Posts filed under 'Computing'
Yet another product from the Google Labs: Google Notebook! It’s a simple internet browser (Internet Explorer and Firefox) add-on that lets you quickly and easily make notes from any web page right there within your browser.
Once the add-on is installed, you can make notes in your Google Notebook simply by first selecting the text/image you want to make a note of and then right clicking to bring up the context menu, as shown on the right. Upon clicking on Note This (Google Notebook), a note is automatically made in your Google Notebook and a small window (known as the mini Google Notebook) pops up on the bottom right of your browser confirming this (See screen shot below). You can then add your own comments to those notes or also make them public!
It’s a simple idea but whether it is for research, holiday planning or online shopping, Google Notebook promises to be a very effective tool.
Other features of the service include multiple notebooks and public notebook search (to be available in a few days).
Although opening a Google Notebook account is free and does not require an invitation, the account won’t give you access to GMail. If you need a GMail account, we are giving away free GMail invites! To request one, email us and type in GMail Invite in the subject line.
May 17th, 2006
Google trends lets you quickly and easily find out what’s hot! Easily compare everyone interest in up to 5 topics of your choice! If this sounds too complicated, click here to see an example of how you can compare various things.
If you follow the link above, you can clearly and quickly see from the search volume results that Nokia has been the most popular, followed by Motorola and Samsung (very close) and least popular of those is Sony Ericsson. Also available is
- a (news volume) chart showing how often each of the keywords you search for has appeared in Google News and
- a bar chart showing the popularity of each keyword in different regions of the world
Interesting things to “Google Trend“:
It’s also quite informative to look up single keywords. For instance, “da vinci code” currently (May 2006) shows a very high peak. In fact the peak is currently the highest it’s ever been. My guess would be that the sudden surge of interest was triggered by the upcoming movie.
All results are based on (an approximated portion of) searches made through google and are therefore not 100% reliable. However it still provides a good indication of what’s hot and what’s not!
If you come up with any really interesting/revealing “Google Trended” keywords, feel free to drop us a mail.
May 11th, 2006
Ever wished you had a remote control for your computer to control your music, videos etc? Well now you do with Apple’s new range of Intel Processor Macs.
However for those of us that are not fortunate enough to own one of the new Macs yet, there is a very cool application that enables you to
use your bluetooth (or wi-fi) enabled phone (or PDA) as a remote control: Salling Clicker!
It is available for both Mac and Windows. So whether you have a bluetooth enabled Mac or PC, you’re in for the fun! If not, don’t despair, you can always bluetooth-enable your machine by using a
bluetooth dongle.
Using a Nokia N70 as a remote control for iTunes
—————————————-
Over 100 different phones/PDAs are supported over Windows and Mac. Check the table on this page for your phone brand/model (for Windows). Mac Users click here.
Applications that can be controlled with Salling Clicker include:
- Windows Media Player
- Power DVD
- Winamp
- iTunes
- includes full library access, including podcasts, radio and album art (support varies on phone brand/model)
- Power Point
- Give your presentation in style and change slides using your phone
- Includes a preview thumbnail image of slides on the phone’s screen
- Your computer
- Salling Clicker allows you to move the mouse pointer and to click remotely using your phone
[More Pics and Screen Shots]
Continue Reading April 26th, 2006
Changing your Windows XP Graphical User Interface to look like MAC OS X
It’s easier than you may think!
Click here to find out how.
Continue Reading April 7th, 2006
ASCII-O-Matic is one very cool site that will convert any picture into ASCII Art within seconds.
From this:
to this
in 3 seconds and free of charge!
-
You have to stand a few steps back from your screen to fully appreciate the ASCII Art.
- You can also opt for your ASCII in colour or in HTML.
- The original image you upload to the ASCII-O-Matic needs to be 60 x 50 pixels.
- Make your own at ASCII-O-Matic
April 4th, 2006
Desktop Earth 2.0 is a free download that will automatically load a satellite image of the earth as your desktop wallpaper. It outsources satelite imagery from NASA’s Blue Marble and combines the images with city lights data from NASA’s Visible Earth.
The result is a ‘live’ stunning view of the earth depicting day and night across the globe, right there on your own desktop!
You can set the image to update every
- 1 minute or
- 5 minutes or
- 15 minutes or
- 60 minutes
The image also changes automatically to depict snow and foilage changes across the seasons. Absoultely amazing!
In a recent update to Desktop Earth, the software can now be set to automatically update the clouds.
It’s a 6MB download and is only compatible with Windows, although there are plans for a Mac OS X version.
March 12th, 2006
Have you ever wished you could connect to your external USB hard drive, your printer or scanner or even your iPod wirelessly? Then you’ll be glad to hear that
Belkin has come up with a
cable free wireless USB hub.
The hub has four ports and works on
UWB (Ultra-wideband) technology which allows for fast data transfer rates - up to 100 times faster than bluetooth. At such speeds, you will even be able to stream movies wirelessly in real time from a hard drive connected to the cable free hub.
However, unless UWB (Ultra-wideband) receivers come built in with future laptops, you will need a UWB dongle plugged into your laptop to connect to the cable free hub.
The hub (including the receiver dongle) will be available from early spring this year (at least in the US) and is expected to retail for $129.99.
Also featured on
everythingusb.com
The Unofficial Apple Weblog
January 21st, 2006
last.fm is a great site to discover new music and meet people who have the same taste in music as you. It works by keeping a record of the songs you listen to and comparing this to other users on the last.fm site.
Registration is free and the site supports most media players for both Windows and OS X. Upon registration, you are required to download and install a plugin that will upload details of the tracks you play to their database. And after you have listened to 300 songs, the site automatically loads up a list of other last.fm users who listen to the same type of music as you do.
Moreover, not only does last.fm suggest songs that you may like but they also offer you a personalised radio station that plays music to suit your taste!
A similar service is provided by Pandora. However, Pandora is currently only available to users from the United States due to audio streaming regulations although they are working on acquiring the proper licenses to provide the service to users outside of the US.
TechCrunch.com Review of Pandora
December 6th, 2005
The BBC is running a trial of their Internet Media Player (iMP) which offers on demand TV and radio programmes for up to seven days after they have been broadcast.
iMP is based on P2P technology and has DRM (Digital Rights Management). The downside is that the DRM ensures the downloaded shows are deleted from your PC seven days after the broadcast date. But it does support the transfer of content to portable devices.
The trial is currently only under Windows but if the service is approved, it could soon be available on other platforms such as OS X and Linux.
If you are interested in participating in the trial, you can express your interest on the iMP’s registration page.
November 18th, 2005
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