Archive for September, 2005
Predictive text for PCs?
A scots tech firm reckons it can cut your typing keystrokes by 80%. The technology is essentially a grown-up version of the predictive text you find in mobile phones. Interesting, particularly in terms of fighting RSI..
Google Blog Search
Does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s very fast.
Microsoft’s new goodies
Lots of new things from Microsoft, including a sneak peek at Office 12’s very different user interface and a new photo sharing app called Codename Max.
Full details of office are here, but here’s a quick grab showing Word’s new UI:
And here’s Max:
Max is available for free download, although you’ll need a pretty hefty PC to make the most of it.
Return of the Walkman
Engadget has the scoop on the new digital-age Walkman, which features a really clever display that seems to be part of the case. Nice.
Nano, nano
As expected, Apple unveiled the rather ugly iTunes phone in association with Motorola, but it also junked the iPod Mini in favour of a new, flash-based iPod Nano. As the picture shows, it’s really rather lovely.
For me, though, the best bit of Apple’s announcement was iTunes 5, which finally dumps the horrid brushed metal look in favour of something more refined and pleasant. Here’s the old look:
And here’s the new look:
Here’s hoping the next update of Safari dumps brushed metal from that, too. Brushed metal mings.
Vicarious PSP joy
The Sony PSP finally goes on sale in the UK today, and I really, really want one. Unfortunately I can’t afford one, and even if I could I’m pretty sure my wife would put me in hospital if I bought one. So it looks like I’ll have to get my gadget joy vicariously by asking others about it. Anybody bought one, or planning to?
The best (mac) things in life are free
Once again I’m buried under deadline mountain, so while I’m feeling opinionated about all kinds of things I’m far too busy to scribble about any of it. In the meantime, here’s a great wee site for Mac owners:
As the name suggests it’s a collection of links to good Mac freeware programs, and while many of them will be familiar to power users there are some real gems there.
On a related note, the LiveQuartz Image Editor leverages Tiger’s Core Image effects to provide quick and handy image editing, while SeaShore is a brilliant, open-source image editor for Cocoa. It’s based on The GIMP, the much-loved open source graphics program.