Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Way back in November of last year we talked about the EverNote 1.1 useful post-it note option. Well now there is a new version with tons of new features, stabilitly, and reliability. 

Key New Features:

• File Synchronization With EverNote you can synchronize your notes between your PC and a USB drive or between multiple PCs via USB drives.


• New Clipping functionality Outlook Clipper button and ability to call “Add to EverNote” command for Outlook and Thunderbird with a right-click.


• New Drag-and-drop functionality New ability to drag-and-drop notes to select Categories, outside applications such as Instant Messenger, email, and EverNote databases.


• Ability to open multiple databases in separate windows The new version of EverNote allows opening multiple databases in separate windows. This is an improvement over the previous approach that replaced the current database with the newly opened one.


• Spellchecker The new version of EverNote contains a powerful spellchecker from UltraLingua that helps to avoid misspellings and typos in your notes.


• New shortcuts The new version of EverNote allows creating a new note by pressing the INS (Insert) key when focus is on the tape or ESC then INS when focus is on the note.


• Password protection for the entire EverNote file New security feature (File->Properties->Create password) to establish a password that will be required to open the current database later.


• Ability to export notes into TXT and HTM formats The new version of EverNote provides ability to export into TXT & HTML.

There is 60-day trial version of EverNote Plus beta currently available. If you own EverNote Plus 1.1, you will be eligible to upgrade to EverNote Plus 1.5 for free when the final release is available. If, for whatever reason, you would like to downgrade back to EverNote Plus 1.1 during this beta program, just shoot them an email so they can send the location of the installer.

The coders at Mozilla must really be busy. Right after releasing Firefox 2.0 Beta RC 1 the company has released Thunderbird 2.0 Alpha 1. For those of you who don’t know, Thunderbird is essentially an online mail client that hopes to do what Firefox has done to Internet Explorer, but to Microsoft Outlook. I personally do not use it, but I know many people that swear by it. Here is an overview of a few of the new features you will find in this build:

• Message Tags


• Folder Views including favorite folders


• Improved New Mail Notification Alerts


• New Windows installer based on Nullsoft Scriptable Install System


• Find As You Type in the message pane


• New combined and improved Add-ons manager for extensions and themes


• Updates to the extension system to provide enhanced security and to allow for easier localization of extensions

As always, remember this is an Alpha version, not net even a beta, so consider yourself warned and don’t come back here when your PC goes all wacky.

Read [Mozilla]
Via [CyberNet News]

Product: IRISCard Pro business card reader
Price: $199.00
Rating: Good - 7.2/10.00
Pros: Good color quality, 10 seconds per card, scans other small papers (post it notes, receipts, pictures), export to multiple programs, accurate OCR, simple installation
Cons: Manual feed only, not every card transfer its data accurately, could be more advanced.
Overall: Good card reader for people who have the time to sit and feed their cards through. The small size makes it easy to carry with you but the small size also hinders your ability to scan cards automatically.

The IRISCard PRO is a business card reader that allows you to digitize your rolodex. The device is USB powered and has built in optical character recognition. It scans in black and white, as well as color at 600 dots per inch, delivering crisp images of your cards. The reader requires you to manually load the cards through as it scans onto the supplied program, before allowing you to export the cards to various productivity suites.

Design - 7.3 - The IRISCard Pro scanner has a very simple design but I feel it lacks the proper functionality it should have. In keeping with today’s technology and the growing pace of it, I would like to see some functions on the scanner itself perhaps a hard drive built into the scanner with a battery so that I could take it with me, scan some cards (especially at trade shows) and plug it into my computer later. The dark blue plastic scanner is not hard on the eyes and its small stature makes it easy to transport. If a basic design is all you want then this scanner is all you need.

Features - 7.3 - Having your information retyped after the card is scanned is a great feature the only problem is the ‘reader’ may not always be as accurate as you would hope. When I first started using the Scanner I did not know that I had to manually turn on the auto recognize function. If your settings are correct and your ready with your business cards then the auto scan function works great, but still not perfectly (100% recognition) like advertised on the box. If you want you can also export your information into your various programs such as Outlook, Palm, ACT, Entourage, etc. The software supports a multitude of languages, which is great for those international contacts. The software also keeps an image of the card for those times when you do not remember the name of your contact nor the name of the company but would recognize the logo.

Performance - 6.9 - For someone who had tons of cards lying around it was great to find a program that would not only scan the cards and input the information for me, but one that would not take too much time. I said earlier how the auto scan function works great, and from scanning to the auto recognition I was able to scan a single business card in 10 seconds. The ten seconds was not so terrible but other scanners are slightly faster. The features are exactly what you are looking for in a business card scanner, although I would prefer some extra special function (ie. internal HD so that you can scan cards when your away from your office) For what your getting its a pretty good deal. A quick scan and a descent recognition software. The cost of product $199.00, the time it takes to scan a single card 10 seconds, no longer getting tied down to stacks of business cards that may get lost...priceless.

Editors Note: The categories were weighted in the following manner to reflect the importance of some features over others. Design 30%, Features 30%, and Performance 40%.

Google Calendar was released two weeks ago and we are already seeing some really interesting ways to make use of the sharing function. (If you are not aware, you can mark events on your calendar as public so other people can see what is going on and when you are busy and free).

Clinical Cases suggested that doctors make use of this function. Doctors can make their calendars public (just the appointment times not any personal information) so you can see the availability and compare it to yours when scheduling an appointment.

Lifehacker suggested that the color coded feature can allow people with medical issues to track their well being over time. This can also be expanded to tracking your diet. (You can also do this in Outlook and others, but it is nice if you want to share it with a trainer or doctor).

Finally for you techies out there, TruePath Technologies really displays the possibilities when using the sharing function paired with categories and chat to plan outages and service on network servers.

We would love to hear what other ways do you plan to share your time with people?

Read [Clinical Cases]
Read [TruePath Technologies]
Read [Lifehacker]

Love Plaxo but hate those annoying, “Hi, I’m updating my address book. Please take a moment to update your latest contact information...” Yeah, same here.

For three years, this was a key part of the Plaxo service as millions of people have used the update tool to quickly and easily control of their address books. But as of a a few weeks ago, you should start seeing fewer and fewer of these e-mails, as Plaxo shifted product functionality away from address book update.

The original idea and vision seems pretty simple: I maintain my own contact information, and when I change it, it automatically updates in my friends’ address books. Similarly, when my friends update their information, it changes in my address book. If Plaxo would plug in to Outlook and other popular address books, for maximum convenience.

Until large numbers of people started using Plaxo, automatic updating wouldn’t provide much value.

Management therefore came up with a model where people could still find value in using our service without there being a large network. I could download Plaxo and in a few steps e-mail contacts asking them for their up-to-date information. Then, usually within a few days my contacts would respond and my address would be updated. Some of my contacts would see this as a valuable service, and also start using Plaxo. In doing so, they would introduce Plaxo to more of their friends, but the real magic happened when they became members—because from that point forward they would no longer send out Plaxo update requests—everything would just happen automatically.

As of last week, we’ve past 10 million members. We are now growing at over 50,000 users a day. Due to this great growth, the depth of our network, plus our heartfelt desire to be good net citizens, we have started phasing out update requests.

Via [Loose Wire]
Read [Plaxo Blog]