Ankur Gupta Online

The latest beta version of the popular chat client Yahoo Messenger was released yesterday and I installed it right away only to be hugely dissappointed

I had expected this release to pack in some more features along with a new interface which would be more refreshing and soothing. My second wish was fulfilled but only partialy as Yahoo did revamp the interface completely but to make it even worse than some of its ancient versions.The colour combination was terrible and the themes provided changed only the title bar and the color theme rather than whole look of the messenger window.

This version doesn’t add any new features I could find except for a new feature called “Forward offline PMs” which was not available in previous versions but nothing pretty significant.Also when this version is installed it resets many of your settings to default but thankfully I had my archive intact.One good thing that this version does is quicker sign-in, hence reducing the time to sign-in by a appreciable margin.

Hence not much has changed in this version except the interface which is to say the least intolerable and it forced me to uninstall this version right away and shift back to version 8.1.0.421 which seemed pretty refreshing! I would say save you time and resources and forget about this version and hope that Yahoo releases a much much better final version of 9.0.

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After a long wait Apple today finally announced the release date of its much hyped next operating system OS X Leopard which is October 26 2007.

Apple online stores have already started accepting pre-orders for it already.The upgrade will cost $129 for a single-user license, and $199 for five-user “family pack”.

This will seriously challenge the high prices set by Microsoft for its Ultimate version of Windows Vista. This new release has over 300 new features and various other improvements.

Here is quote from Apple Website :

“Leopard, the sixth major release of Mac OS X, is the best upgrade we’ve ever released,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “And everyone gets the ‘Ultimate’ version, packed with all the new innovative features, for just $129.”

Other new features in Leopard include:

• improved Parental Controls, aiding parents in managing their kids’ online activities with automatic identification of unsuitable content before allowing website access, plus time limits and activity logs that can be accessed from any Mac on a home network;
• the complete Boot Camp® release, previously available only as a beta, making it possible to run Windows natively on Intel-based Macs;**
• Web Clip, bringing anything that a user wants from a web page to Dashboard as a live widget;
• new Photo Booth features, helping users create animated iChat buddy icons or fun effects and backdrops with still or video images;
• an enhanced Dictionary with Wikipedia built in, allowing users to access up to date information on virtually any subject in a snap;
• a newly updated iCal with multi-user calendaring based on the new CalDAV standard; and
• an updated version of Front Row, making it even easier to play music or watch movies, TV shows and photos on a Mac using the ultra-simple Apple Remote.

How “good” this new release is will be a big factor in determining the future sales of the Macs.Microsoft can only wait and watch as of now to determine the impact that it will create in the OS share market which is currently ruled by Microsoft’s Operating Systems..

Popularity: 1% [?]

Minutes to Midnight, the latest album to have come out of the Linkin Park factory hit the stores today…The single “What I’ve done” which was released some weeks ago, rapidly climbed up the charts.

The album features 12 songs :

• Wake (1:40)
• Given Up (3:10)
• Leave Out All The Rest (3:18)
• Bleed It Out (2:54)
• Shadow Of The Day (4:50)
• What I’ve Done (3:25)
• Hands Held High (3:53)
• No More Sorrow (3:38)
• Valentine Day (3:15)
• In Between (3:14)
• In Pieces (3:37)
• The Little Things Give You Away (6:23)

This Album is bit different from previous LP albums as it emphasizes more of singing than rap which has been a legacy of LP for a long time.Though some might like this new “era” some might not, but this certainly takes LP as a band further.

I am a die hard fan of LP and this album does make me groove to its music but certainly some tracks are below par which hold it back from being an excellent album but still I would give this album a thumbs up!

My Rating: 7/10

Popularity: 2% [?]

So we have another security update for WP within a month of last update…

We have a security update release now available for both the 2.1 and 2.0 branches of WordPress now available for immediate download. This update is highly recommend for all users of both branches.

These releases include fixes for several publicly known minor XSS issues, one major XML-RPC issue, and a proactive full sweep of the WordPress codebase to protect against future problems. Many thanks to Sumit Siddharth and Alex Concha for their help with reporting issues in this release.

As an update to the systems issue we had last month, we have taken dozens of additional precautions with the servers and systems that run WordPress.org and they appear to be working well, despite hundreds of hack attempts after we publicly disclosed there had been a problem. We are also now aggressively monitoring all downloads for any changes or modifications, and we are confident the same type of problem won’t happen again.

Source

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So all you die hard Linkin Park fans get ready for the new Album that is scheduled to be released this May 15th…

I myself a die hard Linkin Park fan is eagerly waiting for the new album…This album is being touted as the best by critics who have already managed to listen to this album…The wait gets more impatient…

Also the first single titled “What I’ve Done,” will be released worldwide April 2, 2007.

The coming weeks will see the launch of LPTV, a series of webisodes that can be viewed on www.linkinpark.com. The series will focus on “unseen footage of the history of Linkin Park, building up to an inside look at the studio experience of the new album

A glimpse on the logo of the new album …….. Read the rest of this entry »

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