Thursday, March 6, 2008
Sync Your GCal to Outlook and Back Automatically
4:17PM Gina Trapani | Windows only: Have your calendar available on the desktop as well as in the cloud with the Google Calendar Sync desktop tool, freshly released from the big G. Sync your primary calendar on your vanilla or Google Apps account to Outlook automatically at a refresh rate you define. Syncing can be one or two-way, meaning you can add and edit events in Outlook and have them sync to GCal or vice versa automatically. The only catch is that it only works with your primary calendar, not secondary ones. Google Calendar Sync is a free download for Windows only. (Of course, having Outlook helps.) This coupled with Gmail IMAP really makes Outlook a viable GApps client. Google Calendar Sync [via Lifehacker AU] More »
Synch your Outlook and Google Calendars
12:25PM Sarah Stokely | If you’re a Googlehead but you’re in a Microsoft environment at work, you will be happy to know that Google’s come up with a synching tool for GCal and Microsoft Outlook. The GCal product manager wrote about the tool on the Google blog today.
Google Calendar Synch is a two-way syching tool which lets you add events in either calendar. You can download it here.
You can choose 1 way or 2 way synching, and specify how often it should synch (every 10 minutes is the minimum).
Once you’ve set up Google Calendar Synch, you’ll be able to access the settings window by double-clicking on the calendar icon in the Windows System Tray.
Sounds great. I’m not running Outlook, but if you try it out please let us know how it works for you in comments.
More » iPhone
12:15PM Sarah Stokely | Here’s an update on the story I posted yesterday “Does this mean Telstra got the iPhone?” Yesterday I speculated about whether a job ad placed by Sensis looking for a business analyst to help them develop an iPhone search app meant that Telstra had landed the iPhone contract for Australia, or if Sensis was just planning a search tool for use across carriers. They emailed back this morning confirming the latter is the case. I’ve updated the story accordingly. Hopefully when we get the iPhone it will be available through a choice of carriers, rather than locked to one. Are you listening Apple? :) More » Take some presentation tips from Barack Obama
11:38AM Sarah Stokely | It’s been quite a while since the race for the US presidential nomination got people all over the world listening in, but from the number of Australian bloggers I’ve noticed commenting on Barack Obama’s campaign in the US, he’s doing a good job as an inspirational speaker.
Carmine Gallo at Business Week has written an article offering up four techniques which you can borrow from Obama to make your presentations a bit more inspiring. Apart from some general advice on theme and delivery, such as presenting a positive message of hope, it also delves into some very interesting rhetorical devices:
Parallel structure
Repeat the same word or expression at the start of a series of sentences (anaphora) or at the end of a series of sentences (epistrophe). Think Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a dream” speech. Obama’s speech (set to music in the video above) uses epistrophe by repeating the expression “Yes we can” throughout to punctuate his speech.
Dynamic Vocal Delivery
Pacing, volume and well-placed pauses are all speaking techniques which Obama employs very effectively. You need to avoid speaking in a monotone – varying the speed you speak at (and your volume) can help with this.
Got any speaking tips or examples of great speeches or speakers? Share in comments please.How to Inspire People Like Obama Does [Business Week] More » ETech
11:15AM Sarah Stokely | If, like me, you were slightly bummed at not being able to attend Lifehacker guru Gina Trapani’s talk at ETech in San Diego yesterday, fear not! Mitch Wagner’s done a nice writeup of her talk over at Information Week – he called it “11 Lifehacking Tips for Improving Productivity – and Knowing When That’s Not the Point”. More »
Better YouTube Extension Now Includes High Res Option
10:59AM Gina Trapani | All platforms with Firefox: Just uploaded a new version of the Better YouTube Firefox extension which now includes support for YouTube’s high resolution videos. You already know that a simple URL hack can magically up the quality of some videos; now with Better YouTube installed, no URL modification’s required. I highly recommend turning on YouTube HD with the Theater View in Better YouTube’s options for quite the viewing experience. Grab the update from Firefox’s Add-ons dialog, or click through to download it manually. Thanks to all the commenters for requesting this addition and to Yansky, YouTube Greasmonkey scripter extraordinaire, for the excellent user script. Better YouTube Firefox Extension [Lifehacker Code] More »
Make your own Guitar Hero songs
10:24AM Sarah Stokely | Here’s one for the Guitar Hero fans out there - there’s a free editor available which you can use to create, edit and upload songs for Guitar Hero. Logan over at our gaming site Kotaku pointed this one out – and it turns out the two developers behind the Feedback Editor are both Aussies. Onya guys. It’s Windows only – 2000, XP or Vista, and requires DirectX 9 as well. GH nerds head over to Kotaku for the full story, or download the editor here.
Make your own Guitar Hero Songs with Aussie-made Editor [Kotaku]
More » Blatant Bribery
10:00AM Gina Trapani | Lifehacker’s sales team is looking for some info on your travel habits so that we can get some, you know, relevant advertising going on around here. You give us five minutes of your time to fill out a survey? We might just give you an $100 American Express Gift Card. Standard contest rules apply. Promise we won’t be dumb about your personal info. Thanks. More »
