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[BoingBoing]

Mark Frauenfelder: My latest column for Mobile magazine is about "rapid serial visual presentation" (RSVP for short, which displays text one word at a time on a phone or handheld screen.

When I first tried RSVP reading, I felt overwhelmed. The words flashed on the screen to the beat of an unheard drum. I felt out of control. I couldn't pause and reflect after reading a sentence. But after five minutes or so, I got used to the ocular assault, and my mind seemed to shift into a different gear. By letting go, the words started flowing smoothly into my head. Because my eyes weren't shifting back and forth as they normally do when reading, everything but the words themselves faded away, and I found that I was actually enjoying the experience.

Link

I tried the demo in the link. Like Mark Frauenfelder, I got overwhelmed but got used to the "ocular assault." I actually liked the concept and was wondering when I can try it on longer text... on an ebook perhaps. Imagine my surprise when I fired up eReader and discovered that RSVP is already built in! The flashing text appears in the upper part of the page while its speed can be controlled on a separate preferences window.

RSVP is not yet available in eReader for Palm. The flashing words would be perfect or much more natural on a smaller pda screen rather than on a monitor.

Technorati Tags: palmos, ebook, rsvp

Posted by Joel at 08:47 AM | Permalink

iPhoto 5.0.4 addresses an issue with browsing photos that have been auto-rotated by a camera. Available via Software Update.

Technorati Tags: iphoto

Posted by Joel at 11:54 AM | Permalink |

[MacMinute]

It's a graphical themes creator for Sony mobile phones. I didn't know this existed... and it's by SonyEricsson too. Plus, it's free!

Technorati Tags: sonyericsson

Posted by Joel at 11:22 AM | Permalink

[Lifehacker]

Google's added an RSS reader to the Personalized homepage offering along with a flashy dynamic interface.

Add RSS feeds of news like http://lifehacker.com/index.xml (or see Lifehacker RSS items for more ideas) and view the latest items on your favorite sites from Google's home page, along with your Gmail inbox, weather, and movie showtimes. Google catchup to Yahoo's My Yahoo complete.

Google Personalized Homepage [via The Google Blog]

Technorati Tags: google

Posted by Joel at 09:15 AM | Permalink

[MacMinute]

MacResQ today announced a new PowerBook 120 GB Hard Drive upgrade service as part of their PowerBookResQ repair program.

I've been surviving with a 250GB LaCie D2 external drive. However, I'm considering this 120GB upgrade so that I can transplant this 80GB drive into the Mac mini. From there, the Mac mini's drive can be put into an external drive to serve as an image bank for the Digital Rebel.

Technorati Tags: powerbook

Posted by Joel at 08:50 AM | Permalink

Apple has just announced enhanced Mac minis and faster iBooks. Prices for the Mac mini and iBook start at $499 and $999, respectively.

Technorati Tags: ibook, mac mini

Posted by Joel at 12:23 AM | Permalink

One of my favorite magazines is now in digital format. The digital format is a free addition to an existing print subscription. Nice move, MAKE!

Technorati Tags: MAKE

Posted by Joel at 10:21 AM | Permalink |

Yahoo! Inc (YHOO.O). on Monday will announce the acquisition of Konfabulator, a Macintosh and Windows application that allows users to run mini files known as Widgets on their desktop -- the same model used by Apple for its Dashboard application. Yahoo! company executives said they would also be giving Konfabulator away for free, completely doing away with the US$19.95 currently charged for the product.

This is a nice surprise. Now that Konfabulator is free, it should appeal to those who are just discovering what widgets are.

Technorati Tags: konfabulator

Posted by Joel at 08:21 PM | Permalink

[Akihabara News]

All I can say is, show me the wireless version!

Technorati Tags: mouse

Posted by Joel at 10:06 PM | Permalink

[MAKE]

...how to modify the color of the Apple logo on the back of your iBook. This process is surprisingly simple. ... Link.

I believe this can be done with a Powerbook too.

Technorati Tags: ibook

Posted by Joel at 09:44 PM | Permalink |

My brother, Reggie, has a review of the Sony E507 Digital Music Player.

As for the cost, the E507 (which has 1GB) is $199 - the 1GB Shuffle is $129. Is the $70 difference worth it? Knowing that Sony included an 3-liner OLED (not just a regular LCD) screen is well worth it already. It also comes with an FM tuner and a clock. While it says at the the back that it was built in China, the build is solid. I highly recommend this device.

Technorati Tags: sony, shuffle

Posted by Joel at 09:02 AM | Permalink

[Camino Community Blog]

We've fixed a lot of things in this build, including many long-standing problems: Pound signs displaying as question marks, slow typing with long paragraphs in text fields, and greatly improved back/forward performance. You've gotta see it to believe it. We've also fixed the top crashers that plagued alpha 1 and the talkback symbol uploading.

This app is really starting to look good. We will look for beta around the same time as Firefox 1.1 beta so we can piggyback off their bugfixing and tree lockdown to minimize regressions.

Check out 0.9 alpha 2.

Technorati Tags: camino

Posted by Joel at 06:49 AM | Permalink

Dash and I flew in from Guam to have our Sandman books signed by probably the best writer out there, Neil Gaiman. It was the last day of the signing. We arrived early at the Gateway Mall in Cubao, only to be surprised to find out that we were already in the 150 range in line. (Where the first 150 materialized from, I don't have any idea.) We were probably the oldest people there and it was fun to hear the college kids talk. If we were in college, we would also have definitely cut class just to be here.

We got to know the people around us by face. It was kind of strange to talk to them as if you've been friends but that's how friendly Filipinos really are.

Here's where we stood at around 11am. The line wound up to one more level to the entrance of Fully Booked, the sponsor for today's signing. There were also bouncers going around trying to look important (because it was obvious they were just around for the job). Of course, we joked about them when they were already a few meters away.

At the entrance of Fully Booked, Dash and I were willing to forget Neil for a few milliseconds just to have a picture of the Book 6 boxes, already waiting to be opened on July 16.

And here we were... a few more people before our turn. When Neil found out that we flew in from Guam, he called Dash and I for a group picture. UNFORTUNATELY, the lady who had my Treo 650 pushed the wrong buttons and was not able to take a single picture! I was too shocked (and tired) to complain. However, the experience of meeting Neil Gaiman and being able to shake his hand was more than enough. Lining up for 9 hours was not so bad after all.

UPDATE: this entry has been picked up by Erwin at INQ7.net. How cool is that! (Thanks Karen.)

Technorati Tags: gaiman, manila, sandman

Posted by Joel at 01:54 PM | Permalink |

DVD Playback Update 4.6.1 addresses a disc validation issue some users may encounter when attempting to play a disc for the first time with DVD Player 4.6. This update is recommended for all users of DVD Player 4.6.

Fire up Software Update.

Technorati Tags: dvd, macintosh

Posted by Joel at 08:16 PM | Permalink

CamiOptions is a Preference Pane for Camino. It provides additional preferences for Camino including Pipelining and Agent Spoofing.

CamiOptions is a part of the CamiTools for Camino, the successor of CEP.

I've just installed CamiOptions. This solved one major problems I'm experiencing with Camino: slow text input in a text input box. The answer is just to turn off all image animation in a page. Of course you can do this by editing user.js, but CamiOptions makes things much simpler.

Technorati Tags: camino

Posted by Joel at 06:28 PM | Permalink

[TUAW]

If you're looking for a text editor that has multiple-file search capabilities, "grep" support, support for FTP and SFTP access, extensive scripting support and more, you need not spend a dime.

Ever since I've discovered TextWrangler, I haven't seen the need to use any other text editor.

Technorati Tags: macintosh, textwrangler

Posted by Joel at 10:18 AM | Permalink

[Lifehacker]

The Clipboard module for Quicksilver records the items you copy to clipboard and adds a clipboard history window for quick access to search and paste items you've copied.

This is an extremely useful clipboard utility. I've turned off the iClie lite widget in favor or this. How fast and convenient is this clipboard module? Just press Cmd+Space, Cmd+L, and 0-9. Absolutely no mouse movements!

Technorati Tags: macintosh, quicksilver

Posted by Joel at 08:05 PM | Permalink

I just found out that you can add *any* podcast in iTunes 4.9 (podcasts that are not in the iTMS database). Just go to Advanced>Subscribe to Podcast

How could I have missed this?!

Technorati Tags: itunes, podcast

Posted by Joel at 09:14 AM | Permalink |

XNJB is a Cocoa graphical user interface for Mac OS X for the Creative Nomad range of portable MP3 players. It uses the excellent library libnjb for low-level jukebox communication. It is currently in a beta state so if you have a Mac and a supported Nomad device then please give XNJB a try. You are encouraged to give feedback on how XNJB works with your player and OS X version.

Until today, I wasn't aware that such an application exists. This is perfect for those who do not use an iPod.

Technorati Tags: nomad

Posted by Joel at 01:18 PM | Permalink

The 1src podcast is now in the iTunes Music Store! I've just posted it at 1src and have just informed Reggie and Jeff about it.

What a great way to end the day!

Technorati Tags: itunes, podcast

Posted by Joel at 08:18 PM | Permalink

[Lifehacker]

Amazon's A9 has redesigned their mapping service to work verrry much like Google Maps - minus the satellite view and plus their street-level storefront photos.

Walk up and down blocks in big cities by clicking and dragging the map pointer and view storefront images from those blocks. Here, take a walk through Times Square to give it a whirl.

Now, the challenge is make it into one of the street level map pics. Rob, go hunt for those A9.com or google camera trucks! LOL.

Technorati Tags: maps

Posted by Joel at 01:26 PM | Permalink

Mmogchart.com is dedicated to tracking the growth of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs). Check out where your favorite game stands. The data is incomplete but at least there's someone gathering this kind of data.

Technorati Tags: mmog

Posted by Joel at 10:15 AM | Permalink

I emailed Jason (and Glenn) earlier about this because of one discussion I had at Pinoymac.

At first I thought that with iTunes, the other podcast applications will become redundant. However, Jason made me think about my statement. I now believe that iTunes is good if you have an iPod because the other "MP3" portable players won't be able to sync with iTunes. Here's where iPodder (and the like) will come in.

I also think that Apple made a good marketing move for the iPod. With 4.9, iTunes now makes the "normal" user aware of what a podcast is. That is another factor that makes the iPod versatile.

Of course for us who are aware of the various technologies out there, we know of good alternatives. Right now, my choices are the following:

1. Camino - for my browser. With Opera and Safari as my backup. I love Opera by the way, because of its features... and the fact that it's the underdog!

2. NewsFire (http://www.newsfirerss.com) - primarily because it works like what an OS X application should. NetNewsWire, while also good, has quit on me several times. NewsFire blocks ads in some RSS feeds (like engadget.com). It also has support for podcasts.

The other day, I made Safari and iTunes my defaults -- I didn't like the feeling of wading through my rss feeds. I also didn't like not being able to add my own podcasts (that are not in the iTunes Music Store database). Probably in the future, Apple will add on features that will make me use a truly pure OS X system.

Technorati Tags: camino, ipod, itunes, macintosh, opera, rss, safari

Posted by Joel at 09:41 AM | Permalink