Canadian Netflix members will be able to instantly watch a broad array of movies and TV episodes right on their TVs via a range of consumer electronics devices capable of streaming from Netflix, as well as watching on PCs and Macs.

In addition to representing its inaugural international market, Canada will also mark the first streaming-only service promoted by Netflix.

At the time of launch, the Netflix Canadian service will be available in English only, but the company said it expects to add French language capability over time.

Canadians interested in Netflix can go to www.netflix.ca and sign up to receive an email from the company when the service launches in Canada this fall.

Can’t wait to get this service!

Source

Using all those Google web application is all good but it lack of desktop notifications and you have to open the app in a tab to be able to use it at its full capacity but you still don’t have any reminder popups.

But now with 2 Google Chrome extensions you can have Desktop reminders using the new Google Chrome desktop notification API for you email and Google Calendar events. Google Mail checker Plus and Google Calendar checker Plus have a Desktop notification feature.

I addition to these two other great extension i also use Google Tasks by OpenBit to manage my Google tasks, even without desktop notifications it is still a nice extension to have since it give you a quick way to see/create tasks using the Great Google task feature in Gmail and Google calendar.

Google Mail checker Plus:

Google Calendar Checker Plus:

Google Tasks by OpenBit:

• Google Mail checker Plus
• Google Calendar checker Plus
• Google Tasks by OpenBit

The next time you log in and visit the Settings page, you’ll see a rich text editor in the signature section. Here, you can customize your signature by adding pretty formatting, links, and images — or decide to leave things nice and simple.

Gmail also now supports a unique signature for each email address associated with your account. So, if you send mail using a custom “From:” address, you can use a different signature for that address. From the Settings page, you can edit the signature for each account by changing the email address that appears in the dropdown menu.

Currently, only the latest desktop version of Gmail supports rich text signatures and multiple signatures. The older version and HTML version of Gmail, along with the mobile versions, use a plain text version of your primary account’s signature.

The new ‘tabbed bookmark manager’ currently looks like what you see in the screenshot. Rather than spawning a new application window as Google Chrome does, the new version opens alongside your current set of tabs (like the new tab page). Items can be dragged and dropped and you can create new folders and items via the tools menu. You can also sort and search your bookmarks.

The manager can also be accessed by typing chrome://bookmarks in your Omnibar.While the update is a welcome one for Windows, Mac, and Linux users of Chrome, it is an ideal feature for Google Chrome OS. Spawning additional windows isn’t the best UX decision on a browser-based operating system.

The new bookmark manager is only currently available in the Chromium buildbot releases. Download a current snapshot build and try it for yourself, or check out a screencast on [DownloadSquad]!

The open-source project, called ANGLE (Almost Native Graphics Layer Engine), seeks to let Chromium run WebGL content on Windows computers, wrote product manager Henry Bridge on the Chromium blog.

WebGL is still-developing cross-platform Web standard for accessing low-level 3D graphics hardware based on the OpenGL ES 2.0 API (application programming interface) that can be implemented directly in a browser without a plugin. But while WebGL is implemented in many browsers, it is dependent on a set of OpenGL drivers. OpenGL is an API for 2D and 3D graphics rendering, available on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X operating systems.

The competing graphics API is Microsoft’s Direct3D, which is part of the company’s DirectX graphics technologies. Microsoft’s DirectX technologies have increasingly become dominant in PC gaming, and OpenGL has almost disappeared, according to a blog post from Wolfire Games, which still uses OpenGL for its games.

Read more

Today, YouTube announced that it has doubled the current file uploading size from 1GB to 2GB to allow users to post more high definition video content on its massive servers. This is particularly useful for those users uploading 1080p content that can easily exceed over a gigabyte, even when re-encoded.

The YouTube team has also implemented embedding and direct linking to HD versions of video clips. By appending “&hd=1” to the end of the URL, a video will start playing in HD as soon as someone follows the link.

There is already speculation as to what the next update will introduce. Perhaps the maximum HD video resolution (853×805) might be expanded to fit a more conventional resolution of 1280×720, or a live broadcasting service feature similar to Justin.tv and Qik.com. Only time will tell.

The Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox 3.5 preview version is now available for download and we have had a few hours playing with it.

Firstly it is a bit faster than earlier versions, although all the browsers on the market these days, such as Opera, Chrome and Safari are faster than the earlier generation. But the new browser has a few things which are more interesting including the use of open-source video standards, geo-location capabilities, and a few nice graphics tricks.

With 3.5 it is possible to run a video player based on the open-source video formats Ogg Vorbis and Theora. What is cool is that by using HTML5 links and other interactive elements can easily be placed inside videos. What is interesting is that it can do things that Flash can’t, and if it is supported by websites it could send Adobe packing.

Ogg Theora is supported by Daily Motion so it is not too far from being a possibility. Have a look at the demo video here

court-like body ArbCom handed down a project-wide ban of all IP addresses owned by Scientology for disruptive editing and coordinating their edits to maintain their status quo including “persistent point-of-view pushing and extensive feuding over sources on multiple articles”

This is the first time that an entire organization’s IP address

block has been banned from editing Wikipedia, despite individual IPs being blocked in the past from other organizations, such as the US DoJ in 2008.

Arbitrators voted 10 to 0 (with one abstention) in favour of the ban, however individual editors may request IP block exemption if they wish to contribute from the blocked IP addresses. The case also resulted in the restriction of a further 15 editors from Scientology-related articles or, in some cases, the entire encyclopaedia.

The decision, which comes as a French court starts a trial that could dissolve the French chapter of the organisation, was the result of the longest running arbitration case in Wikipedia’s history.

A Judge, who was investigating whether or not the trial judge in the Pirate Bay case was biased, has been removed after it was found she had links to the music and film business.

Judge Ulrika Ihrfelt was assigned to investigate whether the four should be granted a retrial based on revelations that the original trial judge is a member of industry copyright-protection groups. However the Swedish Press looked into Ihrfelt and found out that she was a member of the same groups as the trial judge.

What is amazing is that who ever appointed her to the job seemed to think that they would get away with it. It also shows how much influence the movie and film industry has in the Swedish Judiciary if the country can’t find a judge who has not attended one of its pirating brainwashing love ins.

If it was a mafia organisation who had Judges operating in that way, members of the public would scream blue murder. However if it is an organisation which threatens people with expensive court action if they don’t pay a sum of cash that they pick out of the air, that is OK.

Ihrfelt has been removed from the case. Fredrik Wersall, the appellate court’s president, said the claims of trial bias would be resolved “in a few weeks at the maximum.”

Mountain View, California and Las Vegas, Nevada – March 26, 2009

At next week’s CTIA Wireless Show, Opera Software will be announcing the new Opera Mobile 9.7 server-accelerated browser for smartphones and mobile devices. Opera Mobile 9.7 features Opera Turbo, Opera’s breakthrough compression technology, along with the company’s latest Presto 2.2 rendering engine (also used in Opera 10 desktop) and full support for dynamic Web technologies such as Ajax and Flash (for accessing popular sites like Facebook and YouTube).

In today’s tough business climate where customer expectations are ever-increasing, Opera Mobile 9.7 with Opera Turbo can help carriers reduce network congestion while helping mobile device manufacturers bring increased speed and a more rich Web browsing experience to their customer and users.

For carriers specifically, Opera Mobile 9.7 with Opera Turbo provides a more consistent and compelling full Internet experience by compressing data up to 80%, thus reducing unwanted traffic and congestion and allowing users to access the Web regardless of network limitations.

For mobile device manufacturers, Opera Mobile 9.7 with Opera Turbo can make for a faster, more rich browsing experience by leveraging current device capabilities and utilizing hardware resources more effectively. Opera Turbo offloads Web page rendering to Opera servers freeing up device resources. Even devices with limited hardware capabilities show improved page download rates and better overall performance.

“Today, carriers and mobile device manufacturers alike are looking for solutions that take advantage of existing technologies and investments while trying to maintain a high level of service for their customers,” explains Rod Hamlin, Senior Vice President for the Americas for Opera Software. “Opera Mobile 9.7 with Opera Turbo gives our business customers to ability to bring a rich Internet browsing experience to their mobile device and to the end-user without having to allocate new resources and development costs.”

Opera Mobile 9.7 with Opera Turbo also features better standards support (100% Acid 3 test) and developer tools, hardware acceleration Open GL ES, and support for Google Gears.

To learn more, check out the Opera Mobile 9.7 with Opera Turbo demo video.

In addition to Opera Mobile 9.7 with Opera Turbo, Opera will be showcasing Opera Turbo on other connected devices as well as the latest version of the award-winning Opera Mini 4.2 on today’s hottest mobile devices – Sprint Instinct, Blackberry Bold, Blackberry Storm, and T-Mobile G1.

Finally, stay tuned for Opera’s latest partner announcements, and make sure to check out Opera executives at the following panels and presentations:

BRIC Conference – “The Important Role of the Mobile Internet for Developing Countries”

• Opera Presenter: Jon von Tetzchner, Founder & CEO
• When: Tuesday, March 31st @ 3:10pm
• Where: Las Vegas Convention Center, North Hall, Room N255

CTIA Wireless – “Applications & Operating Systems for Devices”

• Opera Presenter: Jon von Tetzchner, Founder & CEO
• When: Thursday, April 2nd @ 3:30pm
• Where: Las Vegas Convention Center, South Hall, Room 223

CTIA Wireless – “Mobile Internet – Access to Internet is Not a Desk Job Anymore”

• Opera Presenter: Rod Hamlin, Senior Vice President, Americas
• When: Thursday, April 2nd @ 4:00pm
• Where: Las Vegas Convention Center, South Hall, Room 228

CTIA Wireless will be held from April 1st – 3rd in Las Vegas, NV. Visit Opera at Booth #6724 in Central Hall. For media inquiries, please contact Ted Miller at tmiller@opera.com tmiller[at]opera.com.

About Opera Software ASA

Opera Software ASA has redefined Web browsing for PCs, mobile phones and other networked devices. Opera’s cross-platform Web browser technology is renowned for its performance, standards compliance and small size, while giving users a faster, safer and more dynamic online experience. Opera Software is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with offices around the world. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA. Learn more about Opera at http://www.opera.com/.