Convert Firefox into a text-only browser

By Dennis O'Reilly

Last week I described how to use a simple Javascript to determine the age of a Web page. The only problem: if the page has any dynamic elements that update automatically when the page loads (and these days most Web pages do), the script shows the current time and date.

For pages without auto-update content, type javascript:alert(document.lastModified) into the address bar and press Enter to see a window pop-up with the date and time of the page's last update. I'm still looking for a way to find out how recently specific content on a Web page was updated.

As I was looking for such a method, I stumbled upon a great Firefox add-in from Chris Pedericks called the Web Developer Toolbar (download). As the name implies, the free toolbar is intended to help Web designers test their pages, but it can also be used to show only the text of Web pages, which often makes them easier to read--and to print out.

After you download the toolbar, click Options and check Persist Features. Next, click CSS*Disable Styles*All Styles. Now click Images*Disable Image*All Images. Lastly, click Disable*Disable JavaScript*All JavaScript. You'll see only the page's text, and perhaps a couple of broken-image place markers. Be warned, however, that the results are rarely pretty.

In addition to making the pages easier to print, the text-only versions are also much easier to scan for specific information. (Note that you can retain much of the page's original formatting--minus images--by keeping CSS enabled.)

Tomorrow: Put Microsoft Word's styles to good use.

Google's privacy faux pas with Reader

By Elinor Mills

In its attempts to add social elements to products, is Google pulling a Facebook?

Google Reader has allowed people to share items they are interested in with others since 2006 with hyperlinks, clips on blogs and storing them on a public page that you had to know the URL for to see.

Last week, Google tweaked Google Reader so that your shared items are automatically made available to your Google Talk contacts.

But, as anyone who uses instant messaging knows, not all of your IM contacts are friends. Many are acquaintances or people you barely know and with whom you may not want to share a reading list.

Recently, Facebook was forced to modify its new Beacon ad targeting service that notifies friends in your network when you buy things on sites of Facebook partners. Facebook made that an opt-in feature, however, after consumer groups and Facebook members complained the service violated people's privacy.

Google, too, has been crucified in the blogosphere over its Google Reader change, with bloggers saying the Google Talk contact sharing feature should be opt in, not opt out.

To calm the masses, Google posted an item on the Google Reader Blog that explains the company's reasoning behind the change and tells how to clear the shared-items list and how to tag items to share with a limited number of people.

"We'd hoped that making it easier to share with the people you chat with often would be useful and interesting, but we underestimated the number of users who were using the Share button to send stories to a limited number of people," the blog says.

Danny Sullivan, editor of the Search Engine Land blog, writes: "Frankly, a better solution would be to dump the friends sharing feature until it comes back in a new form, where you specifically and deliberately create a list of contacts that you do want to share material with."

How to find a Wii

by Daniel Terdiman

After spending hours driving more than 60 miles Tuesday in search of a Wii, I am pretty much convinced that there are next to none available in retail stores anywhere, nor are any stores likely to be getting more before Christmas.

You never know, of course. A call I made to a Nintendo representative revealed that it's not entirely clear if retailers will be getting more before the holiday. But time and again, salespeople told me that they didn't expect to get any more after receiving shipments last Sunday that quickly sold out.

So what's a Wii hunter to do?

As a Toys "R" Us salesman told me during my stop at one of their stores, one method would be to "Call everywhere in the world, every single day of your life if you really want one."

But if that doesn't work, here's what else you can try.

First, GameStop retailers are having a promotion on Friday in which they will accept paid preorders and will guarantee delivery of a Wii sometime in January.

But this program has gotten enough attention that I was told by one GameStop clerk that you'll probably have to line up to preorder.

You could also try buying one online. eBay, for example, seems to have many of the consoles for sale, though I would tend to doubt at this point that you could get delivery prior to Christmas. But you never know. It's certainly worth checking out the possibilities.

This is what Nintendo recommends:

"Get to know your store managers. Ask them when their shipments come in, so you can be on hand the day they show up."

"Call around. You can increase your odds by checking in with more than one store."

"Try smaller stores in out-of-the-way places. Many different kinds of stores sell video game products, so don't go to the same megamall that everyone else is going to."

"There's no one surefire way to find a Wii. But by teaming up and getting creative with your approach, you're bound to have more success than the people who just go to their local mall and do nothing else."

"If you see one, be sure to grab it!"

This is surely fine advice, and if you follow those suggestions, you'll probably find a Wii eventually, though it may still take you some time. Certainly, try to temper your kids' expectations that there will be a Wii under the tree on Christmas morning, because if you don't have one already, odds are you're not going to find one.

For its part, Nintendo is certainly aware that the shortages of the console are causing consternation among consumers, but it is taking the position that it's doing what it can to address the issue.

"If it were possible to snap our fingers and manufacture millions more, we would do it," Nintendo said in a statement it delivered to me Tuesday. "We're continually putting more and more Wiis into the pipeline, but they all sell through almost instantly. Production has already been boosted more than once, and we are actively increasing the number of systems provided to retailers around the world."

That's all fine and good, but it certainly doesn't put a Wii under your tree. And from my experience, it doesn't look as if much will. The best bet at this point is to accept that you're going to have to wait.

My advice? Keep your tree up, and when you finally find a Wii, wrap it up, put it under the tree, and pretend Christmas has been extended into January. What kid wouldn't love that idea?

Firefox 3 beta 2 is out and about

Mozilla fans can now download Firefox 3 beta 2 for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.

The new version sports a wide range of improvements over the first test version of the browser upgrade, most notably plugs for memory leaks, security fixes, and a download manager that includes improvements previously available only through plug-ins.


The security enhancements get fairly technical, but the Firefox developer's Web page states that the new version offers "protection from cross-site JSON data leaks, tighter restrictions on site-specific content using effective TLD service, better presentation of Web site identity and security, malware protection, stricter SSL error pages, antivirus integration in the download manager, (and) version checking for insecure plug-ins."

The updates to the download manager are pretty good, and they're far easier to parse. The new manager lets you resume stopped downloads, and it has the aforementioned built-in virus checker.

You can also zoom in on parts of a Web page, and the integration between bookmarks, the location bar, and bookmark folders has become tighter. There's now one-click bookmarking, smart folders for bookmarks, and the location bar checks against your bookmarks and history for page titles and URLs.

The Firefox developers also claim that Web site rendering is now faster than it was in FF3 beta 1, but empirically, I couldn't detect any difference. Either way, it's definitely faster than it is in FF2.

If you're a bit nervous about accidentally damaging your current installation of Firefox 2, but you'd like to try out the Firefox 3 beta, I recommend installing the portable version. It doesn't affect your old settings, though you can't run both Firefox 2 and Firefox 3 beta portable simultaneously.

Yahoo Maps gets drag-and-drop rerouting, enhanced business listings

By Josh Lowensohn

Yahoo's mapping service has been tweaked today to include a rerouting feature similar to the one Google's had since June. The new addition lets you pick up and drag your directions at any point to get the service to reroute according to the guidelines you give it. Once you've made changes, the service will pop up with a small comparison to show you how many miles have been added (or taken away) and how the change affects the time on your original commute recommendation.


Rerouting is a handy feature, and if you've given Google's implementation a try, you'll know how nice it can be to not have to create two or more separate sets of directions to help get you from point A to point B when including shortcuts or side trips. I have to give a slight nod to Google's version, however, as it shows you street name, mileage, and time estimates while you're in the middle of dragging the marker around.

In addition to directions, Yahoo has also made some slight improvements to the business listings that show up on the map, which now include photos and user ratings that have been pulled in via Yahoo Local. You get to see only one photo and review before having to jump off to the attached Yahoo Local page. The process isn't nearly as seamless as Google Maps, which allows users to read several while remaining on the page, but it makes the service feel like more of a directory.

Yahoo Maps has rolled out some pretty cool features this year, including a send-to-car option, an all new look, travel maps, and tighter integration with Flickr.

DNA dating site predicts chemical romance

By Elsa Wenzel

The first dating service to use lab-based genetic profiling launched online last week. Scientific Match promises to pair up people who will be physically attracted to each other because their DNA is different.

Well-matched couples will like each others' natural scents, have more fun in bed, and bear healthier children than those who are genetically similar, the company claims.

The service, available only in the Boston area, charges $1,995 for a year-long subscription.

"I strongly believe this will dominate the future of dating services," said founder Eric Holzle, a mechanical engineer.

Members swab their cheeks and send in saliva samples. A lab spends two weeks analyzing the immune system genes, and then the company matches individuals with genetic profiles that are unalike.

"We look at six specific genetic reference points on DNA, and none of those six can match to make a match," Holzle explained.

He was inspired by a well-known "sweaty T-shirt" study of a dozen years ago, in which biologists found that women liked the smell of dirty shirts worn by men who were immunologically dissimilar to themselves.

As with other online dating sites, Scientific Match's users can fill out written profiles and upload photographs. Genetic details are not displayed, except to indicate a match. The service runs criminal background checks to exclude anyone who has committed crimes involving violence or identity theft.

Scientific Match is open to straight and gay people. However, women taking the birth control pill are turned away because some studies show they are more attracted to men with similar immune system genes.

The success or failure of the service can't be measured, however, with only a handful of customers so far. Although Holzle doesn't guarantee finding one's true love, he insists that people paired by Scientific Match will at least smell appealing to each other.

The romantic role played by scent is well-documented in poetry and science. Perfumers even add synthetic versions of pheromones, suspected aphrodisiacs found naturally in the body, to fragrances that include Paris Hilton's eponymous perfume.

But the ability to bottle attraction or to predict it through genetic profiling remains unproven by science.

Scientific Match sounds more like pseudoscience to Dean Hamer, the molecular biologist and author credited with discovering "gay genes."

"That sounds like a complete and utter rip-off that preys on people's lack of knowledge of causation and correlation," he said, adding that people could wrongly write off a potentially great mate due to genetic discrimination. "Why don't they just smell their underarms?"

Nevertheless, entrepreneurs are sure to try to capitalize on advances in genomics and biotechnology to reshape the landscape of high-tech matchmaking. The field is wide open. For instance, nobody has tried to set up couples based upon genes that have been linked to promiscuity or libido strength.

And Googling a date's full genetic code could be on the distant horizon. The cost of sequencing someone's DNA has dropped to the low six figures.

The latest online services to incorporate genetic testing include startup 23andMe, Ancestry.com, and the Genographic Project, which sell swab-and-send testing kits for uncovering the deep roots of a family tree.

Opera Mini browser getting ready for Verizon--sort of

Jessica Dolcourt

Verizon users with high-end phones may soon have another choice for surfing the Web--Opera Mini 4 (on CNET Download.com). Opera Software announced on Thursday compatibility with Qualcomm's BREW platform, on which Verizon and many other carriers worldwide run.

Although Opera Software has ported code for its mobile browser to the BREW platform, you won't be downloading the app tomorrow. It will remain unavailable until BREW carriers certify or license the browser, and decide if it will be made available through the Opera Mini Web site or through the carrier's interface. The only exception? Verizon BlackBerrys, which are compatible with Opera Mini now, though they lack a minor functionality.

Since Qualcomm approved developers and requires a digital signature for each product, the implementation process differs for the BREW and Java environments.

Visit the Opera Mini Web site for a list of compatible phones, and watch this First Look video to see how the Opera Mini 4 mobile browser works.

YouMail manages mobile voice mail like e-mail

Jessica Dolcourt
I'll come right out and say it. The biggest problem with my first experience with YouMail may have been my own human error, or bad timing. The biggest problem with my second experience is a controversial capability I tackle later on in the review--so keep reading!

In my original review of the voice mail system that lets you manage voice messages online, I said YouMail had a lot of potential, but wasn't delivering on its promise of catching my voice mail messages. It could be that I skipped a beat, and missed punching the crucial star (*) key when entering YouMail's phone number into the Motorola Razr V3 handset I tested with. Or, offers YouMail's PR representative Derek Brookmeyer, I may have actually done this as the signal cut out, in which case YouMail would not have completed my voice mail forwarding, and Verizon would not have warned me the action was unsuccessful.

So now, the complete review:

YouMail's concept fits snugly into the intersection of two meta trends--personalized greetings (such as Vringo) and online mobile management (such as Dashwire). However, since you program YouMail to take over native voice mail duties, it involves a lengthier time investment up front.

YouMail users receive notification of new voice messages from both text and e-mail (you can disable that if e-mails start building up.) Checking voice mail on your mobile phone reroutes you to YouMail's service, which plays your message, and which gives you options to reply, save, delete, or skip messages, or change your individualized greeting for the caller.

Clicking the e-mail notification opens a new YouMail.com window and plays the voice message. On YouMail.com, voice messages are indeed handled like e-mail, with the regular functions to save, trash, flag, and sort messages. Replying to a message sends the caller either a text or an e-mail wrapped in YouMail's branding, your choice. Users are also able to record customized greetings for select callers, a really unique surprise for a buddy. Or a nasty one, depending on the message you leave. I'm imaging high school break-ups via YouMail: "If you're wondering why I'm not picking up the phone, it's because we're over!"
In addition to YouMail getting interactive with a hands-on approach to voice mail management, it also goes Web 2.0. with a few publishing tools. This is, perhaps, a little too chic for comfort. Users who enable message sharing can choose to broadcast voice mails they receive by e-mailing the message, linking to it, embedding the WAV or MP3 file onto a Web page, or publishing it to Digg, Del.icio.us, Furl, or Spurl with a single click.

While YouMail's privacy statement promises to shield your e-mail address and phone number, it says nothing about walling off your voice content. In fact, YouMail stands behind sharing, explaining to me in a PR conversation that there's little difference between YouMail's message broadcasting capabilities and the tape recording taken of Alec Baldwin's incriminating voice message left on his daughter's cell phone. If I had let that PR call go through to voice mail, I could have embedded it here.

The comparison doesn't inspire much confidence, and it's YouMail's biggest flaw. As much as I'd love receiving a sweet or funny voice note directed to me when I call a friend, I cringe at the thought that any message I leave them could be so swiftly distributed. Of course, with a few tools, anyone is capable of digitizing a voice message that anybody else leaves, but the fact that callers have no choice in the really simple publication of their voice message could, at the very least fuel some individual embarrassment, and at the most, fuel an ugly debate about digital voice rights. For now, as with e-mail messages, letters, and other forms of private communication-gone-public, it comes down to a users' judiciousness and sensitivity.

Apart from that, YouMail's free voice mail management is a well-integrated solution for making more out of mobile messages. Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile subscribers can most easily try YouMail for themselves by following directions online. Have your phone ready. Sprint subscribers have to ask a customer service representative to implement the voice mail forwarding to YouMail's central number. Do this only if you have minutes to spare.

How do you like YouMail? Tell us your take on the service in the comments below.

Be careful when shopping for a replacement laptop battery

The batteries in laptop computers are expensive (a quick review of prices at Lenovo.com shows they range from $119 to $179) and like any battery, they have a limited lifespan. When it comes time to replace the battery inside your laptop computer, you may be tempted to save a few bucks and buy a replacement from a company other than the one that made the computer.

Don't.

In a widely reported story, someone in Ohio purchased a battery for their ThinkPad laptop from a company called Shentech rather than directly from Lenovo or IBM (in 2005 IBM sold the Thinkpad line of laptops to Lenovo). No doubt they paid less than IBM or Lenovo would have charged. When I checked today, a battery for a T40 ThinkPad that Lenovo sells for $119 is only $65 at Shentech. Was it a bargain? Not at all, the battery caught on fire.

The story made news not because of the fire but because the battery, bearing an IBM logo was a fake (allegedly). After examining the faulty battery, IBM purchased additional batteries from Shentech and they too were (allegedly) fakes. Needless to say, IBM is suing Shentech (that they list a Post Office box and no phone number on the Contact Us page of their website doesn't inspire confidence).

Unfortunately, the laptop battery igniting in flames was not, in and of itself, newsworthy. After all, last year there were a slew of battery recalls. The big story was Dell recalling 4.2 million batteries made by Sony, but overall approximately 10 million Sony batteries used in machines from Apple, Sony, Lenovo/IBM, Panasonic, Toshiba, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Sharp and Dell were recalled. In May of 2005 Apple recalled iBooks and PowerBooks with batteries made by LG Chem Ltd., of South Korea. Lenovo/IBM has also recalled Sanyo batteries. It must be hard to make a safe Lithium-ion battery.

The lesson here is to only buy replacement batteries from the company that made the computer. Off-brand batteries are more likely to scrimp on safety features.

And, should there be a recall of the battery in your laptop, make it easy for the manufacturer to contact you - register your computer purchase.

Your BatteryIf you are curious about the battery in a laptop computer running Windows XP, go to the Control Panel, open the Power Options, click on the Power Meter tab and, finally, click on the battery icon. In the screen shot above, you can see the battery was made by Sanyo.

ThinkPad owners should have a ThinkPad configuration program installed (available from Start -> Programs -> ThinkVantage, at least in Windows XP, I'm not sure about Vista) that shows additional information about the battery. As you can see above, this includes the manufacture date and the first-used date.
The Status Detail tab (see above) also shows, among other data, the current temperature of the battery which might bear watching every now and then.

If you know of other software that shows important information about the battery in a laptop computer, please leave a comment below.

Microsoft releases final version of HD Photo plug-in for Photoshop

Microsoft has taken the beta tag off a plug-in to let Photoshop read and write files in the HD Photo format, which Microsoft is standardizing as JPEG XR.

The free plug-in is available for download for Windows and Mac OS X systems. The plug-ins work on Windows XP and Vista, Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5, and Photoshop CS2 or CS3, Bill Crow, who's overseen the HD Photo and JPEG XR effort, wrote on his blog Thursday.Microsoft hopes HD Photo eventually will replace the ubiquitous JPEG standard overseen by the Joint Photographic Experts Group. Among the HD Photo advantages that Microsoft touts: it offers more efficient compression, richer color and a much wider dynamic range; it can optionally store images without data loss from compression; it's free of royalty and licensing constraints; and it can run in camera hardware. Support for the file format, initially called Windows Media Photo, is built into Windows Vista.

HD Photo also can be used to show images online at different resolutions, transmitting only the portion of the image that's shown on the screen. That's useful for zooming in to a high-resolution photo without having to download a vast image, a technology Microsoft uses in its HD View software for viewing detailed images online. One organization using HD View is Xrez.

However, Microsoft faces significant challenges in encouraging adoption of the technology. Building it into Vista is a big step, and an endorsement from Photoshop publisher Adobe Systems helps, but JPEG is deeply entrenched. Standardization through JPEG could encourage industry players to adopt the standard--in particular those who are leery of Microsoft's power.

But there are plenty of standards that never catch on. What could really tip the balance in favor of HD Photo/JPEG XR is if it gets built into cameras directly so photographers can start using it from the outset.

The final version of the plug-in, developed in part by Pegasus Imaging Systems, looks mostly like recent betas, Crow said.

"All the changes we've made since the last beta are under the covers, fixing a couple minor bugs, addressing several theoretical security vulnerabilities and generally bringing the code up to current Microsoft standards for released software," he said. "Don't forget that the beta versions will expire on December 31st, so you should definitely download and install these new released versions."

Firefox churns to version 2.0.0.11

By Stephen Shankland

Mozilla on Friday released the third update to Firefox this month, version 2.0.0.11, to fix a stability problem in the previous version.

"We strongly recommend that all Firefox users upgrade to this latest release," a post on the Firefox developer blog said.

The open-source Web browser update arrived swiftly after version 2.0.0.8, released October 18, version 2.0.0.9 from November 1, and version 2.0.0.10 from November 26. Which explains why I'm getting a lot of software update messages from my Web browser.

Version 2.0.0.10 broke a feature that lets images be displayed with special effects such as rotated pictures and image reflections, according to Mozilla's bug-tracking site. The problem was fixed within a day and distributed within five, but not before some whose sites were affected by the bug had voiced frustration.

"Customers are complaining because their Firefox automatically updated to 2.0.0.10 and now they can no longer order photo prints in our shop. I think this is a very serious problem and I hope it will be fixed immediately in a 2.0.0.11 update," a post by Klaus Reimer said.

In an indirect response, Firefox coder Nick Thomas pointed to mailing lists that people can use to test their sites with imminent new Firefox versions. Thomas also said that the five-day turnaround is "the fastest turnaround between Firefox releases to date."

As long as the Mozilla coders are stamping out bugs, one that's annoyed me has become more prominent of late because it shows up when I install a Firefox update.

When I restore my Firefox browser sessions upon rebooting my computer, it's impossible to get rid of the "You've been updated to the latest version of Firefox" page. Even if I close that tab, it comes back later, so I have to start with a clean browsing slate to make it go away. It's not a stability or security problem, but it's not a credit to what is a notably influential project.

Mozilla released the first beta version of Firefox 3, called Gran Paradiso, less than two weeks ago. The second Firefox 3 beta should be done in "late December" if all goes well, according to another Mozilla developer blog post Friday.

Transferring big files with DropSend and TransferBigFiles

By Michael Horowitz

If you need to send files to someone and they are too large to email, there are untold numbers of web sites offering this service, both for free and commercially. However, if you need to transfer very big files, your choices are more limited. When I recently needed to transfer some files of 650MB to a client, I tried a handful of these services. Previously I wrote about free services from SendThisFile and EatLime. Here I relate my experiences with the free services from DropSend and TransferBigFiles.


All these services operate by letting you upload files to their servers, notifying the recipient that the files are ready to be downloaded and providing a link that points to the file(s). Some of the services have optional software, but installing software scares me, so I used nothing but a web browser (except in one instance).

DropSend

DropSend offers to send files up to 1 gigabyte for free (the same limit applies to their paid accounts). They allow only five file transfers per month, but also include 250MB of permanent online storage. The limit of five transfers does not apply to uploads to the permanent storage.

Registration is required, they ask for your name, email address and require you to chose a password.

The status display while transfers are in-flight is pretty complete, you see an estimate for the remaining time in minutes, the upload speed and the upload progress both in percent and total megabytes.

A constant annoyance with bandwidth speeds, nothing specific to DropSend, is that they are reported as "bps" and sometimes the "b" stands for bits and sometimes bytes. I emailed DropSend asking if the speed they display is bits/second or bytes/second. I never received a reply.

I didn't like the fact that DropSend opens a new browser window to display the upload status, it crowds the tasksbar. The new window opened despite the fact that Firefox was configured to open new windows in a new tab.

After an upload completes, DropSend tells you the number of megabytes transferred and how long the transfer took. No other service I tried did this.
TransferBigFiles

TransferBigfiles is, according to their website, an "experimental project". The word "BETA" appears in read at the top of each web page. In politics, they call this lowering expectations.

The maximum supported file size is either 1 or 2 gigabytes. In describing their optional software it says "Upload up to 1gb per file". However, in their FAQ it says "TransferBigFiles does not limit the amount of space your account can use on our servers, the only storage limit we have is that your files may not be larger then two (2) gigabytes." Apparently "beta" applies to the documentation too.

A great thing about TransferBigFiles is that neither the sender nor the recipient needs to register. To use the service, as shown above, all you need to do is select a file on your computer and provide an email address for the recipient. It couldn't be any simpler.

While a file is being uploaded, you see the upload speed, an estimate of the time remaining and an estimate of the overall time. For a 650MB file, the initial estimate was 3.14 hours. The first time I tried it however, the upload failed with a Timeout error.

The next day, I tried again to upload a 650MB file and after a while a window popped up with a Timeout error. However, after clicking OK, the upload kept on chugging along. Soon there was another Timeout error and again after disposing of the error window, the upload continued. In all there were a handful of Timeout errors, but the upload completed nonetheless.
The information provided afterwards was disappointing, there were no stats of any type, just a message that the upload worked.

On November 24th, I tried to upload another 650MB file using Firefox and it failed with "The connection was reset - The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading."

About 45 minutes later I tried again using Internet Explorer. This time the upload never even started, after clicking on the start upload button, IE hung and eventually gave up saying it couldn't find the server. I waited about 3 hours, tried yet again and this time too the upload never started.

Thinking maybe they were just having a bad day, I tried again on November 25th. Still, the upload never even started. Instead, Internet Explorer reported that "The page cannot be displayed - Cannot find server or DNS Error".

At this point, I installed their free DropZone client software in a Windows XP SP2 virtual machine. Or rather, I tried to install the software, the install failed with a message that "The application failed to initialize properly".

Not being able to take a hint, I instead researched the software requirements for DropZone. Turns out it needs the .NET framework, an optional component of Windows XP. Specifically, it needs version 2 of the .NET framework, which also comes in versions 1 and 1.1. XP users can check if they have it installed using the "Add or Remove programs" applet in the Control Panel (look for "Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0"). Installing the .NET framework fixed the problem and I was able to install and run DropZone version version 1.1.7.23433.

The website doesn't say it, but to use the DropZone software you have to register for a trial account and provide a valid email address.

I started small with DropZone, transferring an 11K file. Or trying to, this transfer also never started. After waiting a while, I clicked on the Retry button but Windows complained the application was not responding. Task Manager showed it was using 99% of the cpu. I killed it an re-booted.

Next, I tried DropZone with a 1.4MB file. Yet again, the transfer never started. I let it sit for about 30 minutes but still nothing. As before, I right clicked on the file name and click on Retry. Again cpu usage spiked to 100% but the transfer still didn't start.

On November 28th I tried again transferring using the web interface. This time, I was in a different location and using Windows 2000 instead of XP. Despite these changes, the upload again wouldn't start. The error this time was unknown.
Persistence eventually paid off though, shortly thereafter I was able to upload a couple small files. But this turned out to be a waste of time as I sent the file to myself and I never got the notification email informing me that a file was ready to download. After a few hours, I uploaded another file to a different email address of mine. This time the upload failed with the unknown error.

Just for good luck, I tried again late on December 2nd. Again, the upload failed with the unknown error.

Final Thoughts

Despite not being able to transfer a 650MB file, EatLime was, in some ways, the most appealing. There is no registration and thus no password to remember, and, they never learn any email addresses. I was able to send small files with it a number of times. I persisted with TransferBigFiles because it has the simplest user interface, but the many failures speak for themselves. SendThisFile was slow, but reliable (see first posting).

It should go without saying, but never send anything you consider sensitive with any of these services, unless the file is encrypted before it leaves your computer.

Finally, there is another approach altogether, one that cuts out the middle man. You can install software that directly connects two computers over the Internet and lets them transfer files to each other. This approach shouldn't have any inherent limit on file sizes. I didn't try this because the sender and recipient both have to be online at the same time.

Digg images going live later tonight, News Corp. buyout next? [PICS]

By Josh Lowensohn

Digg's long-awaited images section will go live later tonight. Similar to the way Facebook's sharing tool works, users submitting stories to Digg will have the option to pick and choose from thumbnails that have been crawled from whatever URL was supplied. There's no need to upload anything, or hotlink to an image--it'll simply be made available. To help users sort through it, Digg has also reconfigured Digg's category system, letting users submit all three types of media (news, images, and video) into any category. This aims to get rid of the previous system of users figuring out their own ways to get through Digg's limited categorization methods, by inserting "[PIC]" or "[VIDEO]" into submitted titles.

To help make use of the new visual draw, Digg's also launching a new way to browse through images using a "mosaic" view. It looks a little bit like Johnathan Harris' 10x10 project by organizing upcoming and popular stories in a cloud of thumbnails (which you can see in the screenshot at the bottom of the post). The company is also attempting to curb duplicate submissions using image recognition from Toronto-based Idee Inc, which is already listing Digg on its featured clients page.

One of the more interesting tidbits from the launch of Digg images is the partnership with Photobucket. The photo service is supplying integration with member images, giving users a new submission button that will jump them straight to a tailored Digg images submission page, as well as giving Photobucket users a whole new channel of photos that have been submitted to Digg. If you've been keeping track of any of the Digg buyout rumors, you should know that Digg's recently gotten deep integration with the News Corp.-owned Wall Street Journal to let WSJ readers submit stories to Digg, while allowing Digg users to read the premium content free of charge. Photobucket also happens to be owned by News Corp. While News Corp. owns two of those pieces (WSJ and Photobucket), why not go for all three?

Adobe slashes price for Flash Media Server

By Martin LaMonica

Adobe Systems on Tuesday is expected to announce that it will dramatically cut the price of its server software for streaming video over the Web.

Flash Media Server 3, which is set for release in January, will now come in two versions. Flash Media Streaming Server will cost $995, and Flash Media Interactive Server will cost $4,500.

With the current version, Adobe sells its Media Server for between $4,500 and $45,000.

The company is lowering prices in response to customer requests, said Kevin Towes, product manager for Adobe Media Server. "What we've been hearing is that the cost of streaming video over progressive download is the barrier," he said.

The new server is also designed to cut the cost of deploying streaming video with the ability to better utilize a server's network card, he said. A typical media server with a 1-gigabit network card could serve about 2,000 people.

Also on Tuesday, Adobe is scheduled to release a version of its Flash Player that supports the high-definition video standard H.264.

Although Flash is widely used on the Internet for streaming video, it is facing growing competition from Microsoft and its Silverlight plug-in, which is going after the same digital media market.

Hands-on: Two free video-to-iPhone converters

There's no shortage of video-to-iPhone converters on the market, but these two freeware contenders do a more-than-decent job of making individual files iPhone-ready. Don't expect much interface gloss or batch conversion with either. However, both apps quickly produce workable iPhone videos without much fuss.

Free Video to iPhone Converter tells it like it is. The rough 'n' ready app takes up minimal screen space and memory. Browsing for links and converting quickly is easy, since there aren't too many additional tabs or buttons where you can get lost. There is, however, a useful function for trimming videos before converting them.

Videora is a larger and busier, app by Red Kawa. On the plus side, Videora lets you format videos for iPhones and three flavors of iPods, including the iPod Touch. You can also browse for and convert YouTube videos online. Videora's multiple tabs and settings let you control advanced encoding and conversion details; it can also pop the finished product straight into iTunes (download,) which can in turn autosync to your iPhone.

Step-by-step prompting (which you can step down or turn off) is useful for walking you through the process, but the double-pane interface adds confusion and superfluous steps for an essentially simple program. The end product was just as good as Free Video to iPhone Converter, but took far more clicks and doesn't have the added advantage of trimming a clip. Dragging a file to the iTunes library is hardly a hardship, though Videora's autoload feature is still a convenient perk.

I currently prefer Free Video to iPhone Converter myself, though Videora will appeal to those further up the power user scale.

Gmail integrates AIM, adds colored labels

By Seth Rosenblatt

Gmail and Google Talk users can now chat with their AOL Instant Messenger buddies through the Gmail interface, Google announced today. Rolling out to all English-based users by the end of the day, the new feature will let you seamlessly jump from chatting with a Google contact to an AIM buddy without having to use two separate chat clients.


The AIM integration feels native to Gmail. The AIM log-in panel is behind the "Set status here" upside-down triangle under the Contacts list. Click there, and if the feature rollout has hit your account, you'll see a "Sign into AIM" option on the drop-down menu with AIM's yellow running man icon next to it.

A new window opens when you choose to sign in, so be sure that you don't have a pop-up blocker enabled for Gmail.com. Enter in your AIM username and password, or hit the link at the bottom of the window to create a new AOL account, and you're good to go. AOL buddies will appear in the Contacts list, mixed in with Google Chat contacts. The running man icon for AIM contacts appears on the right side of the chat list.

Click on the "Set status here" triangle again, and you'll notice the AIM login option has changed to a logout. Once you've logged out, your AIM contacts disappear, although the next time you log in you won't need to re-enter your password. To use a different AIM account, you need to go to the Chat tab under Settings.

This integration comes right on the heels of Google Chat rolling out group chats and more developed smileys last week. Individual chat and the ever-important smileys are there, but any other ancillary AIM features you might be interested in require the full AIM client.

Google was cagey about whether Gmail will feature other chat protocols such as ICQ in the future. Jason Freidenfelds, a spokesman for Google, said only that he couldn't comment on whether they were looking at including other chat programs.

Another new feature that Google added last night was colored tabs for labels. This feature, previously only available through plug-ins like Better Gmail, lets users assign colors to labels to make it easier to keep track of them. From the Labels panel, click on the square next to the label and a drop-down menu of colors will appear. Select a color and your e-mail list will refresh, with the label name on e-mails now in vibrant life-affirming hues.

Besides making it easier to see labeled e-mails, when you click on an e-mail that's been labeled you can now search for all e-mails with that label or remove the label from the e-mail directly from buttons next to the e-mail's subject line.

While colored labels aren't a killer feature, they're small touches that make the interface that much easier to use. Combined with the AIM integration and other recent changes, it's hard to understate the usefulness to users of the recently rewritten Gmail source code.