Anything Google Can Do…

…Yahoo can at least try and match.

Since Google paid an extortionate amount of money for the DoubleClick ad network in recent weeks, Yahoo has seen fit to acquire Right Media for the princely sum of US$680m. Yahoo had previously invested $45m in Right Media last year.

Keeping up with the Jones’ eh? Bless these “search engine” wars…

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Mac Users Get Battery Update

Checked the software update for the MacBook Pro this morning and there’s a new battery update - something I wasn’t aware of is an outstanding issue with batteries in MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops which may result in the warping of said batteries.

Something I’ve advocated since my first laptop died a painful death is battery care. I know more people with dodgy batteries because they charge them for ten minutes, use them for five, constantly plug it in and out, never fully discharge a battery - you know the way. So, I was surprised to see a few photos and word knocking around the web of swolen MacBook Pro batteries, battery case warping, and general diminished performance in batteries issued since February 2006 to present date.

That being the case, Apple have issued a firmware update (download runs at around 700kb) which aims to improve battery performance, and if you’ve noticed poor battery performance of late then this update should solve your problem (presuming your problem is strictly battery related). Failing that, Apple will gladly issue you a battery replacement.

How do you spot a dodgy battery?

Affected batteries will have one or more of the following symptoms:

• Battery is not recognized causing an “X” to appear in the battery icon in the Finder menu bar.
• Battery will not charge when computer is plugged into AC power.
• Battery exhibits low charge capacity/runtime when using a fully charged battery with a battery cycle count (as shown in System Profiler) of less than 300.
• Battery pack is visibly deformed.

I try to keep the cycle count low enough on my own one, currently on its 27th cycle in almost five months so I’m a few off 300 yet. Grab the update if you can, save yourself some hassle in the long run and a few pennies in the process.

Google Apps For Your Domain Widget

I’ve been used Google Apps (for your domain) on two blogs now and it is a bit of a pain having to go in and check the mail through the web interface during the day, or to organise forwards (which to me defeats the purpose of the domain). So, found this little gem this morning, called g4me - presumably more along the lines of ‘Google For Me’ as opposed to ‘Game’.

Sits nice on the dashboard, flip the widget to put in your email address and password, time interval to check mail and away you go.

Best. TV Commercial. Ever.

Starting to look his age but this is possibly one of the best ads I’ve seen in a while.

National Texting Championships Eh?

I think I’ve really seen it all now (bar seeing a man eat his own head, of course) but the LG National Texting Championships have been and gone, and wouldn’t you know the winner was a 13-year-old girl (Morgan Pozgar). She even picks up $25,000 and her opponent in the final, almost ten years her senior even had a personal trainer!

Is this what we’ve really come to?

Hey Folks - Enjoy Barcamp Dublin!

The third Irish BarCamp get-together happens tomorrow with BarCamp Dublin taking place in the Digital Exchange in Dublin. Unfortunately I’m not going to able to make it to the big smoke for the weekend, would be nice to see and speak with a few people I’ve yet to meet or physically introduce myself to - sure thats half the fun of the day really, isn’t it?

For all the details, check out BarCampDublin.com and to all those attending and speaking, have a great day tomorrow! Looking forward to catching a few live blog updates and tweets from throughout the day.

Bagged Me Flickr Pro Account

With a few hours time on my hands at the weekend, I’ve finally splashed for the Flickr Pro account. At US$24.95 it seems like a fine price but why, Flickr, why don’t you print photos for Ireland eh? Mind you, I did make use of that Photobox offer this week and bagged myself 58 prints that should be due today or Monday (I’m guessing).

In fairness though it’s bloody high time I organised my photos, or at least have them online (those that do and don’t make the photoblog) to have them shared with the family and friends. I’ve had the Flickr account since college but it has only been the last six months or so that I started to make use of it (somewhere in advance of Barcamp Waterford) but combining that and the Flickr uploader I’ve got on the Mac, I’ve been delighted with the service to date.

All I need do now is sift through the 30,000 odd photos sitting across two machines and see what I can get online….

Photoshop & Design Resources For Students

The following are a list of resources for Photoshop for students or anyone looking to get into Adobe Photoshop. Blog post stemmed from conversation with Tanya, a first year multimedia student in Tipperary Institute (part of Bernie Goldbach’s group, a lot of whom I met in Kilkenny earlier this week). These resources would have been fantastic when we were coming through college back with Photoshop 5/6/7.

• BA Magazine - Before & After Magazine to which we hold an office subscription. BA gives you downloadable PDF guides on various techniques for design, a lot of which are related to Photoshop use. If you can grab a free download - take a look, you won’t be disappointed.
• Photoshop TV - ‘The Photoshop Guys’ have now published over 70 episodes (video) looking at everything from Photoshop filters to the individual tools, lighting techniques, colour techniques, use of layers, masking, gradients, 3D imagery and more.
• Photoshop Podcast Directory - Directory listing of various Photoshop podcast. Some of which “are fairly annoying”, some of which are fairly good.
• Photoshop Online Video Podcast - Photoshop tips and techniques by Photoshop author and trainer Jan Kabili. You can subscribe on iTunes to this podcast which as been running from August 2006.
• Tutorial Blogs - Free Photoshop tutorials since 2006, looking at the use of the Pen tool (important one for students if you’re crossing between Photoshop and Illustrator), Photoshop brushes and more.
• Lynda.com - You’ve got to pay for the access, $25 a month, but they do premium learning resources for Photoshop and almost every other multimedia application going. Get a lecturer to spring for the resource access, I’ve seen some of the tutorials and they’re top quality.
• Photoshop Beginners Tips (Jennifer Apple) - Some quick and easy tips, keyboard shortcuts and the like for Photoshop from Jennifer Apple (also part of the PhotoshopSupport.com site)

Additions:

• Wikivid - Looks to be a good quality wiki resource for Photoshop and a plethora of other multimedia resources including Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Flash and more

Are Fonera’s Worth It?

Talking to Bernie in Kilkenny earlier today mentioned the FON routers in conversations, something I’ve looked at before - primarily as a cheap means to getting a wireless router into the house so I don’t have to worry about drilling through walls and doing a bit of wiring…

So at the price they are - €39 odd plus shipping, are they worth it? I’ve read all about the service behind it, sharing your wifi connection, picking up free wifi in places in return, but has anyone had any problems quality-wise? Signal drops? Routers just going on the fritz, exploding, dying for no apparent reason, replacing them a few times?

Any bad points on them before I click purchase?

And So We Wait For Leopard

Daw mentioned it yesterday in a blog post and I hadn’t heard anything else online until digging about this morning. Disappointingly, Leopard (Mac OS 10.5) has been postponed until October, to coincide with the release of the iPhone.

According to Cellphones etc.

The main reason for the delay is that Apple had to reassign key software personnel from the Leopard to work on the iPhone, an even much-more anticipated product from Apple.

.

Both myself and John have been looking forward to Leopard’s release which I had thought would be fairly soon, or should have been at least, and it will likely be Christmas at this stage before I make the upgrade on the Macbook Pro. At least it isn’t at Microsoft level with the ever increasing delays in OS releases. Should the iPhone and Leopard hit the market on the same day it’ll be a good coup for Apple. Looking forward to the new desktops and upgrades to mail.app.

And so we play the waiting game….

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