Category Archives: Internet News

9 Best Twitter Desktop Apps for Mac

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Hello Friends,

The popularity of Twitter has increased tremendously in past few years. As a result a lot of Twitter Desktop applications are available to the users for download these days. These applications allow you to receive and post Tweets from your desktop without visiting your Twitter.com page. To reduce your burden of finding the appropriate app for you from such a big pool of apps, we have compiled a list of Best Twitter Desktop apps available in the market. Earlier I had compiled a list of 20 Best Twitter Desktop Apps for Windows. Today I give you 9 Best Twitter Apps for Mac.

1. EventBox

This just-for-Mac app is a favorite of many because it supports Twitter, Facebook, Flickr integration, feed reading with Google Reader and internet trend watching with Reddit and Digg . Keyboard shortcuts, hotkeys, Instapaper integration, and photo uploads to Flickr and Facebook make EventBox pretty nifty. It’s also got a very slick interface with a navigation menu on the left-hand side.

2. Mac Lounge

This app is incredibly appealing for its dead simple, single column interface and respectable feature set. We, of course, love the multiple account support, but also appreciate saved searches, quick access to view followers and following, and tweet options to link to tweet, copy tweet, or copy tweet URL. There’s also an accompanying iPhone app, which syncs with the desktop version and greatly improves the app’s relevance.

3. Nambu

This really sophisticated Mac app should be more than enough for any and all of your Twitter needs. You’ve got access to your followers and friends, custom groups, search (integrated with FriendFeed and One Riot), trends, tr.im and pic.im integration, multiple accounts, Ping .fm integration, filters, and three view options for a one or many column view of tweets.

4. Sideline:

Sideline is just a search and trending topic app from Yahoo, but it does a darn good job at satisfying those specific needs. You can view current Twitter trends, select to see the three latest tweets or pop out as its own saved search, and create custom search groups as tabs.

5. Skimmer:


It’s hard not to love this app. Not only is it beautiful to look at it, but it also tracks your favorite social sites. Skimmer’s certainly not an application for the social media beginner, but power users of Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Blogger, and Twitter, will appreciate the aggregation of content, filtering options, view types, and enhanced content viewing experience.

6. Tweetie

A full-featured Twitter client which is available in free ad supported and ad-free versions.  This Desktop app lets you view not only the tweets but also the entire conversation history leading to that tweet. It provides you with an independent compose windows that stay out of your way until you need them. Tweetie for Mac also has search trends to let you find out the hottest trend in Twitter. Other features include threaded DMs, user details, torn off search, bookmarklet, and preferences.

7. Twibble Desktop

Twibble is a bit of a riddle. It’s not a bad app when it comes to feature set, but it’s also not the most intuitive. You can manage multiple accounts, but all tweets are merged together in one stream. You can reply, DM, fav, RT, and copy tweets, but you’ll have to hover over the tweet to even know those behaviors are possible. You can also use keyboard shortcuts, filter your tweets for keywords, or conduct searches that open up in new windows, but Twibble just doesn’t seem to flow as easily as we’d like it to.

8. Twitterific

Lets you both read and publish posts or “tweets”  using a clean and concise  user interface designed to take up a minimum of real estate on your Mac’s desktop. The app shows a scrolling list of  the latest tweets from your friends, or public feeds. Its features include multiple Twitter account support, auto refreshing, inline display of replies and DMs, shows no. of unread tweets, quickly delete tweets, auto show/hide new tweets, single click access to user pages and more.

9. TwitterPod:

This app isn’t known for its sophistication or advanced Twitter functionality. TwitterPod is a basic single column Twitter app with an inline browser and the ability to filter for just tweets with links. Its heyday has long since passed, but original fan boys and girls may still be using this for their twittering.

Tech Update for this Week #2

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Hi Friends,

After getting a good response from your side, I have decided to continue with this new section. So Enjoy this week’s Tech Update.

  • Ashampoo Gives Away $117 worth of Programs : Ashampoo is well known for making offers users can’t refuse. Also, the quality of the software it develops has become to impose the market standard on several occasions.
  • Skype Introduces 10-Way Video Calling : Skype — apparently pleased with its five-way beta group video-calling functionality — has just released a new version of Skype 5.0 for Windows that doubles group support. It now allows for up to 10 video callers.
  • Apple Launches New iPod Nano with FM Radio, Multi-Touch UI : Alongside the new iPod touch, Apple unveiled a completely redesigned iPod nano featuring a Multi-Touch interface, a combination of features typical to the existing shuffle and nano lines of Apple players, as well as built-in FM radio.
  • Samsung Unleashes iPad Competitor : The Galaxy Tab has a seven-inch display and weighs .84 pounds. And the new T-Mobile 7" Samsung tab comes with 16GB or 32GB of internal storage Relevant Products/Services and a 32GB microSD expansion slot. The iPad competitor also features a touchscreen, Wi-Fi, GPS, 802.11 and Bluetooth.

Tech Update for this Week #1

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Hi Friends,

This is the new section we are introducing at Hacking Truths. This section will keep you updated with the Hot Upcoming News of Tech industry in the past Week. I hope you like this section.

  • Mozilla Introduces Fennec Alpha For Android (2.0 Or Higher), Nokia N900 : Mozilla this morning introduced the Alpha release of the next version of its mobile browser Fennec for Android and Nokia N900.
  • iPod nano 6G Coming on September 1 – Rumor : A Chinese case vendor claims have gotten hold of fourth-generation iPod touch and sixth-generation iPod nano cases, posting images of the parts in question.
  • Gmail Bug Turned Some Users into Spammers : Tech This week, a Gmail bug caused duplicate messages to be sent from some user accounts. In certain cases, the same messages were sent over and over for several days, which, as you can imagine, must have been extremely annoying.
  • Paul Allen sues Apple, Google over patents : Four patents held by a research organization the Microsoft co-founder ran are at the heart of lawsuits against 10 prominent companies, including Yahoo, eBay, and Staples.
  • Make Free Call to Phones from Gmail : Gmail voice and video chat makes it easy to stay in touch with friends and family using your computer’s microphone and speakers. But until now, this required both people to be at their computers, signed into Gmail at the same time. Given that most of us don’t spend all day in front of our computers, we thought, “wouldn’t it be nice if you could call people directly on their phones?”
  • Apple Releases Security update 2010-005 for OS X 10.5 and 10.6 : Apple has released a security update for OS X 10.6 and OS X 10.5 machines, which addresses a number of security holes for both the client and server versions of OS X. For both the client and server versions, the update fixes several problems that could lead to arbitrary code execution.
  • Watch Full Movies on YouTube for Free : YouTube has introduced new free movies service after successfully striking a deal with US-based Studios like Lionsgate, MGM and Sony Pictures as well as Blinkbox in the UK. A catalog of full length 400 movies that include both Hollywood and Bollywood flicks is available at http://www.youtube.com/movies.
  • Facebook Alternative Diaspora Launches September 15 : Diaspora, the much-hyped open source alternative to Facebook, will release its code to the world on September 15, but promises that its creators are just getting started.
  • Intel to buy McAfee for $7.68 billion : Intel plans to buy security company McAfee for $7.68 billion–the biggest acquisition in its 42-year history. The chipmaker said Thursday it has entered into a definitive agreement to buy all of McAfee’s common stock at $48 per share in cash.
  • Facebook Chat to Drop IE6 Support : If you are still using Internet Explorer 6.0, Facebook has a new incentive for you to move onward and upward: Facebook Chat.

Adobe fixes the Flash Bug with a Massive Update

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Adobe has released a Flash Player update that fixes a flurry of vulnerabilities including a critical zero-day flaw (CVE-2010-1297) that has been actively exploited in attacks since last week. In addition to the numerous security patches, the new Flash player 10.1.53.64 version brings major functionality and performance improvements.

A lot of eyes have been on Adobe since last week, when yet another remote code execution vulnerability affecting Flash Player, as well as Adobe Reader and Acrobat, was announced. Worse yet, the bug was discovered in the wild, meaning it posed an immediate threat to users.

Earlier this week, the company revealed plans to release a patch by June 10, a promise it met yesterday by shipping the first stable version of Flash Player 10.1. This release marks the end of the 10.0.x branch, as well as the end of support for PowerPC G3, 10.1.53.64 being the last version to work on this architecture.

The Security Bulletin accompanying the release names no less than 32 security issues that the new Adobe Flash Player 10.1.53.64 addresses. The vast majority of these vulnerabilities can facilitate arbitrary code execution and affect Adobe AIR as well – for which a new version (2.0.2.12610) was also released.

The Adobe Flash Player update is only available for Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems, with the Solaris version being still in the beta stage of development. A new version for the 9.0.x branch, namely 9.0.277.0, has also been released, to accommodate scenarios where upgrading to 10.1 will break functionality.

Flash Player 10.1 has been a long-awaited release, mainly because it introduces GPU hardware acceleration, a feature that takes the load off CPUs during HD SWF playback, finally allowing for such content to be properly watched on netbooks and other low-performance devices. The video-streaming experience has also been improved, the player automatically adapting the stream quality in real time according to network conditions.

The latest version of Adobe Flash Player 10.1.53.64 can be downloaded from here.

The older version of Adobe Flash Player 9.0.277.0 can be downloaded from here.

The latest version Adobe AIR 2.0.2.12610 for Windows can be downloaded from here.

Awesome + Resourceful Web Portals

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Check out the following Microsoft Web portals that caters to need of almost everyone. The Portal name is followed by a brief description.

1. Website Spark : It’s for small IT enterprises. Microsoft provides them the tools needed for Designing and development for FREE!. There is no upfront cost for first 3 years. Terms and conditions do apply, but they seem to be obvious For eg : You need to deploy a website before 6 months, renew your subscription after few months, etc. Above all, it is for all budding webmasters!

2. Biz Spark : To me, bizspark.com is extension of websitespark.com. Fundamentally it is for Tech startup’s that need support and visibility. This one is meant for all techno-preneurs!

3. Dream Spark : FREE software’s ( like Visual Studio professional! ) for students. If you need a key you can write to me at paras@parasdoshi.in.

4. Microsoft Student to Business : To bridge the gap between Industry requirements and Student’s knowledge. The website has list of Job and Internship openings of various tech firms. it’s for all those who dream to be corporate czars!. if you register on s2bprogram,com, my referral code is : paras.

Keep sharing!

New Flash Bug Exploited By Hackers : How to avoid it?

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New Flash Bug

A new attack on a Flash bug has surfaced that would give attackers control of a victim’s computer after crashing it, reports PC World. Adobe put out a Security Advisory about this on June 4. It is categorized as a critical issue and all operating systems with Flash are vulnerable including Windows, Linux, and Apple and it is also found in the recent versions of Reader and Acrobat.

Affected Versions

The affected versions are Adobe Flash Player 10.0.45.2, 9.0.262, and earlier 10.0.x and 9.0.x versions for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Solaris. Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.3.2 and earlier 9.x versions for Windows, Macintosh and UNIX. The versions that avoided being affected are Flash Player 10.1 release candidate, link available in the Adobe security advisory, and Acrobat/Reader version 8.x.

Current Situation

The attack isn’t widespread in the wild yet, Adobe has only received two reports of online attacks. Of course the attack is new and may just be starting to ramp up. Adobe will update the advisory when a schedule has been determined for creating a fix.

How to avoid it?

Until the fix is ready, Adobe has advised the Flash users that they should use the 10.1 release candidate to avoid attack where as Acrobat and Reader 9.x users can downgrade to version 8 or deleting, renaming, or removing access to the authplay.dll file that ships with Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.x mitigates the threat for those products, but users will experience a non-exploitable crash or error message when opening a PDF file that contains SWF content. The authplay.dll that ships with Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.x for Windows is typically located at C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 9.0\Reader\authplay.dll for Adobe Reader or C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 9.0\Acrobat\authplay.dll for Acrobat.

Why are you Scared of Linux?

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Note: Before you read this Article I want to tell you that I am a big Linux fan and Linux being an open source Operating System is doing a Great Job.

Most of the people I know think Linux is very difficult for a layman to understand. They fear that after installing Linux they will not be able to do the normal tasks they do with Windows and thus they prefer paying money to Microsoft instead of even trying Linux.

There are lot of reasons behind this. Few reasons that I could figure out are:

1. Lack of Advertising about Linux compared to Windows. I understand that Linux is an open source product while Windows is Commercial but still I feel that there is lot of scope for advertising.

2. Lack of Awareness among the Retailers of Computers who advise the buyers to go for Windows instead of Linux. Some times its not just lack of awareness but also to gain more commission on the part of the retailer.

3. A very odd but a legitimate reason is that most of the time when people hear about linux is when a Geek is bragging about what he did on Linux last night and that layman will think “Man I don’t think Linux is for Guys like me!!”.

4. Most of the schools (atleast in India) teach their students Windows instead of Linux and thus the children when they grow up feel that windows is easy and safe to go with.

5. One reason for the Windows users not switching to Linux from Windows is that they are used to the working environment of Windows and So they are scared how they are going to do those regular task with Linux. Moreover there are many discouraging people around you who will be telling you stories of people who had to format their PC after installing Linux.

6. I also feel that the method of bring new versions every 6 months of different Linux distributions has many loopholes. First of all when a new release comes you are scared whether it is stable or not and whether his current apps will be compatible or not. So you wait for 1-2 months till you hear good reviews about it and just when you were about to feel that you got the one you can happily live with you hear about a new release which is better than that. Another reasons specially for Indian Users is that every time a new release comes out the user has to download it from net which is very time consuming considering the low internet speed in India.

7. The Last but the most important reason I feel why people don’t go for Linux is that the developers of Linux try to target more towards the technical guys instead of a normal user who is never going to code in his life. Linux only tries to compete with Windows in terms of a Better Development platform but it lags far behind from Windows in other areas. Though you may feel this reason to be invalid but this is what I feel.

I know a lot of Linux lovers will get hurt after reading this post and will be very angry at me but this is what is the harsh reality about Linux which can be changed if proper steps are taken by Linux.

Can you guys think of any other reasons? If so, I’d love it if you shared.

Note: The above written text are the author’s own views and they are not written to hurt the feelings of anybody.

Code it the Google Way

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Google never seems to just be satisfied with the status quo, and when they run out of fields to compete in they create their own! Google’s new “Go” programming language is one of their newest ventures, a language which is an amalgamation of Python and C++.

The Go language, in development since September 2007, has been unveiled by Google along with the release of a free and open source compiler. In fact, Google has released both a stand-along compiler implementation with cryptic names such as 6g (amd64 compiler), 8g (x86 compiler), and 5g (ARM compiler) and one which is a front-end for GCC (gccgo).

Born out of frustration with existing system languages, Go attempts to bring something new to the table, and mix the ease of dynamically typed and interpreted languages with the efficiency of compiled languages.

So why make a new programming language?

Google believes that the current languages have run their course. The prominent languages in use today (C/C++, Java, C#) are all based around a similar syntax, and updating and adding new features in these language consists of piling on libraries, with little or no upgrade to the core of the language itself. What Google intends to do requires more than just the addition of a new library.

The landscape of computing has changed a lot since C, and as Google notes “Computers are enormously quicker but software development is not faster.” Languages have had to morph quite a bit to take on support concepts such as parallel processing, and garbage collection.

Quick Overview

Go, on the other hand has been designed by Google from the ground up as “a concurrent, garbage-collected language with fast compilation”.

In order to not alienate the majority of developers though, its syntax is quite similar to C, and would not take much time for a developer to catch on to.

Go has accomplished some impressive feats. The language is designed to compile fast and Go can compile a “large” program in a few seconds on a single computer. It is designed to simplify the creation of application which can better utilize today’s multi-core processors. The language supports concurrent execution andcommunication between concurrent processes natively, and is fully-garbage collected.

Goroutines are Google’s answer to threading in Go, and any function call which is preceded by the go statement runs in a different goroutine concurrently. A feature called channels allows for easy communication and synchronization between such routines.

Unlike other object oriented languages, Go has a much “simplified” type structure, which disallows sub-classing! Go offers a different flavour of object oriented programming using interfaces, which Google believes will simplify use.

By using interfaces, explicit type hierarchies need not be defined, instead, a type will satisfy all interfaces which are subsets of its methods. The relationships between types and interfaces need not be defined explicity! This can have some interesting implications as people can add interfaces to connect unrelated types even later in the development of an application.

Go seems inspired by Python as well. Python has been one of Google’s favoured languages and was the sole language supported on Google’s AppEngine when it launched. Like Python, Go supports “slices”, which allow you to refer to parts of arrays using a simple syntax. Thus for an array “a” with 100 elements, a[23,42] will result in an array with elements 23 through 42 of a. Go also tracks the length of arrays internally, further simplifying array usage. Additionally, Maps in Go allow you to create “arrays” with custom index types, and are a native feature of the language.

Conclusion

One consistent point in the features of Go is that it is better to have one excellent implementation of commonly used features such as garbage collection, strings, maps etc. rather than have them rethought and re-implemented in each program.

As nearly all Google products, Go is “beta” and not yet suitable for production use. By releasing it early Google hopes to garner a community around it and hopes that enough people will be interested in it to justify continued development.

This post was written by Paras. Visit his blog