Grappler grabs online video for Macs

Grappler

The web is chock-a-block with video: YouTube, streaming video, downloadable movies -- the list is endless. Unfortunately, most of it is tied to the Internet: you have to be online to access it and watch it through your web browser, which isn't always the most convenient way of doing things.

Grappler promises to change all that for Mac users. This shareware tool is unbelievably simple to use: once installed, you have two choices: if you know the URL, enter it to visit the web site directly, then click on the video -- Grappler will detect it and start downloading. If you don't have a web site in mind, enter your search terms to reveal a list of possible matches, then scroll through the results that Grappler finds on the web. You can view a video direct from within Grappler, visit the parent website it's taken from and -- most importantly -- download it to your Mac for viewing offline.

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How to wirelessly print photos from Android with new Gmail Cloud Print

Google Gmail Cloud Print

Monday, Google announced it will be rolling out its "Cloud Print" mobile Gmail feature over the next few days to U.S. users. Cloud Print lets users pair their Google ID with various printers, and then send print jobs from anywhere the user has a connection.

In mobile Gmail's options menu, there is now a button simply marked "print" which lets the user send a print job to his Cloud Print tray from his Android or iOS mobile device. From here, the user can select the destination printer and begin printing the contents of selected emails, and .pdf or .doc attachments. This is an incredibly useful feature, as it eliminates the need for printer drivers for mobile devices.

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Firefox, Chrome to gain 'do not track' functionality

Firefox Logo

Browser manufacturers are heeding the Federal Trade Commission's proposal in December of last year to create a 'do not track' system, with both Google and Mozilla saying they plan to add the functionality in coming versions of their respective browsers.

Microsoft was actually first to officially announce support for the feature last month. The Redmond company said at the time it would appear in Internet Explorer 9, and allow users to opt out of sharing information with sites they do not trust. Users would be able to create whitelists and blacklists for sharing browser data.

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Flash is no longer default option for YouTube embeds

YouTube logo

I don't know how I missed this one: Google has taken iframe embedding out of beta and quietly made it the default choice. I noticed yesterday, when looking to embed a video here at Betanews. The default had been Adobe Flash with iframe embedding optional and labeled beta; where iframe was placed in the embed options there now is "use old embed code," meaning Flash. I've been embedding with the iframe code for months so Betanews readers using iPads or smartphones could watch embedded YouTube videos. Based on forum chatter, Google made the change as recently as four days ago.

Technically, the player isn't Flash-free. It's more like Flash is no longer required. Videos can stream in Flash or HTML5 video depending on the player detected. For reasons that don't make much sense from a consumer experience perspective, YouTube videos using the new embed code won't play on Safari without Flash installed (presumably other browsers, but I haven't yet tested). YouTube detects the browser and presents notice that Flash is necessary to play the video. It's not. YouTube is blocking HTML5 streamed content. Changing the browser's identification to "Mobile Safari -- iPad" solves the problem. But why is that necessary?

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Huawei accuses Motorola of trying to sell its secrets to Nokia-Siemens

Justice

Chinese telecommunications company Huawei filed a lawsuit against Motorola on Monday alleging misappropriation of trade secrets, copyright infringement, and breach of contract related to Motorola's $1.2 billion wireless infrastructure deal with Nokia Siemens Networks.

In July, Motorola agreed to sell its GSM and CDMA wireless infrastructure business to Nokia Siemens for $1.2 billion, a deal which promised to vastly improve Motorola's cash situation as it moved toward the completion of its split into two companies.

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Refurbished PCs: When used is better than new

Dell Inspiron 14R laptop

Whenever possible, I buy refurbished PCs rather than new ones-- and it's what I recommend to all my friends. Unfortunately, the word "refurbished" is loaded with bad connotations -- used, damaged, unreliable -- that can make items so labeled unattractive to many buyers. But it's my experience that at least with personal computers, refurbished often means better than new, because retailers or manufacturers are selling something at a loss they never want to see again. Returned once is one time too many. Twice or thrice is simply unacceptable.

I got my first tip off about the benefits of refurbished in the late 1990s when visiting a Sony repair store then located in Beltsville, Md. I observed a number of PCs and asked about them. One of the clerks explained that the shop was one of just a couple clearinghouses refurbishing Sony PCs. I expressed my disbelief in refurbished as being any good. But he explained that Sony didn't want to ever see the PCs again. His job was to make sure the refurbished PCs left in perfect working order.

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Is 7-inches the better size for a media tablet?

Samsung Galaxy Tab

It's the question I've been asking since selling my iPad the week before Christmas. I simply found the tablet to be too large to regularly carry about. I wasn't using it. I ask you to answer the question in comments or by email -- to joewilcox at gmail dot com. I'm particularly interested in hearing from people who have used, say, iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Late Friday, Kevin Tofel turned up the volume on the topic with GigaOM/jkOntheRun post "Why I Dumped the iPad (Hint: Size Matters)." While praising iPad's many benefits, Tofel reached the same place as I did. "The problem is that I simply don't use it any more," he writes. "Actually, let me rephrase that: I stopped using the iPad about a month ago, after I bought a 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab running Google Android."

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LastPass extends support to Opera and Windows 7 phones

LastPass

LastPass 1.72 now supports the Opera web browser in addition to Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari. Premium account holders can also now download LastPass to their Windows 7 phone in addition to other mobile platforms. Other premium-only new features include support for fingerprint and smart card authentication devices.

LastPass 1.72 has also been tweaked in other areas, most notably in terms of improving both its stability and performance in Internet Explorer 9. It also handles multiple Google logins where just a password is required better, and can also save usernames by default on banking websites where passwords are split over multiple pages.

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Duke Nukem Forever, the most delayed video game ever, launches May 3

Duke Nukem Forever finally gets released, PC DVD box

Last September, 2K Games and Gearbox Software announced they would finally be releasing Duke Nukem Forever on Windows, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 after a delay of more than a decade. On Friday, the companies published the title's final release dates: May 3 in North America, and May 6 worldwide.

Even after 2K and Gearbox demonstrated the game's release at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle, there was a considerable amount of doubt and speculation from the public about the game's release. After all, it unofficially holds the title of "most delayed game of all time," with nearly thirteen years between the title's first announcement and its eventual release. Naturally, the sudden news that it would be released should be met with a large amount of skepticism.

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Twitter hit with Goo.gl faked antivirus worm

Twitter top story badge

A new virus is spreading around Twitter using the Google 'goo.gl' URL shortening service, posing as anti-virus software. Affected users may see tweets with links in their timelines ending with "m28sx.html," says Graham Cruley of security firm Sophos.

Clicking on the link will take the user a page that claims the computer is infected, and attempts to trick him or her into installing the malware-infected software as well as to pay for disinfection. Once downloaded, the virus then posts a tweet under the users account with the link in an attempt to infect his or her followers.

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Is FULL-DISKfighter 1.1 full-featured enough for you?

FULL-DISKfighter 1.1

It's one of the most annoying Windows maintenance problems. The more you use your PC, the more your hard drive will become cluttered with all kinds of junk: leftover "temporary" files, various application caches, remnants of supposedly uninstalled programs and a whole lot more.

Of course if you've got hundreds of gigabytes of free space remaining then this may not seem to matter very much. But it will still have an effect. Excessive hard drive clutter can slow down file searches, antivirus scans, defrags, maybe even browsing in Explorer -- so cleaning up your system occasionally is a very good idea.

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Live from CES 2011: Nokia QML Rapid Development

QML demo

Sean Clark from mp3Car speaks with Justin from ICS, who has made a demo piece of software to highlight how easy it can be to develop QT apps. These apps are built using QML, which is specifically designed for creating user interfaces.

Some of the really attractive features of this new QML is that it has great animated transitions and state changes built into the language. It can even give you that "flick to scroll -- bounce at the end" feeling.

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Google going after Groupon, LivingSocial with Google Offers

Google logo

After being turned away last month in its $6 billion attempted buyout of Groupon, Google is now busy developing an online coupon site of its own, reports indicate. According to Mashable, like competitors Groupon and LivingSocial, users receive e-mail notifications of local deals and have a set time to act.

Activity in the online deals sector has been heating up, with Amazon investing some $175 million into LivingSocial in early December. The fruits of that partnership came to a head this week, when the site offered $20 gift cards at $10. Reports indicate that as many as $1 million in cards were sold in a 24-hour period.

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Amazon renames its DIY Kindle publishing platform to attract more content

Amazon Kindle

Amazon on Friday announced that its Kindle Digital Text Platform, or DTP, will be renamed Kindle Direct Publishing. All other aspects of the self-publishing platform appear to remain unchanged.

One year ago, Amazon launched Kindle DTP in more than one hundred countries worldwide, pushing Amazon's proprietary Kindle e-book format into the hands of independent publishers and content creators who might otherwise have considered publishing their materials on a more open format, like ePub, which Barnes & Noble's Pubit! self publishing platform uses for creating Nook-compatible e-books.

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What do Apple and Google CEO changes reveal about their corporate cultures?

Google-Apple

This week Apple and Google disclosed holiday quarter earnings and made unexpected management changes. The executive shuffles and how they were announced is opportunity to compare and contrast the management styles and corporate cultures of these two hugely successful technology companies.

The basic similarities are interesting: Both companies announced better-than-expected fourth calendar quarter earnings. Both companies made CEO announcements affecting who runs day-to-day operations. Both companies assumed some risk that Wall Street would negatively respond to management changes. But they chose different approaches to announcing these changes.

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