With today’s Beta launch Boxee aims to enter newer territories with the launch of a dedicated Boxee Box in partnership with D-Link. What’s more important is a totally revamped and redesigned interface for Boxee, that makes using it even more fun. The UI changes aren’t the only changes though, Boxee beta brings about many major under the hood changes that will allow for less resource intensive playback of your media.

Boxee for Windows will shift from using the OpenGL graphics engine to DirectX runtime, along with support for Nvidia’s cheaper but faster Graphics chips. I believe these are major steps for Boxee, because for so long it has remained in the confines of Mac and AppleTV users, with Windows/Linux Adoption being almost negligible.

Before I tell you about the Dedicated Boxee box, lets have a sneak peak into the new Beta interface. And I have to say the new UI is a marked improvement over the old one, and I can’t wait for the nice people at Boxee HQ to give me access to the beta

This is the new Home screen. The most visible change is the shifting of the navigation from Left to top center. Along with it comes a new centralized hub for all your content. You can now see recommendations from friends on Boxee, Facebook or Twitter (via RSS feeds), recommendations from Boxee’s staff and partners (Featured) and the latest episodes from your favorite shows or things you’ve saved for later (Queue).

The new global menu, makes Navigation even more easier than it was before. This menu makes it easy to access helpful resources (TOP – Logout, Settings, Now Playing, Queue, Feed, History), the main menu (MIDDLE – Photos, Music, Movies, Home, TV Shows, Apps, Files) and shortcuts (BOTTOM) to your favorite Apps, TV Shows, Movies, or folders. This has to be my favorite new feature of the Boxee Beta. Makes me feel that the old navigation was boring and slow!

The screenshots above show the new TV Shows Library and Photos in action. The new sidebar on the left, makes searching/sorting etc. even more easier than it was before.

The New Boxee makes sharing even more fun and easier. After all the entire Boxee experience is a social experience. So now you’re gonna have an endless amount of media to consume thanks to your friends.

At the heart of the new Boxee is the Queue that runs thorough out the software. As you browse your library, you can continuously queue up items. So the next time you don’t have to remind yourself that you wanted to catch up with the latest episode of “How I Met Your Mother”!

There’s a lot more that’s changed in Boxee beta, which I can’t talk about, because I don’t have direct access to the Beta. But looking from the screenshots already posted on the internet, I’m already in love with the new Boxee.

Now coming to the Boxee Box from D-Link, here’s what Senior Marketing Executive Daniel Kelley at D-Link had to say :

“By pairing Boxee’s innovative social entertainment platform with D-Link’s technology we’re able to create a solution that introduces people to what TV should be. Additionally we’re bringing a new level of social interaction to the living room.”

The Boxee Box will have HDMI, SPDIF and RCA Audio connections, Plus two USB ports and it will work on both 802.11N. The price isn’t known yet, nor are the other technical details. What we all know is that Boxee will debut it during at the CES 2010. However rumors point to sub $200 price point which I believe will be very attractive to many home users.

Looks like 2010 will be the year when Digital Media finally makes the transition into our Living rooms. Thanks to Boxee, this is a space that we are all excited going into 2010.

Image Credit : Phil Campbell | Screenshots via Boxee Blog

Till date Firefox along with FEBE satisfied all my needs, but doing backups using FEBE wasn’t easy and had its own share of disadvantages. Also over the years Chrome, Safari also have started to contribute quite a lot to my browser share. So what do I do?

I download and run the portable app FavBackup on my machine. In short this is what FavBackup does:

FavBackup is a simple solution for you to backup and restore web browser settings and other data on Windows 7/Vista/XP/2000 systems. No installation required.

FavBackup supports IE 6-8, Firefox 2-3.5, Opera9 or 10, Safari 3 or 4, Google Chrome 1-4, Flock 2.0-2.5.

Here are some screenshots of FavBackup in action :

See how simple FavBackup makes the process of doing browser backups? So the next time you reinstall Windows, or accidently delete some data, FavBackup will always be there for you. In its current incarnation here are some of the known bugs in FavBackup.

• General: Restoring backups directly from DVD/CD drive can give error. Copy backup to your PC first.
• Windows XP: When using low screen resolution, scrollbars might appear.

Download FavBackup | Image Credit : John Loo | Via HowtoGeek

Version 1.x released a few months back just does the basic Email notifications thing, but the upcoming 2.0 version will see Notify do a lot more. Features like viewing messages from multiple accounts (not restricted to GMail and Google Maps only), inline replies of emails, support for deleting mails and marking them as read etc.

Setting up Notify

Getting Notify up and running is quick and easy. Visit Vibealicious’s website and download the latest version. Once download simply drag the application bundle into your Applications folder and open it. Notify will now appear in your menu bar.

When you first open the application, you are greeting with what’s shown in the screenshot above.. Click Sure! to go ahead and add your first GMail account into Notify.

Notify in its current incarnation is nothing more than a EMail Notifier… It might look like a waste on your desktop, but the upcoming Notifier 2 will make it a compelling choice for anyone who wishes to manage their email like an expert.

Notify 2.0

Currently under beta testing, Notify 2.0 brings a lot more of new features to the table.. Here’s a preview of some of them.

The biggest new feature is full in-app message and reply creation. Something that I sorely missed in the first incarnation of Notify.

In Notify 1.x we had to click through to see and read any email bigger than 200 characters. With 2.0 it is now fixed with a Quicklook type UI. You can easily view full HTML messages.

Final Words

At the moment Notify is a solid application that seamlessly fits into the Mac Experience. Notify 2.0 will bring a lot more to this already beautiful app and help us manage email better rather than depending on complex applications like Mail.app etc.

Download Notify | Images via Notify Blog

I’ve been using Quiet Read for the past few hours, and what I really like about it is, its minimal implementation. Since it sits there in the menu bar all the time, its as simple as just drag and drop the page you want to read later onto Quiet Read in the menu bar. The display on the icon keeps track of how many URL’s you’ve collected and a neat drop-down lets your browse the saved articles for easy read at any time.

Of course there are other applications like Instapaper and Evernote, that let you do a lot more, like saving the articles, internet based sharing, I feel that Quiet Read has done a good job of doing the basic thing just right.

What I’d like to see in the future versions of Quiet Read :

• Ability to save screenshots of the URL, and some sort of Coverflow View for fast browsing (Or Hover based actions).
• Sync saved pages with Delicious bookmarks.
• Ability to categorize or label the saved URL’s (for eg. Work, Personal, Fun etc..)

But Quiet Read hasn’t set out to do everything in the world.. If you’re looking for a simple and intuitive way to read saved articles later (and you’re running Snow Leopard), Quiet Read could be the solution you are looking for.

Download Quiet Read | Via TUAW

Perfect gift for the new years from Dev Team Here are the prerequisites before you can proceed with the unlock of the phone..

• You Must Have Jailbroken iPhone 3G Running Firmware 2.2 with the baseband modem firmware as 02.28.00
• To find the version of your baseband firmware, go to Settings->General->About and scroll down to find the version of your modem firmware..
• If you are not on Firmware 2.2 with baseband firmware at 02.28.00 you will need to restore your iPhone to 2.2 and rejailbreak/pwn using QuickPwn.

Alright now that you guys, lets proceed with juicy stuff of unlocking your iPhone..

Okay here we go….

• Fire up Cydia from your SpringBoard.

• Select the Manage Tab at the bottom of Cydia.

• Select the Sources Button.

• Press the Edit Button at the top of the screen.

• Now Press the Add Button at the top of the screen.

• Enter http://apt9.yellowsn0w.com/ as the source url and press the Add Source button.

• Return to Cydia once the source has been added, and press the Done button at the top of the screen.

• Tap on the just added repo apt9.yellowsn0w.com .

• Select yellowsn0w from the list of available packages.

• Press the Install button at the top of the screen.

• Press the Confirm button at the top of the screen.

• After the installation has been successfully completed, press the Return to Cydia button.

• Now Restart your iPhone, and pop in your third party SIM into the iPhone.. The Phone should now be unlocked and running on the carrier of your choice..

That was simple ain’t it? The Dev Team has really done brilliant job here, in making the process of unlocking the iPhone so darn easy! If you run into problems during this, read the following suggestions..

• It seems that getting your iPhone to pick up your new carrier can be helped by turning off 3G and perhaps toggling the Airplane Mode switch on and off.
• If you are still having problems try removing and reinserting the SIM or booting with the new SIM already inside.
• If none of these seem to work, wait for a couple of days since yellowsn0w is still beta, so there might be bugs the Dev Team will squash out in the coming few days.

The Beauty of yellowsn0w is that it makes no changes to anything on your iPhone.. Yes you heard it right, yellowsn0w will in no way modify the contents of your iPhone Baseband.. Here’s what MuscleNerd of the Dev Team said :

it doesn’t touch a bit of the baseband NOR…all the patches are injected on the fly in RAM…they go away with poweroff

So you can uninstall yellowsn0w anytime you wish, and still leave your iPhone in a pristine state..

A Big thanks to the Dev Team for the wonderful effort, and I am sure this is the perfect gift for new years for many many iPhone users all over the world…

Please post in your questions in the comments, I’ll try to help you as much as possible.. Happy new year to all of you

Photo credit: bwana

While a lot of people are awaiting the release of Pwnage tool from iPhone Dev Team, there are equally that many people who accidentally got upgraded to 2.0 leaving their precious iPhone locked and unusable.

If you are one of those, then follow this guide to restore your iPhone 2G from firmware 2.0 to 1.1.4 and completely unlock it. This is of course is the only way you can use your iPhone 2G until the Dev Team releases Pwnage tool 2.0.

Follow the instructions below carefully, and you should be able to achieve the stated goal pretty fast. Trust me, it ain’t that hard….

Warning : This tutorial/guide is for the iPhone 2G only which have been accidentally upgraded to 2.0 needing to restore back to 1.1.4 and unlock the phone. Do not use this guide on your iPhone 3G.

Also this guide is currently only for the Mac OS.. I will add a guide for Windows when it is available and ready.

Alright lets get started then…. Download the following items at the start, you will need them during the course of the tutorial.

• iTunes 7.7 (from Apple)
• iTunes 7.5 (from Apple)
• AppZapper
• iPhone 1.1.4 Firmware
• Pwnage Tool 1.1
• iPhone 3.9 and 4.6 Bootloaders

Download all of them and keep them handy.. Lets get started then with the real deal.. Get ready to free your iPhone

• Install iTunes 7.7 and then uninstall it using AppZapper. This is to make sure you have the correct drivers and files necessary for the iPhone with firmware 2.0.
• Open Terminal and type the following command. Enter the administrator password when prompted for it.
  sudo rm -R /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileDevice.framework
• Now install iTunes 7.5 and reboot your Mac.
• Rename iTunes folder in Music to iTunesOLD. Run iTunes and configure everything to your hearts liking and quit iTunes.
• Plug in your iPhone using the dock connector. iTunes should now recognize the iPhone and prompt you telling that you need a newer version of iTunes. Just don’t bother and click OK.
• Now the tricky part, you now need to put the iPhone in DFU Mode. Note that the iPhone is completely blank in the DFU Mode.

  Here’s how to get into the DFU Mode, hold the home button on the bottom and the power button until the screen turns off and then count to 2 and let go of the power button on the top of the iPhone , but keep pressing home button until iTunes asks you if you want to restore your iPhone.

• Now in iTunes option click Restore in the iPhone tab and choose the iPhone firmware file iphone1,1_1.1.4.4A102_Restore.ipsw you downloaded earlier.
• iTunes will now restore 1.1.4 onto the iPhone. Once it is done you should get an error 1015 which is good sign.
• Now put your iPhone in normal restore mode (not DFU). To go into normal Restore mode turn off iPhone, turn on with a tap on power while holding the home button and hold the home button until iTunes tells that you need to restore your iPhone. Now restore the firmware again just like in the previous step. Don’t bother about the error code.
• Now quit iTunes and start Pwnage tool that you downloaded earlier and hit browse ipsw and select the firmware you downloaded earlier..
• Hit iPwner, and after a while your iPhone will start showing text, loads of it. After a while it should restart and ask you to connect it to iTunes.

  

• Hit Browse ipsw. Choose the file you downloaded earlier. Select ipsw builder and configure the options as shown below in the screenshot.

  

• Hit Ok, and choose the two bootloader files from the rar archive you downloaded earlier. Choose a location to save your restore file.

   

• Quit Pwnage tool, and fire up iTunes one last time.
• Option click on restore in the iPhone tab (the alt key + mouse key) and choose the new custom restore file you created in Pwnage tool.
• Once the restore is complete, your iPhone should be completely unlocked and jailbroken. You should be able to run any apps you wish and use any SIM.
• Sync your iPhone, and enjoy your totally unlocked iPhone.

Well that is it, wasn’t that long isn’t it. Try it out and at the moment it is the best solution until Dev Team gets around to releasing Pwnage tool 2.0 that will unlock Firmware 2.0 on the iPhone 2G.

Meanwhile enjoy your hacked phone!! Special thanks to aRT in the forums for writing this guide.

Please let us know in the comments, as to how it goes for you. This wouldn’t be possible without the work of many hackers from around the world whose sole aim is to free up the iPhone.

RSS Feeds seem to be everywhere these days. With growing popularity and the sheer number of websites offering RSS Feeds, the search for good RSS Feed readers gains significance.

Before you tell more about Headline, I’d like to ask you which feed reader you use and what are the things that you like/dislike about it the most? I for one use Google reader as my primary feed reader and I am happy with it.

Ever since RSS has started to make attention into the mainstream the need for more functional RSS feed readers with a much more intuitive UI has arised and Headline aims to exactly fill that void.

Simply put Headline is a revolution in feed reading. It combines a sleek, clean interface with a powerful user experience.

Yes Headlines is one of the most stunning looking RSS feed readers I’ve ever seen. Its not only about its stunning looks but it also offers a range of features that you find in almost feed readers plus some more that you won’t find elsewhere.

Let me just rundown through the important features of Headline.

• Easy Filtering

Headline allows you to easily filter out contents switching from Today, This Week, This Month, All, Unread or Favorites items.

• Sharing

Headline can easily share articles to friends over iChat and Mail. No need to manually find, copy and send links to friends, Headline do it for you.

• Media Player

Headline has built in support for Audio and Video player. You can easily listen audio or watch video podcasts on the fly with out downloading any files.

• Core Animation

Headline starts with a revolutionary interface and then gets better. Core Animation provides smooth effects between views and articles.

• Beautiful Preview

Headline can easily preview any article, mimics Quick Look, without opening the default browser or an external application for that.

• Growl Notification

Headline can automatically notify you when there are new articles available via Growl Notifications. It allows you to see when there are new articles while using other applications.

Quite an impressive feature set I must say. I just wonder why doesn’t windows see such beautiful functional softwares. Here are some screenshots of Headline for you to drool over.

On the Mac I know many users swear by NetNewsWire, but to all those hardcore fans of NetNewsWire I suggest you give Headline a try.

Headline comes in at 19.95$ for a single user licence and is also available for 34.95$ for a Family Pack Licence.

June 9th, the day when Apple’s annual developer event WWDC will kick start. During the four day event Apple will be making quite a few announcements. There are some we know for sure, but some that still remain a point of speculation.

Every passing day the rumors continue to swirl, and every day is a new day in the Apple land. Well here are my predictions for this years WWDC with my guess as to what chances are there it might be true..

Here they are :

• 3G iPhone (99.99% Sure we’ll see Steve Jobs Unveil this on June 9th)
• 3G iPhone available from Apple Stores on June 9th (50%)
• App Store (50% Sure)
• Mac OSX 10.6 (20% Chances)
• Redesigned Macbooks and Macbook Pros (75% Chance)

Well what else do you expect to see this WWDC? Let us know in the comments..

The iPhone is the sure to be the center of attraction. Rumors say that the new iPhone is expected to have support for GPS technology. News.com has a good point , “the combination of GPS and faster networking speeds should allow for a whole range of location-aware applications to proliferate on the iPhone, as they have on other competing phones.”

I’ll be all over Apple Centric blogs on June 9th trying to the get the latest information as WWDC progresses. June 9th to 13th are going to interesting days.

WWDC is scheduled to start 10:00 A.M. (PST).. Can’t wait any longer to see the latest Apple goodies. Bring ‘em on Apple..

photo credit: carrotcreative 

As Twitter continues to explode at a rate faster than any other web2.0 app that we’ve ever seen. The reason why Twitter has done so well because of the simple API that Twitter has and the number of apps that have been built on it. I thought with the growing popularity of Twitter it would be a nice idea to showcase some of the best clients for Twitter that have actually outdone Twitter itself.

Here they are in what I feel is the best order. From the worst of the best to the best of the best Twitter apps that rule the world. Read on….

Yes Twitteroo was the first Twitter client I used on my Windows Box. Its got a beautiful interface and is fun to use. The buttons and other options are easily accessible and replying to tweets is pretty easy. Overall I’d give Twitteroo a 3.5/5. Wondering why? Read the pros and cons

Pros

• A User friendly interface.
• Good features.

Cons

• A Memory Hog, eats up RAM like all the RAM is for itself.
• Windows Only.

Snitter was one of the first Twitter clients to run on Adobe AIR platform. Developed by designer genius Jonathan Snook, Snitter has one of the best UI’s I’ve come across in a Twitter client. As usual nothing out of the ordinary in terms of features, but Snitter definitely beats Twitteroo in UI and accessibility.

Pros

• Awesome Adobe AIR interface.
• Fun to use, variety of skins and skinnable via CSS as well.
• Keyboard shortcuts.

Cons

• Keyboard Shortcuts not so obvious.
• Switching streams from drop down menu is not so Web2ish..

Twitterrific is the original Twitter client for MacOSX. Its stood the test of time with all the competing clients that run on Adobe AIR. Has a super sexy UI that will instantly make you fall in love with it. Runs super fast and is the least buggy of all the clients mentioned as yet.

Pros

• Super Sexy Interface.
• Keyboard Shortcuts.

Cons

• Mac OSX Only.

While the picture I’ve uploaded here for Twhirl is the smallest yet, let me assure its no small client. A lot of people I know swear by Twhirl. With nifty features like Friendfeed integration and a sexy UI, Twhirl is your best bet if you are looking for a Twitter client. But we’re still on Number 4, so there is one more to go.

Pros

• Friendfeed Integration.
• A Clean and well laid out UI.

Cons

• Absence of Direct replies within the client
• Quite a memory hog.

And now is the time for the best of the best …

Spaz is a great-looking Twitter client, and to my eyes its the best of this bunch. I think it has the best interface, with tabs for your timeline, direct messages and replies, as well as access to your list of followers and profile information.

Pros

• Lovely gorgeous interface.
• Highly Skinnable via CSS.

Cons

• A Little Buggy.
• No Keyboard Shortcuts.

Well that completes it. All these Twitter clients make the Twitter experience completely enjoyable and addictive. Other notable mentions would be Hahlo, twitbin, Twitterfox, Digsby.

What do you think of these Twitter clients? Let us know in the comments.

Everyday I get emails from small startups asking me how to manage time and reduce their expenses. Well I’m not into this startup thingy but I thought I’d do these guys a favor, so I went hunting for the best free time tracking software and stumbled upon actiTIME.

In a nutshell actiTIME is basically :

“A clear and simple way to register time expenses, analyze employee performance, prepare timesheets for billing your customers”

I’ve tried out the demo and the web based app is highly functional and easy to use. You can collect timesheets by customers, projects and tasks. With awesome reporting capabilities and one of the best exporting options actiTIME is a must have tool for startups that are just starting out..

Have a look at this diagram that better illustrates the way actiTIME works..

Here’s a rundown into its features :

• Time expenses are recorded on by-customer and by-project basis
• Overtime and undertime calculations and reports
• Co-workers can share information using daily task comments
• Support of billable and non-billable task statuses
• Explicit reports for billing and management purposes
• Individual access rights management
• Entering/Modifying the time-track of other users
• Integration with Intuit QuickBooks®
• Data export in the CSV format

Because actiTIME doesn’t lock you in with the data like many other apps in this category do, it is championing the cause of Data Portability albeit in a different sense. Features like Quickbooks Integration are killer, since it is one of the most popular accounting softwares used worldwide.

I won’t go into the details into how this works, just head over to the actiTIME website and experience the demo to see it for yourself..

Considering that all this comes at the best price in the world, FREE! actiTIME is a must have tool for young startups that are still learning the tricks

Download actiTIME | View the Online Presentation on How actiTIME works