Archive for January, 2009

This is just about the slickest thing ever.   If you have a live account, you can get your 25 gigs free online storage on SkyDrive.  Add GLADINET, and you have SkyDrive mounted as a Windows Drive.  Open docs from within applications directly from the SkyDrive, Use context menus to send files to the SkyDrive, or in Windows 7 add it as a library.  I mapped it to my Photo library.

Also with multiple Live.com accounts you can have multiple virtual drives.  I have about 100GB in the cloud.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It also works with other space providers, but I like SkyDrive the best.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GLADINET – Access Without Boundaries

 

 

The first time I opened up Window’s 7 calculator, I was delightfully surprised, and that’s just not because I happen to be inept at math. It calculates mortgage payments!

The new calculator, in a noticeable change, now has a history of previous inputs. That’s more than handy for long equations where your mind gets so confused you forget what step you are on. Also new to Windows 7 is the addition of Programmer and Statistics mode. Since I suck at math and avoid it whenever possible, I can’t say much but, "awesome, functions I’ll never use or understand." Still, it’s better to have too many options than too few, I say.

The real highlight of Calculator are the new extra features included. They include Unit Conversion and Date Calculation under the Options menu, which do exactly what it sounds like they do. Under Templates in the same menu, you’ll also be able to calculate your gas mileage, lease payment and your mortgage payment. Now, that’s handy. At least, I’ll be better prepared should I ever decide to own real estate.

Win 7 Tip: The Calculator Now Calculates Your Mortgage Payments and More

 

The How-to-Geek just stumbled across a hidden menu in the beta version of Windows 7: the expanded “Send To” menu. As you already know, when you right-click on any item, one of the options that displays is the “Send To” menu. In Windows 7, you can choose to send that item to a Compressed (Zipped) Folder, your Desktop (create shortcut), Fax or Mail Recipients, or to your CD/DVD drive. However, when you hold down the SHIFT key and right-click, a whole new menu appears with a lot more options.

The expanded menu includes all of your User folders like Contacts, Desktop, Downloads, Favorites, Links, My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, My Videos, Saved Games, and Searches.

Here’s an extra tip, too: to add any items to your regular “Send To” menu, in Start menu type shell:sendto and then drag shortcuts to the folder which appears.

Windows 7 Secret “Send To” Menu | Sarah In Tampa | Channel 10

 

An unofficial version of the iPhone jailbreaking tool QuickPWN has been updated to jailbreak your iPhone/iPod touch running version 2.2.1, the latest software update from Apple. We haven’t had a chance to test the Windows-only jailbreaker yet, so if you give it a try, let’s hear how it worked for you in the comments. Thanks Dr. L33T! Update: This is an unofficial release, so use at your own risk. While it appears to work for many, it’s not the official dev team release

 

 

IPhone: QuickPWN 2.2.1 Jailbreaks Your Updated iPhone, iPod touch

In Windows Vista, you had to go through a lot of steps to change the default settings for the Windows Start button, but in Windows 7, changing its behavior is easy. If you want to be able to click on “Start” and then choose “Sleep” or “Hiberate” instead of “Shut Down,” (or vice versa) you can make that change right from the Taskbar with very little effort on your part. To make the adjustment, just right-click on the Taskbar and select “Properties.” Then click on the “Start Menu” tab and choose your desired action from the drop-down list provided. Click “OK” and you’re done! A simple change and so incredibly easy – just the way I like it.

Windows 7 Start menu looks very similar to Windows Vista but its customization is much easier than Vista. In Windows Vista, you need to go through various steps to change Power button action in start menu:

How to Change Power Button in Windows Vista?

But Windows 7 no longer requires to go through so many steps, you can change the power button action from Taskbar settings. This tutorial will help you in customizing the power button in Windows 7.

Before:

After:

Simply follow these simple steps:

1. Right click on Taskbar and select Properties.

2. Go to "Start Menu" tab and select the desired action from drop-down list in "Power button action" section:

3. That’s it. Apply the changes and now you’ll get the desired button in Start menu.

Change Your Start Button’s Actions in Windows 7 | Sarah In Tampa | Channel 10

ScreenToaster, fresh out of restricted beta, is a web-based screencasting tool that can record your desktop from any computer with a browser and Java. It’s great for quick demonstrations, and for beginners.

After signing up for a free account (name, password, email), you’re pretty much set to go. Screentoaster supports Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Safari—actually, pretty much any browser that can run a Java applet. Get your desktop or apps set up, hit the "Start Recording" button on ScreenToaster’s main page, and you’ll end up with something like this:

Well, yours will be more exciting, since there would (hopefully) be a point to it other than demonstrating ScreenToaster. As noted in the video, the big downside is the inability to flip between rectangular-area-mode and full-screen shots, or zoom on the desktop with the app itself. Similar in many ways to the previously mentioned Screencast-O-Matic, but I find ScreenToaster’s videos to be smoother, and the presentation a lot nicer. There’s also some nice features to pull from once you’re done recording:

Looks like direct YouTube uploading and SWF downloading are coming down the pike, but it’d be nice to get better embedding options, a la Screencast-O-Matic, and QuickTime-format downloads. Still, for quick-hit screencasts or those who don’t like to bog down with software, ScreenToaster is a nice option. It’s free, requires a Java runtime package to run. – Lifehaker.com

ScreenToaster – Free online screen recorder: create screencasts, tutorials and reviews in a few clicks

Vista had its own version of a preview pane in Windows Explorer, which didn’t work that well and didn’t work for all that many file types, but Windows 7 gets it right.

Win 7′s version activates via a button on the top right of Windows Explorer. It pops out and displays files like music, videos, HTML docs, photos, WordPad docs (but not Word’s .docx flies unless you have Word installed) directly in the pane without having to open a separate app. It’s not quite as good as OS X Leopard’s Quick Look, which does support PDF and Word and Office docs, but it’s definitely better than Vista’s preview. — Gizmodo

Win 7 Tip: Windows Explorer Preview Pane Works Much Better Than Vista’s

 

 

 

 

bigChirp is a beautiful Twitter application for those running Windows Vista (or, presumably Windows 7, too) which takes advantage of the OS’s built in graphical subsystem, WPF. With *chirp, you can see unlimited tweets – just keep scrolling down and older tweets will load and display automatically. That’s just one of the features that sets it apart from most other Twitter desktop clients out there.

Another excellent feature is *chirp’s ability to see the full conversation. To do so, you just have to click on the arrow before the username and your tweet flips in place to reveal the first part of the conversation. Again, a unique feature.

Chirp also lets you follow your favorite Twitterers by adding them to a list of “favs.”

And of course, updating your own Twitter status is easy, too – just click the update icon from the bottom menu or click the reply icon to respond to another tweet.

Chirp: A Twitter Client for Vista/7 Users | Sarah In Tampa | Channel 10

  If you use FireFox you may know about Add-ons.  What many do not know is that IE 8 has a great gallery of add-ons also.  Here are a list of some of my favorite Add-ons:

ieSpell

IESpell is a free Internet Explorer browser extension that spell-checks text-input boxes on a Web page. It should come in particularly handy for users who do a lot of Web-based text entry (Web mail, forums, blogs, diaries). Even if your Web application already includes spell-checking functionality, this utility is faster than a server-side solution. Plus, you get to store and use your personal word list across all your applications instead of having to maintain separate ones on each application. Version 2.5.1 build 106 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes.

Send with Windows Live Hotmail

Send a webpage, link or text via Windows Live Hotmail instantly using this Accelerator.

 

 

 

 

Share on Facebook

Share a webpage, link or selected item on Facebook using this Accelerator.

 

 

 

Share on LinkedIn

Share a webpage, link or selected item on LinkedIn using this Accelerator.

 

 

Yoono

Yoono simplifies your social life on the web by centralizing all your social networks and instant messaging in one easy to use browser sidebar. Get all your friend updates automatically wherever you are on the web and update your status instantly across Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and more. Yoono also shows you personalized recommendations for related websites, products, videos, and more based on the page you are viewing. Easily share these discoveries with your friends via your social networks!

Define with Wikipedia

Define with Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

 

 

 

Channel 9 Videos

 

Channel 9 is a Microsoft community site used to promote conversations among Microsoft’s customers targeted at Microsoft Windows users and developers. Channel 9 features video channels, podcasts and screencasts including interviews with Microsoft developers about their products, discussion, and a wiki. Using this slice, you can be notified whenever a new video gets posted!

 

Most Popular – Add-ons Gallery

The Boy Genius Report has pictures of the Amazon Kindle 2 the wild.  No specs yet, but if these pictures are any indication, it has a larger screen and even more Bulk of the Kindle 1.

 

 

 

Amazon Kindle 2 : Boy Genius Report

 One of the few problems I’ve had with Windows 7 is with application installation – some programs either get hung up during the installation or just won’t install at all.

Well, after trying to install iTunes today and having it fail, Windows 7 reported that a solution was found for this problem. Follow these steps if you are experiencing a similar problem with application installations:

An issue with the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) client in Windows 7 beta is causing Explorer and some MSI-based installers to stop working properly.

To solve this problem, follow these steps:

1. Click the Start button, click All Programs, and then click Accessories.

2. Right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator. In the User Account Control window, verify that Program name is Windows Command Processor, and then click Yes.

3. In the Administrator: Command Prompt window, type or paste the following text at the prompt:

   reg delete HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SQMClient\Windows\DisabledSessions /va /f

4. Press Enter to install the solution.

5. If The operation completed successfully displays, close the Administrator: Command Prompt window to complete this procedure. If "ERROR: Access is denied" displays, repeat this procedure from the top, making sure you clicked Run as administrator in step two

Having Trouble Installing Apps In Windows 7 Beta 1? | GottaBeMobile.com

If you’ve played around with the previous beta versions of Internet Explorer 8, there’s not much new in today’s IE 8 Release Candidate 1. The feature improvements from IE 7 haven’t changed: Web slices, InPrivate browsing, and Microsoft’s new add-on system known as Accelerators remain the big-ticket items. Security enhancements include the SmartScreen Filter, which warns you in advance if other users have reported an URL as suspicious.

What has been improved in the RC is stability. Users who experienced persistent and irritating browser crashes should expect to see a much more stable browsing environment. The Compatibility feature has been automated to a large degree, which means that the browser will detect and re-render Web sites designed for IE 7 that wouldn’t otherwise load properly in IE 8.

The problem is that high-traffic Web sites that don’t cause problems in other browsers still don’t play well with IE 8, necessitating this "compatibility" fix. Maybe Internet Explorer can get around to being Web standards compliant in IE 9.

Users can finally force-add a Web site to be re-rendered by the Compatibility script. Under Tools, click on Compatibility View settings to add or remove a site. You can also disable the script by unchecking the box for using updated lists from Microsoft that appears at the bottom of the settings window.

Accelerators are links that cut out the steps needed to blog, tweet, or use Facebook.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

I also found that IE 8 felt slower to load, and it’s definitely slower to run: IE 8 RC1 clocked a SunSpider JavaScript test at 9,874 ms, compared with Firefox 3.1 beta 2′s 3,212 ms. Granted, the release candidate is faster than IE 8 beta 2′s 12,395 ms. All of these were tested on a Windows Vista Pentium 4 with 2 GB of RAM.

Despite the time that Microsoft has spent developing IE 8, they’ve proven to be reluctant to react to market-wide browser changes. Users who notice similarities between how Firefox, Chrome, and Opera look, feel, and operate, will be struck by how dissimilar IE 8 is. The lack of a smart URI bar stood out for me in particular. Although you can search in IE 8 from the location bar, it won’t take you directly to a page in IE 8. Search for "CNET Download" in Firefox, and you’ll be taken directly to download.com. Search for it in IE 8, and you’re given a list of results from your preferred search engine.

The address bar will pull matches from your history and favorites list as you type, but that’s still an extra step that I’ve moved away from.

Opening a new tab was an exercise in boredom served with a layer of frustration, too, as the CTRL+T hot key froze IE 8 and took more than 30 seconds. The e-mail button, which brings your e-mail client to the front or opens it if it’s closed, respects your default client choice. However, switching to the privacy browsing feature InPrivate opens a new window based at the top of your screen–regardless of where you’ve had IE living.

One aspect of InPrivate has changed. You can now turn on InPrivate Blocking on the Menubar under Safety, even when InPrivate hasn’t been activated. This allows you to surf with a stricter level of third-party site security. It’s not entirely clear what it can or can’t block, though. It doesn’t seem to block ads, but it can block news tickers.

If you’ve been using Internet Explorer 8 betas up until now, you’ll probably enjoy finally getting a release candidate. Overall, there’s nothing stunningly different here, so don’t expect a massive shift in browser usage patterns from IE 8.

Microsoft has yet to announce a timeline for the stable release of IE 8, nor is a version currently available for the Windows 7 beta. A full list of changes is available in the IE 8 Release Candidate 1 changelog.

Worth the wait for IE 8 Release Candidate 1? | Webware – CNET

 

This video guide will help you create a dual-boot configuration, so you can run the preview of Microsoft’s latest OS without destroying your older operating system.

Downloads:
Windows 7 Beta
Easeus Partition Manager 3.0 – Only needed for XP.  Vista has it built-in.

Insider Secrets: Dual boot Windows 7 beta | The Download Blog – Download.com

 

This rocken tip comes from SaraInTampa.

In addition to the handful of themes built in to Window 7, there are others which can be downloaded from the Windows 7 web site, and those created by independent third-party designers. But did you know that there are even more themes hidden within the OS itself? According to WinVistaClub, these hidden themes were meant for different regions like Australia, Canada, Great Britain, United States and South Africa. But thanks to their handy instructions, you can unlock these themes easily so you have more options with which to customize your Windows 7 desktop.

To unlock the hidden themes, do the following:

1. Open Windows Explorer
2. Click Organize, and select Folder and Search Options.
3. Go to View tab.
4. Select Show hidden files, folders and drivers and uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended). If prompted with confirmation, click Yes.
5. Click OK.
6. Browse to the following folder:
\Windows\Globalization\MCT\
7. There are five folders in the name with format MCT-XX (where XX is AU, CA, GB, US, or ZA) which represents globalization settings for each region. Go into the folder that you want to activate its theme.
Note: AU, CA and ZA regions have the same themes.
8. Open the Theme folder inside the selected region folder.
9. Double click on the XX.theme file to apply the theme to the Windows 7 desktop system. Once a theme is ran and activated, the theme will be remembered and saved into Personalization options, so that user can change or select the theme again directly from Personalization settings screen.
10. Now to go to Folder Options to reverse the first 5 steps to hide the hidden and protected system files and folders again.

After unlocking, there will be more themes for available for customization.

Unlock Hidden Themes in Windows 7 | Sarah In Tampa | Channel 10

Windows 7 is better than Vista in many ways, one of which is lower spec requirements, which make it perfect for Netbooks.  Normally featuring an Intel Atom with 1 or 2GB of ram. Now Win7 is capable running on Netbooks, where Vista is not. Since Netbooks dont have a DVD drive, this USB Drive install method is perfect.  Another benefit is that USB drives are much faster than DVD’s, so installation is much faster.

This video shows you how you can install Win7 on netbooks, which do not normally come with a DVD Drive. The video shows you how to prepare a USB drive with the installation bits and install off it.

Installing Win7 using a USB Stick | Media | TechNet Edge

NaturalReader is a Text to Speech software with natural sounding voices. This easy to use software can convert any written text such as MS Word, Webpage, PDF files, and Emails into spoken words. NaturalReader can also convert any written text into audio files such as MP3 or WAV for your CD player or iPod.  

There are several versions, but the free version will work for most.

Text to speech software with Natural Voices– Free NaturalReader

Most websites do not support OpenSearch however a little feature of Microsoft`s Live Search allows you to Roll-Your-Own Search Provider. You can do this for any Website and make it able to search that site directly from Windows 7

Just use the following template and replace with your values:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><OpenSearchDescription xmlns="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/" xmlns:ms-ose="http://schemas.microsoft.com/opensearchext/2009/"> <ShortName>[Your Name for the Provider]</ShortName> <Description>[Description for your provider]</Description> <Url type="application/rss+xml" template="http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q={searchTerms}+site%3a[Site to Search]&amp;num=[Number of results to return]&amp;format=rss"/> <Url type="text/html" template="http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q={searchTerms}+site%3a[Site to search]&format=rss"/>

1. Copy this code into Notepad

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><OpenSearchDescription xmlns="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/" xmlns:ms-ose="http://schemas.microsoft.com/opensearchext/2009/"> <ShortName>bigBrains</ShortName> <Description>bigBrains Federated Search Provider</Description> <Url type="application/rss+xml" template="http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q={searchTerms}+site%3abigbrains.com&amp;num=10&amp;format=rss"/> <Url type="text/html" template="http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q={searchTerms}+site%3abigbrains.com&format=rss"/>

2. Update the values in the template

3. The Save As and change the "Save as Type" to all files (important!), then under filename use (filename.osdx) to allow Windows 7 to recognize the Search Provider osdx extension.

Have Windows 7? Download the bigBrains Federated Search

bigBrains.com

 

This will be a big year for new operating systems. Apple plans a new version of its Macintosh operating system, to be called Snow Leopard. Palm plans an all-new smart phone operating system called Palm WebOS. But the new release that will affect more users than any other will be Windows 7, the latest major edition of Microsoft‘s dominant platform.

Microsoft hasn’t announced an official release date for Windows 7, but I would be surprised if it wasn’t available to consumers by this fall. The company has just released the first public beta, or test, version of the software, and I’ve been trying it out on two laptops. One is a Lenovo ThinkPad lent me by Microsoft with Windows 7 already installed, and the other is my own Sony Vaio, which I upgraded to Windows 7 from Windows Vista.

Personal Technology columnist Walt Mossberg provides a preview of the coming Microsoft Windows 7 operating software, which he says offers significant improvements over the unpopular Windows Vista.

I won’t be doing a full, detailed review of Windows 7 until it is released in final form, but here’s a preview of some of the main features of this new operating system and some of my initial impressions.

In general, I have found Windows 7 a pleasure to use. There are a few drawbacks, but my preliminary verdict on Windows 7 is positive.

Even in beta form, with some features incomplete or imperfect, Windows 7 is, in my view, much better than Vista, whose sluggishness, annoying nag screens, and incompatibilities have caused many users to shun it. It’s also a serious competitor, in features and ease of use, for Apple’s current Leopard operating system. (I can’t say yet how it will compare with Apple’s planned new release, as I haven’t tried the latter.)

In many respects, Windows 7 isn’t a radical shift from Vista, but is more of an attempt to fix Vista’s main flaws. It shares the same underlying architecture, and retains graphical touches like translucent Window borders. But it introduces some key new navigation and ease-of-use features, plus scores of small usability and performance improvements — too many to list here.

The flashiest departure in Windows 7, and one that may eventually redefine how people use computers, is its multitouch screen navigation. Best known on Apple’s iPhone, this system allows you to use your fingers to directly reposition, resize, and flip through objects on a screen, such as windows and photos. It is smart enough to distinguish between various gestures and combinations of fingers. I haven’t been able to test this feature extensively yet, because it requires a new kind of touch-sensitive screen that my laptops lack.

But even if your current or future PC lacks a touch screen, Windows 7 will have plenty of other benefits. The most important may be speed. In my tests, even the beta version of Windows 7 was dramatically faster than Vista at such tasks as starting up the computer, waking it from sleep and launching programs.

And this speed boost wasn’t only apparent in the preconfigured machine from Microsoft, but on my own Sony, which had been a dog using Vista, even after I tried to streamline its software. Of course, these speed gains may be compromised by the computer makers, if they add lots of junky software to the machines. Windows 7 is also likely to run well on much more modest hardware configurations than Vista needed.

The familiar Windows taskbar is more customizable and useful in Windows 7. The program icons are larger, and can be "pinned" anywhere along the taskbar for easy, repeated use. There are also "jump lists" that pop out from the icons in the taskbar and start menu, showing frequently used or recent actions.

View Full Image

Associated Press

A screenshot shows several application windows on the desktop of the Beta version of the Microsoft Windows 7 software.

Windows 7 also cuts down on annoying warnings and nag screens. Microsoft notifications have been consolidated in a single icon at the right of the taskbar, and you can now decide under what circumstances Windows will warn you before taking certain actions.

Compatibility with hardware and software, which was a problem in Vista, seems far better in Windows 7 — even in the beta. I tried a wide variety of hardware, including printers, Web cams, external hard disks and cameras, and nearly all worked fine.

I also successfully installed and used popular programs from Microsoft’s rivals, such as Mozilla Firefox, Adobe Reader, Apple’s iTunes, and Google’s Picasa. All worked properly, even though none was designed for Windows 7.

But there are some downsides to Windows 7. First, you will only be able to directly upgrade Vista computers to the new version. People still using Windows XP will need to perform a more cumbersome multistep process. Microsoft is working on a method to help XP owners preserve all their data during this process.

Second, Windows 7 will eliminate some familiar bundled programs from Windows. Vista’s Mail, Calendar, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, and Address Book programs are being removed. To get similar basic, free, programs, you’ll have to download them from Microsoft’s Windows Live service, or use alternatives from other companies. Microsoft defends this move as supporting consumer choice and better coordination with Web services, but it does remove out-of-the-box functionality from Windows.

Still, even in its preliminary form, Windows 7 looks very promising, and could well help expunge the bad reputation of Vista.

Windows 7 Leaves Vista in the Dust – WSJ.com

 

CCleaner—Lifehacker readers’ favorite Windows maintenance tool—has added support for Google Chrome in its latest release. Granted, the release first saw light about a month ago, but it’s great to see CCleaner continue to add new browsers. Chrome cleaning includes cookies, download history, cache, browser history, and saved form info.

CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system – allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner. But the best part is that it’s fast (normally taking less than a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware!

Click here for a Quick Tour…

Download CCleaner now..

CCleaner – Home

 Yeah, I said it. The Windows 7 taskbar is the most important Windows UI change since Windows 95, and it will dramatically change the way you use Windows. And it’s better than the Mac’s Dock.

That’s because the "superbar"—as the taskbar is known by developers—jerks taskbar functionality in a new direction. It’s no longer merely a window manager—just a place to manage open windows and by proxy, open applications. It’s now a bona fide application launcher. More than that, it blends the two in ways that will remind many of the OS X Dock—apps that are running and those that aren’t can live together. True, you’ve been able to launch apps from the Windows taskbar’s Quick Launch ghetto for ages, but that’s been demolished so that Microsoft could completely and seamlessly integrate the launching of new apps and the managing of running ones.

Managing Apps and Open Windows
The OS X Dock operates from a similar standpoint, but Windows 7 takes this (not to mention the translucency gambit) a step further: The visual signification of a running application (versus one that’s not and merely "pinned" to the taskbar) is exceptionally subtle—a kind of "glare" appears on the top left corner of the icon and it’s faintly outlined. It borders on actively encouraging you to forget the distinction, which as computers become more powerful and applications launch more quickly, matters less and less anyhow.

The flashing colored glass effect when an app is trying to get your attention, however, is nice, and though way less ostentatious than the old blinking button, definitely obvious. Unless you have the taskbar set to auto-hide, then the notification is barely visible as a flashing line of color on the bottom of your screen. The Mac Dock’s bouncing icons definitely works better there.

Read More ….

Giz Explains: Why the Windows 7 Taskbar Beats Mac OS X’s Dock

 

If you have a large collection of photos and yet never seem to do anything much with them beyond uploading them to an online photo archive like Windows Live Photos or Flickr, you’re definitely going to want to check out PhotoJoy. With this service, you can turn your photos into 3D screensavers, wallpaper collages, and even something they call “PhotoToys,” which are basically desktop widgets that display your photos in new and fun ways.

Using the PhotoJoy application, you can import photos from your computer, your Flickr account, or from PhotoJoy’s own online gallery of professional images. You can then transform them into screensavers, collages, or widgets. These widgets, or PhotoToys, can display your photos as cubes, magazines, mobiles, shuffles, and more.

If you choose the option to import your photos from Flickr, you’ll also want to enable the web streaming feature, too, as this will automatically update your PhotoJoy creations with new images as they become available online.

The PhotoJoy application is available as a free download and is spyware and adware free

PhotoJoy Lets You Do More with Your Photos | Sarah In Tampa | Channel 10

 

Microsoft’s Photosynth creates an interactive 3D panorama from multiple still images. CNN used the technology to re-create Obama’s inauguration.

(Credit: CNET News)

Microsoft’s Photosynth is an impressive tool for stitching together dozens of photos to allow a place or event to be viewed from multiple angles.

The only hard part is it really takes 75 photos or more to get the optimal experience. That’s a lot of work for one photographer. But, with big events, one can also rely on crowdsourcing. Which is what CNN has done with the inaugural, asking viewers to send in their photos of Barack Obama’s swearing in.

The resulting Photosynth is pretty cool. (It requires Silverlight for viewing.)

For Microsoft, it marks a high-profile showcase of Photosynth and what the technology can do. I expect to see other news organizations use it for other events, particularly sports

Microsoft’s Photosynth captures inaugural moment | Beyond Binary – CNET News

Windows only: Free application Gizmo Drive mounts almost any virtual hard drive you can throw at it, including ISO, BIN, CUE, and the new virtual hard drive (VHD) images supported in Windows 7.

The purpose of disk image mounting tools is generally the same: Rather than burning a new CD or DVD whenever you want to access a file inside a disk image, these applications simply mount the image as though it’s a physical hard drive on your computer. We’ve featured several disk mounting utilities in the past, including previously mentioned DAEMON Tools, ISODisk, Virtual CD-ROM, and Pismo File Mount, but Gizmo Drive may be the first we’ve seen that’s added VHD support as well—which may come in handy for XP and Vista users once Windows 7 comes along. The application is included in a packaged install with other apps, so be sure to check only what you want to install.

Featured Windows Download: Gizmo Drive Mounts ISO, BIN, and VHD Disk Images

 

Need your remote access to the accounts receivable server restored? Marko Calasan will get right on that, after he wakes up from nappy time and finishes his afternoon sippy cup of juice.

Marko has dethroned little M Lavinashree of India, who at 9 years old (ANCIENT!) was the previous MS certification for tykes record holder. Marko is now being called the "Mozart of Computers" and received a 15-machine computer lab from Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski to toy around with.

When he’s not sysadmining it up, Marko practices Thai boxing and is also an avid astronomy and physics enthusiast. The night before the Large Hadron Collider was to be fired up, he couldn’t sleep from the excitement. I love this kid.

The Littlest Sysadmin: 8-Year-Old Macedonian Boy Becomes Youngest Microsoft-Certified IT Professional

According to the good people at Neowin, Microsoft has a few big announcements for Mobile World Congress, which takes place in Barcelona next month. Apparently, the company will be taking the wraps off a cloud-based syncing service called SkyBox, a MobileMe-like system which allows you to sync and backup your Windows Mobile phone OTA, though there’s speculation the service might be extended to non-WM devices as well. The cats in Redmond will also apparently unveil something called SkyLine, an enterprise version of SkyBox, and will properly introduce SkyMarket — its "mobile marketplace" (an App Store competitor). Most interestingly, however, Neowin is now claiming that those shots of a Windows Mobile interface we saw back in November that looked somewhat questionable are in fact actual pics from a forthcoming UI overhaul. The site goes as far to say it can "confirm" that the honeycomb interface seen in the photos are "genuine concept shots" of a new interface. As usual, don’t place any bets on any of this — but we’ll be live and direct at MWC next month, so stay tuned

Microsoft’s SkyBox sync service set for a February unveiling, new Windows Mobile UI confirmed? – Engadget