Jonathan Hensley | The Blog | JHensley.org

In recent tech news:

• Comcast expands ultra-fast Internet service
  Comcast Corp. says its new ultra-high-speed Internet service will be coming over the next several weeks to Chicago, Atlanta, Baltimore and Ft. Wayne, Ind.

  Comcast says the next-generation Docsis 3.0 technology will include some of the fastest speeds available today, including a tier with download speeds of up to 50 megabits per second.

• SMS Text Messaging for Gchat
• Pastebud Brings Copy and Paste to the iPhone
  Pastebud, a bookmarklet/webapp combo that works around the lack of a copy or paste function in the iPhone and iPod touch, has just gone live. And it's surprisingly elegant and painless, with a few small hitches.

Here are some interesting links from today:

• Microsoft warns of new Windows bug, says attacks under way
  On the same day that Microsoft Corp. released its biggest batch of security patches in more than five years, the company also warned Windows users of a critical bug that it didn't get around to fixing.

  In an advisory posted yesterday, Microsoft said that "limited and targeted" attacks are in progress by hackers exploiting an unpatched vulnerability in the WordPad Text Converter, a tool included with all versions of Windows. The flawed converter handles Microsoft Word 97 files on Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 (SP4), XP SP2, Server 2003 SP1 and SP2.

• Hidden feature turns iPhone into TV gaming device
  Though largely demonstrative, the game uses the iPhone's accelerometer for input and steering while routing the game's video through a video-out cable to the TV. Freeverse noted that the program ran best on the second-generation iPod touch, which includes a 532MHz processor compared to the iPhone and iPhone 3G's 412MHz chip.

The more you use Firefox the more you love it. The more quality extensions you find and install the more functional, convenient and helpful Firefox becomes.

I was a latecomer to FireFox… I rebelled for a while and stuck with IE7. Firefox felt kind of rogue to me at first. It wasn’t until FireFox 2 that really made the full switch. The thing that really put the final nail in the IE coffin was finding some really useful extensions that made my online tasks easier.

Here’s a list of my top 10 favorite Firefox extensions… in mostly random order.

Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer
This one is a must have for anyone who uses multiple computers. Install it on all of them and it’ll sync your bookmarks across them all. It also backs them up online so you can access them when you’re on someone else’s computer.

Better GMail 2
If you use GMail or Google Apps email (and you should be) then Better GMail 2 is also a must have. This extension gives your GMail interface more functionality and gives you more control over what buttons or modules you see. It also allows you to tweak the interface to your needs.

Hide Menubar
I don’t need the menu bar so why show it. If you do need all you have to do is press [Alt].

Colorful Tabs
Makes your tabs colorful. To me this just helps me visually separate them.

Delicious Bookmarks

I use delicious to for quick posting to this blog. If you use delicious you should have the bookmarklet.

Google Gears
Google Gears lets you store certain data locally which in turn allows webapps to perform faster. I use Gears for Wordpress and Google Reader mainly. It’s also compatible with Google Docs.

IE Tab
For the few sites left that don’t like IE7.

Picnik
Picnik is awesome for taking an image from the web and quickly letting you fancy it up with shadows, borders or effects. It’s an especially great blogging tool.

TwitterFox
TwitterFox is a lightweight little Twitter client that runs in your FireFox tray. New tweets pop up when they come in (configurable of course) and it also lets you tweet.

PDF Download
Gives you more control over what to do with PDF links: download, launch, print. Prevents PDF’s from crashing your browser session.

Let me know what extensions you use or which of these are your favorites.

Here are some interesting links from today:

• Rumor: Apple’s iTunes going DRM-free starting Tuesday
  A report from last week brought to AppleInsider's attention by French technology site ElectronLibre asserts that it's now "clear" Apple will spark new interest in its music store by removing DRM from tracks published by Sony, Universal and Warner on December 9th.
• Gmail Finally Gets A To-Do List
  Someone at Google finally realized how helpful it would be to add a to-do list to Gmail. It is called “Tasks” and is now available in Gmail Labs (click on the beaker icon next to “Settings” on the upper right hand corner of Gmail). When you enable Tasks, it appears as a link in the left-hand column under Contacts. Click on the link and a box pops up in the lower right-hand corner like it does with Gtalk. You can add tasks, reorder them, cross out completed tasks, switch to a new list, or pop out the box to keep on your desktop.
• Wal-Mart to start selling the iPhone this month
  Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will become the second mass-market retail chain to start selling Apple Inc.’s iPhone, with two store representatives saying the world’s largest retailer will carry two models of the Web-surfing handset this month.

  Employees in the cell-phone departments at five California stores, contacted by phone today, said Wal-Mart will offer iPhones by the end of December. Employees are currently being trained on how to sell the device, all five said.

Here are some interesting links from today:

• New Google Android phone launches
  Google's new mobile operating system, Android, is now available on a handset that isn't the G1.

  Only available in Australia, the phone is called the Kogan Agora, and will be available in Q1 of next year – 29 January, to be exact.

  Like the G1, the phone will feature a whole host of Google-based applications.

  These include: Google Calendar, GMail, a Google search bar and instant access to Google Maps and YouTube.

• Bluetooth 2.2 to be released in mid-2009
  The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) recently announced that it will release a new version of Bluetooth in mid-2009. Bluetooth 2.2 promises to be much faster than previous versions, allowing transfer rates at higher speeds.
• Premium LCD TV brands slash prices to compete for holiday shoppers
  the top brands cut slashed prices on their LCD TV models on average of 23 percent for the holiday shopping weekend beginning on the day after Thanksgiving. The big guys cut their prices even more than lower-tier players like Vizio and Westinghouse, which dropped theirs by just 19 percent.