We have also seen the native integration of Adobe Flash in Google Chrome, and if recent leaks are anything to go by, Internet Explorer 10 will also have Adobe Flash natively built-in. Internet Explorer 10 is expected to be released with Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system that will launch in the fourth quarter of 2012.  The operating system will feature two versions of Internet Explorer: first the desktop version that is the successor of Internet Explorer 9, and then a specially designed version for the Metro UI version.

What makes this interesting is the announcement that Internet Explorer 10′s Metro version will ship without plugin support. Up until now this meant all plugins, including Adobe Flash, Java or the company’s own Silverlight. With Flash integrated natively in the browser, Microsoft would stay true to the past announcement, while allowing Metro users access to Flash-based contents at the same time.

image courtesy of Rafael Rivera

A member of the Winunleaked forum spotted Flash Player in the control panel after installation of the operating system, and that both the desktop version and the Metro version were able to make use of it. Windows 8 furthermore blocked the installation of the regular Internet Explorer Flash plugin.

According to Rafael Rivera Microsoft brokered a deal with Adobe to get access to the Flash source code, in a similar fashion that Google managed to do earlier on. It appears that both companies will benefit from the integration. Adobe for one ensures that Flash installations stay on a high level, and Microsoft enables its Metro browser to access Flash contents after all.

It is not really clear yet if users have options to disable native Flash in Windows to improve the security of the system. I guess we have to wait until the release of the Release Preview version that is expected for June 1.

What’s your take on this development? Great move, or another security risk that users have to deal with?

source : www.ghacks.net

Based on the contract, Huawei will manage the core network planning and deployment of O2. Meanwhile, O2′s 56 permanent roles will transfer to the Chinese company, and 62 contractors will also be moved.

O2 has not used any Huawei equipment on its core network, stated a spokesperson from Huawei, but Telefonica is obviously impressed by the services of the Chinese company. The spokesperson did not reveal the value of the contract.

Victor Zhang, chief executive officer of Huawei UK, stated the contract is Huawei’s first major management service agreement in the UK. Zhang stated Huawei and Telefonica have implemented cooperation across the global market and this agreement represents their enhance partnership. This is an important step for Huawei to establish its world-class management service capacity in the UK. It is also a long-term strategic commitment for both companies to providing the ideal core network management service.

source : www.chinatechnews.com

The core benefit here is privacy and full control over the data. This can be extremely useful for businesses who do not want to or can’t host files on third party services, and individual users who want full control over the whole hosting and synchronization service.

The developers have just released a new version of ownCloud which raises the version of the program to 4. The new version introduces several requested features that improve the service significantly.

Versioning – With this feature enabled, it is possible to restore an older version of a file. A core advantage here is that you can configure the versioninig feature, which you can’t do at third party cloud hosting and synchronization services.Encryption – You can now configure file encryption so that all files stored on the server are encrypted, and thus only accessible with the correct password.Drag and drop upload – The ownCloud web service now supports the dragging and dropping of local files to a directory on the server.ODF Viewer – Open Document Format files are now supported by the viewer, and can be read right in the web browser without the need for plugins or programs.Themes – If you do not like the look and feel of the ownCloud site, you can now theme and style it yourself, or install a theme created by others.Application Store – This makes it easier to install new applications, like the encryption or versioning application on the server.

There is more though to the new version. Here is a list of additional changes and improvements:

External Storage – This is an experimental feature that grants you to mount Google Drive and Dropbox storage as folders inside the ownCloud structureSyslog support – OwnCloud can now write to syslog log files, and of course the service’s own log filesLDAP / Active Directory – Admins can manage users and groups from LDAP and AD.Migration – Options to migrate user accounts between different ownCloud instances, for instance between a primary and back-up server.Tasks – A to do list that is synchronized automatically.Share Calendars – You can now share your own calendar with other users or groupsFile Notifications – Users can now be notified when files are shared with them.Galleries – Control over galleries have been improved, including sharing per email options and sort oders.

You can check out the version 4.0 feature overview here on this page. All in all some excellent new features. Have you tried ownCloud yet? If so, what is your impression so far? (via Caschy)

source : www.ghacks.net

AsiaInfo-Linkage has a leading position in China with a greater than 50% share of the telecommunications billing, CRM, and business intelligence markets. In 2009, the company began expanding its core business in Southeast Asia, and it is now targeting a broader geographical expansion in the Europe, Middle East and Africa market.

AsiaInfo-Linkage’s new regional headquarters in Cambridge will be led by two former executives of Geneva Technology, the Cambridge-based billing software company acquired by Convergys Inc. in 2001. Stephen Newton, formerly chief operating officer of Geneva Technology and president for the EMEA market at Convergys, will set up AsiaInfo-Linkage’s advisory board and act as its chairman. Meanwhile, Andy Tiller, formerly vice president in charge of product marketing at Geneva Technology and Convergys, has joined AsiaInfo-Linkage as vice president in charge of corporate product marketing. He will lead an international team to promote AsiaInfo-Linkage’s global solutions.

Steve Zhang, president and chief executive officer for AsiaInfo-Linkage, stated that the opening of the new European headquarters is another major step in their international expansion efforts. Their focus over the past few quarters has been to ramp up their product standardization and integration initiatives as they position themselves to grow globally. They believe they can leverage their technical knowledge and experience in serving China’s three telecom carriers, as well as their experience serving carriers in Southeast Asia, to provide the EMEA market with world-class products and services.

Zhang also stated that they are confident that the accomplished leadership of their new European headquarters has the capacity to grow their business and enhance their industry position in the region.

The company plans to hire locally-based sales, professional services, and customer support staff for the EMEA region through 2012.

AsiaInfo-Linkage, Inc. is a leading provider of high-quality software solutions and IT services to the telecommunications industry. Headquartered in Beijing, the company has offices throughout China and a joint venture in Singapore to support customers across Asia. The company employs more than 10,000 professionals worldwide, of which approximately 8,500 are highly skilled engineers and research and development professionals. AsiaInfo-Linkage’s systems serve more than 890 million customers daily.

source : www.chinatechnews.com

For this guide, I have examined the system requirements for the following web browsers: Internet Explorer 8, Internet Explorer 9, Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari and Opera. The latest browser versions were analyzed, with the exception of Firefox, where I looked at Firefox 13 and not Firefox 11 due to the change in operating system support in that version.

Key FindingsOpera is the only browser in that list that is still supporting Windows 2000Opera, Firefox and Chrome are the only browsers available for Windows, Mac and Linux systemsOpera has the lowest system requirements, with the exception of IE8 on Windows XPSystem Requirements Table

A blank field means either that the operating system is not supported, or that no information have been provided by the company developing the browser.

With Firefox ending support for Windows 2000, it is only the Opera browser that is still supporting that operating system, at least when it comes to the five most popular browsers in the world market share wise. If you look beyond those five, you will find other browsers, like Maxthon for instance, which supports Windows 2000 as well.

Are you looking through a browser’s system requirements before you install it on a computer system, or is that something that you do not care about at all?

source : www.ghacks.net

The answer is jPortable, a portable Java Runtime Environment that is provided by Portable Apps. While designed for use with portable programs offered by the site and service, it is not restricted to that.

First thing you need to do is download the installer from the Portable Apps website. Please note that this is a web installer, which means that the installer will download files from the Internet during installation.The whole package has a size of roughly 38 Megabytes. The installation basically moves all files into a folder that you have selected before. This can be an USB drive or stick, or an internal hard drive for instance.

Once you have installed both the portable Java version and RSSOwl, you need to copy the Java directory into the RSSOwl directory. Once it is there, rename the Java folder to jre, and begin RSSOwl. You will notice that it will begin up just fine, even with no Java installed on the system.

There is a second option available, which works if you can alter the system paths. Use the Windows-Pause shortcut to bring up the System control panel applet. Click on Advanced system settings there, and locate Environmental Variables in the window that opens up. (this is the way it is done under Windows 7)

Here you find user and system variables.  Find path under System, choose it, and click on Edit to alter it. Simply append a ; followed by the full Java portable directory path to it, and click on ok afterwards to save the new setting. If you prefer a better editor interface, try Redmond Path instead.

You can also use the command line to begin Java programs from there.

Having access to a portable version of Java can be quite useful in certain situations. You do however need to remember to update it regularly when a new version of Java gets released by Oracle, to avoid any kind of trouble with security issues or other issues that are fixed with updates. (The article is an update to the first review of Java Portable which we have published back in 2010)

source : www.ghacks.net

What makes the feature great is its advanced feature set. One of the features in this regard is the option to map keywords to search engines. This can then be used to run a search on that engine by simply entering the keyword followed by the search term into Opera’s address bar. Lets take a look at how this is done.

Open the search engine that you want to use in this way and locate the search form on the page. We are using my favorite DuckDuckGo for this. Right-click the search form and choose Create Search from the context menu. You will see a configuration menu just like the one below. Opera has filled out all the relevant fields automatically, except for the keyword field that you need to configure yourself.

You can enter one or multiple characters in the keyword field, and will be reminded by the browser if a keyword is already taken. A click on ok completes the process. You can from that moment on search on the search engine by entering the keyword followed by the search term (in this case d ghacks to search on DuckDuckgo for ghacks).

This in itself is pretty useful, but it gets better, as you can also use this method for other types of forms. You can for instance configure a keyword for Google Translate’s translate a page feature, a dictionary lookup using Leo’s search engine, a whois request to find out more about a domain name you enter, or a torrent search on your favorite torrent indexing site.

You use the same method in all cases. For Google Translate, you would visit the website and configure the search accordingly by selecting the output language that you want the pages to be translated to.  You then add the search to Opera with a right-click in the form on the page and the selection of Create Search from the context menu. Assign the keyword, and translate web pages automatically by adding the keyword to the address bar, e.g. gt http://www.ghacks.net/ if you want this site to be translated into a different language. (thanks to dXm99 for the tip)

source : www.ghacks.net

According to Dangdang.com, the new service is currently available in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Shenyang, Wuxi, Jinan, and Zhengzhou. In these cities, consumers will have a new option for delivery period, which is between 18:00 and 22:00.

A representative in charge of Dangdang.com’s distribution stated that night delivery is a part of the customized services of Dangdang.com. Evenings are the prime time for consumption and night delivery grants consumers to receive packages at home.

At the beginning of 2012, Dangdang.com launched the same-day delivery standard in most cities in South China and East China, stating that if customers submitted their orders before 10:00, they would be able to receive the goods on the same day. Statistics provided by Dangdang.com showed that so far, its same-day delivery service has covered 16 Chinese cities; its next-day delivery service has covered 142 Chinese cities; and its cash on delivery via mobile POS has reached 278 cities across the country.

Related Links:Find more stories about: B2C, Beijing, courier, Dangdang, delivery, e-commerce, Guangzhou, Jinan, logistics, POS, Shanghai, Shenyang, Shenzhen, sourcing, Wuxi, Zhengzhou

source : www.chinatechnews.com

Back in 2011 I reviewed an add-on for the Firefox web browser that let you detach videos and games from the browser window. This granted you to only display the selected video or game in a window, and to resize it anyway you wanted to.

The Firefox add-on lmnpop has been updated recently to be fully compatible with newer versions of the browser. Unlike the add-on mentioned above, it grants you to move any object that you see on a web page into its own resizable window. While it works excellent for videos and games, you are no longer limited to detaching Flash contents from the web browser.

Once you have installed the extension and restarted Firefox, the option to detach an element becomes available in the right-click context menu. You can use it to play videos in their own fully resizable window for instance. Why I’m highlighting the features of the extension with a video? Because it is a lot easier to detach a bigger element from a page, than it is to detach a smaller one. Please also note that YouTube may not be the ideal example in this regard,  considering that it comes with its own pop out option.

The easiest way to detach an item from the page is to right-click on the page or item. Why two different approaches? Because some plugins, like Flash, block the standard browser right-click option, so that you do not see the browser’s context menu, but the Flash context menu instead.

The extension recognizes objects, which can be games, videos or apps automatically, and displays them prominently in the context menu. A click on the object of choice pops it out of the browser into its own window.

The extension picks up selectors in the site’s source code, which you can alter in the program options. It by default recognizes the selectors embed, video, audio and object, with options to remove or add selectors quite easily here.

The selected object is by default moved from the page into its own window. If you close that window, the region where the element was on the page remains empty. You can however configure the program to clone elements instead, which basically loads a second instance of the object in the new window without removing it from the original website.

The add-on grants you to pop out a div that the mouse is currently hovering over as well, which improves the functionality significantly.

Please note that the latest version of the add-on is currently listed under Other Versions on the add-on page, and that an older version is provided as the main downloaded when you click on the install button on that page.

source : www.ghacks.net

Renren.com’s REST API follows the standard REST protocol, including a content service interface, message service interface, friendship information interface, and LBS service interface. It supports the OAuth2.0 authentication.

Mobile Plugins, which are social networking components, include login and registration components, application home page component, and invitation and sharing components; and the product will be provided to developers via a software development kit. So far, Renren.com’s social networking components have been able to support Android, iOS, and Windows Phone 7 platforms.

Wu Jiang, Renren.com’s vice president and general manager for mobile business, stated that REST API and Mobile Plugins will help developers realize the real-time interaction between Renren.com and the applications during the testing stage. Meanwhile, the developer center and application center will establish a social operating system that connects developers and users. Depending on Renren.com’s technology supporting team and the whole set of mobile social networking components, newly-developed applications will have more exposure on Renren.com.

In addition, Renren.com announced that it has started a mobile strategic alliance. The company will cooperate with Rovio, Flipboard, NeNA, NetEase, and AppChina to provide dining information sharing, games, entertainment, and news aggregator contents.

Statistics showed that by December 31, 2011, Renren.com had 147 million users, and over 60% mobile users logged in their Renren accounts via smartphones.

Related Links:Find more stories about: Android, API, AppChina, Apple, developer, Flipboard, iOS, mobile, NeNA, netease, Renren.com, Rovio, social media, Windows Mobile, Wireless

source : www.chinatechnews.com