One of Orb's best features is the OrbLive iPhone application which connects with your home computer over the internet to provide access to your media library of audio, video, and photos. Through the mobile application, you can access any of your media files and play stream them over either a Wi-Fi or 3G connection. In the Windows version of the software, PC's with TV tuner cards can also connect you to live, streaming TV in addition to the other shared media saved on the PC's hard drive.

To some extent, Orb competes with Apple's own offerings since it provides access to music and video from either a desktop computer or an iPhone. That's why it was somewhat surprising that Apple ever approved the company's iPhone application to begin with. Even more surprising is that they allowed it to function over 3G when similar products - like Slingbox's SlingPlayer for iPhone, another live TV streaming app - are restricted to Wi-Fi only.

No Live TV for Mac Users Yet

Unfortunately, the Mac version is debuting without the live TV streaming functionality. According to Joe Costello, CEO of Orb Networks, support for live TV support will be added in subsequent versions. In the meantime, however, Mac users can install the Orb software to stream music, photos, videos, home movies and webcam feeds stored in iTunes to their iPhones or to any other internet-connected device including netbooks, notebooks, media players, game consoles and more. All that's needed is the new Mac OS X desktop software (works on OS X Intel 10.5 or later).

Those interested in trying out the new Mac version can grab the installer from here: orb.com/en/download_orb. For now, the Mac software is available in English only.

Not to get your hopes up, but a recent update to the Google Chrome Privacy Policy makes us wonder. A few days ago, the first two opening paragraphs of the Chrome Privacy Policy were revised. The old and new versions are provided below with bold indicating the changes:

OLD:

The Privacy Policy below applies only to Google Chrome for Windows. For the Developer channel releases on other platforms see the privacy policies for Mac OS X and Linux . The Google Privacy Policy describes how we treat personal information when you use Google's products and services, including information provided when you use Google Chrome. In addition, the following describes our privacy practices that are specific to Google Chrome. Google will notify you of any material changes to this policy, and you will always have the option to use the browser in a way that does not send any personal information to Google or to discontinue using it.

Information Google receives when you use Google Chrome

You do not need to provide any personally identifying information in order to download and use Google Chrome. When you download Google Chrome or use it to contact Google's servers, Google receives only standard log information including your machine's IP address and one or more cookies. You can configure Google Chrome to not send cookies to Google or other sites as explained here.

NEW:

The Google Privacy Policy describes how we treat personal information when you use Google's products and services, including information provided when you use Google Chrome. In addition, the following describes our privacy practices that are specific to Google Chrome. Google will notify you of any material changes to this policy, and you will always have the option to use the browser in a way that does not send any personal information to Google or to discontinue using it.

Information Google receives when you use Google Chrome

You do not need to provide any personally identifying information in order to download and use Google Chrome. When you download Google Chrome or use it to contact Google's servers, Google receives only standard log information including your machine's IP address and one or more cookies. On Google Chrome for Windows, You can configure Google Chrome to not send cookies to Google or other sites as explained here. Google Chrome for Mac and Google Chrome for Linux currently do not allow this level of configuration.

What Do You Think?

Maybe we're grasping at straws here, after all, the change could be referring to the developer builds of the browser and they're simply cleaning up the language for simplification. Still, that would be odd considering that they removed the reference to the developer builds' privacy policy, wouldn't it? Or then again, maybe Google is just consolidating the privacy policies for both the developer and public builds. A third option is that Google could be getting a little of the administrative work out of the way before they make the Mac and Linux builds public.

Testers have been reporting that the developer builds have been seeing steady improvement and the Chromium builds (the open source project that serves as the testing ground for Google Chrome) have been shaping up on a daily basis, too. Maybe a public version of Chrome for Linux and Mac is almost here? We can only hope.

Twitter Client

For most users, the most important part of EventBox is probably its Twitter client, and the good news is that this is also one of its strongest aspects though it does have its flaws. For example, you can easily create persistent searches and even though it is a bit cumbersome, you can also create groups within Eventbox's Twitter client. To do so, you have to set up a folder by right-clicking on the Twitter icon, and then you can drag and drop different users or searches into this folder.

Sadly, however, EventBox doesn't seem to feature any support for URL-shorteners, which might be a deal-breaker for a lot of users. Correction: EventBox does support URL-shorteners - the feature is just a bit hidden in the General settings. EventBox also only gives you limited control over how often it pings Twitter's API.

Other Services

The Facebook client works like you would expect it to, with support for photo uploads and status updates, and the Google Reader integration also works well, as long as you don't subscribe to too many feeds. Our standard Google Reader account, with far more than 1,000 feeds, crashed the application.

In many ways, EventBox is very similar to Skimmer, which we reviewed a few weeks ago, and which, since then, has been updated with a version that addressed a lot of our issues with the original release, but the two programs feature support for different services.

Get it Free from MacHeist

Overall, Eventbox is a pretty interesting social media desktop client. It would be great if it supported a few more features, such as easier group creation for Twitter, or the ability to sort stories in Reddit (and maybe support for Digg), but it is definitely worth checking out if you are a Mac user.

Normally, the application costs $15 after a free 14-day trial, but you can currently download a free version of EventBox from MacHeist. It is important to note, though, that while the MacHeist version is available for free without any limitations, any updates to the app that you initiate will start the 14-day shareware countdown.

While you are there, also have a look at the MacHeist bundle that is currently available on MacHeist for $39. It features a number of interesting Mac applications, and 25% of every sale goes to charity. Also, after MacHeist reaches $400,000 in sales, a number of new applications will become available as part of the bundle.

Macs are known for the intuitive software that makes them great for non-geeks, and Apple has always been consistent in pioneering new technology, but the ability to bundle it all into one super sleek package has given Apple an edge over the rest. Today, as the Mac turned 25, we thought we'd take a look at how its changed over the years. Please enjoy

Inspired by Lisa and originally called the Macintosh, it was renamed after a new version was released to differentiate it. This original Macintosh came with a keyboard, mouse and 3.5" floppy drive.

Technical Specifications

1987: Macintosh II $3898

This first modular model (all previous models were all-in-one) came with a color video card and expansion slots.

Technical Specifications

1989: Macintosh Portable $6500

The Macintosh portable was Apple's first attempt to make a battery-powered equivalent of the desktop Macintosh. Clunky now, in its day it was quite the prize.

Technical Specifications

1991: Quadra 700 $6000

The Quadra 700 was of the first Macs to use the Motorola 68040 processor and had built-in Ethernet networking capabilities.

Technical Specifications

1991: PowerBook 100 $2500

The PowerBook 100 was the low-end model of the first three simultaneously released PowerBooks and the first to really start resembling the notebooks of today.

Technical Specifications

1993: Macintosh Color Classic $1390

The Color Classic was the first color compact Mac and the last of the classic beige box Macs.

Technical Specifications

1998: iMac G3 $1299

The iMac G3 was the first model of the iMac line made by Apple Inc. and was an all-in-one computer originally released in a striking blue. With the return of Steve Jobs, Apple suddenly got sleeker.

Technical Specifications

1999: Power Macintosh G3 $1599

Power Mac was the first to use the PowerPC G3 (PPC750) microprocessor, replacing a number of earlier Power Macintosh models.

Technical Specifications

1999: iBook $1599

The 'iMac to go' was aimed at the consumer and education markets and was originally known to have a 'clamshell' design.

Technical Specifications

2001: PowerBook G4 $2599

Saying goodbye to the old plastic casing, the G4 had a sleek titanium body and black translucent keyboard.

Technical Specifications

2002: iMac G4 $1299

In yet another design update, the G4 replaced the bulky CRT screen with a flat panel.

Technical Specifications

2003: Power Mac G5 $1999

When it was introduced, Apple claimed the G5 was the fastest computer ever built. Today it is known as the Mac Pro, still sleek, still super fast.

Technical Specifications

2008: MacBook Air $1999

"Thinnovation" Apple calls it; the worlds thinnest notebook.

Technical Specifications

Steve Jobs Introduces the Mac

Video: thanks Dave Winer

Images thanks to Wikimedia Commons

In addition to screen sharing, Skype 2.8 promises to offer a number of other features including improved chat and per-minute calling access via wifi hotspots like Boingo.

Granted, screen sharing has been available through Skype add-ons, but having the features core to the client - and easily accessible - will only help increase the use of Skype for these kinds of online conversations.

Perhaps more importantly for Skype, it's something which is sure to attract new users. At five years old, Skype is among the old guard of this generation of Web apps. This long-awaited screen sharing feature could help revitalize the product, encouraging a whole new crop of business users to add Skype to their cadre of online tools.

And when you couple these new features with Skype's latest hire, it leads one to wonder if 2009 could be a comeback year for the company.

The latest version isn't available for download yet, but it is slated to be released on Tuesday, January 6.

[Update] The download is now available.

Wakoopa has not just collated the most popular Windows, Mac, and web applications, but it's also identified newcomers that showed prolific growth during 2008.

1. Wakoopa is a relatively small community, composed primarily of tech fanatics and early adopters. The statistics reflect that.

2. The applications mentioned aren't necessarily the most frequently visited applications, but rather those that people have spent the most time actively using; that is, those with the highest user engagement levels.

PC

On Windows, it's no surprise to see Firefox and Internet Explorer as the top two most-used applications. Google Chrome is the only new release of the year to have made the list, showing extremely impressive growth from the moment of its release in September. Chrome does, however, still sit behind Opera in terms of overall usage, while Apple's Safari seems to have been left behind, at least on Windows.

The most popular new application of 2008 has been instant messaging client Digsby, with steady growth throughout the course of the year. Games such as Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead, and Trackmania have all shown positive growth, though primarily at the time of their release, with growth cooling off rapidly thereafter.

Mac

Once again, we see browsers Firefox and Safari leading the way on the Mac, closely followed by instant messaging client Adium. iTunes is a surprising miss on the most-used applications list for Windows (in fact, no media player made it); however, on OS X, iTunes is the platform's most popular media player, landing in fourth place on the list. VLC and QuickTime follow in a respectable 6th and 7th place.

Mail, the Mac's email client, remains popular in 5th place, impressive considering the rapid growth of web-based email clients such as Gmail. The one common application on both the Windows and Mac lists is World of Warcraft; clearly the game is both "a Mac and a PC."

In terms of new apps, the Mac welcomed a host of wonderful applications in 2008. Desktop media player Plex has shown impressive uptake, closely followed by the Pro-Tweeters Twitter client Tweetdeck. Although still in private beta, cross-platform media player Boxee has seen superb success thus far, and that looks set to continue upon its public release in early 2009. Other newcomers include social browser Cruz and recently released social media tool Eventbox, both very creative social applications in their own rights.

Mac vs. PC

There are a number of notable differences in usage between Mac and PC applications. First, the exclusion of any web development tools from the Windows list could highlight web developers' preferences for other platforms: OS X and Linux. The most notable absentees on the Mac list are word processors and desktop publishing tools; however, TextMate and Adobe Photoshop's appearance corroborates the general preference among creatives for the Mac as a platform.

Another difference is the number of media players on the Mac list, yet not a single mention of one on the PC's -- perhaps further indication that the PC is used primarily for its enterprise and office applications. It's also interesting to see the iPhone Simulator make an appearance on the top 10 newcomers list for the Mac, yet no mention on Windows. Evidently, Mac users are the iPhone's primary source of developers.

Web

The top ten most-used web-based applications are no surprise. Facebook ranks highest, beating heavyweights Gmail, Google Search, Wikipedia, and YouTube. Gmail is the only web-based email client to make the top ten list, highlighting its popularity over other web-based email services, particularly among early adopters and tech-minded individuals. The most significant appearance on the web's most-used list is FriendFeed, ranking higher than both MySpace and Flickr; clearly 2008 has been a great year for FriendFeed.

Summary

The biggest cross-platform winners come from the online gaming sector, with Spore and World of Warcraft both showing incredible growth and sustainability. While clearly it's no surprise that Mozilla's Firefox leads the desktop applications on both platforms, rival browser Chrome is likely to show strong growth, especially once Linux and OS X versions of the browser are released.

Online, Facebook usage reigns supreme. The social network's user engagement levels are astonishing. With 2.6 billion minutes spent on Facebook each day, over 50% of users logging in daily, and 140 million active users, it's easy to see why Facebook is Wakoopa's most-used web application. However, despite Facebook's ranking at number 1, it is Google that should be crowned overall online leader, with four of the top five most-used applications on the web.

iLovePhotos is desktop software for the Mac only (Windows version coming...well...maybe one day). Designed to compete primarily with iPhoto , iLovePhotos aims to make it easier to organize and share your photos with family and friends.

According to the company, the software "automatically detects the faces of individuals in each picture." That's true to a point, but that statement implies that the software is recognizing faces and associating names to go along with them after an initial bit of training. At least, that's what we think "facial recognition" should mean. But that is not the case with iLovePhotos.

Instead, iLovePhotos recognizes the faces of various people in a photo and draws a box around them. Then, in a special view (the "tagger" view) which displays just the faces, you can identify a face as belonging to a name and then quickly tag the rest of the faces that are of that same person. But get this straight - it's you that's doing the tagging, not iLovePhotos. The software just has an interface that makes that process less painful than before.

Facial Recognition in iLovePhotos

Besides people's names, photos can be tagged with other words, too, like "vacation," "beach," "dogs," "party," "wedding," etc., just as you would any photo on flickr. Tagged collections of photos are represented with an image of your choosing and display in the right sidebar of the app. After you've tagged your photos, you can easily pull up all the photos associated with that tag by dragging and dropping the photo representing that tag into the toolbar at the top of the app. Drag other tags alongside it to narrow your results. For example, drag a tag for a person and a tag for an event into the toolbar and the app displays all the photos of that person at the event.

But Sharing Is Automatic!

The tagging aspect to iLovePhotos is easier than in some other applications, but it's not ideal. Automatic facial recognition would be so much better. They tell us that they hope to include that in a later release, though.

Something that is automatic about the app is its sharing feature. You can specify that all photos with a particular tag are automatically emailed - you don't have to do anything beyond the initial configuration. Now that's an automated feature we like.

Setting Up Sharing

Slideshows Are Automatic, Too...And Smart

Finally, the software creates personalized "intelligent" slideshows which can be embedded on any site or watched on your iPhone, iPod, or AppleTV. These slideshows use an algorithm to determine what photos you haven't seen lately and displays them for you. If you have just uploaded new photos, you may see those in the slideshow, but even if your collection has been static for a while, the app knows to show you those photos you haven't seen for some time.

Would You Use It?

Because your computer is often the midway point between camera and cloud, desktop software for organizing your photos can still be a useful tool. But does iLovePhotos offer enough features to make it something you would want to try? Let us know what you think.

LiveSide has just discovered this page on Microsoft's Live Mesh site, which reveals that the Mac version is now ready for download. It reads:

An early look at Live Mesh for Mac

The Live Mesh puts you at the center of your digital world by connecting your devices over the internet - and now, you can add your Mac to your Live Mesh! It's never been easier to synchronize all your important Microsoft Office documents, media files, and pictures between your computers or between friends.

Since the launch of Live Mesh, many people have been asking for a Live Mesh extender for the Mac and while it's still under development, here is an early preview of our Mac extender. With the Live Mesh Mac extender, you can

• Add your Mac to your Live Mesh - it will appear with your other devices on www.mesh.com and throughout the Live Mesh UI.
• Synchronize files between your Mac, your other computers, and your Live Desktop.
• Synchronize folder contents between your Mac and other folder members.
• Easily access Live Mesh news, your Live Desktop, and manage your devices from the Live Mesh menu bar item.
• Receive notifications through Live Mesh when updates are available and easily update the Live Mesh extender for Mac.

A word of caution!
Please keep in mind that the Live Mesh extender for Mac is still under development, and due to overwhelming enthusiasm, we're making it available earlier than usual. Like many software projects, we started our Mac development efforts with the basic technology and scenarios. We started by making our synchronization engine and operating environment work on the Mac and starting to sync file between computers and members.

Over the next few months, we'll be working on updating the user experience and improving the Live Mesh experience and functionality, performance, and stability on the Mac. As such, please use at your own risk and remember to send us feedback.

What It Looks Like

The Mac version running on OS X, integrates Mesh into the Finder, with a Mesh sidebar next to the folder view. Like in the Windows version, you can share Meshified items with other users from this bar.Also like the Windows version, you can customize the settings to specify which items are synchronized with which devices. Here's what Mesh on Mac looks like:

Image Courtesy of LiveSide

FlickrFan is basically a screen saver program that will display high-resolution images from any Flickr account, recent Associated Press photos or any other RSS feed with media enclosures (so Flickr tag streams or Photobucket feeds should be no problem). Presumably this is only the beginning. The software is run off of Winer's all-too-unwieldy OPML Editor, but FlickrFan looks much easier to use.

Flickr RSS feeds only make 20 items available at a time and Winer doesn't seem to have figured out how how to get around that. I hope he does, perhaps they'll work with him on it - it's a pretty big buzz kill.

The sharing is clunky - you have to go through the "events" page in your account to share a photo that you've seen in your screensaver. Maybe I'll get used to this, I don't know. Hopefully Winer will stick with the app and make it really nice to use - it's not there yet but the potential is big and you can feel how close it is. Podcasting News says the big picture here is that HDTV is the new platform. That sounds good to me.

Winer and Robert Scoble are encouraging people to set FlickrFan up on a Mac Mini connected to a big screen HDTV and that does sound like a lot of fun to me. Scoble has said that he'll do a live streaming video demonstration of FlickrFan from his cell phone tonight.

Particularly given the Bhutto assassination today, there's a lot of particularly moving AP photography coming through FlickrFan right now. Hopefully the bugs and burps in the service will be worked out soon - or at least as soon as Winer can unglue himself from coverage of the news on CNN. It's definitely software I'm glad to have on my computer.