Yahoo! Messenger 10 now out of beta with video chat and more

It seems like just yesterday that Yahoo! Messenger 10 entered beta, showing off new video chat and social networking features. Now it’s all grown up, out of beta, and replacing Y! Messenger 9 as the default version on Yahoo’s download page. Folks upgrading to version 10 get the benefit of several nice new features, including video calling and integration of streams from social sites.

Yahoo! has made some big improvements to its webcam feature, adding better video quality, synched audio and a full-screen mode. You can also move your video call windows around and place them side-by-side. It also supports video effects. To make video calls, both sides need to be on Yahoo! Messenger 10.

The other big addition is a social streaming view called Y! Updates, which lets you see your contacts’ updates from several social sites, including Twitter, Last.fm, and Yahoo!’s own Buzz. Of course, it also shows your friends’ Messenger status messages. However, CNET suggests you do a custom install of Yahoo! Messenger 10 rather than the default installation, so you have more control over toolbars and other additional junk that comes with Messenger.

Champion Crowned in Global Socket Showdown

Forget the upcoming Winter Olympics, CNET UK has pitted the nations of the world against one another in a heated competition that is inspiring fevered displays of national pride. And, just like the real Olympics, the sporting spectacle has been marred by outraged participants and furious non-qualifiers, as well as caustic accusations of impartiality, ethnocentrism, and corruption.

The contest (if you can call it a contest) has been dubbed ‘Plug vs. Plug‘ (C’mon, Brits. Couldn’t you come up with something a little more creative and colourful colorful, like ‘The Plug Rumble?’), and seeks to anoint the most effective and formidable plug-and-socket combo in the world. It’s not too difficult to guess which national team the hoity-toity, high-and-mighty Redcoats crowned champion, but the hilarious and scathing comment section alone is undoubtedly worth a visit. [From: CNET UK]

Google will factor page load speed into search result rankings

Google sure seems hung up on the speed of the web these days, and I have to say, I like it. After announcing the SPDY protocol they’re working on to speed up page loading time, it has come out that Google is seriously considering using page loading time as a factor when returning search results. This isn’t some unsubstantiated rumor, either; it comes from none other than Matt Cutts, the high-profile Google employee who works on Google’s web spam team.

Cutts said that the directive to speed up searching comes right from the top, Google’s co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. According to Search Engine Land he said they want searching to be as fast as flipping through a magazine.

At first blush it seems counter to Google’s accuracy goals to favor fast pages over slow pages when a slow page might be more relevant to a user’s search, but I know that I have often not even bothered letting a slow page finish loading when I was busy searching for something specific. If Google can shield me from the slow sites, it will help me find what I’m looking for more quickly.

10 Ways You Can Use Twitter Lists

Sarah Evans is a public relations and new media consultant and speaker at Sevans Strategy. She also authors a PR and social media blog and is the founder of #journchat. Twitter’s new Lists feature is all the rage right now. There are probably already millions of lists, and that number is growing by the minute (or second). So what are people using all these lists for? Are people creating lists just for the sake of creating lists? Savvy individuals are looking for ways to use lists to further their personal/professional agendas, and while we are all still learning how to harness the power of this new feature, here are a few ideas to get the creative juices flowing.

1. Industry Peers and Professionals Lists

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One way to use Twitter Lists is to keep your finger on the pulse of your industry. Tim O’Reilly (@timoreilly), founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, for example, created the Gov 2.0 list to accomplish this goal for government tweeters. Once you create your “experts” list, share the link with your peers. (If you’re in a generous mood.) If you have a Twitter () network largely made up of industry peers, you’ll save them from reinventing the wheel by creating a public list that everyone can use.

Lists are still new enough that you can be the first to develop an “it” list. In other words, for many industries and topics you could create the de facto list of peers that others follow and reference. A list that garners a large followership means more attention for you and may increase your Twitter followers. Once you create the list, you’ll need to promote it. Add it to a list directory like Listorious for additional opportunities for people to view and follow.

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2. Experts Lists

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If you’re an expert, recognize other experts. Technology blogger Robert Scoble (@scobleizer) did this with his recent lists like, “most influential in tech,” and “web innovators,” for example. It’s a win both for Robert and for those he recommends. He continues to establish his credibility as a technology thought leader and others benefit from the recognition and online visibility. Many of his lists already have hundreds of followers.

You can also use Twitter Lists to highlight individuals that routinely offer insight, tips, tools, etc. about a particular topic. Do you have certain people you keep on mobile alerts or have a special column for in Tweetdeck ()? It’s most likely a list in the making. If nothing else, lists like these let people you admire and/or listen to know that you appreciate the content they’re putting out.

Waveboard: Google Wave client now available for iPhone

You may have already figured out that you can use Google Wave in Safari on the iPhone, but now there’s a better alternative. Waveboard, one of the early attempts at a desktop Wave client, now has an iPhone app. The Waveboard app will run you 99 cents, but it’s a much faster way to check your Waves than loading them up in the built-in browser.

Waveboard basically gives you the same thing you get on the mobile web version of Wave, but also adds some additional features. You can shake your device to logout and reload your Waves, and push notifications are apparently coming soon. It sounds like right now is the time to jump on Waveboard, in case future features come with a higher price.

If you have 40 seconds to kill, and you want to see Waveboard in action, check out the demo video after the jump.

[via TechCrunch]

VHD Attach enables right-click mounting and dismounting of VHD files in Windows 7

One of Windows 7’s slick new features is its handling of VHD (virtual hard disk) files. You can use them for a number of handy functions – from discreetly archiving files and folders to booting a full-fledged Vista, Windows 7, or Windows Server 2008 install via your Windows 7 boot.ini.

But VHDs aren’t as easy to work with out-of-the-box as they could be. To mount and unmount, you’ve got to head over to the Disk Management snap-in (diskmgmt.msc), wait for the screen to populate, go to actions->attach (or detach), browse for your VHD, and then wait some more.

VhdAttach speeds the process up by adding two entries to your context menu. Mouse over a .VHD file, right-click it, and you can mount and dismount right from Windows Explorer. Left click attach, and your VHD will pop up alongside your physical hard disks. When you’re all done, detaching is just as simple.

The control app (inset in screenshot) which can open your VHDs and display information about them. You can also attach and detach from this screen.

VhdAttach is a free download and works with both Windows 7 and Server 2008.

Confused about Google Wave? Now you can read the bleeping manual.

Google Wave is an innovative new communication tool, but part of innovation is that it’s not always intuitive to use. Early adopters have been jumping into Wave with little guidance on how to take advantage of all its features. I guess you could watch the 90-minute Wave video, but that’s not exactly a quick-start guide.

Well, there’s a saying almost as old as computers themselves, and it goes: RTFM. Read the, um, flippin’ manual. Now Google Wave has a flippin’ manual that you can read, but it’s not from Google: it’s from Lifehacker’s Gina Trapani and Adam Pash. Sounds a lot better than “watch the frickin’ 90-minute video,” eh?

Gina and Adam’s guide is quickly making the rounds on the web, being promoted by the likes of Mashable. I’d like to add Download Squad’s endorsement to the list. The Complete Guide to Google Wave is a straightforward, well-organized volume that goes a long way toward demystifying a new and complex tool. It’s available to read online for free, but you’ll be able to buy it as a DRM-free PDF soon, and in print in January.

Still don’t have Wave? Go throw your name in the hat for Download Squad’s Great Google Wave Invite Giveaway.

Facebook Measures Happiness in Status Updates

As we all know, Facebook lets people update their friends with status updates, and with millions of users, that’s a lot of data. Look at the aggregated data over time, and you could see some interesting trends.

The Facebook Data Team recently measured happiness in the United States based on these updates with a metric they call United States Gross National Happiness.

Measuring how well-off, happy or satisfied with life the citizens of a nation are is part of the Gross National Happiness movement. This graph represents how “happy” the nation is doing from day to day, by looking at how many positive and negative words people are using when they update their status: When people are using more positive words (or fewer negative words) in their status updates than usual, that day is happier than usual!

Browse the trends over time, and there’s nothing earth-shattering really. You’ve got dips on the Mondays and peaks on holidays. Although I’m not sure what happened January 22, 2008 to make people so sad. EDIT: It was the day Heath Ledger died [Thanks, Amanda].

Big picture though, I’m sure governments, businesses, organizations, etc would be more than pleased to have something like this when they made a new policy, launched a new product, or started a new initiative.

That’s probably why so many are fascinated with the publicly available data coming out of Twitter.

[via TechCrunch]

Learn to take better photos with Nikon’s iPhone app

Nikon, never satisfied with merely standing still, have brought out a lovely new iPhone app that acts as an always-there photography guide. If you’re an amateur, semi-pro, or even a professional wondering how certain effects or styles are pulled off — this app would make a great addition to your iPhone’s arsenal.

This new app, Learn And Explore, allows you to hunt for professional examples to show you what’s possible in a given situation. There are guides that will show you how to take photos in tricky conditions — indors, outdoors, low-light, long-exposure — it’s al lhere.

They’re promising continuos updates and access to their Nikon World magazine through the app.

No reason this would only be of use to a Nikon user either — though if there’s any kind of Nikon branding on the software, I’m not sure a Canon user would be seen dead with it…

[via CNET]

The great Google Wave invite giveaway!

If you haven’t heard of Google Wave yet — a) wake up! and b) watch this tech demo. It’s long, but if you’re a nerd, or someone who uses the Internet a lot, you’ll find it more exciting than the latest Harry Potter film. And at only 80 minutes, it’s not a potentially-bladder-exploding endurance event, unlike the bespectacled wizard wannabe.

And with that said, the goodies: Download Squad are giving away Google Wave invites. We’re going to start giving away invites whenever we have them to give away and today, to get the ball rolling, we’ve got 20 up for grabs! If things heat up, we’ll scrounge under the couch cushions until we find more!

Wave is just starting to pick up steam, with more gadgets and gizmos and robots appearing every day. With reports of Google Wave server federation (the ability for anyone to run a Wave server) coming soon, and the sandbox walls being torn down, now’s your chance to get in on the action.

Similar Images feature emerges from Google Labs

Google Labs has been putting together some great new search technology lately. They just introduced Social Search, and now the Similar Images feature has graduated from Labs and become a permanent part of Google Image Search. When you search for an image, you’ll see “find similar images” links below most of the results: clicking it gives you a pretty accurate collection of images of the same subject.

I tested out similar images on some easy stuff (umbrellas) and some tougher stuff (celebrities), and found that it worked really well. Similar Images is good at matching backgrounds, and even manages to find similarly-posed photos if you’re searching for an animal or a person. It obviously doesn’t do as well when the subject is obscure or abstract, or there aren’t a lot of photos of it in the database. In cases like that, it’ll be more likely to match your image’s color scheme than to find a picture of the same person or thing.

Similar Images isn’t made to find identical images hosted on different sites. If you’re trying to determine where an image came from, try putting it into TinEye instead.

Programs That Can Make Your Computer Run Faster

It’s a common problem among computer users: after a few months, our computers become weighed down by programs and all sorts of other junk, and inevitably become sluggish. For the less tech-savvy users, this may induce thoughts like “Why is my computer so terrible?” or “I guess I could always upgrade this… what-cha-ma-callit RAM thing”.

Regular maintenance is usually required to keep a computer optimized and running at its best. Here are four programs that will make your computer faster, and four trade-offs to help make the best use out of the amount of RAM that’s installed on your computer.

Solid Alliance’s ‘Crazy Earphones’ Are Just That

A new line of earbuds from Solid Alliance has drawn attention for its, shall we say, less than palatable designs, and as a public service to our readers, we would like to agree with all the haters. Beauty may reside in the eye of the beholder, but so does ugly.

The increasingly derided and aptly named Crazy Earphones line consists of four truly dumbfounding designs: sushi roll, banana, cat paw, and Frankenstein bolt. (And they’re only $22, or ¥2,000, a pair!) The kitty paw and Frankenstein ‘buds may appeal to a certain consumer, but sushi? Ripened bananas? We have a sneaking suspicion that whatever niche market Solid Alliance was attempting to target is nonexistent. Or, at best, still too small to cover production costs.

Google Maps gets a facelift, now easier to read

If nobody told you, you might not even notice it, but the team at Google Maps just introduced some subtle visual improvements that make their maps easier to read. Worldwide changes include narrower roads, better contrast between text and the rest of the map, and colors that don’t conflict with traffic and other overlays. You’ll also start to see road detail at a slightly more distant zoom level. In short, the map view just became more like the hybrid map-satellite view.

Cockroaches Use Earth’s Magnetic Field to Steer

Just as birds guide their migratory journeys by sensing Earth’s magnetic field, so do cockroaches use geomagnetic detection as they scurry across your kitchen floor.

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To reveal the mechanisms of cockroach navigation, Czech researchers first placed roaches inside an artificial magnetic field. As they rotated the field, the cockroaches followed.

In itself, this wasn’t surprising: Scientists know that cockroaches, like many insects, can detect magnetic fields. But they weren’t sure if cockroaches have “mapping” cells in which minute variations in Earth’s geomagnetic field cause pairs of quantum-entangled electrons to spin in different ways, or “compass” cells in which embedded iron particles respond to geomagnetic tugs.

When the researchers flooded the roaches with radio waves known to disrupt electron-paired compass cells, the cockroaches no longer followed the turning field. They apparently use a map to steer. And as cockroaches have been around for 350 million years, the mapping system could be widespread in the insect world.

“Insects may be equipped with the same magnetoreception as the birds,” wrote the researchers in a paper published Friday in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

As for why cockroaches need such sophisticated magnetoreception, that remains a mystery. But at least one explanation can, unfortunately, be ruled out: They don’t use their map to go south for the winter.