mondomedeusah creative : alternative online media

Taking a sneak peek at Apple's Mountain Lion OS X 10.8

The interface is more integrated on this version. There are also new security abilities to block future malware before they enter the system.   Game Center plus the Apple TV box turns the Mac into a gaming console.

Mountain Lion boasts an air-tight synching ability that comes integration with iCloud and your favorite iOS devices through shared notes, documents and reminders.

Notifcation for Calendar

Notification Preferences : The new System Preferences pane allows you control which apps send notifications your desktop and the new Notification Center panel. If you want to move an app from "In Notification Center" to "Not in Notification Center," all you have to do is simply drag it to the lower panel.

   

The Mail, Contacts & Calendar preference panel now accommodates Flickr, twitter and more of your favorites.

Messages : The new Messages app looks much like the iOS version.

iCloud Preferences : The System Preferences pane allows you to decide exactly what you want to synch to other devices via the iCloud service.

Text Edit - iCloud : This panel replaces the Finder window and you can drag files in or out of the cloud by dragging them into the panel.

Game Center : Game Center with the Apple TV box teransforms the Mac into a gaming console.

Mountain Lion is already the best consumer OS thus far.  It's crazy-sexy-cool and once you try it you will want nothing less.  Apple announced today that you can look for Mountain Lion to ship sometime this summer.

 

Symantec Sued For Running Fake "Scareware" Scans

James Gross, a resident of Washington State, filed what he intends to be a class action lawsuit against Symantec in a Northern District California court Tuesday, claiming that Symantec defrauds consumers by running fake scans on their machines, with results designed to bully users into upgrading to a paid version of the company's software. 'The scareware does not conduct any actual diagnostic testing on the computer,' the complaint reads. 'Instead, Symantec intentionally designed its scareware to invariably report, in an extremely ominous manner, that harmful errors, privacy risks, and other computer problems exist on the user's PC, regardless of the real condition of the consumer's computer.' Symantec denies those claims, but it has a history of using fear mongering tactics to bump up its sales. A notice it showed in 2010 to users whose subscriptions were ending in 2010 warned that 'cyber-criminals are about to clean out your bank account...Protect yourself now, or beg for mercy.'

- Sparrowvsrevolution

The Coming Tech Battle Over Smart TVs

One persistent theme from this year's CES is that television manufacturers are racing to establish the concept of 'Smart TVs,' sets that integrate modern browsing features, control through voice or motion, application support, and even upgradability. This article suggests the living room will be the location of the newest tech war. Quoting: 'To compete, the companies will have to offer carefully curated, high-quality applications and be open to supporting mobile devices such as tablets. Other media companies have already started :  Comcast announced that it's going to allow OnDemand streaming not only to Samsung Smart TV's but also to the iPad. The TV makers are hoping that the multitude of additional features will be enough to trigger turnover like the industry saw after the introduction of flat-panel screens, Bloomberg noted. It's a big market, if the television makers can figure out how to crack it.'"

LG To Pay Licensing Fees To Microsoft For Using Android

InformationWeek reports that LG is the latest in a string of companies who have been bullied into paying 'license fees' to Microsoft for the use of Android on their products. 'Microsoft said the deal with LG means that 70% of Android-based smartphones sold in the U.S. are now covered by its licensing program. ... Microsoft does not disclose how much revenue it's obtaining from Android, Chrome, and Linux licenses, but some analysts believe it may be substantial, to the point where the company is making significant profits from the mobile revolution even though its own offering, Windows Phone, commands a market share of less than 2%, according to Gartner.'

Ubuntu Tablet OS To Take On Android and iOS

Canonical CEO Jane Silber discusses the Ubuntu maker's ambitions in the mobile market, saying there is plenty of room for a new player in tablets, TVs, and maybe even smartphones. 'There is a real demand for an alternative platform. We believe Ubuntu has all the characteristics that are needed to become that platform,' Silber says, adding that she expects to see Ubuntu on tablets later this year. 'And we think we can do that effectively because of characteristics of Ubuntu as a platform, industry dynamics, and an increased wariness around the walled gardens of Apple and to some extent Google and even Amazon, as they are increasingly in this game as well.' Silber cites openness, open governance, collaboration, and a strong developer ecosystem as key for Ubuntu as a tablet platform, when compared with Android and iOS.

New AR.Drone 2.0 : introducing Absolute Control Mode

The AR.Drone 2.0 is at the crossroads where high-tech meets Icarus dream. Fly like a bird. View the earth from high above in high definition. Share your experience online with your friends. With the AR.Drone smartphone app for iPhone, iPad and Android devices.

Google Merges Google+ Into Search

Today Google is launching an update to their search engine. This update is intended to bring you personalized search results based on your Google+ friends, sharing, pictures and likes. They're calling it 'Search plus Your World,' and the update is going to automatically personalize all search results to a greater degree than before. These personalized matches will appear along your normal search results. For example, if you are searching for images of "mondomedeusah photography", Google will now personalize your search results and give high preference to "mondomedeusah art photos" from your Google+ circles. Google is saying that over time they will also start adding search results from all the other Google services, including Google Docs, Gmail, Contacts, Music, Voice, wallet and so on. Today's launch also uses Google+ data for another purpose: helping you search for information about people on Google+.

Google App Developer : Automatically setting a vacation responder from a calendar event

Jesse dropped us a line last week over at our mondomedeusah creatrive consulting office inquiring on a solution for a vacation responder from a calendar. Have you ever been to an airport with no internet access and realize that you forgot to set your "Out of Office" (OOO) message?"  You should get your calendar to automatically update your OOO message. Can this be done? But of course.  With the Google Calendar API you can now retrieve calendar events and set a vacation responder for the event duration for any user in the domain using the Email Settings API.

With a little bit of coding you'll be on your way. The first thing to do is to authorize the Calendar and Email Settings client to make any call to the APIs respectively. The new Calendar API requires google-api-client library while the Email settings API still works with the gdata-client library in Python. These libraries use different underlying protocols and handle authorization quite differently.

You can download the sample code here and build your own application on top of it.

US Threatens Spain For Not Implementing SOPA-Like Law

In a leaked letter sent to Spain's outgoing President, the US ambassador warned that if Spain didn't pass SOPA-like file-sharing site blocking law, Spain would risk being put into United States trade blocklist. United States government interference in Spain's intellectual property laws have been suspected for a long time, and now the recent leaks of diplomatic cables confirm this. Apart from the cables leaked earlier, now another cable dated December 12th says U.S. expresses "deep concern" over the failure to implement SOPA-style censorship law in the country. 'The government has unfortunately failed to finish the job for political reasons, to the detriment of the reputation and economy of Spain,' read the letter. Racing against the clock in the final days of the government, Solomont had one last push. 'I encourage the Government of Spain to implement the Sinde Law immediately to safeguard the reputation of Spain as an innovative country that does what it says it will, and as a country that breeds confidence,' he wrote.

- L4t3r4lu5 writes: "Spain is bankrupt. Putting them on an international trade blacklist is like refusing to serve homeless people in Harrod's."

- DCTech  writes: "It would be fun to see U.S. threaten China about blacklisting them. Oh, wait, they can't because U.S. is so dependent on China that it would hurt U.S. more than it would hurt China."

- Krneki writes: "Dear US of A - Fuck off!"

- harvey the nerd writes: "Spain should pack a 25 kg box of patties from the running of the bulls, send 'em FedEx."

- firex726 writes: "Except by not passing the law Spain is not seen as an Ally. Far too often in recent history the US seems to be taking a "With us or Against us" stance when it comes to other countries internal dealings. They either do as we tell them, or else..."

- alphatel writes: "Blackmail: you're doing it right."

Thumbdrive-sized Streaming Media Players Coming Soon

Roku is building its streaming media player technology into a thumbdrive-style device that will plug directly into a TV's HDMI port. The Roku Streaming Stick, to be priced in the $50-$100 range, will convert ordinary TVs into smart TVs, according to CEO Anthony Wood. One catch is that it will depend on the TV having at least one Mobile High-Definition Link (MHDL) compliant HDMI port. The new standard is not widely supported yet, with only Nokia, Samsung, Silicon Image, Sony, and Toshiba listed as members on the MHDL Consortium's web page.