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Review: Times – RSS Feed Reader

Posted on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 4:51 am

Times by Acrylic SoftwareTimes is an RSS Reader application with a unique approach at how news/blog feeds are presented to you. Dustin MacDonald, known for creating the popular Wallet application is the man behind this cool application.

The first thing you will learn about Times is that it's very well thought out. The animation and transition effects throughout the application look very pleasing, and makes it a fun application to use. From the perspective of a traditional RSS Reader, your subscribed websites would generally be grouped into one section, while the article feeds would be displayed in a window right next to it. Times takes the approach that aggregates your feeds into a newspaper-like design.

You have the ability to create categories for the different types of websites you subscribe to right next to the ones that already exist. Times comes with a big list of popular websites/blogs you may want to follow, but you can definitely add new feeds and remove existing ones at your command. If you're an existing user of an RSS Reader, you can import your .opml feeds directly into Times so you don't waste time creating new feeds for everything. Continue reading after the jump...

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Posted In: On the Web, Productivity, Reviews

Upgraded to WordPress 2.5 (finally!)

Posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 2:47 am

WordPress LogoIt's be a harsh few weeks but I finally got around the upgrading my WordPress installation. It's the first time I did it so I was a little worried that I'd do something wrong and kill my installation, but all went well. I must thank the WordPress developers for making the upgrade process so easy. I've been anticipating the redesign dashboard, and so far, I'm loving it! Everything is right where it needs to be, easily and quickly accessible.

As I am quite impressed with the new look, I plan to put together some kind of an analysis regarding interfaces. Look out for that! =)

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Posted In: General Stuff, On the Web

Times: Reinvented RSS Reader (win a copy!)

Posted on Sunday, May 4th, 2008 at 4:09 am

Times - NewsreaderIt's been a while since I last came across a new application that blew me away like Acrylic's Times. Created by young developer, Dustin MacDonald, this is a new and surprisingly pleasurable way of keeping up with the latest news from your favorite websites! I've been playing with the trial version for a little while now and I can only give positive remarks. The amount of detail that went into this application is very impressive. Basing its ground on Mac OS X technologies like Core Animation, navigating through the fluid interface is simple and delightful.

Get the trial & Enter to win!
You can head over to the Times homepage and get yourself a trial copy of the application. You can also win 1 of 5 copies of this program - Desktop Vibes is holding a giveaway so don't forget to enter! If you truly care about a new and efficient way of checking your RSS feeds, I think you'll find this quite handy.

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Posted In: On the Web, Productivity, Technology

Apple WWDC 2008 – Right Around the Corner

Posted on Saturday, May 3rd, 2008 at 9:48 pm

Apple iPhoneThe worldly renowned Word Wide Developer's Conference by Apple is right around the corner. Beginning on June 9th and extending through the 13th, there will be a lot of things going down in the Apple world. The iPhone 2.0 software is due for release alongside the App Store, and judging from what we saw from the iPhone Software Roadmap, things are looking pretty bright!

I've been an iPhone owner since day one, and I don't think I would ever settle for anything less if I were to change phones. For my interests in the software and all things creative, I started working on an iPhone related web project. I can't say too much about it at the moment, but I'll be talking more about it as it develops. I am sure many people will find it a very helpful resource, and hopefully a nice place to hang around. Stay tuned for more info! =)

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Posted In: Design & Code, General Stuff, On the Web

The Morale Behind Illegal App Downloads

Posted on Friday, May 2nd, 2008 at 11:27 pm

Browsing the webIllegal downloading of applications is probably just an inevitable as the sunrise every morning. No matter what companies do to protect against it, hackers always tend to find a way around it - at times, rather quickly. Is this something that should be taken lightly, or seriously by the companies and law makers?

After conversing with a number of people regarding this issue, it seems like the most common excuse was the following: "If I'm not a professional and won't be making any money from it, why should I pay for it for only playing around with it?" Technically speaking, this is a pretty valid response, but what about people who do make money off of it?

Without a doubt, Photoshop (or any other application package from Adobe) isn't exactly the most affordable. There are a lot of people out there in the world (pros and non-pros) running cracked versions of software of all different types. A lot of these people have it just for the sake of having it, while others actually make money from them by offering professional services to those in need. This is my primary issue. More after the jump...

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Posted In: General Stuff, On the Web

Internet Filtering & Bandwidth Caps

Posted on Wednesday, April 9th, 2008 at 10:07 pm

Browsing the webThe recent buzz around the blogosphere has been about ISPs capping bandwidth and charging by the Gigabyte. To some, this is a complete disaster while others couldn't care less. The idea of capping bandwidth is not new as companies around the world have been practicing this method of service delivery (like Australia).

With the recent advancements in transfer speeds alongside things like online HD movie rentals and video communication, these people decide to introduce the cap now, when they're supposed to be doing quite the opposite! Imagine how quickly an average internet user will suck through 30 to 40GB of bandwidth in one month - HD movie rentals, international video conferencing, browsing high bandwidth web content (Youtube!), and so forth.

I just don't understand why ISP companies want to be greedy and make more money this way now. They know that people will go above their capped limits and the easy money will flow right into their pockets. Eventually, I believe that internet access will reach a point where it'll be so cheap, companies will be forced to just have one monthly rate. More after the jump...

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Posted In: In the News, On the Web, Technology