review - Tag Archive

Why not try Lightbeam?

4 Replies Jonny Hankins

I have just downloaded and taken a quick look at the new Mozilla add-on called Lightbeam.

I am an UBUNTU user myself, so I don’t know if this will work for other systems, but I would like you to help me decide if it’s an interesting tool either way.

I have always heard that companies share your information. So you go on one site and they share your habits with other organizations. Well Lightbeam shows you who they are sharing your information with.

One thing that I should say is that I do not know what the information they are sharing actually is. If anyone does know I would love to hear. So that is job number one for you down in the comments below.

The actual view that you are presented with when you open this program is very nice. A series of connected triangles that drift around the screen, all tied together like one of those kinnect toys that my kids play with. Some of the triangles have website logos on them, others are blank. It’s almost a snowdrop kind of effect.

Mozilla Lightbeam

Mozilla Lightbeam screenshot

The lines are either white or blue, the blue depicting that the sites use cookies. Probably half of them do.

And it makes a nice little educational game. As you visit another site it joins the page with its connections, the entity wobbles and bounces before coming static. Many of these connections are the same, creating a central mass, but some sites do not share with anyone that the others do, and live in their own little detached bubble.

I was surprised to find that ebay UK is not connected to any of the other sites. It has 3 satellite sites but they are all ebay subsections. I would have to draw the conclusion that ebay do not share your information. Job number 2, correct me in the comments below please.

The Weather channel divulge to another weather channel and 3 or 4 others, CNN and the BBC are about the same. TECHNOLOGY BLOGGERS DOES NOT SHARE WITH ANYONE! Read it and weep and respect where it is due Christopher. My employer the Bassetti Foundation are linked to Twitter, and nobody else.

Oh and guess who is in the middle of the blob, tentacles everywhere, yes of course, Facebook. I have not visited the site but they appear through the mist to take centre stage. No wonder profits are up!

Without understanding more this add on is just a toy to me, but I am sure if I was a bit more savvy it could give me a lot of insight into the dark and murky workings of the web. I think it might also present an opportunity, as we can now see who is prostituting our information and who is not, and maybe we should put more trust in those that keep our data in their own hands, and some others a little less.

Definitely worth a look I would say.

Oh on a final note, I went to Microsoft, Ubuntu and Mozilla. Microsoft share with 10 satellites, 5 of which use cookies. Ubuntu and Mozilla do not share with anyone. I visited 15 sites in total during my research, and that meant that I unwittingly connected to 76 third party sites.

AireTalk Android App Review

Leave a reply Steve August

Just when we thought communications can’t get better than this, there are developers out there who outperform what is already there on the table. VOIP has been one of the prime focuses on development, and with the sudden burst in Android market, more and more developers are now pouring into creating state of the art applications that dramatically increase chatting, calling and messaging services. Recently, making its mark in this field has been AireTalk – an application by PingShow which attempts to provide these features on Android and iOS.

Nothing comes for free in this world, although the prices might not be visible or charged in a different sense which is neither direct nor hidden/masked. Being able to make free calls, AireTalk suggests that the calls will be made using the internet connection to any other AireTalk user and the caller doesn’t have to bear the charges of the “carrier” network.

Although this app might seem very similar to all other apps in this genre, AireTalk comes with an interesting feature which is inspired from Radio Stations and Yahoo’s famous chat room concept. This feature head is termed as “Studio”. This is like radio stations, which has different languages as “Stations”. Users can select a particular Language station – just like chat rooms and enter, also invite their friends and chat in that language. A very innovative idea which still requires more polishing, all in all this can be used as a good language tutor guide and practice zone.

Walkie Talkie screen of AireTalk

Some most common VOIP features are added by default. What is interesting to note in AireTalk is its Walkie Talkie feature. Just as the name suggest this feature can be most useful in camping trips and adventure tours where you would want a quick chat or message to be delivered. Since internet services are at use here, this app like all others doesn’t have restrictions on international calling as well.

Since its initial launch, Android has evolved at lot both in sense of performance and user experience. Although, many apps on the market still need to upgrade themselves a lot to avail the maximum that Android has to offer its developers. AireTalk has still to go a long way in becoming seamless and intuitive in sense of user experience. The options bar is responsive, while both the landscape and portrait views show the same layout; it can be improvised further to enhance visual effects and transitions between screens.

Facebook login might have become a bit old fashioned nowadays; nonetheless it has become an essential part in increasing effective user experience and ease of customization. This app enables users to login using Facebook, this way users cannot just connect with AireTalk friends but also with their Facebook friends thus accessing a wider range of people set. If you have an inquisitive mind towards what other upcoming apps have to offer to their users, you can try AireTalk.

AudiobooksNow Android App Review

Leave a reply Steve August

AudiobooksNow is an Android app that makes buying and listening to audiobooks simple. Using just shy of 9 MB, it was a quick download and you can pay per book, billed through credit card, or pay only $5 a month to obtain access to discounted prices – but please utilize the 30 days trial before making any decision on buying books.  You can also browse the vast selection of books and even listen to samples to judge the quality of the audiobooks for free.

While the app started out somewhat slow with long loading times, the more I used it, the faster it got, until it began playing my book as soon as I tapped it.  Another feature I found interesting is that the application has the ability to run in the background, so you are able to listen to the book while texting, viewing pictures or looking something up online. By pressing the icon in your status bar, you can return to the app.

My Library in AudiobooksNow

AudiobooksNow provides a very easy way to change your password if you feel someone else knows it or you just like your account more protected. These things will ensure that your credit card credentials are kept safe. If you have any issues with anything in the app, you can visit the “Help/FAQ” section, where there are common questions and answers that hope to address your issue.

At present, this app has a selection of almost 8,800 books, a rapid expansion in comparison to an estimated 3,200 books earlier this year.  Let us expect to see it grow even more along with more users. In addition, most books are offered as both abridged and unabridged. Books can be searched by nearly any piece of information you have including Keyword, Rating, and Narrator.

There are also a few downsides. The “browse” option was somewhat limited, which I felt crippled the app, having you choose very specific topics, narrowing your selection down to about ten or less before you are able to even see any books. This is app is also unavailable in many parts of the world. I don’t know whether this has something to do with the copyright policy or the developer has deliberately chosen to exclude many countries.

AudiobooksNow needs Android 2.2 and up and it seems like this app has crossed a few thousand downloads in Google Play.