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Since all download manager’s arise in different sizes, formats and prices, the best ones often come with advanced options allowing users to convert media files from .aac to.mp3, the capability to continue downloads after an unexpected error happens during browsing and automatic organisation of all your downloaded files, which can be muddled up quite easily.

In this post, I will show you five of the best download managers which I feel give all these features and more!

1. Free Download Manager

Free Download Manager (FDM) is used widely by the public since it is free and displays numerous useful functions. Some of the features that FDM includes are below:

• FDM Community Feature, you can install this if you choose to and it allows users to speak to other members about download information, especially the ones that can harm your computer. Thus, the feature contains three categories for the traffic usage modes, including light,medium and heavy. If you use heavy bandwidth, it will benefit you since it will be finished slightly faster, making FDM unique to others.
• Powerful download accelerator with the ability to download specific files from another server!
• Browser Monitoring support for almost all browsers including, FireFox, IE, Opera, Chrome and Safari.
• Built-in network optimiser which juggles around with your settings in order to make it the best for your internet connection.
• Built-in manager that can save your usernames/passwords to save your brain power for other jobs.
• Unique capability to download flash video files (.flv) from places like Youtube and then convert them to (.avi) so that you can watch them at your pleasure without the interference with a video encoder to assist you along the way
• HTML Spider allows users to download whole websites if they want to mess around with a site’s template.

Based on these features above, we can safely say FDM is one of the leading download managers with its limitless amount of features for speeding up your downloads. If anyone needs a download manger quickly, use this application since it performs so smoothly and effectively.

Rating: 10/10

2. Internet Download Manager

Internet Download Manager (IDM) is a fully featured application that speeds up all your downloads by up to 5x the initial speed! It neatly integrates into your browser making it easy to use when it comes to downloading. IDM is already hugely popular with all users since they have had success with previous updates. Features included with Internet Download Manager include:

• Start your Download with one click. When you click on a download link in a browser, Internet Download Manager will take over the download and accelerate it.
• Unique, intelligent dynamic file segmentation technology allows download speeds to accelerate up to 5x faster.
• Ability to resume your download if a systematic error takes place.
• Automatic Antivirus check
• Supports HTTP, FTP and HTTPS protocols.
• Integrates with all known browsers
• Download All feature enables users to download all the link on one page!
• Customizable Interface
• Download Organiser allows you to categorize all your downloads
• Drag and Drop Option

Subsequently, as you can see above IDM portrays a host of quality features that makes a download manager great. Thus, Internet Download Manager is perfect for those who need a trustworthy application that they can use without having any major issues. It was a hard choice between 1 and 2 but FDM just has the edge over IDM right now. However, I feel in future updates, IDM will surely pass FDM with its wide range of features and easy-to-use interface!

Rating:10/10

3. KooLoader

Kooloader is a small application aimed at users who have limited bandwidth but want to get the optimum download speed from it. There are many features that Kooloader displays which i have listed below:

• Supports up to 99 simultaneous downloads.
• Supports FTP and HTTP protocols.
• Impressive scheduler included
• Clipboard Catch Feature allows the context menu to be displayed in all browsers not just IE so you can edit the download list via adding or removing file extensions.
• Able to recover downloads that have been stopped due to systematic errors.
• Ability to  edit the connection settings whenever.
• Can block advertisments if you go into the settings.

Overall, with a few features not included such as virus scanning, Kooloader is a great little download manager which doesn’t take too much space and will do all you need for a download manager! Fantastic tool you should have if you have limited bandwidth assigned to your internet connection.

Rating: 9.5/10

4.GetGo Download Manager

GetGo Download Manager is an easy to use, fully efficient download accelerator that is predominately aimed at users who download lots of media files. This means music files, video files and graphic files. Installation is just hitting a couple of buttons and voila, let the downloads begin! Interestingly, they include an space for downloading links which comes down as a drop down list. There are many clever features in GetGo Downalod Manager which you can see below:

• Ability to change the interface style by choosing another built-in skin, adding or removing icons from the toolbar as well as being able to see the status of all your downloads.
• Download Manager can integrate with all browsers including IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari and Chrome
• Can download .flv videos and convert them automatically to your file format.
• Download priorities can be set to your liking
• Built-in scheduler
• URL re-direction features
• After downloads have finished, there is a virus scanner to scan for malaware.

In conclusion, if you are a media monkey, this is the best download manager for you since many of the features help you significantly in each stage of downloading a media file. GetGo Download Manager is definitely worth a look with its editable interface and ad-free browsing.

Rating: 9/10

5. Bywifi Video Downloader

As an avid video downloader, this download manger is one of my favourites. Not only does it download videos, it also contains other useful tools such as converting various video formats and improving playback rates from places like Youtube. Some of its fantastic features include:

• Context menu allowing users to edit the proxy settings and also specify any download speeds.
• Download information drop down box enables you to see the BitRate, HTTP Bitrate and P2P BitRate.
• Search box to find you download
• Accelerates Video Streaming by up to 5x faster
• Supports all video streaming sites
• Browser integration with Internet Explorer.
• Video conversion options
• Flyout feature so that you can transfer the video off the screen and into your computer.

In conclusion, though the tool is limited with its interface and to some extent, its features, Bywifi is definitely aimed at users who have Internet Explorer as well as watch hundreds of videos online on a daily basis!

Rating : 8/10

This concludes my post and thankyou for reading. Are there any download managers that you feel should be in the above list? Please feel free to leave any feedback below.

Session Saver

Google Chrome is always looking for ways to advance their web browser, even more so with their extensions system in order to keep up with Firefox’s ever improving, unique add-ons.

Now, Chrome have released an extension named Session Saver which allows users to save, re-load and manage former sessions on the web browser. The extension’s features are outlined below:

• Saves and remembers every open tab across all Google Chrome Windows
• Saves numerous Sessions and name them as you please
• Re-loads all the webpages from the previously saved session in the current window in different tabs
• View urls in a saved session before opening it.

After installing the extension from here the extension adds a small Save button as seen below:

When you click on the save button, it then directs you to a tiny pop-up window where you are able to load a previous session and save a current session where the next time you open your chrome browser, you will get a new window having all these tabs in. In addition to save/load options, there is also a show url option where you can see all the stored session pages from previous sessions.

This is really a useful tool since many of us do seem to close our browsers by accident, or alternatively forget the site urls you last visited. This extension really helps browsing experience. Thank you Chrome!

Credit: chromeplugins.org

The Apple Tablet - flop or not?

According to anonymous reports from a well respected analyst, the Apple tablet prototype is to be unveiled for beta use in less than 3 months! In addition to revealing this intriguing news, he/she has in fact held the 10-inch screen multimedia computer.

The experienced analyst also went on to say that Apple are going to publicly announce the release of this prototype in September but will have the model finished by some time in the next six or seven weeks. Since we are being hit hard by the recession, November could be the wrong time to release such a revoultionary product since not many consumers have the funds to purchase such an extragavant gadget.

Pricing

There is speculation that Apple will put a price tag of $700 -$800, but this could dramatically change since it could not sell and thus they will be obliged to lower the price. You must be thinking to yourselves now that what on earth would justify pricing the gadget so high. Well, I shall now outline some of the features that we predict the tablet may contain:

• High Definition video playback.
• New multimedia “cocktail” service which contains music and videos from such places like iTunes, EMI, Sony Music, Warner Music and Universal Music Group.
• 10 inch screen.
• Online experience like no other.

All of Apple’s projects that are currently under development are threatening rival companies because they do not know what to expect. If they jump the gun and release a lookalike which is cheaper, they could be losing up to thousands of pounds and have large amounts of useless stock on their hands. In addition, there has been an obscene number of rumours during the last fornight regarding the highly anticipated Apple Tablet, but let me highlight just a few:

1. The cost will be $800 in a two year deal with Verizon.
2. The new multimedia software project Cocktail will contain all the huge music labels. A report came in saying that it is “a new type of interactive album, which will combine photos, lyrics sheets, video clips, and liner notes, all gathered into an interactive booklet.” Effectively ditching the app store as tests have proven that it slows down the processing speed of the device by up to 40%.

Once the prototype is released, do you think it will be a success as it is just that good or perhaps because of the credit crunch, it will be no profit but much more expenses? Do you think that the tablet concept is functional? Feel free to comment below.

http://addons.mozilla.org/ - perhaps the best time saving site ever created?

The biggest advantage FireFox has over other browsers such as Chrome, is the vast collection of free add-ons there are on offer!

Over the last five years, FireFox has been developing and growing at a substantial rate, establishing itself as the most used open source browser. Why has it come such a long way? Well, when users go onto FireFox, they find it to be easy to use, clean interface and most importantly the extensions ( add-ons) which makes online browsing oh so much better and beneficial.

Browser Extensions

Browser extensions refers to codes that are able to be installed inside the browser in order to add an extra feature or function for the user. Hence, we call these jigsaw of codes, add-ons. In addition to adding a new feature, extensions allow us to change the browser interface, adding a language translator, altering the browser’s look and feel by displaying a new theme and more!

For a wide selection of all of Firefox’s add-ons just visit Mozilla’s add-on site. Here you can see and download over 9000 add-ons which are bound to be useful in one or another! Also, when you install all add-ons they arrive in .xpi format but do not worry you’re computer will change it for you.

In this post. I will display what I think is Firefox’s hottest 10 add-ons available to download in sequence. Thus, let’s begin!

1.Greasemonkey

Greasemonkey was one of the first ever add-ons i downloaded into FireFox. Effectively, it allows you to install scripts to any HTML web-page and each time you revisit that page, the changes will always be there. With the scripts you download and manage them, create new ones as well as use manipulation on them and the ability to edit the ones you have downloaded. Another aspect that makes Greasemonkey the best add-on is because you can activate and deactivate any one of your scripts with one click!

Once you have installed Greasemonkey and restarted your browser, you should click on the symbol which enables the application. In order to find already built user scripts visit here. When you find a script you like, merely click install and Greasemonkey will do the rest for you and then supplies you with information about the sites compatibility circumstances.

The whole application revolves around Greasemonkey’s context menu. Here you can enable, disable or un-install any script you have and in addition you will find all the scripts that are obtainable on the left hand side. If you select a script you can see you a full description of each script. Right at the beginning, I found it hard to find how to create a new user script, as silly as it sounds, but all you need to do is go to click on Greasemonkey Menu/New user script.

Greasemonkey is a fantastic application once you get used to it but the initial stages are a bit tricky. Nevertheless, it is an add-on that is easy to use,manage and make user scripts which will make more features to all websites you visit as well as save some valuable time!

Rating : 10/10

2. Adblock Plus

Adblock Plus is also an extremely useful add-on and it was a hard decision putting it at second. This is because the add-on blocks the biggest waste of bandwidth on the Internet, all the advertisements. Instead users, would like to see the content not to look at unattractive ads suggesting You can lose 2 stone in 1 week which everyone knows is not possible!

Adblock Plus allows the browser to filter and stop online adverts, make up your own rules, blocking of flash format and white-listing function. It is a great updated version of Adblock but with many more useful features. In order to enable Adblock Plus, well it’s really quite simple!  Just follow these steps below to make these blockers function properly!

• Add a filter by right clicking on the item you want to discard and click on the Adblock image. You need the web address of the banner you want to get rid and finally check the blocking filter box.
• If this isn’t enough protection for you, go to advanced view where you can block one whole domain.
• In Adblock Plus’s preferences, you can find out what filters have been set for which sites. Thus, it shows the your exceptions, ad blocking rules and filter subscriptions. From here, you are able to add, enable, disable, remove and edit any filters you please.

Overall, Adblock Plus is possibly the most useful add-on out there since it blocks out adverts that ruins your online experience and the settings are easy to customize for your use only.

Rating: 9.5/10

3. ReminderFox

Reminderfox is a sort of add-on that is accustomed to users who either have a bad memory or users that are constantly going to the same site over and over again on a daily basis. The growing add-on allows us to easily manage lists that you need to do/reminders, integrated alarms and notifications and automated synchronization of reminders to your handheld devices!

As soon as you have set a specific reminder, Reminderfox produces a ribbon-like icon in the bottom right hand corner of your screen. In addition, there is almost colour key that shows you the importance of each reminder. The key is as follows:

• Red signifies the reminder is on this day, thus being red-hot in importance.
• Blue represents that it is an upcoming reminder, i.e. two or three days.
• Grey shows that there are not any reminders in the next couple of weeks of any importance.

When you hover over the ReminderFox image, a calender will appear in front you showing you important work you must complete. Here is where you are able to add, delete or edit any reminder you want by selecting Add Reminder. When you are in this option, there are more specific things you can do such as set a time, date or any other notes you prefer to have to help you. Other features include synchronization of the calender with reminders, to -do lists, notifications or customized lists made by you. In addition an alarm can be put on so if you have trouble waking up in the mornings, this can be your assistant!

Overall, this add-on is great for everyone because if you are always on the Internet browsing or working, this application can remind you instantly so there is no way you will forget that haircut appointment at 1pm!

Rating: 9/10

Credit: https://addons.mozilla.org/

4. SmarterFox

SmarterFox is one of my favourite add-ons because the job it does it genius. It allows your browsing to be 2x as fast by speeding up common tasks. This means you get quicker searching, downloading, visiting, copy/paste option and much more.

When searching for a particular keyword, for example, ‘football’ the application highlights it and displays icons linking back to Google, Youtube, Amazon and Wikipedia. If you click on the Youtube icon it takes you to videos that are associated directly with ‘football’ so it could come up with players who are currently big in newspapers. There are many other features to Smarterfox, but I will just share a few below:

• Save bandwidth by downloading all images/videos on the same page.
• Change between rival search engines with just one click!
• Search by highlighting a block of words and then clicking on the desired bubble.
• Results from Google already show whilst typing in your search bar!
• Alter text based urls into clickable links to websites.

Don’t like one of these features? SmarterFox also allows you to disable any one of them by going to Tools/Smarterfox.

In conclusion, Smarterfox is a great tool saving time and bandwidth. From the name, you can see the add-on is always one step ahead of the game and from just a few of the unique features, we can see this! Fast, reliable and smart. A great tool for any user!

Rating : 9/10

5. Web Developer

Web Developer is a neat little add-on which acts as a supplementary toolbar that is integrated into FireFox supplying an assortment of tools for developers and website designers. The add-on gives code validation tools, a vast selection of keyboard shortcuts, a context menu and a View Source option.

The increasingly popular extension is installed as an extra toolbar and thus can be played with via the view menu and when you have tampered with a few of the options, you will see how effective this add-on can really be as well being easy to use.

What does the toolbar contain?

The toolbar has many aspects to it that is in the best interest of all developers out there. To start proceedings, the toolbar contains:

• HTML editor and source viewer/editor.
• User-created spreadsheets and the ability to edit CSS web pages.
• Resources aimed at developers for scripts, forms or styles.
• Useful individual tools such as links, tables and line guides.
• If you have the latest FireFox version, you can use the Document Object Model (DOM) inspector which allows you to inspect, browse and edit the DOM of all the documents you see.
• Validation tools include Feeds, HTML, CSS, Links and WAI.

Subsequently, this tool is a must-have for all web developers as it looks as if it is useless but can turn a normal website designer into one of the worlds best.

Rating : 9/10

Credit: https://addons.mozilla.org/

6. Wolfram Alpha Google

Recently, I have installed this new add-on but I find it to be one of very good use! The new knowledge search engine, Wolfram Alpha, have effectively joined forces with Google making an great add-on. When you install the add-on, which is a simple process of selecting install, type into google something that interests you, for example a famous place like London the add-on will load some brief information about the city. It will load for this particular example the city’s population, weather, time, elevation and where it is located in England.

This is a great extension because it is bringing detailed, useful information into one search because let’s face it, no one wants to search a ten thousand word page on wikipedia to find just one figure! It is a great new feature which will be beneficial to every user since its mathematical, specific and right down to the point. You are able to search for just about anything and still find some very interesting information, if anything! Much more additional features to come since there is so much more developers can add to this extension!

Overall, a great FireFox extension that is valuable to users, especially for students, who need to know distinct facts and figures for their research. A needy add-on for all as you can save huge amounts of time and bandwidth!

Rating: 8.5/10

7. FireFTP

FireFTP wipes out the need for another client outside Firefox such as SmartFTP. This open source add-on contains everything you need to transfer files to your website. FireFTP includes:

• Support for recursions of SSL/TLS/SFTP/CHMOD.
• File condensing and hashing.
• Regular checks.
• IPv6 support.
• 100% secure sessions
• Directory synchronization
• FXP support and much more.

As soon as you have completed the installation process, you can go to FireFTP by the Tools menu. The user space opens into a new tab and out opens a three section page. One for the server directory( located right), one for the local directory (located left) and the remaining one lies across the bottom of the page is for the status of what is happening in the transferring of files and logs it.

In order to commence transferring files across to your web space, you first have to make an account via FTP Host. Login entering your user-name and password and when you have logged in for the first time, you can login from any other FireFTP add-on in the world!

Overall, a good add-on for both beginners and advanced website holders. Though, this is a more compressed version of the desktop edition of FTP client, it still displays many of the advanced features that the more established version contains.

Rating: 8.5/10

Credit: https://addons.mozilla.org/

8. FoxyTunes

Media Player extension, FoxyTunes, is a relatively fresh FireFox add-on however it has been a big hit with the users that is for sure, with over ten and a half million downloads in less than four months! FoxyTunes enables you to see your iTunes or Windows Media Player at the top of your screen whilst still switching between websites!  Some of the valuable features include:

• Ability to toggle with volume, next/previous track button and play-lists.
• Search for the lyrics of a specific song, pictures for an album, artist biographies as well music related to the genre you are currently listening to!
• Auto-hide button
• Supports iTunes, WMP, Songbird, Winamp, VLC and many more!
• Ability to stream from sites like last.fm straight to your media player via FoxyTunes!

FoxyTune’s mobile toolbar can be moved anywhere on screen and can be customized to your liking by tweaking some keyboard shortcuts, colours and button types. This web media player can be even placed on your desktop so if you’re in the middle of playing a game and need some inspiration, FoxyTunes is for you! With the general hype of social networks and blogs, you can submit what songs you are listening to and which ones are your most played to your Twitter account to your WordPress blog as well as having an alarm clock synchronization option which, as we know, is extremely useful.

In conclusion, this FireFox extension is for those who love music and need to have it around with them throughout their tiring day. If you are not so fond of music, it is worth a look since it can perform a selection of actions and well can improve your online experience!

Rating: 8/10

9. Xmarks

Xmarks ( also known as Foxmarks) is one of the best, if not the best bookmarking tool and add-on. If you have use more than one computer daily, i.e. computer in the day and laptop in the night, this is the ideal extension for you. This is because Xmarks keeps all your bookmarks from all your browsers i.e IE, Chrome and Firefox in order. Astonishingly, Xmarks collects data from over seven hundred thousand bookmarking sites, each with a wide range of site suggestions and small bits of information regarding these sites.

In addition, once you have installed the add-on into your browser, the Xmarks icon appears on the right hand side of the address bar and thus displays some brief information about the site i.e. its niche and also lower down the add-on highlights five similar sites, that have been ordered against the number of people who have bookmarked that particular site. Some users may find it hard to synchronize their bookmarks with this add-on, thus let me break it down even further for you,

• Run the automatic configuration wizard, where all you need to do is enter you desired user-name and password. There is only a problem in this stage if Xmarks has identified a registered account with the same account, in which case you change user-names.
• In order to keep all your bookmarks in one group for a specific laptop/computer, you are able to make several profiles via the Profile Manager. You will need to create/edit other profiles. Here you can decide where all your bookmarks go i.e. to which profile and browser.
• Finally, you must assign yourself an individual PIN code as Xmarks may lose your password in the database and making sure account will not be hacked in the future.

This is a great little add-on to have as it helps your browsing substantially. Thus, when you are browsing to find some news on a classic, famous rugby player, Xmarks will give you sites that will be beneficial to your search.

Rating: 7.5/10

10. Glubble for Families

The Glubble add-on is very much ideal for close families with small children. This gives them the chance to connect on an online term as it enables users to take part in fun online activities, be on time for family outings ( which can be a pain in remembering), and the ability to send messages, photos, videos to other family members, effectively acting as a safe facebook. All of the preferences are set via the toolbar which is mostly taken up by family notifications.

Glubble seems to be for young children only as there is a child mode, which limits particular sites that the youth can go on, protecting them from the threatening side of the world wide web. In addition, there is a much more childish interface which users can change to their liking and the web page seems to be secure since the children need to figure out the parent password to get onto the real Internet, which is impossible since parents think of the hardest passwords imaginable. One nifty feature Glubble gives us is that you are able to approve certain sites for individual children, thus is one child is three and the other is thirteen, there is a distinct difference in what they would search/look at.

Overall, a great add-on for family users with all these secured features but a bit useless for all of the 66% of the population which is why i ranked it the lowest! Nevertheless, still a good extension.

Rating : 7/10

I hope this helps you on decision of which extensions to download since there is a huge selection…

Do you not agree with this list? Are there add-ons that are clearly better and are missed out?  Please feel free to comment below!

Revolutionary series set to be a big hit!

Data storage pioneers, Western Digital, publicized on Monday their two new spanking products, the Scorpio Blue 750 GB and the Scorpio Blue 1TB smashing the previous record for the largest notebook hard drive size which was 500 GB. The Scorpio Blue joins the My Passport Essential SE Portable USB hard drive family.

At present, the largest desktop drive is one whole terrabyte bigger than the Scorpio Blue but is still 1mm thicker, as the 1TB notebook edition is only 2.5mm thick! For the 1TB edition, Western Digital have decided to use 333 GB per platter. The SATA2 hard drive offers a 3Gbs ( gigabyte per second) transfer rate but one disadvantage to the newly released product is that it is 12.5 mm thick whereas other standard 2.5 inch drives 9.5 mm thick, thus meaning this will not be compatitble with all laptops.

The three distinct features that makes the Scorpio Blue outshine other competitors are:

• WD own tech,WhisperDrive, effectively making the noise output almost silent.
• If you drop your Scorpio, don’t worry as it is almost guarenteed not to be broken, thanks to durable Shockguard.
• For long term trust, Securepark, which boosts the protection when the HD is turned off.

Western Digital’s Jim Morris, senior vice president and GM of client systems, said this fresh revolutionary series will give lower power output and more protection:

“The convergence of the growing mobile computing and digital media trends produces demand for desktop-like capacities in portable devices. Our new WD Scorpio Blue drives enable people to take even more of their digital collections with them wherever they go and, realising the value of their data, back up their notebooks on their My Passport drives.”

Pricing

WD have started shipping the new series of notebook drives to consumers and the prices are really quite unbeatable! For the 1TB editon, it merely costs $250 ( £151) and the 750GB edition is $190 ( £115.) Why not pay an extra $60 for a whole more 250 GB since their MyPassport costs the same amount? Perhaps because not many people will get through even 500 GB in their computing lifetime!

Do you think the 1TB notebook drive will be a big hit in this current economic climate? Will people have enough money to spend on peripherals like these? Feel free to comment below.

The Adobe corporation are in the headlines yet again, must be embarrassing now!

Adobe confirmed that the software pioneers were well informed of “potential vulnerabilities” influencing Adobe Reader, Acrobat 9.1.2 and Adobe Flash Player 9 as well as 10. Thus, advising users to make sure their systems are completely secure since hackers are still lurking in the midst.

However, latest reports have suggested that these “vulnerabilities” were substantially clear to many of the public using Adobe Flash Player a whole seven months ago. What do you have to say for yourself Adobe? The first instance where the issue in Flash Player was identified in late December last year and noted in Adobe’s “credible” bug and issue management system.

Recognition must go to Purwire’s  valued researcher Paul Royal, who has been working at the internet security service provider since January 2009.

Zdnet reported earlier that this so called flaw was a “data loss corruption” but Adobe’s ’strong’ response team were completely misleaded this time which lead to their public humiliation. However, their reaction to this has been positive hence announcing patches shall be attainable on the 31st July for Linux, Mac and Windows users.

Adobe said in their security advisory that the bug can cause problems for users and so they should remove the authplay.dll file which comes with Adobe Reader,

“A critical vulnerability exists in the current versions of Flash Player (v9.0.159.0 and v10.0.22.87) for Windows, Macintosh and Linux operating systems, and the authplay.dll component that ships with Adobe Reader and Acrobat v9.x for Windows. This vulnerability (CVE-2009-1862) could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system. There are reports that this vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild via limited, targeted attacks against Adobe Reader v9 on Windows.”

Have you suffered any problems with Adobe Flash Player? What have you done? Has it been successful? Feel free to comment below.

Everything we do is with an eye toward achieving our long-term goal of maximizing the content you can access as conveniently as possible in a way that 'works' for the content owner. In the short-term that may require us to make some tough decisions...

After quietly blocking access through PS3’s internet browser just two weeks ago, users who queried the situtation, surprisingly recieved a “content-less” apology through email. The Hulu representative said that blocking streaming was in the best interest of the PS3 users and Hulu. Reports have suggested it could be as a result of pressure from their content providers.

Despite Hulu is only available to viewers from the US, as reported before, the VoD service is finally going to arrive in the UK in the next couple of months and no doubt the mainstream platform will be the PS3.

However, users who queried what was happening with PS3 streaming, recieved a modest apology from a Hulu representative hinting that if they carry on with giving PS3 users the VoD service online, this could dentin their relationship with another company, which in this current economic climate would not be too clever. The full “apology”  can be seen below thanks to Gizimodo,

Thanks for writing. In order to answer your question, some context might be
helpful.

For decades, the TV/movie industry has built its business model on a windowing
strategy. Content rights are granted for limited time periods across specific
distribution channels. For example, a movie starts in theaters, then moves to
pay-per-view and DVD, then to pay-cable channels, later to broadcast, and so on
down the line. Similarly, TV shows are available on TV first, then in repeats,
then to DVD and possibly syndication, etc.

Distribution availability across platforms — theaters vs. TV vs. recorded media
like DVDs vs. online streaming vs. mobile phones — was always implicitly or
explicitly controlled in that world. But a few factors have made the barriers
between those platforms more permeable: the rise of the web, increased broadband
availability, the ease of digitizing video, and the increase in the computing
power of devices like gaming consoles, set-top boxes, and mobile phones.

However, in the near-term, the windowing strategy is still dominant in the
business. Billions of dollars flow in across these different windows, and entire
companies are organized around them. Nothing productive comes from flouting that
reality (except to law firms who work on the occasional lawsuit).

It’s the Content Providers!

Thus, from all the information Hulu have provided us with, we can conclude that it is not Hulu that have the issue with PS3 users watching Hulu, instead it is the content providers. They are wary of the prinicpal of streaming online on a gaming console which is actually linked up with television. Reports have already suggested it could be something to do with licensing agreements with other video companies. However, there is no need to be disheartened since this is only a slight change of course to the overall goal of a smooth, VoD service. All the problem seems to be is with the digital streaming rights which is sure to be sorted out in the coming weeks.

“We do, however, expect these windows to converge over time. There’s no way around that, and we’re working hard with all of our partners to guide and participate in this important transition in the business.

“Everything we do is with an eye toward achieving our long-term goal of maximizing the content you can access as conveniently as possible in a way that “works” for the content owner. In the short-term that may require us to make some tough decisions, but we only do so when we believe it improves our long-term prospects to build a more enduring, legal solution to that same problem.”

Do you think Hulu will ever come to the UK? Are Hulu just blaming all their problems on content providers? Please feel free to comment below.

Users are encouraged to donate and contribute towards the open source software.

The VideoLAN project have officially announced the premier release of the Goldeneye branch of VLC 1.0.0. Many analysts have been looking forward to what the new version of the open source software will deliver. Well, according to their website, all questions have been answered as new features that are included are:

• Free, Open Source and cross-platform
• Independant of systems codecs to support most video types
• Live recording
• Instant pausing and Frame-by-Frame support
• Finer speed controls
• New HD codecs (AES3, Dolby Digital Plus, TrueHD, Blu-Ray Linear PCM, Real Video 3.0 and 4.0, …)
• New formats (Raw Dirac, M2TS, …) and major improvements in many formats…
• New Dirac encoder and MP3 fixed-point encoder
• Video scaling in fullscreen
• RTSP Trickplay support
• Zipped file playback
• Customizable toolbars
• Easier encoding GUI in Qt interface
• Better integration in Gtk environments
• MTP devices on linux
• AirTunes streaming
• New skin for the skins2 interface

Seeing as the software is open source and free, the developers are literally pleading for donations as a result of the credit crunch. Be friendly and come and donate a couple of dollars to the VLC cause here.

Having already tried out the new platform, I for one have enjoyed using it already as I feel the new features make a huge difference in the quality and interface, making watching movies on your desktop much more enjoyable!

Have you tried out the new VLC media player on your desktop or laptop? If so, feel free to comment below on your feelings towards the new revamped software.

The new release comes one year after the media rejected Firefox 3.0. However, this time, Mozilla promise to please Firefox users with outstanding new,useful features such as Private Browsing mode and vastly improved JavaScript performance. According to analysts, the new web browser is set to be the most revolutionary of its kind.

"it’s a great time for browsers!"

The Firefox site is expected to hit heavy amounts of traffic due to the release and Mozilla CEO John Lilly said this is a good thing,

“So much is happening on the Web right now, it’s a great time for browsers. Firefox 3.5 brings together the most innovative Web technologies and delivers them in the most complete and powerful modern browser.”

What new features are included?

Mozilla promise to deliver new and improved features but just what are they? I will now outline all the features that Mozilla have given since the release today.

Performance – revolutionary browser includes new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine giving better performance times with each application. In addition, Firefox 3.5 is :

10x faster than Firefox 2.0 and 2x faster than Firefox 3.0

Open Video and Audio – no need for annoying plugins to watch videos and listen to audios, which many people simply cannot function without. Firefox 3.5 delivers the first native integration of audio and video directly into the browser allowing many to format Ogg Theora videos.

Privacy Controls - Firefox 3.5 includes features designed to protect your privacy online and provide greater control over your personal data.

While using the new Private Browsing mode in Firefox 3.5, nothing you encounter on the Web will be stored from that moment on during your browsing session. Like Google Chromes’  Incognito window, the new Forget this Site feature can remove every trace of a site from your browser. If you want to remove all private data or activity from the past few hours, Clear Recent History, another Firefox-only feature, gives you full control over what stays and what goes.

Location Aware Browsing – Location Aware Browsing saves you time by allowing websites to ask you where you are located. If you choose to share your location with a website, it can use that information to find nearby points of interest and return additional, useful data like maps of your area. It’s all optional – Firefox doesn’t share your location without your permission.

Want more features?

Here is a video produced by Mike Beltzner, who will display exciting features which the new Firefox 3.5 will provide you with

Have you used Firefox 3.5 already today? Please feel free to comment below on any features that you find useful or alternatively need to be brushed up.