Archive for February 29, 2012

Dolphin Browser for Android Adds Voice Search

From Lifehacker:

Android: Voice control seems to be spreading to just about every app these days and Dolphin—our favorite web browser for Android—wasn’t about to be left out of the party. The latest release adds a feature called Sonar, allowing you to search the web with the power of your voice.

Sonar works like most voice-activated features: you tape the microphone and speak a command. What you can say to Dolphin is pretty interesting. Aside from initiating basic search commands, you can specify specific sites (like Facebook and eBay) to search within them directly. Voice commands can also be used to access browser functionality like bookmarks and basic navigation. This update is currently available for download in the Android Marketplace, free as usual.

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Remove Scratches and Dents in Hardwood Floors with an Iron

From Lifehacker:

Have you ever gone to move a piece of furniture across a hardwood floor and heard the horrible scratching sound of the furniture cutting into the wood? It’s not a pleasant sound, but according to DIY blog Apartment Therapy, you can remove those scratches with an iron and a little water.

As with any home repair tip, it’s best to test this one out in a dark corner before trying it on a high traffic area. The process itself is pretty simple: wet the scratch or dent, apply a wet cloth or paper towel over the dent, and then move the iron in a circular motion across the towel for 3-5 minutes. If you do this on a finished hardwood floor you may have to sand up the finish a little bit. It doesn’t work on all finishes, but it’s incredibly handy if you’ve accidentally destroyed a floor trying to rearrange a room by yourself. Hit up the post on Apartment Therapy for a full guide.

How To Fix Dents in Wooden Floors & Furniture (With an Iron!) | Apartment Therapy

Big 4 labels to Canadian Parliament: we want to be able to control search engines, social networking, blogs, video sites, and community sites. Oh, and we want an iPod tax. – Boing Boing

From BoingBoing:

Michael Geist sez, “The Canadian music industry is scheduled to appear before a Parliamentary committee today with some of the most radical demands to date that would effectively create liability for social networking sites, search engines, blogging platforms, and video sites such as Google, Facebook and Reddit. As if that were not enough, the industry is also calling for a new iPod tax, an extension in the term of copyright, a removal of protections for user generated content, parody, and satire, as well as an increase in statutory damage awards. Taken together, the Canadian music industry demands make SOPA look like minor tinkering with the law.”

Canadian Music Industry Takes Aim At Google, Facebook, Reddit & Tech Startups With Bill C-11 Demands

Open email links directly in Gmail using Chrome | Official Gmail Blog

From Gmail blog:

 

I used to avoid clicking on email links on the web because an application on my computer that I never used would pop up and interrupt me. Instead, I would copy the email address, switch to Gmail, click compose and paste it in.

Starting today, thanks to the magic of HTML5 things are getting simpler. Now, when you go to Gmail in Chrome, you will be asked if you want Gmail to open all email links. Say yes, and clicking on email links in any application on your computer will open a fresh Gmail compose window. 



You can set Gmail as your default mail client in Firefox and Internet Explorer, too.

Google Analytics Blog: Making Google Analytics even speedier

From Google Analytics Blog:

We are excited to announce three new features that we hope will improve your experience and make crunching even massive quantities of data easier. These updated reports will be available to everyone by later this week.

Watch your reports load
Nothing is more frustrating than waiting, especially when you don’t know how long the wait will be. To ease that pain on Google Analytics we are adding a visual indicator that will report the progress of loading your report.


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