Microsoft Offers Works For Free

 

 

 

Microsoft has released the new version of Microsoft Works as a free, ad supported office package that will compete directly with Open Office and Google Docs & Spreadsheets.

The Works package offers word processing, spreadsheet and slide (powerpoint) functionality partially based on code from older versions of Microsoft Office.The move by Microsoft to offer a free office suite comes as online office packages including Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Thinkfree Office and Zoho continue to grow market share due to increased broadband penetration, online convenience and lower costs.It was not disclosed whether the new version of Microsoft Works would sync with or support Microsoft’s online services under the Live brand. Whilst the version was said to be released July 27, it was not clear where it could be downloaded from or accessed.

Microsoft Works first launched as a Mac application in 1986.

 

 

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Pagico

I finished the translation of Pagico, the Dutch version will be added to the next release.

What is Pagico?

Business
In the world of business, people want things done as fast as possible. Pagico, your personal knowledge base, is out there helping you boost your productivity.
Organize data with "topics" together with tasks, manage your relationship, and connect your data with your relationship seamlessly.

Educational (New with educational special offer!)
Educators, professors, students, lecturers etc, need an easy-to-use knowledge base for their work and researches. Centralize all kinds of data under specific topic, manage project-specific and person-specific tasks, record activities(like history) of students or team members.
And more important, all contents are interlinked together automatically, building your priceless knowledge base in no time, effortlessly.

Daily life
Pagico is your perfect planner and organizer.
Manage todo lists, take notes, plan for something, and then organize them for further use without categorizing with piles of folders.

Side-by-rumored-side: "New" Apple Keyboard Vs. "Old" Version

 

The rumored new Apple keyboard has already been analyzed to death, compared to its current, fully real counterpart. But in this handy side by side picture (hit the jump for a mega version) we can see the potential impact the new design will have on Apple users. What, for instance, will we ever do without the 'Help' key? Overall, the comparison shows that if Apple isn't using this new keyboard, they really should be, as dock and multimedia functions have been condensed and organized neatly. What do you think, fanboys? [circa1978]

 

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Apple iMac Keyboard: Bull or Just Fake?

 

Apple Introduces the iCarpalTunnelSyndrome

Engadget has some pictures of a purported Apple iMac “slimline” keyboard that looks like some Taiwanese factory prototype got run over by a truck. This keyboard is supposed to be the “brushed aluminum” model that will be available as early as August 7.

I’m calling bullshit on this, but go ahead and stare at it for a while, wondering when Apple will just do away with the keyboard and offer direct-to-brain jacking.

Is this the new iMac keyboard? [Engadget]

 

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Canada’s ‘iPod Tax’ One Step Closer to Reality: Adds $75 to Price of 30GB DAP

 

Poor Canada, no one cares about you, hockey or the fact that you very well might have to pay additional taxes every time you buy an iPod. It seems like the Copyright Board of Canada has green lighted the tax on DAPs and flash storage cards. (It can’t be any worse, ideologically at least, than the $1 Microsoft pays Universal per Zune sold.) If the tax actually goes into effect, the price of a 30GB iPod would shoot up some $75, coming out to around $460. O Canada indeed.

But hey, Canada, if the price hike—excuse me, “levy,”—goes through, at least you’ll still be able to walk into a doctor’s office without your checkbook and giant stacks of money.

New tax could raise price of iPods by $75 [Digital Home]

 

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Schmap Guides

:: Schmap Berlin Third Edition: Photo Inclusion

Hi Hans,

I am delighted to let you know that your submitted photo

has been selected for inclusion in the newly released third

edition of our Schmap Berlin Guide:

Siegessäule

http://www.schmap.com/berlin/sights_panorama/p=2557/i=2557_14.jpg

If you like the guide and have a website, blog or personal

page, then please also check out our schmapplets -

customizable widgetized versions of our Schmap Berlin

Guide, complete with your published photo:

http://www.schmap.com/schmapplets/p=44124373388N01/c=SE15011253

Please enjoy the guide!

Best regards,

Luke Ritchie,

Managing Editor, Schmap Guides

Apple patent attack 2: iPod karaoke, iPod remote

 

Filed under: Portable Audio

It looks like Apple is on a roll with its latest round patent applications. Hot on the heels of the recently seen illuminated touchpad and Home on iPod filings, comes two new applications that should have only the fiercest of fanboys excited. First up is a technology which the Cupertino camp calls "Dynamic lyrics display for portable media devices," or as we would describe it -- karaoke on your iPod. Nothing really groundbreaking here: obviously lyrics would be displayed while you belted out your favorite Pat Benatar song, which is pretty unexciting and definitely unoriginal. Patent number two seems a bit more promising, as it addresses the possibility of using your iPod or other "portable media player" as a wireless remote for your PC or media center, thus allowing you easier access to your Best of the 80's collection. Of course, this would require a wireless iPod, which doesn't exist, although we understand those new iPhone things have some kind of wireless capability...

 

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Stupid? Yes stupid ....

From GigaOM: The Immediate Media Age: Of Broadband & Blogs

 

If you have lived or passed through New York, you might have heard radio blaring, “give us ten minutes, and we will give you the world.” (Or something like that!) That line pretty much sums up the whole blogging phenomenon. What began as short (or not) irreverent personal musings over a decade ago, has now become a new kind of news medium, one that fits nicely the post-Internet, 4-lattes-a-day fueled, sleep deprived, time-compressed modern lives.

Our whole lives are about doing more in less time, trying to cram everything into 24 hours, in a day that is filled with constant interruptions. Instant messages, emails, and the constant chirping of cell phones have surely and slowly squeezed our attention spans. We have responded this to customizing the digital world according to how lifestyles.We have TiVo to personalize our television, watching only what we want. We plug in our iPods, using playlists, instead of listening to the radio waiting for our favorite tune. Like TiVo and iPod, the web allows us to customize what we want to read. Blogs offer short bursts of information in an easy to digest format that fits nicely with this socio-culture change happening around us.Blogs, also have the ability to focus on niche topics, allow almost anyone to publish, and then have it distributed over high-speed Internet connections instantly is what can be summed up in two words: “Immediate Media.”This immediate media is information simply adapting to the new methods of distribution. At the turn of the last century, telegraph was used to spread the news. Telephone technologies gave newspapers a new sense of urgency and made distant events a weekly, and for some a daily affair. Radio broadcasts made news more real-time, making it part of our daily life. TV brought news into the living room, made it more personal. Cable and the birth of CNN made news a 24/7 phenomenon.The Internet in its early version upped the tempo, and with the rise of high speed, always on connections, information is now an unending stream. If you follow that thread, then with can easily see that with each transformation, technology compressed the news cycle a little, and made distribution a bit more efficient. The more we connect, the more we want to know but in less time. Blogs are a reflection of our time-deprived times.If you dig deeper, the growth of blogs can be mirrored in the growth of broadband adoption. Faster connections make checking out a blog, say TMZ, five times a day is much easier compared to ten years ago when you had to dial-up to get your information fix.Broadband has also enabled non-text tools – video and photos – to become part of this immediate media movement. We have videos of news events being uploaded to YouTube, almost in real time. Photographs of news events find their way from our mobile phones to Flickr and on to the web pages.Twitter and Pownce are fast transforming into news-alert services, where short bursts of information say it all. A link and a few words are all it takes to describe what could mean news to an audience of one (or a million). Here is to next ten years!

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Communal travel blogging with Trippert

Trippert is a new travel site for bloggers who feel like sharing their travel tips, tricks, and personal experiences with others. Users can write it all out in a blog entry, complete with pictures, tags, and links in a simple WYSIWYG authoring tool. You can pick up to five places mentioned in the entry, which will help it show up in searches or article listings by city and country. The hope is that people will be able to find what you've written in a number of ways.

Trippert pages contain a blog post and photo gallery. Other users can also comment and leave their own opinions.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

The service is taking an interesting approach to social blogging, by giving article authors the option to open up their posts to other people for editing. Trippert denotes posts with multiple authors with a little logo; if you're in an open post, you can simply click the Edit button to begin adding your own content. It's a little bit like a wiki.

Trippert also has a built-in bookmarking feature, which lets you save entries you like to your profile for others to see. Each user gets his or her own RSS feed as well, so people can subscribe to your posts in their favorite feed reader. There are also feeds for locations, so if somebody writes a new article about a place in the United Kingdom, you'll be the first to know.

This is about where Trippert seems to run out of steam. There's no real incentive to add to the site (yet), and from personal experience, I find that travel blogs are often more fascinating when viewed in chronological order, letting you follow writers on their experiences. That said, the site is brand-new, and this functionality can be added later on. In the meantime, there's already a solid selection of posts and pictures to help you escape the confines of your cubicle.

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Obama Girl

Nice

Today I got below message:

Hi Hans,

I am writing to let you know that one of your photos has been short-listed for inclusion in the third edition of our Schmap Berlin Guide, to be published later this month.

Clicking this link will take you to a page where you can:
i) See which of your photos has been short-listed.
ii) Submit or withdraw your photo from our final selection phase.
iii) Learn how we credit photos in our Schmap Guides.
iv) Browse online or download the second edition of our Schmap Berlin Guide.

While we offer no payment for publication, many photographers are pleased to submit their photos, as Schmap Guides give their work recognition and wide exposure, and are free of charge to readers. Photos are published at a maximum width of 150 pixels, are clearly attributed, and link to high-resolution originals at Flickr.

Our submission deadline is Saturday, July 14. If you happen to be reading this message after this date, please still click on the link above (our Schmap Guides are updated frequently - photos submitted after this deadline will be considered for later releases).

Best regards,

Luke Ritchie,
Managing Editor, Schmap Guides

Although I think it is by far not one of my best pictures it is nice to see it is included in the list. 

 

From Engadget: Touch-screen iPods by August?

 

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Now that the iPhone is out, the Apple rumor mongers have shifted their attention to the next generation iPod. Well, some of them anyway. Specifically, will it or won't it feature a device-wide touch-screen running OS X -- a stripped down iPhone if you will. Enter DigiTimes, with their hit-or-miss record of Taiwanese sources, who are calling for a touch-screen iPod to launch in August. Sources at "upstream suppliers" claim that WinTek -- a former iPod panel supplier back in the black-and-white iPod days -- won the order for the capacitive touch screen panels. With Jobs himself calling the iPhone the "best iPod yet," we certainly don't doubt that Apple's working on a touch-screen iPod (possibly with WiFi). Our only question is will it arrive before January's MacWorld or not. [Thanks, Ben]

 

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Epen and Margraten

This weekend I visited my parents (who have a short holiday) in Epen in the south of the Netherlands, very close to Belgium and Germany.

Epen is rather touristic and from WikiPedia:

Epen ( 50°47′N, 5°55′E) is a town in the Dutch province of Limburg. It is a part of the municipality of Gulpen-Wittem, and lies about 15 km southwest of Kerkrade.

In 2001, Epen had 506 inhabitants. The built-up area of the town was 0.11 km², and contained 197 residences.^[1]

In the neighbourhood is Margraten.

In Margraten is the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial, Europe's third largest war cemetery for unidentified soldiers who died in World War II. 8,302 soldiers are buried there under long rows of white crosses and stars of David. All graves are adopted by locals, who attend the graves and lay flowers every now and then. There have been regular visits here by soldiers who survived the war to visit a former comrade, hoping he's buried there somewhere. But now there are few left of them, so the once massive tributes are growing thin. President George W. Bush was the first American president who visited the cemetery, on May 8th 2005.

I visited on Sunday, I  was almost alone and it was rather impressive.

 

 

Wikio Personalised News

Apple Patent Shows Simple Nano-like iPhone

 

A disgusting and insulting reality is that some people don’t want to carry the Internet around in their pocket. These same people do, however, tend to like listening to music and talking on the phone. What better way to kill two birds with one stone than a phone that plays music?

This is not a new idea at all. I remember being the first and last person to buy the Samsung Uproar back in late 2000 for $400, listening to people wonder aloud how phones could possibly get any more advanced.

Well, phones got more advanced. But one thing that’s never quite been perfected is an easy-to-use music player coupled with an easy-to-use phone. And if there’s one company that could do it, it’s probably Apple.

A patent application submitted by Apple shows such a phone. It’s based on an iPod Nano-like form factor and would consist of a simple phone/music player donned with a touchpad that would display different symbols based on the phone’s current mode.

While the article I’m linking to makes reference to the idea that this phone would be perfect for your grandparents, I would tend to think that maybe it would still be a little bit advanced for people who shouldn’t even be allowed to operate motorized vehicles.

I do think it would be great for people who are sick of carrying around a phone and an iPod. This could sell like hotcakes to younger stay-at-home moms and people like my parents who don’t need data access but still want to see what all the fuss is about concerning portable music.

The ease-of-use for sending text messages will also be something to keep an eye on. If Apple gets that part right, then the floodgates could open for the tween market as well.

Cheap and simple iPhone Nano for your Grandma [UnwiredView.com]

United States Patent Application: 0070152983

 

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Apple Patent Shows Simple Nano-like iPhone

A disgusting and insulting reality is that some people don’t want to carry the Internet around in their pocket. These same people do, however, tend to like listening to music and talking on the phone. What better way to kill two birds with one stone than a phone that plays music?

This is not a new idea at all. I remember being the first and last person to buy the Samsung Uproar back in late 2000 for $400, listening to people wonder aloud how phones could possibly get any more advanced.

Well, phones got more advanced. But one thing that’s never quite been perfected is an easy-to-use music player coupled with an easy-to-use phone. And if there’s one company that could do it, it’s probably Apple.

A patent application submitted by Apple shows such a phone. It’s based on an iPod Nano-like form factor and would consist of a simple phone/music player donned with a touchpad that would display different symbols based on the phone’s current mode.

While the article I’m linking to makes reference to the idea that this phone would be perfect for your grandparents, I would tend to think that maybe it would still be a little bit advanced for people who shouldn’t even be allowed to operate motorized vehicles.

I do think it would be great for people who are sick of carrying around a phone and an iPod. This could sell like hotcakes to younger stay-at-home moms and people like my parents who don’t need data access but still want to see what all the fuss is about concerning portable music.

The ease-of-use for sending text messages will also be something to keep an eye on. If Apple gets that part right, then the floodgates could open for the tween market as well.

Cheap and simple iPhone Nano for your Grandma [UnwiredView.com]

United States Patent Application: 0070152983

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Lego Millenium Falcon Stop Motion

Embedded Video

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Mozilla releases Firefox 3 Alpha 6

On Tuesday, without fanfare, Mozilla quietly released the final alpha for its new Firefox 3, codenamed Gran Paradiso. Alpha 6 doesn't add much to Firefox in terms of new features; we expect that to happen with the first betas. As with previous Alphas, most of the tweaks are internal. See our slide show of Alpha 5 to see what changes are currently visible within Firefox 3.

According to the Alpha 6 release notes this version includes: Updated SQLite engine to version 3.3.17; support for site-specific preferences--text size; a new Quit dialog box that resolves termination errors; added permanent 'Restart Firefox' button to Add-Ons Manager; miscellaneous fixes to download manager including correctly displaying large file sizes; various Places fixes; and miscellaneous Gecko 1.9 bug fixes.

It is the latter, the miscellaneous bug fixes within Gecko 1.9, that may affect Web and platform performance. Once again, Mozilla recommends this alpha release only for developers. Mozilla urges current users of Firefox 2 to wait until Firefox 3 is finally released in October or November of this year.

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Joomla CMS

Again testing different system, Joomla CMS .

Have a look at hanspkok.com/weblog.

From Engadget: Is that possible?

Switched On: Comparing Apples and Blackberrys (Part 1)

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment:

Apple has just introduced an incredibly promoted portable touch-screen device touted as revolutionizing an entire industry. Lines formed in anticipation of its release. The most controversial aspect of it, though, is its text-input method. And one more thing, the year is 1993 and the product is Newton. The disappointment of Newton's handwriting recognition resulted in negative reviews that left Apple with egg freckles on its face and the bold Newton MessagePad and its successors all but doomed.

Will history repeat itself with this year's model? The first sign that the iPhone's touch-screen keyboard may have a learning curve came during the Steve Jobs interview at the D: All Things Digital event when Apple's CEO offered to buy Walt Mossberg dinner if he wasn't happy with the iPhone's keyboard after coming up to speed on it.

Reinforcing that, in Apple's video walkthrough of the iPhone, the black-shirted narrator notes that "it's easiest to begin typing with just your index finger" but encourages that "as you get more proficient, migrate to using two thumbs" for the payoff that "in about a week, you'll be typing faster on iPhone than any other small keyboard. Perhaps the keyboard's tag line should be, "Give us a week. We'll take off the wait." Fortunately for Apple, most reviewers have not thrown Apple's baby out with its backspace.

Continue reading Switched On: Comparing Apples and Blackberrys (Part 1)

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Amazing Sand-art

The only one or the first?

Universal, world's largest music company, refuses to renew iTunes contract

 

Looks like a pillar of iTunes content might be on the brink of collapse -- Universal Music, the world's largest music business, has officially opted not to renew its contract with Apple for vending music on the iTunes Music Store. We don't know specifically what caused Universal to turn away -- perhaps it's the weight of the rising anti-DRM movement among consumers, or perhaps it's because of Stevie J.'s brash negotiating tactics, continual refusal to hand over iPod cash, or oceanic persistence in keeping tracks locked in at $0.99. Whatever the reason, we can't say we're all that surprised; Universal's been a pain in Apple's side for years now. So what's the end result? Well, Universal music will still be sold through iTunes at will, so that means consumers can keep buying tracks for the time being, but Apple runs the risk of losing Universal's content on very short notice if the companies don't make happy with one another.

 

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How stupid .... yes it's the iPhone ....