VLC launches version 2.0

VideoLAN have finally rolled out version 2.0 of VLC and it is available for download here. Mac users will see a big change in the user interface and both Mac and Windows users will have Blu-Ray playback support, although this support is currently experimental. Version 2.0 also brings faster decoding on multi-core, GPU and mobile hardware. More file formats are also supported, including professional, HD and 10bits codecs. The version is called "Twoflower" and comes with a rendering pipeline for video, better quality subtitles and new filters for enhancing video. Twoflower also fixes numerous bugs in more than 7,000 commits from 160 volunteers.

VLC 2.0's new Mac interface

In terms of the new interface for Mac, users will be able to use VLC in 2 colours, Lion Grey and QTX Black. There will be more extension support and better Lion integration. All users will be able to have rewritten video output core and modules, allowing subpicture blending in GPU and shader support in the OpenGL output, for colourspace conversion, including 10bits. There are also new video outputs for Windows 7, Android, iOS and OS/2. There is rewritten support for images, including jpeg, png, xcf and bmp. In addition to Blu-Ray support, menus are deactivated in this release and AACS and BD+ DRM libraries and keys are not shipped, for legal reasons. There is support for SDI capture cards and QTKit devices and support for new adaptive streaming protocols, like HLS and DASH.

VLC version 2.0 is available for Windows and Mac versions OS X 10.6 and 10.7. Mac users with OS X 10.5 (Intel) and OS X 10.5 (PowerPC) can also download VLC version 2.0.

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Google to get Chrome password generator

Folks at Google are now toying with the idea of introducing a password generator on their Chrome browser, which would reduce the risk of losing one's details, and other private information to a weak password. While still in its conceptual stage, a blog post on Chromium projects reveals Google's game plan. Google plans to introduce a password generator for their widely used Chrome browser, which will give the users an option to use the password, which Chrome suggests, ideally would be a strong one - difficult to break into. The post, while describing this, states, "Chrome's long term solution to this problem is browser sign in plus OpenID. While implementing browser sign in is something that we can control, getting most sites on the internet to use OpenID will take a while. In the meantime it would be nice to have a way to achieve the same affect of having the browser control authentication. Currently you can mostly achieve this goal through Password Manager and Browser Sync, but users still know their passwords so they are still susceptible to phishing. By having Chrome generate passwords for users, we can remove this problem."

Getting you a strong password (Image credit: Getty Images)

Google has outlined the design it has in mind for a set-up like this. To begin with, Google adds that the firsts of their challenges will be to determine when they're on a sign-in page,  i.e. a page with account name field and two password fields. Once there, Google will introduce, what they call a "small UI element" the password field, which when clicked on will open a dialog box, asking the user, if they'd want Chrome to manage their password for them; if the user agrees, then Chrome opens up a small dialog box showing a random password. Google adds, "The reason we don't just choose a password for them is that many sites have requirements (e.g. must have one digit, must be alphanumeric, must be between 6 and 20 characters) some of which may be contradictory between sites. So we will choose a default generator that will work on most sites, but users may need to change our password if it doesn't work."

Another of Google's challenges will be when a user decides to change his or her password. In such cases, Google will have to determine, if a particular page is the one where a user can change their password. Google claims that this can be done by simply determining whether a user is currently logged into the site.

It will just be a matter of time before Google puts out its new password generator in use for users. 

via Tech2

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Google DNS handles 70 billion requests a day

Google announced the launch of their Public DNS, way back in December 2009 to help make the web faster for everyone. Back then, it was more of an experiment to see if it actually did help. Today, it’s no longer an experimental service. Google is the largest public DNS service in the world, handling an average of more than 70 billion requests a day, which in itself is a whopping statistic. This has been stated by the official Google blog.

For those not in the know, the DNS basically acts like the phonebook of the Internet. If you had to look up hundreds or thousands of phone numbers every day, then you’d want a directory that was fast, secure and correct. That’s what Google Public DNS provides for tens of millions of people. The DNS helps in filtering, searching and looking up by tens and thousands in the digital world. 

Going strong!

Google Public DNS has become particularly popular for users internationally, as well. Today, about 70 percent of its traffic comes from outside the U.S. Google has maintained an extremely strong presence in North America, South America and Europe, and along with that, it has also beefed up its presence in Asia. Google has also added entirely new access points to parts of the world which previously didn't have Google Public DNS servers, including Australia, India, Japan and Nigeria.

Shortly after launch, Google made a technical proposal for how public DNS services can work better with some kinds of important web hosts (known as content distribution networks, or CDNs) that have servers all of the world. The company came up with a way to pass information to CDNs, so they can send users to nearby servers. This proposal is now called “edns-client-subnet” and it is quite popular amongst the members of the Internet Engineering Task Force. Other companies have started experimenting with implementing this proposal as well. 

Anyway, that is one hell of a statistic. It is fair to say that Google has effectively divided the web into two halves – one that works completely dependent on Google and its services and the other that doesn’t. 

via Tech2

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Google secures 32 misspelt domains

As familiarized in one of our earlier reports, the concept of 'typo-squatting' is increasingly becoming common; so much so that even as you're reading this, a new, subtly similar sounding domain name to an existing popular one would have taken form. There is no dearth of individuals who've been capitalizing on every erronous entry made, and this has been giving owners of popular websites, sleepless nights, since each wrong entry has been costing them a lot.

Watch out! You may have got it wrong (Image credit: Getty Images)

Now, a report in The Next Web confirms that search giant, Google, whose domain name, 'Google.com' has been one of the most misspelt ones has secured 32 such 'typo-squatting' domain names. These include:

• geoolge.com
• gggoogle.com
• ggolge.com
• ggoole.com
• go0gle.com
• gogelmail.com
• goggleemail.com
• gogglemails.com
• gologle.com
• googemail.com
• googer.com
• googlae.com
• googlecalander.com
• googlede.com
• googledevice.com
• googleen.com
• googlehomepage.com
• googleparking.net
• googlepictures.com
• googletr.com
• googlev.com
• googlp.com
• googlse.com
• googlu.com
• googne.com
• googole.com
• googu.com
• goolggle.com
• goolgle.com
• goolglemail.com
• gooogly.com
• gougle.com

Google had, early this year filed a complaint with the National Arbitration Forum, against a Hong Kong-based individual who claimed that he owned a host of domain names sounding similar to Google. The Forum, according to this report tried to reach the Hong Kong-based individual for a response to the proceedings, but failed and therefore, decided that the domain names be transferred to Google, immediately. The National Arbitration Forum, in its decision, further stated that all the domains can transferred to Google as it complied with the following ICANN norms:

• The domain name registered by Respondent is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which Complainant has rights; and
• Respondent has no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name; and
• The domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith.

In our earlier report, we had put down a statistic showing just how worrying the concept of typo-squatting is. "According to a report in 2010, presented by FairWinds Partners, an internet consulting firm, based in Washington D.C stated that owing to typo squatting alone, as many as 250 well-received websites suffer losses collectively amounting to $285 million."

So, which domain name is the one you misspell very often? 

via Tech2

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Meet the official Windows 8 logo - it's finally a window and not a flag

We’ve been seeing screenshots of Windows 8, for some time now, but never had the official logo to identify it with, until now. Sam Moreau, Windows' Principal Director of user experiences unveiled the new logo on Window’s official blog. He also goes on to explain the reasoning behind the whole redesign and how they came about finalizing on this. Looking at it, it’s pretty clear from where they got their immediate inspiration and that’s the Metro UI look from WP7. Since Microsoft is planning to create a unified ecosystem for phones, tablets, notebooks and desktop PCs, it’s important that the logo also reflects that.

A fresh new look (Image Source)

The logo is reminiscent of the Windows 1.0 logo, which had similar styling elements. The new logo will have a flat look, which also represents the Live Tiles in WP7. The multi-coloured window panes are now a thing of the past, as we have solid colours for the logo, as well as the text. According to Sam, “We wanted the new logo to be both modern and classic by echoing the International Typographic Style (or Swiss design) that has been a great influence on our Metro style design philosophy. Using bold flat colors and clean lines and shapes, the new logo has the characteristics of way-finding design systems seen in airports and subways.” 

We think it looks good. It’s certainly different from the logo’s that we’re used to, but with Windows 8 designed to be quite different from the get go and not merely a facelift, we think the logo is fitting. Obviously, what really matters is the final product, as you’ll only see the logo during the boot screen. Get ready to download the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 on Feb 29. So, what do you think of the new logo? Love it? Hate it? Don’t care? Let us know below.

via Tech2

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Alternative Brand Reversions by Graham Smith

Creative Alternative Brand Reversions by Graham Smith 

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City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia — Russia

Today we have the example of "City of Arts and Sciences' in Valencia's see how hopelessly far behind our architecture. At a time when Moscow was built temples of bad taste - Ryad shopping mall on the Manazhke, TC "Atrium" and dozens of other squalid sheds, the Spanish built the city of Arts and Sciences. The design belongs to the Valencia architect Santiago Calatrava, construction began in 1996. The complex is one of the outstanding examples of modern architecture. In Russia, this will not build another 20 years. 

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New Twitter rolls out to everybody

In the beginning, there was Twitter. Then there was new Twitter. And then last December, Twitter announced an even newer Twitter. This time, they updated their website and mobile applications to fit the same format. The new format pushed tweets to the right hand side of the screen and user data to the left. It also divided up functions between three major tabs, "Home", "Connect", and "Discover". Home, was as the name sounds, your homescreen. Connect is where you see mentions, retweets, favourited tweets and new follows, and Discover takes you to hashtags and trending topics. Also, Direct Messages have moved to the profile tab. Twitter was rolling out this update slowly on the web and they announced that now, everyone has it.

Everyone has it now

They've also rolled out new Twitter with a few new tricks. For one, they've introduced shortcuts to perform various functions when using Twitter for web. When you've expanded multiple tweets to look at pictures or videos, to close all of them together, you type "L". To quickly go to the Connect tab, type "GC" (for Go Connect). Similarly, if you want to go to the Discover tab quickly, type "GD" (as in Go Discover". If you want to go directly to Activity, type "GA" (as in Go Activity).

Twitter's also allowing you to embed tweets to your website. To embed a tweet, click Embed this Tweet, located at the bottom of any Tweet permalink page, select HTML, Shortcode, or Link from the pop-up dialog box and finally, copy and paste the code provided in the dialog box into your blog or website. When you embed a tweet (as shown above), viewers can follow the tweet's user with a single click, or reply to, retweet or favourite the tweet all from the site. Click on the author’s @username to see their Twitter profile page, or click the date in the lower left corner of the Tweet to see Replies, Retweets and Favorites on the Details page.

via Tech2

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House of Containers in France

French architect Patrick Partouche has completed construction of single family homes, using the eight containers. This project was built in the town of Lille, France.

The house has turned out a very comfortable and spacious, the total area of 208 square meters of dwelling. meters. From the huge windows offer magnificent views of the rural field. Original shutters, walls can turn the house into an impregnable fortress. In the case of leaving the owners, their refuge is fully protected. However, the owners of the house using these designs only to protect the interior from the sun. 

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Amazing 44 Photos

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