Monday, June 21, 2010

Toshiba ships Core i7-equipped Satellite A665-3DV, but only to the 3D fanboys

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/21/toshiba-ships-core-i7-equipped-satellite-a665-3dv-but-only-to-t/

Like it or not, we've got yet another 3D laptop headed your way. Presumably slotted into NVIDIA's newly created 3D PC lineup, Toshiba's Satellite A665-3DV is the outfit's very first 3D lappie, boasting a Core i7-740QM quad-core processor, Windows 7 Home Premium, 4GB of DDR3 memory, a 640GB hard drive, NVIDIA's GeForce GTS 350M (1GB), a Blu-ray burner, LED backlit keyboard and 802.11n WiFi. There's also a built-in webcam and a trackpad that looks awfully off-center from here, but all of that pales in comparison to the almighty 1,366 x 768 native resolution spanning the 15.6-inch panel. You heard right -- there's a BD drive and support for 3D, but you can forget about enjoying either in Full HD. But hey, why else would you make use of that HDMI socket? Check it right this very moment for $1,599.99.

Toshiba ships Core i7-equipped Satellite A665-3DV, but only to the 3D fanboys originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 12:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iOS 4 now available for your iPhone 3G, 3GS, newer-generation iPod touches

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/21/ios-4-now-available/

Right on time, Apple has unleashed iOS 4 for owners of the iPhone product codes 1,2, 2,1, and 3,1 -- in other words, the 3G, 3GS, and yet-unreleased iPhone 4. Owners of more recent iPod touches are also in luck. Interestingly, the build is 8A293 -- the exact same that was released to developers before as a GM seed -- so Apple apparently found no showstoppers pressing enough to necessitate a new build before pushing it to the public at large. It's coming up in iTunes now, so go on -- what are you waiting for?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

iOS 4 now available for your iPhone 3G, 3GS, newer-generation iPod touches originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple rolls out iBooks app for iPhone, iPod touch

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/21/apple-rolls-out-ibooks-app-for-iphone-ipod-touch/

It's not just multitasking apps that are hitting the App Store to coincide with the release of iOS 4.0 -- Apple has also just rolled out version 1.1 of its iBooks app, which is now available for the iPhone and iPod touch in addition to the iPad (officially, this time). As previously announced, the app now also supports PDF viewing, and boasts a range of other more minor improvements, including new ways to bookmark (complete with syncing across devices), your choice of white or sepia colored pages, more font options and, of course, "greater stability and better performance."

Apple rolls out iBooks app for iPhone, iPod touch originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Amazon's Kindle conveniently falls to $189, Nook looks stunned and bitter

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/21/amazons-kindle-conveniently-falls-to-189-nook-looks-stunned-a/

Oh, snap! Merely hours after Barnes & Noble came out swinging with a $149 WiFi-only version of its Nook and a price-reduced $199 3G Nook, along comes Amazon to rip a massive hole in B&N's billowing sails. As of this very moment, the $259 Kindle 2 -- complete with global 3G and the 6-ink E Ink display you've come to know and love (or hate) -- is now the $189 Kindle 2. Oh, and there's also free 2-day shipping. Looks like the undercutter just got undercut, huh?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Amazon's Kindle conveniently falls to $189, Nook looks stunned and bitter originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony selling AMD powered VAIOs for the first time in years

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/21/sony-selling-amd-powered-vaios-for-the-first-time-in-years/

We've been keeping a close eye on AMD's big laptop comeback over the last couple of months, and in addition to gaining steam with HP, Dell, Toshiba and Lenovo, it appears AMD's also gotten Sony back into its court. Both Fry's and Best Buy are now carrying AMD Athlon II X2-powered machines, and as you may expect, the prices are quite tempting. Conversely, the Intel-based lineup ranges from $699 to $799, but until we get our hands on one of these ourselves, there isn't exactly a fair comparison to draw at this point. You can hit the source links for the complete specs, but the 15.4-inch EE Series with 4GB of RAM / 320GB of storage and a Blu-ray player is going for $650 while the 17.3-inch EF with a 500GB hard drive for $720. Both also have integrated ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 graphics, but regardless, the move certainly bodes well for AMD's newest processor / graphics, since it appears that Sony hasn't used AMD in its systems since 2005. We guess a welcome back hug is in order.

Sony selling AMD powered VAIOs for the first time in years originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 19:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel drops Atom D525 CPU, adds its wireless display tech to a host of new devices

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/21/intel-drops-atom-d525-cpu-adds-its-wireless-display-tech-to-a-h/

Intel's launched a trio of new products for your gadget-loving enjoyment. Up first, the 1.8GHz dual core Atom D525 and the single core D425 which we first spotted at Computex 2010 are now available for low powered desktops, and both are paired with the Intel NM10 Express Chipset. Up next, Intel's made its wireless display technology available on about 25 systems and at 10 retailers. Finally, Clearwire's announced the nationwide availability of 4G-enabled laptops and netbooks based on Intel CPUs at Best Buy. Some of the systems grabbing up the 4G set-up include the Dell Inspiron 14, Dell Inspiron 15, Dell Mini 10, and Toshiba Satellite M645.

Intel drops Atom D525 CPU, adds its wireless display tech to a host of new devices originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 18:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone 3G, iOS 4, and you -- what's missing (spoiler: multitasking)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/21/iphone-3g-ios-4-and-you-whats-missing-spoiler-multitaski/

While iOS 4 is delivering on every promise for the iPhone 3GS users out there, as we were all told up front, the iPhone 3G would be missing some of those touted new features. Granted, we knew such disparities would exist but were never given the finer details. Now that the final build is percolating through the internet, we decided to take a look at what features are and aren't working on the earlier year's model.

What works
  • Folders
  • Threaded mail
  • iTunes playlist creation / editing
  • 5x digital zoom: just tap on the display near the capture button, but be warned, it doesn't paint a pretty picture
  • iBooks: we were having issues with the earlier build, but it seems to be running fine after today's official download -- PDFs work, too.
  • Photos: you can now sort by albums, events, faces, and places
  • Game center: the icon is present, but as of this writing we're unable to connect to the servers.
  • Spell check has been updated
What doesn't work
  • Multitasking: this is the big one. Double-tapping the home button doesn't give you the handy menu, there's no fast app switching, and background use is missing in action.
  • Screen lock: normally in the multitasking menu (which isn't available on 3G), it's nowhere to be found, even under Settings. Bummer.
  • Home screen wallpaper: you'd think this simple addition would make the cut, but sadly no. The dock has been given a visual upgrade, though.
  • Bluetooth Keyboard support: we haven't tried this ourselves, but an influx of reports from Twitter suggest this is also a no-go.
  • Spotlight: the iPhone 3GS can search the web and Wikipedia from the homescreen. The 3G? Not so lucky.
We'll keep testing, but be sure to let us know your own discoveries below!

iPhone 3G, iOS 4, and you -- what's missing (spoiler: multitasking) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Jun 2010 19:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Friday, June 18, 2010

Set Up a Foolproof and Fireproof Automatic Backup Plan [How To]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5564957/set-up-a-foolproof-and-fireproof-automatic-backup-plan

backup.jpgThe sweet spot of a foolproof hard drive backup plan includes local backup to an external drive and off-site backup to the cloud. The problem: Most people don't do it. Here's a set-it-and-forget-it, step-by-step guide to backing up your data.

Photo by ArtMast.

You'll find no shortage of ways to backup your data—to other hard drives, to network drives, to external drives, to the cloud, to your neighbor's house, to a data center in Houston, etc.—but not everyone makes computer tinkering and data backup their part-time hobby. We understand the allure of patching together your own awesome and custom-fit backup system, but we also understand the allure of the "It Just Works" method. Whether you want to set up a data protection plan for yourself or for a less than computer-savvy relative (we'll be referring to this relative as Uncle Ted for the rest of the guide), Mozy provides a dead-simple backup plan for both Windows and Macs.

Step 1: Signing Up and Installing the Software

Set Up a Foolproof and Fireproof Automatic Backup Plan
Mozy comes in three flavors. MozyHome Free is a no-cost solution that uses the same software and syncing at MozyHome Unlimited but is limited to backing 2GB of data. If you've never used Mozy before and you're curious if this guide will really help you automate your backups with no fuss or headaches, you should really sign up for a free account and give it a try. At the end of the day, we'd strongly recommend paying for MozyHome Unlimited. It's $4.95 per month (or $55 per year) for unlimited backup on home computers, both locally and to Mozy's servers (where privacy hounds will be happy to know the backups are sent completely encrypted).

First, head over to Mozy and sign up for an account. After you've signed up, grab a copy of MozyHome. Run the installer, and when you've finished, the setup menu will automatically pop up. This is a great time to plug in an external hard drive if you want to take advantage of the Mozy's secondary backup features—which you do, so plug the drive in now! (Note: Make sure your external hard drive is at least as big as the drives you're backup up so you don't run into any problems with your data pool exceeding the size of the backup media.)

Step 2: Setting Up Mozy

Set Up a Foolproof and Fireproof Automatic Backup Plan
Mozy is pretty well set up out of the box but it does require a little tweaking to take advantage of all the options. The screenshot above shows you the initial screen you see after Mozy finishes installing. By default it scans your system and adds things like My Documents, videos, photos, contacts, and browser bookmarks to your backup set. To get finer control over individual folders and files move one tab over to "File System" and browse your entire computer like so:

Set Up a Foolproof and Fireproof Automatic Backup Plan

In the "File System" menu you can check individual folders and files to get more granular control over exactly which items Mozy will backup. You can decide whether you want Mozy to back up your entire drive, or if you just want to pick and choose what needs backed up.

Once you've selected which files you want backed up, it's time to customize how Mozy operates. Hop over to the "Options" tab. Let's work our way through all the settings and get things tweaked just the way we want. First, the General options.

Set Up a Foolproof and Fireproof Automatic Backup Plan

General Settings: If you're setting things up for yourself and you want a lot of feedback on what gets backed up and when, then you'll want to check "Show backup status icon on files" and crank down the "Alert me that a backup hasn't happened in this many days." variable to 1 or 2 days. If you're setting it up for Uncle Ted you'll want to leave the icons off and the alert set for a higher number of days to cut down on the number of tech-support calls you get. (Note: If you have the notifications shut off, you should occasionally check to make sure it's backing up with out any problems.)

Set Up a Foolproof and Fireproof Automatic Backup Plan

Scheduling: Whether you opt for automatic backups or scheduled backups depends largely on whether or not your computer is on 24/7 or not. You've likely got a lot of data to backup the off the bat, so to begin with it's wise to turn on scheduled backups and set your computer to upload your data all night long every night until you've synced your system to the Mozy servers. This can take days depending on how big your drive is, but it's worth it. (The local backup should take much less time.) Once Mozy finishes the initial online backup, you may want to switch to automatic backups for more frequent incremental backups.

If you're setting things up for Uncle Ted, you can keep the backup frequency low. For power users that do a lot of work all day on the computer and frequent file editing, it's best to tweak the number of daily backups to coincide with how often you take breaks from the computer so backups are frequent and timely.

Laptop users will want to switch the last setting, "Start automatic backups when the computer is running on battery power" depending on where they are in the process of backing up their data. Early on when you're uploading tons of data for extended periods of time, it's best to set Mozy to not backup when you're on battery power in order to conserve your battery when you're away from an outlet. Later, when your backups are small and incremental, it's probably fine to let Mozy backup while on the battery.

Set Up a Foolproof and Fireproof Automatic Backup Plan

Performance: You can throttle your bandwidth to make room for other applications and you can adjust the backup speed to emphasize faster computer performance or faster backup. If you throttle at all, definitely only throttle during the time your home network is being used for things where latency matters like video games, web browsing, and communication tools like Skype. As far as the "Backup Speed" setting go, I've always just slammed the slider all the way over to "Quicker Backups". If you have an older PC and you notice that Mozy is really chewing up the cycles you can adjust it to the left until your system seems less sluggish. Again, I've always put the emphasis on quicker backups without any problems.

Set Up a Foolproof and Fireproof Automatic Backup Plan

Local Backup: Local backup is one of the best new featured in Mozy. When you enable local backup Mozy will simultaneously backup to an external hard drive and the Mozy servers so you always have a copy of the data on your actual computer, a copy on an external drive right beside your computer, and then a copy on the Mozy servers in the cloud. It's a really ideal setup especially for those times that you want to restore a large file from the Mozy servers but you don't want to wait.

As awesome as the addition of local backup is to Mozy you should be aware of one caveat. If you delete a file on your computer the Mozy servers will retain that file for 30 days in case you want to retrieve it. The file will be dropped from the local backup during the next file sync. It seems like an oversight—or a purposely over-dependence on the Mozy servers—but it's something we'd love to see corrected so that the delay on the external drive matches the delay on the Mozy servers.

Set Up a Foolproof and Fireproof Automatic Backup Plan

Advanced Settings: The advanced settings allow you to tweak things like whether or not Mozy will appear as a drive in My Computer—so you can browse your file backups like you would browse a regular drive. If you think having an extra drive would be too confusing for Uncle Ted you can uncheck it. If you're going for minimal user interaction and/or annoyance you should also uncheck "Show status when backup successfully completes." I happen to like seeing when Mozy is doing its thing, but it's easy enough to run it silently if you desire.

When you're done configuring, click "OK" at the bottom to get started with your first backup.

Set Up a Foolproof and Fireproof Automatic Backup Plan

Note: For the sake of getting a speedy screenshot on our test machine, we shrunk the size of our backup set down to the barebones. If you're uploading a whole hard drive's worth of photos, videos, and projects, be patient! It'll take quite a while to upload it all to Mozy's servers.

There When You Need It: Restoring Your Files

Once Mozy starts humming along—and assuming nothing catastrophic happens in the near future—that's the last you'll see of Mozy in your regular computing. It works in the background, the files get backed up, and you go on about your life knowing that your digital life isn't hovering on the brink of a horrible hard drive catastrophe.

If your hard drive does crash or you delete a file here or there that needs restoring, you can access your files in several different ways. In the following screenshots and examples we're still on a machine running Mozy that hasn't suffered a catastrophic crash, but even if it had we could simply fire up a new hard drive and install Mozy to start grabbing our files.

The easiest way to get at the files is to simply use the Restore tab in the Mozy software. There you'll find a directory structure of all the files you have backed up and Mozy will take care of the logistics of putting them back where they belong.

Set Up a Foolproof and Fireproof Automatic Backup Plan

A few check marks and a click of the "Restore Files" button and you're back in business. Alternately you can browse your external hard drive backup. The files are organized on the external drive in the same folder structure they are on your actual drives.

Set Up a Foolproof and Fireproof Automatic Backup Plan

This is extremely convenient compared to some of the backup software tools on the market that package your backups in archive files. Sure the compression might save a little space but it's a hassle to get back at the files when you need them in a pinch. Just as easily as you can browse the external hard drive you can also, through My Computer, browse your server-based backups on the Mozy servers.

Set Up a Foolproof and Fireproof Automatic Backup Plan

The only difference is you're only seeing the file headers and not the actual files so when it's time to drag and drop that big file from the server-based file browser you'll be dealing with the limitations of your broadband connection instead of your USB drive.

You can also, less conveniently than just hopping over to your external drive or server folders, log into the Mozy web site and restore files through the web-based interface.

Set Up a Foolproof and Fireproof Automatic Backup Plan

Relax

Now that you're all set up, you can relax in the knowledge that it would take a catastrophic fire or hard drive failure—both at your home and Mozy's redundant server farm—for your data to go missing. Between your local data, your local backup copy, and your cloud-based copy, you'd either have to be terribly unlucky or the NSA is out to get you before you lost your data.

Have a tip, trick, or tweak to share for achieving dead-simple backups with a minimum of fuss? Let's hear about it in the comments.

Jason Fitzpatrick is a writer at Lifehacker and a missionary of the gospel of Good Backup Practices and he urges you to backup daily for a long and stress-free life.

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Create and Share Personalized Travel Guides at Stay.com [Travel]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5564838/create-and-share-personalized-travel-guides-at-staycom

Create and Share Personalized Travel Guides at Stay.comYou can find travel guides and tips online, you can buy travel guides in bookstores, but Stay.com offers you the chance to not only browse the travel guides of others but create and share your own.

Stay.com makes it easy to browse guides created by others and mix together your own guides. If you're not interested in making a guide you can find guides of all stripe for various major cities. Want to soak in the nightlife in Athens? Tour museums in London? Take a kid-friendly vacation in San Fransisco? You'll find guides like that and more.

If you've been busy traveling or want to promote fun things to do in your hometown you can easily build a guide. Stay.com has tons of landmarks, restaurants, and other attractions already cataloged, it's easy to mix them together complete with shared tips, tricks, and a map to help people get around. Check out the guides at the link below and share your favorites in the comments.

Have a favorite travel site or trick for getting a tour-guide-quality look at a foreign town without hiring a tour guide? Let's hear all about it.

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How to Enable Extension Syncing in Chrome (AKA: The Holy Grail of Browser Sync Is Here) [Syncing]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5566352/the-holy-grail-of-browser-sync-how-to-enable-extension-syncing-in-chrome

chrome-sync-extensions.pngLong have we searched for an easy way to sync browser extensions across multiple machines, and for Chrome users that day has finally come. If you're running the Dev channel, here's how you can easily enable extension syncing.

Google Chrome has had bookmark, preference, and theme syncing for awhile, but today's Dev channel update introduced the most heavily anticipated syncing feature to the list: extension syncing. Just like your bookmarks or preferences, after enabling extension syncing, any copy of Chrome on which you are logged into your Google Account will have the same extensions as your other machines—so from now on, you only have to download, install, and configure them once. (Or at least in theory; as this is the dev channel, you can expect that you might encounter a bug or three.)

How to Enable Extension Syncing in Chrome (AKA: The Holy Grail of Browser Sync Is Here)

To enable the feature, download the dev build (if you haven't already) and right click on its shortcut. Choose "Properties" and in the target box, add —enable-sync-extensions to the end of the line (outside of the quotes). From now on, using that shortcut to launch Chrome will have extension syncing enabled. (We're especially eager to see it enabled by default down the road.) Launching Chrome with a command line switch is a bit more complicated on Mac, but the folks over at MacOSXHints have created a handy script that will launch Chrome with extra features enabled without having to do it through the Terminal every time. Once you've launched Chrome, you can enable extensions by clicking on the wrench icon and going to "set up sync" in the menu. The new build also includes some bug fixes and other features, so hit the link to see the full changelog.

Dev Channel Update [Google Chrome Releases via #tips]

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Vodburner Records and Edits Skype Video Chats [Downloads]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5566346/vodburner-records-and-edits-skype-video-chats

Vodburner Records and Edits Skype Video ChatsWindows only: Vodburner is an application that will record your Skype video chats and conferences, with the capability to edit the recorded video. The program saves those important business teleconferences or personal conversations with friends for future reference.

If the other party of the Skype conversation does not have Vodburner installed, Vodburner will watermark the video when you record the video chat (unless you pay to upgrade the software). If both parties have it installed, Vodburner does not leave a watermark. As a courtesy, upon each call, Vodburner will ask if you want to alert the other person that they are being recorded.

Vodburner Records and Edits Skype Video Chats

Vodburner also has limited and basic video editing features, including basic transitions, so if that's all you want to do, there's no need to go into a separate video editing program. Either way, these six popular video-editing applications can probably help if you are looking for more editing functionality. Vodburner is a free download for Windows only.

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Remains of the Day: Share Any Google Doc with a Private Link [For What It's Worth]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5566479/remains-of-the-day-share-any-google-doc-with-a-private-link

Google Docs adds some extra new sharing and privacy options, in Japan you can search what's for dinner with Google Recipe Search, and Google sneaks a PDF reader into Chrome.

  • Sharing in Google Docs just got easier
    Sharing gets easier in Google Docs, as documents get increased privacy options. There's now an option to collaborate via a shareable link, whose URL can be reset. [The Official Google Docs Blog]
  • Google Recipe Search
    Google Japan has Google Recipe Search, which searches and filters food recipes, based on search terms, calories, preparation time. Why isn't this feature available here? [Yongfook]
  • Huge Security Flaw Makes VPNs Useless for BitTorrent
    Many people choose to hide their IP address through a VPN. Because of a BitTorrent security flaw, the IP addresses of those who use IPv6 in conjunction with a PPTP-based VPN can still be found. [TorrentFreak]
  • Google sneaks internal PDF reader into Chrome dev channel release
    An internal PDF plug-in has been found in the Google Chrome developer channel. It's limited in functionality so far, but it's good news for eventually bringing native support for displaying documents seamlessly. [Download Squad]
  • Android Still Spread Out Over Three Different Versions
    Even though the Android 2.1 software has been released for half a year, half of all Android devices are still running Android 1.6 and below. [Mashable]
  • One Loo or Two? Google Maps Adds Properties in U.K.
    This feature has been available in the United States since last year, but the United Kingdom will now have the ability to search for property listings in Google Maps. [ReadWriteWeb]

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How to Set Up OpenID on Your Own Domain [How To]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5566470/how-to-set-up-openid-on-your-own-domain

open-id-bp-2.jpgOpenID is an open standard for logging onto various web services with a single digital identity. The tool puts your online identity back in your hands—and as it turns out, OpenID on your own domain is surprisingly easy.

For some reason I was under the mistaken impression that setting up an OpenID on my own domain, ginatrapani.org, would be a big hassle: that I'd have to host my own OpenID server software and that it would take all sorts of installation and maintenance BS to do so. I feel strongly about owning my identity online, mapping it to my nameplate domain, and actively choosing an authorizing party instead of just accepting the sign-in service du jour like Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, or Google.

Still, I never got set up with OpenID on ginatrapani.org because my perceived hassle factor was daunting. Instead, I used idproxy.net for my OpenID and put the domain setup on my "someday I have to do that" list. It meant that my OpenID was ginatrapani.idproxy.net instead of my own domain. Idproxy is a great service and I thank them for getting me started with OpenID; but still, I want my OpenID URL to be a domain name I own and control.

Turns out I was dead wrong about the hassle. Setting up OpenID capabilities on your own domain name is a two-lines-of-HTML affair, and it's finally done. (Thanks to Chris Messina for bringing me into the year 2006.) If you're interested in doing the same, here's what to know.

First, Google Profiles (and, it turns out, idproxy.net and ClaimID and a bunch of other OpenID providers) can work with your domain name, so all I have to do is add a few <link rel> tags to your HTML to get things working. Second, you can specify multiple OpenID providers, so if idproxy.net was down or Google Profiles was down, you can have a provider fallback. Sweet. Now, in the <head> tags of ginatrapani.org you will find the following:

 <link rel="openid2.provider" href="https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/ud?source=profiles" > <link rel="openid2.local_id" href="http://www.google.com/profiles/ginatrapani" > 

That sets Google Profiles as the authorizing party for my OpenID, but my OpenID URL is ginatrapani.org. You can see my new OpenID in action right here; I signed into this very site with my new OpenID and posted a comment.

I'm not sure yet how to set Idproxy as my "fallback" provider just yet; if you know how to do that, post it up in the comments.

Thanks to the folks in this Stack Overflow thread for clearing up how to use Google Profiles as an OpenID provider and to Chris for a great discussion of OpenID, OAuth, and verifying identity on the web.

Smarterware is Lifehacker editor emeritus Gina Trapani's new home away from 'hacker. To get all of the latest from Smarterware, be sure to subscribe to the Smarterware RSS feed.

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Imagine Toshiba's 128GB NAND Flash Memory In Your Next Phone [Memory]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5565944/imagine-toshibas-128gb-nand-flash-memory-in-your-next-phone

Imagine Toshiba's 128GB NAND Flash Memory In Your Next PhoneThey invented flash memory, so it's only fitting that Toshiba has now produced another world first for NAND memory: the first with 128GB of capacity. Just think what media you could store on your phone with that module.

It squishes 16 64Gb of NAND chips together, and should be shipping out to manufacturers this September. Will it be seen in phones anytime soon? iPods, even? [Toshiba via CrunchGear]

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Japan's Space-Surfing Solar Sail Photographed For First Time [Space]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5566060/japans-space+surfing-solar-sail-photographed-for-first-time

Japan's Space-Surfing Solar Sail Photographed For First TimeGood news for the Little Japanese Solar Sail That Could, as the first images of the solar sail spread out in full deployment have been snapped. All is going according to plan, says the space agency, and "flying" looks possible.

Just last week the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency unfurled the solar sail in space, but it now needs to make tracks through space to prove that solar-powered travel is indeed possible. It works by reflecting solar radiation back at the sun, propelling (theoretically) the sail through space. IKAROS has been given five months to prove its worth in space, as it heads towards the planet Venus (for a bit of luuuurve, naturally). [JAXA via DiscoveryNews]

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