Here's a topic I never thought I'd write about: Dolly Parton, the famed country singer, has endorsed Internet Explorer 8 and its Web Slices feature on YouTube.
During a minute-long video, Parton says she "wouldn't know a gigabyte from a snake bite. But the folks over at Microsoft sure know their computers." She goes on to say Microsoft checked out her "new" Web site and "turned us on to a little thing they call Web Slices."
According to a Microsoft representative, the software giant showed Parton's Web team "the new features in IE 8 and Silverlight, and they liked it so much, they wanted to implement it on their site."
Parton's site now features a three-tab Web Slice that includes her video diary, news on her career, and the option to buy some of her music. The Microsoft representative said in an e-mail that the software company "wasn't involved in the production or scripting" of Parton's Internet Explorer 8 endorsement.
Web Slices, which is available only in IE 8, enables users to keep up with sites they check often, such as ones for Web mail or weather reports. According to Microsoft, "if a Web Slice is available on a page, a green Web Slices icon will appear in the Command Bar." Users can simply click on that icon to subscribe to that page's Web Slice. Once complete, that Web Slice will be displayed in the user's Favorites Bar to make it easier to keep track of those sites the user often visits.
But the very fact that Parton (a portion of whose site is now available as a Web Slice, by the way), would endorse Internet Explorer 8 is a bit surprising. As she points out in the video, she "didn't even know there [were IE versions] 1 through 7."
Regardless, Parton seems to have found her stride. After all, like the singer says, maybe Internet Explorer 8 really is "just like your own little slice of heaven."
LG launched two broadband-equipped HDTVs this week--the 47-inch 47LH50 and the 50-inch 50PS80. Both televisions boast NetCast Entertainment Access, which provides consumers with the entire Netflix streaming library of more than 12,000 movies and TV episodes.
This LG HDTV streams Netflix content. Are you ready for more?
(Credit: LG)The LG HDTVs released this week require a broadband connection to work with the NetCast Entertainment Access service. To choose a film, users need only to surf through the items and make selections on the right of the screen. They can read movie synopses and rate films.
LG isn't the only company bringing connected HDTVs to store shelves. Toshiba is well on its way to bringing its Regza line of HDTVs into the streaming realm. When the connected HDTVs launch later this year, Toshiba plans to give consumers access to a variety of content, including local weather, top news stores, sports scores, videos, and more. The HDTVs will also be able to access multimedia content stored on a connected PC's hard drive.
Surprised by the sudden uptick in connected HDTVs coming to store shelves? Don't be--it's the future.
... Read moreOn Sale Now: $1,095.00 - $1,599.95
View the latest prices for LG 47LH50
On Sale Now: $1,199.00 - $1,699.95
View the latest prices for LG 50PS80
Microsoft updated its Windows 7 Engineering blog Friday by discussing its decision to allow users to turn off features in Windows 7. It also released a list of Windows 7 options that can be turned off in the upcoming Release Candidate.
"For Windows 7 we've engineered a more significant list of features and worked to balance that list in light of the needs of the broad Windows platform as well," Jack Mayo, Microsoft's group program manager for the Documents and Printing team, said in the post. "We want to provide choice while also making sure we do not compromise on compatibility by removing APIs provided for developers. We also want to strike the right balance for consumers in providing choice and balancing compatibility with applications and providing a consistent Windows experience."
To achieve that goal, Microsoft has released a screenshot showing what is ostensibly the complete list of features that users will be able to turn on and off in Windows 7. It includes games, an FTP server, Windows Search, and more. But the most important option (and the one that gets the most attention) is the ability to turn Internet Explorer 8 off.
Internet Explorer 8 cannot be uninstalled from Windows 7. According to Mayo, any feature that's turned off "will not be available for use, which means binaries and data are not loaded by the operating system (for security-conscious customers) and not available to users on the computer.
"These same files are staged so that the features can easily be added back to the running OS without additional media. This staging is important feedback we have received from customers who definitely do not like to dig up the installation DVD," he continued.
That's understandable and a welcome option. I will be turning some features off, like all of Microsoft's media services and a few extras like the FTP server and Tablet PC components, which I won't use any way, but Internet Explorer 8 is a different story altogether.
I'm sure some are excited to see they can finally kill Internet Explorer, but I'm not. I won't be using it, but I won't be turning it off either. Why should I?
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Intel has conducted a study that found people prefer the Web over sex. Yikes.
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With election day fast approaching and Americans running to the polls to cast their vote for the next president of the United States, I thought it was an appropriate time to discuss when (if ever) technology will take center stage in American politics.
Maybe I have a vested interest in seeing technology take center stage in American politics. After all, I believe that it's the most important industry in the world, thanks to the Internet and the billions of dollars it generates for the economy each year, but I know many disagree. Some say that the health care industry matters more than technology and others believe the environmental industry takes the cake. Good arguments can be made for any industry, but I think more politicians need to see the value of technology.
The Internet is the lifeblood of the world. Without it, we would be thrown back into the Stone Age. Why? The world runs on it. In just a few short years, the Web has become as important to our lives as water. Can you imagine what would happen if the Internet suddenly disappeared? Almost every single company in the world would be crippled. The entire online industry would die in one day and the stock market would crash. We would be sent into financial turmoil and start fighting over scraps as supermarkets and stores became unable to communicate with vendors.
Now, I understand that and I'm betting you do too. But when will politicians finally realize that caring about technology really does matter and they can't just set it aside like it's a fringe concern?
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Want to know what will really happen to newspapers? I'll tell you in my latest video. Oh, and sorry for the extra title screen -- forgot to take it out.
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On today's episode, I go hands-on with the Archos 5 Internet Tablet. Check it out!
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In a move that shows how deplorable cable and phone companies truly are, Time Warner Cable will soon start testing metered Internet access in an attempt to curb use of its services.
According to CNET News.com's Jonathan Skillings, "In a test of metered Internet access that's set to begin Thursday, subscribers who go over their limit for uploading and downloading material will be charged $1 per gigabyte."
"The tiered pricing will work this way, for the Internet portion of subscription packages that also include phone or video use: At the low end, users will pay $29.95 per month for service at a speed of 768 kilobits per second, with a 5GB monthly cap. At the high end, users will pay $54.90 per month for service at 15 megabits per second, with a 40GB cap," he continued.
"We think it's the fairest way to finance the needed investment in the infrastructure," Kevin Leddy, Time Warner Cable's executive vice president of advanced technology, said in Monday's AP story.
Is this really what we've come to? A system that penalizes you for using the one tool that will carry almost every industry going forward?
Time Warner Cable and the rest of these cable and phone companies should be ashamed of themselves.
... Read moreTime Warner Cable, a company that has historically been the object of much debate, recently saw a leaked memo hit the wire that claimed the company would be instituting a tiered approach at offering broadband.
To be rolled out in Beaumont, Texas, the trial plan calls for new customers to choose plans based on their expected amount of monthly usage and be charged accordingly.
And while some pundits have spewed their typical invective without gathering any information whatsoever, I had the opportunity to chat with Alex Dudley, a Time Warner representative, to get the details on what's going on and what Time Warner customers can expect going forward.
... Read moreAlthough most of the major tech news sites have been covering the impending ban on Internet tax for the next seven years, I'm a bit appalled at two facts that have emerged from this most recent bill: there has been very little "mainstream media" coverage and the curernt bill only calls for a ban for the next seven years.
To make matters worse, there's no end to this debacle in sight. An Internet that is tax free should be a mantra of this year's presidential candidates and should be covered on each and every news publication in the country. Why you ask? Because each and every person relies on the Internet, and if access fees jump for the sole purpose of paving roads or hiring more crooked bureaucrats, each and every person will bear that burden.
This is an important issue, folks.
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