Nothing like a little Tuesday Apple hardware update to brighten-up the rest of the week. Check out the latest updates from Apple which include a processor speed bump for the base MacBook line. The low-end white MacBook (1.83) has received a kick in the pants up to 2.0 GHz or 2.16 Ghz while the black version receives the 2.16 update as well.

As of this posting, the front page of the Apple Store is down but if you visit the MacBook page directly [via], you’ll see the revised hardware. Personally, if these are the updates (no updates on the Pro line – yet), I’m feeling a little left out. So who ran and grabbed their wallet tot purchase?

Everyones favorite browser based multi-protocol instant messaging client Meebo recently updated with a new feature known as Meebo Rooms. What are Meebo Rooms? Like traditional chat rooms, Meebo Rooms are custom rooms which anyone can create and share on their own personal pages.

Meebo Rooms is reminiscent of Netvibes Universe, which recently partnered with leading content providers (such as CBS) to create ‘branded’ universes. The comparison to Netvibes is apt, because Seth described meebo rooms to me as “like a very very rich widget”. Just as Netvibes and Pageflakes are in one sense a homepage for widgets, including rich media like video, meebo is also attempting to be a distribution hub for rich media. Meebo is using its core strength, providing real-time chat, as the foundation for a multimedia social networking service. Video content is the main feature being touted, but also important is the social angle – because the combo of chat and media gives people a compelling context to gather together, using meebo’s platform. Perhaps this is what TV will be like in the future ;-)

For additional background information on the recently launched Meebo Rooms, check out Read/Write Web. Thanks to the new addition, is there really a reason to use anything else other than what Meebo has to offer?

Here’s something that I am constantly dealing with. Maybe a few readers can attest to having pulled their hair out concerning the same issue. In certain scenarios, the ‘delete’ key in Firefox will return you back to the previous page causing you to lose any content that you may have inputted into a Textarea. I’ve suffered from this little hurdle when writing articles with WordPress online – type a considerable chunk of text, accidently press the ‘delete’ key when the textarea does not have focus, lose any content that was not saved. Irritating!

Fortunately, MacOSXHints has a convenient little about:config trick that will disable the ‘delete goes back’ "feature" in Firefox.

1. Open a new Firefox window
2. Enter about:config into the location bar. Press Enter. The about:config page will open. It’s a huge list of Firefox configuration properties.
3. Enter browser.backspace into the filter. This will bring the ‘Browser.backspace_action’ preference into view.
4. Contrl-click the ‘Browser.backspace_action’ Value column, and choose Modify from the pop-up menu, then enter a new value of 2.
5. Press OK.

You can find the original article on MacOSXHints.com. This is definitely a no-brainer Firefox tweak for anyone who happens to edit large articles in their browser.

Nullriver Software recently released a handy application which will surely make any XBox owner a little happier. Connect360 allows users to stream any video, music, and photo content from your Mac directly to your XBox 360.

Your Xbox 360 is capable of playing back your music and viewing your digital photos. With Connect360, your Mac’s ready to share.

The beauty of the utility is that you manage all your files from a beautfiul interface on your Mac. No need to drop a few bills on an Apple TV when your current XBox 360 will suffice.

There is no hiding the truth that if you’re a faithful Google user, you understand to some degree that your online activities are monitored by a larger force (heh). Google offers great services, great results, and uses both to collect (data mine) activities to make further "improvements". The fact is, your search engine queries are closely monitored by Google. If you’re curious to know why, Google explains the reasoning behind logged search activity on the Google Blog.

• Improve our services: Search companies like Google are constantly trying to improve the quality of their search services. Analyzing logs data is an important tool to help our engineers refine search quality and build helpful new services.
• Maintain security and prevent fraud and abuse: It is standard among Internet companies to retain server logs with IP addresses as one of an array of tools to protect the system from security attacks.
• Comply with legal obligations to retain data: Search companies like Google are also subject to laws that sometimes conflict with data protection regulations, like data retention for law enforcement purposes

How much and how long personal data from individual searches can be held is a different question which creeps into privacy and data protection issues. I for one don’t mind the fact that Google feels the need to mine my queries. Where do you stand on topic of Google, privacy, security, and internet monitoring?

Planning on making the transition to an all Linux work flow but turned-off by the idea of not having your favorite multimedia editing software? Fortunately, Ubuntu Studio was recently released which offers creative individuals with the tools necessary to continue editing and creating audio, graphic, and video projects.

Ubuntu Studio. A multimedia creation flavor of Ubuntu.

Ubuntu Studio is aimed at the GNU/Linux audio, video and graphic enthusiast as well as professional.

We provide a suite of the best open-source applications available for multimedia creation. Completely free to use, modify and redistribute. Your only limitation is your imagination.

It’s available now and ready to be downloaded. Your hesitations and worries are over with this specialized Ubuntu linux release.

After making the switch to a Symbian powered Nokia, I’ve become a bigger fan of Nokia mobile handsets. Not at all surprising considering the flexibility and power packed functions the devices offer users. Symbian or Nokia may not be for everyone, but these upcoming devices sure look good.

First up is the Nokia N81 slider. The handset will play the role of a mobile handset and 8GB music player. The candy bar N82 will be geared more towards mobile photographers with a similar 5MP camera to that found in the Nokia N95.

The more announcements I see from respected mobile handset manufacturers, the more I begin to believe that Apple will definitely need to update their soon to be released iPhone as soon as it’s out the gate.

We’ve all seen ‘em. Websites with fonts set at a ridiculous default size making it irritating to spend any time reading through content without manually increasing the font size with a browser. Fortunately, for anyone who frequents a website with small text, there is a convenient Firefox extension known as NoSquint which will remember what sites required manual resizing.

Are you always changing the text zoom level when you open a new browser window? Do you find some sites you visit have impossibly small fonts and you are constantly changing your text zoom back and forth as you visit different sites?

NoSquint is a Firefox extension that allows you to adjust the default text zoom level, which is very useful if you have a small display or run at a very high resolution. NoSquint also remembers the zoom level per site (though you can disable that).

You can grab the NoSquint extension for yourself - make sure that Firefox is installed otherwise you’ll scratch your head wondering why you’re not getting the results you expect.

Mobile internet users rejoice, Mozilla plans on creating an internet browser for mobile devices to compete with the likes of Opera Mini / Mobile. Check the full interview between Mitchell Baker and APC’s Dan Warne for more info [via].

Oh well all of them are difficult to shoehorn onto a mobile device, so we should be clear about that. Opera has done a pretty good job of getting something useful on to a mobile device, but it’s not a full fledged and doesn’t have the capabilities of Firefox.

As much as I can agree with others that Opera does a fantastic job of minimizing the headache of mobile internet browsing – compressing standard non-mobile-friendly pages into a more digestible format – I just can’t shout and scream with joy when I use it on my mobile handsets. The thing is a memory hog. What are you browsing with on your phone?

When news of HP’s latest behemoth of a 20-inch notebook release swept across the internet, I held my breath – a mixture of awe, shock, and disgust. Twenty inches of notebook computing to weigh you down – mobile office computing with a built-in handle. When any notebook requires a handle, you have to question whether or not it can really quality as a "notebook".

Weighing in at a hefty 15.5-pounds, the HDX is a self-contained entertainment center with some solid specs. High def movies from the built-in HDTV tuner or HD-DVD drive can be viewed on either the WSXGA (1680×1250) display or ported out to your TV via an HDMI port. Audio performance is significantly better than most notebooks thanks to four Altec Lansing speakers and a built-in subwoofer. A media center remote is stored next to the keyboard and pops out.

The thing is a beast. 15.5-pounds of a desktop computer packed tight into a notebook casing! Is there even a point? Is there even a noticeable market for computers like this? Or is this more of a "mine is bigger than yours" or "I can so I will"? The damn computer has 400GB of internal storage?! For the performance, wouldn’t a comparable mini desktop + display be more convenient?