DZone Daily Dose - 2009/12/7
The web-based word processing startup, AppJet, has just been acquired
by Google. AppJet says its EtherPad software will be open source in
response to the uproar from angry customers. Users were told that no
new customers would be accepted and the EtherPad service would be
closed by March 2010. The AppJet CEO responded in a blog
saying that his company has turned pad creation back on and is working
with the Google Wave team to open source the code for EtherPad and the
AppJet Web Framework. 
The Intel Reader is a new product for
the visually impaired that can scan printed text and read it back to
the user. As part of a major corporate push into healthcare, Intel's
Digital Health Group is selling this sophisticated machinery at $1.5k,
which is relatively cheap for the assistive technology market. The 1.4
pound device is shaped like a paperback with menus in spoken and visual
formats. The device can speak at a speed of up to 500 works per minute, which is incomprehensible to most people.
Google's crusade to make the internet faster continues with the announcement of the Google Public DNS service. Remember friends - faster internet means more Google searches. More Google searches equals more Google ad revenue. Google says they've been making several improvements to their public Domain Name System resolver and they are now providing instructions to set up their DNS server on your computer or router.
Opera's complaint against Microsoft's browser ballot screen worked
according to many
reports.
Microsoft is hoping to avoid another costly antitrust case like the one
in 2007 concerning its promotion of Windows Media Player. In a new agreement with the EU, Microsoft's ballot page will include a random list of major browsers to download on
Windows-based computers. It will remove the IE logo from the window
frame of the ballot page.
"Building Rich Swing Applications with Groovy - Part III" is the top link in 24 hours on DZone. The third part of the series tells you how to use SwingBuilder for simplified binding between visual components and model classes, with a touch of "Groovy Magic."
