E@zyVG’s Vichar::World Connected

I have two different blogs but want to offer one consolidated feed. Does FeedBurner allow combining of multiple feeds into one ?

One of the very popular question is about merging XML feeds from different sources (like Blogger, WordPress, Flickr, Twitter, Jaiku, etc) and then syndicate the entire content as one FeedBurner feed.

This is desirable because a single feed makes it extremely easy for your subscribers to track new content and updates from you.

Though FeedBurner doesn’t provide any native feed mixing service, you can use the excellent Yahoo! Pipes service to combine two or more feeds and burn them into a single FeedBurner feed.

Here’s a step by step guide (or you can watch the video tutorial)

Step 1: Go to the Yahoo! Pipes website and Create a new Yahoo! Pipe here.

Step 2: Drag-n-drop the “Fetch Feed” tab from the Sources tab to the main drawing panel.

Step 3: Add all the different Feed URLs in the same Fetch Feed Module (click the plus icon).

Step 4: Once you are done adding all your RSS feeds, drag the lower circle from Feed Fetch module to the Pipe Output at the bottom.

Step 5: Give some name and save this Yahoo! Pipe. Now run the pipe and you will see a new RSS feed - syndicate that feed via FeedBurner so you can even track the feed subscribers. It’s all very simple - watch the video demo below:

Screencast video created using Camtasia Studio 5. [download, 2.5 MB]

- tnx to labnol

Flock is a browser which makes social networking more easier than ever bringing to you a host of tools to interact with different social networking websites. Firefox on the other hand is not social networking ready but can be easily converted into a social networking hub by using extensions and add-ons.

In this post we will take a look at those useful extensions and add-ons which will help you convert Firefox into a social networking hub. Anticipating the Firefox 3 launch tomorrow we will only be talking about extensions that are compatible with Firefox 3 and above, those extensions will also be compatible with lower versions of Firefox.

StumbleUpon Toolbar

StumbleUpon is a great way to come across wonderful sites. The StumbleUpon Toolbar extension will help you discover websites in your selected categories. It will also let you share and connect with your friends.

Download StumbleUpon Toolbar

Shareaholic

Are you a avid social networker? Shareaholic is one extension that will fulfill your addiction with social networks by allowing you to bookmark or e-mail pages to a wide array of social networks.

Shareaholic currently supports digg, del.icio.us, facebook, foxiewire, friendfeed, google bookmarks, google reader, healthranker, kaboodle, magnolia, mixx, myspace, pownce, reddit, simpy, stumbleupon, streakr, truemors, tumblr, twitter, ycombinator, bzzster and more.

Download Shareaholic

ShareThis

Another extension similar to Shareaholic, ShareThis makes it more easier and efficient to share any type of content with anyone you want to share it with. ShareThis also makes it easier to share with your friends by providing you a mash up of address book from popular social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, AIM, Outlook and more.

Download ShareThis

Del.icio.us Bookmarks

This is the official extension created by Yahoo which will help you easily bookmark any site to your del.icio.us, you can also browse all your bookmarks in the sidebar.

Download Del.icio.us Bookmarks

Dashblog

What happens when you see a interesting image and want to quickly want to share it with your friends through your blog, twitter or tumblr? Do you want to quickly be able to share those videos, images and websites without having to go through much trouble. Dashblog is a extension that will quickly collect videos, images, text/quotes, songs and screen-captures from any web page and publish them to your blog (wordpress, blogger, tumblr) or twitter.

Download Dashblog

Piclens

PicLens transforms your browser into a visually stunning experience for enjoying online photos and videos. You can effortlessly search and zoom your way around thousands of images and YouTube videos faster and more immersively than ever before.

Piclens lets you search YouTube videos and discover videos and photos from various other sites. You can also browser products from Amazon with a 3D experience.

Piclens currently supports a host of services including Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and almost all of the popular image sharing websites.

Download Piclens

Clipmarks

Clipmarks is like adding a pair of scissors to your browser, letting you capture exactly what you want others to see (text, images or video). Your clips are saved on clipmarks.com and can easily be syndicated to FriendFeed, Twitter, Facebook or other sites.

Download Clipmarks

Meebo

Meebo is a popular online instant messaging service which allows you to chat with friends from multiple IM networks without having to install any client on your desktop.

We have made a exception to include Meebo in our list even though it is not compatible with Firefox 3 since it is a real must have extension and is definitely useful.

Download Meebo

GMarks

GMarks allows you to sync and manage your Google Bookmarks from within Firefox.

Download Gmarks

Related Downloads: GBookmarks | Google Bookmarks Button

TwitterFox

The extension adds a tiny icon on the status bar that notifies you when your friends update their statuses. Also it has a small text input field to update your status from within Firefox without having to visit the site.

Download TwitterFox

TwitterBar

Are you in hurry and want to post something to twitter? TwitterBar comes to the rescue by allowing you to post to twitter directly from the Firefox address bar. Simply type in your message and click on the icon to submit your post to twitter.

Download TwitterBar

Digg Sidebar

Who can ever forget Digg when one talks about social networking? Digg sidebar is a useful extension that will allow you to see and Digg stories in the Firefox Sidebar.

View all the stories as they occur without having to refresh the page over and over again, you can also choose from various categories and topics and from popular/upcoming/all sections on Digg by just using a menu.

Download Digg Sidebar

FlickrFox

FlickrFox allows you to browse and search Flickr photos in a sidebar.

Download FlickrFox

Facebook Toolbar

The official toolbar from Facebook which allows you to easily access your Facebook account using the toolbar, without having to visit the website.

You can also access your Facebook account from the Firefox sidebar.

Download Facebook Sidebar

Email This! Bookmarklet

Email This! will send your recipient the link, title, & highlighted text of the page you are viewing using GMail, Google Apps GMail, Yahoo, and Stand-Alone Mail Clients like Outlook Express, Thunderbird, & More!

Download Email This! Bookmarklet

Other worth while mentions for bringing Social Networking into Firefox

• Me.dium Toolbar
• Del.icio.us Sidebar
• Video Download Helper

Last year, the TouchFLO interface proved to be the most prominent feature of all found in the Touch handset by HTC. Being quite ordinary on the hardware side, the model offers a totally revamped application launcher serving as a perfect compromise between the complexity of the Microsoft platform and the simplicity of those who don’t want go too far in exploring its capabilities, as well as serving as an easy introduction to Windows Mobile to the users who have previously had no clear notion about the peculiarities of the Microsoft interface at all. As a result of the innovative approach, mass users ready to embrace WM 6.1 emerge in thousands, no longer confused by the complexity of the default interface. Moreover, the TouchFLO bears the ‘3D’ label, standing for an extremely easy-to-use and friendly user interface only requiring a few taps of the finger to reach the goal.

HTC’s TouchFLO 3D features a new Start-screen which includes a clock, information about missed calls and about the next appointments. Furthermore it includes a smart-dial list which is customizable and where you can add you favorite contacts. Next is a SMS and MMS overview followed by an E-Mail overview. Photos and Videos is the next screen and finally, TouchFLO 3D is also able to play videos without opening Microsoft’s Windows Media Player. Next to it is the Music screen which shows all your available tracks with cover-art followed by a shortcut to the Internet which either starts Opera Mobile or predefined favorites. Next is the Weather information which now shows a forecast of up to 10 selectable cities, followed by Settings and the Programs menu which is also partly customizable as well as gives a direct link to all available applications without using the Pocket PC typical Windows Mobile flag anymore.

Horace Luke, Chief Innovation Officer for HTC, presents their new Touch Flow 3D User Interface:

And here is a complete walk through of the UI on HTC Diamond by pocketnow.com:

This is definitely a killer UI for Windows Mobile phones, and I find it better than that of on iPhone (I consider iPhone the best multimedia phone on market). Most will appreciate the TouchFLO’s user friendliness compared to the default Win Mobile, as it is much better than looking at a Windows desktop on your cell phone, and even more productive.

I’d really like to own the HTC Touch Pro “Raphael”, as it will be a major update from my HTC Artemis (running WM 6.1 Pro ROM), skipping the Kaiser, which I found expensive and very bulky for me.

HTC Touch Pro comes packed with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, 512 MB flash, 288 MB RAM memory, SD 2.0 compatible microSD memory card expansion slot, and Wi-Fi 802.11b/g which provides HSDPA 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA wireless connectivity. Like any other modern handset, the PRO includes Bluetooth connectivity (2.0 with EDR) and an interface with HTC ExtUSB (audio jack, 11-pin mini-USB 2.0, and TV out in-one.) When it comes to business productivity, power users can find HTC Touch Pro built-in TV-out functionality useful to deliver PowerPoint presentations directly from their handset.

I hope that the pricing will be good on this device, as paying $1000 for phone is just too much.

*!!!!! I think that this post needs some modifications, as not all is working as expected. Any tips and comments are very much welcomed. (Think I have resolved the issue …. check UPDATE section at the bottom)

I am in the process of moving my blogs from wordpress.com to my own wordpress.org hosting. While doing so, I got stuck with the problem. My blog posts use several different languages, especially Russian and Hindi, apart from English. Once exported from wordpress.com using the built-in feature and imported to newly created blog, posts with other than English were not shown correctly, i.e. I was getting ????? instead of letters. So, how to fix this.

There are two ways: One is to edit wp_config.php file only, as mentioned in II, or the way, especially if you are starting a new blog, as I had a small problem at the end (see remark after I), though am not very much sure if this gives me extra benefit for future imports/exports, but does sound better.

Notice: I installed Wordpress using the Fantastico script provided by my hosting company, and my hosting provider has phpMyAdmin 2.11.4, running MySQL 4.1.22.

(choose only one of the following methods, don;t do both)

I. Check main configuration of Wordpress in wp-config.php. You should have these records:

define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8');
define('DB_COLLATE', '');

Open your PhpMyAdmin and check settings for default charset and collation.

Set collation as utf8_general_ci

• MySQL charset: UTF-8 Unicode (utf8)
• MySQL connection collation: utf8_general_ci

Let’s check settings for the tables. You can see that all tables have not the utf8 charset, but latin1 or any other charset, but default collation for the database is utf8 already.

Next step - Export Wordpress database and fix collation and charset for all records.

Press Export button, select “Save as file” in checkbox and press “Go“.

Once downloaded, open it in any text editor, like kwrite/notepad. Search and replace all latin1 (or your current charset) to utf8. For faster method, use find and replace: latin1 - to - utf8. Save the file.

Upload file with Import button.

Remark: This allowed me to write new posts in other languages, but the older content imported still remained with ???? instead of letters (!)

II. Editing wp_config.php file:

define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8');
define('DB_COLLATE', '');

//define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8');
//define('DB_COLLATE', '');

With only this hack, you should be able to make posts in your native language, as well as see properly all your imported content from your older blog.

Troubleshooting: Error for import tables or database - tables or database already exist

Press Drop button and selected database will be deleted (careful here :-)) Now try to import database once again.

If your hosting decide to delete Drop button from your phpmyadmin, then you can delete tables in this way:

Open database (Browse) and select all tables. Select Drop from menu.

Also maybe you should delete this line in your edited copy of the database:

CREATE DATABASE `your_database_name` DEFAULT

CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;

It’s highly recommended to leave this line in a file

USE `your_database_name`;

I hope this tutrial was of help, as I myself spent few hours resolving this issue.

Also check out:

• Wordpress.org - Converting Database Character Sets
• WordPress Backups
• Backing Up Your Database

UPDATE (few hours later):

After trying out few combinations, I came to the following for the imported blog/new blog, either from wordpress.com or the wordpress.org version 2.2.x or older (I think), here is what will work for sure.

1. Set collation to utf8_general_ci, as mentioned in Step I.

2. Open your database , and DROP all Tables, as explained in Troubleshooting section (leaving db empty)

3. Head to your domain/url/web address where you installed your wordpress blog

4. Go through couple of install steps (change the password after setup for admin, if you want)

5. Import your XML file that you have downloaded from your older wordpress blog (using wordpress import tool, not mysql)

You will notice now that all your tables are set to utf8, older imported posts are showing all characters properly. Seems like Fantastico script for installing wordpress.org is giving head aches to many users across the web.

THAT IS IT … it takes time to ….

It’s not quite the same type of hybrid drive-train you’d see in street vehicles, but in an exciting announcement, Max Mosely of F1 has announced that all cars will become hybrid by 2013, along with other changes to the vehicles.

The hybrid system that will be phased in is known as KERS, which stands for Kinetic Energy Recovery System. KERS doesn’t store as much energy as a traditional hybrid system, but it only weighs 55 pounds and the limited energy storage capacity is well suited for Formula-style racing.

The biggest difference between KERS and a regular battery-electric hybrid is that KERS stores recovered waste energy in a rotating flywheel. Instead of converting waste energy into electricity and than back into useful energy again with an electric motor, KERS simply transfers the kinetic energy to a ~5kg flywheel in the F1 car’s transmission. The energy stored in the flywheel can then be used by the driver by pushing a “boost” button.

KERS is particularly exciting for us regular car drivers because the creators have claimed that it is twice as efficient as a standard hybrid system. If this system can be applied to production vehicles, it will be possible to realize huge improvements in fuel economy and pretty respectable reductions in GHG emissions.

The systems has its’ pros and cons, as well as supporters and those who are not liking it, at least with the current version. I am quite sure that with time this will evolve to suit all the teams, and later will be a version for street cars.

…. Not The Dream But Still Excellent Results

Unfortunately the 4.0 mark remained unreachable ……

Few days ago I ordered parts to assemble a new computer for myself. After receiving them all, first thing was to check if all was working fine in default mode, i.e. just plug everything and press the power button and after that install the OS. OS, well, at first I installed Linux (trust it more at this than Windows), the openSUSE distribution and after that the all necessary Windows, in my case the Vista x64, for doing all the overclocking. Once through the installing of OSs, came a time to squeeze maximum out of newly built computer. Here is how it looks from inside:

all the wires nicely tucked for better airflow

the blue aura

I was able to reach easily 3.6Ghz out of my Q6600 G0 processor. Next was 3.8Ghz, and that is where I reached the maximum stability, though 4.0Ghz was in reach. What I mean to say is from the tests the Asus P5K-E can handle around 490-500Mhz, meaning that when i tried to go for 4.0Ghz (500×9 or 450×8), the system was very-very unstable, even with the Vcore set @1.65, which of course is damn to high, unless you have some excellent watercooling. I could reach Windows log-in screen, but most of the time it just crashed. Have to say that when it came to runnig Linux, it did much better. All this meant that this particular silicon die was not planning playing nice @4Ghz. After this I decided to go for sweet spot 3.8Ghz, knowing that 3.9Ghz will also require high voltage.

Notice: All voltages mentioned here are that of in BIOS readings, same as what you see in CPU-Z, Asus Probe, etc. And temperatures what I saw in Core Temp 0.97.1.

3.8Ghz - not bad, but I didn’t want to have my system running hot with high Vcore. 3.8Ghz came as Vcore @1.525 initially and FSB @423×9 with NB @ 1.40V and memory runnig @1016Mhz 2.10V with 5-5-5-18 timings (memory was able to reach a max of only 30-40Mhz over its’ rated speed). At these settings computer was stable running several 32M SuperPi, several runs of 3DMark06 and several hours with OCCT at mix mode, but not with Prime95 (but with 3.7Ghz was stable). Being frank, I am not that bothered with Prime95, as am not planning to run some high FPU intensive simulations where minor mathematical error ruins whole deal. Next step was to see what P5K Pencil Vdroop (voltage fluctuation problem) Mod would give me. As this is not the first time I was doing mod, I checked few forums for instructions and went ahead. Wow … this mod came as surprise. Voltage fluctuation vanished 99.5%. Before if I wanted a real Vcore 1.525, I had to set Vcore 1.56 in BIOS, and it fluctuated quite a lot when in IDLE and LOAD. With this mod, I set 1.525 in BIOS and it was same in CPU-Z, and barely fluctuated between IDLE and LOAD, and even Prime95 runs became much more stable. What came to me as a very nice surprise, is that with this mod done, I could run the same settings not @1.52 but rather Vcore @1.4875. At this Vcore, apart from Prime95, all runs very nicely and mainly temperatures have dropped (even 1.4725 is working but not as quite stable as I would like).

Here is link to CPU-Z Validation Database

BTW, apart from lowering the Vcore, I also decided to changed the fan on Scythe Mugen cooler, which had 1200 RPM, to a little more powerful one, i.e. Zalman ZM-F3 set at around 1650-1700 RPM. With this I lowered temps another 2-4C. The following is what I get @IDLE with room temperature around 22C.

surely not the best result, perhaps AS5 in future will help

13.618secs is what I get from 1M on SuperPi/mod1.5 XS:

ah, I was hoping for 12.xxxs :-p

Now it was to overclocking the video card, which is MSI’s 8800GT, the OC version. The official specs for 8800GT are 600Mhz/1800Mhz/1500Mhz (Core Speed/Memory Speed/Shader Clock), while MSI 8800GT-OC came as 660Mhz/1900Mhz/1650Mhz. Surely, it is nice to get a pre-o/ced card, but then we enthusiasts want more. The max stable I could get from this card was 730Mhz/2050Mhz/1700Mhz, but then I decided to slow down and go with 701Mhz/2001Mhz/1701Mhz, so to keep the card cooler, as extra 30Mhz on core and 50Mhz on memeory wont give me much, besides I want my case to run little cooler so that all are in their sweet spot.

With Q6600 @3.8Ghz, Memory @1016Mhz and 8800GT @700/2000/1700 I get 15036 on 3DMark06. Compare this to around 3000 (as I remeber) I got from my previous rig.

Final O/C setup:

• Q6600 GO @3.8Ghz
  • Vista x64 Stable @1.48
  • Linux x86-64 Stable @1.46
    
• ASUS P5K-E @423×9 (BIOS 1012)
  
• OCZ Platinum XTC 2×2048MB @1016Mhz 5-5-5-18-4-60-8-4-4-2T
• MSI 8800GT 512MB @701/2001/1701Mhz

For a complete specs of my computer check out the following link.

Conclusion: Am I happy with the results … surely I am. A quad core @3.8Ghz is no joke and with 8800GT @700/2000, I can play current and near future releases at high resolutions with latest graphics effects and settings set at high. And think of all that blazing performance in Linux … hahaha :-p

On 4.0 Mark: I tried playing with different settings, including with CPU PLL Voltage, FSB Term. Voltage, SB/NB Voltage … but to no avail. If you think you can help me to reach the magic 4.0, please let me know, and if it will work, expect a donation from me.

Linux Test: I will soon have latest benchmarks done on Linux posted on my Linux and Open Source blog.

UPDATE (09.04.08): Super Pi result on Linux:

10.109 on Linux vs 13.618 on Windows

Yesssss ……. no, this is not April’s fool day joke

I was actually planning to upgrade my aging computer for some time now, and only now managed to sum up budget for new rig. Thanks to a project I’ll be working on, I got some advance payments, with which I am getting myself a new computer. You’ll notice that I ended up going with Intel Core 2 platform, rather than AMD Phenom that I was actually wanting, reason being that even with the latest Phenom X4 B3 stepping it doesn’t come close to what Core 2 has to offer, especially in the overclocking department. Also, this time it is nVidia video card, as ATI really does ruin mood when it comes to Linux desktops, ’cause of driver issues (do you know that in Vista’s case it is the other way around). So, here is what I ended up ordering, which should be delivered in next 2-4 days:

1. Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (Kentsfield 65nm) 2.40Ghz 8MB cache 1066Mhz [SLACR -> G0 Stepping]

The options were Q6600, E8400 and the latest Q9450. Went with Q6600 as I really wanted to make a jump straight to quad core, though of course the dual core E8400 would have overclocked better and would have ran cooler. Unfortunately the Q9450 is still not available, and those that have charge premium..

2. Scythe SCINF-1000 Mugen (Infinity)

I was always quite picky about cooling, hence went with one of the best the market has to offer.

3. ASUS P5K-E/WiFi AP (Intel P35+ICH9R chipsets)

4. OCZ Platinum XTC 2×2048MB DDR2 PC2-8000 OCZ2P10004GK 1000Mhz @5-5-5-18

Before I saw these sticks, I was going for Corsair Dominator TWIN2X4096-8500C5DF … boy I saved some $$.

5. MSI NX8800GT-T2D512E-OC 8800GT 512MB

In this case I had 2 options, the latest 9600GT and the older 8800GT. Simply speaking, the 9600GT has nothing much new to offer and 8800GT is definitely faster, as well as, at least here in Moscow, the price on both the cards are similar. Aah, Linux + nVidia card, I am gonna enjoy it.

6. 2xWestern Digital 500GB WD5000AAKS 16MB SATA-II

You somehow always manage to run out of space … this drive comes to the rescue.

7. NEC/Optiarc DVD-RW AD-7203S Labelflash SATA

My first SATA based DVD-RW …. yups, it is too early for Blue Ray ReWriter.

8. Microsonic CR09 USB 2.0 57-in-1 3.5″ int. USB 2.0 Card Reader

Needed SDHC support, as my older one didn’t support it.

9. TRENDnet TBW-105UB USB 2.0, Class II Bluetooth v2.0 with EDR

10. Thermaltake PurePower RX 600W ATX 2.2 (W0142)

Initially I was going for 500W, but then the price difference was not big, and decided to get 600W. I’ll need it to run my overclocked computer stable 24/7.

11. Thermaltake M9 Mid-Tower ATX Case

At first I was going for Thermaltake Armor Jr., but then found this case, which though not as sexy as previous one, seems to be better when it comes to cooling factor … and saved some $$.

That’s about it. I already have descent monitor (though already dreaming of 24-27″), keyboard/mouse combo and a webcam. If you wanna know which ones I got, you can check’em up here.

Now it is time to assemble and then start doing tests and benchmarks to reach the highest possible overclock with processor, motherboard and memory and as well with video card. Once completed I’ll post my results.

I am gonna enjoy this weekend like I haven’t for some time …. knock wood :-p Expect my next post once this computer has been assembled and thoroughly tested.

BTW, it came out to US$1310 in total.

Community Organization to Assure Neutrality and Longevity of Specification for Building Social Applications Across the Web

Yahoo!, MySpace, and Google today announced they have agreed to form the OpenSocial Foundation to ensure the neutrality and longevity of OpenSocial as an open, community-governed specification for building social applications across the web. Yahoo!’s support of OpenSocial and role as a founding member of the new foundation are landmarks for the rapidly growing specification which will now offer developers the potential to connect with more than 500 million people worldwide.

The OpenSocial Foundation will be an independent non-profit entity with a formal intellectual property and governance framework; related assets will be assigned to the new organization by July 1, 2008. The foundation will provide transparency and operational guidelines around technology, documentation, intellectual property, and other issues related to the evolution of the OpenSocial platform, while also ensuring all stakeholders share influence over its future direction.

“Yahoo! believes in supporting community-driven industry specifications and expects that OpenSocial will fuel innovation and make the web more relevant and more enjoyable to millions of users,” said Wade Chambers, Vice President – Platforms, Yahoo!. “Our support builds on similar efforts with the OpenID community and will expand the opportunity for developers and publishers to benefit from an open and increasingly social web.”

“Together with the OpenSocial community we are setting new industry specifications for social web application development,” said Steve Pearman, SVP of Product Strategy, MySpace. “Yahoo! is an important addition to the OpenSocial movement, and through this foundation we will work together to provide developers with the tools to make the Internet move faster and to foster more innovation and creativity.”

“OpenSocial has been a community-driven specification from the beginning,” said Joe Kraus, Director of Product Management, Google. “The formation of this foundation will ensure that it remains so in perpetuity. Developers and websites should feel secure that OpenSocial will be forever free and open.”

The OpenSocial Foundation website at www.opensocial.org will serve as the portal for the community to find all information about OpenSocial and the foundation as they evolve. Developers and website owners can now visit www.opensocial.org for the latest specifications, links to other resources, and the opportunity to get involved.

Engineers from Yahoo!, MySpace, and Google will continue to work together and with the OpenSocial community to further advance the specification through the new foundation, continuing several core elements of OpenSocial since its announcement by Google, MySpace, and many others in November 2007:

• all specifications are available under a Creative Commons copyright license
• public community involvement shapes the specification’s direction
• an open source reference implementation called Shindig is being created and developed as a project in the Apache Software Foundation incubator, available at http://incubator.apache.org/shindig/

OpenSocial addresses an emerging problem for developers who are eagerly building applications people can enjoy with their friends: before OpenSocial, if a developer built a “favorite photos” application to work on one social network, it would have to be built all over again to work on another site. OpenSocial tackles this problem at its technology roots, providing common “plumbing” that lets social applications run on many different websites without requiring duplicate work from either developers or the websites.

The result is a vast distribution platform for social applications, whether they are for sharing photos or playing games or arranging real-world meetings or any number of other activities – everything is more fun, interesting, and useful when users can involve their friends and contacts.

Intel Corp. unveiled its first central processing units designed for Internet-oriented small form-factor mobile computers. The new Intel Atom processors are likely to show Intel a way into handheld devices, a market that has been relatively untapped by the world’s largest maker of chips.

“This is our smallest processor built with the world’s smallest transistors. This small wonder is a fundamental new shift in design, small yet powerful enough to enable a big Internet experience on these new devices. We believe it will unleash new innovation across the industry,” said Intel executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer Sean Maloney.

Intel Atom processors, which were previously code-named Diamondville and Silverthorne, are based on Intel Core 2 micro-architecture, but are tailored for mobile operation and manufacturing cost-efficiency: e.g., they do not feature large caches and do not sport certain peculiarities.

These new chips will be manufactured on Intel’s 45nm process technology and will contain about 47 million of transistors. The chips have a thermal design power (TDP) specification in 0.6-2.5W range and scale to 1.8GHz speeds depending on customer need. By comparison, today’ mainstream mobile Core 2 Duo processors have a TDP in the 35W range and run at speeds of about 3.30GHz.

Typical Atom based computers will be ultra-portable notebooks or tabled PCs with small 7-10 inch displays. Devices will ship with either hard disks or solid-state drives that use flash memory and offer battery life ranging from three to five hours. The majority of models are most likely to come equipped with wired network controller or WiFi, and then later with WiMAX. Some will be really sleek and thin, some will be a bit more ruggedized. The manufacturers will provide their solutions with Linux or Windows XP operating system and the Atom based devices will be primarily positioned for internet-surfing and typical office work. The cost of  Atom notebooks will range from $250 to $300, which should appeal not only to small to midsize businesses with small IT staffs and more limited budgets, but also to emerging markets and consumers.

With personal computing increasingly going mobile and the computer industry rapidly developing new classes of products to connect the next billion people to the Internet, the Intel Atom processor offers customers the unique ability to innovate around the new low-power design. In addition to the mobile Internet device (MID) opportunity, Intel believes the demand for a new category of low-cost, Internet-centric mobile computing devices dubbed “netbooks” and basic Internet-centric desktop PCs dubbed “nettops”, will grow substantially over the next several years. The Intel Atom processor is perfectly suited to meet these new market segments.

By 2015 Intel expects to have CPUs with many smaller IA cores, each with very low power characteristics but with the entire chip being very high performance. Intel commissioned its Austin design team to work on one of the cores for this type of many-core CPU.

Anand Chandrasekher, Intel’s Ultra Mobility Group Senior Vice President presents the ATOM processor

Intel is effectively promising that in the coming years its Atom processor will enable you to, without sacrificing battery life, have significantly faster mobile devices and phones. We can’t help but be excited about that.

As I am an avid user of Windows Mobile Pro version, having the HTC Artemis “P3300″, I keep my eyes on what is going on with this mobile platform. Though Windows Mobile 6.1 will be unveiled officially in about 2 weeks at Mobile World Congress 2008 but already people are running it, including myself.

Here are the highlights of WM 6.1:

• Office Mobile now includes also One Note Mobile application - apart from Word Mobile, Excel Mobile and PowerPoint Mobile, one new application is available - it can record voice notes and drawings and textual notes
• Internet Explorer now has function “Zoom Out” what enables page-overview mode and better overall navigation through web pages
• Windows Mobile 6.1 still is based on Windows CE 5.2 so no upgrade to Windows CE 6.0
• SMS chat view mode is available so SMS messages can appear in threaded-way - more comfortable to follow SMS conversations
• instead of “Settings / Memory / Running Programs” now a Task Manager is available with possibility to set settings of executed threads/processes like CPU (indication of dual-core Windows Mobile devices?) and memory
• new menu item “Managed Programs”

As anticipated, the much expected improvements in usage for finger based navigation are nowhere to be found, meaning users will need to wait till 2009 for Windows Mobile 7 to get them. Small improvements are definitely there. I’d recommend to flash your device to latest 6.1. If you are one of the owners of HTC Artemis and want to run Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro version check out the following forum thread. Check out xda-developers site to see if there is one available for your HTC device.