Skype for Linux gets an update after almost 15 months

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AppId is over the quota
by Vlad Bobleanta on April 7, 2011 at 03:00 PM

Proving how much it cares about those people who use its app on Linux, Skype has released version 2.2 for Linux. Don't run towards the champagne though, as this is still a beta version, and, as its minor revision number implies, isn't the much-awaited big new version that achieves feature parity with its Windows and Mac brethren.

It's only been what, almost 15 months since the last Skype beta for Linux? Well, during this time, Skype's main focus has clearly been improving its Linux app, since the new version fixes the amazing number of 49 bugs. It also brings 23 'improvements', and yet somehow still manages to have a fair share of 'known issues'. Exciting, no?

What is perhaps the most important feature addition here is the support for Skype Access. This lets you easily connect to paid Wi-Fi hotspots across the globe while paying for them with Skype credit. Skype for Linux has also received support for call waiting and holding, as well as easy conference hosting. Audio and video quality have been boosted (hopefully in a way that's going to be noticeable in day-to-day use), and some of the languages have been updated.

Download Skype 2.2.0.25 for Linux Tags: apps, audio, call holding, Call Waiting, CallHolding, CallWaiting, conference call, ConferenceCall, Linux, skype, skype 2.2 beta, skype 2.2 for linux, skype access, skype for linux, Skype2.2Beta, Skype2.2ForLinux, SkypeAccess, SkypeForLinux, video, voip

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Angry Birds Rio for Symbian lands in Nokia's Ovi Store

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AppId is over the quota
by Vlad Bobleanta on April 11, 2011 at 03:45 PM

Angry Birds is one franchise that sure gives new meaning to the word cross-platform. Angry Birds Rio, the latest installment in the bird-slinging series from Rovio Mobile, is now available in Nokia's Ovi Store, ready to fly to your Symbian device. Angry Birds Rio has so far been spotted on iOS, Android, and webOS.

As with the versions for all the other platforms, Angry Birds Rio for Symbian has a story that's a bit different to what fans of the franchise have seen so far. The original Angry Birds are kidnapped and taken to Rio de Janeiro, where they manage to escape their captors and subsequently set out to save their friends, Blu and Jewel -- two macaws that incidentally are also the stars of the movie Rio. The gameplay is mostly unchanged though, and you get two episodes right now, with more episodic updates promised, for free, in May, July, October, and November.

Angry Birds Rio is only available for devices running the 'new Symbian', also known as Symbian^3. At the moment, these are the Nokia N8, E7, C7, and C6-01.

Download Angry Birds Rio for Symbian from the Ovi Store Tags: angry birds, angry birds rio, AngryBirds, AngryBirdsRio, apps, game, gaming, nokia, Symbian, Symbian 3, Symbian3

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Hospitals Services Performed Overseas

When patients needed urgent CT scans, MRIs and ultrasounds late at night at St. Mary's Hospital in Waterbury, Conn., emergency room workers used to rouse a bleary-eyed staff radiologist from his bed to read the images. Not anymore.

The work now goes to Arjun Kalyanpur -- 8,000 miles away in Bangalore, India. When it is the middle of the night in Connecticut, Kalyanpur is in the middle of his day, handling calls from St. Mary's and dozens of other American hospitals that transmit pictures to him electronically so he can quickly assess them and advise their doctors.

Kalyanpur runs one of an increasing number of "nighthawk" companies operating in the United States and overseas to take advantage of time-zone differences and the latest technology by having radiologists read images from such far-flung places as Hawaii, India, Australia, Switzerland, Israel and Brazil.

The companies, and the doctors and hospitals using them, say the trend is improving care by guaranteeing that well-rested radiologists are always available, even in the middle of the night, even for the smallest hospitals and in the most rural areas.

Skeptics, however, say the practice raises a host of concerns. Are the radiologists qualified? Is communication as good when the radiologists are so far away? Can an overseas doctor be held accountable when something goes wrong? Is anyone ensuring that properly trained and licensed radiologists are actually doing the work? Is patient privacy being protected?

Both sides see the trend as the leading edge of a movement toward greater use of telemedicine, which is widening the spectrum of care doctors can provide from afar and enabling more outsourcing of medical services overseas.

"What we're seeing with teleradiology is really just the beginning," said Jonathan D. Linkous, executive director of the American Telemedicine Association. "Similar things are already starting to happen in other areas, such as pathology."

The trend has sparked a flurry of regulatory initiatives, including proposed state and federal legislation designed to ensure that doctors performing the work are properly trained and licensed, and that patients are notified whenever information about them is transmitted elsewhere, especially overseas.

"Patients have the right to know, and the right to say no, before their X-rays or other private health information is offshored to countries that lack strong privacy safeguards," said Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) recently introduced legislation that would require patient consent in advance.

The advent of remote radiology services was prompted by various factors, including a shortage of radiologists and rapid advances in imaging technology, which has caused a sharp increase in the number of tests. As a result, many hospital radiologists have a hard time keeping up with the demand, especially at night.

"We don't have the staff to have some guy up all night and then come back in the next day," said Robert Lehman, who heads the St. Mary's radiology department. "It's just too dangerous."

In response, St. Mary's and hundreds of other hospitals and radiology practices have begun outsourcing, allowing their staff radiologists to come to work fresh each morning.

"I'm convinced patient care is improved," said Paul Berger of NightHawk Radiology Services. The company, based in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, has about 40 radiologists in Zurich and Sydney serving about 600 U.S. hospitals and other facilities, including 16 in Virginia.

But skeptics worry that remote radiology operations may be staffed with one or two U.S.-certified radiologists who approve reports prepared by less-qualified technicians, a practice known as "ghosting."

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Opera 11.10 gets HTML5 File API support, IMAP improvements

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AppId is over the quota
by Lee Mathews on April 6, 2011 at 01:30 PM

The crew in Oslo keeps plugging away at Opera 11.10, and the latest snapshot build includes a number of improvements to Opera's built-in email client -- as well as HTML5-related additions.

On the IMAP front, Opera now supports special folders like sent items, spam, and trash. It also better handles duplicate items in Gmail -- such as those which appear in all mail and under your custom labels.

Opera 11.10 now partially supports the HTML5 File API as well, which means your favorite Web apps (like Gmail) may soon begin adding Opera to the list of supported browsers.

You can download the latest Opera 11.10 snapshot for Windows, Mac, or Linux from the official release post.

Update: The Opera 11.10 RC is now available, as pointed out by SlashZaku in the comments. Thanks! Tags: apps, browser, browsers, email, file api, FileApi, gmail, html5, imap, linux, mac, mail, opera, opera 11.10, Opera11.10, snapshot, web, windows

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Grooveshark gets kicked out of the Android Market

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AppId is over the quota
by Vlad Bobleanta on April 6, 2011 at 10:45 AM

Google has removed Grooveshark from the Android Market. The move, which comes many months after Apple kicked the music app from its App Store, has to do with (what else?) accusations from several top music labels that Grooveshark violates copyright law.

It's unclear whether Google plans to also remotely remove the app from Android smartphones on which it's already been installed, something that Google has the power to do but has only in the past used to get rid of malware-ridden apps.

In response to questions regarding Grooveshark's removal from the Android Market, a Google spokesperson only had this to say: "We remove apps from Android Market that violate our terms of service." The spokesperson did not mention what violations Grooveshark has committed in relation to the Market's terms of service. Google has also, understandably, not said anything about this happening in response to pressure from the music industry -- yet what else could have triggered this removal?

In an interesting coincidence, Google is set to outline its anti-piracy efforts before the House of Representatives' Judiciary committee today. Google has been accused numerous times that it profits from piracy by allowing 'pirate' sites to post Google ads. The company is expected to deny this as well as issue a tougher stance on piracy at today's hearing.

As for Grooveshark, it looks like it's quickly running out of mobile app stores on which it's allowed to exist. Do consider however that you'll probably still be able to get the Android app from Grooveshark directly -- since (unless you have an AT&T Android device) Android does allow you to install apps that don't come from the Market. Tags: android market, AndroidMarket, anti-piracy, antipiracy, apps, audio, google, Grooveshark, grooveshark for android, GroovesharkForAndroid, music, piracy

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Opera 11.10 includes improved power saving features

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AppId is over the quota
by Lee Mathews on April 7, 2011 at 09:00 AM

Just recently, the Opera 11.10 release candidate was made available for download. It brought a handful of important feature additions -- like HTML5 File API support and IMAP enhancements -- and loads of bugfixes. Nestled in amongst the other details in the Opera team's announcement is one more interesting tidbit: Opera 11.10 offers improved battery optimizations.

The timing here is certainly interesting, what with Microsoft's recent report on how much power the top five Web browsers consume. In its findings, Opera 11 was fairly low in the standings. While we've not seen any new benchmarks yet, we're curious to know whether the Opera 11.10 RC offers any significant gains.

If you're running Opera 11.10 on a laptop, let us know if you're seeing an improvement in your battery life while browsing! Tags: apps, barracuda, battery, browser, browsers, efficiency, green, laptop, linux, mac, opera, opera 11.10, Opera11.10, power savings, PowerSavings, web, windows

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Adblock Plus developer pokes holes in Mozilla's new add-on performance tests

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AppId is over the quota
by Sebastian Anthony on April 8, 2011 at 05:20 AM

Wladimir Palant, developer of the most popular add-on in the world, Adblock Plus, is also an active contributor to the Planet Mozilla blog community. Over the last few days, in response to Mozilla's new name and shame list of slow add-ons, Palant has been investigating whether Mozilla's testing methods are actually accurate.

Rather surprisingly, it turns out that Mozilla's numbers could be significantly wrong -- and if they're not wrong, the factors that Mozilla uses to tabulate an add-ons final score should definitely be made more transparent.

In the first set of tests, Palant shows that FlashGot's position in the top 10 is probably due to a fault in Mozilla's testing setup, and that add-ons can perform very differently depending on which operating system they're being tested on. In the second analysis, Palant uncovers an irregularity that doesn't seem to have an obvious cause -- but it could be due to an I/O bottleneck on Mozilla's test machines. Basically, even though performance testing of Read It Later is disabled because of a bug, it still (somehow!) manages to record a 14% slow-down on Windows 7.

Palant concludes both analyses by scolding Mozilla for going public with the performance data before its testing methods had been confirmed accurate. It definitely looks like Mozilla has been more than a little reckless, considering the importance of Firefox's add-on ecosystem. Tags: adblock plus, AdblockPlus, add-on, add-ons, addon, addons, apps, browsers, extension, extensions, firefox, firefox 4, Firefox4, mozilla, performance, speed, testing, web, wladimir palant, WladimirPalant

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