Daily Bits

Whitehouse.gov Goes Mobile with iPhone/iPod App

by

President Obama’s administration continues to take full advantage of technology in reaching out to millions of Americans who by now are getting into the mobile phone syndrome. The latest of the administration’s foray into technology is by way of an iPhone/iPod Touch app that debuted recently at the iTunes store. The Whitehouse iPhone App (iTunes Link) promises to connect with Americans by delivering real-time content from Whitehouse.gov to American iPhone users.

One outstanding feature of the Whitehouse iPhone/iPod Touch app is the streaming of videos coming from the White House itself. It allows you to watch President Obama’s attendance to public events at the White House, web chats with members of the Administration as well.

It’s a pretty cool app, if I may say so. As an opening salvo to the launch of this app, The Whitehouse.gov iPhone will be streaming Pres. Obama’s State of the Union address happening next week.

In addition to its iPhone/iPod app, Whitehouse.gov is also planning to launch a new mobile-friendly version of its website. It would be interesting to note whether the introduction of a new mobile internet access will be as successful as other top iPhone apps or give Whitehouse.gov more users.

Yelp for iPhone v4.0 Adds “Check Ins” Feature

by

Remember Foursquare?  Well, it seems that its “check ins” feature has become all the craze among iPhone users, that one of its rivals, Yelp for iPhone has just added the same feature to version 4.0 of its own native iPhone app. Actually Yelp for iPhone has been around longer than Foursquare but didn’t quite get the same enthusiam from iPhone users.

With the release of Yelp for iPhone v4.0, Yelp hopes prevent Foursquare’s possible break-out in the mobile location service arena.

So, what is this “Check-Ins” feature all about? It’s a way for you to broadcast that you are at a business to your friends on Yelp, Facebook or Twitter. Specifically, you can broadcast the following:

  • Your activity via your Yelp for iPhone profile page
  • Opt-in alerts including “Push” notifications
  • A Leaderboard on Yelp for iPhone
  • A Map that will also show the “Check-ins” of your friends nearby and your check-in count next to your Yelp star rating if you’ve written a review on Yelp.com
  • Where you’ve checked in on Monocle, Yelp’s AR feature launched in August
  • Active users of Yelp Check-ins can also earn “Regular” status of highly-frequented  businesses.

Aside from the “Check-Ins” feature, Yelp for iPhone v4.0 also rolled out some new features including the ability to log into your Yelp.com profile and see and interact with your Yelp profile as you would on Yelp.com.

You can now also see and invite friends from your iPhone’s address book to join you on Yelp, share your check-ins and quick tips via Facebook Connect and Twitter. You can also check out Monocle, Yelp’s augmented reality feature.

Overall, Yelp for iPhone is a pretty good iPhone app. Yelp for iPhone is a free app and you can download it from here. (iTunes Link)

Google Mobile App for BlackBerry Gets Email and Contacts Search Feature

by

If you’re a BlackBerry user, you might be glad to know that Google is pushing out a new search facility that will let you find email and contact numbers on your BlackBerry devices. The new search feature allows you to just type in or speak the name of  your contact and Google Mobile app will search through your device to find the email or contact number. It’s a pretty useful application especially if you have amassed quite a number of emails and scrolling through each one of them is already a painful task.

Even better is the fact that you can reply to the email or forward it as soon from the search results that will be displayed by the Google Mobile App. The new feature also allows you to quickly call a contact or send an email or SMS just by typing the first few letters of your contact’s first or last name. The app will also suggest contacts as you type as well as present your most frequently contacted person on top of the suggestion list.

If you don’t want this feature, you can still download the app and just turn off Phone Search from the options screen. The new Google Mobile App search feature requires BlackBerry OS version 4.5 or higher.

To download the app, simply point your BlackBerry’s mobile web browser to m.google.com.

Facebook Teams Up with McAFee to Offer Free Security Software

by

Facebook just announced that it has signed-up a year-long deal with McAfee to offer free download of its security software. That’s putting McAfee’s software available for download to 350 million people, although not all of them might be PC users.

The deal would allow Facebook members to download and use the security software for a free six-month subscription after which those who opt to continue using it can renew the subscription at a discounted cost. Again, thanks to Facebook’s deal.

And the reason why Facebook is doing this? To help its members protect themselves against security threats that could otherwise hamper them from using their computers which might include accessing Facebook.

It’s a nobel effort from Facebook. Although we could not discount the fact that it’s also a marketing ploy for McAfee and Facebook. Either way, there’s no harm in getting the free security software even if you can use it only for six months.

And in case you’re computer is already compromised even before you got the McAfee software, Facebook will detect it once you try accessing its site. It will then ask you to go through several processes which include running the McAfee virus scan procedure. Again, another one-of-a-kind service from the world’s no.1 social networking site.

To get the free McAfee security software, simply head over to the Protect Your PC tab on the McAfee Page on Facebook.

Facebook Discourages Members from Visiting the Site Just to Reply to Comments

by

If you’re the no.1 social networking site worldwide, with all the monthly numbers practically going into you, you can practically do anything without fear of losing your grip. I’m alluding to Facebook here, which just announced something that’s getting into me in a different way.

According to the Facebook Blog,  members who opted to receive email notifications whenever comments are made on the posts they created on Facebook can now reply to those comments directly from the notification email. The reply will then be automatically posted on the specific thread where the comments were made. So, this means that you can opt not to go to the Facebook site just to reply to comment.

Now, while this maybe a useful feature especially for users, I don’t really think that Facebook is encouraging site eyeballs on the Facebook site. Or perhaps this Facebook’s way of helping users who can’t access Facebook at work to at least stay active on Facebook even when they are in the office?

Anyway, the reply-to-comment feature works for email notifications regarding comments on status updates, photos, videos and wall posts. It basically allows you to stay informed about your Facebook friends’ activities even if you don’t log-in to Facebook

And in case you’re not receiving any email notifications or you have not activated this feature yet, now may be the right time to do so. Just go to your Facebook account settings and enable email notifications from the Notifications tab.

Firefox 3.6 Release Candidate Goes Up for Download

by

Frankly I don’t remember the last time I downloaded a release candidate for Firefox. In fact, I don’t even know what version of Firefox I have on my Mac. Well, forgive me Firefox fans because ever since Google Chrome for Mac came out, I’ve stopped using both Safari and Firefox.

But if you’re not like me and still using Firefox whether on your Mac or PC, you might want to check out the latest release candidate that you’d probably be trying out for the last time before Mozilla officially release Firefox 3.6 is now available for download.

If you’re using Firefox 3.6 beta, the latest RC is an automatic update so you don’t have to download and install anything manually. This RC now contains 75% of the current Firefox add-ons that were updated by their authors. So, they would all work perfectly with Firefox 3.6.

New features of the Firefox 3.6 Release Candidate which you may or may not be concern with are as follow anyway:

  • Users can change the browser’s appearance with a single click using Personas.
  • Firefox 3.6 alerts users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.
  • Changes to how third-party software integrates with Firefox to increase stability.
  • Improved automatic form fill provides better options from your form history.
  • Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames.
  • Support for the WOFF font format.
  • Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.
  • The ability to run scripts asynchronously to speed up page load times.
  • Support for the HTML5 File API
  • Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.

So, are you brave enough to use an unstable version of your favorite browser? I’m sure you are.  You may get Firefox 3.6 RC here.