KIDO’Z v 1.0 Redefines Internet Safety for Children

May 5, 2009 · Filed Under Internet Software, Security Software, Software News, Utilities and Operating Systems · Comment 

KIDO’Z v 1.0 is the first International computer operating system built for small children. A freeware download is available at http://kidoz.net/

The KIDO’Z discovery platform exits beta testing today with v 1.0, the first Internet operating system specifically designed for children ages 3-7 years. With multilingual support in 17 languages, KIDO’Z is already deployed in over 80 countries.

With the utility of a simple browser, and the security of a refined, parent filtered search engine, KIDO’Z provides the ideal environment for adults to present technology and a safe Internet to their children. At the heart of KIDO’Z, is a smart content engine that can be configured to individualize content based on a wide variety of criteria: age, language, culture, nationality, gender, religion, and content popularity, just to name a few possible variables.

“We started KIDO’Z so that our small children could understand and safely interact with great Internet content. KIDO’Z now is a logical progression of this development, where all the world’s small children can experience the nearly limitless potential of the Internet, but in a safe, fun and meaningful way.” — Gai Havkin, CEO

For kids, KIDO’Z is a safe, intuitive and friendly way to begin learning Internet technology, and to explore content from the very best providers on the Web. Using the graphics based interface, even very young children who cannot yet read can navigate web sites approved by parents, favorite content, watch entertaining and educational video, and play intelligent and interactive games.

For parents KIDO’Z, through its parental interface, delivers safety, control and peace of mind. Parents are actually building the world of KIDO’Z for all children through monitoring their own children’s activities, suggesting and sharing the best content, and in effect contributing to a unique user generated content system, one centered on early childhood.

Built using Adobe Air, KIDO’Z is compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems. Version 1.0’s parental controls include: approval or blocking of public content, adding private content, sharing and content moderation, rating content, account editing, and setting time limits. KIDO’Z has also been optimized for notebooks and touch screens for added flexibility.

Source: KIDO’Z

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Windows 7 Tips and Tricks

March 8, 2009 · Filed Under Home Software, Software News · Comment 

Here’s the first guide on how to get the most from your Windows 7 installation.

1. Protect your MP3 files
Along with many good new features, the Windows 7 beta also includes a nasty bug. Its version of Windows Media Player 12 will automatically add missing metadata, including album art, and this can overwrite the first few seconds of the file. Oops. Installing an update may fix this (see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/961367) but it would be a very good idea to back up your MP3 files, too.

2. Right-click everything
At first glance Windows 7 bears a striking resemblance to Vista, but there’s an easy way to begin spotting the differences – just right-click things.

Right-click an empty part of the desktop, for instance, and you’ll find a menu entry to set your screen resolution. No need to go browsing through the display settings any more.

Right-click the Explorer icon on the taskbar for speedy access to common system folders: Documents, Pictures, the Windows folder, and more.

And if you don’t plan on using Internet Explorer then you probably won’t want its icon permanently displayed on the taskbar. Right-click the icon, select “Unpin this program from the taskbar”, then go install Firefox, instead.

3. Fix the taskbar
The new Windows 7 taskbar acts as one big quick launch toolbar that can hold whatever program shortcuts you like (just right-click one and select Pin To Taskbar). And that’s fine, except it does consume a little more screen real estate than we’d like. Shrink it to a more manageable size by right-clicking the Start orb, then Properties > Taskbar > Use small icons.

If you’ve no problem with the taskbar size, but find the way it combines icons to be confusing, then right-click the Start orb, click Properties > Taskbar and set “Taskbar buttons” to “Combine when taskbar is full” for a more familiar XP and Vista-style look.

4. Keyboard shortcuts
Windows 7 supports several useful new keyboard shortcuts.

Alt+P
Display/ hide the Explorer preview pane

Windows Logo+G
Display gadgets in front of other windows

Windows Logo++ (plus key)
Zoom in, where appropriate

Windows Logo+- (minus key)
Zoom out, where appropriate

Windows Logo+Up
Maximise the current window

Windows Logo+Down
Minimise the current window

Windows Logo+Left
Snap to the left hand side of the screen

Windows Logo+Right
Snap to the right hand side of the screen

Windows Logo+Home
Minimise/ restore everything except the current window

5. Customise UAC
Windows Vista’s User Account Control was a good idea in practice, but poor implementation put many people off – it raised far too many alerts. Fortunately Windows 7 displays less warnings by default, and lets you further fine-tune UAC to suit your preferred balance between security and a pop-up free life (Start > Control Panel > Change User Account Control Settings).

6. Display your drives
Click Computer in Windows 7 and you might see a strange lack of drives, but don’t panic, it’s just Microsoft trying to be helpful: drives like memory card readers are no longer displayed if they’re empty. We think it’s an improvement, but if you disagree then launch Explorer, click Tools > Folder Options > View and clear “Hide empty drives in the computer folder” to get your empty drives back.

7. Burn images
Windows 7 finally introduces a feature that other operating systems have had for years – the ability to burn ISO images to CDs or DVDs. And it couldn’t be much easier to use. Just double-click the ISO image, choose the drive with the blank disc, click Burn and watch as your disc is created.

8. Speedy video access
Want faster access to your Videos folder? Windows 7 now lets you add it to the Start menu. Just right-click the Start orb, click Properties > Start Menu > Customize, and set the Videos option to “Display as a link”. If you’ve a TV tuner that works with Windows 7 then you’ll appreciate the new option to display the Recorded TV folder on the Start menu, too.

9. Run web searches
The Windows 7 search tool can now be easily extended to search online resources, just as long as someone creates an appropriate search connector. To add Flickr support, say, visit I Started Something [http://www.istartedsomething.com/flickrsearch], click Download the Connector, choose the Open option and watch as it’s downloaded (the file is tiny, it’ll only take a moment). A “Flickr Search” option will be added to your Searches folder, and you’ll be able to search images from your desktop.

10. Explore everywhere
Launch Paint or Wordpad and you’ll immediately spot the new Office-style ribbon interface, a real improvement in what were very dated applets. But other improvements are a little less obvious. At first glance the Windows calculator looks much the same, for instance, but the Mode menu leads to powerful new Statistics and Programmer views. And if you’re clueless about bitwise manipulation, then try the Options menu instead. This offers many different unit conversions (length, weight, volume and more), date calculations (how many days between two dates?), and spreadsheet-type templates to help you calculate vehicle mileage, mortgage rates and more. Be sure to explore every menu option in Calculator and all the other Windows applets to ensure you don’t miss anything important.

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Apple Announces Safari 4 – The World’s Fastest and Most Innovative Browser

February 25, 2009 · Filed Under Browsers, Downloads, Internet Software, Software News · Comment 

New Nitro Engine Runs JavaScript More Than Four Times Faster

Apple(R) announced the public beta of Safari(R) 4, the world’s fastest and most innovative web browser for Mac(R) and Windows PCs. The Nitro engine in Safari 4 runs JavaScript 4.2 times faster than Safari 3.* Innovative new features that make browsing more intuitive and enjoyable include Top Sites, for a stunning visual preview of frequently visited pages; Full History Search, to search through titles, web addresses and the complete text of recently viewed pages; Cover Flow(R), to easily flip through web history or bookmarks; and Tabs on Top, to make tabbed browsing easier and more intuitive.

“Apple created Safari to bring innovation, speed and open standards back into web browsers, and today it takes another big step forward,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Safari 4 is the fastest and most efficient browser for Mac and Windows, with great integration of HTML 5 and CSS 3 web standards that enables the next generation of interactive web applications.”

Safari 4 is built on the world’s most advanced browser technologies including the new Nitro JavaScript engine that executes JavaScript up to 30 times faster than IE 7 and more than three times faster than Firefox 3. Safari quickly loads HTML web pages three times faster than IE 7 and almost three times faster than Firefox 3.*

Apple is leading the industry in defining and implementing innovative web standards such as HTML 5 and CSS 3 for an entirely new class of web applications that feature rich media, graphics and fonts. Safari 4 includes HTML 5 support for offline technologies so web-based applications can store information locally without an Internet connection, and is the first browser to support advanced CSS Effects that enable highly polished web graphics using reflections, gradients and precision masks. Safari 4 is the first browser to pass the Web Standards Project’s Acid3 test, which examines how well a browser adheres to CSS, JavaScript, XML and SVG web standards that are specifically designed for dynamic web applications.

Safari for Mac, Windows, iPhone(TM) and iPod(R) touch are all built on Apple’s WebKit, the world’s fastest and most advanced browser engine. Apple developed WebKit as an open source project to create the world’s best browser engine and to advance the adoption of modern web standards. Most recently, WebKit led the introduction of HTML 5 and CSS 3 web standards and is known for its fast, modern code-base. The industry’s newest browsers are based on WebKit including Google Chrome, the Google Android browser, the Nokia Series 60 browser and Palm webOS.

Innovative new features in Safari 4 include:

  • Top Sites, a display of frequently visited pages in a stunning wall of previews so users can jump to their favorite sites with a single click;
  • Full History Search, where users search through titles, web addresses and the complete text of recently viewed pages to easily return to sites they’ve seen before;
  • Cover Flow, to make searching web history or bookmarks as fun and easy as paging through album art in iTunes(R);
  • Tabs on Top, for better tabbed browsing with easy drag-and-drop tab management tools and an intuitive button for opening new ones;
  • Smart Address Field, that automatically completes web addresses by displaying an easy-to-read list of suggestions from Top Sites, bookmarks and browsing history;
  • Smart Search Field, where users fine-tune searches with recommendations from Google Suggest or a list of recent searches;
  • Full Page Zoom, for a closer look at any website without degrading the quality of the site’s layout and text;
  • built-in web developer tools to debug, tweak and optimize a website for peak performance and compatibility; and
  • a new Windows-native look in Safari for Windows, that uses standard Windows font rendering and native title bar, borders and toolbars so Safari fits the look and feel of other Windows XP and Windows Vista applications.

Pricing & Availability

Safari 4 is a public beta for both Mac OS(R) X and Windows and is available immediately as a free download at http://www.apple.com/safari.

Safari 4 for Mac OS X requires Mac OS X Leopard(R) version 10.5.6 and Security Update 2009-001 or Mac OS X Tiger(R) version 10.4.11, a minimum 256MB of memory, and is designed to run on any Intel-based Mac or a Mac with a PowerPC G5, G4 or G3 processor and built-in FireWire(R). Safari 4 for Windows requires Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista, a minimum 256MB of memory and a system with at least a 500 MHz Intel Pentium processor. Full system requirements and more information on Safari 4 can be found at http://www.apple.com/safari.

* Performance will vary based on system configuration, network connection and other factors. All testing conducted on an iMac(R) 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo system running Windows Vista, with 2GB of RAM. JavaScript benchmark based on the SunSpider JavaScript Performance test. HTML benchmark based on VeriTest’s iBench Version 5.0 using default settings.

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Ericsson Launches Connected Home Gateway Software Enabling Multimedia Services to the Home

February 14, 2009 · Filed Under Home Software, Software News · Comment 

Ericsson  will launch its Connected Home Gateway software at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, giving consumers the freedom to access and interact with their home multimedia devices, services and media, wherever they are. The gateway also enables one single entry point for IPTV and multimedia telephony services into the home.

Installed in the home, Ericsson Connected Home Gateway achieves all of this by providing a secure connection between consumers’ digital home networks and the telecommunications network, and a single point of entry for IPTV and communication services, such as multimedia telephony.

Consumers can then use their mobile devices, such as mobile phone and laptops to communicate directly with their computer, TV or media player. This allows them to access their media libraries while on the move, for example sharing photos and videos with their family and friends.

Jan Wäreby, Senior Vice President and Head of Ericsson’s Multimedia Business, says: “The Connected Home Gateway brings simplicity and gives users true control of their everyday communication and media services. It meets a market need, allowing operators to expand their customer base and generate revenue.”

The Connected Home Gateway is compliant with telecom and consumer electronic standards, such as IMS, Open IPTV Forum and the Digital Living Network Alliance, ensuring interoperability and ease-of-use between a wide range of commercially available devices. The new range of enriched services can therefore be launched quickly, without the expense and inconvenience of developing specialized devices.

By acting as a central multimedia outlet in the home, the Connected Home Gateway serves as a single service-delivery platform and allows remote management for service provisioning and maintenance, helping to minimize operational costs.

Ericsson will demonstrate the Connected Home Gateway, together with commercially available consumer electronic devices, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, between February 16 and 19.

Source: Ericsson

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