The
OWC USB 2.0 Display
Adapter from Other World Computing allows
you to add an extra display to Intel Macs or Windows
PCs using any standard USB 2.0 port. The adapter
connects to HDMI, DVI, and VGA equipped displays
(including projectors) in 32-bit color at resolutions
up to 1600x1200 or 1680x1050 digital. Included driver
software means that the display can be used in mirror
mode or as an extension of the desktop. Up to four
adapters can be attached to a single computer.
(Source: Macintouch)
| Cost: US$99 | Requires: Mac OS X 10.4+ or Windows
2000 & up | For further info...
Places 1.0, by UK-based The
Dream Apps is an iPhone/iPod touch-based guide to the
world, containing helpful information about some of
the worlds most popular destinations. With pictures,
quick links to Wikipedia, favourites and maps, Places
is claimed to one of the most comprehensive and
easiest to use virtual tour guides available. Over
time, more features and destinations are planned to
be added.
(Source:
MacMegaSite) | Cost: US$1.99 | Requires: iPhone or
iPod Touch; active Wi-Fi or cellular data internet
connection for the ‘Maps’ or
‘Wikipedia’ functionality. |
For further info...
The winner of the
FT Climate Change Challenge this
month is the “Kyoto Box”, made of
two cardboard boxes, silver foil, transparent
plastic and some black paint to make a solar
cooker. Sunlight passes through the lid and into
the inner cardboard box, painted black to absorb
the heat. Silver foil on the outer box prevents
that energy from escaping so that the inner box
gets hot enough to boil 10 litres of water in a
couple of hours.
The Kyoto Box is aimed at the three billion people
who use firewood to cook and has the potential to
deliver huge environmental and social benefits.
“We’re saving lives and saving trees,
“ says Kenya-based entrepreneur Jon Bøhmer.
“I doubt if there is any other technology that
can make so much impact for so little money.”
He will use the $75,000 prize money to conduct field
trials.
Continued…
21-Apr-09 |
Computing | MacOS
If you're into Tweeting and you're on a Mac,
you might like to know that Atebits'
Tweetie
for Mac is a desktop equivalent of its
previously-released
Tweetie for iPhone.
Features include conversation view, independent
composition windows, trend searches, threading of
Direct Messages, a tear-off search results list, a
browser bookmarklet for sending links to Tweetie, and
more. Tweetie is for Mac OS X 10.5 (Universal
Binary), and in its recent review of all Mac-based
tweeting apps, it was the reviewer's preferred choice
of the lot.
(Source: Macintouch)
| Cost: US$14.95 (until May 4) | Requires: MacOS X
10.5+ | For further info...
Prizmo 1.0 from Creaceed is an
answer to the idle musing of no doubt many a user
– an app that allows you to use your digital
camera as a "scanner" for both 2D and 3D objects,
including receipts, book and magazine pages, signs
and posters, landscapes, and more. Its bundled
software allows you to correct the resulting image
for contrast, sharpening, and – impressively
– for perspective, too. The resulting images
can be printed, emailed, or saved to disk. Includes
support for JPEG, RAW, and TIFF input images, and
more. Any digital camera will do, but it for best
results it recommend a 10-megapixel camera or higher.
For potentially saving you the cost of a scanner such
as the
ScanSnap
or the newly released
NeatDesk for Mac, however, there
is a price.
(Source: Macintouch)
| Cost: USD $39.95 | Requires: MacOS X 10.5+, digital
camera | For further info...
Microsoft has released the latest updates for
Office 2008 and Office 2004, to address a critical
security issue in Excel and improve performance. The
2008 update requires you to have installed update
#12.1.0. If you're using
MS Office for Mac
2004, be advised that it will cease to be
supported as of as of Oct 13, 2009, and will thus no
longer receive any updates.
(Source: TidBits) |
Cost: Free (update) | Requires: Mac OS X 10.4+ |
For further info...
Billed as a unique tool for managing both
projects and workgroups,
Teamwork
4.1 is a very full-featured web-based team work
manager, written in Java, with tools for project
management, agendas and meetings, work logging,
collaboration, and other functions. Project
management data may be exported to MS Project. The
latest version includes integration with Twitter and
Google Calendar, a revamped interface, a business
process extension, smart search functions, dynamic
web parts that allow in-place and multi-line editing,
and more.
A helpful, if Swiss-accented explanatory video online
(“manADGEment” = management,
“assee-knees” = assignees) gives a good
picture of its features and advantages.
(Source: Macintouch)
| Cost: €90 per user; €790 for 10-user
pack. | Requires: Java 5 & Mac OS X 10.4+,
Windows, or Linux | For further info... /
PDF Studio from Qoppa
Software allows you to carry out a wide range of
editing operations to PDF documents without Adobe
Acrobat. These include: annotating,
scanning-to-pdf, fill PDF forms and saving them
locally, changing security, highlighting text and
more... It is offered in versions for Macintosh,
Linux, Windows (including Vista), and AIX, and is
localized for English, French, German, Spanish. (A
Mac-only – and slightly cheaper –
alternative is
PDFpen by SmileOnMyMac
Software.)
(Source: Macintouch)
| Cost: US$60 | Requires: Mac OS X, Windows,
Linux\Unix | For further info... Continued…
BumperCar 2.2 from
Freeverse Software is a web browser for children
based on the same engine as Apple’s own
Safari. Featuring a start page that encourages
children to explore a collection of kid-friendly
sites, it can be configured to be in a Home,
School or Pre-School setting with personalized
features appropriate for each location. It also
filters out objectionable web content, limits the
sharing of personal information, and forces Google
to use a "Safe Search" mode. A “Tunnel of
Mystery” teleports kids to a random kid-safe
site. BumperCar. Parents may add additional
controls of their own choosing in the Preferences.
Unlike most other browsers, however, it
isn’t free – but then, you can’t
have everything.
(Source: Macintouch)
| Cost: US$29.95 | Requires: Mac OS X 10.4+ |
For further info...
After an anti-climactic April’s Fool Day
when the
Conficker worm apparently
failed to “phone home” for its dreaded
instructions, its real purposes are now revealed. An
analysis by the respected
Kaspersky Labs concludes that the
worm offers its victims a fake anti-virus
product that will supposedly remove all malware
for $49.95. It also downloads an email worm
called
Waledac, which steals passwords
and sends spam.
Users should note that
Conficker only
affects Windows operating systems. Mac and Linux
users are safe within the Mac OS part of their
systems, and are vulnerable only within the Windows
environments that they may run on their machines.
(Source: Wired) |
Cost: | Requires: Windows | For further info...
Lest you think that The Library of Congress was
just about books, it has begun releasing videos from
its archives through its own YouTube channel,
starting with 70 historical videos, inclulding the
first ever moving image (a man sneezing), films from
the Thomas Edison studio and industrial films from
Westinghouse factories.
(Source: Wired) |
Cost: Free | For further info...
Sweet Home 3D 1.8 from
eTeks is an open-source, Java-based application
for drawing the plan of a home, arranging
furniture on it, and displaying the results in a
3D view. Doors, windows and items from a built-in
catalogue of furniture and fixtures may be dragged
in and resized manually after placement. Various
textures of wood, tiles and others may be applied
to surfaces, and changes in plan are seen
immediately in a rendered 3D view plan and
realtime walkthroughs are also possible. The
quality of rendering is equivalent of most
low-cost offerings of the past twenty years, but
unlike others,
Sweet Home 3D is offered
under a
GNU/GPL licence.
(Source: Macintouch)
| Cost: Free (donations accepted) | Requires: Mac OS
X 10.4+, Linux\Unix, or Windows | For further info...
NeoOffice, the open-source
suite based on
OpenOffice that allows you to
open and save Microsoft
Office documents
(
Word, Excel, Powerpoint), is now out in
version 3.0, bringing with it new features and
enhancements.
(Source: Macworld) |
Cost: Free (donations accepted) | Requires: Mac OS X
10.3+ | For further info...
/
Next time you decide to throw out an app that
you no longer need, don't just throw it in the Trash
– make sure that all its associated preference
panes, cache, and other files are discarded as well.
We normally use
CleanApp for this purpose, but
now you can also try the newly-minted
Amnesia 1.0 from Koingo
Software. It includes a secure delete option, a
log of uninstalled files, a backup/restore option
for applications and their related files, an
option to move rather than delete files, rebuild
of the Launch Services database after removing
files, and other features.
(Source: Macintouch)
| Cost: US$9.95 | Requires: Mac OS X 10.4+ |
For further info...