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Safari -> Open Tab Sets

I just realized this was possible though it has been sitting there all along.

If you have found a way to v64 of Safari you can choose to Control+Click on a folder in your Bookmark Bar and quickly open all the Bookmarks across the window as a tab set. Nice! I have been missing this functionality in a serious way since I left Chimera/ Camino. Well say good-bye to Safari Tabs, I just eliminated it from my Dock. It only opened new windows anyway. Now I have the efficiency of a single window with all my sites in one place.

UPDATE – It really is Friday… You can also open right in tabs when the folder drops open. The option is right there at the bottom.

This is a great way to have implemented things. I like having the option for all or one. With Camino, once you create a set, it is locked unless you are viewing from the bookmark drawer…

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More Drivel From News.Com

The paragraph that takes the cake is the following:

There’s nothing particularly bad about the current state of browser technology–that is if you are frozen in a time warp, circa 1999. Internet browser design stopped being interesting years ago. That’s simply because Microsoft no longer faces any challenge that forces it to innovate. If Microsoft were still trailing behind Netscape, Internet Explorer would be a far better product. That’s what competition’s all about. If the forward and back arrows constitute the last stage in Internet browser interface design, then we’re an awfully sorry lot.

All this paragraph proves to me is that Charles Cooper hasn’t even tried other browsers. Before you bemoan the lack of innovation in the browser space, Charles, maybe you should try actually using a browser besides Internet Explorer for Windows.

You want better “breadcrumb”-style back navigation? Try SnapBack in Safari. You want better “threaded” navigation? Try tabs in Phoenix, Mozilla, Chimera, Galeon, NetCaptor, CrazyBrowser, Opera, Epiphany, or Konqueror. Sophisticated ad blocking? Try Mozilla or OmniWeb. Popup blocking? Safari, Mozilla, Phoenix, etc. How about smart searches using bookmark keywords? Typeahead find in Mac IE or Mozilla? Link prefetching? QuickSearch in History and Bookmarks? Bookmark groups using tabs? Tab home pages? How about the sophisticated user controls of Opera? What about site navigation controls in Mozilla and Opera?

From Opera’s page zoom to Omniweb’s bookmark scheduling to Phoenix’s popup whitelisting to the Web services support in Mozilla, browser makers are innovating everywhere! The problem is not that we, the browser makers, aren’t innovating. The problem is that you apparently aren’t using the browsers we produce.

[Confessions of a Mozillian]

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Stern sues ABC over ‘Hot’ show

CNN – Howard Stern has sued ABC and the producers of the series “Are You Hot? The Search for America’s Sexiest People,” claiming the show is based on ideas that aired on his radio program.

The 49-year-old radio personality claims ABC’s show duplicates some tactics used on his show, including blunt criticism of contestants and the use of a laser pointer to highlight areas of their bodies.

“Are You Hot?” features contestants in various stages of dress posing in front of three panelists who rate them solely on looks. The show is produced by Scott Einziger, a former executive producer of Stern’s E! cable show, and former Stern sidekick Jackie Martling is listed as a consultant.

[CNN]

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Green

…my hope is to demonstrate within a short time that this is at least a feasible approach to creating a “modern” Newton device, by piggy-backing on an existing, current PDA platform, and disregarding its native user interface entirely.

[~stevenf]

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Samsung announces PalmOS 5.2 Smartphone

Samsung today announced theit PalmOS 5.2 based Smartphone. It’s a Triband phone with GPRS Class 10 and features a CMOS camera with 640×480 resolution. It’s powered by a XScale PXA800F-CPU with 266 MHz, 32 MB RAM, SDIO capable SD/MMC Slot. It will also feature Graffiti 2 and is supposed to be available mid 2003, with a price Tag around 600 Euros.

[Mobitopia]

WOW – Looks Gorgeous!! But no bluetooth? I guess you can always add it with via the SDIO slot…

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Is it real or is it Puma?

So by now you have probably read or seen the infamous Puma ads…. allegedly real, then fake. I personally believe them to be real, though claimed fake for the PR kick. You can’t beat the Buzz that has come from this. Everyone is talking about them – in Advertising and in general. Rumor has it, this is the work of these guys…. I guess we’ll know soon enough.

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On-demand electronic software distribution comes to CompUSA

CompUSA and SoftwareToGo, in conjunction with the Apple Developer Connection (ADC), has launched a new program that gives ADC Premier and Select members the opportunity to have their products carried in CompUSA stores across the US — regardless of whether the retailer currently stocks the shrink-wrapped product on the shelf or not — via electronic software distribution kiosks… [MacMinute.com]

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What Spam Filter Are You?

You’re a Bayesian Filter!

A Bayesian filter, such as POPFile, will quietly discard any type of mail you don’t want to read. You train the program by correcting its “junk” or “not junk” guesses on individual messages. Over time, the programs statistical accuracy improves dramatically, to the point where it can be trusted to file junk mail into a separate folder.

No algorithm is perfect, though. When new spam styles arrive, the program needs retraining. You should also check your junk-mail folder periodically for false positives, lest you miss your wife’s Valentine’s Day message from the airport kiosk. (True story.)

In a past life you might have been:
A Collaborative filter
A Whitelist program
No filter at all

Interesting how that worked out for me… I use POPFile and love it! What filter are you – take the quiz at Slate.

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HIT SONG SCIENCE

A Barcelona company says it has “developed an artificial intelligence application that could analyzed song and determine its potential to become a hit,” reports Neil Strauss in The New York Times. Really. Executives of the company, called Polyphonic HMI say that when they “loaded every song in the Billboard Top 30 over the last five years into the program, they found that “lo and behold, they all had something in common.”

Of course. They all sucked. They need a computer to determine this? Polyphonic sees things a bit differently, naturally. They think their killer app, which they call Hit Song Science, will help “raise the bar for music,” as suggested by Tracie Reed, vp of Polyphonic’s North American office. “We empathize with the people who buy a CD and only like two songs. Let’s get better music on more CD’s,” she says. Originally, the company thought their software could be used to “offer CD shoppers recommendations based on their favorite songs.” Now, however, they are promoting its use among record companies as a way to determine whether or not a song should be released. Several major labels, including Sony Music, RCA and Universal UK, “are either using it or considering the option.”

Jordan Berliant of Tenth Street Entertainment says he doubts a machine could measure the emotional content of a song, “in particular the lyrics.” Jaron Lanier, a computer scientist and musician, meanwhile dismissed “the science side of the application” as “sloppy.” He added: “As for the music side of things, I doubt pop music could get any worse, so using even a meaningless tool like this might result in some improvement.”

[Reveries]

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Offspring

watch_on_wrist.jpgAmazing array of concept designs called “Offspring” from Frog Design and Motorola for a new line of wearable devices that connect to each other via Bluetooth. Among them, a Wearable Digital Assistant that uses voice recognition instead of a numeric keypad and has storage for music and video files; the Wristable (pictured at right), a version of the wrist version of the Wearable Digital Assistant; and special eyeglasses with a built-in heads-up display, a digital camera, earbud headphones, and a microphone; a wearable mini-digital camera.
Read

[Gizmodo]

Very cool concept designs…. definitely worth a click!

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Critic knows why SI’s swimsuit models don’t…

Critic knows why SI’s swimsuit models don’t wear bikini tops [Wash Post via Jim Romenesko’s MediaNews]

But then I realized what was really going on. SI is owned by AOL Time Warner, the rapacious conglomerate that was nearly bankrupted by the moronic merger-mania of its executives.

This folly apparently left SI so poor that it could afford to buy only the bottom halves of these expensive bikinis. And the models, eager to help their impoverished employer, gamely carried on as best they could. In these trying times, that’s downright inspirational!

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gadgets to consider…

Known…

Sony Clie TG50
pro: OS 5, Bluetooth, 320×320 screen, keyboard
con: Memory Stick

Update (3/15) – reviewed by both Brighthand and Infosync. Just ok… not the WOW I was hoping for.

Palm Tungsten T
pro: OS 5, Bluetooth, 320×320 screen, slider, SD
con: Price (for now) it did just come down though and they are offering a $99 SD Camera…

Rumored…

Handspring Treo 2.0
it’s gotta be cool

Palm Tungsten C
Is it a smartphone, does it have wifi, a camera?

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The Lamest Telemarketer…

Just got off the phone with a totally lame Telemarketing rep. She called me and the call went like this:

Rep: Hello, I This is Judy from “never heard of me” software company.
Rep: I was wondering if you were looking to make any changes to your business software.
Me: No
Rep: Ok then thank you, I guess I will check back with you down the road then.
Me: Ah, Ok.
Rep: Have a nice day.

I have no idea what this company does and they make no effort to explain. How general is business software?!

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I want my Mystro TV

A secretive team of AOL Time Warner executives has begun talking with other major cable operators and media companies about speeding up and co-opting the potential revolution that TiVo kicked off. The company’s system, called Mystro TV, is AOL Time Warner’s gambit in an imminent battle over the future of the television business. Satellite services, cable systems and television manufacturers are all racing to promote their versions of the TiVo-like technologies that threaten to wreak havoc on networks and studios, and AOL Time Warner wants to put its own stamp on the evolution of the medium.

Its plans will turn in part on whether the company can end two years of internal discord following AOL’s acquisition of Time Warner. If the company’s often antagonistic divisions can cooperate, their collective arms reach to all sides of the television business. The company’s Turner Broadcasting and WB are the largest collection of networks. Warner Brothers is the largest television studio. And Time Warner Cable is the most technologically advanced and second-largest cable operator.

[New York Times]

Assuming there are not more ads peddled at me via the downtime on pause of course… this sounds like good tech to addd to their already very powerful set-top box…

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Sony’s Idei – Part 3

Perkins: The problem we are trying to solve here is about the consumer experience on top of any OS. The test model for this is what Steve Jobs just did with Jaguar. Personally, I got iTunes, iPhoto, iMovies all running on one server at home, and it’s transparent. If I plug a DVD in or an iPod in, the icon automatically comes up on my screen. When I plug my Sony Cyber-shot camera into my Mac, I don’t have to do anything, because it assumes I want to see the pictures in the camera so it automatically brings up the iPhoto interface. I don’t even have to touch my mouse! This is the model for Sony.

Idei: We actually met several times with Steve last year, in January, March, and June to try to work out a mutual strategy. But you know Steve, he has his own agenda. [Laughs.] Although he is a genius, he doesn’t share everything with you. This is a difficult person to work with if you are a big company. We started working with them, but it is a nightmare. We have the exact type of guy like Steve within Sony. His name is Ken Kutaragi. They respect each other. So maybe if we can get them both together then they could figure out how the PlayStation and the Mac can work together.

[AlwaysOn Network]

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Mobile Business Plan:

The Details

Here’s the services offered by .Mac: Mail, Address Book, desk, Home Page (including iPhoto Albums), Backup, iCards, Anti-Virus, and Support. All of this is tightly integrated with the Mac OS and I want to mimic this level of integration.

Here’s what I see as potential online services offered by Dot Mob (and I’ll explain their technical underpinnings after), many are almost identical, others are more specific for mobile phones. All will be available via both the Web (HTML) and your phone (WAP/XHTML):

[Russell Beattie Notebook]

Russ is one smart dude – I hope this starts to happen. It could make a major market for mobile services, by simplifying how it all comes together…something obviously missing from today’s market.