Display multiple inspector windows at once

Inspector windows are small windows that allow you to change settings for whatever happens to be the currently selected object. They are the ones that have a thinner title bar, they always hover above other windows and they disappear when you change to a different application.

In most applications they contain information and settings about whatever object is selected. As you select different things, the contents of the inspector window will change, so you can always go to the same place to change the properties of that object.

Now you don't want multiple inspectors popping up, containing settings for different objects, because they are designed to keep all the information and properties in one location, so you always know where to find it. However, you might want multiple inspectors that contain different sections of the settings. For example, you might want one inspector for text settings, and one for graphics settings.

inspector windows

In most Apple applications, there is a single inspector with tabs along the top that allow you to change between different groups of settings. If you find yourself constantly jumping between different tabs while you work, there is a simple way to separate each tab out into its own inspector. Simply hold the Option key while clicking on a tab, and another inspector window will appear with the contents of that tab.

Using this, you can arrange the different inspectors around your screen for easier access. For example, in Pages you might want to keep separate Graphic, Text and Table inspectors always open.

Watch videos before they have finished downloading

When you are downloading a video file to your computer using Safari, it is possible to start watching it before the download has finished. This is great for really long movies that take ages to download.

To do this just go to the downloads window in Safari (Command-Option-L) and find your video that's downloading. Click on the little magnifying glass icon to show the file in the Finder.


Downloads Window
You will notice that the file has an extra extension of .download added to the end, and it doesn't open properly if you double-click on it. However, instead you can right-click on the file and choose "Show Package Contents". A new folder should open up, containing two files.


Show Package Contents
One will be called "info.plist" and the other will be the video you are downloading. Now you can just open it to watch the portion that has already downloaded. For some videos QuickTime will be unable to play them when they aren't completely downloaded. If you have problems, you can try using VLC instead.

SHARP’s 3D Screen for Mobile Gadgets works without Glasses

In the year when every mode of entertainment wants to go 3d: Gaming, Movies, TV broadcasts, mobile augmentation, none of the users want to wear those Soda Glasses. What is the way out?

At this year’s Cebit, 3D without Glasses was first demonstrated on LCD TVs. But we don’t carry TVs everywhere. We need a revolution in mobile 3d. Nintendo 3DS turns out to do that well. But how about a screen that could be used on almost all the gadgets?

Sharp is working on an LCD panel for mobile devices that can render images with the illusion of 3D without requiring viewers to wear special glasses. The Screens will be ready for shipment later this year.

How will 3D on Mobile would work?

To get the 3D illusion viewers would need to hold the screen about 30 cm in front of them, thats exactly the same distance at which a cell phone or digital camera is typically held. Provided the angle is correct, they will see an image that appears to have depth (3D), else the image appears to be blurred.

However, if there are multiple viewers and you wish to showcase an important object on your phone to everyone around you, the screen can be switched between 3D and conventional 2D modes. This is made possible with a “switchable” layer inside the screen, called a parallax barrier, that splits light from the screen and directs it towards the right or left eyes when energized.

The company demonstrated 3D still images and animation on the screens.

The panel is the product of just under 20 years of 3D research and development by Sharp. The company has tried to commercialize such displays several times since 2001 but each time they failed to gain widespread acceptance.

Sharp now believes the time and technology are right. The new touch-sensitive screen is 3.4 inches across the diagonal. It is twice as bright as the 2001 models, and has about four times the resolution.

The 3D LCD developed by Sharp at this time significantly improves image quality by achieving both high brightness and low crosstalk(2) thanks to advances in CG-Silicon technology(3) and optimization of the parallax barrier. Advances in CG-Silicon technology have shrunk the wiring width within the LCD panel, allowing more light to pass and doubling the brightness (to 500 cd/m2, the industry’s highest) compared to the conventional model(4).

Sharp has also developed a non-touchscreen 3D LCD and will start its mass production in the first half of fiscal 2010.

Conventional 3D

Screen size 2.4 inches
Screen resolution (pixels) QVGA (240 x 320 pixels)
Brightness (2D mode) 250 cd/m2
Contrast ratio 100:1
Touchscreen function Without touchscreen

Newly Developed 3D LCD

Screen size 3.4 inches
Screen resolution (pixels) FWVGA (480 x 854 pixels)
Brightness (2D mode) 500 cd/m2
Contrast ratio 1000:1
Touchscreen function With touchscreen / without touchscreen

Difference from conventional 3D LCD

Screen size --
Screen resolution (pixels) Approx. double in both horizontal and
vertical resolution
Brightness (2D mode) Approx. double
Contrast ratio Approx. 10 times greater
Touchscreen function --

Sync iPhone Bookmarks with Firefox, Chrome

Firefox 3.5 is now World’s most popular browser, but Apple forgot to integrate Bookmark sync with Firefox, Chrome. All you get is the Sync option for Safari/Internet Explorer.
Behold, there’s a solution that will make it possible to automatically sync iPhone Bookmarks with Firefox and Chrome [and vice-versa] i.e. Sync Firefox, Chrome Bookmarks with iPhone, in a blink of the eye.

Step 1. For Firefox, Download and Install Xmarks Addon from here and for Chrome from here.

Step 2. Configure the plugin by signing-up for an account (if you are new to xmarks) or login with your existing account. Fill in the required fields and wizard will guide you through it. Sync will execute and backup of all your contacts will be placed on Xmark’s server. If you are an existing user, you might want to “merge bookmarks” than overwriting them.



Step 3. Install the Xmark in IE from here or Safari from here. Follow the same procedure as Step 2 to sync your account. After a successful sync, all your browsers have the same Bookmarks, synced on every change or periodically.

Step 4. Sync your iPhone using iTunes while selecting the browser you chose in Step 3, under the “info” iPhone tab.



That’s it, you will automatically sync Firefox, Chrome Bookmarks to iPhone on every Sync. Ain’t this addon cool? Look here for more Firefox addons and Chrome Extensions.

Google buys Real-Time Video Conferencing for Android

Google announced that it would acquire Global IP Solutions Holding, a large provider of the VOIP engine that powers Yahoo, AOL, WebEx and Lotus conferencing. Why? The Plan is to bring Video conferencing to Android.

Google has bought the company at $68.2 million, not a bad deal for the kind of VOIP innovation the Global IP solutions had been holding.

Apart from running Real-Time Video conferencing to Android, it could also create a Skype-competitor by adding video capabilities to Google Voice, just like GTalk but would work with desktops and mobiles, alike. This service can somehow be coupled with Gizmo5 acquisition to enable powerful VoIP and video conferencing across all kinds of devices (IP phones, IMs, Cellphones). To extend it, Google could offer the developers the API to leverage the potential to create next level of applications that would add communications to Webapps, and even to corporate Google Apps.

Before some days, Google launched a new version of Google’s Feed API, which will push updates directly to a user’s browser. No more refreshing pages to see when new content is available – the real-time web comes to you live, nearly instantly as soon as it’s published. Same is the fate of Video conferencing.
An API from Google incorporating this real-time video communication, pushing content in the same way as it will with its Feed API, would further enable endless possibilities.

LED-based Lighting + Data Networking at 2mbps

What was once thought to be a revolutionary energy-efficient Lighting solution, can become Data networking media in the future.

A chinese scientist is trying to bring back line-of-sight networking (Bluetooth, Wifi are omni-directional), by streaming video to a laptop, Desktop, Smartphones/PDAs with nothing but ceiling-mounted blue LEDs.


The Chinese Academy of Sciences claims to have attained a 2Mbit per second internet connection that transmits data simply by modulating the flicker of the little diodes, and imperceptibly enough to have them serve as room lighting as well. Since LEDs consume only a partial amount of power that bulbs, it is the most energy efficient combo of Lighting+Networking we’ve see so far.

Looking closely, single mode Optical fibers work on the same basic concept: Quickly switch lasers (based on LEDs as well) at a high frequency to interpret ZEROs and ONEs as data stream and then encode, compress them using proper techniques. On the receiving end, same process is reversed to get data back. We’ve seen several LED based communications but most of them traditionally needed a media (like fiber) to travel. the ones that traveled through air were painfully slow and unusable.

The current 2mbps may not be ideal for Home networking, but technology has scope of further improvement, above all, its a Green Tech solution we aspire for, for the meantime WiGig would offer great 7 Gigabit Wireless Home Networking solution.

Mozilla working on new Firefox Add-ons Manager

Mozilla is working on an overhauled Firefox Add-ons Manager that should rollout with v3.7. Rather than opening as a tiny window separate from the rest of the browser, the revamped manager launches as a new tab. In addition to being in the Tools menu, you can also launch the manager by typing "about:addons" in the awesome bar (which inherently means you can create a handy bookmark shortcut).


The tab is home to two panes: one has a sidebar for navigating extensions, themes, plugins and other add-ons, and the other contains a browser, meaning that you can finally find, deploy, and manage add-ons from a single location.

Naturally, since the update isn't finished yet, the end product may have a different look and feel. Nonetheless, you can download the latest build here. It's worth noting that the new Add-ons Manager uses JavaScript, so if you're running NoScript you'll have to whitelist the page.

Kindle for Android coming this summer

What was hinted at in those leaked Dell Streak flyers is now official: Kindle for Android. Unfortunately, it's not quite ready to download. Amazon's free Kindle ebook reader -- already out for Mac, PC, BlackBerry, and iDevices -- won't launch until later this summer. When it does, users of Android 1.6 and above (with SD card) will have the ability to search, browse, and purchase (without exiting the app) any of the half million books in the Kindle Store. Like the other apps, Kindle for Android features Whispersync to keep your bookmarks, last page read, notes, and highlights synchronized across all your Kindle-enabled devices. Expect to see this demonstrated at Google I/O starting tomorrow.

Windows 7 Is Making People Forget About Vista

It looks like Windows 7 is making consumers forget all about Windows Vista and its associated headaches.


According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)'s Q1 2010 report, released, Microsoft's customer satisfaction score rose nine percent in the past year due to the positive reception Windows 7 has enjoyed. Microsoft's overall customer satisfaction score now stands at an all-time high of 76 on the ACSI's 100-point scale.


According to David VanAmburg, Managing Director, ACSI, the opposite trend was seen in the wake of Vista's release in 2006. In the ACSI's 2007 report, Microsoft's customer satisfaction score dropped from 73 to 70, marking the first time a company's score was affected so negatively by a product release, VanAmburg said.


The ACSI's report measures customers' opinions of companies in a variety of industries, including phone service, healthcare, satellite and cable television. In Microsoft's case, the ACSI score doesn't pertain just to Windows, but to its full product portfolio, although Windows is by far Microsoft's dominant product.


Long after Vista's release, Microsoft crowed about it breaking existing Windows sales records, but the reality is that many consumers bought Vista PCs and used downgrade rights to switch over to XP. Many businesses opted to avoid Vista altogether to wait for whatever came next, and even volume licensing customers gave Vista a miss.


A lot of the issues with Vista were overblown, but from a customer satisfaction standpoint, Vista didn't offer people enough benefits to overcome the stuff that drove them crazy.

Nonetheless, Swank and other Microsoft solution providers agree with the ACSI's assessment of Windows 7. Larry Piland, President of Datel Systems, a US-based solution provider, says customers that skipped Vista are now switching from XP to Windows 7, and they're encountering few problems along the way.


Industry pundits that claimed Vista would leave an indelible mark on Microsoft's reputation perhaps didn't consider that in the software business, a company is only as good—or as bad—as its latest product release. Unloved software just doesn't provide an ever-present, tangible reminder of one's faulty buying decision.

Even people that still poke fun at Windows ME, probably Microsoft's worst product release prior to Vista, have pretty much forgotten how annoying it was.

Buffalo Launches DriveStation Drive USB 2.0 HDD

Buffalo Technology announced DriveStation DataVault USB 2.0 HDD HD-CXTU2 series.

Positioned as a versatile storage solution, it has an integrated hardware AES 256-bit encryption chip and provides optional full disk encryption for protection against unauthorized access. It sports up to 480Mbps data transfer rate, and connects via USB to any PC or Mac.

The DriveStation HD-CXTU2 is idle for secure, high speed storage and backup. With a simple plug and play option and benefits like Eco Manager and Secure Lock this Drive Station proves to be an innovative storage solution for consumers

The SATA drive can increases windows PC file transfer rates by up to 165 percent over competing USB 2.0 hard drive. With Buffalo Tools, users can boost transfer performance by up to 57 percent. Users can conserve energy and battery consumption by utilizing ECO Manager and back up using Backup Utility.

HD-CXTU2 series is available with authorized distributors in three capacities: 1TB for MRP ­­­Rs 13,500; 1.5TB for MRP Rs 20,000; and 2TB for MRP Rs 27,000.

500MHz G4

TechnoWarehouse offers 500MHz G4 upgrade for iMacs:

TechnoWarehouse's own tests show significant performance improvements using an iTechDV upgrade for both iMovie and Photoshop running in Mac OS 9.2.2 and Mac OS X, compared to a stock 350MHz processor. More information about the benchmarks are available from TechnoWarehouse's Web site.

The upgrade requires you to remove your motherboard from the iMac and deliver it to TechnoWarehouse directly. After you place an order, the company sends you a box, antistatic bag and wriststrap, and instructions for pulling the motherboard from your iMac. Once you've sent in the motherboard, TechnoWarehouse arranges to have the upgrade installed and returns the motherboard to you. TechnoWarehouse estimates the total turnaround for an upgrade to be about 10 days from start to finish.

Wichita, KS-based TechnoWarehouse was founded by former Newer Technology managers. The company offers a wide array of third-party processor upgrades and other performance enhancing products for the Macintosh, as well as many peripherals.

The iTechDV is available for US$299, plus $8 for shipping