Flickery – The “iPhoto” For Flickr

Flickery – The “iPhoto” For Flickr

Eternal Storms has released a public beta of flickery, an OS X (Leopard only) client for flickr. It bring a great deal of iPhoto-like functionality to your flickr.com account in the way it displays photos and enables you to tag & group your collection. You can also browse, view and comment on pictures of your friends or upload and manage your own photos and favorites, all from a clean and simple interface. You can also perform minimal editing functions pre-upload along with the option to e-mail your images via Apple Mail and even download them.

The view options are pretty nice: you can switch from a mini-overview (pictured below) mode to full-window mode to full-screen view (with slide-show controls).

The full download is a (again, Leopard-only) Universal Binary and expires on June 30, 2008. Remember, it’s beta software, and while it worked fine for me, your mileage may vary. Overall, it is a great addition to the various flickr apps for the Mac. While iPhoto & FlickrExport will still be my primary means of getting images into flickr, I can definitely see myself using flickery as a way to organize my flickr library and search for images of interest.

(Via The Apple Blog.)

Secure iPhone e-mail

Secure iPhone e-mail from Sybase

Sybase spokesman John Chen told the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in New York that his company will soon start selling software that allows businesses to securely send e-mail to the iPhone. It is hoped that this technology will help the iPhone gain popularity among the business community. When asked for a specific time for launch, Chen simply said, “It will be soon.”

Chen said Sybase’s product will allow workers to access their iPhone e-mail with the same level of security that can be found on Treo smartphones and the BlackBerry. Sybase is also developing security software for the open source smartphone platform Android.

Sybase currently sells security software for the BlackBerry, Treo and smartphones running on the Symbian operating system.

Sybase

(Via MobileCrunch.)

Firefox 3 Released

Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1 Version 3.0rc1

If you haven’t downloaded it already, Mozilla has issued a preview release of Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1. It is designed for ‘testing purposes only’…they want developers and the community as a whole to provide feedback! With your input the final release version will be that much better.

Firefox 3 will offer improved performance and stability, mostly due to the fact that it is based on the Gecko 1.9 web rendering platform. 1-click site info, malware protection, a new web forgery protection page and more is also going getting tweaked in the latest build.

One thing is for sure… When Firefox 3 officially drops it is going to be more solid and stable than ever… and offer more features that we will all benefit from. I especially appreciate the attention to security improvements, including malware and forgery protection.

The first thing you will probably notice upon installing the new release candidate, is how much the design feels like Safari. Looks like Mozilla has taken some design cues from the Safari browser and have implemented them into this version. I like it!

To download your copy of Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1, click here. The app is available in many languages, and in versions for WIndows, Max OS X and Linux.

(Via Mactropolis.)

3G iPhone revealed???? Probably not.

3G iPhone revealed in third-party case render?

 

From Engadget :
“Look, we’re not saying this means anything, but the above rendering from iPhone case-maker XSKN sure does look like those supposed design changes we’ve been hearing about. You’ll note the larger, more curvy back, space opened up near the earpiece for the rumored front-facing camera, and what appears to be a non-recessed headphone jack. Sure, this could be a ploy to get eyes on their pages, but even if they’re citing the specs we’ve heard, this is still the first case design we’ve seen for anything other than the original iPhone.”

(Via Engadget.)

Apple’s market share of PCs over $1,000 hits 66%

Report: Apple’s market share of PCs over $1,000 hits 66%

Here’s a new way to slice Apple’s growing share of the computer market.

Last March, the NPD Group reported that Apple’s retail market share — its cut of the computers sold in brick-and-mortar stores — had climbed to 14%, a figure that’s roughly double its overall share of the U.S. market and reflects the power of the Apple Store to draw customers and move product.

What NPD didn’t report at the time was the huge growth in Apple’s share of the so-called “premium” computer market — machines that cost more than $1,000.

To some extent, Apple’s (AAPL) share of this market is growing by default. Companies like HP (HPQ), Dell (DELL) and Lenovo ship enormous quantities of PCs at price points between $500 and $750, whereas no Macintosh (with the exception of the Mini) sells for less than $1,000.

Still, Apple’s share of the $1,000-plus retail market was less than 18% in January 2006 according to NPD. By September 2007, it had grown to more than 57%. And in the first quarter of 2008 it hit a record 66%.

This nugget of retail data comes from Joe Willcox, who writes the Apple Watch column for eWeek (see here). He extracted it from an interview last Friday with Stephen Baker, NPD’s vice president of industry analysis.

“Apple has got better distribution than it’s had in the last 15 years,” Baker told Willcox. “They’re in the right spot right now.”

It doesn’t hurt Apple that once you’re in its store, you can’t buy any computer with a screen for less than a grand. “If you don’t give people a choice,” Baker said, “people will spend more.”

(Via FORTUNE: Apple 2.0.)

One-fifth of Americans have never used e-mail

Survey: One-fifth of Americans have never used e-mail
“About 20 percent of all U.S. heads-of-household have never sent an e-mail, and about 20 million households, or 18 percent, are without Internet access, according to a study released earlier this week.

Similar percentages of respondents also indicated that they had never looked up a Web site or information on the Internet, the survey found.

Age and education were significant factors cited in the study, which was conducted by researcher Parks Associates. Half of those who have never used e-mail are older than 65 and 56 percent had no formal education beyond a high school level, the telephone survey found.

“Nearly one out of three household heads has never used a computer to create a document,” John Barrett, director of research at Parks Associates, said in a statement. “These data underscore the significant digital divide between the connected majority and the homes in the unconnected minority that rarely, if ever, use a computer.”

Just 7 percent of the 20 million households without Internet access indicated during the survey that they plan to subscribe to an Internet service within the next 12 months. However, the study noted a steady decline in the number of disconnected households when comparing findings with previous years; the 2006 survey found that 31 million households, or 29 percent, of all U.S. households were without Internet access.

“Internet connections have slowly increased in U.S. households, but getting the disconnected minority online will continue to be difficult,” Barrett said in the statement. “Age and economics are important factors, but the heart of the challenge is deeper. Many people just don’t see a reason to use computers and do not associate technology with the needs and demands of their daily lives.”

(Via CNET News.com.)

Apple pushes for ringbacks, 3G music sales?

Apple pushes for ringbacks, 3G music sales?
Apple hopes to make a major push into mobile music in time with the launch of the 3G iPhone, say sources speaking with the New York Times. In addition to expanding the number of songs that qualify as ringtones, the company allegedly hopes to introduce ringback tones that play in place of the typical dial tone. Apple also wants to overcome earlier limits and start selling iTunes songs over cellular networks rather than limiting access to Wi-Fi connections, according to cited music label officials.

Discussions began just a few weeks ago and may see any additions miss the expected introduction of the 3G iPhone, the sources add, but have Apple determined to make a “big launch” for these services in June.

However, the move may also force Apple to make concessions in music if it hopes to launch the service in time, the report cautions. Music labels in particular are pushing Apple to increase the amount of revenue earned per song past 70 cents for the right to download over cellular networks. These companies may also press Apple to change the rigidity of its pricing and boost pricing for new songs while dropping the prices for legacy titles.

Apple is described as unlikely to bend on per-track pricing on absolute terms but isn’t yet known to have made decisions regarding over-the-air prices. Ringbacks may nonetheless be a possibility, as the raw income per download is higher than for normal ringtones.

Universal Music is also reportedly continuing to press Apple to embrace its Total Music concept, which would involve paying a premium for devices in exchange for a subscription that provides unlimited but permanent music downloads over a set period. Apple is not averse to the concept but is reportedly unwilling to lift the price to what music labels would prefer customers pay.

(Via MacNN.)

Microsoft proposes alternative deal to Yahoo!

Microsoft proposes alternative deal to Yahoo!

Microsoft Corp said on Sunday it proposed an alternative deal to Yahoo Inc rather than a full acquisition, but the move was unlikely to win favor with financier Carl Icahn, a person familiar with his thinking said.

Icahn launched a proxy campaign on Thursday to replace Yahoo’s board with directors who would reopen talks with Microsoft, saying Yahoo had acted irrationally in refusing the giant software company’s $47.5 billion bid.

Microsoft walked away from its pursuit of Yahoo two weeks ago after three months of negotiations when Yahoo’s board rejected Microsoft’s sweetened offer of $33 a share, saying the company was worth at least $37 a share.

The software giant’s move on Sunday was likely to prompt the billionaire investor to press Yahoo to further pursue a possible alliance with Google, the source said.

“Microsoft is trying to get the milk without buying the cow, and if you look at Icahn’s history, he has never been used that way,” said this person. “He does not want to see Yahoo pushed into some joint venture with Microsoft and is not going to be used to push Yahoo into it.

Read Full article HERE.

(Via reuters)