Bing vs Google

Last week, I posted a video that took a humorous approach to the search engine battle between the California giants, and then new kid on the block, Bing. Interestingly, I came across this website that does a very simple move to give you the best of both worlds, at the same time. Just like how some people would argue that a portion of contemporary art is no more than a very basic idea that the artist came up with first, Bing vs Google is something for which its creator deserves credit simply because he came up with the idea before anyone else, and brought it to us, the users, to take advantage of.

One field, two search engines

Instead of opening two separate tabs to test out the two main search engines in competition right now, you can now view the results from both worlds, by the same click, and in the same window:

Bing vs Google, at the same time

Of course, on a small screen, it wouldn’t be too useful, but who has anything smaller than a 15.4″ with at least 1280 pixels in width? Viewing them side-by-side is as fair as you can get. And even if you insist on using one of them and not the other, it might be good practice to start off with Bing vs Google to make an accurate judgment first. And let’s not forget that there’s always Ask, Yahoo!, and a few others.

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PS3 Slim Unboxing

Hardcore gamers are lining up to get their hands on the new Play Station 3 Slim, which will hit the shelves on September 1st. Generally speaking, it is exactly like the traditional PS3, but the main difference is the size, as well as the hard disk space (the new one offering 120 GB for your storage). Not exactly a breakthrough, and therefore, not too many bells and whistles will be going off, but it’s good to have a quick idea of how different it is from the original, and that is exactly what the following video illustrates:

The bad news is that the price has not been reduced, meaning those who have been saving up will have to make the full investment. As for those of you who do not consider themselves full-time gamers, you should take comfort knowing that the PS3 remains one of the cheapest Bluray players in the market. More over, it is now slimmer and more attractive.

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Apple Fixes Mac’s Issues for a “Small Fee”

Just when you thought that Steve Jobs and Co were doing everything possible to get the last penny from its loyal consumers’ pockets, Apple have proudly introduced the release of Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6), available for pre-ordering. Not only have they brought new features and fixed a load of bugs, but they are also offering their latest operating system at a generous $29 for users upgrading from Mac OS X 10.5. Last year, users upgrading to the then new and unprecedented Leopard had to make a hefty investment. This time around, Apple are being compassionate with the poor and offering the upgrade, which is in theory only 0.02 increase in terms of version number, at under 30 bucks.

Apple patches up its OS, and charges for it

Before we go further, let’s examine the new features that are brought to the table by the California giants. A visual presentation of the main features can be found at Apple’s website here. While a complete list of the “refinements” are also available via their website. If you don’t have the time or are not willing to put the effort, the following are the key players in the move for the snow version of the same animal:

1. Exchange Support: With the new Mac OS, you can synchronize your calendar, contacts and email with a Microsoft Exchange server, which is widely used amongst companies of all sizes and industries
2. Improved Security: Better protection against malware and threats
3. Exposé & Dock Integration: IT is now easier to access open documents, combine open windows to space horizontal space
4. A Better Finder: Restore files to original location directly from trash (available in Windows for a over a decade, but still considered a revolution when it’s done in Apple’s name). Also displays which applications are using an inserted drive, preventing it from being ejected
5. New Quictime player: For some reason accredited to the new OS, even though anyone using any OS and download and use it
6. Minor Enhancements: Fewer Safari crashes, built-in screen capture with video, A proper Wifi utility, and more

The following video show a quick demonstration of the “new” Dock Expose:

The inevitable question that results from Apple’s new release is: How on Earth is this considered a commercial upgrade and not a set of basic updates? After all, these are nothing more than the type of tasks you would find on any technicians ToDo list. There is nothing out of the ordinary, and could in fact be considered fixes that are over-due.

This is where the intelligence of the consumer is questioned. Many Apple fanatics are overlooking the fact that they are forced to pay for a group of enhancements and improvements, and are in fact impressed that they are only charged a relatively-small fee. The problem with brands like Apple is that they are associated with many social aspects that couldn’t be further from the technology world. As a result, instead of driving computer-makers to come up with products that would fit our needs, we anxiously wait to see what are the products that will be introduced to the market, and consequently find out what we need to buy. I personally find it shocking that there are not enough people who find the payment for some fixes absurd, and it was even worse last time around when the fee was significantly larger.

Apple, just like any other company in the technology realm, makes imperfect products, and therefore is constantly working to address issues and fix them. However, Apple is the only company that will charge you to patch up security flaws, grant features that have been around since the Cold War, and make improvements that are nothing more than a natural step in the cycle of any product. We cannot expect corporations to serve us in the best way possible from the start, but with the current trends in ostentatious products and name brands such as Apple’s Macs, some companies do not even need to worry too much about the user’s need; they just need to focus on dictating it so that people know what to buy.

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Embed Videos With Flowplayer

For anyone developing or maintaining a website, embedding videos used to always be an issue. That was until YouTube became the undisputed leader for sharing videos, and embedding them in websites. Normally, using a free service with a recognizable appearance and a visible watermark, like YouTube, is unprofessional. However, YouTube has become so popular, that even the large corporations and professional entities display their clips using it.

YouTube is easy but limited

The reasons to YouTube’s success as a “video distributer” are due to the simplicity of the process, the familiarity with it by the regular users, and the relative flexibility in terms of size and appearance. Anyone can simply create a free YouTube account, upload a video, customize the interface by choosing the border color and display size, and then embed it into any website using the generated code. Seems like the ideal solution.

However, there are a number of disadvantages to the YouTube way of life:

1. The video is on Google’s server, and not yours: Even if their servers are rarely down, it’s always comforting to be in possession of your own content
2. Customization is limited: You have eight colors to choose from, and no say over the appearance of the border or controls
3. Somewhat rigid: In order to make any changes, you need to go back to YouTube, and re-copy and paste the code
4. Watermark and standard look: Nothing’s worse than having everything look the same. With YouTube, the watermark is very visible, and all of the players are virtually identical

Flowplayer: Open Source Flash Video Player

This is where Flowplayer comes to the rescue. Flowplayer is an open-source JavaScript library that allows you to embed videos in your website via a full customizable player. It is as easy as calling on the JavaScript file, inserting an <a> tag, and then indicating the properties that you want to define. This basically means that instead of uploading a video to YouTube and embedding the player, you can upload the .flv to your web server and the markup will look like this:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<head>
<!-- flowplayer scripts should be loaded from your servers NOT from static.flowplayer.org  -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="/js/flowplayer-3.1.2.min.js"></script>
</head>

<!-- some styling for the standalone page. this line can (or must) be removed -->
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/demos/standalone.css"/>

<!-- player container-->
<a href="http://flowplayer.org/video/flowplayer-700.flv" style="display:block;width:425px;height:300px;" id="player"></a>

<!-- this script block will install Flowplayer inside previous A tag -->
<script language="JavaScript">
flowplayer("player", "/swf/flowplayer-3.1.2.swf");
</script>

You can see the result here.

Notice that you call on the JS file in the <head>, and then you use the <a> to embed the player (you can also use <div>), and finally, some JavaScript to specify any attributes that you want to use.

Some of the features include:

• Embedding several videos in the same page without effecting performance
• Choosing the splash image that, when clicked on, starts the video
• Placing an image in the background, with a layer on top (ideal for a single “play” sign to be placed on any image)
• Embedding a playlist of videos
• A growing list of plugins to be used with the player
• Control such details as the fade in/fade out speed, cue points, and much more

Just by open-sourcing it (there’s also a commercial version), and allowing for the community to contribute with plugins on different levels means that the sky is the limit as far as embedding videos in websites is concerned. It might take a bit of time before it catches on with the regular users (who are very rarely willing to dig into the code), but for designers and developers, it should definitely be a tool to replace old-school video incorporation.

The website is very well designed and laid out, and the documentation is quite extensive, but it does seem to lack some usability. That is why when you first visit the Flowplayer website, you become confused as to what it is exactly, and how to works. After looking deeper, however, it has become clear that it is a very powerful tool with endless possibilities.

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Even Nokia Makes Netbooks

Nokia Booklet 3G

To the surprise of many in the tech world, cellular telephony giants Nokia have announced that they will be introducing a “mini-laptop” by the name of Booklet 3G by next month. The Finnish company has come through the ranks over the years and has established itself as the king of the domain as far as cell phones and portable devices are concerned. Now they have taken it a step further with a small laptop that seems dubiously similar to the netbooks available in the market today:

• Intel Atom processor
• Ships with the new Windows 7
• 10.1″ screen
• Bluetooth, Wifi and GPS
• Card reader

Until this point, it does not seem significantly different than its counterparts produced by the likes of Acer and Asus. However, there are a couple of features that could just excite the crowd into rushing for it:

1. HDMI out means you can watch the high definition videos from your laptop on a large external HD screen
2. 3G sim slot brings the long-awaited possibility of inserting a sim card with a 3G connection and use your laptop to browse the web

In fact, there seems to be such hype on the new notebook, that the official website has been down ever since the announcement. If it does come back up, you’d be able to view it here.

It’s always good news when there’s new competition entering the market. The ability to access the internet via an integrated sim card slot is a right consumers should’ve been granted ages ago, but was not available due to the monopolies of the telecommunications companies forcing users to sign two-year contracts. However, judging by the quality of the high-end phones and portable devices produces by the Finns, it is difficult to be optimistic about the very first netbook they come up with. Yet another case of how time will tell.

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DOCTYPEs And Validation

When developing a website it is crucial to do so in the cleanest, most standards’ compliant way. After spending sleepless nights getting your website to render properly on IE6 (which I hope will be dieing soon), the next major task on the list is to validate your CSS, as well as the markup. In most cases, having a clean, organized code that is valid goes hand-in-hand with proper browser rendering. However, before we go further, we need to know what exactly are the different DOCTYPEs, and which one we should be using.

DOCTYPE is short for Document Type Declaration and it is the very first element that appears in any web page (preceding the <HTML> tag), and it basically indicates to the browser how to look at your code. If you do not declare a DOCTYPE at the start of your document, browsers become confused and act differently. Therefore, regardless of how professional you want to go around doing this, a DOCTYPE is absolutely vital. You can read more about why you should use a DOCTYPE at the A List Apart website.

Having said that, you know need to make the decision of which of the various types are you going to stick to. The most important types are for HTML and XHTML, and on three levels: Frameset, Transitional and Strict. This is how the line of code looks like:

HTML 4.01 Frameset

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Frameset//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/frameset.dtd">

HTML 4.01 Transitional

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

HTML 4.01 Strict

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">

XHTML 1.0 Frameset

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Frameset//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-frameset.dtd">

XHTML 1.0 Transitional

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

XHTML 1.0 Strict

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">

You can see the full list of DOCTYPEs at the W3C website.

Now you need to make the choice. If you are looking to become a professional web designer, then your goal is to stick to the XHTML 1.0 Strict DOCTYPE and produce valid CSS and code. This means your code is strictly organized and the syntax is perfect. However, this might be extremely difficult to reach at your first attempt. For that reason, you may want to use the Transitional, which is the same, but far looser and will let many little “errors” slip without making a big fuss about them. In all cases, you should not use the Frameset DOCTYPEs because we have successfully embarked the 21st century, and frames are a thing of the past.

You might want to start out with the XHTML Strict DOCTYPE and see how the validation goes. If your website is online, you can use the W3C Validation Service as you work to follow the errors that come up. If it’s not online, and you are developing from your local machine (via MAMP, for example, which I had talked about), you can use the Web Developer Firefox add-on (one of several that you should be using as a web designer) and click on Tools > Validate HTML. If you are getting 500 errors, that it might be too little too late. However, if you have 200, for example, you can work to fix them all. If that’s way too much work that you don’t think is worth the time, then you can go Transitional, and the error count should be significantly reduced, to eventually give you valid Transitional code.

Why Should I Validate My Code?

In theory, a proper DOCTYPE with validated CSS and XHTML will render properly across all browsers. However, since there are “browsers” such as Internet Explorer 6, a perfectly valid code could still lead to a perfectly disfunctional website. However, it will most probably render as you would want it to on the remaining browsers in the market. Over time, the issue with validation has moved from being essential for cross-browser compatibility, to being a prestigious title that is well worth striving for.

Therefore, as a professional web designer, you should put every effort into producing validated code to ensure that it is:

1. Future-proof: Any new browsers will properly render it
2. Cross-browser compatible: Will require less work to show up perfectly on all of the current browsers
3. Professional: Having the “valid CSS” and “valid XHTML” on your website are indications of the value of your work – something to be proud of

The good news is that the huge majority of frameworks and scripts that are used as the base of any website (I had previously talked about the 960 Grid System, as well as Blueprint as CSS frameworks) are developed with valid code to allow the most uptight of designers and developers to rely on them. So if you start developing your website by declaring the XHTML 1.0 Strict DOCTYPE, using the 960 GS, on your Mac using MAMP, you can use the Web Developer Firefox add-on to keep track of the validity of your code. That would hopefully result in a sleek, professional, CSS and XHTML-valid website!

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Support Details: Your Basic Info

It cannot be reiterated enough: The beauty of the internet lies in the unlimited possibilities of the direct communication between millions of people across space and time. The freedom of the Web gives the people the power deserved. That is why there are always new products and services available for the user to take advantage of. I have previously reviewed Web 2.0 websites that make your life easier, such as Print Friendly or StopForwarding.Us, and today I came across a simple service that might save the average user a lot of hassle.

Support Details is a web page that immediately detects some basic information about your computer and displays it in a neat layout so that you can pass it on to the technical support specialist when you talk to him. Regardless of whether you consider yourself tech-savy or not, if you face problems with your PC at work, for example, and have to call the IT guys and explain the situation on the phone, this website provides you with some of the information they would need.

Support Details: Your Info

As you can see from the image, You can find out the exact OS that you are using, screen resolution, browser (with version), and more. You can even send these details in an email directly from the page.

This is not meant to be a system analyzer, but merely the type of information that tends to be sought after by those trying to fix your computer. It would be nice to see a lot more info, such as the processor, hard disk and the likes, but that would require a software. This is but an example of a free Web 2.0 service that has a specific task and does it well.

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Graphic Design in Political Propaganda

An interesting article by the Designer Daily revealed some of the artwork that was produced at the time of the Cold War to aid the propaganda of the US as well as the Soviet Union. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and at times of war, it is extremely important for governments to have strong visual campaigns to ensure the support of the public. The following is one of the most intruiging ones:

Jo Jo The Dove

This was a post created by Paix et Liberte (Peace and Liberty), which was a French anti-communist group from the times of the Cold War when the two schools of thought were battling it out. The idea is to depict Stalin as a fake who pretends like he is interested in peace, while he is actually looking to butcher the enemy and force his evil ways. It is safe to assume that today’s public are not as naive, and that it would be necessary to be a little more subtle about how “bad” the “baddies” are. But generally speaking, reading a pamphlet explaining the group’s manifesto would not have been anywhere as effective as a poster like this one.

On a design level, I personally think it would still compete with some of today’s products. With history repeating itself, there has been strong movements to go retro in the different areas of digital and print art. Add that to the relatively modern color scheme illustrated in the poster, and you can see how by changing the message, you can fit it right into today’s publications. It’s a true beauty and an inspiration to graphic designers, but hopefully not politicians!

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The Lifetime of Cell Phones

It is a shocking fact of life that the telecommunications industry behaves quite differently to similar markets in terms of what is offered to the consumers. It seems like investing in a cell phone immediately places you in an awkward situation where it is not always best to throw in huge sums of money. Sometimes it is wiser to buy the cheaper product, even when you have the resources available for its top-of-the-line counterpart.

When purchasing a digital camera, the more expensive models tends to offer the stability of a few years with exceeding performance. A $400 camera will always be around five years after purchase, while a $200 model could last just half of that period, and never offer the features and functionality brought forward by the former. The same applies to notebooks. While Acers (a personal favorite) offer advanced characteristics at very reasonable prices, you cannot expect a lifetime that competes with a Sony Vaio that has cost more than double. It is generally best to invest the maximum amount possible to guarantee that you will be profiting from a significantly long lifetime, while enjoying advanced functionality.

As water-tight as the plan may seem, it is not always possible to buy the high-end products. If you can only pitch in with 700 dollars for a notebook, than you simply cannot afford the Vaio that boasts the specs that you are requiring, while brands like Acer, Dell and Toshiba satisfy your needs. Therefore, when making a purchase, you automatically place a budget depending on the maximum amount that you can pay, before you search for the best available option in that price range.

Having said that, it becomes evident that mobile phones do not follow that trend: Investing in a high end phone, means that the phone is a lot more fragile and susceptible to damage, more likely to have software failures, and will most probably disappoint you with a sorry lifetime. A cheap Nokia 1112 may not be fancy, nor will it offer any sort of eye candy, but it certainly boasts the following:

1. Very low price
2. Virtually unbreakable, survives swimming pool accidents no problem
3. Battery lasts up to a week or more
4. Never freezes, very quick software response time
5. Generally allows you to use its limited features very efficiently

Nokia 1112, your basic needs

You might not be able to browse the web or check our email, but you’ve got all of the basic functionality you would need from a cell phone. If we were to compare the Nokia 1112 with the Nokia E71 (which I had discussed in an earlier post), you would immediately notice the following:

1. Extremely expensive
2. The sound of the sea waves means it instantaneously starts falling apart
3. The battery will last up to 3 days, which is considered to be a revolution amongst similar-category phones
4. Inevitably causes software freezes and issues over time
5. It can take you ages to change settings like a ring tone, and SMSs are anything but a swift experience

Nokia E71 - bit off more than you can chew?

But it looks cooler, and gives you the possibility of doing things you never thought were possible with a small device that you keep in your pocket. To top it all off, a low-end cell phone like the Nokia 1112 will easily give you a handful of years without any problems whatsoever (and even if anything arises, it’s fixed at no cost, and on the go). On the other hand, you can consider yourself lucky to carry a high-end mobile device such as the E71 for two years, and you will have seen the best of it merely six months after purchase.

Thus, when you buy a car, bet on the best one within your desired budget. When investing in a laptop, make the most out of the money available. But when you are about to buy a cell phone, you might want to use only a small percentage of what you have available, as it could be the wiser choice.

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Can You Compete with Google Search?

This is a short video by CollegeHumor that uses sarcasm to point out the possible lack of competition for the Google search engine:

Microsoft launched Bing in an attempt to make life difficult for Google. Not surprisingly, it is not working out so well, at least not at the moment. The main problem is that the search engine boom has been almost exclusively handed to Google, and they wasted no time in taking advantage. In fact, the word “search” has seemed to have disappeared from the English/Tech language, and users worldwide are referring to the daily process as “Googling”. That results in a clear advantage in Google’s favor leaving very little room for maneuver, especially with the regular users’ lack of interest in exploring the different options -- people just want to get to what they’re looking for in the quickest and easiest manner. Consequently, you might come across those who advocate the phrase “I love Google!”, as oppose to “I love the Internet”, giving credit to the technology giants for the actual content offered via the Web, not just the process of finding it.

Filtering the huge majority of search queries via a single search engine can be very dangerous, as it facilitates the process of censorship. Potentially, Google could have the power of controlling what is crawled and visible in the results, and what stay in the dark. Either way, as users of the information super highway, we can always benefit from more competition. Let’s hope the power remains where it belongs: With the people.

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