Microsoft Azure cloud computing creeps on stage
Everybody else is doing it. Microsoft is going to give a shot at it too.
In an effort to keep programmers loyal and customers happy, Microsoft has recognized the need to match their competitors’ moves toward cloud computing with Azure. Gadgetell has a more in depth look on cloud computing here. Making operating systems and programs remotely accessible means real changes for us.
Keep reading to see what some of them are.
You’ve heard of beer goggles, now we’ve got Mail Goggles
You know those late night e-mails you send out pleading for your girlfriend to take you back? Then, you wake up the next morning and remember all the reasons you broke up with her in the first place and think oh my God what did I do?!? and wish there was a big old RETRACT button on your e-mail? Well, until they come up with that e-mail retract button, they have something else. Something that will at least sort of slow you down and make you think before you send that pleading missive of unrequited love. Something that makes you solve math problems.
Yep. You read that right. Solve math problems. See, GMail Engineer Jon Perlow over at Google Labs figured that if you are actually going to sit there and be able to think through solving some math problems, then just maybe you are in fact thinking clearly, and actually do want to send that email and the desire isn’t just an alcohol induced psychosis. Find out more after the break.
Just Announced: LiquidTV-TiVo for your PC
Think of how many people have become very used to the ease of having TiVo. And now, it’s going to be available for your computer as well. Nero and TiVo are working together to launch LiquidTV, which basically is TiVo, just for a computer.
You’ll still get many of the same basic functions you know and love on regular TiVo. You can watch live or recorded TV. You are able to burn videos to DVD if your PC has a DVD burner. As long as your LiquidTV is networked with other TiVo boxes you have in your house, it even plays nice with those.
Windows 7 to strip down to the basics
Because we all need all that extra stuff on our system when we bring it home from the store….right? Yeah. It seems as though Microsoft may actually be making a move in the right direction with this call. Their upcoming Windows 7 won’t include several of those built-in programs for email, movie making, and photo editing like they did include with Windows (*ahem*, memory hog) Vista.
In Vista, Microsoft had included Windows Photo Gallery, Windows Mail, and Windows Movie Maker as a part of the OS; until they later decided to offer separate downloadable Live programs that just pretty much replaced those programs with versions that were able to connect to online services from Microsoft and others. As per CNET, “Last night, Microsoft announced it decided to totally remove those features from Windows 7 and only offer the service-connected Windows Live versions as an optional free download.“
Cloud-based collaboration app ProofHQ moves to public beta
In private beta testing mode since January, the England-based ProofHQ has just opened it’s program up to the the public. What makes it so appealing to so many is the obvious allowance for collaboration. ProofHQ makes this simple with the use of several formats on the web. Blogs, social media applications…users are able to comment and give feedback on a project that can be seen by anyone working on it by using embeddable objects.
There is no cost for this new personal version, unless you want to upgrade to a more advanced package that offers more storage. The free package only allows for five proofs a months (50 megabytes of storage), and the upgrades run anywhere from $29 to $99 a month. However, you can get a feel for it to see what you think by taking advantage of their 14 day free trial offer. It is both PC and Mac compatible.
New visual search engine TinEye could be a major breakthrough for photographers
Developed by the Canadian company Idee, the TinEye search engine is a fantastic new breakthrough in the realm of search engines that allows users to search for their photographs anywhere on the Internet. Users are able to actually search for a picture by uploading it, and then having the program run a pixel by pixel search across the ‘Net. All found instances of the image are flagged, regardless of whether it has been cropped, merged or digitally altered in any way.
Leila Boujnane, CEO of TinEye, has the following to say about their program.
“TinEye does for images what Google does for text. We are not limited by words, Google can only find an image if a particular search word is in proximity to it. We have the ability on a large scale to tell somebody where one of their images has appeared and how it’s being used.“
The program is also not limited by the quality of the input image according to Boujnane. She states that “anything you would consider a preview image or low resolution image would work. I can take a photograph of a picture in the Louvre with my mobile and upload it to TinEye and it would dump me on the page of that Wikipedia page related to that painting.“
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s ... a cell phone Superhero?
So we’ve all been there. That rush of panic when we’ve lost (or at least momentarily think we’ve lost) our cell phone. When our phone contains lots of confidential data like bank info and emails, the panic level tends to rise even more quickly. Now we don’t have to just worry about Joe Finder using up our minutes, but now Joe Finder could access our bank accounts and read all those spicy emails we sent to Suzy at the office, uh-oh. This not even counting in the fact that the money spent on the phone is now down the drain.
Enter your possible savior, the cell phone Superhero! Nope, it’s not some guy sporting a cape and a mask (regardless of their logo), but a new service just launched yesterday in the US and Canada from YouGetItBack.com. Claiming to be able to protect your confidential data and aid in safely returning your gadget, YouGetItBack.com may just be a lost cell phone users new best friend. The way it works is that once a phone is lost or stolen, subscribers of the downloadable software simply go online and remotely lock their mobile phone. This will prevent anyone else from being able to make calls or access information on the device. Subscribers are also able to retrieve contacts from the phone via the internet.
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