Yesterday we brought you the news that Democracy Player would be relaunched as Miro. Today, we can finally test the newly released version of the Internet TV application. Although not a major update, the soon-out-of-beta release has a number of significant improvements like keyboard shortcuts, an improved system tray, a better bug reporter (essential for a program still in beta), and the Veoh.com search engine has been added. The developers at PCF have also taken care of a number of bugs. Maximizing the window will not cover the task bar, importing has been increased and will now avoid audio files. Oddly enough, Yahoo has also been removed as a search engine, but if you really like it, you can still add it manually.

The new design looks like it has been slightly improved. The logo itself is much sleeker than the old one. In terms of performances I still found it a bit sluggish at startup and when opening up new feeds. The program used up around 80 Mb of memory, which I think is reasonable for an Internet application streaming videos though.

In a sense, I get the feeling that the real updates have been carried out more on the site itself, with a new redesign, new forums and a new channel guide, than on the application. With version 1.0 right around the corner, let's hope the next release of Miro will have a bit more to offer.

The Democracy TV broadcasting platform is about to be renamed as Miro after about a year and a half of development. Over the past year, Democracy users had been plagued by constant updates as work on developing Miro continued under its guise. First impressions of Miro are good according to NewTeeVee who tested it out saying:

The near-final Miro build I've played with for the last three days is easy to use. Once you've got your favorites all queued up you can sit back and enjoy full-screen internet TV. My biggest complaint is about search and discovery - it's limited to indexes of video-sharing sites.

Unlike Joost, Miro will not be limited by the number of channels available - it aggregates channels from around the internet grouped by subject and topic. At the moment, the channel list stands at 1,500 but a consequence of this is that the TV guide is apparently painfully slow to load. One particularly cool feature is that it will download BitTorrent RSS feeds automatically meaning this truly opens up the audiovisual waves in true democratic spirit.

Ripping DVDs can be a tricky process, but playing the rip can be even trickier. In a nice tip we found on Hackzine, Chris Anderson explains how you can watch your ripped DVDs on VLC player. This tip works both for an.ISO disk image and a full DVD and will allow you to keep all features, menus and extra options from the ripped DVD. Previously we also mentioned two good applications to rip your DVDs, SmartRipper and AnyDVD HD Beta. The first one has the advantage of offering lots of advanced options like three copy modes and shows technical data and statistics about your rips. AnyDVD HD Beta is also worth a try if you want to remove copy protection and regional codes from HD-DVDs and AACS. Just remember though, that you're only ripping your DVDs for backup purposes.

Flock is edging toward its 1.0 release, but as of yet, I’m still not fully convinced by the "browser for social addicts". Here’s why.

I still find that Flock takes a considerable time to load compared to any other browser, even good ol’ Internet Explorer. Although, the interface has been redesigned and the people at Flock have put some work into it, I still find it too cluttered and confusing. To me there are too many little icons in the Flock toolbar, and instead of having them even out the Navigation Toolbar icons, they sit right underneath. Also, having the media bar with its scrolling images and any side bar open, is just too much information on one screen.

The Web Clipboard is where you store all those clippings and images you’ve found on the net and want to use somewhere else, like on your blog. I’m still surprised that anything you save into it still opens up in a basic pop up window and not in a new tabbed window in the interface. And oddly enough, you can’t open more than one item from the Web Clipboard at once or move them around in the list.

In this new outing, Flock has added the “My World” page, a sort of personalized space where you get your own search bar, favorite feeds, sites and media. I don’t understand the need to add a search bar in there, as you already have one at the top of the browser. I also find the layout of the My World page cumbersome, and you can’t resize or move around elements, a la Netvibes. The “Available Services” section on the right side links to some of the biggest social networks, like del.icio.us or YouTube, but you can’t even add new ones, like Facebook or Twitter.

Don’t get me wrong, Flock is a great effort, and a different kind of browser. Still, I can’t adjust to the interface and don’t like how most of the social tools are integrated. Call me old fashioned but I prefer sticking to Firefox for my daily browsing.

Click here to read Nick's retort to Cyril's post, entitled 'Why I might be switching to Flock'

Here is the second part of the interview we had with Cindy Jiang, head of marketing for HiPiHi. If you haven't yet, check out the first part of the interview, where we learn about the Chinese virtual world and some elements of interaction between users.

The private beta is built around Genesis, which includes 5 episodes, associated with the development of your HiPiHi world. Will this be the same with the final version? Will every user go through this introductory process?

“Hipihi --Genesis” includes five episodes, following the principles in the real world. The first section is called “the making of heaven and earth”, we will explore the new world together. Next, we will utilize the character image editing system and the powerful creating system in the episodes of “the making of human beings" and “the exploitation of the works of nature”. The preliminary system of social economy and transaction will be created in the episode of “the insubstantial mirage”. In the last episode, “appearance of the society”, every resident of Hipihi sees the new world and society created by themselves.

How is it specific to Chinese culture? Are you aiming exclusively at Chinese users?

The site is currently in beta testing mode with about 10,000 users – about 15 percent are from overseas. Although we are currently focusing on the Chinese market, we are thinking globally in the long-term. We are aspiring to create a 3D net standard, engendering a global virtual community, and are working to offer HiPiHi in multiple languages.

What is the state of the web in China? How do you place HiPiHi in China's web and tech industry today?

We believe a major trend will be the gradual move from a 2D to 3D web environment. As time goes by the whole social networking arena will shift into the 3D environment. The contextual web as we know it today will become a truly experiential web, as users and providers explore new ways to effect functionality, creativity and generally improve the online environment. In this respect, we hope that HiPiHi will be ahead of the curve.

When will HiPiHi be launched to the public? Are you also planning on an English version?

Our public test will happen in August, and the full commercial launch will hopefully be sometime in the autumn. The English version is under development, and we are planning to release it later.

In a recent interview, the founder of HiPiHi, Hui Xu, said that you had invited sociologists and economists to create "a shared and fair world which will finally embrace the various cultures of the real world". What steps are you taking to reach this goal?

Now the HiPiHi world is under limited beta test. So during the period our main goal is to make the creation function more powerful and foster our resident community, and form HiPiHi’s unique value.

Will HiPiHi support Windows Vista?

Yes. It will support Windows Vista. Right now there are little problems with the compatibility between the HiPiHi world and Vista. Fortunately, the solution is on the agenda.

The beta version of RealPlayer 11 will be available to the public in June. You can enter your email address on the RealPlayer site to be notified the day it is released. So what does this long awaited version have in store for us? We managed to get a hold of the new version 11 and had a quick look around.

The new interface, shiny and dark, looks cleaner than the previous one. Unfortunately though, it seems that Real has gotten rid of the miniplayer view, and only opens the player at a full screen size. The window integrates the basic Real elements like Library, Real Guide, Music, Super Pass and Burn/Transfer. The process bar has been improved and you can drag exactly to the position in the clip that you want.

Cosmetic changes are not the most significant aspects of the new version though. The center point of RealPlayer 11 is downloading online video instantly. As Real puts it on its blog:

On-demand and live streaming and progressive video in the four major formats – Flash, Windows Media, QuickTime and Real – is now downloadable through a very simple download button that temporarily hovers near video content as it plays.

For the time being, "Web Download and Recording" is only supported on Firefox and Internet Explorer. Once you've clicked the download button, a progress window will appear to let you keep track of your download. When playing any video in RealPlayer you can also mail the link to a friend or add a rating or comment. The video in playback can also be resized by dragging the screen and you can set 3 different playback speeds. The new RealPlayer will also let you burn media to CD or DVD and is expected to "provide direct transfer to portable devices" in the future. Among the list of models supported are the Nokia 3300, Sony Networks Walkmans and the Rio players, but no sign of iPod or any mobile phone per se.

Naturally though, not all of the new features will be open to the public and you'll have to dish out for the Plus version if you want to enjoy all the capabilities of version 11.

Google have taken one more big leap in the Web 2.0 revolution with the Beta release of Google Gears - a browser plugin that will let people run Web applications whether or not they're connected to the Internet. Google hopes that the plugin will become the standard browser add-on that people will need to use applications on and offline. Google Engineering Director Linus Upson told ZDNet that the release was prompted by a need to liberate developers saying:

One of the reasons we're doing Gears is that developers here at Google have really pushed the envelope on what can be done in the browser so engineers are hitting barriers harder and faster.

The software is based on 3 components - a local Web server, SQLite for offline storage and browser extensions that allows JavaScript to run in parallel. The first application to benefit from Google Gears is Google Reader although more Google apps will follow soon. Once the plugin is installed, users can read RSS content offline and synchronise with it the next time they are online via a green download button.

The Google Gears plugin has already received official endorsement from Firefox developers Mozilla, Opera Software and Adobe Systems. After testing the plug-in with Google Reader, I'm definitely impressed with this plugin. Testing it in Firefox, installation was quick and both sychronisation and offline retrieval took just a matter of seconds. Google have also made it very easy for those with a little Javascript knowledge to enable their own webpages to work offline with Google Gears with this handy tutorial. This open policy, plus the simplicity of the plugin, could mean this rapidly becomes an essential browser add-on for users everywhere. It just depends if the big software giants embrace it but with Adobe already on board, the future looks bright for Google Gears.

If you don't fancy running a piece of software every time you convert something, then Zamzar has always been a good place to head for. The online conversion tool has now added YouTube video support, meaning you can play clips grabbed from the site on your iPod. What's even better is that you don't even need to download the videos, as the developers have thrown in a convert-from-URL option. Genius!

If you're looking for something a little more advanced from a video conversion tool then head to our Converters section where you can get hold of programs specifically designed to convert video to and from Flash, iPods, and PSPs, as well as a host of the most popular movie formats.

Since the dawn of the web, millions of sites have been striving for the one thing that’s traditionally proved the hardest to find on the internet – consumer loyalty. Well, it seems that Digg has now finally cracked it and the social networking site’s phenomenal popularity has started paying dividends. The reward for its ability to harvest a huge, loyal customer base? The wrath of the Digital Rights industry and a potential lawsuit of $2.68 million.

OK, so this might not seem like much of an incentive, but the Digg story represents an intriguing example of the almost fanatical loyalty users develop for many social news sites and feed aggregators. It’s an almost idyllic business model whereby you basically get your users to generate all the content themselves and then watch as they feast off of each other in an endless frenzy of clicks.

Building a social networking site in the vein of Digg, Twitter or Yahoo! Answers is easier than you might think, thanks to a new wave of cool content management software programs designed expressly for this purpose. The latest, and final, beta release of Pligg is just about the best we’ve come across.

The open source app allows you to create flexible, personalized sites pretty quickly even if you have zero knowledge of web development languages. The slick control panel makes it very simple to administer sites once they’re up, too. Although it’s an easy out-of-the-box solution for beginners, Pligg is great for more experienced developers too because the code is open and available to be pushed further to produce highly customized projects.

There are still a few bugs and issues that need to be ironed out before it gets its full release, but Pligg could be the ideal platform for you to ‘go social’ and turn the content generation process over to your users. Just be careful not to end up in a situation where the lunatics (no offence to Digg users, of course) are allowed to take over the asylum.

Microsoft officially announced Silverlight, a "cross browser, cross platform plug-in for delivering rich media experiences" during the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference. The application, code named WPF/E, will effectively compete with Adobe's Flash in delivering interactive applications made up of videos, animations and high quality graphics. Aimed at developers, media professionals and designers, Silverlight will easily run both on PCs and Macs.

Adobe is not far behind and is expected to announce a new version of their Media Player during the NAB. This improved version should be based on Apollo, a project Adobe has been working on for sometimes and which will allow users to run Rich Internet Applications (RIA) both online and offline. We recently covered the main innovations that Apollo will bring.

Will Silverlight successfully challenge Adobe's media player, already the de facto application for major online video sharing sites like You Tube or Google Video? Among his list of 10 reasons for using Silverlight, Tim Sneath, technical evangelist for Windows Vista, states it will be "blindingly fast", will support playback of WMV files both on PCs and MACs, and should provide "full runtime interactivity". According to Business Week, Silverlight will probably be more versatile than Adobe's product not only in terms of browsers it will run on but also the formats it will support. The upcoming announcement by Adobe should prove exciting for interactive content and surely inaugurate a tight race between Adobe's Flash and Microsoft's Silverlight.

Seemingly in an effort to prove its worth as a major player in the telephony sector, Skype is now allowing users to set up premium-rate services through the program. If you fancy setting up your own technical support line, or even a 'adult chat' line, you can now do so thanks to the Skype Prime feature within the latest beta release.

The new service allows customers to charge incoming callers by the minute or require a one-time fee, providing pay-for services at the click of a button. Once activated, the new feature, which only works with with Skype-to-Skype calls, prompts callers to make a payment to connect to a Skype Prime partner via a number of payment methods.

Skype’s decision to include this service comes in the wake of a growth spurt in the number of question-and-answer-style services that allow users to get instant responses to a particular query. Following the success of online services such as Google Answers and Yahoo! Answers, Skype aims to snare customers who want to provide fast answers to their users' questions. This sounds great for businesses that can’t afford to set up their own premium access telephony systems, though it’s worth baring in mind that Skype will charge you a 30 percent fee of the revenues you reap.

Ad-Aware 2007 Beta is finally available for registered testers. Over on their blog, Lavasoft claim that over 50,000 users have already downloaded it. Anybody interested in trying it out just needs to go to the Beta registration page. If you've never heard of it before, Ad-Aware is one of the best free anti spyware applications out there. The program has a constantly updated database on all latest malware and will thoroughly scan your PC.

I personally received an email from Lavasoft yesterday, but the download page kept crashing. Apparently, I wasn't the only one with this issue. Luckily, the folks at Lavasoft have worked hard fixing the problem and this morning I was able to install the Beta.

My first impressions are of a sleeker interface and a more "pro" feel compared to the old Ad-Aware. Lavasoft have already posted a full list of new features available in this version. The Ad Watch Connect feature, that protects you from "hijackers" as you browse the net, and the new advanced CSI technology, to detect malware seem to be the biggest improvements. The new Ad Aware will also have a function to clear out your cache, cookies and history from your browser in a click. The System Restore Point will keep you safe from accidentally erasing files and it seems Lavasoft have added a file editor to customize the Hosts file to improve your protection. I've had a few crashes, but, as the people of Lavasoft remind, that's very likely to happen with this Beta version. Thanks to all the useful feedback and bug reports from testers, Lavasoft should be able to release the final version of Ad Aware 2007 sometime this month. We'll make sure to let you know as soon as we're aware of it.

Adobe have announced the first commercial release of Photoshop Lightroom 1.0 meaning beta users will have to pay-up or do without the program from February 28. Up until now, the photographic software has only been available in a free downloadable beta version but now users will have to pay $199 to continue using it ($299 after April 30th). Those hoping it will be released in the next version of Creative Suite will be disappointed as Adobe have officially confirmed that it won't.

The new version offer various improvements featuring more import options and a new and improved metadata browser that offers faster access to information tags. Photographers can also filter through large collections with an advanced keyword tools library and color labels that have a new pick/reject system.

There's also a new handy feature for making virtual copies and snapshot tools for providing multiple versions of the same image for comparison without touching the originals.

Finally, you'll also have more control over saturation, hue and luminance with advanced brushes for making the most detailed of changes possible. Adobe also claim that more cameras are now supported including Nikon and Pentax brands.

Slysoft recently released a Beta (version 6.1.2.0) of its AnyDVD application, which will remove copy protection and regional codes (what they call "on the fly remastering") for HD-DVD and AACS. In our full review of Anydvd we already touted its discretion and simplicity, and enjoyed how you can "watch the DVD at the same time" as it is being ripped by the program. No doubt this Beta will attract the interest of avid DVD users, however they'll have to make sure they're machines are up to the task. On the Slysoft forum there's a thread on what hardware is recommended to play back your ripped HD DVDs.

Even though the announcement was widely relayed over the Internet it hasn't spawned much controversy. Toshiba has kept quiet over the release of the AnyDVD Beta, which will rip its very own HD DVDs. It is widely expected that once AnyDVD comes out of Beta it will also be able to rip Blu Ray DVDs too. We'll see then if the news sparks more controversy in the DVD world.

Before Joost burst onto the headlines, Democracy was around as an Internet TV platform, showing us what the future of broadcasting might look like. The program allows users to watch and post videos on free internet TV channels. Working at the crossroads between an RSS aggregator and a Bittorrent client, Democracy lets you list all your favorite channels and download episodes in a few clicks.

Yesterday saw the release of Democracy 0.9.5, bringing with it a good number of improvements and fixes. In a probable move to compete with Zudeo or even YouTube, each video now has a share tab which you can use to send clips by email, post to Video Bomb, Digg, del.icio.us or Reddit. Videos that you have downloaded are now organized by channel to make them easier to find.

Downloading episodes on Democracy was already really smooth but the team behind the TV app has added some improvements to the Bittorrent client. Although I always downloaded episodes in one go, I suppose the introduction of pause/resume will come in extremely handy if you have a queue of videos waiting. Democracy finally shows seeding on your torrents, giving you more insight to manage your downloads. Streamlining the download process, Democracy will also retry whenever your connection breaks down. An extensive list of all the changes is on the Democracy blog and the new Windows and Mac versions are now available for download on Softonic.