Beta

Now that we’ve shown you how to test out Mozilla’s latest nightly builds of Firefox without destroying all of your current settings, you can safely check out the just-released Firefox 3 Alpha 7 release.

Most of the changes include bug fixes and under the hood tweaks. But here are a few things you might notice:

• The location bar autocomplete menu shows favicons for previously entered addresses.
• Firefox will retain a history of recently visited sites for 180 days instead of 9.
• Support for Mac OS X 10.3 has been removed.
• There’s support for full page zoom of images, text, and layout, but you’ll need to install an extension to take advantage of Firefox’s new zoom options, as there’s no controls built into the program yet.

As you can tell from the Alpha label, the latest release is still far from ready for prime time. We wouldn’t recommend using the latest build as your primary browser yet, but if you want to see what Firefox 3 might look like, go ahead and compile a portable build.

[via Mozilla Links]

Several readers have written in to request that we contact Streamy for our our Invite-a-Palooza series. Well, folks, today’s your day. There seems to be a groundswell of attention forming around this new Web site that wants to give us a new way to tackle our overload of RSS feeds, social networks, instant messengers and bookmarks.

Since we last wrote about Streamy, the developers have thrown in some new features that make it look even cooler than the first time we looked. Now users can compile all their comments, notes, and saved stories into a single stream. They’ve also applied the same idea to the Friends page, which keeps track of your social networks.

Intrigued? Want to check it out? Just be one of the first 25 people to leave us a note in the comment section (be sure to activate it if you get an email confirmation). Winners will receive their invitations early next week after Streamy’s new system upgrade is complete.

UPDATE: We’ve given away all 25 invitations for today’s featured site but check back tomorrow to see who’s up next!

You do realize that everything you do these days must have a social element, right? If you’re so inclined, you can socially network almost every component of your life: college, work, sports, hobbies — heck, even dying. So, if that’s your thing, you’ll be happy to know that one of the last vestiges of solitary activity has given way to social media. That’s right, you’ll never have to read alone again.

The glossy print publication 944 Magazine, a regional mag that covers the nightlife scene in major markets like Miami, Las Vegas, and San Francisco, has just launched the aptly-named Web site 944Life: Your Clique Here. In a welcome departure from typical one-dimensional sites with nothing but the text of back issues you’ve already read, this site has social interaction features so readers have a place to meet up and talk about where they’re going to, er, meet up.

With trendy events happening in and around its coverage areas faster than you can say “What should I wear?”, 944Life lets readers check out videos, news, reviews, and find out where the latest parties are going to be. There’s even a section that features the hottest restaurants in town, along with photos from the fah-bulous events they’ve hosted. Registered members can hob-hob with other users, keep a blog, upload media, and join forums.

Though the site is still officially in beta, it’s already very user-friendly and just as slick and glossy as the magazine itself. While we still like to curl up with the classics and read into the wee hours, a socially interactive website for a magazine devoted to cultivating one’s social life makes a lot of sense to us.

Eight days into our Invite-a-palooza, we want to give a shout out to all readers who have taken the time to check out all the neat sites we’ve featured. We’re having a great time giving out invitations, and we’re not done yet.

Freebase, a collective knowledge database, is a terrific twist on information Web sites like Wikipedia. The creators of Freebase describe it as an “almanac” that sorts and organizes information so it is easily searched by people and software. Once it’s opened to the public, users will be able to structure, contribute, search, and organize data for themselves. Since all the data in Freebase is licensed Creative Commons Attribution, users can also copy data for their own use as long as it’s linked back to Freebase.

Though the site it still closed to the public, we have some invitations that will let you get in the door early. If you’re among first 100 people to leave us a note in the comment section, we’ll send one your way (make sure to activate it if you get an email confirmation). If you don’t get in under the wire today, be sure to check back to see who’s featured next.

If you know of a site you’d like us to consider for the Invite-a-palooza, drop us a note.

UPDATE: We’ve given away all 100 invitations for today’s featured site but check back tomorrrow to see who’s up next!

Feeling a little creative but doesn’t want to spend any time at all creating your masterpiece? Try Collagr. But keep in mind, you get what you pay for.

Collagr is a unique website that pulls in photos from Flickr accounts to build a quick photo collage. And ‘quick collage’ is the main phrase here. These are no Van Gogh or Picasso works here. Collagr simply pulls in photos from your account, no choosing folders, lines them up and drops them in a 1400×1025 pixel JPEG.

Although Collagr is still in its Gamma version, we would like to see a little more artistic feeling added to collages that are created. This site has the potential to make users happy, and in true artistic fashion left us feeling something, it’s just that that something was a little unhappy with the piece that was created.

[via ehub]

You know how Lost was a big hit for ABC, and so the next year every network had a few shows with huge casts, a lot of backstory, and a plot that was impossible to follow. That’s what happens when someone comes up with a good idea. Or at least one that works.

And so a few weeks ago InviteShare launched a service that made it easier for anyone who wanted to get into exclusive invite-only beta tests to do so. Now a new service, Site Invites has launched to do exactly the same thing.

The concept is pretty simple. Want an invitation to test Joost, Scrybe, or any of 24 other services? Just leave your contact info. Hopefully someone will come along and take pity on you. If you’ve got a few invitations to share, you can be the pitier. In fact, the more people you send invitations to, the higher you move up the list for any invitations you’re seeking.

The site is advertising supported. But something tells us they group behind this is hoping to make a little extra cash by selling the business. (TechCrunch paid $25,000 for InviteShare). There’s just one problem. Anybody could create a similar service if they feel like it. The startup costs are pretty minimal. In fact, TechCrunch was getting ready to develop its own service when the company decided to buy InviteShare instead. The only reason InviteShare was worth $25,000 was because TechCrunch had already written a positive review of the site driving up its profile.

Of course, if you’re looking for a really good way to pick up invites to the sexiest services around, just keep reading Download Squad.

Back in the dark ages before the internet, when people lived in caves and Hammurabi’s Code reigned supreme, it was difficult to tell if you were being ripped off when making a purchase. People were less informed, and therefore more likely to be taken advantage of, or so history textbooks say. Records are hazy from those pre-net periods, before the dawn of civilized society. There are still a few instances in these enlightened times where people feel like they’re getting taken advantage of however. Used cars and computer repairs ($200 to format a computer? That’s highway robbery) and cell phone bills are some that come to mind. The first two you’re still on your own, but it looks like there might be some help for the third on the horizon.

Validas is a site launching it’s Beta shortly with the promise of explaining every inch of over-complicated cell phone bills to users. While it’s not officially online yet, you can sign up for the beta and be one of the first to try it out. Right now it displays a slick looking video that will seduce you into believing that they know what they’re doing. High production value always equals fantastic product, right? If it works half as well as advertised it could be a helpful little tool. If not, well, um, sorry?

In my never-ending quest for my business to be as technologically cool as my kids (and those their ages) are everyday, and to posit my business as technologically fashion-forward as possible, we’ve determined that there are five tools we can’t live without and do our everyday business while moving ever closer to the techno cutting edge.

A phone with email
We can’t live without email on our phones. For our (older person) needs, web browsing, watching videos and listening to music run a distant second. Our folks use Motorola Q and Treo and have tossed many others as unsuitable (too big, require too many reboots, bad keyboards, too many buttons to figure out). Not one of us wants an iPhone and we’re not big text-ers, although our servers send SMS notifications when they’re cranky. What frustrates us are the batteries – none has a long-enough life so we rely on Sedio to sell us better ones.

A reliable notebook to schlep
We take notebooks to meetings, to public wifi hotspots and business offices to meet with clients. Some of us, especially the girls, have a lightweight criterion, in addition to coveting reliable and easy to haul notebooks that survive minor life infractions (like car door clunking). There are no “notebooks to replace workstations” in our corral of equipment (too heavy) and where the USB ports are located (side or back) matters a lot. Designers require Macs; the business folks use obsolete-but-still-good souped-up Inspirons that reformat with a keystroke combination. They all go on the network. We reformat a lot.

A cool bag to schlep the notebook
Our cool bags? The Bag Lady, Funky, Chic and Cool , Coach (of course) and Case Closed. The guys like backpacks and hardly care about the colors (as long as they’re dark).

Cheap easy and convenient media tools
Online businesses need video and audio tools but our staff admits they rarely use the higher-IQ video functions on camcorders (we outsource that function). Most small businesses require basic functions: relatively easy to point and shoot, some ability to correct for light, zoom, new lens capable, logical to download to a computer and the deal-breaker: standard file format. There’s no pretending it’s going to fit in a purse but it should live happily in a cool bag. We move files all over so we chose hard-drive recorders (not suitable for professional videographers) and HD. We like the Canon HV and HR line. You can get started for less than $1,100.00.

For audio, we’re satisfied with Olympus products (used by many journalists), from the WS line. That gives us lots of recording time, a direct PC link and a built-in mic, but we bought external ones because they’re just better. Prices seem to drop every day. Podcasting software can be free and do most of what you need.

Neater power
As the quintessential electronic consumers, using small office space efficiently is a daily challenge. Cord knots make us crazy and we’ve tried various tools that promise to make electronic living neater. There’s the PowerSquid surge, the PowerSquid outlet multiplier, and the PowerStation cable organizer. Check out CableOrganizer.com for more ideas. Nothing we’ve found yet solves cord problems so we decided never to move the desks around in the office, even if we left-handers suffer a lot.

Even if you’re not that mobile, get a docking station for your notebook so you can use a real keyboard, mouse and monitor. It cuts down on the carpal tunnel claims.

If you’ve got a small business toy you can’t live without or recommend, please let us know. We buy new stuff everyday, it seems, and why should today be different?

Microsoft beta testers have been playing with a few major updates for Windows Vista for a few days now. It’s not quite a full service pack release, but the Vista Performance and Reliability Pack and the Vista Compatibility and Reliability Pack do include quite a few bug fixes that should make Vista slightly more bearable.

The packs should be available to all users through Windows update on August 14th. But if you can’t wait (and if you don’t mind downloading software from an unofficial source), some folks have taken it upon themselves to release the beta software to a wider audience a few weeks early.

There’s a whole slew of features in the update, but here are a few of the most exciting:

• Resolves an issue where creating AVI files on Vista may get corrupted.
• Improves the performance in calculating the ‘estimated time remaining’ when copying/moving large files.
• Improves performance in bringing up Login Screen after resuming from Hibernate.
• Resolves an issue where synchronization of offline files to a server can get corrupted.
• Resolves an issue where a computer can lose its default Gateway address when resuming from sleep mode.
• Improves the performance when copying or moving entire directories containing large amounts of data or files.
• Improved reliability and compatibility of Vista when used with newer graphics cards in several specific scenarios and configurations.
• Increased compatibility with many video drivers.
• Improved reliability of systems that were upgraded from XP to Vista.
• Increased compatibility with many printer drivers.

Oh yeah, and not that we’d condone downloading unauthorized software. But when you do, you’ll need 7-zip to uncompress the files.
[via GHacks]

Today’s Invite-a-palooza featured site just might reunite you with your long-lost love or your best friend from third grade (and if it does, we want to know about it). Spock, a new search service that’s still under development, looks like it’s shaping up to be a terrific way to search for people. The creators of this site want to be a human phone book of sorts by organizing information on, well, everyone. They’re well on their way, too, since they’ve already indexed over one hundred million people.

Are you listed on Spock’s Website? Right now, the only way to find out is by private invitation but, luckily, we’ve got some. If you’re among first 200 people to leave us a note in the comment section, we’ll send one your way (make sure to activate it if you get an email confirmation). Whether you snag an invitation or not, if you’re a computer science engineer, you’ll also want to check out the Spock Challenge for a chance to win $50,000.

If you know of a site you’d like us to consider for the Invite-a-palooza, drop us a note.