If you have received an email attachment with .KML or .KLM extension, the first thought crossing your mind is to find out the program that can open these files.

Keyhole Markup Language (KML) is a file format used to store placemarks, manage network link information and 3D geospatial data. Google announced this file extension on 2004. KMZ, on the other hand, is a file format representing zipped (compressed) version of KML file.

KML files are often distributed as KMZ.

To learn more about creating your own KML file, follow Google’s KML tutorial.

Use Google Earth to Open KMZ File — Mac and Windows

Google Earth is the only program you need for opening KMZ and KML file. Take this Titanic 3D model file for example (which is in KMZ format). This is how you open the file:

Step 1: Download and install Google Earth on your Mac or Windows.

Step 2: Proceed to download KMZ file; a dialog box like this appears:

Step 3: Check Open With Google Earth (default).

View KML and KMZ File Online on Google Maps

If the file is located on a server, and it is accessible through a URL, then you’d be better off using Google Maps. Apparently, you can read both KML and KMZ file using Google Maps. According to Google, you have to “paste the URL that hosts your KML file into the Maps search box and click Search.”

Use Mobile Apps — Android and iPhone

Because Google Earth app is available on both Android and iPhone, you can view KML and KMZ file right on your smartphone.

iPhone users can download Google Earth (size: 17.8MB) from the iTunes Store for free.

Google Earth for Android has been updated recently to support viewing of KML and KLM format. Here is another free android app [link] that can open, create KML or KMZ files using the EXIF information of the locally stored images on your Android device.

You can read the original blog post here Opening KML and KMZ File Format.

Solution for Windows and Mac OS X users running Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Mac OS X Snow Leopard, and Mac OS X Lion.

Consider a situation where you are able to access YouTube website but not the videos. When you land on the video page, you are welcomed with a black screen, a loading ball, or the page doesn’t load at all.

In this article we’ll quickly skim through the issues that you may come across, and find out how to fix the problem that you may have otherwise missed.

When YouTube Videos Doesn’t Work

#1. When you watch videos in HD mode, they fail to buffer. The video screen goes black with a loading ball spinning endlessly.

#2. When you play a YouTube video, the browser freezes — or worse, crashes. None of the videos, even after switching to 240P low-resolution, loads.

#3. When you start the video at a later point, the loading ball appears again — the video claims to be buffering, that is. You stare at the screen, but nothing changes. And this is when realize that you have no magical power.

Easy steps to Make YouTube Play Videos

Here are some of the generic tips to make the videos work, and I am assuming that most of you have already put these ideas into action. However, it’s always good to go through this effective tips:

- Reload the video. I can’t vouch enough for this solution. More often than not, reloading the YouTube video page does the trick.

- Restart your browser. Some plugins, usually the outdated ones, crashes when you are browsing for more than a few hours. Give a quick restart, open the video page to know if the video loads fine.

- Switch to a different browser. If you’re using Safari, switch to Firefox, or any of your favorite browser. Relaunch the video to see if the problem still persists.

- Update your browser. Whether you are using Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox, or any other browser, it’s always recommended to not only keep your browser up-to-date but also addons and plugins should be regularly updated.

Fix YouTube Video Loading issue

There are several ways to fix the problem of YouTube videos not loading on your browser. When I say several, there are a slew of ways to get past the loading screen. You may want to try them all.

Update your Adobe Flash Player Plugin For YouTube

There are many sites similar to YouTube which uses Adobe Flash for their videos. If you have an outdated version of Adobe Flash running on your machine, then it’s time to update the Flash plugin.

If you don’t want to download Flash Player, you can switch to HTML5 version of YouTube. HTML5 is the new semantic markup embraced by YouTube. Join the HTML5 trial by visiting this page.

Switch to Low Quality Video Settings

On many occasions, despite a reliable Internet speed, videos fail to load. Perhaps you are watching a very high quality video clip. You may want to switch to low-resolution such as 240P or 360P, or let YouTube handle this on its own, for which you have to visit this page and select the following:

I have a slow connection. Never play higher-quality video.

Dabble With Hardware Acceleration to Make Videos Play on YouTube

Another problem that has taken the YouTube forum by storm is the black video screen issue. You search for a video, click on the link to land on the video page but nothing happens. All you get is a black screen, which can be combated by switching the hardware acceleration. I’ve already written an article to help you fix this issue.

Use New YouTube Interface For Faster Loading of Videos

Cosmic Panda is YouTube’s experimental episode that is designed to load videos faster. The sleek design borrows many visual elements and puts a greater emphasis on the video player.

If you want to switch to Cosmic Panda, visit this page. Mac users may also want to download the videos or save short YouTube clips if YouTube is blocked in your school, college, or office. Similarly, Windows users can use YouTube HD downloader for viewing the videos offline.

You can read the original blog post here What to do When YouTube Videos Doesn’t Load.

Apparently, Tom Anderson, best known for co-founding Myspace in 2003, doesn’t like Myspace anymore.

In his Facebook profile, Tom swung a brief update about Facebook and talked about Myspace.

People seem very confused why I’m on Facebook. I’ve had a profile since 2005 and a “fan page” since 2009. FB just created a feature where you can “subscribe” to profiles. They asked me if I wanted to convert my “page” into a simpler profile. Complicated? I suppose.

Why am I not on MySpace? Because, I left the company in early 2009, and like most of you, I don’t like using it anymore… not a fan of what the new folks have done with MySpace.

When Myspace was alive as a social networking site, Tom was added as a friend by default to every account. He was, for millions of people back then, their first Internet friend.

As sites like Twitter, Google Plus and Facebook emerged and captured the attention of people, Myspace’s traffic declined, and their strategy changed.

Myspace has tried to reboot itself several times. What was once the best social networking site is now a site inclined towards music and digital media, struggling to maintain its presence sense on the web.

I don’t particularly hate the new Myspace, but I’ll start hating it if I can find my Myspace username.

You can read the original blog post here Even Tom Anderson Hates the new Myspace.

Usually tailored by the companies outside of Mozilla, plugins are an useful addition to the Firefox browser. QuickTime Plugin, for example, allows you to view multimedia content right from your Firefox browser; Powered by Adobe, the Shockwave Flash plugin allows you to view flash content on websites.

Similarly, there are plethora of useful third-party plugins available to enhance your browsing experience. However, these Firefox plugins aren’t updated automatically, and there is no easy way to find out from within the browser if the particular plugin has security vulnerabilities that can exploit your privacy.

Use Plugin Check to Update Plugins

Mozilla’s “Plugin Check” is a nifty way to find out the number of plugins linked with your Firefox browser. With the help of this tool, you can check the plugins, update vulnerable plugins and get to know the details of each plugin installed on your Firefox browser.

Visit Plugin Check from your Firefox browser to keep your plugins up-to-date.

You can read the original blog post here Check and Update Vulnerable Plugins of Firefox Browser.

Opera has released the Opera 11.01, the newest version of its popular web browser. This updated version of Opera browser adds stability improvements and closes the critical security holes–especially the vulnerability that was reported in the Opera community last week.

Opera has listed the changelogs included with the Opera 11.01 update, which includes numerous fixes including the fix for mouse gesture sensitivity. The support for the Javascript URLs has been eliminated while the recognition issues and the site specific issues have been taken care of in this update.

As Opera points out, this is a recommended update for every Opera user. All you have to do to download Opera 11.01 is to head over to the official website and download the appropriate version for Mac, Windows or Linux. You can also update Opera from your browser by clicking on Menu –> Help –> Check for Updates.

You can read the original blog post here Download Opera 11.01 Update–Provides Security Fixes And Stability Improvements.

The new version of the Internet Protocol (IP) is the Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6). The IPv6 addressing — designated as the successor of the IPv4 — is on the horizon, and a completely different protocol allowing greater flexibility in assigning addresses.

Expert says that the web is running out of IPv4 addresses and the only solution is to use IPv6 addressing scheme.

Why You Should Change From IPv4 To IPv6?

The IPv4 address spaces are exhausting as it wasn’t entirely designed to handle the address space requirements of the ever-growing internet. As a result of this, IPV4 address depletion is approaching very quickly — although various techniques have been implemented to extend the IPV4 lifetime, but they fail to meet the requirements because of the rapid expansion of the internet users.

The IPv6 allows hierarchical addressing allocation method, therefore this scheme has been designed to replace the current IPv4 (IPv4 is predominantly deployed and used extensively throughout the world). The IPv6 address space, in addition to solving IP exhaustion problem, adds critical improvement over the IPv4.

For better scalability and reachability, the IPv6 includes larger address space resulting in almost unlimited number of IP addresses. When you are connected to the IPV6, network devices can be connected without manual configuration or DHCP services. Network should run a lot smoother with IPV6 addressing.

Why IPv6 Is An Issue?

When the addressing scheme changes from IPv4 to IPv6, there’s a need for “upgrade.” A good number of older Operating Systems, routers and other devices will not work with this new version of IP. This will inevitably result to massive replacement of devices and you have to, unfortunately, bin your older devices as they are no longer supported.

Additionally, the ISP’s will be forced to increase the price on the internet usage due to the “upgrading” requirement. By now, you should be wondering if deploying the IPv6 scheme is a wise idea at all. But this is the only way out in order to peacefully live on the internet.

You can read the original blog post here What is IPv6 and Why You Should Use IPv6 Over IPv4 Addressing Scheme.

Google is a company that has always been able to impress us. Over the past few years, their Internet Brower – Google Chrome has been able to offer web users a completely fast, unique and special way to take advantage of the digital world.

With a few bugs here and there, it was something that Google said that they can fix in time. That time has come and Google Inc. have released their all new Chrome 8.0 browser which promises to do much more than just help users surf the web.

The all new Google Chrome 8 browser comes bundled with a bunch of features that no other program has been able to match up in terms of speed and compatibility. Sources have revealed that the new browser is said to have complete adaptability with the impending web store launch which has been kept on hold for a long time.

The new Chrome 8 offers a multitude of new apps and program support structures that were missing in its predecessor firmware solutions and now comes with extended support functions. Additionally, the new Chrome 8 browser comes with a built in PDF viewer and a rounded off 800 bug fixes that has made it the fastest browser yet.

For now, there is just a two line official word given out on the stable release of the new Google chrome 8 browser but it certainly is worth downloading.

Click here to download the stable version of Google Chrome 8 For Windows, Mac and Linux.

You can read the original blog post here Download Google Chrome 8 Browser.

The latest pre-release version of the Opera browser, Opera 11 Beta is here. And just like every other version of Opera, this one comes packed with exciting new features.

Although the interface remains pretty much the same, but there are a few new bells and whistles. The two worth mentioning features are: tab stacking and addition of extensions.

One thing that Opera has worked extensively on, that no other browsers have, is in enhancing the tab features. This time, Opera has implemented tab stacking — to organize tabs in a better way. You can drag multiple tabs together and group them alongside each other.

Then we have Opera extensions. These are free add-ons that adds fuel to your Opera 11 engine. As of this writing, there are around 150 extensions available on the Opera website ranging from productivity to social networking tools. Since the Opera 11 alpha release, over 500,000 extensions have been downloaded.

Also, visual mouse gestures, HTML5 support and search prediction are part of the Opera 11 innovative browser.

Download Opera 11 Beta Browser

Opera 11 browser is great. With an easy to use interface, Opera unite and tab stacking – there’s really nothing to complain about. Go ahead and give a shot at Opera 11 browser, the installation is blazing fast, too.

Download Opera 11 beta version by clicking here.

You can read the original blog post here Download Opera 11 Beta Browser.

You may have heard about augmented reality being a key focus area for mobile applications now. In that case you may also know that there are very few tools to help include augmented reality technology in modern apps. And this is exactly where the new Layar Player, which has just been released, can come into play.

The problem is that while content is published on various augmented reality browsers, even individual apps aspire to have the tech on board. Layar is the most popular browser for this tech and the company has developed code which can be use by iPhone developers to embed Layar content in their apps.

What will this result in? Well, all apps will become akin to an augmented reality browser. Though some vendors like Total Immersion offer licensed SDKs that can be used to construct apps with augmented reality from scratch, the Layar solution is much simpler. And more importantly, it is free!

By including the Layar code in existing iPhone apps, developers can easily embed the Layar content. Layar says that it is as easy as embedding YouTube links on a webpage. This is undoubtedly the perfect solution for brands which want augmented reality in their apps, but are not ready to invest in a completely new app for this purpose.

There could be a wide range of applications for embedded Layar content in this manner. You could find store locations on your mobile phone retailer app, with an augmented reality view. However, for more advanced stuff such as barcode scanning on mobile phones, separate SDKs will have to be used.

But for all other looking to try a free and simple augmented reality solution for their apps, this is the real deal. Let’s see which new apps use the Layar code for augmented reality.

You can read the original blog post here The New Layar Browser Player: An Augmented Reality Revolution.

Yahoo! has just unveiled its grand plans for the end of the year as well as looking ahead into 2011. There are some major product feature upgrades in the pipeline and you should know that plans are afoot to bring the ‘lost Yahoo!’ Yahoo has lost a lot of ground to Google, Gmail and Bing in recent times, but the company looks determined to take all challenges head first in the near future.

For starters, the Yahoo Mail has been revamped completely. It is now faster and easier to use. IM has been integrated in mail and there is Twitter and Facebook integration as well.

Search engine has been upgraded too. You will get a variety of search results, which will try to solve your query quicker. For example, searching the name of a movie, will give you options from where you can buy the tickets!

There will also be a dedicated Yahoo Mail app for the Apple iPad, because Yahoo recognizes that the tablet platform needs attention. Even a Starbucks community powered by Yahoo! has been showcased!

2011: Future of Yahoo!

Yahoo has also made it clear that the fact that it does not own an OS will not be an impediment to its growth in the mobile platform. It believes that carriers will actually prefer Yahoo, irrespective of the OS being used on their mobile devices.

Yahoo also stressed on its advantages of Gmail and Hotmail in terms of significantly lower amount of spam. The company has also been focusing on improved data center design and layout, to cut costs.

So, where does this roadmap lead Yahoo to? Though the company declined to share any goals, it has been reported from close sources that Yahoo plans to have 1 billion unique users in the next 3 year period and earn a revenue of 10 billion dollars in the same period of time. Huge!

While these projected numbers are certainly impressive, the question is: are they realistic? Probably not; if recent trends are taken into account. Though Yahoo can get to the number of unique users with strategic acquisitions, the revenue target may be a bridge too far because they are currently at just 6.5 billion.

You can read the original blog post here Yahoo! 2011: New Search Engine, Email Service. Big Announcements, Big Plans!.