FoxyTunes now supports Blogger
Mozilla and Google are already two good friends but using the power of the browser extensions, the two companies aim to bring more consumers to their solutions. In case you forgot, the search giant designed a browser toolbar, 100 percent Firefox compatible, which comes with one click access for many of the Google services. In addition, the toolbar brings a little bit more security to Firefox, blocking all the pop-ups discovered while you browse the Internet. Today, the Blogger team proudly announced that a Firefox extension becomes compatible with their blog service which is supposed to be the most popular one on the Internet.

FoxyTunes is an interesting browser add-on, especially designed for the Mozilla application that allows you to control your audio player straight from the Firefox interface. Basically, FoxyTunes adds a new bar in Firefox which comes with control buttons such as volume, play or stop a song. However, the FoxyTunes – Blogger interoperability is not about this music control bar. Using the Firefox extension, a user who posts a new article on a Blogger page can easily add a signature in the message with the current artist and song.

"Signatunes is built into the latest version of FoxyTunes for Firefox - it adds a small icon to your favorite webmail and blogging services. This allows you to add a music signature to your message with a click. There is also an 'auto-insert' mode, which allows you to automatically add a Signatune to every message you compose," the official page of the Firefox extension reads.

However, Blogger is not the only blogging service which supports FoxyTunes. In addition, the add-on is compatible with the AOL Blogs, Bebo, Facebook, Yahoo 360, WordPress and many others. Also, you can add a signature into a Gmail, Yahoo, Thunderbird and other mail technologies.

Source: news.softpedia.com

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As we have already informed you, Google has done a good job in providing Google Earth users with information about the latest disasters that struck Asia. Besides the large amount of data meant to inform users about the status of the Myanmar victims, users can also see satellite imagery of China's 7.9 magnitude earthquake. This can be easily done by downloading a KML file to your own Google Earth.

If you want to increase your knowledge about the earthquake disaster, the best way to do so is to turn to YouTube. There, you will see cell phone recorded videos, uploaded by people who lived through the disaster. According to the Chinese mainstream media, there are approximately 600 million cell phone users in China, which means that you are going to see an impressive number of videos uploaded on YouTube. According to the official YouTube blog, most videos and photos have been uploaded by users from China's Sichuan province.

The 7.9 magnitude disaster is the worst experienced by the Chinese people in over 30 years. The earthquake that struck China in 1976 is said to have been the worst mankind has experienced in the 20th century. Estimates indicated it had a dead toll of approximately 255,000, with several thousands being severely injured. Until now, the 2008 earthquake hasn't reached the high amount of victims of its 1976 counterpart, but the number of reported people is in the range of thousands.

Videos that might be considered shocking by some can now be seen on the largest Internet video service. A number of users have uploaded footage from surveillance cameras that displayed people running in the midst the disaster. Scientific videos showing the movement of the tectonic plates and offering a better insight into the causes of the disaster are also available. People are also trying to offer their support to the victims, by placing a pay tribute and trying to raise money and supplies through a YouTube video.

Source: news.softpedia.com

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In case you haven't visited Google Maps recently, you’re probably not aware of its latest updates. This last Tuesday, users visiting Google maps have been faced with a new functionality. Between the Traffic and Map buttons, a new "More..." button has surfaced. The new button has been set to provide users with more information about the different locations on Earth. The "More..." button provides two choices: Photos and Wikipedia.

Clicking the two options will fill your Google Maps with a bunch of icons featuring photos and links from Wikipedia. These links display additional information about specific landmarks and locations. The images are geotagged photos from Panoramio or from different users around the world. By adding this feature Google intends to enhance the users' experience and provide them with as much information as possible about a place. Since the release of Google Maps, Google has continuously brought new features to the online product.

We also informed you, early this week, that Google had added Real Estate information into Google Maps, which you can access by clicking the "Show search options" link and choosing Real Estate. This search options is, at the moment, available only to US users. Adding these new features to Google Maps, the search engine will most certainly provide its users with a comprehensive understanding of their surroundings. Unlike the Real Estate information, which can be used by a restrictive number of users, the photos and Wikipedia links are available worldwide.

News about Google's upgrade to its Maps product surfaced at the Where 2.0 conference, where another piece of interesting information was released. According to Lior Ron, Product Manager of Google Maps, the Mountain View company plans to add a Google News layer for both Google Earth and Google Maps. As some of you might know, Google has reached an agreement with New York Times, which resulted in the first built-in live updating layer of news from the NY Times in Google Earth.


Source: news.softpedia.com

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Google Maps and Google Earth are two of the Mountain View company products that can provide users with a number of useful tools, meant to solve their everyday problems. Since its release in early 2005, Google Maps has received some important new features and upgrades. At this point in time, Google Maps can be used to locate almost anything of significant importance. And because the guys at Google never rest when it comes to improving the quality of their products, Google Maps has recently received a new feature.

If you are planning to relocate and you find it difficult to search for an appropriate place where you and your family can reside, Google Maps might just make your day brighter. Yesterday, Google Maps was announced to have received an upgrade which will provide users with information about real estate. Searching through Google Maps search engine will now give users information regarding the location of any building or real estate available for sale.

Details on the searched real estate includes price, number of rooms, photos and webpage, where users can find more details regarding the property in which they take interest. Google is not directly involved the real estate business, it only provides professional companies a platform for presenting the offers. A number of real estate companies have recently updated their websites with Google Maps' Street View feature, which ultimately provides users with a better understanding of their future-to-be home.

When you want to search something on the Google Maps search engine, you will have to press "Show search options", which enables you to restrict the search results to just real estate. At the moment, the feature is available only to US users.

Adding new features to Google Maps in order to enhance the users' search experience is just another confirmation that Google is continuously trying to improve its products.


Source: news.softpedia.com

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Slackware, one of the most important Linux distributions around, has reached version 12.1 today. The new release comes with many software updates and enhancements, new technologies and lots more. "This first Slackware edition of the year combines Slackware's legendary simplicity (and close tracking of original sources), stability, and security with some of the latest advances in Linux technology. Expect no less than the best Slackware yet." - says Patrick Volkerding in the release announcement.

Slackware 12.1 includes:
• Linux kernel 2.6.24.5, patched with Speakup to support speech synthesizers providing access to Linux for the visually-impaired community;
• System binaries are linked with the GNU C Library (glibc), version 2.7. This version of glibc also has excellent compatibility with existing binaries;
• Xorg 7.3.0;
• GCC 4.2.3;
• Support for fully encrypted network connections with OpenSSL, OpenSSH, OpenVPN, and GnuPG;
• Apache 2.2.8 web server compiled with Dynamic Shared Object support, SSL, and PHP 5.2.5;
• PCMCIA, CardBus, USB, IEE1394 (FireWire) and ACPI support, which makes Slackware a great operating system for your laptop;
• Automatic hardware detection and configuration with the udev dynamic device management system for Linux 2.6.x;
• Updated versions of the Slackware package management tools;
• Large repository of extra software packages compiled and ready to run.

Included applications:
• KDE 3.5.9
• Pidgin 2.4.1
• The GIMP 2.4.5
• Firefox 2.0.0.14
• Thunderbird 2.0.0.12
• Konqueror 3.5.9
• KOffice
• Amarok
• K3B
• SeaMonkey 1.1.9
• gkrellm 2.3.1
• gxine 0.5.11
• XChat 2.8.4
• XSane 0.994
• Qt designer
• KDevelop 3.5.9
• Pan 0.132
• Perl 5.8.8
• Python 2.5.2
• Ruby 1.8.6-p114
• Subversion 1.4.6
• git 1.5.5
• mercurial 1.0

About Slackware Linux:
Slackware was started by Patrick Volkerding with ease of use and stability in mind. This distribution is considered one of the most secure and stable at this moment. You will find the latest popular applications in an environment that offers simplicity and ease of use and, at the same time, power and flexibility. Slackware was created to melt the two worlds, of beginners and advanced users, into a single distribution that could satisfy everyone. Also, it is one of the oldest distributions, being started in April 1993, with the aim to give birth to Linux distribution that's closer to its ancestor, Unix. Slackware can work acceptably even on a 486 machine.

Source: news.softpedia.com

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After six months in the making, since the 3.01 release, Puppy Linux comes with a brand new version, 4.00. The size was drastically reduced, due to the new way of making the distribution: all the packages were compiled from source, with the T2 project. The older release, 3.01, was built by using Slackware 12 binaries.

The developer, Barry Kauler, decided to abandon the old GTK1 and Tcl/Tk and replace them with only GTK2, to provide a much more consistent user interface and reduce Puppy's size. Because this switch was done, GTK2 replacements for some of the applications had to be found.

Here are some of the new GTK2 applications included in Puppy Linux 4.00:
• A PDF viewer called ePDFView
• Osmo, a personal organizer
• Pcdripper and RipOff, two audio CD ripping tools
• mhWaveEdit - audio editor
• MTR (traceroute)
• Pnethood, a Samba client
• Pwireless - wireless network scanner
• pStopWatch (stopwatch)
• With Homebank and ExpenseTracker you can manage your personal finances
• Fotox image viewer
• Gwhere, a disk cataloger
• Prename - batch file renamer
• Pidgin, one of the most popular multi-protocol chat clients
• Gtkam, an application that offers a digital camera interface

Because there was no GTK2 graphical interface for 'xset', Barry Kauler wrote pupX, a frontend that lets you configure the mouse, keyboard and monitor. The theming system for GTK, JWM window manager and desktop background was completely revised. The same Linux kernel that was used in Puppy 3.01 is also being used in Puppy 4.00 (Linux kernel 2.6.21.7). The only thing changed is the Squashfs module that was an upgrade from version 3.2 to 3.3.

PETget, the package manager for Puppy, has now an improved GUI, with package categories and multiple repositories. The type of packages used by Puppy Linux is .pet.

Puppy 4.00 is approximately 88MB in size, and comes with all drivers built-in for scanning and printing, digital camera, audio recording/editing/conversion. Also, it is a complete office environment and has a large collection of utilities.

Source: news.softpedia.com

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The first beta version of GoblinX 2.7 (Standard edition), the popular Slackware-based Live CD Linux distribution, was released on May 4th, bringing many updated software, including Linux kernel 2.6.24.3, KDE 3.5.9 and all the Gnome libraries and applications. Other important features, bug fixes and improvements included in GoblinX 2.7 Beta 1 are:

• Upgraded AuFS, SquashFS and Linuxlive;
• Upgraded several more libraries and packages;
• Upgraded Magic Center and Media Manager;
• Added gosfiles to be read by our interfaces;
• Added webmount features allowing anyone to use modules without downloading them;
• Changes are restored/saved by default now, if the device allows rewrite;
• Changes can be saved to a FAT32 filesystem;
• Upgraded Isolinux menu and added options help text;
• Corrected some bugs and errors;
• Uselivemod will remain activated;
• Added GoblinX Firefox start page;
• Corrected mode and owner issues with Konqueror;
• Added KDM Themes;
• Upgraded KDE, Xfce and Fluxbox default settings;
• Added some more packages.

Source: news.softpedia.com

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