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Deck the halls -- Rdio unveils holiday stations, playlists

Publié: décembre 7, 2013, 4:48pm CET par Alan Buckingham

It's that time of year, when the temperatures dip and the snow begins to fall, well, depending on where you live. This is also the time of year when a few radio stations suddenly change formats, and you can't turn the dial without hearing Bing Crosby or Burl Ives. Streaming radio company Rdio is taking a similar approach.

The music service has announced its 2013 lineup of holiday stations and curated playlists to get you in the spirit. "All of your musical needs for the holidays can be found right here on Rdio", the company announces.

Included is all of the standard fare. There are various themed stations such as punk, country, celtic and traditional. There are hand-picked playlists, including holiday favorites and 2013 holiday music -- did you know Iggy Pop has recorded a song in this category? Rdio even has some complete 2013 compilation and individual artist albums.

The service also wouldn't mind if you gave it as a gift. "And if you’re still looking for great presents for your friends and family, consider giving the gift of Rdio. You can set your Rdio gift certificate in any amount that you like, and whatever you choose will be the guaranteed way to make sure everyone gets exactly what they want for the holidays". Happy listening.
EXESlide creates photo slideshows as EXE, SCR, SWF, AVI, GIF -- and more

Publié: décembre 7, 2013, 3:29pm CET par Mike Williams

Alternate Pic View EXESlide is a lightweight free tool which helps you build extremely basic slideshows. And we really do mean "basic": you can’t annotate an image, add captions or apply effects, and there’s no support for transitions at all.

EXESlide does excel in one area, though -- export formats. The program's slideshows may be limited, but once built they can be saved as self-launching EXEs, screensavers (SCR), Flash animations (SWF), AVI videos and animated GIFs. There are even bonus tools to present individual images as simple games.

Making this happen starts by building a list of the images you'd like to use. You can do this within EXESlide, but a poor interface makes this frustrating in the extreme, so it's easier if you just use Explorer. Create a new folder somewhere, fill it with whatever files you’d like to use in the slideshow, and rename them to ensure they're in the right order ("1.This.jpg", "2.That.jpg").

Launch Alternate Pic View EXESlide, browse to your Slideshow folder, and you’ll see your chosen photos in the image list. Drag and drop photos if you'd like to rearrange the order after all, or select an image and press Delete to remove it from the list.

While short on slideshow-building features, EXESlide can save your work in a host of formats and fie types

Various slideshow options are displayed at the bottom of the screen. You’re able to set the default time each photo will remain on the screen, as well as varying that for an individual image when appropriate. The slideshow can be given an MP3 or WAV soundtrack, and clicking View > Slideshow displays a preview of the results so far.

When you're happy, just click File and choose one of the Create options to export your work. Create Executable File, for example, saves the slideshow as an EXE or SCR file. Launch this on any modern PC and its images should be displayed immediately.

Export your slideshow as a Flash applet and it should be visible from any browser (depending on your device, anyway). A sample HTML file is included for easier viewing.

There's also the option to save the slideshow as an animated GIF. This limits you to a 256-color palette, though, so while it can work for presentations, it's fairly useless with photos.

In theory you can also export your photos as an AVI video. This didn't work for us -- we were left with a huge video file which displayed nothing at all -- but you might be luckier.

And as a fun extra, you're even able to export a single image in the form of a simple game. "Puzzle", for example, converts your first image into a mosaic, rearranges the tiles, and leaves you with the task of putting them back in order.

Alternate Pic View EXESlide is horribly limited as a slideshow builder, then, with a poor interface which really needs replacing immediately. But it can string a few images together, with a soundtrack, and if you can use one or two of these export formats then the program could be worth a look.
The most popular stories on BetaNews this past week -- December 1 - 7

Publié: décembre 7, 2013, 12:12pm CET par Mark Wilson

The tech world seems to be slowling down slightly in the run up to Christmas, but there have still been a lot of stories over the past seven days. There are sure to be a whole new raft of sales to look forward to both before and after Christmas, but if the Thanksgiving sales are anything to go by they may not offer as good a deal as first appearances would have you believe. Whether you bag a bargain or not, it looks as though tech presents are going to be as popular as ever this year -- and if you buy a Windows device, you'll get a free gift card.

After Microsoft tried comparing the Surface to the iPad Air, Amazon decided to follow suit -- guess which was more popular! Microsoft kept its fire trained on Google, taking a swipe at the Chromebook. Tablet makers may be pushing their product in the run up to Christmas, but PC shipments have suffered the largest decline ever. New computers will have an updated USB connection in the near future. USB type C brings to an end a problem that has plagued anyone who has ever plugged in a USB cable -- this generation can be plugged in either way up!

Microsoft was probably feeling a little upset that Windows 8 and 8.1 are still faring quite poorly in terms of usage. Despite the fact that it is now fairly old, Windows 7 is still growing at a faster rate than its successors. For anyone unhappy with Windows 8.1, there is now Threshold to look forward to. There was better news on the browser front as Internet Explorer managed to retain well over half of the market. The Office 365 Student Advantage program went live meaning that thousands of educational institutions will be able to offer the suite to their students. Microsoft looks set to earn itself a place in more people's good book by promising to do more to protect user data from government spying by implementing new encryption methods and more.

We're approaching the end of the year, so expect to see lots of 'best of' lists and reflections of the past twelve months in the next three weeks or so. In this vein, Bing revealed the most popular search terms from the year -- Beyoncé Knowles was the most searched for person, while Big Bang Theory bagged the title of most searched for TV show.

Dell announced its new 4k monitors-- Brian has one, so expect to see a review soon! On the subject of reviews, I pondered the worthlessness of banning bad reviews. Brian was less than impressed with 'irregular activity' on the PlayStation network and decided to return his PS4.

Online, Apple bought Twitter analytics firm Topsy Labs, although there is no news on how it will be used. Speaking of news, Facebook wants to help deliver more news than memes and is updating News Feeds accordingly. If you have invested in a 4k monitor, you'll want some HD content to view, and if you're a PlayOn or PlayLater user, HD is now available for streaming.

In other news, Google updated searching on Android devices, and the sale of HTC's One mini was blocked in the UK after a judge found the device infringed on Nokia patents. Another legal wrangling saw the FTC charging an app developer with deceiving users after it was revealed that Brightest Flashlight Free collected user location and device ID data.

That's it for this week. Another -- hopefully busier -- seven days coming up!

Image Credit: vinz89 / Shutterstock
Extra! Extra! Google improves mobile news

Publié: décembre 7, 2013, 4:28am CET par Brian Fagioli
If you've been on a bus or subway lately, you probably observed many people consuming the news on a mobile device. However, this is not a new phenomenon. After all, 20 years ago, you would see people consuming the news on-the-go too -- just in paper form.

While the medium and method of consumption has evolved, on-the-go news can still improve. Today, Google announces that it is improving its news service in mobile browsers. Sadly, Windows Phone users are getting the shaft again -- it is an Android and iOS-only affair.

"Increasingly people are reading News on the go and using their smartphones to keep abreast of the latest happenings around the globe. Over the next few days Google News readers on Android and iOS devices will start to see a beautiful new version of the mobile web app that will provide an improved overall experience resulting in a kind of real time news desk for you on your phone", says Mayuresh Saoji, Product Manager, Google News and Social.

Saoji lists the following new features:
- Improved overall look-and-feel making it easier to read and track separate stories.
- Ability to customize the web app to suit your taste by changing the theme from light to dark, the font size and opting for a larger "story card" with more information per story at your fingertips (from the Settings menu, at top right).
- Simplified navigation to any section within News; just click on the Google News icon (top left) to see a list of available sections (including any custom sections you created).
- Easier integration with Google Feedback located in the menu at the top right.
- A weather gadget in the Local section.
- The popular "Editors Picks" option.
- Social posts from Google + related to the story are included in the article cluster
Sadly for most of the world, this upgrade is only being released in the USA for the time being. However, Google promises to release it globally "soon". If you are interested in trying it, simply visit news.google.com from Chrome or Safari on a mobile device.

Photo Credit: Ryan Jorgensen-Jorgo/Shutterstock
Got a faulty Chromebook 11 charger? You can soon buy a new one for $19.99

Publié: décembre 7, 2013, 12:47am CET par Mark Wilson

A few weeks ago Google's Chromebook 11 was removed from sale after an overheating problem was found with some chargers. No recall was ever announced, but users were advised against using the supplied charger in favour of another Micro-USB charger of their own. In fact, both Google and HP have been very quiet since the announcement, but now a new Chromebook 11 charger has appeared in Google Play.

The charger is not currently available; it is listed as 'Coming soon'. It also has a $19.99 price tag associated with it (or £14.99 if you're in the UK). This is a very simple piece of equipment, as illustrated by the short and sweet product description: "Keep your HP Chromebook 11 topped up with an extra charger."

Except this would not be regarded as an extra charger by anyone who has been told to stop using their original one. It would be regarded as a replacement. And not a cheap one at that. This is a very basic Micro-USB charger, and $19.99 does seem to be pushing the limits of acceptability a little. It will certainly not go down well with disgruntled Chromebook 11 owners if it turns out that this is the price they have to pay for a new charger that does not overheat.

The image on the Google Play listing shows that the charger is of a different design to the one originally supplied with the Chromebook. This time around it is branded with a Chrome logo, but the specifications are the same.

Google has made no announcement about the new charger, but this could change in the coming days. We've reached out to the company for clarification about whether or not those affected by an overheating charger will be expected to pay for a replacement or not, and we'll update this post when we hear something back from them.

Update: In a brief reply, Google told us "we are working with the Consumer Product Safety Commission to identify the appropriate corrective action, and will provide additional information and instructions as soon as we can".