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As Microsoft counts down the final days to when it feels that Internet Explorer 8 is ready for public use, you can take a look at what's coming in this slideshow of IE 8's first Release Candidate.
Click on the image to your left to launch the gallery.
If you've played around with the previous beta versions of Internet Explorer 8, there's not much new in today's IE 8 Release Candidate 1. The feature improvements from IE 7 haven't changed: Web slices, InPrivate browsing, and Microsoft's new add-on system known as Accelerators remain the big-ticket items. Security enhancements include the SmartScreen Filter, which warns you in advance if other users have reported an URL as suspicious.
What has been improved in the RC is stability. Users who experienced persistent and irritating browser crashes should expect to see a much more stable browsing environment. … Read more
This download manager brings much more to the table than fast file transfers, but it definitely delivers those, too. Increased download speeds are Download Accelerator Plus's bread and butter, speeding up downloads by almost 200 percent in most cases and occasionally as high as 400 percent.
Besides splitting files into smaller pieces, it thrives on automatically seeking faster mirrors. It also can get a file simultaneously from several sites, which is useful if a particular site limits the download speed; it can resume downloads; and it can preview some media files while downloading. There's also a blacklist for … Read more
FlashGet looks and feels like a download accelerator worth paying for, which makes it all the more appealing since it's free. (But you knew that, this being the Featured Freeware and all.)
After installation, a small, dark icon with three lightly-colored triangles will appear in the upper right corner of your monitor. Until you drag it elsewhere, the FlashGet icon will live there permanently, and is always "on top" of whatever program you're using at the time. Simply drag the link you want to download onto the FlashGet icon, drop it and hit the Okay button; … Read more
R.E.M. fans (like me!) and music-biz folks interested in exploring new ways to use the Web should check out the two-part series on Hypebot.com about the band's online campaign for its latest album, Accelerate.
The posts are written by Ethan Kaplan, the Warner Bros. vice president of technology who worked with the band to design a technology-intensive publicity campaign.
Highlights include:
Ninetynights.com, which included exclusive short videos of the recording process.
REMDublin.com, which evolved into a wiki-style collaboration between fans and resulted in fan-created videos scoring top-popularity spots on YouTube.
Two … Read more
This download manager brings much more to the table than fast file transfers, but it definitely delivers those, too. Upon installation, Download Accelerator Plus asks for your e-mail address in hopes of sending you special offers, but you don't actually need to submit any information.
Increased download speeds are the program's bread and butter, speeding up downloads by almost 200 percent in most cases. Besides splitting files into smaller pieces, it automatically seeks faster mirrors. It also can get a file simultaneously from several sites, which is useful if a particular site limits the download speed, it can … Read more
I have a theory about indie rock hipsters: you can tell how old they are by which R.E.M. album they say was "the last good one." Specifically, it was the last R.E.M. album that came out before they turned 22, the age at which most four-year college students graduate.
That puts me squarely in the Green camp. And in fact, while their next two albums made R.E.M. a household name, with songs like "Losing My Religion" (from Out of Time) and "Man on the Moon" (from Automatic for … Read more
Just over a month after releasing Widgetbox's App Accelerator, a shortcut for turning blogs and other Widgetbox widgets into Facebook apps (review), Widgetbox announced an upgrade that enmeshes its apps more completely into Facebook profiles.
According to Widgetbox, creating a functional Flash widget that lives in and operates from the user's profile page was the top developer request. It was mine, too. I wrote that:
"Most Facebook applications launch in a separate window when you click them, taking interaction off the user's profile page (the Facebook-developed Wall is a notable exception). It is therefore tragironic that … Read more
OK, this is a stretch, but we know that CNET Download.com users like to post their work to Facebook too.
That's why, even though Widgetbox's new online tool to publish widgets to Facebook isn't strictly the stuff of downloads, we're bringing you this hands-on review.
Widgetbox's (blandly named) App Accelerator is a step-by-step guide and tool for creating Facebook applications from Widgetbox widgets. Yet it shrewdly connects the community developers of Widgetbox's widget marketplace (this could be you) with Facebook's burgeoning user community. Talk about viral marketing.The conversion works by adapting Widgetbox's Flash and HTML/JavaScript code for Facebook compatibility. There's a lot of link-swapping involved, and much of App Accelerator's ease-of-use can be attributed to Widgetbox's assumption of several routing URLs.… Read more
The conversion works by adapting Widgetbox's Flash and HTML/JavaScript code for Facebook compatibility. There's a lot of link-swapping involved, and much of App Accelerator's ease-of-use can be attributed to Widgetbox's assumption of several routing URLs.
Widgetbox has done its usability homework in creating a friendly, check-listed step-by-step guide that walks users through what might otherwise be a confusing process. Still, I ran into some problems using App Accelerator, including some URL pasting mistakes that rendered my new application useless and significantly delayed this review. This is something I hope Widgetbox and Facebook will both limit in the future with appropriate error sensing and alerts.
Since the proprietary service only converts Widgetbox widgets, I needed to begin by registering and building a widget. I used Widgetbox's Blidget tool (read Webware review) to create a widget of "my" blog (I used Webware.com, of course.)
Next I needed to register as a Facebook developer; easily done through Widgetbox's prominent link. After converting the blog into a widget, I was offered the opportunity to "promote" it on Facebook. Don't be fooled; this isn't App Accelerator's work. Rather, it crashed my Firefox browser, then posted an image of my blidget to my Facebook mini feed, as a video.… Read more
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