Google maps out Chrome’s RSS support

Google has unveiled its plans to let Chrome subscribe to RSS and Atom feeds.

(Credit: Google)

My biggest day-to-day gripe about Chrome is its missing support for automatic discovery of Web pages that offer RSS or other subscription services. But Google now has published a document detailing how it plans to address that weakness, though.

“We will autodetect RSS and Atom feeds using the standard autodiscovery tags,” according to the developer document about Chrome support for RSS and Atom, a similar technology for letting people sign up for update “feeds” such as new blog postings. “When a feed is available for a page, we will display an RSS icon in the address bar.”

Firefox shows the standard orange feed icon in its address bar when it encounters a site that has offers a feed; clicking it lets a person subscribe to the feed with a Web service such as Bloglines, My Yahoo, or Google Reader. Internet Explorer lets people subscribe to the feed using itself as the feed-reading software, an approach I dislike.

 

Google’s mock-up of the Chrome page used to subscribe to RSS or Atom feeds.

(Credit: Google)

 

Though I switched to Chrome by default, I still use Firefox when I want to subscribe to a feed when there’s no explicit or obvious option to do so on the Web page itself. Sometimes I seek out a feed, but with Chrome, there’s often not even an icon to suggest I might want to even if I wasn’t planning on it.

Chrome’s subscription mechanism works as follows: when a person clicks on the feed link, Chrome will display a browser-formatted version of the content. Above the content is a “subscribe now” button with a drop-down menu that lets a person select a specific feed reader.

“A newly added feed reader becomes the default selected option the next time a feed is previewed,” the document said.

The approach looks good to me, but there’s no indication about when it will come to fruition. Google also showed a similar planning document for Chrome extensions, but version 1.0 has been released and there’s still no way to use AdBlock Plus or Roboform, the two Firefox extensions I hear the most requests for in Chrome.

Google continues with its approach of release early and iterate often, though. On Tuesday evening, it released a new developer version of Chrome, 1.0.154.39.

The new version fixes a spate of bugs, including a couple that hampered use of Microsoft’s Hotmail and the activation of the F1 function key to show Google’s Chrome help site.

 

Cops probe role of make-up man in Bhargavi’s murder

Police suspect Bhargavi’s make-up assistant might have tipped off Praveen Kumar about the actor’s movements in the city.

According to sources, Venkat, 19, had been working as a personal make-up assistant for Bhargavi for some time, and Praveen was in touch with him. “The call logs of the cell phones of both Bhargavi and Praveen show calls were either made to or received from Venkat’s mobile on Tuesday morning,” a police officer told TOI.

Since the time they noticed Venkat’s mobile number in both the mobile phones of Bhargavi and Praveen, the police have been trying to contact him on his cell phone. “It has been switched off. We suspect that he absconded due to fear,” the officer said.

After attending a film shoot in Palakollu, Bhargavi reached the city on Monday for a scheduled shoot here. Police suspect that Venkat, after calling Bhargavi, might have passed on the information about her being alone in the city to Praveen Kumar.

Police said that they had information that Praveen Kumar purchased the dagger in Nellore and boarded a bus to Hyderabad at around 8 pm on Monday night. After reaching the city in the wee hours of Tuesday, he contacted Venkat again.

Ramesh, the driver who went to pick up Bhargavi, told the police that Venkat came to the car and kept the make-up kit inside the vehicle. “After that, he told Ramesh that he would be back in a minute after buying cigarettes. But Venkat did not return after that. We suspect that Venkat might have brought the make-up kit from Bhargavi’s house,” an investigating officer said.

The contact address given by Venkat in the application form submitted for a mobile connection is in Chittoor. But the police said Venkat had been staying in the city for sometime now. Police are trying to contact the film and television crew members with whom Bhargavi had worked to trace the whereabouts of Venkat.

Meanwhile, the doctors, who performed post-mortem on the actor at the Gandhi Hospital, told the police that she died due to stabbing. “One of her lungs was punctured and heart also suffered stab injury. Doctors said that the two injuries caused her death,” deputy commissioner of police (DCP) (west zone) C Ravi Verma said.

The suicide note found in the trousers of Praveen Kumar will be sent to the Andhra Pradesh Forensic Science Laboratories (APFSL) for handwriting confirmation. For the samples of Praveen’s handwriting, police are in touch with his family members in Nellore.

The bodies of Bhargavi and Praveen were handed over to the family members on Wednesday afternoon.

 

Johnny there again as sexiest chap

Perhaps, John Abraham could’ve been the cause for turning young lads into green-eyed monsters. Well, these chaps have been admiring him as well a bit jealous as he happens to be ‘Dream Boy’ for the filles in town. And again, he bags the most voted sexiest Asian Man of the year. One of the globe’s fashionable British-Asian Weekly Eastern Eye has ennobled John Abraham with this stunning status.

Previously, the actor peaked to third position overbeating King Khan while this year he’s there on top eclipsing Shah Rukh and Hrithik Roshan. Yeah! It all happened with the mesmerizing mantra of flaunting his well-toned muscles on sun-kissing beaches of Miami in this year’s blockbuster Dostana.

 Brianna Ragel, editor of Asian Woman Magazine, Che Kurrien, editor of GQ India and Farhad Dadyburjor, former editor of FHM India were the judges in panel finalizing ranks in charts.  

The other top 10 list included Pakistani musician Ali Zafar, model-turned-actor Upen Patel, Ranbir Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Imran Khan, pop singer-songwriter Jay Sean and Britain born Pakistani boxer Amir Khan.

TV presenter Rav Wilding, actors Harman Baweja and Stephen Uppal established specific positions within the 50 sexiest men list

 

Ghajini is an event, says Aamir Khan

Actor Aamir Khan, whose hairstyle in the film ‘Ghajini’ has been imitated by the ushers and employees of various multiplexes as part of a special promotional activity, said that the movie is an event in itself.

Aamir said: ‘It normally doesn’t happen that the entire chain of theatres accept the look of a character in a film. It doesn’t happen with every film.’

 

‘Theatres are looking at ‘Ghajini’ as an event and it has become an event in itself,’ Aamir said while speaking to reporters here Monday.

 

‘I am extremely happy with the idea and the enthusiasm shown by volunteers in accepting the look,’ he added.

 

Aamir said the hairstyle of the character in the film was the same as that of south Indian star Surya.

 

He said: ‘We have kept the same hairstyle as Surya, who played the lead role in the Tamil version of ‘Ghajini’.’

 

Aamir denied that the promotion activity of his film was to challenge Shah Rukh‘s ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’.

 

‘Our marketing team had come up with the idea long back and it has nothing to do with Shah Rukh’s film,’ he said.

 

On being asked about what he thought about Shah Rukh’s latest release ‘Rab Ne..’, Aamir said: ‘I have not seen it yet, as I have no time.’

 

Aamir felt that his leading lady in ‘Ghajini’ Asin would take everyone by surprise.

 

‘Asin is the surprise package (of the film) and I think the whole country will be floored by her talent,’ the actor said.

 

Giving ‘Ghajini’ competition when it releases Dec 25 will be the animation film ‘Jumbo’ for which actor Akshay Kumar has lent his voice.

 

Aamir, however, feels that there is no competition between the two films.

 

”Jumbo’ is an animation film and I think there is no clash with it,’ the actor said.

 

Dravid will bounce back: Ganguly

Former India skipper Sourav Ganguly Saturday expressed confidence that out-of-form Rahul Dravid will soon come up with a good knock.

‘Dravid is a great cricketer with a lot of maturity. It would be wrong to write him off,’ Ganguly told reporters at the Eden Gardens here.

‘One should not judge him (Dravid) on account of few failures. He is having a temporary loss of form and I’m sure he will come up with a big knock soon to silence his critics,’ Ganguly said after his first practice session since retiring from international cricket early last month.

Dravid has scored only 28 runs in his last five innings, prompting critics to demand his scalp.

Ganguly confirmed he would turn out for Bengal in the Ranji Trophy Plate group semi-final.

The top two sides in plate group would play the super league alongside Elite group teams.

‘I’m eager to play for Bengal in the semi-finals. We are currently doing well in the group league stage and I’m sure we will qualify for the Super League,’ he said.

Ganguly condemned the Mumbai terror attacks but shied away from commenting on whether the Indian team should tour Pakistan.

‘It’s a heinous act and we must condemn the terrorists who are targeting innocent people.’

He hoped normalcy would return in India-Pakistan relations by the time the IPL starts in April next year. ‘IPL is still some months away. I hope normalcy returns by then.’

 

Zenith Computer Launches SmartStyle PC

Zenith Computers has announced its newest SmartStyle PC, an all-in-one desktop that is unique in that it fits the CPU into the casing of the 17-inches LCD-TFT display.

Put simply, the CPU is fitted inside the monitor, thus saving consumers the hassle of having an extra slot for the CPU tower on the PC table. Moreover, it has a versatile 180 degrees mounting hinge that makes it possible for the monitor-CPU unit to be hung on a wall, integrated into a table top surface or on a table.

The SmartStyle PC is powered by Intel Dual Core Processor T2130 and has a hard disk capacity of 80GB plus memory of 1GB. The PC comes with built-in speakers and a full set of networking and wireless slots. It does not pack a CD/DVD drive, but offers a slot for the same in the display casing.

The SmartStyle PC is now retailing for Rs 20,000. Zenith says it has started a 24×7 ‘Always On’ service for after-sales support.
The SmartStyle PC is powered by Intel Dual Core Processor T2130 and has a hard disk capacity of 80GB plus memory of 1GB. The PC comes with built-in speakers and a full set of networking and wireless slots. It does not pack a CD/DVD drive, but offers a slot for the same in the display casing.

The SmartStyle PC is now retailing for Rs 20,000. Zenith says it has started a 24×7 ‘Always On’ service for after-sales support.