Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Fix
OneLoupe Magnifies Your Screen
11:30PM Lifehacker US Edition | Windows only: Magnify your screen with ultra tiny freeware OneLoupe. Weighing in at a mere 22.5k, OneLoupe resides in your system tray. A single click on the OneLoupe icon activates the magnifier, another single click anywhere on the screen while the magnifier is active dismisses it. While the magnifier is active you can zoom in or out with the scroll wheel, resize the magnifier window with the arrow keys, and take a screenshot of the magnified area. Great for presentations or closeup screenshots, to make OneLoupe portable, simply create a text document and rename it to OneLoupe.ini within the directory you placed the OneLoupe executable. OneLoupe is a free download for Windows only. OneLoupe [via gHacks] More »
Work
Tablefy Makes Comparison Charts Easy
11:14PM Kevin Purdy | Want to create a chart or graph comparing two or more options, but not so keen on digging that far into Excel or another standard spreadsheet? Tablefy offers a pretty slick interface for creating comparative charts with more than just text. You can throw YouTube videos and graphics in when needed, and entering yes/no in a cell automatically shades the cell red or green. Think of it as a My First Comparison Chart for non-spreadsheet hackers who still like to organise their thoughts into rows and columns. Tablefy [via Webware] More »
Organise
Create a Password-Protected Outlook Data File
10:36PM Kevin Purdy | The Online Tech Tips site has a helpful step-by-step guide for creating encrypted, password-protected data files in Outlook. Walk through the steps and you’ll learn how to create a stash for your sensitive emails that no passerby, or network hacker, can get into without some serious effort. If you’re really looking to keep your Outlook data out of prying eyes and hands, read how to create encrypted backups of your data on a USB drive. How to create secured Outlook files [Online Tech Tips] More »
Organise
Feedbook Creates PDFs from RSS Feeds
10:00PM Kevin Purdy | Need some fresh e-reading material for your commute, but all out of e-books? Feedbook, a free RSS aggregator, takes in RSS feeds and spits out compiled PDFs in formats for pretty much any e-reader under the sun, including the Kindle, or you can create custom PDFs (with a free registration) for standard screens. The PDFs even come with a table of contents, and the site offers up a few free e-books of its own. Not every feed works all the time, including this here site’s full feed this morning, but those that do come out looking surprisingly nice. Feedbook is free to use, but a free registration gives you a few more conversion options. Feedbooks [via gHacks] More »
Fix
How to Make Windows Vista Less Annoying
8:00PM Lifehacker US Edition | Editor: Say hello to fellow tech writer and Lifehacker reader The How-To Geek, who was kind enough to pull together some of best Windows Vista power tweaks here on Lifehacker today. Whether it’s the nagging prompts or the irritating notifications, Windows Vista’s default settings can grate on your nerves… which doesn’t help you be the productive person you want to be. A few simple tweaks can cut down on the irritation—and drastically alter your views on Vista. Let’s take a look at some of the best ways to tame the Vista beast and make it a less naggy operating system to work on. More »
Communicate
4:33PM Angus Kidman | Something is afoot at Skype, it seems (and not necessarily the endlessly rumoured selloff by eBay). The company is scheduling media and blogger briefings on a “fundamental change” for later in the week, pitched this way: “Now it’s time for our most exciting change since inception, designed to inspire even more conversations.” No idea what that means (social networking is the obvious target), though rumours will surely emerge before any official announcement. We’ll keep you posted.
More »
Changes in store for Skype
4:33PM Angus Kidman | Something is afoot at Skype, it seems (and not necessarily the endlessly rumoured selloff by eBay). The company is scheduling media and blogger briefings on a “fundamental change” for later in the week, pitched this way: “Now it’s time for our most exciting change since inception, designed to inspire even more conversations.” No idea what that means (social networking is the obvious target), though rumours will surely emerge before any official announcement. We’ll keep you posted.
More »
Organise
4:26PM Angus Kidman | The Screen Play gaming column at The Age and SMH is regularly turned over to readers, and the latest contribution from James “DexX” Dominguez is a corker: a comparison of whether it’s cheaper to buy games (and controllers) from Australian stores, overseas importers or on eBay. The results unsurprisingly vary by platform, but there was hardly any context where local purchases were cheaper, even after factoring in postage from Hong Kong. Not good news for games retailers, who already have the challenges of piracy and the ludicrous games rating system to contend with. (Thanks to MrAndyPuppy for the heads up.)Your Turn: The best way to buy
More »
Want cheap games? Try overseas or eBay
4:26PM Angus Kidman | The Screen Play gaming column at The Age and SMH is regularly turned over to readers, and the latest contribution from James “DexX” Dominguez is a corker: a comparison of whether it’s cheaper to buy games (and controllers) from Australian stores, overseas importers or on eBay. The results unsurprisingly vary by platform, but there was hardly any context where local purchases were cheaper, even after factoring in postage from Hong Kong. Not good news for games retailers, who already have the challenges of piracy and the ludicrous games rating system to contend with. (Thanks to MrAndyPuppy for the heads up.)Your Turn: The best way to buy
More »
Communicate
3:13PM Angus Kidman | Samsung launched its U900 mobile phone today, promoting it as part of its Beijing Olympics sponsorship campaign. To my mind, there’s a much more interesting feature to the phone: it’s going to be available on every major local carrier simultaneously. To put that into some sort of perspective, the last time this happened with a Samsung phone was in 2005, according to the company.Being available on multiple networks makes life simpler for everyone: if you’ve got an existing account you can just move over, if you want to make a switch you’ll have a choice of options and pricing plans (the official RRP for the U900 is $699, but shopping around closer to the July release is bound to turn up a range of options). Nonetheless, such an approach remains a rarity. When it comes down to the crunch, what do you consider first: the phone or the plan? It’s becoming disturbingly evident that for iPhone users, the answer is “the phone, my kidney can be sold if necessary”, but what about for the rest of the market — that is, most of us?
More »
What matters more: carrier or phone?
3:13PM Angus Kidman | Samsung launched its U900 mobile phone today, promoting it as part of its Beijing Olympics sponsorship campaign. To my mind, there’s a much more interesting feature to the phone: it’s going to be available on every major local carrier simultaneously. To put that into some sort of perspective, the last time this happened with a Samsung phone was in 2005, according to the company.Being available on multiple networks makes life simpler for everyone: if you’ve got an existing account you can just move over, if you want to make a switch you’ll have a choice of options and pricing plans (the official RRP for the U900 is $699, but shopping around closer to the July release is bound to turn up a range of options). Nonetheless, such an approach remains a rarity. When it comes down to the crunch, what do you consider first: the phone or the plan? It’s becoming disturbingly evident that for iPhone users, the answer is “the phone, my kidney can be sold if necessary”, but what about for the rest of the market — that is, most of us?
More »
Work
11:44AM Angus Kidman | In a wide-ranging discussion of changes
in corporate language
for the BBC, writer Lucy Kellaway really hits the nail on the head
with this comment:
One of the big banks is currently
advertising for such workers saying “we seek passionate banking
representatives to uphold our values.” This is a lie. Actually
what the bank is seeking is competent people to follow instructions
and answer the phones.
Well, exactly. It’d be great to see job ads taking a
more realistic approach, but sadly I can’t see it happening any time
soon. What’s the worst example you’ve encountered? Let us know in the
comments.
More »
How much passion does your job need?
11:44AM Angus Kidman | In a wide-ranging discussion of changes
in corporate language
for the BBC, writer Lucy Kellaway really hits the nail on the head
with this comment:
One of the big banks is currently
advertising for such workers saying “we seek passionate banking
representatives to uphold our values.” This is a lie. Actually
what the bank is seeking is competent people to follow instructions
and answer the phones.
Well, exactly. It’d be great to see job ads taking a
more realistic approach, but sadly I can’t see it happening any time
soon. What’s the worst example you’ve encountered? Let us know in the
comments.
More »
Communicate
9:23AM Angus Kidman | Although Foxtel started installing HD-equipped iQ2 boxes in early June, the company has set June 22 as the official date for the launch of the Foxtel HD+ service. The occasion will be marked with an HD broadcast of the World Cup qualifier between Australia and China.According to Foxtel, more than 15,000 homes have already had the iQ2 box installed. We’d love to know how many wanted HD, and how many just wanted the iQ2 itself (320GB is a lot of shows). But what we’re really looking forward to is seeing how people tweak the iQ2 as it becomes more widespread.
More »
Foxtel sets June 22 for official HD launch
9:23AM Angus Kidman | Although Foxtel started installing HD-equipped iQ2 boxes in early June, the company has set June 22 as the official date for the launch of the Foxtel HD+ service. The occasion will be marked with an HD broadcast of the World Cup qualifier between Australia and China.According to Foxtel, more than 15,000 homes have already had the iQ2 box installed. We’d love to know how many wanted HD, and how many just wanted the iQ2 itself (320GB is a lot of shows). But what we’re really looking forward to is seeing how people tweak the iQ2 as it becomes more widespread.
More » 
