Boydo's Tech Talk

Here’s something to keep in mind when using Internet Explorer on Windows XP, Vista and 7.

For a while now, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome have possessed auto-update capabilities (Firefox being more explicit about it while Chrome silently updates itself in the background and applies the changes when it is restarted with nary a peep). Well, as of Internet Explorer 10, Microsoft will be adding functionality similar to the Chrome implementation whereby updates to Internet Explorer will be silent and seamless for those who have opted in for automatic updates through Windows Update.

For us in Australia, we’ve already been subjected to this approach to updates since January effectively making us guinea pigs. That said, I’ve yet to hear any major complaints that have stemmed from automatic updates for those opted in.

These days, it’s becoming less and less favourable for systems to suffer from “update fatigue” allowing them to become progressively more vulnerable to attack. Automatic updates are a great way to handle this particularly for systems where updates are chronically ignored.

Google are rolling out some updates to Google Maps allowing you to see 3D buildings, 45 degree imagery and other visual enhancements to the viewing experience dubbed “WebGL”.

Experience MapsGL

Usually, this is just a matter of clicking the “Try it now button when offered to enabled it in Google Maps and but in some instances you’ll encounter the following error:

We detected that your computer does not meet the system performance requirements for MapsGL.

This can be a bit annoying particularly when you are running a computer with modern hardware but there is a solution.

In Chrome type in “about:flags” in the address bar and you’ll need to click “Enable” underneath the line item for “Override software rendering list”. You’ll then need to click on the “Relaunch Now” button at the bottom of the screen. Once restarted, simply get back to Google Maps and you should find that after you click “Try it now”.

You should then be able to view 3D buildings in the “Google Earth” view like the one below:

Burj Khalifa, Dubai - Google Maps

If this doesn’t work for you then you might need to try disabling extensions one by one to see if any are preventing WebGL from working. Otherwise, you can also try updating your video card drivers which has reportedly worked for some people facing this particular issue.

For a lot of people using Windows the Twitter client of choice is TweetDeck however it can be a problem to get running if you are unable to install Adobe Air on the computer (which is often the case in corporate or enterprise environments). Otherwise, if you are staunchly against installing Adobe Air on your computer you might find this alternative more ideal.

What you can do is instead go to http://web.tweetdeck.com where you will need to login with your TweetDeck account but if you don’t have an account you can create one on the page. Once signed up, you can then start linking your Twitter and Facebook accounts to your TweetDeck account so all of the updates appear in the one place. Otherwise, if you already have an account, your saved configuration will be used.

The only problem with using the TweetDeck web client is that it only works under Google Chrome or Safari with Firefox and Internet Explorer users left out in the cold. Typically, businesses may not allow Chrome or Safari to be installed as Internet Explorer offer far more flexibility in the way it can be locked down and restricted through system policies. Furthermore, the pace at which Chrome is updated often outstrips the ability of the IT department to undertake proper compatibility testing before allowing updates to be deployed to company assets.

However, for the rest of us at home, the TweetDeck web client is perhaps a good way to keep track of Facebook and Twitter updates on your Windows machines if you want to reduce the range of software installed on the,

Here’s a quick tip tonight.

With services like “Find my iPhone” on the iOS platform and similar services available on Windows Phone and some Android phones it’s interesting to see this proliferate to other “non-cellular” devices such as the humble digital camera. These days, more cameras are now building in GPS functionality such as the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT3 that I am mucking around with at the moment. Recording GPS coordinates is nice but useless if you have lost your camera and you don’t know which photos have been captured by it and uploaded to the web.

Enter stolencamerafinder.

All you need to do visit this website and either enter in the serial number of your camera or, more conveniently, drag and drop an unedited photo taken by the camera (which only works in Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox) then do a search. The site will then check the serial number against its database of images it has indexed to match the serial number. If there’s a hit you’ll get a result but if not then you might need to wait a while and try again.

This service was used to reunite an owner with his expensive Canon EOS 5D Mark II which had been lost for three years – quite amazing. That said, you shouldn’t rely on this service to help track down your missing camera though, your mileage may vary from anywhere between finding your camera and not finding it at all.

Here’s a quick tip tonight.

If you use Google Chrome, you can reopen a tab that you closed (on purpose or accidentally) by right clicking on a tab up the top of the browser window and selecting “Reopen closed tab”. Chrome will then open the last tab that was closed hopefully getting you back to where you were previously.

Too easy!

Here’s a quick reminder for the Firefox users out there.

Sometimes when you are using an instance of Firefox that is a couple of  versions off the pace you won’t receive the automatic prompts to upgrade to the latest version. Instead, you’ll receive notices to upgrade to the point updates for the major release you are on (unless Mozilla change tings on their end to force you to upgrade).

Seeing as Firefox 6 is now out, it’s probably a good idea to check what version you are using and, if necessary (and desired), upgrade. It’s worth noting that Mozilla has no qualms in discontinuing support for older versions of Firefox which means you won’t receive security updates when those nasty security holes are inevitably uncovered. At the time of writing the only supported versions of Firefox are 3.6.x (latest is 3.6.20) and the latest 6.0 version.

Still, Firefox continues to have a problem with memory bloat which is slated to be fixed in Firefox 7.0 but I am yet to notice it in the Aurora builds (currently the browser is using 600MB of RAM with just six tabs open). I would use Google Chrome more often but I don’t fancy Google getting more information that it needs from me.

After I criticised Google for making it difficult for us folks outside of the USA to get into the beta of its new music streaming service I received an invitation to join the Google Music beta.

Google Music Invitation

I had also tried the client software on my phone which didn’t go very far even when I was using a custom Android 2.3 ROM on my Samsung Galaxy S. However, for some reason on the latest MIUI build using Andorid 2.3.4 seemed to have no issues.

Google Music Manager

So anyway, I am syncing my music collection in iTunes up to Google using the Music Manager software which might take a while but I’ll be interested to see how well it works. Streaming music through the web browser interface works well in Chrome and Firefox but I will see how it fares on devices such as the iPad as well as in corporate environments (ear buds in of course).

Today on my trip out and about to Hornsby Westfield I dropped into JB Hi-Fi to have a look at what they had on display and was stoked to find that they had a Android Honeycomb tablet on show in the form of the Acer Iconia Tab. Prior to today, I had never see a Honeycomb tablet up close so I was naturally curious to see how well it worked.

The model I tried was Wi-Fi only and it seems that the store didn’t have the foresight or sense to join it to a Wi-Fi network so people could actually try it out. In lieu of that I tethered it to my Samsung Galaxy S (the mobile hotspot functionality always comes in handy) and gave it a bit of a spin. Firstly, I tried internet browsing and was firstly surprised to find a very Google Chrome-esque browser presented in full screen with tabs running along the top along with the expected address bar. Pages rendered quickly and without degradation while scrolling was smooth with no noticeable jitter (however I did note that the device did have Advanced Task Killer installed to kill off long running processes on the device which is not part of the standard install).

I also tried Google Maps and that seemed to work without too many problems even though I was indoors. Maps loaded quickly and the zoom and pivot functions were quite responsive. The tablet also included Google Navigation which provides turn-by-turn directions without the need to purchase a dedicated application.

The rear camera on the tablet was rated at 5 megapixels while the front camera weighs in at 2 megapixels. The quality did seem a bit grainy for both still photo and video capture which was a little disappointing in the short amount of time I used it. There also seemed to be a bit of a delay when trying to take photos. Not too sure if this was as a result of the sensor used or the driver but it was a bit disappointing.

There wasn’t much in the way of music or video on the device so I couldn’t give that a test and I forgot to try out YouTube. What was apparent though was the Android does scale up nicely to tablet form and Google has made a good effort in tailoring their operating system for this form factor. Simply reusing the phone operating system (whilst it would work) would be a poor use of screen real estate and the extra power available in a larger device.

Speaking of size, the Iconia Tab was noticeably thicker than the iPad 2. Whilst this may or may not be a deal breaker for some people it makes me wonder how the revised Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 coming later this year will fare given that it will be roughly the same size as Apple’s tablet. Another interesting change compared to most of the Android smartphones was the absence of capacitive buttons and instead uses onscreen soft buttons in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen to move back a screen or return home.

All in all, the Acer hardware was a bit of a let down but I was pleased with what Google has offered up with Honeycomb. I’ll be interested to see where it goes from here but my next tablet device may well be an Android one.

Not exactly a tip but for those of you who need an Angry Birds hit when you don’t have your mobile or tablet device handy then this might hit the spot.

All you need to do is visit http://chrome.angrybirds.com/ in your browser of choice (I have tested Internet Explorer 9, Firefox 4 and Google Chrome 11) and it should load up without any problems. Controls are fairly simply, use your mouse to aim your birds and the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom in and out (although this didn’t work in Firefox for me but was fine in the other two browsers).

Play at your own peril though – you have been warned!

There will always be people who want to live right on the bleeding edge when it comes to trying out the latest software and seeing how it performs on their system. Of course, there are people who are not as adventurous as they worry about bugs disrupting their daily routine or breaking some of the features they have come to rely upon. Having said that, a good number of people who use Firefox tend to be more technically savvy so they may have a slightly higher appetite to try the latest and greatest.

Anyway, there is a good compromise when it comes to Firefox in the form of “Aurora” builds. These Aurora builds differ from the nightly builds (which as expected are built nightly) in that nightly builds are compiled irrespective of the state of the code (i.e. things could be working, partially working, unreliable or just completely broken) whilst the Aurora builds will be less prone to having problems but not as stable as public beta releases or final releases.

The upside to this is that Mozilla can potentially get more people to test out Firefox whilst in the development phases whilst helping to minimise inconvenience to those willing to give pre-release software a go. Mozilla is also hoping  to keep people hooked into Aurora releases with shorter development cycles to keep up the pace with the likes of Google Chrome which constantly and quietly updates its browser.

If you’re keen to give the Aurora builds a go, you can check it out at the Mozilla Firefox channel news page.