Filed under: Internet, Video, VoIP, P2P, Beta

Skype 4.0 beta for Windows is due out tomorrow. And this beta will represent a major shift for the VoIP client. While nearly a third of Skype calls are video, each version of Skype up until now has been designed with audio in mind. The client is small and easily resizeable and feels like an application for making phone calls. TechCrunch reports that Skype 4.0 beta will be a full screen application designed with video in mind.

The new version takes advantage of the larger window by spreading out the buttons a bit and adding support for new video features like picture in picture. There's also more room on the screen for text chat or for sharing files while conducting voice or video calls.

Skype 4.0 beta also features improved hardware deection and tools for testing your connection. But honestly, we're not convinced that this whole full-screen design is the way to go. There's no doubt that the updated Skype client looks like it will make video calls far more pleasant. But more than 70% of the calls placed on the Skype network are still audio-only. And we're guessing that a lot of the people placing those calls like to have a bit of space on their desktops to multitask while making phone calls.

Of course, if you're just using Skype for voice communication, you can always minimize the application while you're talking, web browsing, and playing World of WarCraft. Or whatever it is you do when you're on the phone.

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Filed under: Fun, Games, Windows, Macintosh

Geeks everywhere are anxiously awaiting the September release of Spore, the species-creation game from SimCity genius Will Wright. Today, everyone is drooling just a little bit more over the release of Spore Creature Creator, the part of the game where you generate the prototype for your new species. Even without the rest of the game, messing around with the creature options is a lot of fun -- it's like the coolest game of dress-up for nerds that we could ever imagine.

Creature Creator is available for PC and Mac as a free demo or a $9.99 full version (with all the creature parts). It hooks up with the Spore website so you can show off your critters to others on SporePedia. You can also take pictures of your creations and e-mail them with friends, and take videos to upload to YouTube -- all from within the game.

It's not just building and coloring, though: test-drive your Spore, making it dance, sit, attack and more. This is just about the smartest marketing decision we could imagine, because we're already sort of attached to our Spores. Now we can't wait until September to see what they can do!

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Filed under: Audio, Design, Internet, Photo, web 2.0

While Moodstream may be geared towards the folks in the creative department to help them design the next big thing, there's nothing wrong with using it as a screen saver. That is if you like a screen saver that doesn't actually save your screen and displays random pictures with music based on your current mood.

In order to get your mood on, you'll need to adjust a few sliders. Moods range from happy to sad, calm to lively, humorous to serious and so on. If that's more control than you would like, preset moods are also available.

Moodstream pulls in photos from Getty Images' vast database along with music from Pump Audio's Soundtrack. If you like the current mood you can save it to your moodboard (registration required) so you can come back to it later. You also have the option of purchasing any of the images or music on the spot.

So even if you're not the creative type but enjoy having random pictures and music playing give Moodstream a try.

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Filed under: Business, Internet, Web services, Social Software

A few years ago a ton of sites started popping up for you to review local businesses and services in your area. The idea behind the sites such as JudysBook was that reviews were written by average everyday people like you, therefore they could be trusted more than a review you read on another site. Sites allowed you to create a profile, upload a picture, and invite all your friends to join as well so you can share information.

GigPark works under the same principal, except the company assumes to some extent that the people you're friends with on the site are your actual friends, not just people who happened to find you on the site. You can import addresses from your yahoo, hotmail, or gmail account onto the site to find people you know who are already using the service, and invite those who are not.

GigPark also has a Facebook application, so you could pose questions like "Who know a great eye doctor" on facebook and solicit responses from your friends directly on Facebook. Of course your friends would also have to add the application in order for all this magic to happen, which given the multitude of annoying facebook applications kicking around these days, is probably unlikely. You can make your recommendations public however, so even without adding the application your friends can read how excited you are about your new plumber.

What do you think about sites like this? Would you use it to solicit recommendations, or would you rather just call a friend and ask?

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Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Linux, Open Source, Unix

It may have taken 15 years, but the developers behind Wine have finally decided the Windows emulation layer for Linux and Unix-based systems is stable enough to wear a 1.0 label. Now, don't get too excited. That doesn't mean every last Windows app will run on Linux under Wine. But it does mean that Wine's more stable than ever, and thousands of Windows applications have been reported to work.

Wine 1.0 installation instructions are available for a whole slew of distributions, including Fedora, Red Hat, SUSE, Mandriva, Slackware, Ubuntu, Debian, FreeBSD and Solaris. Or if you wait a few days there's a good chance the latest version of Wine will be added to your distro's official repositories.

To be perfectly honest, you might not notice a ton of changes from previous versions of Wine. But the latest build does include a ton of fixes for specific applications including WinRAR, Skype, Dragon Naturally Speaking, and video games like Call of Duty 1.0

[via Digg]

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Filed under: Internet, Web services, Google, Googleholic, web 2.0

Welcome to Googleholic, your bi-weekly fix of everything Google!

In this edition:

• Get the Google Toolbar for Firefox 3
• Improve efficiency with Google Docs
• Google Code Jam '08
• Googolopoly, the game
• Gmail and Google Reader tips

Continue reading Googleholic for June 17, 2008

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Filed under: Web services, Microsoft, Mozilla, Social Software, web 2.0, Browsers

Are the oldschool browser wars starting up again? It sure seems like it.

Flock has a preview of their version 2 out, Firefox launched version 3 today, and Opera launched version 9.5 on June 12th.

Who's missing from this uber release party? Oh, that would be Microsoft's Internet Explorer...the browser with the #1 market share. After their less than stellar (and way less than standards compliant) version 7, Microsoft better come up with some EPIC for Internet Explorer 8.

Opera as you know is focused on security, speed, and mobile.

The sometimes over the top Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner stressed that Opera 9.5's most innovative and most important feature is the cross-link between your desktop and mobile devices. A feature that other browsers haven't even bothered to start playing with yet.

Will Opera's mobile first, desktop second strategy work? We shall see.

4.7 million downloads in 5 days is impressive, but can Firefox surpass that in a single day? Not if they can't keep their own site online.

Stay tuned!

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Filed under: Fun, Internet, Web services

Should we eat that last donut? Are our Scott-e-vest cargo pants as stylish as the site says? Should we give our bank account numbers to a Nigerian businessman that came across a large inheritance?

Sure, common sense would definitely help here, but sometimes you need to leave these choices to a higher power. Ind.ecisions, along with Mother Nature's help, hopes to win over your, well, indecision.

Ind.ecisions gives you the option to pick 2, 3, or 6 different outcomes to your question. Then, based on radio noise generated by atmospheric conditions (don't ask), you are given a truly random outcome.

Take that magic eight ball!

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With Firefox 3's Download Day upon us, a lot of folks are getting their first peek at the newest version of the popular browser. One of the first things you'll notice is the "Awesome Bar," a new feature that drops down a list of sites from your history and bookmarks as you type. For example, you could type "d," and your bookmark for Download Squad would pop up, along with downforeveryoneorjustme.com, if you've recently visited it.

For some people, this is going to be handy, but others are going to hate it. We have mixed opinions about the Awesome Bar here at Download Squad, so we're going to show you how to turn it off. First, go to your Firefox settings by putting "about:config" into the location bar. Click past the warning message, and scroll down to browser.urlbar.RichResults. This sets how many recommendations the Awesome Bar will display -- it's 12 by default, but you want to change it to 0.

Now your location bar should act more the one you're used to from Firefox 2. It'll still autocomplete addresses of sites you've been to, but the behavior that's been annoying some people so much will be gone. Alternately, an extension called Oldbar will give you back Firefox 2's dropdown behavior.

[via Josh at Webware]

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Filed under: Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Mozilla, Browser Tips

So you may have heard that Mozilla is hoping to set a world record for the most software downloads in a single day today. The company has been hyping today as "Download Day" for about a week. But a more apt name might be "Down Day." That's because GetFirefox.com is down. As in dead, kaput, service unavailable.

This probably shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, but if you encourage millions of users to download your software on the same day, your servers are going to take a hammering. But it appears that even Mozilla had no idea how many people would be trying to download Firefox 3 today.

There's a good chance that you may get through if you keep hitting refresh. And there's a good chance that the company will manage to break the world record if it ever gets the servers back up. But you know what? If you don't really care about setting a world record, Firefox 3 RC 3 is pretty much identical to Firefox 3 final. So if you're already running RC2 or RC3, there's no need to kill yourself trying to update your browser today. Tomorrow, next week, or even next month will probably be soon enough.

In the meantime, if you've got your heart set on downloading a next-generation browser, you can always take Opera 9.5 for a spin. That company's servers are holding up just fine.

Update: Some users are reporting success with these download links. Windows, Mac, Linux

Update 2: It looks like the site is back up, but incredibly slow. Like dialup slow.

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