| Yahoo Axis on desktop, iOS unifies your bookmarks, makes the web visual (hands-on) May 24th 2012, 00:37  We're all familiar with syncing bookmarks and save-for-later web services like Instapaper, but it's not often that they come with a full web component. Yahoo's hoping to hit the proverbial two birds tonight with Axis, which combines a desktop web browser extension (your choice of Chrome, Firefox or Safari) with a mobile app on the iPad and iPhone. You can bookmark any page and get at it later through a common portal -- hence the Axis name. That unity idea also extends to the idea of browser searching, where you'll see both trending topics as well as immediate answers and visual thumbnails of the top search results. Mobile users can share content through email, Pinterest or Twitter, if that's their inclination. Axis is ready and free to use as of today, although Android users won't get their turn until closer to the end of the year. Engadget had a chance to give Axis a quick spin, and we largely like what we see, even if we'd say it's not for everyone. The desktop browser extension largely stays out of your way until you need it, although we're surprised the social sharing elements are left out. On the mobile side, it's effectively a full, tabbed web browser, and a fairly solid (if simple) one at that. Most of the advantage comes through having the deeper search options just a pull away. Our issues mostly stem from the need for the app and the ecosystem it's leaping into. If you already thrive on (or want to try) services like Instapaper or ReadItLater, you're not going to get significantly more here, especially since you can't save content offline. Choosing iOS also means you can't make Axis your default browser, so any links you get from other apps can't be directly shared with Yahoo's mobile app. Yahoo Axis on desktop, iOS unifies your bookmarks, makes the web visual (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 May 2012 20:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | Linux Mint 13 'Maya' released, just in time for the next piktun May 24th 2012, 00:09  Linux comes in all sorts of flavors -- it's part of what makes the OS so confusing to new comers. To make matters worse, some of the most popular variants are actually based on other distros, such as Linux Mint, the refreshing desktop that's based largely on Ubuntu. So, if you're wondering what's new in the Mint 13, a good place to start is probably our review of the aubergine OS. Of course, Maya has a few wrinkles of its own -- including a pair of desktop options dubbed MATE and Cinnamon. MATE, as you may recall, was introduced in the last version, but Cinnamon is all new (read: a tad unstable) and built on a modern framework using Gnome 3 and Clutter. There have been a few other new additions, including a new display manager in MDM and a switch to Yahoo! as the default search engine. As usual with these things, you can download it and try it out for free at the source. [Thanks, Mohamad] Linux Mint 13 'Maya' released, just in time for the next piktun originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 May 2012 20:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink |  Linux Mint | Email this | Comments | |
