Boot Up

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome. This is the start of my first blog and, needless to say, I'm excited. I've been considering starting a blog for quite some time now but I was never able to pick a topic that would both please me and avoid boring you.

This blog is intended as a news resource for the average Joe who isn't scouring forums or tech sites for the latest news on operating systems, mobile devices, or what have you. I am going to be (or at least try to be) as objective as possible when it comes to product reviews and news from various companies and developers in order to offer you the best possible information regarding the products. From time to time I will also post some new music (most likely techno) from different DJs and artists but to be honest that's more dependent on what peaks my interest the most at the time. 

As for myself, I'm currently a student in my last undergraduate year and I'm getting ready to take the LSATs in the fall. I know, I know, apparently law school graduates are barely, if even, making enough money to pay off their loans but it's something I can really see myself both doing and enjoying, especially if I complete my goal and become a judge.

Now that we've got the formalities out of the way, let's hit the ground running!

Mozilla's Firefox 4 Beta is finally available for download! (MacWindowsLinux)

I have just finished downloading it and will be putting it through its paces over the next couple hours and let you know as soon as I can if it's worth dropping Google Chrome (I have my doubts).


*Edit* So, I have been using Firefox 4 Beta on Windows for a couple of hours now and there are a few things that immediately pop out. First thing you'll notice is that the tabs have been moved above the address bar (see picture below) much like Internet Explorer. In fact, the more Mozilla updates, the more it resembles other browsers. Anyway, for now this is the standard format but Mozilla has said they will potentially make it a toggle-able feature to have it up top or in the usual spot below the address bar.

Firefox 4 Beta also introduces WebM compatibility which allows users to watch HD WebM videos on YouTube or WebM videos into their video encoding application. They've also added a handy add-ons manager which you can access by clicking the orange Firefox pull down bar in the top left corner. Most of the other advances that Firefox 4 has made involve things like HTML5 support for running web applications, their new JetPack SDK allows for making add-on development easier, and Web Sockets that developers can use to build real-time interactions online like gaming and chatting. One of my favorite improvements is the fact that if you are watching a video using Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime, or Microsoft Silverlight plug-ins and it crashes, you won't have to close your Firefox browser. Now you can simply reload the page to try again or close that particular tab. There is also a nifty feedback button in the top right corner to the right of the google search bar. Whenever you notice Firefox has done something you either like or dislike simply press the feedback button and select "Firefox made me happy because..." or "Firefox made me sad because..."and type in whatever it was that caused your reaction. Chances are if you're the average Firefox user you'll just notice the increased speed and tab placement. I am still a fan of Google Chrome, but I will be giving Firefox 4 a chance for the next couple weeks and who knows, maybe I'll convert back. (For a full in-depth review on Firefox 4 Beta, visit  Cnet.com)

In other news, AT&T has screwed the pooch...again! Yes iPhone users, another reason to be happy with AT&T (sarcasm). The mobile communications giant is being accused of intentionally capping the upload speeds of iPhone 4 users in certain parts of the country including Philadelphia, New York, Washington, D.C. on the East Coast and Seattle and Salt Lake City out in the West. Why? Because the amount of data being uploaded by iPhone users apparently is causing outages in other parts of the country. With a new ad campaign claiming that AT&T covers 97% of the United States (a campaign that I immediately called shenanigans on), I only have one question: "What exactly is AT&T covering the United States with?", because it doesn't seem like reliable service. Remember when people wanting to reserve the iPhone 4 experienced network errors causing a 10 minute process to last anywhere from 2-10 hours? That process was also handled by AT&T's network. Now, I want to give AT&T the benefit of the doubt and hope that, for their sake, this is a temporary measure they have to take in order to fix the problem but with their introduction of their new tiered data packages it looks like they are trying to limit (at least to some extent) the extreme amount of data usage that is crippling their network. If you are an iPhone user, let me know if you've noticed any decrease in your download/upload speeds, I'd love to have a first hand look at this.


**This just in!** HTC's global PR and online rep, Eric Lin was quoted on the record saying that his company will be “done with our Froyo updates before Christmas.” He also goes on to explain the reason for the delay:

“It takes time to port all of our applications over to Froyo and then make sure that it is running well on each of our devices. That’s not like a one week kind of project. We need to make sure that our applications are taking advantage of the Froyo features. To make sure that they’re all running properly on the OS now that it’s a new version. And then to make sure that it’s running on our hardware as well as we expect.”

I'm extremely excited, even though I had hoped it would be closer to the end of the summer. Christmas can't come sooner! Props to Mike Hurley at The Great Wall of Chinatown for the find!

I hope you all have enjoyed the first day of news and reviews! I'd like to leave you all with a funny little video of Yoda doing his recording for the TomTom Star-Wars Themed voice series Enjoy!