One of the most widespread problems people had with Snow Leopard when it launched was a compatibility issue in Mail.app (aka Apple Mail) which prevented messages being sent and even crashed the program in some cases. Nick wrote a guide to fixing these issues, so this obvious failing in Apple’s QA testing needn’t be too much of a hindrance.

That said, my first thought when I read about people having problems with Mail.app was: why are these people even using Mail.app? I’ve had my current iMac for around two years and I’ve never even run the Mail program. Not once. That’s because I use Gmail, a mail application that renders Mail.app and all other desktop email clients more or less obsolete.

For those of you still toiling in the dark with an email client, I know there is sometimes a good reason for that. If you’re trying to handle lots of different accounts, or if you need to connect to an Exchange server, it’s difficult to live without a mail client. But for the average home user and even for most home office users, webmail solutions will always be a better idea than clients. Here’s why:

Security and stability

Desktop email clients are inherently less stable than Gmail or other equivalent webmail services. Storing your data on a local disk (even if you backup) will never be as safe as trusting Google’s datacenters (which are, themselves never 100% safe: nothing is).

But perhaps more importantly, email clients generally rely on downloading message files (and often attachments) to your computer before you filter out content you don’t want. This means that the potential for spam and even malware finding its way onto your computer is significantly higher if you use a mail client application. Read the rest of this entry »

There are several ways to create a collage with your digital pictures: doing it yourself from scratch with Photoshop (which obviously requires a certain Photoshop knowledge), using an automated Photoshop action that does almost all the hard work for you or simply turning to easier, more specific collage-oriented tools like Shape Collage.

This awesome program lets you create completely customizable photo collages in just a few minutes, and without any artistic or technical skill required. As long as you know how to select photos from your hard drive, and tweak a few simple configuration settings, you’re good to go. Shape Collage is completely free for personal use, and works on Windows, Mac and Linux.

But if you’re the kind of person who prefers not to install software if there’s a web app that does the same job, we’ve got good news for you: Shape Collage has just launched an online version! Shape Collage Online is a stripped-down version of the desktop app, with less options and reduced functionality, but it works perfectly fine for the occasional photo collage. Just select the photos you want to use in your collage (they must be all online, either as standalone photos or photo galleries), pick a shape for your collage and hit ‘Create’. After a few seconds, your collage will be ready!

While browsing through the comments on OnSoftware, I discovered the blog of one commenter who had written a post called Twitter is killing my blog and it got me thinking. One of the main reasons for his preference for Twitter was that it’s an “easy avenue to be connected” that he felt “a sense of participation” and that he got instant feedback when asking for opinions.

Some of this rings very true. I’ve also noticed a drop-off in blogging from blogs I follow whose writers have concentrated more on using Twitter. Communications consultant Mark Evans claims he also noticed the same thing a while back.

I think there’s several reasons for this:

• Tweeting is quick and easy. Using a Twitter client involves far less fuss than a blogging interface such as WordPress or Blogger. Perhaps most importantly, issuing a tweet cuts far less into your working day than putting together a well thought-out blog post.
• Twitter provides a greater sense of being connected. Because it’s so easy to update, regular tweeters tend to do so much more frequently than they blog fostering a greater sense of inter-communication. Searching by keywords also instantly puts you in touch with people with shared interests.
• There’s no waffle in tweeting. It’s easy to wax lyrical in a blog post but you simply can’t afford to do that in a 140 character tweet. People have to get to the point immediately (even if it’s only to say, “I just went to the bathroom”).
• It’s ideal for short attention spans. We’re bombarded with so much information everyday that attention spans are inevitable getting shorter. The brevity of tweets means that Twitter is the perfect outlet to tap into this.

Maybe then it should be no surprise if more bloggers are moving towards Tweeting. However, what I’d prefer to see is more bloggers using Twitter to promote things they’ve written on their blog or complement their blogging in some way. Tweeting can never allow the degree of expressiveness, discussion and analysis that blogging does and it would be a shame to see the better bloggers out there ditch their blogs in the name of quick tweet.

The Great Flu is a short strategy game where you have to try your best to limit a global flu pandemic. The Earth is split into areas, and depending on problems in each part you can direct certain policies at them. Distributing face masks, improving health care, stockpiling vaccines and more are available. As you progress, you’ll receive media stories and messages that help you make decisions. Once the pandemic hits, the growing spread of red dots over the planet is quite disturbing!

The game seems to be based on genuine medical advice, and it’s interesting to see which polices don’t work so well. I contained the Gamers Flu in 25 days, with only 161,746 deaths. OK, that doesn’t sound too good I suppose. This flash game plays in your browser, and is beautifully designed. It’s not the most cheerful concept, but it’s an unusually good mix of entertainment and education, an often cursed mix.

If you need a quick fix of mindless destruction after that, try Max Damage, a really basic physics game where you have to fire a cannon at domestic items, and do the maximum amount of damage possible. It’s not a new idea, or a clever one but it’s still fun.

After I finally stopped laughing at Mashable’s round-up of the best songs about Facebook and Twitter, I’ve had time to compose my own list of the best software-related tunes. It’s amazing how many artists have felt compelled to write songs professing their love (or often their hatred) of applications and operating systems.  Here are the ten that moved me the most.

Free Software Song

The crowd at Richard Stillman’s impromptu ‘gig’ were left dumbstruck by his mesmerizing performance of his self-penned Free Software Song. Don’t expect the founder of the GNU Project and Free Software Foundation to be getting an six-album deal anytime soon, though.

Photoshop

Check out this extravagant performance of Spark’s Photoshop song, recorded on the band’s Creatures of the Deep tour. Russell, we would never want to Photoshop you out of our lives.

Mac or PC Rap

One of my personal favorites, this Flight Of the Conchords-style hip hop parody debates the nuances of the Windows and Mac OS interfaces. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever clicked on a link in Firefox that’s supposed to open an external application but it can’t for some reason? I recently encountered this problem when clicking on a link for TVUPlayer for Mac. The error message reported:

Firefox doesn’t know how to open this address, because the protocol (tvu) isn’t associated with any program.

I tried the same thing on Firefox in Windows however and got a helpful “Choose Application” dialog that allowed me to select the correct application to open by browsing to it’s location on my hard drive:

The problem is when Firefox is asked to open something outside of the browsing environment on a Mac, it often needs a protocol which instructs it how to. This should be something that’s easy to address in Firefox Preferences but unfortunately it’s not. You have to access Firefox’s hidden settings to fix the problem. Read the rest of this entry »

Two words: Robot + Disco.

If you’re still reading this, and not playing Frobot, you probably never will. Just in case I can convince the non robot and disco fans out there, this is a kind of shoot ‘em up. It’s free, and plays in your browser with Flash. You control the Frobot, on a mission to save boring suits and government agents from themselves, and turn them into party loving disco dancers. Move with the keyboard, and aim with the mouse. You have to be careful - once you shoot a suit, they turn into a dancer, but will die if you shoot them some more! The music’s cool, the robot’s cool… it is a bit tough, but I can forgive that, as it’s got robots and disco in it!

Those canny Swedes have been at it again. Following on from the launch of music service Spotify, Voddler is a new service where the focus is the screen rather than music. Voddler promises to offer a service similar to Spotify except with films and TV shows on demand.

Co-founder Mathias Hjelmstedt told OnSoftware:

“Since 2005, we’ve been working on developing the streaming technology that’s allowed us to conceive this project. It will offer both TV shows and films on demand and eventually will be extended beyond home computing to become part of your living room viewing experience.”

The service is initially being rolled-out in Scandinavia first before being launched in UK and then worldwide and will work on Windows, Mac and Linux. Voddler has been in beta stage since 1st July and the development blog claims that 16,000 people signed-up for it on the first day.  Once you’ve entered your name and e-mail address however, you’ll have to be one of the lucky ones selected for beta testing. OnSoftware has been granted an exclusive pass so watch this space for one of the first looks at this exciting app.

Asked if Voddler uses the same streaming software common to sites such as YouTube, Hjelmstedt says, “Not at all. If YouTube were to use our patented steaming technology, my guess is that they could save up to 90% of their streaming costs.” A bold statement indeed. Asked also if Voddler is anything like Hulu, Hjelmstedt simply replied, “No, it’s much better.”

But will paid-up users receive a better service than those only using the ad supported version? Hjelmstedt says, “It depends on the film. It’s quite possible that a newly released film at the cinema will be available the same day on Voddler to all users. However, some film studios only want paid-up users to have access to new content so it really depends.”

Eventually, Hjelmstedt sees Voddler as an essential home entertainment system. “Eventually there will be a Voddler box that plugs into your TV so that you won’t even need a computer.” Asked about the price of the premium service, he says, “Cheap. A little bit more expensive than Spotify though because it’s films and not music.”

Scanning the blogosphere, it doesn’t seem that many people have been invited at this early stage although Morten Skogly offers us an exciting sneak preview with high-resolution screenshots.

Apart from the screenshots on Skogly’s blog, the only other shot we have of the service is from the Swedish ISP that Voddler is currently being promoted with.

Watch this space for a full review of Voddler on OnSoftware soon!

After reading dozens of articles about the wonders of Ubuntu and hearing some of my workmates constantly praising it, I was so curious to test it for myself that I couldn’t help it: I’ve downloaded the latest version of this popular Linux distro from their official website and I’m just about to install it. I want to see it with my own eyes and check if Ubuntu really deserves all those kind words. I plan to be using Ubuntu for a few days, not only to test it as an operating system, but also to test myself and see if I can manage to accomplish the most basic tasks (browsing the web, downloading software, blogging, listening to music, editing photos…) in a completely new operating system. If you’re also curious about Ubuntu, get ready because the trip is about to start!

They say that a thousand mile journey starts with a single step and in this case, our first step is obviously installing Ubuntu. After downloading the Ubuntu 9.04 ISO file, burn it to a CD with your favorite burning app, following these instructions if necessary. Insert the newly recorded CD into the CD drive and restart your system so that it boots from the CD drive and launches the installation. You may have to modify the boot-up sequence on your system to do this.

The first step is choosing the language used for installation. Note that this will also be the default language for the system once Ubuntu is installed. Read the rest of this entry »

Google Earth gets more and more features all the time. Its 3D mapping is always improving, the not very interesting ocean floors have been included as well as historical sites and lots of buildings.

You can now choose to add weather conditions and the sun to your experience. Clicking View - Sun, will add a time slide to the interface. You can now move time, and see the sun rise, set and create shadow all over the globe. All the information is astronomically correct - so you can see the change in sunrises over the year. The sun effect can be quite spectacular. With the weather, which is activated on the sidebar of Google Earth, you simply select Weather, then conditions. You can then click on any weather icon to get a forecast for that place. 

On the same sidebar, there is also a Street View button, giving you the same images you can find on Google Maps in your browser.  It’s not quite as well implemented - moving around is definitely easier in your browser,but it’s still a cool feature. Incidentally, if you haven’t tried the revamped street view in Google Maps, it’s much improved. If you’re looking for a holiday experience, you can now visit a modeled Euro Disney site, and watch the sun go up and down, repeatedly! alternatively, try some mountains for a more epic view.

Why not use your laptop (or desktop) as turntables at a party? With a little practice you can get a much better mix than simply sticking an iPod on shuffle. Plug your laptop into the stereo, and turn up the volume. Here’s my guide to getting started!

Software: There is lots of DJing software out there, but the free program Mixxx is pretty much as good as any available. This tutorial was done with the Windows version, but it’s the same on Mac and Linux too.

Playlist: Once you’ve installed Mixxx and imported your library,  it’s a good idea to create a playlist of tracks you like. Click on library and create playlist or you can even import one from iTunes. Select ‘playlist’ from the drop down menu above the library, and your playlist will appear.

Mixing: Right click on your first track and choose Load in Player 1, and do the same for your second track, but load in player 2! Now you’re ready to start. After a few seconds, Mixxx will have estimated the BPM of your tracks, and it’s pretty accurate. Clicking SYNC on player 2 will alter the speed of that track to equal the first(if you want to), or you can use the rate sliders to alter BPM too. While you can control Mixxx with the mouse, it’s much easier to do so with the mouse and keyboard. The most important keys: D and L play/pause Player 1 and 2 respectively.

Move the cross-fader to the left (it’s the slider in the centre of Mix) and hit D to start the music. Clicking and holding on the wave for player 2 (the static one), you’ll find you can drag it left to right. Use this method to line up the centre marker with the start of the music (you have to be gentle!). When track one is near the end it’s time to mix. If you’re trying to beat-match be patient, as it may take some practice! If not, start track 2 as you are moving the cross-fader from the left, and track two will fade in as track 1 fades out.

For beat-matching, move the cross-fader to the centre, and hit L on a beat, which will start track 2. If you were in time, track two will be playing and it will sound good. If so, slide the cross-fader gently to the right, and hit D to stop track1. Right click on track 3, load it into player one, and repeat the above process!

Tips: Use the channel 1 and 2’s volume and tone controls to get things sounding right - some tracks are naturally louder than others, so might need turning down.

In general, the better you know your tracks, the better you’ll be able to mix them, and the more you practice, the easier it becomes.

You don’t need to beat match - sometimes it sounds good if you jump from one track to another, flicking the crossfader so there is no transition between songs. Give it a go!

Have you used Mixxx, or would you recommend another application? Leave us a comment!

Even when you’re not sitting in front of your computer, you can still use it for something productive. No, I’m not talking about leaving your favorite BitTorrent client on all night long: I mean collaborating on serious projects such as finding a cure for important diseases like cancer or AIDS, investigating climatic change and other environmental issues or looking for extraterrestrial life, among others.

Doing your bit in any of these important projects is as easy as installing the BOINC software, a tool developed by the University of Berkeley, and choosing the project you want to help with. BOINC will enable you to join a massive network of computers all over the world and use the extraordinary power of thousands of processors working together in a collaborative computing system.

The BOINC client can be configured to work only at certain hours and also limited to use only a certain percentage of your disk space and processor power, so that your daily workflow is not affected. You can also access real-time statistics that show how your computer is performing. Oh, and by the way: BOINC works in most platforms – some of the projects are even available on the PS3 – so if you’ve always wanted to contribute in a project to improve society, this is your perfect chance.

Microsoft working on a new web browser called Gazelle [readwriteweb]

Facebook opens a way for user feedback regarding the site’s policies [facebook]

Neat collection of WordPress tutorials to create themes, plug-ins and more [tutsplus]

President Obama signaling the end of the Twitter trend? [New York Times]

Can anyone escape from Sagrario’s Room? [Sagrario’s Room]

I’ve always been curious about testing other operating systems. I currently run Windows XP on the office computer, and also have two virtual machines with Vista and Windows 7 respectively. My home computer is a MacBook with Mac OS X. And I’m even planning on acquiring an HTC Magic to be able to fiddle with Android.

The one OS missing in this list is obviously Linux. I tried a few distributions in the 90s and I must say I didn’t have a very positive experience. Linux wasn’t that user-friendly back then and I had problems with sound configuration and with network settings, not to mention the effort I had to make to find new software and keep my system updated.

But things have changed a lot since then. Hundreds of developers have been working hard on improving usability in Linux, and all major distributions are now easier to set up and run. There are even some that can be run from a CD or a USB stick, meaning you can have a sneaky peak at the OS without actually having to erase, format or reinstall anything. It’s the perfect way to take your first steps in a completely new environment while leaving a backdoor open: in case something goes wrong or you’re not sure about the switch yet, you can simply restart the computer and go back to Windows. Given that it’s that easy, I couldn’t help it: I decided to give Linux a second chance, this time from my USB pendrive. Read the rest of this entry »

For anyone who owns a guitar and a Mac, these are good times to be living in. The release of iLife 09 saw GarageBand upgraded to include guitar lessons from the stars and there are other apps around such as Guitar Guru which is probably the slickest and most effective guitar learning software I’ve used on Mac or PC. Of course, no amount of computer genius can turn you into Slash, but for many, using a computer tutorial can be more effective - and cheaper - than spending hours learning to play Baa Baa Black Sheep with some long bearded instructor with bad breath or messing around printing badly tabbed tablature from the net. Here are a few tips and links to get you strumming:

Tuna Pitch The first thing you need to get right before you do anything is the tuning of your guitar. Most Mac guitar tuners however will only play you the tone of what your strings should sound like. The problem with that is, if you’re tone deaf like me, you still can’t tune your guitar. Tuna Pitch uses your Mac’s microphone to detect the tone of your strings so your Mac does the hard work for you. Just tune your string until the small dot hits the middle of the reading scale. Read the rest of this entry »