Opera 10th Birthday – Download Free Ad-Free Version

Download.com informs us about a time-limited special offer: You can receive a valid registration code for Opera’s current version of Opera 8. Simply e-mail registerme@opera.com to obtain a registration code. This offer is valid from 12 a.m. Tuesday, August 30 to 12 a.m. Wednesday, August 31 2005 (PDT). I have downloaded the browser and will install immediately upon receiving my own code.

Update:
You may generate your own free codes with this web formular as long as their anniversary party lasts!

[via Golem | read more | digg story]

/von

Google Syndication Problem

Is it just me or the feistiness of Germany’s telecommunication backbones? I’m unable to reach pagead2.googlesyndication.com and receive a timeout error.

Update: I guess this was just another evil glitch of the backbone network. I couldn’t ping through… thanks S A J Shirazi for checking it with me.

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GMail for free!

No more invitations, no further posts questions about having another 50 free invitations. The internet got freed from Google’s webmail service GMail. The Googleopus allows anybody to get a GMail account by confirming you are a „real person“ via your mobile phone. GoogleVideoPhone as next after GoogleTalk?

[via GoogleBlog, Basic Thinking]

Update
You will not receive an invitation to GMail from me. You can do whatever you want, but you won’t get one. I will not help you, I will not support you because I’m not some Google Support guy. And if you want something at all, leave some correct and realistic email addresses for me to get in contact with you, or nothing (NOTHING!) will happen.

/von

Photoshop CS3 Details

,

Think Secret has obtained several notes regarding Photoshop CS3. What strikes me most is that it took only a couple of months to overtake CS2. Further, the report indicates that Adobe may be developing two other yet unannounced products: Adobe Acrobat 3D and Adobe Full Frame.


More details about the standard and premium editions including the package „on-top“ programs can be found in their article.

Another product is their new idea of Apple Photo Pro: A survey by Adobe presented Photo Pro as software tool for especially photographers, but at the moment, none could confirm the product’s development status. Might be a trick, might be true.

read more | digg story

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Google Talk Hacks – more of them…

Yesterday, we already figured there’d be some connection problems in Google Talk while using a wireless LAN (54MBit) to connect at least one station. Katharina and myself confirmed this last night a second time, and these difficulties do not exist while using Skype. But within the short timeframe of publishing the VoIP chat Google Talk, people already came up with many other reviews and of course their own tweaks for the system. There’s a nice collection at Initial Dawn which currently cover:

  • sleek text
  • parameters
  • button codes
  • registry settings

For the full list, refer to the long instructions…

[via FluXionTech]

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Google Talk’s First „Hack“!

Its not a real hack but something I’ve already expected to happen. Here’s a nice tutorial on how to Broadcast MP3’s, Podcasts and other audio over Google Talk. Is Google Talk that the personal radio station for everybody now?

Step 1: If you have a mic plugged in, unplug it

Step 2: Double click on the speaker icon in the lower right corner. This will open up „Volume Control“. Select „Options“ and then „Properties“. Then check the button next to „Recording“ then click OK. You may also have to change your setting under Mixer Device.

Step 3: Now the Recording Control screen should be up. On my computer I selected „Wave Out Mix“

read more | digg story

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First Review: Google Talk

Google Talk – easy to use, easy to install, no big problems with that software. The instant chat function appears to work quite natural in comparison with ICQ or Skype, and as seen in the chat with Shi it was easy to handle, too. Nice to have is the information about incoming mails at the gmail accounts.

But while having a first test for a voice-chat with Robert, the software had some difficulties. Both of us had in a high-ping connection. Since we live in Germany, the idea of having a stable connection is surely on the hand. There shouldn’t be any kind of disadvantage from time lags or similiar problems, which might happen while skyping with Katharina in California (what will she think of Google Talk?).

But Google Talk had an intensified lag which occurred every 3 minutes. Furthermore, in comparison with Skype, the quality of the voice is lower for Google Talk. Robert was not even sure if the data packages were encrypted or not, since the entire setting administration does not offer any clues about establishing a secure connection.

In the end, both Robert and myself believe (see Robert’s short review in German) that this voice chat software is lacking features and capability. The almost too simple interface will surely be used for upcoming expansions, and files, pictures, and many other gimmicks are meant to follow…

/von

Google Talk is out

The big secret these days of Google is out. I just downloaded Google Talk to see which features it actually got. I think I’ve even been the first user since it window pop up to say thank you to me for being the first user.

So I far I could see it didn’t got much features until now. Maybe I have to explore it more… but I probably will need other Google/Gmail users to figure out what Google has to offer me after all. I’m just wondering how they want to make money with it since this tool is still free. It’s not like the hardly need it but come on: it’s Google which seems to get richer with each day. Or am I wrong? Maybe they try to make it like with Skype and offer something which is close to SkypeOut/In. If Google reallly wants to make the world a favor they should figure out how to offer this service for although Skype is not very expensive in offering this service after all. Let’s see where this will lead to and if somebody still should need a Gmail account: leave a note with your email here ;-)

/von

ICQ: Changing between local and global keyboard settings

ICQ LogoI just wrote to the ICQhelp Ticket Center about my most outrageous problem. I noticed the „old trick“ of using CTRL+ALT+F1 to change between global-US and local keyboard settings does not apply for ICQ… and I haven’t found any information in their knowledgebase about my problem.

Dear Sir or Madam,

while using ICQ, I am unable to use the specific characters for the german keyboard layout, i.e. „ä“,“ö“,“ü“. Instead while striking the keys, ICQ displays the original US-keys layout. How do I change this back? I installed ICQ again after de-installing the previous installation.

Thank you for your help!

Best regards,
Mike Schnoor

After a few hours waiting, I received the following from Eddie Smith:

Hello Mike,

Thank you for reporting the difficulties described in your ticket. Your feedback is important to us.

Please note that the ICQ Team is constantly working to make available new and improved versions of the ICQ software.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Thank You,
The ICQ Support Team

My reply was simple…

Dear Eddie,

however you have not provided me with any solution to solve the problem of restoring the „local“ keyboard setting for the ICQ software.

I hope to hear from you or the support-team again. Thanks in advance.

Best regards,
Mike Schnoor

/von

Ooops…

I’m a forgettable man. I’m really sorry to even consider doing this, but it has to be done. My stationary desktop PC will receive a major bonus now… Windows XP Service Pack 2. I’m so proud of myself to do that after such a long time! After the install routine once crashed – it was probably just a few weeks after hearing about the original release back in time, I hope it will work this time without problems and without the need to reinstall XP. AHEM! ;)

20 minutes later…
Apparently, the installation was successful. Time to reboot… after deciding about automatic updates (denied), it looks quite normal so far with the XP login screen. The Grand Admiral is alive! Goodbye ZoneAlarm, welcome Windows XP SP2.

/von