The HTC Rhyme
The HTC Rhyme is something of a delicate matter, as it is HTC's firstphone that is said to have been designed with a female audience in mind. Yet it comes in dull colours and looks quite a lot like every other HTC handset we’ve seen so far.
PENTAX Q-REVIEW
Let’s get one thing straight from the start. The Pentax Q is quite an incredible camera to behold. It’s tiny. But not only is it tiny, it also looks great.
NIKON 1 V1
Nikon has announced two new compact system cameras: the Nikon 1 V1 and the Nikon 1 J1. We got our hands on both new cameras today, so until we can bring you our Nikon 1 V1 review
The ULTra Personal Rapid Transit System
"Think of it as a horizontal lift," says Fraser Brown, managing director of ULTra, the company that has built a new way to travel to Heathrow Terminal 5 from the business car park
THREE MIFI HSPA
Three has updated its MiFi range with the new Huawei E586 complete with HSPA+, and we have managed to get our hands on one to test out all its mobile internet goodness
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Wine Lover's Holiday Gift Guide
Wine Lover's Holiday Gift Guide
Whether you're looking to splurge or save, the editors of Wine Enthusiast present out-of-the-box wine-, spirits- and food-related ideas for the 2011 holiday season.
Published on Oct 11, 2011By Wine Enthusiast Editors
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Fusion Triumph Stemware ($59.95 for a set of two) Made from European crystal fused with magnesium, these varietal-specific glasses are the most break-resistant in the world. The oversized bowls ensure generous aromas and flavors.
Winerd Board Game ($35) By combining wine trivia and blind tasting, players can flaunt their vinous knowledge, or lack thereof, in this entertaining board game.
Yankee Candle Wine Collection ($17.99 each) Bring the aromas of the vineyard home with candles in scents like Napa Valley Sun, Grapevine & Oak and Vineyard (with aromas of Merlot, Cabernet and Zinfandel wines). Each comes in a stemless wineglass-shaped holder.
Kahlua Cinnamon Spice ($20) Ideal for cold-weather cocktails, this new release was inspired by Mexican café de olla and has cinnamon, brown sugar and coffee notes.
Splurge
Krug Flânerie ($200) This chic Champagne cooler has the look of a designer bag—keeping the enclosed bottle of bubbly (Krug Grande Cuvée) at a chill 50ºF, ensuring a portable party.
Riedel Mamba Decanter ($415) This striking, serpentine decanter is free form and mouth blown, so no two are alike. Wine aerates faster in the crystal coil than traditional decanters
Edo Kiriko Saké Glasses ($137 each) These colorful, intricately etched saké glasses are hand blown, lending them a delicate feel.
Newton The Element Chiller and Coaster Set ($400) Renowned clay artist Michael Wisner designed this white wine chiller and coaster set out of local clay for the eco-friendly winery Newton Vineyard in Napa, California. Only 100 sets were produced.
Sip
Taylor Fladgate 20-Year-Old Tawny Port ($54.99) With its rich dried fruit and spiced nut flavors, this classic fortified wine is sure to spread holiday cheer while warming away winter’s chill.
Essential Bar Tool Rollup Kit ($39.95) This black neoprene roll-up pouch features nine must-have tools for at-home bartenders. Tools include a bottle opener,
strainer, tongs, stirrer, muddler, double jigger, bar knife, measured liquid pourer and corkscrew.
The Clicker ($25.99) No man cave is complete without this toy—a universal TV remote and beer bottle opener in one. Available in blue and red.
Traveling Bitters Set ($19.99, the-bitter-truth.com) Five 20-ml bottles of bitters (including Creole, orange and celery flavors), packaged in a playful, vintage-style tin, ensure sweet success for cocktail makers on the go.Brix ($25.99) This “chocolate for wine” gift set contains four 4-ounce bars of chocolate, complete with tasting notes and wine pairing suggestions.
Whiskey Iced Ginger Cookies ($34/dozen) These ginger cookies contain whiskey-infused cherries and are drizzled with a shot of whiskey icing. A Black and Tan version is also available for beer lovers.
Meyer Natural Angus Steaks ($99.95) Fine restaurants like FIGA in Maine and The Oak Room in New York serve these certified humane, antibiotic- and hormone-free steaks to red wine lovers. A variety of gift packs are available for under $100; the steaks arrive in a cooler with a personalized note.
Virgin and Aged Olive Oils and Balsamic Vinegars
(prices vary) First-crush olive oils and balsamic vinegars. Pure and natural, in vivid flavors both classic and exotic: cinnamon pear, jalapeño, dark chocolate, chipotle…even butter.Stocking Stuffers
Six small gifts to fill up stockings this holiday season.
Rate That Wine Pad ($6.95) With a built-in coaster and amusing wine tasting notes like “lean and sinewy” and “same color as box,” this wine-rating note pad doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Pocket Posh Wine Journal ($7.99) This bright, portable journal contains fun facts for budding oenophiles, and plenty of space for jotting down wine notes.
100 Stiff Drinks Vouchers ($6) These comical drink vouchers ensure that the next round is on you.
Glassware Care ($19.95) This set of three brushes was designed for hard-to-reach places in decanters and stemware. Foam “bristles” make cleaning less of a chore.
DeVine Lip Shimmers Wine Lip Glosses ($9.99) Available in shades of rosé (pink), Bordeaux (plum), and Merlot (red), DeVine lip shimmers have a light wine scent enriched with grapeseed oil.
Hangover Recovery Kit ($12.99) Guaranteed to get a few laughs, if not to cure an actual hangover, this cheeky tin offers a 16-page remedy booklet, healing bandages and other amusing trifles for the day after.
Here are more gifts perfect for a wine, beer and spirits lover:
Mionetto’s Prosecco Brut Magnum ($24): This Prosecco bottling will impress with its sparkle and size (equivalent to two full-size bottles), and the price is right. A large gift box makes it a pleasing party gift.
Chandon Étoile Brut Wine and Pointy Snout Caviar Pack ($150): Bubbly and caviar is a classic combination for discerning drinkers. This gorgeous gift box features a bottle of sparkling along with 50 grams of white sturgeon caviar from Pointy Snout (available November 1-December 31).
Cooler Cleanse ($174): Cofounded by Salma Hayek, this three-day, all-natural juice-cleansing system will help you slim down after all your holiday partying.
Puiforcat Champagne Daggers ($650 each): These handcrafted silver daggers are part of the Puiforcat Champagne collection, epitomizing elegance with crystal bowls hand blown at the Cristalleries de Saint-Louis glass workshop.
Clive Christian No.1 Gift Set ($1,040.00): Looking for luxury in a bottle? The most expensive perfume in the world, this perfume house now known as Clive Christian was honored by Queen Victoria more than a century ago, and incorporates rare ingredients from across the (former) British Empire. Clive Christian perfumes are available at Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.
Branché’s Silk Charmeuse Pillow Covers ($55): Made from high-quality silk, this sleek pillow case is packed with 18 amino acids and copper, reducing fine lines and creases in the skin. A model secret.
SoHo Bar Glasses ($49.95 for a set of two): These solid rocks glasses feature a 1½-inch base of European crystal and a handsome crosshatch pattern—perfect for the Scotch lover.
Don Julio 70 Añejo Claro ($70): Celebrating the 70th anniversary of Don Julio Gonzalez’s foray into Tequila making, this special release is aged 18 months in American white-oak barrels and twice-filtered, resulting in a crystalclear Tequila.
Johnnie Walker Blue Label ($200): This high-end Scotch has a new signature look, mirroring the original 19th-century bottle design. Complimentary, personalized engraving removes the need for sending a card.
Mandarine Napoléon ($36.99): Drink like an em peror with this mandarin-accented liqueur, a blend of 10-year-old Cognacs and macerated mandarins, first bottled in 1892 for Napoléon Bonaparte.
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Champagne: How Dry Is Dry?
Champagne: How Dry Is Dry?
Producers are adjusting their winemaking methods as warm temperatures are resulting in more naturally balanced wines.
Published on Oct 24, 2011By Roger Voss
Hervé Deschamps, cellarmaster of Perrier-Jouët, calls it “the salt and pepper that bring out the flavors of the ingredients.” The “it” he refers to is dosage (doe-SOJ), the final flourish of the Champagne blender’s task. Dosage is the addition of a small amount of sugar and still Champagne wine. This is done just before the cork is put in the bottle, and just after the dead yeast cells that make the bubbly fermentation in the wine have been disgorged.
But an increasing number of Champagne houses have launched offerings without any dosage, using only what comes from the vine. These wines, called brut nature or brut zéro, are challenging the traditional concept of blended Champagne, where dosage was considered essential.
“You have a choice,” says Jean-Hervé Chiquet, co-owner and cowinemaker of Champagne Jacquesson. “You can either make a wine without dosage, because it’s the fashion and it looks good on the label, or you can make a wine drier because the wine doesn’t need much dosage. I’m a believer in the second option.”
The Jacquesson Champagnes lean toward dry, he says, because “my brother and I like a Champagne that is a wine first, sparkling second. And we are our most important client.”
Jacquesson’s stance has evolved because of the quality of the grapes.
“Our dosage levels have fallen because of the improvements in viticulture, and because of climate change,” he says. “We regularly get riper grapes. And riper grapes mean lower dosage.”
The Upside of Climate Change
Up until the mid-1990s, dosage was essential to soften the often austere nature of raw Champagne’s high acidity, low alcohol and subtle flavor. Dosage worked because the hard angles and almost unbearable acidity were softened.
Things have changed. It’s easier to make Champagnes with lower or no dosage. Champagne producers don’t need to mask the unripe grapes with sugar.
“In 15 years, we have gone from an average of 12 grams of sugar per liter to eight grams per liter,” says Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon, deputy managing director of Champagne Louis Roederer. “And we could go lower as long as we can maintain the house style.”While reducing the dosage on its regular Champagne range, Roederer has also followed the trend to bone-dry Champagne by developing an ultra brut, or brut nature, Champagne. “It is the result of riper grapes, as a result of climate change,” says Lécaillon. “But we are not just doing this because it’s the fashion, but because that is what the climate and the grapes are giving us.”
With the 2011 vintage, Champagne began its earliest harvest ever. Traveling around the vineyards during the summer, the evidence was all around. The vines flowered in May, and the grapes were wellformed by mid-June.
At that time, Didier Gimonnet made a prediction about harvest at his family winery, Pierre Gimonnet et Fils, in the Côte des Blancs: “We haven’t had an October harvest since 1988, and this year, we could well harvest in August.” He was right: Harvest in that region started on August 24. In Reims, headquarters of Champagne Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin, harvest was authorized two days earlier.
What do earlier harvests and riper grapes mean? Champagne’s Chardonnay and Pinot Noir will never be 14%-plus potential alcohol, as may be found in California fruit. Riper in Champagne means grapes at 10-11% potential alcohol rather than 8%.
It also means that your favorite brand of nonvintage brut Champagne (the style that comprises 80% of the American market for Champagne) will have less dosage, even though it will taste just as it always did—that’s where house style comes in. The master blenders are adapting their blends to cope with the new era.
“While we want to keep the Roederer house style,” says Lécaillon, “we are able to express it even more precisely because the sugar doesn’t get in the way.”
It is also now possible for the Champagne houses to develop approachable bone-dry wines. At Pol Roger, Export Director Laurent d’Harcourt is rightly proud of the company’s brut nature, “which we have called Pure. We were challenged to produce a wine like this and found we could.”It wasn’t a simple matter of adjusting the dosage, however. “We found making a brut nature is not just a question of taking away the dosage from a standard brut nonvintage,” he says. “We tried that, and it didn’t work. We had to change the blend, take out some of the acidity that is balanced by a dosage, and also add a more floral character” with a different grape balance.
What Comes Around
Bone-dry Champagnes may be the future, but they are far from new. Laurent-Perrier introduced its Ultra Brut brand in 1889. “The British market wanted a dry Champagne, while the rest of the world was still drinking sweet Champagne with dessert,” says Anne-Laure Domenichini, the company’s director of communication.
Withdrawn after World War I, Laurent-Perrier Ultra Brut was reintroduced in 1976. “We could do it then because the summer was unusually hot for that period,” says Domenichini—and it has been made ever since, “when the year is right.” Dosed at around three grams of sugar per liter, it’s technically an extra brut (see box on page 66).While most of the big houses are just reducing the dosage on their regular cuvées, one house has taken up the challenge of bone-dry Champagne in a big way.
Ayala, owned by Bollinger and run separately by Hervé Augustin, produces three brut nature Champagnes. Augustin is a true believer in the future of these very dry Champagnes. “Zero dosage is a big trend for the future, it could become more important than rosé,” he says.No matter which way the trends are going, it’s safe to say that Champagnes are resembling Chiquet’s model of “wines first, sparkling second.” Expect wines that better express their terroir and fruit, while not losing their essential character in the sugar of the dosage. This is the new, exciting reality of Champagne.
Grading Champagne on the Sweet Spectrum
Each Champagne’s style falls into one of seven categories, depending on the amount of sugar dissolved in the white wine that’s added at the final stage before the bottle is recorked. You will find the style on the label, but keep in mind that many wines can slip from one category to another due to a 3-grams-perliter tolerance between the actual sugar level and what is printed on the label. But if a producer has always made a brut or an extra dry as part of its branding, it may not be ready to let Mother Nature do marketing, too.
Brut Nature, Zéro Dosage:
Champagnes with three grams or less of residual sugar per liter.
91 Ayala NV Brut Nature.
Ayala has adopted very dry Champagne as something of a specialty, and this delicate and deliciously food-friendly wine shows why. It’s so well balanced, the bone-dry citrus flavors integrated into the nervy texture. It would be worth aging for a few months. Cognac One.
abv: 12% Price: $45Extra Brut:
Champagnes with six grams or less of residual sugar per liter.
89 Mailly Grand Cru NV Extra Brut.
A dry Champagne, so well balanced that the dryness is integrated into fruit and zesty character. Lemon peel, pink grapefruit and intense white fruits all contribute to this very good Champagne. Saranty Imports.
abv: 12% Price: $51Brut:
Champagnes with 12 grams or less of residual sugar per liter.
91 Louis Roederer NV Brut Premier.
A beautifully integrated wine that shows richness, even a touch of toasty age to go with apple flavor and intense acidity. The acidity shows so well against the rich backdrop of ripe fruits and a final edgy texture. Maisons Marques & Domaines USA.
abv: 12% Price: $45Extra Dry:
Champagnes with 12–17 grams of residual sugar per liter.
89 Piper-Heidsieck Extra Dry NV.
More boldly yeasty than the brut, this has an intriguing note of coconut in the nose, and the beginning hints of an oily, toasty richness. The extra dollop of sweetness still leaves it tasting fairly dry, but in a more approachable, less austere, style. Remy Cointreau USA.
abv: 12% Price: $35Sec:
Champagnes with 17–32 grams of residual sugar per liter.
90 Taittinger NV Nocturne Sec.
In the strange world of Champagne, sec (dry) on the label means a wine that’s less dry than brut. It’s more to do with fullness and weight than sugar. This wine bears ripe fruit, flavors of peaches, creamy pears and light nougat and spice character. Pair this with richly sauced foods. Kobrand.
abv: 12% Price: $100Demi-Sec:
Champagnes with 32–50 grams of residual sugar per liter.
90 Pol Roger NV Extra Cuvée de Réserve
Rich. A completely convincing sweet Champagne, balancing the natural acidity of the region with the higher dosage. The wine is fruity, with peach and lemon juice combining easily. A wine for fish, shellfish, or just by itself. Frederick Wildman & Sons.
abv: 12.5% Price: $65Doux:
The sweetest Champagnes, with more than 50 grams of residual sugar per liter.
This category is only a faint presence on the American market. Champagne Fleury produces a doux Champagne from its biodynamic vineyards in the southern Aube region; they are imported by K&L Wine Merchants, but availability is limited.
Pairing Brut Nature Champagnes:
Treat brut nature Champagnes in the same way you would very dry white wines. Seafood dishes like cod’s roe, scallops, lobster or crab are all fine pairings. Sushi and other Asian-style foods are also good matches with this style. The minerality of brut nature Champagne also acts as a foil to very creamy cheeses. Because they are so dry, brut nature Champagnes are not ideal as stand-alone apéritifs; serve them alongside light hors d’oeuvres with some fat-based richness and a touch of salt, such as assorted charcuterie, roasted almonds or traditional caviar canapés with crème fraîche.
Here are three Champagne and food pairings that are worth celebrating:
Chicken liver or duck pâté: 90 Pol Roger NV Extra Cuvée de Réserve Rich Champagne. $65. (Imported by Frederick Wildman)
Sushi and oysters: 88 Mailly Grand Cru NV Demi-Sec Champagne. $45. (Imported by Saranty Imports)
Red fruits: 88 Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin NV Demi-Sec. $53. (Imported by Moët Hennessy USA)Don't pair ice cream with Champagne. The sugar levels of the ice cream will overpower the bubbly.
Don’t pair Champagne with dark or milk chocolate. Instead, opt for white, which has complementary flavors.Did you like what you read here? Subscribe to Wine Enthusiast Magazine »
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Thursday, October 27, 2011
Pocket Guide To Securing Mobile Devices
Smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices are forcing enterprise IT managers to re-evaluate how they secure technology.
10 Companies Driving Mobile Security(click image for larger view and for slideshow)With workers more likely to use a personal device for work, companies are less likely to be able to specifically configure the mobile devices that have access to the corporate network. Add to that the fact the software ecosystem surrounding mobile devices is, to a large degree and depending on platform, closed. Less access means attackers have a harder time hacking the devices, but that also means third-party firms are harder pressed to provide solutions to the problems mobile devices do have.
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- Outsourcing Security: What Every Potential Cloud Security Customer Should Know
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For those reasons, the recommendations are that, rather than focus on securing each device, IT groups should look to educate users, set good security policies, secure access, and help manage the devices, said John Engels, principal product management for Symantec's enterprise mobility group.
"We are trying to surround the devices with security and protect and control what goes into the device and what comes out of it," Engels said.
A key component to the approach is mobile device management (MDM), which initially took off as a way to keep track of all the costs associated with a company's gaggle of cell phones, but increasingly has a security role as well.
The four major threats to mobile devices are device theft (or forgetful employees), wireless network sniffing of communications, malicious software, and the infrequent direct attack. Of those four major threats, however, MDM mainly solves only one: lost and stolen devices, said Dan Hoffman, chief mobile security analyst for Juniper Networks.
"When you look at mobile device management, it does nothing for malware, nothing for a direct attack, and nothing for data communication interception," Hoffman said.
For that reason, companies have to look beyond just adopting MDM solutions, he said. Here are four recommendations:
1. Know the threats.
As any carny knows, the easiest mark is one who is not paying attention.
As Cisco TelePresence Turns 5, New Flavors
As Cisco TelePresence Turns 5, New Flavors
Videoconferencing technology celebrates its fifth birthday with smaller, more portable, and less expensive products.Cisco Systems is marking the fifth birthday of its high-definition telepresence videoconferencing system with a flurry of product announcements, including less expensive and more portable systems and by offering telepresence as a hosted service for small and midsize businesses (SMBs). And, responding to critics of its closed, proprietary ecosystem, Cisco said its technology is more interoperable with most other HD videoconferencing systems entering the market Cisco helped create.Slideshow: Cisco Umi Takes Telepresence To The Home(click image for larger view and for slideshow)To broaden its portfolio and offer telepresence technology that is more accessible to SMBs, Cisco is introducing Cisco TelePresence Callway, a hosted service that allows a customer to lease the equipment and the connection for $99 a month, or $149 a month for a higher-resolution service. The fee includes unlimited calls to any telepresence endpoint as well as to any standards-based, third-party systems.
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- Effective IT Inventory and Asset Management: From Quagmire to Quick Fix
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Other videoconferencing vendors, such as Logitech's LifeSize, have previously offered cloud-delivered video.
[Three out of four companies are expected to be using videoconferencing in the next few years. Here are some of the reasons why.]
Also, Cisco introduced the TelePresence MX300, a multipurpose system that can be set up in just a few minutes in a smaller than average conference room. The multipurpose systems are not as complex as the room-based systems that feature specially made studios and multiple screens and cameras. The MX300 is a less expensive version of the MX200 Cisco already sells, said Randy Harrell, director of Cisco's telepresence technology group, who said the product was designed based on customer feedback.
Harrell said customers told the company: "I want a product for the rest of the conference rooms. I want you to build a product that I can deploy when budget is scarce." No pricing information was shared for the MX300, which is to become available in the first quarter of 2012.
Harrell also demonstrated a desktop-type system, the EX90, which combines an HD camera and monitor with a desk phone that has a touchscreen for controlling the system. Even more portable is the Movi, which attaches a telepresence camera to any laptop running a Windows or Mac operating system.
Cisco used its telepresence technology to connect Cisco employees, customers, partners, industry analysts, and reporters joining from global locations Tuesday to introduce the new offerings. While rivals such as Polycom and others have long offered videoconferencing and teleconferencing technology, Cisco raised the bar in 2006 with the introduction of telepresence, which it called "immersive" videoconferencing in which the images were so sharp and lifesize that participants who may have been time zones away appeared to be in the same room.
With its sizable marketing budget, Cisco got product placements on TV shows like the Fox network action-adventure series "24." Today, when anchors on MSNBC interview a guest at another site, they use Cisco TelePresence.
Cisco has been criticized over the years for offering a closed system in which participants on each end of a videoconference have to be on a telepresence system. But Cisco says it has now come to realize that interoperability is essential for wider adoption of videoconferencing in the context of unified communications technology for collaboration among an increasingly globally distributed work force.
"I think there was some kind of initial criticism around Cisco's TelePresence systems about interoperability," acknowledged O.J. Winge, a senior VP of the telepresence group. "In order to really define the experience, in order for people to get their arms around this type of technology, Cisco needed to push innovation quite hard, to give [users] a high-definition and in-person kind of experience. They pushed it so far that they broke interoperability in the first stage."
Over the years, said Winge--who came to Cisco from its acquisition of Tandberg in 2010 and participated in the media briefing from its headquarters in Oslo, Norway--Cisco came to realize it needed to improve interoperability by embracing industry videoconferencing standards such as SIP, H.323, and the Cisco-created telepresence interoperability protocol (TIP), which Cisco released to other system makers to use after the Tandberg acquisition.
Wainhouse Research issued a report tied to the announcements that showed Cisco commands a 52% share of the worldwide market for video infrastructure, based on revenue, in the first quarter of 2011. Polycom had the second biggest share, at 25%. Polycom recently added support for high-definition videoconferencing on portable devices such as tablet computers, something Cisco said it would also support.
Existing telepresence users say the more their employees experience the technology, the more they want it.
When consumer products giant Procter & Gamble opened its 80 telepresence rooms, they were used 40% of the time in an average 40-hour workweek, said Kathryn Murray, employee solutions and services section manager. Now it's up to 50% and the company is reluctant to push utilization above 60% because employees then would have trouble finding a room when they need one.
"[They say] 'We need more rooms. I can't get into one and I want to book more [meetings],'" Murray said, adding that for every $1 in telepresence investment, P&G realized an ROI of $4 in travel cost avoidance.
Unified communications isn't like other online apps. Get the infrastructure right or risk some major hang-ups. Read all about it in the new all-digital InformationWeek supplement. Download it now. (Free with registration.)
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Google Chrome 15: What's New
Google Chrome 15: What's New
'New Tab' page showcases Web apps in the way that mobile phones showcase native apps.
Google's Chrome Web browser reached version 15 on its Stable channel on Tuesday, bringing with it a redesigned New Tab page and over two dozen security fixes.
Slideshow: 10 Essential Google+ Tips(click image for larger view and for slideshow)Google uses the term Stable channel to refer to a version of its browser software that has been deemed to be sufficiently bug-free for general release. The company's Beta channel and Dev channel offer less reliable builds of its browser for testing. There are also Canary builds, untested builds released daily for developers.
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The New Tab page has been designed to showcase Web apps in the way the mobile phones showcase native apps. When the user opens a new tab in Chrome, he or she will see either thumbnail images of recently visited sites or icons representing installed Web apps.
Google wants users to think of their browser as a local store of content, as a destination, rather than as a gateway through which remote Web apps can be accessed. Creating a sense of ownership and investment in one's browser and the Web apps "installed" there should help dispel lingering notions about the inferiority of Web apps and help convince users that native apps and Web apps are interchangeable.
[ Google Apps is winning fans among government agencies. Read Google Apps Selected For Energy Dept. Lab. ]
In conjunction with the revised tab page, Google has redesigned the Chrome Web Store, the company's answer to native app stores. The new look matches the refined look that has been applied to other Google properties recently, like Blogger and Gmail.
The Chrome Web Store is now more graphically oriented, presumably because images enhance app marketing.
"Apps and extensions are now presented in a wall of images that's updated every time you visit the store," explained Google product manager Shannon Guymon in a blog post. "We hope this will help you quickly scan the store and find interesting things to try out. In addition, apps and extensions are easier to install--just hover over an image on the grid and click 'Add to Chrome.'"
Clicking on Chrome Web Store images now opens a window panel with three tabs--Overview, Details, and Reviews--and a scroll bar. The panel includes a main screenshot or video and addition screenshot thumbnails below.
The Reviews tab includes user product reviews that link to the Google+ profiles of reviewers, if they have Google+ accounts. The bulk of the reviews at the moment, however, predate the release of Google+ and just say, "A Google User." Google says it anonymized these previously submitted reviews to protect user privacy.
The Enterprise Connect conference program covers the full range of platforms, services, and applications that comprise modern communications and collaboration systems. It happens March 25-29 in Orlando, Fla. Find out more.
T-Shirt Giveaway: Each week we're selecting one great comment from our readers. The author of the comment will receive an InformationWeek Community t-shirt. So get posting!Did you know you can style comments using HTML tags and upload your avatar photo? To upload your avatar photo, first complete your Disqus profile. Once your profile is complete, you may add your avatar photo.
You're the Pundit: Do you need a landline?
The john painter
I have Vonage. VOIP. Almost dropped them but the customer retention came on once I mentioned I'd looked at competing services like Line 2 and NetTalk as replacements and I now have the same plan as before except instead of $25 a month it is $13. I use it over cable Internet and with the UPS in place for the cable and Vonage boxes have not had the VOIP version of the landline drop out. It is purely a convenience though ... If I could find an Apple iPhone dock that had a POTS port I'd drop Vonage... The latest Magic Jack is unleashed from the computer so I am going to see if that is sufficient. My only criteria is drive the wireless phone base station and allow the call in to DirecTV... There are solutions to both my needs in the pipeline (when DTV actually puts out another TiVo based box they've promised since they made peace in 2009 is one, and a bluetooth to POTS is another promised box) then all will be solved cleanly as the DTV will be on the network, not the phone lines.
As to the bulk of my actual use of a phone as a phone to reach out and touch me. I've been cellular as my primary phone since 1989 ... Anything else is because the ancillary toys to connect to a POTS house phone have been lacking... And I haven't had a chance to get to love Asterix. So landlines could die and I'd miss them like analog TV.
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Why Google and Microsoft need to fear Siri
Sean McPartlin
Wow maybe there is something wrong with me? I think Siri is sort of useless. Google app did e very same thing and I currently get better results that I did with Siri. Oh well it does not impress me and I don't want to be that duchie guy barking at my phone as I walk/run around, it's bad enough when I do that to employees and co-workers, I don't need a little woman in my phone to boss around.
An intelligent personal assistant Siri is not. Get one and you'll learn the huge difference. I've used personal assistant services and they are frigging amazing. Don't insult those professionals with Siri.
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Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Discover What’s New in CSS 4
CSS 3 is still slowly making its way onto the web, but the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the governing body that oversees the development of web standards, is already plotting the future of CSS with CSS 4. The W3C recently released the first draft of CSS 4, adding dozens of new rules to make web developers’ lives easier.
The CSS 4 spec is brand new and no web browser actually supports any of these rules yet, but if you’re curious what the next few years will mean for CSS, the first draft offers a sneak peek at what’s in store for web developers.
The biggest news in the current draft of CSS 4 is support for the much-requested parent or “subject” selector. In CSS, rules are typically applied to the innermost selected element. That is, given the chain
body header h1, the actual CSS rule will be applied to the h1 element at the end of the chain. CSS 3 offers no way to, say, style theheadertag but only if it has an h1 child element. CSS 4 changes that.CSS 4 includes a means of controlling which element in the selection chain is actually being styled. The easiest way to understand the “subject” selector is by example. Say you want to style a list (
ul), but only when the user has clicked on an item in the list. You add a class “clicked” to the item (ul li.clicked) when the user clicks on it, but how do you style the whole list from that class?With the subject selector it’s simple:
$ul li.clicked { background: white; }The “$” means that the rule is applied to the ul, rather than the li.clicked as it normally would.
The dollar sign may not end up being the subject indicator and the exact syntax will likely change before the spec is finalized. But regardless of the way it ends up being implemented, the subject selector opens up a whole new realm of CSS possibilities.
Other highlights in CSS 4 include some new pseudo selectors like the
:matches()pseudo-class which greatly simplifies the process of writing complex, nested CSS. For example, you could write::matches(section, article, aside, nav) h1 { font-size: 3em; }The
:matches()syntax eliminates the need to write outsection h1, article h1and so on. It’s handy for even simple nestings like the example above, but it becomes really powerful when you’re selecting elements that are two or three levels deep. For more info on:matches(), check out our earlier write-up on Mozilla’s:any()selector, which is the basis for:matches().Also new in CSS 4 is the
:local-linkpseudo-class which allows you to style links based on domain. For example, you could style all internal links with a simple selector likea:local-link(0). The number refers to the amount of the local URL path to match. For example, if the current address is http://www.mysite.com/some/post/,a:local-link(0)would match anything point to http://www.mysite.com/,a:local-link(1)would match anything pointing to http://www.mysite.com/some/ and so on.CSS 4 offers some handy pseudo-classes for styling user interface elements based on state, including
:enabled,:disabled,:checkedand half a dozen others.For more info on what’s coming in CSS 4, check out the W3C spec (fear not, it’s surprisingly readable as specs go). Also worth a read is W3C WG member David Storey’s blog where he did a nice write-up on CSS 4, including a few things not covered here, like the awesome-sounding “time-dimensional pseudo-classes.”
[CSS pumpkin by mauricesvay/CC/Flickr]
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Land being cleared for Apple solar farm in Maiden
MAIDEN --Apple Inc. is preparing to build a solar farm near its data center in Maiden. While this environmentally green measure may be exciting for those in the tech world, it’s anything but thrilling for the residents in the town.
For the past several days, residents in Maiden and many people driving on US 321 have seen a thick cloud of smoke surrounding Startown Road.
That smoke is Apple clearing more than 100 acres of land across from its data center, which opened earlier this year at 5977 Startown Road. It was reported earlier this year that the data facility will be a cloud-computing center for Apple.
Across the street, at 6028 Startown Road, Apple has filed a soil erosion permit with Catawba County for about 170 acres of land. Apple applied for the permit on Aug. 9, and the county reviewed and approved it on Aug. 10.
In the application, Apple described the work as “Solar panel farm A” for the 170.99 acres of land.
On Oct. 10, the town of Maiden, the engineering company McGill and Associates and Holder Construction met with representatives of Apple, according to the erosion control permit. Maiden Town Manager Todd Herms said the town met that day to discuss storm water control. Herms said Apple has not filed anything with Maiden about the solar panel farm.
“But we didn’t get a zoning permit from them until a month before they started building,” Herms said, in reference to the data center.
Further information about the solar panel farm was unavailable.
A woman at McGill Associates refused to transfer a call to the engineer in charge of the project and hung up when she was asked for her name.
A phone call to Apple went unreturned Tuesday, as did phone calls to Holder Construction and Rutherford Electric, which has a transfer station next to the property where Apple is burning trees. Employees at the construction site said they could not comment.
Residents who live on Millie Lane, which sits next to Apple’s property, said they were told about the burning the day it was to begin.
“The told us they would have a fire, and only do it when the wind’s blowing away,” said Zelda Vosburgh. “They do it 24 hours a day. The house inside smells like smoke. I don’t know if it’s hurting us, breathing it 24 hours a day. Between the smell and the smoke, it’s bad.”
Vosburgh has pets, and said normally her dogs like to sit outside on her porch. Since Apple started clearing the land, she said her pets haven’t wanted to go outside. She said it’s also flushed the wildlife out of their habitat.
“It’s pushed everything out of the woods into the area here,” I had a snake on my steps,” she said. “I’ve seen rabbits and squirrels everywhere.”
On the back side of Apple’s property, on Wilson Ridge Road, the noise is more prevalent. The residential road sits higher than Millie Lane. With only a thin strip of trees that separates the large construction equipment, the rumbling and beeping of the machines is amplified across the hill. Apple will also have little privacy on its property, particularly in fall and winter when there are few leaves on the trees.
Yet despite the noise, LaDonna Hodge said that the smoke carries up the hill to her home, as well, and that is what bothers her the most.
“On Sunday my husband stepped out for one minute, and he had to take a shower,” Hodge said.
She said she is pro-corporation and economic development for the region, but said it is hard to tolerate it when it is spewing thick smoke that makes it difficult to breath in your own backyard.
“There were very fine ashes floating up here this morning,” Hodge said.
Companies are allowed to burn wood when they clear land, as long as the fire is not blowing toward the road or occupied housing when the fire begins, said Tom Mather, public information officer for the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources Division of Air Quality.
The employees also cannot add new material after 6 p.m., or start a fire earlier than 8 a.m. Mather said that it wouldn’t make sense for a company to douse a fire, though, if they plan to restart it the next morning, because it likely wouldn’t rekindle.
Vosburgh said the fire is something area residents have been living with for three years. Apple burned property on Startown Road when they began construction for the data center. It’s continuing now, she said.
“They’re not thinking of anyone here,” Vosburgh said.
Google Releases Chrome 15 and Web Store Redesign
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Coffee May Keep World's Most Common Cancer At Bay, New Research Shows
Around the Web:
Does Coffee Cause Cancer? | Care2 Healthy Living
Coffee, pickled veggies also 'possibly' cause cancer – The Chart ...
Coffee and Cancer Risk? - Dr. Weil
Coffee may protect men from prostate cancer - Health - Cancer ...
Coffee tied to lower prostate cancer risk in new study: How much did ...
Mozilla Launches Custom Firefox Version with Bing as Default Search Engine
Mozilla Launches Custom Firefox Version with Bing as Default Search Engine
Since its earliest days, Firefox always used Google as its default search engine. Chances are, this won’t change anytime soon, but a short little announcement on the Firefox blog this morning will surely get some pundits to speculate if Microsoft’s Bing could one day become the browser’s search engine of choice. That’s because starting today, Mozilla will offer a custom version of Firefox with Bing to its users. This custom version uses Bing as the default search engine in both the search box and the “AwesomeBar.” Bing.com will also be the default homepage and chances are that Microsoft and Mozilla have worked out a way to split revenue from this venture, though the official announcement doesn’t make any mention of this.
Bing has been a search option for Firefox since last October. Mozilla clearly doesn’t want you to read too much into this announcement. In its blog post, the Firefox team notes that there are “nearly 20 customized versions of Firefox distributed globally by partners including Bing, United Internet, Twitter, Yahoo! and Yandex.” Bing then is just another one in this series of custom versions and I doubt the Twitter or Yahoo versions of Firefox are seeing record downloads (just try finding them in the first place).
Given that Google’s Chrome is quickly gaining market share, though, and has now become a formidable competitor for Firefox, it’s hard to imagine that the folks over at Mozilla haven’t thought about switching allegiances to Microsoft. I doubt this will happen anytime soon, though, as Mozilla currently needs the income its gets from Google to survive. If Microsoft decides to match this, though, things may change, of course, and maybe this custom version is just a way of testing what that cooperation would look like…
About the author
Frederic Lardinois has written 585 articles for SiliconFilterFrederic founded SiliconFilter in 2011. Before starting this site, he wrote about 1,500 articles for ReadWriteWeb. His areas of interest are consumer web and mobile apps, as well as Internet-connected devices like cars, smart sensors and toasters.You can reach him at [email protected]
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