7YK Blog

Today you can download Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 and “put the web at your service”, IE8 promises to improve in many areas to start claiming back market share that IE lost to Firefox.

Microsoft claims that the new version is safer, easier and faster than ever before. Although some users report that Internet Explorer still is not supported by some websites, including banks.

Have you downloaded IE8 beta 2 yet? If you have not then you can download it here, check out the latest version, please let us know what you think in the comments and remember its still in Beta.

We have had a look ourselves and like what we see, but for now it may be best to keep most browsing to Firefox until this latest version of Microsoft’s free web browser is out of beta.

Another year, another IFA trade show and another glimpse of Garmin’s Nuvifone, The Garmin rep whipped his Nuvifone prototype out to give the guys over at engadgetmobile a quick look at the much talked about device.

Garmin have been talking about the Nuvifone for some time now, but from what could be seen there really is nothing new to see, well unless the rep was hiding something. Garmin are being very secretive not allowing any video recordings of the interface, basically the home screen was the only thing to be seen, what the hell is so special about the Nuvifone that Garmin are obsessed with keeping us in suspense?

What was funny was when the Garmin rep tried to show off how the Nuvifone could navigate better than the iPhone the Nuvifone crashed, of course it could have been just a one off but didn’t really impress engadgetmobile saying that the iPhone and Nuvifone have that in common they both seem to like crashing.

The rep reported that the Navifone is delayed until 2009, do we really care now? There is only so much teasing someone can take, now you see it, now you don’t, if the guys over at Garmin don’t watch out no one will want it when it finally appears.

Source: engadgetmobile

A game I play with myself to pass the time on the subway or in a lame bar is “If I Had To…” where I pretend that the entire world has blown up and I am the only woman left on the planet and the only men left are those in the room with me and I have to choose one to help me save mankind. (Note, this is the opposite of the male version where the object is to pick one they couldn’t do it with).

Usually, it takes me the entire subway ride to decide which one. Not because there are so many to choose from, but because it’s hard to decide which one wouldn’t make me puke my brains out.

Last night, I discovered a new version of this. At the gym, I picked two guys standing in close proximity and decide of the two, If I Had To, which would it be. I was surprised with the results. Of the 30 pairs at the gym, I managed to cleanly pick 28 men who could be my partner in saving the world. 1 pair resulted in a tie, where I could either way, and 1 pair resulted in mankind being completely wiped out.

Helped to pass the time at the gym anyway, but I do hope the world doesn’t blow up unless I am at the photo shoot for the firefighter’s calendar.

Just a short note to let readers know that I’ve just added another 103 reader submissions to the Killer Titles Group Writing project submissions page. Those still wanting to participate need to get their skates on - there’s less than 24 hours and I’ll be closing this off and picking the prize winner. See how to enter here.

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HTC has announced their new smartphone, the HTC S740. This slider has both numeric keypad and the QWERTY keyboard. It features sleek and glossy design like the Touch Diamond, 7.2 Mbps download speeds, a 2.4 inch TFT-LCD with backlight LEDs and QVGA resolution, 3.2-megapixel camera with fixed focus, wifi connection, microSD slot, Bluetooth and FM radio. The phone will be available Europe starting September next month. Yeah it has the back similar to the Diamond too. Check out more pictures after the break.

HTC S740 Specifications:

- Processor: Qualcomm® MSM7225™, 528MHz

- Platform: Windows Mobile® 6.1 Standard

- Memory: ROM: 256MB / RAM: 256MB SDRAM

- Dimensions: 116.3 mm (L) X 43.4 mm (W) X 16.3 mm (T)

- Weight: 140g with battery

- Display: 2.4 inch TFT-LCD with backlight LEDs and QVGA resolution

- Network:
HSDPA/WCDMA: 900/2100 MHz for Europe
(Up to 384 kbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps download speeds)
GSM/GPRS/EDGE: Quad-band 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
(The device will operate on frequencies available from the cellular network.)

- GPS: Standalone GPS / AGPS

- Connectivity: Bluetooth® 2.0, Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g, HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)

- Camera 3.2 megapixel color camera with fixed focus

- Audio: Built-in microphone and speaker, Ring tone supported formats: AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, QCP, MP3, WMA, and WAV.

- Battery: Rechargeable Lithium-ion polymer battery
Capacity: 1000 mAh
Standby time: Up to 400 hours for WCDMA / Up to 280 hours for GSM
Talk time: Up to 320 minutes for WCDMA / Up to 380 minutes for GSM
(The above are subject to network and phone usage.) AC Adapter AC input: 100 ~ 240V AC, 50/60 Hz

- DC output: 5V and 1A

Tags: mobile phone, cell phone, handset, handphone, phone, communication, smartphone, htc s740

Dear photographers, Nikon has officially released the D90, the first DSLR that support HD video recording. This 12.3-megapixel camera shoots 1280×720p video at 24fps with a 16:9 aspect ratio for up to five minutes, producing around a 600MB file ouch!

Its 12.3-megapixel images sensor was developed in-house like the D3 and D700’s (the D300 uses a Sony sensor) and you can crank the ISO up to 6400.

It is priced at $999.95^*ESP. Check our more pictures and features after the break.

Features:
• 12.3-megapixel DX-format CMOS imaging sensor: Coupled with Nikon’s EXPEED image processing technologies and NIKKOR optics, breathtaking image fidelity is assured.
• Continuous shooting as fast as 4.5 frames-per-second: Combined with fast 0.15ms power-up and split-second 65ms shooting lag, dramatic action and decisive moments are captured easily.
• D-Movie Mode—Cinematic 24fps HD with sound: Record cinematic-quality movie clips at up to 720p HD (1280 x 720 pixels) in Motion JPEG format, enhanced by NIKKOR interchangeable lens quality and versatility.
• Low noise ISO sensitivity from 200 to 3200: High signal-to-noise components and design deliver exceptional performance, even at high ISO setting.
• 3-inch super-density 920,000-dot color LCD monitor: High resolution, 170-degree wide-angle viewing guarantees confident image review and movie playback.
• Built-in image sensor cleaning: Effective 4-frequency, ultrasonic sensor cleaning frees image degrading dust particles from the sensor’s optical low pass filter.
• 11-point AF system with Face Priority: Consistently fast and accurate autofocus, reinforced by the Nikon Scene Recognition System, delivers razor sharpness in a wide variety of conditions.
• One-button Live View: Easy to use Live View activates access to 3 contrast detection focus modes including Face Priority AF.
• Nikon 3D Color Matrix Metering II with Scene Recognition System: Nikon’s renowned 420-pixel RGB 3D Color Matrix Metering II, teamed with the exclusive Scene Recognition System, evaluates images, referencing an on-board database of over 30,000 photographic scenes, for unmatched exposure accuracy.
• Comprehensive exposure control: Five advanced scene modes plus Program Auto, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority and Manual.
• Auto Active D-Lighting: Selectable and Automatic, Active D-Lighting optimizes details within shadows and highlights, taming high-contrast situations in real time.
• Durable, high precision shutter: Testing to over 100,000 cycles assures shutter life and accuracy.
• In-Camera Image Editing: Creative freedom stems from exclusive in-camera image editing, featuring Fisheye effect, Straighten and Distortion Control as well as D-Lighting, Red-eye Reduction, Image Overlay, Monochrome and more.
• GPS geo-tagging: GP-1 GPS unit (optional) provides automatic real-time geo-tagging.

[via Gizmodo]

Tags: DSLR, nikon D90, camera, digital camera, nikon dslr

Mike Slobot one of readers has sent in pictures of his self sculpt and paint robots called the “slobots”. They looks great with those robotic design. Check out more pictures after the break.

Thanks Mike

Tags: robot, sculpture, slobot,

Microsoft is going to release a new mouse on September 9th with there new technology to replace the laser mouse, known as the “Blue Track” technology. The tech will use blue LED in combination with a wide-angle lens. It means that the mouse will have better tracking that will work on more surfaces than laser or optical based mice. Hmm… Remember I posted the Fedex mouse the other day? It is with blue LED too. Thanks Louis!

[via guru3D]

Tags: technology, mouse, blue led mouse, laser mouse, blue track

Samsung has announced their credit card sized portable hard drive in China. Its minimum of 20GB should be enough for you to exchange porn with your friends. It is connected via USB and this Samsung Black Edition Q Series is available only at US$45 after conversion from RMB. The highest goes to 120GB which priced almost $300. This 6mm thick HDD is only available in Asia at the moment. You should get one if you got a MacBook Air. More pictures after the break.

iT168 has a gallery of it.

[via TechFresh]

Tags: HDD, hard drive, samsung HDD

The Holy Grail of incoming links for many bloggers is an appearance on the front page of Digg. It has the potential to send tens of thousands of visitors and bring about a lot of secondary links from other sites who see it.

However the downside of a site the power of Digg linking to one of your articles is that it is an authoritative site in the eyes of Google.

Yesterday one of my posts - 15 Stunning Lightning Images - got to the front page of Digg. It was actually an old post that I’d recently updated and moved back onto the front page and it already had done pretty well on social media sites so had some link equity already.

The front page appearance on Digg brought a fresh influx of visitors which was fantastic but here’s what I saw in Google’s search results when I searched for Lightning Images this morning:

Yep - Digg out ranks the post it links to.

I fully expect this to change at some point as Google’s rankings are in constant states of change and even the link to my post above will give it a little extra authority but it is an issue that many bloggers face and should be aware of when submitting their posts to social media sites, or other sites and forums with established authority on Google. update: the DPS article now outranks the Digg one.

I’ve seen this same thing happen again and again on Digg but also when a site gets linked to like a site like Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Engadget etc who link back to the source of their story but use a similar title for their post to the post they’re linking to.

I don’t think this is the problem of the sites linking to posts - it’s probably more an issue for Google to work on - but post this as a little warning for bloggers active in promoting their blog posts on other sites.

TIP: One quick tip for those of you who suffer from this problem. If you have any control for how your posts are submitted to Digg, try to get the title to be something different to the title of your blog post. For example, if the title of the Digg submission above had been ‘Lightning Pictures’ or something completely different like ‘Flash, Bang - 15 Images of Storms that Will Rock Your World’ then it wouldn’t rank as high for ‘lightning images’ as my own post.

Of course not everyone has control over how their posts are linked to - but if you do, it’s worth keeping in mind.

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