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Back in February, a video clip of a brand new Sony product became an internet must-see. Within hours of its original upload, it became the toast of Twitter, was embedded in endless blogs and was earnestly discussed by some of the technology industry's biggest hitters.

Witty, well produced and entirely unofficial, for a brief period of time it made Sony the most talked-about brand on the entire internet – something that the company's previous attempts at viral marketing had tried hard to do but conspicuously failed to achieve.

There was just one problem with all of this. The clip was called 'Sony releases new stupid piece of s*** that doesn't f***ing work', and it was a parody made by satirical news website The Onion. As Sony has discovered, viral marketing is the A-bomb of advertising: powerful, dangerous and something you really don't want used against you.

Stage Wispas

Viral marketing is all about buzz – that is, getting people to talk about your product or service. If you get it right, the rewards can be enormous: Hotmail came from nowhere to become the world's favourite web-based email service, low-budget indie film The Blair Witch Project became a blockbuster and Cadbury's relaunch of Wispa generated masses of publicity. These products may have used different techniques, but they all embraced viral marketing.

Viral marketing is all about harnessing the power of network effects, the phenomenon where one person on the internet tells their friends about something, and those friends tell their friends, and their friends tell their friends, and so on.

In the case of Hotmail, the service simply attached a message to the footer of every outgoing message, turning each user into a Hotmail evangelist. The Blair Witch Project used a website to convince people that it was a documentary about a real mystery, making its visitors tell other people about the film.

And then there's Wispa. The return of the Wispa is a classic example of canny viral marketing in action. In 2007, 93 Facebook groups spontaneously appeared, with 14,000 people passionately demanding the return of the chocolate bar. When Iggy Pop played Glastonbury, crazed chocolate addicts stormed the stage with 'Bring back the Wispa' banners.

'My goodness, what a surprise!' said Cadbury's. Those stage invaders certainly weren't actors, and those Facebook groups definitely weren't the work of viral marketers! We had no intention of relaunching Wispa, but who are we to argue with the entire internet?'

We're paraphrasing, but you get the idea. It's a shame no agency took credit for the campaign, because it's an excellent example of how to get viral marketing right. Another excellent example of effective viral marketing is Dove's Evolution, which demonstrates through video how the models used for advertising are digitally 'enhanced', creating unrealistic expectations of what women should look like.

It's so popular that even YouTube parodies of the clip have become huge hits; one such parody, which takes a male model and turns him into a slob through the magic of lager, fast food and cigarettes, has racked up nearly two million views on the site.

Viral marketing doesn't always work, however. When General Motors wanted to promote the Chevy Tahoe 4x4 in 2006, it asked people to make their own adverts online – which they did, creating endless videos suggesting that the car was ideal for environmental hooligans. The campaign was quickly canned.

One of our favourite disasters, though, was Sony's fake blog promoting the PlayStation Portable. Its hilariously see-through attempts at being, ahem, 'down with the kids' earned it worldwide mockery.

Spreading the disease

Successful viral marketing needs to do three things: create something infectious, get it to the right people and encourage them to infect others. That's not easy, and firms that get it right with one message can easily get it wrong with another. Just ask Burger King.

In 2005, its Subservient Chicken website became a viral hit that ran for three years. Through clever use of pre-recorded footage and a huge database of commands, the site made it look as if a man in a chicken suit was reacting to visitors' commands. The aim was to promote Burger King's TenderCrisp chicken sandwich, and it worked: in the first day the site had one million hits; by the end of the week it was getting 20 million daily hits.

Visitors averaged six to seven minutes per visit, the site racked up 14 million unique visitors and Burger King reported that sales increased by nine per cent every week. In 2009, Burger King tried again, this time with Whopper Sacrifice, which encouraged people to dump 10 Facebook friends in return for a free burger. Everybody dumped in this way would receive a message telling them so.

However, Burger King's marketing agency clearly wasn't familiar with Facebook's developer terms and conditions, which prohibit the sending of messages when somebody is removed from a friends list. The rules are there because in the past teenage bullies have orchestrated dumping campaigns to upset other users.

Faced with the choice of running a viral campaign without the viral element or shutting the whole thing down, Burger King chose the latter option. It must have been disappointing, but at least the campaign wasn't invasive or slightly disturbing.

TV channel FX's viral campaign for the serial killer drama Dexter was both. In 2007, people received unsolicited SMS messages from 'Dexter' via an unidentified phone number that contained this message: "Hello [name]. I'm heading to the UK sooner than you might think. Dexter".

Users would later receive an email directing them to a cleverly faked news report about a spree of killings. After receiving a number of complaints, FX issued this statement: "It was not us who sent you the text but one of your friends". Technically true, but rather disingenuous, given the nature of the campaign.

Making things obvious

When a campaign is good, it doesn't matter whether you know it's viral or not; it offers something of value that you want to pass on, whether it's something you know will make your friends laugh or something that shows you're a trendspotter.

Bad virals, on the other hand, tend not to spread because they're too obvious. Supposedly 'banned' TV adverts are a good example; ad agencies know exactly what broadcasters will and will not allow on screen, so any clip purporting to be too hot, violent or controversial for TV is obvious link-bait, and will typically get shunned by all but the most naive.

A particularly irritating and obvious form of viral marketing is the sudden appearance of people on forums and open blogs evangelising about a particular product, artist or service. It's not unusual for publishers to trace the originating IP addresses to an ad agency or entertainment company.

Sara from the UGO TV blog did just that. She writes: "Dear NBC. Please stop using the UGO TV Blog to promote your crappy shows by putting fake comments on blog entries about NBC shows. If you want to promote your shows here, feel free to email us and we'll set up an interview with one of your shows' stars. Or perhaps you could pay for ad space like everybody else does." Ouch. That told them.

The August 2008 campaign for US restaurant chain Ruby Tuesday is a handy guide to the mistakes that viral marketers can make. The idea itself was inspired: to demonstrate its commitment to change, the chain would blow up one of its oldest restaurants and stream the explosion live on the internet – only for viewers to see them accidentally blow up a rival restaurant instead. It could have been smart, funny and infectious.

Unfortunately, the 'live stream' was available online several hours before the event was supposed to happen, there was no Ruby Tuesday at the specified location and the rival chain didn't exist. And any lingering goodwill was destroyed by all the 'people' caught in the act of joining YouTube just to upload the clip.

Socially transmitted Viral marketing isn't just about funny video clips or tell-your-friends teasers; increasingly, it's about manipulating social media. As online publishers continue to fight for every last eyeball, social sites such as Digg – where users vote on stories and the most popular ones reach the front page – can make all the difference.

To encourage this, most publishers now put 'share this' links on their content. Inevitably, however, there are attempts to game the system. Sites such as Usocial will happily take firms' cash and pay people to vote for specific stories.

In February 2009, Econsultancy reported that US publisher Village Voice Media was actively manipulating Digg to give stories about its publications extra weight – which means more traffic and better advertising sales. It works, too: according to Econsultancy, Village Voice Media traffic increased from 35,000 page views in October to over 250,000 in December.

Nobody's suggesting that firms are placing all the votes themselves, but they are giving stories that might otherwise disappear a helping hand. It's the same principle as pretending to be an ordinary Facebook user and starting a campaign for the return of Wispa.

Ultimately, viral marketing is like spam: it's not going anywhere. Some of it is clever, most of it is unremarkable and some of it is offensive, annoying or dangerous. On the plus side, at least it can also be amusing, and, just occasionally, even inspired.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back in February, a video clip of a brand new Sony product became an internet must-see. Within hours of its original upload, it became the toast of Twitter, was embedded in endless blogs and was earnestly discussed by some of the technology industry's biggest hitters.

Witty, well produced and entirely unofficial, for a brief period of time it made Sony the most talked-about brand on the entire internet – something that the company's previous attempts at viral marketing had tried hard to do but conspicuously failed to achieve.

There was just one problem with all of this. The clip was called 'Sony releases new stupid piece of s*** that doesn't f***ing work', and it was a parody made by satirical news website The Onion. As Sony has discovered, viral marketing is the A-bomb of advertising: powerful, dangerous and something you really don't want used against you.

Stage Wispas

Viral marketing is all about buzz – that is, getting people to talk about your product or service. If you get it right, the rewards can be enormous: Hotmail came from nowhere to become the world's favourite web-based email service, low-budget indie film The Blair Witch Project became a blockbuster and Cadbury's relaunch of Wispa generated masses of publicity. These products may have used different techniques, but they all embraced viral marketing.

Viral marketing is all about harnessing the power of network effects, the phenomenon where one person on the internet tells their friends about something, and those friends tell their friends, and their friends tell their friends, and so on.

In the case of Hotmail, the service simply attached a message to the footer of every outgoing message, turning each user into a Hotmail evangelist. The Blair Witch Project used a website to convince people that it was a documentary about a real mystery, making its visitors tell other people about the film.

And then there's Wispa. The return of the Wispa is a classic example of canny viral marketing in action. In 2007, 93 Facebook groups spontaneously appeared, with 14,000 people passionately demanding the return of the chocolate bar. When Iggy Pop played Glastonbury, crazed chocolate addicts stormed the stage with 'Bring back the Wispa' banners.

'My goodness, what a surprise!' said Cadbury's. Those stage invaders certainly weren't actors, and those Facebook groups definitely weren't the work of viral marketers! We had no intention of relaunching Wispa, but who are we to argue with the entire internet?'

We're paraphrasing, but you get the idea. It's a shame no agency took credit for the campaign, because it's an excellent example of how to get viral marketing right. Another excellent example of effective viral marketing is Dove's Evolution, which demonstrates through video how the models used for advertising are digitally 'enhanced', creating unrealistic expectations of what women should look like.

It's so popular that even YouTube parodies of the clip have become huge hits; one such parody, which takes a male model and turns him into a slob through the magic of lager, fast food and cigarettes, has racked up nearly two million views on the site.

Viral marketing doesn't always work, however. When General Motors wanted to promote the Chevy Tahoe 4x4 in 2006, it asked people to make their own adverts online – which they did, creating endless videos suggesting that the car was ideal for environmental hooligans. The campaign was quickly canned.

One of our favourite disasters, though, was Sony's fake blog promoting the PlayStation Portable. Its hilariously see-through attempts at being, ahem, 'down with the kids' earned it worldwide mockery.

Spreading the disease

Successful viral marketing needs to do three things: create something infectious, get it to the right people and encourage them to infect others. That's not easy, and firms that get it right with one message can easily get it wrong with another. Just ask Burger King.

In 2005, its Subservient Chicken website became a viral hit that ran for three years. Through clever use of pre-recorded footage and a huge database of commands, the site made it look as if a man in a chicken suit was reacting to visitors' commands. The aim was to promote Burger King's TenderCrisp chicken sandwich, and it worked: in the first day the site had one million hits; by the end of the week it was getting 20 million daily hits.

Visitors averaged six to seven minutes per visit, the site racked up 14 million unique visitors and Burger King reported that sales increased by nine per cent every week. In 2009, Burger King tried again, this time with Whopper Sacrifice, which encouraged people to dump 10 Facebook friends in return for a free burger. Everybody dumped in this way would receive a message telling them so.

However, Burger King's marketing agency clearly wasn't familiar with Facebook's developer terms and conditions, which prohibit the sending of messages when somebody is removed from a friends list. The rules are there because in the past teenage bullies have orchestrated dumping campaigns to upset other users.

Faced with the choice of running a viral campaign without the viral element or shutting the whole thing down, Burger King chose the latter option. It must have been disappointing, but at least the campaign wasn't invasive or slightly disturbing.

TV channel FX's viral campaign for the serial killer drama Dexter was both. In 2007, people received unsolicited SMS messages from 'Dexter' via an unidentified phone number that contained this message: "Hello [name]. I'm heading to the UK sooner than you might think. Dexter".

Users would later receive an email directing them to a cleverly faked news report about a spree of killings. After receiving a number of complaints, FX issued this statement: "It was not us who sent you the text but one of your friends". Technically true, but rather disingenuous, given the nature of the campaign.

Making things obvious

When a campaign is good, it doesn't matter whether you know it's viral or not; it offers something of value that you want to pass on, whether it's something you know will make your friends laugh or something that shows you're a trendspotter.

Bad virals, on the other hand, tend not to spread because they're too obvious. Supposedly 'banned' TV adverts are a good example; ad agencies know exactly what broadcasters will and will not allow on screen, so any clip purporting to be too hot, violent or controversial for TV is obvious link-bait, and will typically get shunned by all but the most naive.

A particularly irritating and obvious form of viral marketing is the sudden appearance of people on forums and open blogs evangelising about a particular product, artist or service. It's not unusual for publishers to trace the originating IP addresses to an ad agency or entertainment company.

Sara from the UGO TV blog did just that. She writes: "Dear NBC. Please stop using the UGO TV Blog to promote your crappy shows by putting fake comments on blog entries about NBC shows. If you want to promote your shows here, feel free to email us and we'll set up an interview with one of your shows' stars. Or perhaps you could pay for ad space like everybody else does." Ouch. That told them.

The August 2008 campaign for US restaurant chain Ruby Tuesday is a handy guide to the mistakes that viral marketers can make. The idea itself was inspired: to demonstrate its commitment to change, the chain would blow up one of its oldest restaurants and stream the explosion live on the internet – only for viewers to see them accidentally blow up a rival restaurant instead. It could have been smart, funny and infectious.

Unfortunately, the 'live stream' was available online several hours before the event was supposed to happen, there was no Ruby Tuesday at the specified location and the rival chain didn't exist. And any lingering goodwill was destroyed by all the 'people' caught in the act of joining YouTube just to upload the clip.

Socially transmitted Viral marketing isn't just about funny video clips or tell-your-friends teasers; increasingly, it's about manipulating social media. As online publishers continue to fight for every last eyeball, social sites such as Digg – where users vote on stories and the most popular ones reach the front page – can make all the difference.

To encourage this, most publishers now put 'share this' links on their content. Inevitably, however, there are attempts to game the system. Sites such as Usocial will happily take firms' cash and pay people to vote for specific stories.

In February 2009, Econsultancy reported that US publisher Village Voice Media was actively manipulating Digg to give stories about its publications extra weight – which means more traffic and better advertising sales. It works, too: according to Econsultancy, Village Voice Media traffic increased from 35,000 page views in October to over 250,000 in December.

Nobody's suggesting that firms are placing all the votes themselves, but they are giving stories that might otherwise disappear a helping hand. It's the same principle as pretending to be an ordinary Facebook user and starting a campaign for the return of Wispa.

Ultimately, viral marketing is like spam: it's not going anywhere. Some of it is clever, most of it is unremarkable and some of it is offensive, annoying or dangerous. On the plus side, at least it can also be amusing, and, just occasionally, even inspired.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's not controversial to state that pretty much no one likes the PSP's UMD drive, but it might raise eyebrows to suggest that Sony itself was never that into the whole tiny optical disk concept.

That's the conclusion to be drawn from an interview given to Japanese website GameBusiness by Naoya Matsui, who heads up the Sony Computer Entertainment product planning division.

Planned all along

In it, he claimed that Sony always planned to release a handheld gamer, like the PSP Go, without a UMD drive.

"We'd planned to release a PSP model without a UMD drive since the very beginning," he's reported as saying.

No physical media

According to Matsui, Sony has been waiting for the electronic delivery mechanisms to mature sufficiently to make physical media redundant.

He explained: "We wanted to release it when the delivery of digital content was on par with the delivery of physical media. That's what we've been working on these past two years."

Whether Sony really did have the UMD's demise planned when the original PSP launched in 2004, we'll never really know, but come October's PSP Go launch, we'll definitely get a feel for life without those unloved little disks.

It wouldn't be a normal week without an iPhone rumour or two, so it's a pleasure to report that Apple itself has fuelled the latest scuttlebutt by filing a patent application for some intriguing new features.

The 2 July US filing suggests that future iPhones may include fingerprint recognition in the touchscreen for not just security purposes, but also as a new means of control.

Touch sensitive

It posits that the device will be able to determine which finger is touching the screen and react accordingly.

So, for example, a long touch of the index finger might send users to the home screen, while a shorter touch might just jump up one level in a menu or folder.

In-car entertainment?

Such a move would also make it possible to operate the music player without looking at the screen - the middle finger could trigger it to skip ahead, with the index finger putting it into reverse.

However, while the use of fingerprint recognition is now out in the open, we can't see it making it into the iPhone anytime soon.

Even though it's something we all know we should be doing, for many of us, backups aren't carried out often enough. Perhaps one of the biggest reasons for this is a lack of suitable storage media – and that's our topic here.

It's not just the hardware that gets in the way, though; the amount of effort it takes to complete the back-up process is also a hindering factor. If your only option is to copy your hard drive onto a stack of 50 CDs, it's not a chore that's going to get done any time soon, or often.

The key to data protection is making the back-up process as quick and easy as possible, and thus making sure it gets done frequently. Having storage media of adequate capacity is vital, but equally important is keeping to a minimum the amount of data that has to be backed up.

Just your documents?

An important consideration is whether to back up your entire system or only data files such as emails, documents, photographs, audio tracks and so on. Backing up an entire system involves disk imaging, which, as the name suggests, makes a copy of everything on your hard disk – data, programs, settings and all.

This means that if you use a recent disk image to recover your PC after a crash, it'll look and feel exactly as before. In many ways this sounds like the ideal solution, but inevitably there are some downsides: because you're backing up so much data, the process is slower and you need a larger storage solution.

When you bear in mind that restoring from a backup is, hopefully at least, done infrequently, it does rather put a question mark over the wisdom of solely using disk imaging. For now, let's assume that we're thinking in terms of backing up only the data, not the settings, on your hard disk.

In all probability there will be two types of data on your PC: data that changes and data that remains constant. Word documents or PowerPoint presentations that you're currently working on will be in a state of flux, but once you've finished them, they'll probably remain on your hard disk for reference without further changes. Similarly, your digital photographs will be on your hard disk for convenience, but, in many cases, won't be edited more than once.

Certain back-up apps will only rewrite those files that have changed since the last backup, which will speed up the whole process. However, the very first backup you make will be a full one, so this approach doesn't reduce the required capacity of the back-up media.

Recognise active data

The solution to this dilemma is to recognise which folders contain active data and which contain static data and then treat them differently. Static data is written just the once to some external storage media and held as an archive.

Since this archive won't be rewritten, it's cost effective to use cheap media such as DVD-R or BD-R. Now it's only necessary to continuously back up the remaining folders, which contain active data. Although our main theme here is back-up storage, it's important to think about the software options since this could have a bearing on your choice of storage media.

It's perfectly feasible to back up your data with no special software at all. Simply using Windows Explorer to copy files and folders from your internal hard disk to some external or removable storage media is an acceptable solution. However, it's a time consuming and error-prone process.

• Read TechRadar's Pluscom 3.5" IDE to USB 2.0 review

As a big reason for our failure to make adequate backups is often that it's too much hassle, it might be worthwhile investing in some dedicated back-up software to do the hard work for you. This type of software offers several advantages over manual copying. First, you only have to specify which files and folders you want backed up once. From then on, everything's done automatically.

Second, back-up software can recognise which files have changed since last time and only back these up. Finally, you don't even have to remember to carry out your backups. With most packages you're able to specify a back-up schedule where the software automatically backs up your system at the appointed time, as long as you've got your back-up storage ready to go.

• Read TechRadar's Carbonite review

While opinions differ on the ideal form of storage for backup, the one vital aspect for total data security is that it must be completely separate from your PC. Admittedly, a second hard disk fitted internally in your PC would provide a degree of security (from a disk crash, for example) but it would be no help at all if your PC was stolen or damaged in a fire.

Choosing your storage

There are three main options for offline storage. First, you can back up the data onto another computer, ideally in a different building. For individuals and small companies this process will probably be carried out across the internet, and a number of companies are now offering this sort of service.

Second, you can write the data to an external storage device such as a USB-attached hard disk. Third, you can make the backup with an internal storage device that uses removable media. A classic example is the CD or DVD writer.

• Read TechRadar's Pioneer BDR-203 review

It's important to recognise, though, that if you intend to schedule automatic backups, a device employing removable media might not be appropriate. If the amount of data to be backed up was greater than the capacity of the media, it would be necessary to change media during the backup, making it impossible to complete the operation.

There's no point in using an external disk drive or removable storage media if that external drive is always connected to the PC or the removable media is always left in the drive. In this case, if anything happens to the PC, that fate will probably also befall the backup. So, as soon as practical after the backup is complete, the storage media should be separated from the PC and ideally put somewhere safe from theft or damage.

For a small business, an employee could take the media home with them at the end of the day. For a home user, a fireproof safe would be a beneficial investment. It's also worthwhile giving some thought to a backup strategy – an example will show why it's necessary. Suppose you decide to back up to some form of optical disk but your back-up software doesn't have multisession support – so the disk has to be erased before it can be reused each time.

However, on one occasion, having erased the previous backup from the optical disk, you suffer a hard disk crash before you can make a new backup. This is an extreme case, but it's never a good idea to have your primary data storage medium and your only backup in your PC at the same time – because electrical glitches or lightning strikes could destroy both.

The most common strategy to overcome this problem is to alternate between two sets of back-up media. This does result in an escalation of the cost of backup – especially if you've chosen to use a removable disk as your back-up media – so you'll need to weigh the cost against the additional benefit.

It's a sad fact, though, that 100 per cent security is unachievable, so bear this in mind when deciding how much you're willing to pay.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As old-fashioned CRT television become rapidly redundant and are replaced by LCDs and plasma displays a new problem has arisen in terms of what to do with the bulky old sets.

Faced with strict recycling laws in many countries, Panasonic thinks it has come up with a solution by introducing a new system to break down CRTs using a powerful laser beam.

Sliced tellies

The company unveiled the beam this week in Japan, where it has opened a reprocessing plant at the Panasonic Eco Technology Center (PETEC), near Osaka.

It uses the powerful laser to slice the thick front glass from the funnel-shaped cathode ray tube portion attached to it at the back. This is necessary for recycling because of different materials in the two kinds of glass.

Global problem

Previously, Panasonic used a hot wire to slice the screens, but this peaked at just 24 units an hour. The laser triples the number to 72 CRTs in the same period.

While it may not seem like significant progress, the numbers involved lend it some perspective. In PETEC alone, Panasonic expects to have to recycle up to 650,000 CRT TVs in 2011, the year analogue broadcasts stop in Japan.

Scaled up to account for the same process going on globally, it's clear that TV wreckers are going to be having a smashing time over the next few years.

It might sound like a pretty self-defeating vanity exercise, but a new service from Australia promises to deliver Twitter users thousands of new followers if they're willing to pay for them.

Starting at around £50, uSocial is offering to find followers in blocks of 1,000. The company says it manually searches for people who might be interested in what the client has to say and offers them the option to follow or not.

Getting the word out

Chief executive Leon Hill told the BBC about the kinds of people using the service: "A woman who runs yoga classes is one of our clients. So are some religious organisations, including one man that just wants to get the word out about God."

As we've previously seen with companies like Dell, there's no doubt that the direct line to customers provided by sites like Twitter can be a profitable one, so perhaps uSocial's service isn't as daft as it sounds at first.

Like it or loathe it, PayPal has revolutionised online commerce for small and large traders alike, so it's no great surprise to see something similar come to the humble mobile phone.

The new phone payment system, which begins later this month for users of Japan's NTT DoCoMo network, allows individuals to exchange money through each other's phone numbers.

Email notification

Anyone sending money simply logs onto a special DoCoMo mobile website and types in the number of the recipient and the amount, up to ¥20,000 (£128).

After that, the receiver gets an email allowing them to either credit the funds to their own phone bill or deposit them in a bank account. The payer has the amount charged to their own monthly bill.

Avoiding fees

As with PayPal, there are small fees involved, but the recipient can avoid them if they use a DoCoMo partner bank or choose to put the money on their DoCoMo bill.

With a monthly receiving limit of ¥200,000 (£1,275), the new service seems ideal for the sale of goods or services on a personal level.

Last updated (03 July’09):
- Review & Sample Photos @ DigicamReview

Olympus Stylus Tough-8000 is a 12 megapixels point-and-shoot digital camera features 3.6x optical zoom (28-102mm in 35mm photography) with dual image stabilization, shockproof up to 5 feet, waterproof up to 10 feet underwater, freezeproof up to (14F/-10C), on-screen manometer, Tap Control, smile shot, and a 2.7″ (6.9cm) HyperCrystalTM III LCD with Backlight. The camera measures 3.8″W x 2.5″H x 0.88″D (95.3mm x 63.4mm x 22.4mm) and it weighs 5.3oz (149g) without batteries and media card.
[More Features & Specifications Detail]

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars | Latest Price Info

(more…)

Mystical Tint Tone and Color 2.0 is a suite of 60 professional imaging filters that give photos a distinctive professional look and feel. Easily create a professional 'mood' that normally takes hours to achieve - all in just a few seconds. Mystical empowers the user with a set of tools that rival what professionals can do in Photoshop. Nashua, New Hampshire (PRWEB) July 3, 2009 -- Mystical Tint Tone and Color 2.0 is a suite of 60 production oriented...
(read more)

Apple Inc. has released an updated version of its image management software iPhoto '09. The most important change in the new release, iPhoto 8.0.4, is a fix for a bug that could cause the previous version to terminate unexpectedly. The problem was apparently caused by a database issue related to photos imported by prior versions of the program. At the same time as fixing this issue, Apple has also taken the opportunity to correct various unspe...
(read more)

Last update (03 July’09):
- Review & Sample Photos @ Cameras.uk

Canon Powershot SD960 IS is a 12 megapixels point-and-shoot digital camera features a 28mm wide-angle 4x Optical Zoom lens (35mm film equivalent: 28-112mm) with Optical Image Stabilizer, ISO 80-1600, DIGIC 4 Image Processor, an accelerometer for accessing functions in the camera with a shake of the camera, and a Large 2.8-inch PureColor LCD II widescreen and wide viewing angle. The camera measures 3.85 x 2.12 x 0.87 in./97.9 x 54.1 x 22.1mm and weighs Approx. 5.11 oz./145g (camera body only).

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars | Latest Price Info

(more…)

Google has announces it has added a number of new features to its Google Blog Search service, which it hopes makes the content of blogs on the internet easier to access.

Google launched a new-and-improved Blog Search feature back in January 2008 and since then it has kept the service pretty much as it is.

The new updates, however, will open up access to blogs with the addition of an RSS feed option and Atom feed option.

Essentially this means you can subscribe to a blog like you would any website and add its content to feed aggregators like Google Reader.

Hot Queries

Another new feature is Hot Queries. This lists searches that are popular in blogs at the moment, a bit like the Trending Topics section of Twitter.

"There's a lot of great, fresh content being published in blogs every day. We hope these new features help you discover more of it, faster," explains Akshay Patil, Software Engineer, & Dylan Casey, Product Manager in the blog.

One final other thing that has been tweaked in the Blog Search is that you can now embed this service into your iGoogle page.

Most modern browsers have been around for years, so you might think the developers would have perfected them by now.

Yet every time you go online you'll probably run into a host of browsing problems, from navigation issues, to pages you can't read clearly, and disorganised sites where it's difficult to find the information you need.

But you don't have to live with these hassles - most can be fixed with the right browsing bookmarklet. Here's an example. You're browsing a web page, and need to find a contact email address. Normally you'll scroll up and down, looking for links, and eventually you might spot one. Tedious, isn't it?

To try something simpler, first create a favourite to hold the bookmarklet applet (click Favorites > Add to Favorites in IE, Bookmarks > Bookmark this Page in Firefox).

Right-click it, and select Properties.

Change the description to "Find email".

Then replace its URL with the following JavaScript code.

javascript:(function(){if(frames.length>1)alert('Sorry,%20frames%20detected.');else{wnd=open('','lnkswnd','width=300,height=200,top=0,left=0,scrollbars,resizable');lnks=document.links;with(wnd.document){writeln('');for(var%20i=0;i'+lnks[i].innerHTML+'%C2%A0('+lnks[i].href.substring(7)+')');}}writeln('');close();}}})()

(Source: subsimple.com)

Save the changes and you're done.

(Alternatively, open this HTML file. It contains direct links to the bookmarklets - something we can't do on this site for security reasons - which you can simply drag and drop onto your favourites bar.)

Now just click the bookmarklet to list all the email links on this page. This won't work everywhere, but then it only takes a single click to find out, and in the long run it'll definitely save you time.

Give the "find email" applet a try, then, but don't spend too long on it - we've 24 other productivity-boosting bookmarklets for you to try, and they start right here.

Accessibility bookmarklets

It's fun to explore your friends' personal web pages. Unless, that is, they're utterly clueless about web design, and use a mix of coloured text and intrusive background images that makes the page almost impossible to read.

Fortunately there are some very easy solutions. These accessibility bookmarklets, for instance, can change the background colour or remove images in a single click (though they may not all work if the page uses frames). Paste the JavaScript code into a favourite to give them a try.

Set background to black
javascript:void(document.bgColor='#FFFFFF')

Set background to white
javascript:void(document.bgColor='#000000')

Remove background image
javascript:void(document.body.background='')

Zap images
javascript:(function(){function%20toArray%20(c){var%20a,%20k;a=new%20Array;for%20(k=0;%20k%20%3C%20c.length;%20++k)a[k]=c[k];return%20a;}var%20images,%20img,%20altText;images=toArray(document.images);for%20(var%20i=0;%20i%20%3C%20images.length;%20++i){img=images[i];altText=document.createTextNode(img.alt);img.parentNode.replaceChild(altText,%20img)}})();
(Source: omnigroup.com)

This bookmarklet removes all embedded content from a page: Flash ads, media players, Java applets and more. Refresh the page to bring them back.

Zap plugins
javascript:(function(){function%20R(w){try{var%20d=w.document,j,i,t,T,N,b,r=1,C;for(j=0;t=[%22object%22,%22embed%22,%22applet%22,%22iframe%22][j];++j){T=d.getElementsByTagName(t);for(i=T.length-1;(i+1)&&(N=T[i]);--i)if(j!=3||!R((C=N.contentWindow)?C:N.contentDocument.defaultView)){b=d.createElement(%22div%22);b.style.width=N.width;%20b.style.height=N.height;b.innerHTML=%22%3Cdel%3E%22+(j==3?%22third-party%20%22+t:t)+%22%3C/del%3E%22;N.parentNode.replaceChild(b,N);}}}catch(E){r=0}return%20r}R(self);var%20i,x;for(i=0;x=frames[i];++i)R(x)})();
(Source: omnigroup.com)

If you find yourself squinting at a spidery font then use the following bookmarklets to change to something more readable.

Change font to Verdana
javascript:void(document.body.style.fontFamily='verdana')

Change font to Arial
javascript:void(document.body.style.fontFamily='arial')

And this bookmarklet uses the TidyRead site to rework a poorly formatted web page to make it easier to follow. It's drastic and occasionally makes things worse, but is worth a try as a last resort.

Tidy Read

javascript:(function(){var%20s=document.createElement(%22scr%22+%22ipt%22);s.charset=%22UTF-8%22;s.language=%22javascr%22+%22ipt%22;s.type=%22text/javascr%22+%22ipt%22;s.src=%22http://www.tidyread.com/tidyread.js%22;document.body.appendChild(s)})();
(Source: labnol.org)

READABLE MYSPACE: Zap flash ads, remove pictures, change background colours - and even the worst MySpace page becomes readable

Link bookmarklets

Links are one of the most important parts of any web page, yet most browsers provide very few tools to help manage them. And that's where bookmarklets can help.

If the link colours are so subdued that you can barely see them, for instance, then click the "Highlight links" bookmarklet to display them with a very obvious yellow background. (Click again to remove it.)

Highlight links
javascript:for(nIx5Bs=0;nIx5Bs

This one colour-codes links, so that internal links are red, external ones are blue, and links pointing to the current page are orange. If you don't like these colours then change them to whatever you need.

Colour-code links
javascript:(function(){var%20i,x;%20for%20(i=0;x=document.links[i];++i)x.style.color=["blue","red","orange"][sim(x,location)];%20function%20sim(a,b)%20{%20if%20(a.hostname!=b.hostname)%20return%200;%20if%20(fixPath(a.pathname)!=fixPath(b.pathname)%20||%20a.search!=b.search)%20return%201;%20return%202;%20}%20function%20fixPath(p){%20p%20=%20(p.charAt(0)=="/"%20?%20""%20:%20"/")%20+%20p;/*many%20browsers*/%20p=p.split("?")[0];/*opera*/%20return%20p;%20}%20})()
(Souce: cybernetnews.com)

The Linkify bookmarklets converts plain text URLs into clickable hyperlinks, saving you from all that cut and paste hassle.

Linkify
javascript:(function(){var D=document; D.body.normalize(); F(D.body); function F(n){var u,A,M,R,c,x; if(n.nodeType==3){ u=n.data.search(/https?\:\/\/[^\s]*[^.,">\s\)\]]/); if(u>=0) { M=n.splitText(u); R=M.splitText(RegExp.lastMatch.length); A=document.createElement("A"); A.href=M.data; A.appendChild(M); R.parentNode.insertBefore(A,R); } }else if(n.tagName!="STYLE" && n.tagName!="SCRIPT" && n.tagName!="A")for(c=0;x=n.childNodes[c];++c)F(x); } })();
(Souce: cybernetnews.com)

Sometimes, just occasionally, you might like all links on a page to open in a new window or tab. You can always do the right-click, "Open in New Tab" thing, but it's easier to just click our bookmark and have everything else open in a new window automatically.

Open in New Window
javascript:(function(){var a=document.getElementsByTagName('a');for(var i=0,j=a.length;i(Source: doctyper.com)

Here's an undo, something to get links opening in the same window again.

Open in Same Window
javascript:(function(){var a=document.getElementsByTagName('a');for(var i=0,j=a.length;i(Source: doctyper.com)

If you ever need a list of links on a page then use this bookmarklet to display one.

List all links
javascript:var%20a='';for(var%20ln=0;ln%3Cdocument.links.length;ln++){var%20lk=document.links[ln];a+=ln+':%20%3Ca%20href=\''+lk+'\'%20title=\''+lk.text+'\'%3E'+lk+'%3C/a%3E%3Cbr%3E\n';}w=window.open('','Links','scrollbars,resizable,width=400,height=600');w.document.write(a);

And this bookmarklet will hunt down and display all the email links it finds on the current page, handy if you can't spot them yourself.

List email links
javascript:(function(){if(frames.length>1)alert('Sorry,%20frames%20detected.');else{wnd=open('','lnkswnd','width=300,height=200,top=0,left=0,scrollbars,resizable');lnks=document.links;with(wnd.document){writeln('');for(var%20i=0;i'+lnks[i].innerHTML+'%C2%A0('+lnks[i].href.substring(7)+')');}}writeln('');close();}}})()
(Source: subsimple.com)

LNK LIST: List all the links on a web page in just one click

Navigation bookmarklets

If you want to go back two or three pages then your browser history menu will take you there in a couple of clicks. But these bookmarklets will do it in one.

Back 2
javascript:window.history.go(-2)

Back 3
javascript:window.history.go(-3)

Going back a page just to check something can be a hassle, as you then have to step forward and reload the next page. As an alternative, use this bookmarklet to open your previous page in a new window or tab.

Previous Page in New Window
javascript:dOc7rB3=document.referrer.toString();if%20((dOc7rB3!='')&&(dOc7rB3.indexOf('javascript://')==-1))%20{void(window.open(document.referrer,%20'prevPage'))}%20else%20{alert('No%20previous%20page.')}
(Source: bookmarklets.com)

Another option is to open a new window or tab with a copy of whatever page you're viewing, so you can follow links on one and quickly return to the original page in the other.

Duplicate Page
javascript:dT30FfN3b=new%20Date();void(window.open(location.href,'w'+dT30FfN3b.getTime()))
(Source: bookmarklets.com)

This bookmarklet will back you out of a lengthy URL, one directory at a time. So as you click it you'll move from www.domain.com/directory/page.html, to www.domain.com/directory, then www.domain.com (if the site allows this, anyway).

Up
javascript:void(location.href=location.href.substring(0,location.href.substring(0,location.href.length-1).lastIndexOf('/')+1))

If you can't decide where to go next then click here, and the bookmarklet will take you to a random link on the current page.

Random link
javascript:void(location.href=document.links[Math.round((document.links.length-1)*Math.random())])

Alternatively, use our next bookmarklet to view robots.txt for the current site. This file is used to tell search engines that they shouldn't index particular areas of a site, and may point you to interesting hidden areas.

Robots.txt
javascript:void(location.href='http://'%20+%20location.host%20+%20'/robots.txt')

GET RANDOM: Not sure where to go next? Let the Random Link bookmark decide for you

Handy shortcuts

Perhaps the best bookmarklets are those that work with other web sites to deliver powerful features at a click.

Do you ever need to take screen grabs of web pages, say? Don't launch a graphics editor - this bookmarklet and kwout.com deliver everything you need.

Capture screen grab
javascript:(function(){var%20b=document.body,e=document.documentElement,h=100,s=self,y=0,w=window;if(s.pageYOffset)y=s.pageYOffset;else%20if(e%20&&%20e.scrollTop)y=e.scrollTop;else%20if(b)y=b.scrollTop;if(w.innerHeight%20&&%20w.scrollMaxY)h=w.innerHeight+w.scrollMaxY;else%20if(b.scrollHeight%20>%20b.offsetHeight)h=b.scrollHeight;else%20h=b.offsetHeight;w.open('http://kwout.com/grab?address='+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+'&scroll='+(y/h));})();
See Kwout.com for more.

You don't have to waste time manually visiting a site like TinyURL, then using copy and paste to create a shorter address. This bookmarklet will give you a simpler URL for the current page at a single click.

Short URL
javascript:var%20d=document,w=window,enc=encodeURIComponent,e=w.getSelection,k=d.getSelection,x=d.selection,s=(e?e():(k)?k():(x?x.createRange().text:0)),s2=((s.toString()=='')?s:('%22'+enc(s)+'%22')),f='http://bit.ly/',l=d.location,p='?v=3&u='+enc(l.href)%20+'&s='+enc(d.title)+'%20'+s2,u=f+p;try{if(!/^(.*\.)?tumblrzzz[^.]*$/.test(l.host))throw(0);tstbklt();}catch(z){a%20=function(){if(!w.open(u))l.href=u;};if(/Firefox/.test(navigator.userAgent))setTimeout(a,0);else%20a();}void(0)
(Source: labnol.org)

IE8 adds new features to help translate web pages, but it's still quicker to use this bookmarklet, which uses Google to automatically translate the current page to English.

Translate
javascript:var%20t=((window.getSelection&&window.getSelection())||(document.getSelection&&document.getSelection())||(document.selection&&document.selection.createRange&&document.selection.createRange().text));var%20e=(document.charset||document.characterSet);if(t!=''){location.href='http://translate.google.com/translate_t?text='+t+'&hl=en&langpair=auto|en&tbb=1&ie='+e;}else{location.href='http://translate.google.com/translate?u='+escape(location.href)+'&hl=en&langpair=auto|en&tbb=1&ie='+e;};
(Source: labnol.org)

And PrintWhatYouLike.com offers an easy way to reformat web pages and ensure you only print (or save) the content you need.

Print what you like
javascript:(function(){if(window['ppw']&&ppw['bookmarklet']){ppw.bookmarklet.toggle();}else{window._pwyl_home="http://www.printwhatyoulike.com/";_pwyl_bmkl=document.createElement('script');_pwyl_bmkl.setAttribute('type','text/javascript');_pwyl_bmkl.setAttribute('src',_pwyl_home+'static/compressed/pwyl_bookmarklet_10.js');_pwyl_bmkl.setAttribute('pwyl','true');document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(_pwyl_bmkl);}})();
(Source: labnol.org)

That's the last of our browsing bookmarklets, but don't worry, if we've whetted your appetite and you're hungry for more then there are plenty available online.

The Bookmarklets Directory is a good place to start, samrod (samrod.com) has a very interesting collection, Bookmarklets.com hasn't been updated for a while but is still useful, and LifeHacker has covered some powerful bookmarks in the past. Explore these resources to find out what works for you, and let us know about any other favourite bookmarklets you use in the comments.

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Last update (24 June’09):
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When The Guardian finally relaunched its mobile site a couple of months ago, it created quite a buzz.

Marcus Austin, the newspaper's mobile product manager, talked .net magazine through the project

.net: Why did it take so long for The Guardian to relaunch its mobile site?

Marcus Austin: For the last nine years people – normally people in the mobile industry – have pronounced that this was the "year of mobile". In 2008, The Guardian decided that it finally was the year of mobile.

The catalysts for this change were the iPhone and the unlimited mobile connections. The launch of the iPhone in '07 was a definite contributing factor: its simple UI and the ability to show good quality images made it a real door opener. Plus mobile internet packages like T-Mobile's Web 'n' Walk helped push the idea of a mobile internet into the public's mind.

.net: What devices and platforms are supported?

MA: The aim was to make m.guardian.co.uk work for all devices and all platforms. The idea was to give users the best experience we could. We wanted the lowest spec mobiles to be able to view the site, as well as smartphones, Sony PSPs, mobile internet devices, UMPCs (Ultra mobile PCs), MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices) and Eee PCs. When you enter, the site identifies the device you use from a database of thousands of devices and formats the screen correctly.

.net: How did you get involved in the project?

MA: I did a presentation on "why The Guardian needs to go mobile" to a couple of the directors in early 2008 and I was taken on in June 2008.

.net: What was your mobile strategy?

MA: User experience was key, and part of that was the desire to provide as full a version of The Guardian as we could. The perception for most users is that a mobile site is just the main site but on a smaller screen, and we wanted that to be the case.

We also wanted the user to be able to read an article from the newspaper, and the main site, at breakfast or at work, and to be able to continue to read that article on their mobile on the train on the way to work or in the coffee shop at lunchtime. The Guardian mobile site accesses data from over 60 sections of the full site, and we're doing some work to expand that range even further.

.net: Who helped you create the site? Why did you choose Bluestar Mobile to build it?

MA: We chose Bluestar Mobile because of their pedigree of mobile site building and because they were experts in using the MobileIQ Fabric portal, which underpins the mobile site. MobileIQ's platform is incredibly powerful and enabled us to build the site in a tenth of the time.

.net: What were the main challenges?

MA: Time. We had two and half months to build the site and get hundreds of thousands of pages of information onto a micro-miniature piece of screen real estate. The final challenge was managing expectations. Mobile site building is all about compromises: you'll never get complete buy-in from everyone. We all have mobile phones and we're all experts in what we think a mobile site should provide.

.net: How is the site funded? What did you do in terms of advertising on the site?

MA: The site is advertising funded. We have sponsored sections: the football scores and fixtures results section is sponsored by William Hill, and we serve banner ads to the site through 4Th Screen. We also have Google AdSense on each page.

.net: What's next for mobile and The Guardian?

MA: I think we all have a lot to learn about how we work with touchscreen devices and small screens. We're all very familiar with building for broadband and big screens with keyboards and mice, but the mobile world is still uncharted territory. I see there being very close parallels to the way the internet took off: in mobile we're still back in the late '90s.

We have early adopters, who understand the limitations of the mobile internet using the mobile equivalent of 56K modems, and what we're waiting for is the ISPs – in mobile's case it's the network operators – to give us simple to use, broadband connection, for a fixed monthly cost.

We're also looking for an everyman device: while the iPhone is an excellent product it's in no way a mass-market device. Devices like the INQ from Three and the just-announced ZTE Vairy touch handset from T-Mobile UK are potential devices to fill that slot.

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Sky's Gerry O'Sullivan has confirmed that the company would be interested in a presence on the BBC's Project Canvas, but expressed his concern that the BBC was getting involved in the platform business.

O'Sullivan, Sky's Director of Strategic Product Development, said that there was a watching brief from Sky over Canvas – the IPTV venture that is being considered by the BBC Trust.

The Sky man admitted that he had been fascinated to see a presentation at the Intellect Consumer Electronics conference by the BBC's Erik Huggers, and that Sky was interested in the development.

Watching brief

"I think its something we're looking at," said O'Sullivan.

"I mean to be quite honest I've learned more from listening to Erik [Huggers] about Canvas today than I've ever heard before.

"We've been trying to work out what is and what it will be when the BBC Trust have decided what they are going to do.

"For me it's something that we are looking at."

Concerns voiced

O'Sullivan also outlined his concerns about the BBC getting involved in the platform to the degree that has been suggested and pointed out that Sky is pushing on with its own VOD internet service - Sky Player.

"What we've done for our own customers, is we've launched Sky Player before iPlayer was even named and we understand that our customers want to see their content on many different devices," added O'Sullivan

"That has been our philosophy all along, and that's why if you subscribe to content not only can you watch it through your set top box you can watch it at no extra cost on the web, or on your phone and that's important because people like having value from their subscription.

"What I'd be concerned about is that the focus of the BBC should be on producing fantastic content – which our subscribers love and helping the emerging platforms and remaining platform neutral.

"I'd be concerned if they thought that the platform business and the distribution business is something that they really need to address."

Sony also expressed its concerns over Project Canvas at the conference - which may prove to be a worry for both the BBC and the BBC Trust who are yet to ratify the venture.

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(read more)

Apple faces a potential PR disaster, following its advice to iPhone owners to not use their new 3GS smartphones at temperatures over 35 degrees.

Which means those lucky enough to live in slightly hotter climes than us Brits might need to ensure they only use their iPhones when safely in the shade!

Apple issued the latest iPhone 3GS guidelines this week telling users to only operate their phone "in a place where the temperature is between 0 and 35 degrees."

Overheating, poor battery life

The advice from Apple follows numerous reports of iPhone 3GSs overheating, with some owners of the white iPhone 3GS claiming that the casing has turned pink due to the problem.

"My iPhone 3GS back gets somewhat warm when playing a few mins of games. Is this normal?" Asks one user on Apple's online forums, with a number of other users posting about similar problems.

A number of other users have posted about battery life issues with their new iPhone 3GSs.

"My guess is there's going to be a whole lot of batteries affected because these [iPhones] are from very large production runs," Aaron Vronko of iPhone repair outfit Rapid Repair, told The Telegraph.

"If you have a problem in the design of a series of batteries, it's probably going to be spread to tens of thousands [of device], if not hundreds of thousands, and maybe more."

TechRadar has contacted Apple for further comment on this problem.

There's been lots of news about China's Green Dam web-filtering campaign this week, with reports that it hasn't been scrapped but merely delayed.

If the web-filtering rollout happens, then PC manufacturers will have to ship computers to China with filtration software to stop pornography, piracy and the like.

One way to get round this looks likely to go for a non-Windows based computer system like Macs or Linux.

Mac and Linux exempt

According to Lenovo, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is only asking for filtration software to come with computers using Windows.

Lenovo has also said that it will not be shipping the software with its Linux portfolio.

If this is the case, then it probably won't be long before this loophole is sewn up – but it does show that there are currently options for users of the internet in China who do not want their web consumption automatically filtered.