September 2009 – Page 2

September 20, 2009

5 Adobe AIR Apps I Can’t Live Without

Adobe AIR is a lightweight, multi-OS (Windows, Mac, Linux) platform for running rich internet applications (RIAs) on your desktop. While some have used it to simply recreate their webpage outside of the browser, most AIR apps are unique applications in their own right, often bringing new functionality that is not present in their browser counterparts. Adobe AIR caught on quickly with developers, and while it is not as outwardly robust as Silverlight or JavaFX, it does what is needed to bring cloud computing one step closer to the mainstream. There are a multitude of Adobe AIR applications floating about the web now — some good, some… not so much, but more than enough are of the of the former classification to make it worth your time to click the download link and install it. To help you get started, or to increase your current AIR arsenal, I’ve compiled a quick list of the top five Adobe AIR applications I can’t live with out:

September 18, 2009

Posterous Digest – Tweak Firefox for a Netbook

40techposterous It is time for another digest of recent content on 40Tech’s Posterous site, where we post content that is too brief for this site, but too long for Twitter. Since the last digest, our Posterous site has taken a look at the following item:

Tweak Firefox for a Netbook – With the smaller screen real estate on netbooks, there are some tweaks you can make to Firefox to maximize your viewing area.

If this headline interests you, check out the 40Tech Posterous site.

September 16, 2009

Rightsholders Beware: Exercise Copyright at Your Own Risk

cute Major League Baseball was handed a viral video opportunity on a silver platter on Tuesday night. In a Philadelphia Phillies game, a fan made a tremendous catch of a foul ball from his seat near the railing in the upper deck, leaning over the railing. After high-fiving nearby fans, he handed the ball to his young daughter, who proceeded to toss the ball over the railing into the crowd below. The fan was shocked, but upon seeing his daughter’s dismay, quickly recovered to embrace her in a hug. The video was posted on YouTube, and swept the internet . . . until Major League Baseball forced the video to be taken down. Stupid, or a reasonable exercise of copyright?

September 15, 2009

Mint.com to be Acquired by Intuit (Quicken)

Image representing Mint.com as depicted in Crunchbase

Image via CrunchBase

Mint.com, a service that describes itself as the “best (free) way to manage your money”, announced today by press release, blog and direct email to its userbase, that it is to be acquired by Intuit for $170 million by the end of this year. Mint has garnered over 1.5 million users, over the past two years and is commonly known to be easy to use, intuitive, and an all around great way to get a clear snapshot of your finances; including tips on how to reduce your debt, budget better, and reach your financial goals. They have been, in some ways, in direct competition with the Intuit Quicken applications, especially as Intuit has recently been pushing itself more and more into the online space (perhaps inspired by Mint’s success?). Intuit even created its own free online offering, Quicken Online, which is also quite easy to use, though it lacks some of Mint’s more advanced features.

The big question here is what will become of the two applications?

September 15, 2009

Google’s “Data Liberation Front” – Do You Depend Too Much on Google? (Poll)

Google services Yesterday, Google announced the Data Liberation Front, "whose singular goal is to make it easier for users to move their data in and out of Google products." While this should give users some peace of mind that they won’t be locked into Google products, and even attract some people to Google products, it does raise an important question. Specifically, do we rely on Google too much, such that we should think about spreading our eggs among other baskets? For many of us, it seems that our lives are in Google. I’ll be the first to admit that my productivity is dependent on Google. I use Google Apps, Gmail, Reader, Voice, and Docs, among others. Are you doing this, too? Is this unwise? I’d like to know what you think, in both the poll and comments after the jump.

Month: September 2009 (page 2 of 4)

5 Adobe AIR Apps I Can’t Live Without

Posterous Digest – Tweak Firefox for a Netbook

Rightsholders Beware: Exercise Copyright at Your Own Risk

Mint.com to be Acquired by Intuit (Quicken)

Google’s “Data Liberation Front” – Do You Depend Too Much on Google? (Poll)

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