Netflix launches sexy new web-based video player

“Netflix just rolled out a completely revamped video player for browser-based viewing, and I gotta say, it’s pretty slick: Not only does it come with lightbox-like text overlays while a video is paused, users can also preview entire seasons of a TV show while they’re watching one episode of the show in full-screen mode. I was told by Netflix that this is currently rolling out across the web.

The only downside of the new player seems to be that there can be some issues with Chrome on Mac OS – a warning screen told me to switch to Safari or Firefox for the best viewing experience. However, a quick test showed that basic playback was working just fine via OS X Chrome. A Netflix spokesperson explained via email: ‘Chrome on Mac support is a limitation of Microsoft Silverlight, not Netflix. It works on some Macs but not on others, so we allow it and give users a warning.’

The player makes way for additional information, lightbox-style, when paused for a few seconds.

Netfix users can also resize the browser window during playback, and the video is resized fairly smoothly. This should make it easier to watch something while you’re doing something else on your computer, or adjust the size of the video window to play it on a connected TV.

Netflix has been emphasizing playback on connected devices, which now make up for the vast majority of the service’s usage, but today’s relaunch clearly show that there is still a notable demand for PC-based playback as well.”

A major upgrade to The GIMP, Facebook Appstore? Blubrry PowerPress 4.0, Geek Software of the Week: AM-DeadLinks! Major camera confusion, and a surprise ending!

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A major upgrade to The GIMP, Facebook Appstore? Blubrry PowerPress 4.0, Geek Software of the Week: AM-DeadLinks! Major camera confusion, and a surprise ending!

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AM-Deadlinks

“AM-DeadLink detects dead links and duplicates in browser bookmarks and text files. If a bookmark has become unavailable you can verify and delete it permanently. Additionally you can download Favicons for all your Favorites and Bookmarks. AM-DeadLink is Freeware!

AM-DeadLink can check the following resources:

Internet Explorer Favorites
Firefox 3.x bookmarks
Opera bookmarks
Chrome bookmarks
HTML files
URLs from tab delimited text files
URLs from comma separated text files”

From the RawVoice Press Release!

“Blubrry PowerPress 4.0 brings the latest essential features for media creation to WordPress, including the hottest updates to the new iTunes specifications.

‘I am proud of this release of PowerPress, in supporting the latest iTunes podcast specs, additionally this update introduces innovative features first to market for the 10’s of thousands of media creators that rely on PowerPress,’ said Todd Cochrane, CEO of RawVoice.

iTunes upgrades include:
An updated iTunes image requirement — RGB 1400×1400 — throughout the plugin for better cover image quality throughout.

‘Feature Episode’ that allow podcasters to designate a primary episode, which can be used to introduce the podcast or lead in to a new series.

An iTunes Order feature that allows a podcaster doing a series of episodes to have each listed in the desired order.

Other PowerPress 4.0 offerings include:
A new video player option: VideoJS HTML5 JavaScript player — a player that has its own plugin. By adding this plugin, the new player will be available as an option in PowerPress video players list.

A Feed Episode Maximizer ‘option’ for shows with episodes in excess of what can currently be included in a feed. This feature allows the podcaster to maintain the latest 10 episodes in iTunes with all of the extensive episode data. The rest of the episodes are listed in a way that maximizes the number of episodes that can be listed on iTunes / Zune etc. Perfect for the serial podcaster with an extensive episode library.

Blubrry.com is a media community and directory that gives content creators the power to make money through advertising, get detailed audience measurements and host their audio and video. Blubrry PowerPress 4.0 brings the essential features for media creation to WordPress, offering full podcasting support, web audio/video media players and more.”

Introducing the App Center

From the Facebook Developer Blog:

“Today, we’re announcing the App Center, a new place for people to find social apps. The App Center gives developers an additional way to grow their apps and creates opportunities for more types of apps to be successful.

In the coming weeks, people will be able to access the App Center on the web and in the iOS and Android Facebook apps. All canvas, mobile and web apps that follow the guidelines can be listed. All developers should start preparing today to make sure their app is included for the launch.

A place to find great apps
For the over 900 million people that use Facebook, the App Center will become the new, central place to find great apps like Draw Something, Pinterest, Spotify, Battle Pirates, Viddy, and Bubble Witch Saga.

Everything has an app detail page, which helps people see what makes an app unique and lets them install it before going to an app.”

http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

“GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.

It has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc.

GIMP is expandable and extensible. It is designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image manipulation procedures to be easily scripted.

GIMP is written and developed under X11 on UNIX platforms. But basically the same code also runs on MS Windows and Mac OS X.”

Codeweavers WINE-enabled browse with ActiveX, Michio Kaku on Moore’s Law, Discovery buys Revision3, next gen of video savvy kids, three awesome days! GSotW: Xmarks! Flash / PHP patches, Vidblaster and new webcams, the GameMaster on ‘The Legend of Korra!’ Sponsor: GoToMeeting Conferencing with HD Faces: Simple Online Collaboration – http://bit.ly/xp4FFv

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Codeweavers WINE-enabled browse with ActiveX, Michio Kaku on Moore’s Law, Discovery buys Revision3, next gen of video savvy kids, three awesome days! GSotW: Xmarks! Flash / PHP patches, Vidblaster and new webcams, the GameMaster on ‘The Legend of Korra!’ Sponsor: GoToMeeting Conferencing with HD Faces: Simple Online Collaboration – http://bit.ly/xp4FFv

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Emergency Patches Pushed for Flash, PHP

“Adobe pushed an emergency patch Friday for its Flash Player to fix a flaw that’s being actively exploited to attack computers running Windows.

Meanwhile, software writers are still scrambling to fix a vulnerability, made public earlier this week, in PHP, a scripting language which is used widely to run servers on the Web, including those of Facebook.

The Adobe fix aims to cure an ‘object confusion vulnerability’ discovered in all versions of the player — Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and Android — but thus far has only been used to attack Windows systems using Microsoft’s browser software, Internet Explorer, according to a company bulletin on the subject.

When exploited, the defect could crash Flash Player and allow an attacker to take control of your computer.

Malware exploiting the vulnerability is being delivered in email messages containing an attachment. The email, though, is highly targeted, which means it’s directed at a limited number of individuals.

Adobe’s PDF file format has become a popular vehicle in recent times for delivering a malicious payload to a computer, according to John Harrison, a group product manager at Symantec. ‘The malicious attachments that are coming these days don’t include executables; they’re a PDF or [Microsoft] Office document,’ he told PCWorld.

‘Today,’ he adds, ‘PDFs are inherently more dangerous, in my opinion, than executables because you’re lulled into thinking you’re just looking at a document that has some text. You may be reading some text, but behind the scenes it’s really doing whatever an attacker wants.’

Adobe recommends that Windows, Macintosh and Linux users of Flash Player 11.2.202.233 or earlier, upgrade to the latest version of the program immediately.

The same should be done by users of Android 4.x using Flash Player 11.1.115.7 and Android 2.x and 3.x using version 11.1.111.8 of the software.”