Oct 18

CyberWare: New Calgoo Beta…They have Finally Impressed Me!

Posted in: Apple, Freeware, Google, Microsoft, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on March 05, 2007 by CyberNet.

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Calgoo is a calendar application that interacts with your online Google Calendar so that you can manage your life without always being connected to the Internet. While it sounds very appetizing having a software application that prevents you from having to manage your calendar only online, in the past (first release and second release) I have not been very fond of Calgoo. The biggest reason that I didn’t like the application was that the interface seemed a little clunky and the amount of screen space available for the calendar itself was not very much on an averaged size monitor.

For the last several months I have been involved in a closed Beta process that consisted of around 275 participants. We were able to see new features as they were rolled out and I’ll be the first to say that the things they implemented along the way were really great. However, the interface for the most part remained the same and I never felt as though I could use the application on a daily basis.

Calgoo Beta

When I downloaded the newest version of Calgoo that was released today I was shocked to say the least. They had removed the right sidebar from the screen and combined it with the one on the left side! I couldn’t believe what a difference that made and honestly Calgoo has just taken a tremendous step forward. If that right sidebar had still been in place like previous releases I am confident that this review would not be a positive one.

Despite what I consider to be a huge visual change, there are also a lot of new features included with this release of Calgoo:

  • Add/manage tasks – Very cool, but the tasks don’t synchronize with Google Calendar.
  • Synchronization with Outlook Calendar
  • Subscribe to iCal calendars
  • Compatible with Google Apps for your domain (both free and Premium versions)
  • Modify Calendar options – Right-clicking on a calendar will present you with some quick-access options, such as changing the color of a calendar.
  • Dragging and Dropping – Drag and drop madness! Everyone loves being able to drag and drop things around the screen and now you can do it with Calgoo. This makes things feel more natural I guess you could say.
  • Minimize to System Tray – Took me a little while to figure this one out, but then I realized that the “Close” option in the File menu will actually minimize to the System Tray. I would have expected it to say “Minimize to Tray” instead.
  • Themes – There are now 3 themes available: Blue, Silver, and Black. I like them because they’re not very overwhelming and I would be happy using any of them. Personally though, I have chosen the black one.
  • Mini Day Summary – I really like this Mini Day summary thing. I was confused at the purpose initially, but after learning about it I have really grown to love it. So what is it? Basically when you click on a day in the month view it will show you a list of everything scheduled for that day in the Mini Day sidebar module. I originally didn’t think this was useful, but then I found a day that had more items scheduled than could actually fit in the small calendar space in the month view. I guess it is hard to explain, but when you click on a day that has 5 or 10 appointments scheduled I’m sure you’ll see what I’m talking about.
  • Appointment Dialogue – This is pretty cool…now you can schedule your appointments in a popup window instead of having to used the cramped sidebar item. Sure the sidebar item let’s you add things a little quicker, but everything is spaced out a lot better with the popup window.
  • Reminders – Calgoo now supports the use of reminders. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m wondering what kind of notification it gives a user when displaying a reminder.

Overall, this version of Calgoo not only has a more simplified interface, but it also has a large list of new features that make managing your calendar easier and more powerful. The calendar is cross platform (runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac) because it is written in Java, but there is one thing you should know if you’re using Vista that I had to find out the hard way. Calgoo needs to have Java Runtime Environment 5 installed and by default Sun wants Vista users to install version 6 since it is newer and more compatible. Once I manually installed Java 5 I got Calgoo up and running without any issues.

Now for the screenshots. Below are thumbnails of screenshots from Calgoo Beta version 0.34 so click on any of them for a fullsize version. From left to right you’ll see the main calendar display, appointment editor, task list, task editor, and the preferences:

Calgoo Beta Calgoo Beta Calgoo Beta Calgoo Beta Calgoo Beta

If you’ve yet to try out Calgoo, I would say there hasn’t been a better time. Head on over to the Calgoo site to sign-up and download their latest Beta release.

 

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Oct 18

Microsoft Kinect will work just fine for seated gameplay

Posted in: kinect, Microsoft, Software, Today's Chili, xbox 360, Xbox360

One of the major points of confusion related to Microsoft’s new controller-less Xbox 360 Kinect gaming system is the perceived lack of seated gameplay, largely driven by those early demos that required a standing player. At the time, Kinect’s sensor was keying off the base node located at the bottom of the spine to create its skeletal models. As of a few months ago, Microsoft updated its software libraries to key off the base of the neck, thus avoiding any ambiguity caused by the player’s motionless knees or feet obscuring a spine stuffed into the opaque comfort of the living room sofa. At least that’s what Blitz Games Studios co-founder and CTO Andrew Oliver told Eurogamer. Unfortunately, the motion-sensing changes for lazy-bone play come too late for Kinect’s early November launch titles (burdened with writing their own software for seated play) but “games going forward won’t have a problem,” says Oliver.

Microsoft Kinect will work just fine for seated gameplay originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 18 Oct 2010 05:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 17

Microsoft’s HealthVault Beats Google To the Punch

Posted in: Microsoft, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on October 04, 2007 by CyberNet.

healthvault logo The Dr. is in! Dr. Microsoft that is.  Today Microsoft launched a new service into beta called HealthVault. As the name suggests, it’s a site designed to help you manage your health with three main services that allow you to collect, store, and share your health information. – HealhVault Search, HealthVault Account, and the HealthVault Connection Center. The site is free to use, and Microsoft is hoping that the step they just took into the Health Industry will influence doctors and hospitals into keeping electronic medical records. They’re also hoping that the software development kit they’ve made available will get insurance companies, doctors, and hospital offices to create web applications that will benefit their patients.

Before we get in to what HealtVault is all about, from the sounds of it, Microsoft has beaten Google to the punch. Back in August, screenshots emerged of Google Health – Googles own health service that has yet to be released. Some of the features it is expected to have sound very similar to what Microsoft is offering here. Microsoft must be feeling pretty good right about now because now Google will be playing catch-up…

HealthVault Search

The HealthVault Search is not your typical web search. When you enter a search query (note: search results page doesn’t appear quite right in Opera), you’ll get options for refining your search, Article Results (e.g., Wikipedia), Web Results, a Sponsored Result, and books from Amazon regarding the topic you searched for.

healthvault search

HealthVault Account

This too is a free service where you can collect, store, and share health information with Web sites and doctors.  You must have a HealthVault Account to use this service which requires a Windows Live ID. You control who sees what, and what goes in.  Examples of what you’d store in your HealthVault Account include:

  • Perscription information and medication history
  • X-Rays, MRIs, CAT scan results, etc.

You’re free to upload health documents, or have your health records faxed directly into your HealthVault account.

HealthVault Connection Center

The HealthVault Connection Center will be great for those who monitor their blood pressure, or blood glucose levels.  Certain devices like blood glucose monitors, blood pressure monitors, sport watches, and others can be connected to your computer via USB, infrared, or wirelessly.  Once you download the HealthVault Connection software, the data from your device will be uploaded and stored on your HealthVault record. If you plan on using the software, you must be running a genuine copy of Windows, otherwise it won’t work.

–

When it comes to Health, people want to make sure that their information is private and secure.  Microsoft makes it a point to clearly display their Health Privacy Commitment on the website because trust is definitely an issue here. Users have to feel that they can trust Microsoft with their health information if this is going to be successful.

As Long Zheng over at the I Started Something blog said, “If you can get your head around the fact this is provided by the same company who makes a computer operating system and game console” then HealthVault will probably be useful for you.

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Oct 16

Xbox and PC Gamers Unite in May with Live Online Services

Posted in: Apple, gaming, Microsoft, Screenshots, Today's Chili, xbox

This article was written on March 15, 2007 by CyberNet.

XboxliveMicrosoft has officially announced that Xbox and PC Gamers will be united with their Live online services as it will soon be crossed–over to the Windows Vista Platform.  This means that if you have Windows Vista, you’ll be able to get in on all of the Live Online action with your friends who are playing on the Xbox.

Quick facts:

  • Live Online Services will debut on May 8th with the launch of the Windows Vista version of Halo 2.
  • Gamers will be able to get one account to use on the Xbox and on the PC
  • Microsoft offers two different subscriptions; either a Silver free membership, or a Gold membership for $50 per year. (List of differences here)
  • Other games to be offered for both platforms include “Shadowrun” which will be released in June 2007, and “Uno” the classic party game.

Peter Moore of Microsoft says, “The benefits of expanding Xbox LIVE to Games for Windows titles is twofold: We’re bringing together two communities that share a passion for playing online games, and we’re enhancing the online experience for PC gamers who have long desired seamless game and voice connectivity — it’s a win for everyone.”

I know several people who don’t like video game systems in general because they say it’s easier to control games with a mouse/keyboard combination over a single controller.  Microsoft has certainly done well with the Xbox Live Online services, but whether or not PC Gamers will latch onto is one question that’ll have to wait to be answered come May. Halo 2 for Vista should definitely send it off to a great start.

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Oct 15

National Boss’s Day: Tech’s Best, Worst, and Weirdest Bosses

Posted in: Apple, Microsoft, Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili

sorry-wasted-much-work-boss-day-ecard-someecards.jpg

October 16 is National Boss’s Day. This year the holiday falls on a Saturday, so for those of you inclined to celebrate such things, today is the day. If you’re so inclined, I hear that Hallmark has a fine selection of e-cards.

The holiday has actually been around since 1958. After having forgotten her own boss’s birthday –October 16 –, a State Farm Insurance employee registered the holiday with the US Chamber of Commerce.

Here at Gearlog, we’d like to celebrate National Boss’s Day in our own way: by paying tribute to the best, worst, and just generally most interesting bosses that the tech world has to offer.

[Top image from Some Ecards. More Boss’s Day cards here.]

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Oct 14

Windows Phone 7 Is the Real Facebook Phone

Posted in: Microsoft, Phones, search, Today's Chili, windows phone 7, Wp7, xbox

When Microsoft and Facebook announced that they were partnering to integrate Facebook and Bing for social network–powered search, it confirmed something I thought Monday: Windows Phone 7 is the real Facebook phone.

I don’t know whether Facebook has a secret team working on a phone where they control the OS. But the company doesn’t need one. It’s already deeply integrated into Android and iOS. Now with the Microsoft partnership, it’s tied to the most socially optimized smartphone ever brought to the market.

“This is, I think, one of the most exciting partnerships we’ve done on the platform so far,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at the Bing announcement Wednesday. “Our view is that over the next five years we expect that almost every industry is going to be disrupted by someone building a great product that’s deep in whatever area that industry is, plus is extremely socially integrated.”

The first Windows Phone 7 handsets are due in stores November. The OS is Microsoft’s complete do-over on mobile, after its predecessor Windows Mobile tanked in popularity and market share in the wake of more consumer-savvy handsets such as Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android-powered smartphones.

Every aspect of Windows Phone 7 is geared to social networks: phone, contacts, gaming, photos, even Office. Focusing the phone around Hubs doesn’t just mean that local client apps and cloud apps are grouped next to each other. It means that the local client and cloud work together.

Microsoft tried to explicitly build a social networking phone featuring Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and MySpace with the Kin. The Kin failed and was killed by Microsoft, mostly because it wasn’t a full-featured smartphone (it was a fork of Windows Phone 7), but required a smartphone’s data plan.

The Kin’s cloud-backed social and sharing components lived on in Windows Phone 7. They were always there. Only now, Flickr and MySpace are nowhere to be found.

Even before the Bing announcement, Facebook was a conspicuous part of the WP7 presentation. Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore outlined a scenario where users could take a photo on their phone that’s then uploaded to Facebook automatically, without even opening the Facebook app.

In the press release for WP7, Microsoft notes that “the customizable Start screen with Live Tiles provides real-time updates so you can keep tabs on the latest weather forecast, your favorite band, a friend’s Facebook page and more, all with just one glimpse” [emphasis added].

That wasn’t an accident. The Facebook-Bing partnership was already happening.

It’s the exact strategy that Zuckerberg outlined in his interview with Michael Arrington, where he explained why Facebook wasn’t building its own phone.

Zuckerberg only made an offhand reference to WP7 in that interview: “If Windows Phone 7 takes off, then I’m sure we’ll put resources on that.” But he added, with reference to their efforts with the iPhone and Android, “The question is, what could we do if we also started hacking at a deeper level, and that is a lot of the stuff that we’re thinking about.”

In order to do that, Zuckerberg explained, you need to find a company that was willing to incorporate social networking from the operating system up — not just adding a layer on top of it was already doing, but making that the focus of the device and its services.

At least one of those companies is Microsoft.

“We started thinking what would social search look like, and we started looking around for partners,” Zuckerberg said. “Microsoft really is the underdog here and they really are incentivized to try new things.”

He was talking about search, but he may as well have been talking about phones.

Microsoft may be the underdog in search and phones, but it’s actually been ahead of the curve in terms of incorporating social layers into its products. The Zune had song and photo sharing between devices over Wi-Fi before the iPhone was even announced.

But that was a closed network, limited to just Zune-to-Zune, and later Zune-to-Xbox. In order to get outside of itself, Microsoft partnered with Facebook early on — it still owns part of the company — and Facebook helped shape Microsoft’s social strategy.

Microsoft has been quietly building a social network without anyone actually noticing. Windows Live, Office Live, Xbox Live are all social networks where users work, share files and talk about media together. You use the same identity across all of those services on every Microsoft device.

Facebook is already embedded in all of them: It’s built into Messenger, Hotmail and Outlook, and it’s what powers part of the social dimension of Xbox Live. And Bing is already embedded in Facebook, in the form of maps and search results.

Now Facebook’s information is embedded in Bing search. And search is one of just three buttons on every WP7 phone.

Consequently, Facebook’s partnership with Bing isn’t just about Google> It isn’t just about “Like” results showing up when you search in a web browser on your PC.

It’s about incorporating a social layer into media on every device in your household, from your phone to your set-top box. It’s about making those devices smarter in how they communicate with each other and from one platform to another.

That’s what stood out to me most at the Windows Phone 7 launch event. The Office people demonstrated how to use Windows Live to stream a PowerPoint presentation from a Windows PC to a Mac. The Xbox people were showing how to chat about a Netflix movie with your Facebook friends on Xbox live. The hardware people were showing off a wide-angle HD webcam that will let families chat with families from their living rooms. Deep integration of devices, media and services — using the cloud to power person-to-person interaction through voice, images and text.

If we think about Apple’s attempt with Ping to bring a social layer to iTunes (which has been criticized, in part, because Apple didn’t partner up with Facebook), Sony’s idea of a multitasking television set or Twitter’s plays to get on the television screen with Google TV, it’s clear that that’s where we’re heading.

The only places where Microsoft and Facebook are “underdogs” are search and smartphones. When it comes to social networking and smart partnering with other companies — including each other — the two giants are way ahead of the field.

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Oct 14

Steve Jobs E-mail Antagonizer Wins Microsoft Contest

Posted in: Apple, Microsoft, steve jobs, Today's Chili

chelsea_kate_isaacs.jpg

Chelsea Kate Isaacs is conflicted. “I hate Apple, but I don’t hate Apple,” so told a reporter during Microsoft’s recent Windows Phone 7 launch in New York City. Where, precisely, does the whole hating Apple part come from? Well, if Isaacs’s name doesn’t ring any bells, her recent run in with Apple CEO Steve Jobs just might.

Last month the journalism student made news after a testy e-mail dialog with the exec hit the blogs. Isaacs sent an e-mail Jobs an e-mail asking why his company’s PR team wasn’t more responsive to student queries,

Mr. Jobs, I humbly ask why Apple is so wonderfully attentive to the needs of students, whether it be with the latest, greatest invention or the company’s helpful customer service line, and yet, ironically, the Media Relations Department fails to answer any of my questions which are, as I have repeatedly told them, essential to my academic performance.

Jobs responded to the question in typically curt fashion,

Our goals do not include helping you get a good grade. Sorry.

The conversation just kind of devolved from there, with the turtlenecked executive finally responding, “Please leave us alone.”

Isaacs, meanwhile, won a Microsoft-sponsored contest. The company sent her to the aforementioned New York event, where she told press, “I wouldn’t be comfortable giving [Apple] a dime. If that’s the way you treat consumers, that’s not right.”

She did promise to cover both Apple and Microsoft objectively, however, but we know which OS she’ll be using to file her stories in the future.

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Oct 14

Xbox 360 Getting AT&T U-verse HDTV

Posted in: att, Microsoft, Today's Chili, video games, xbox 360

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is a multimedia machine. The console lets you consumer all manner of media through your television set, like games, movies, music, and even, well, TV. Microsoft this week announced that the system will be getting AT&T U-Verse, bringing the Xbox HDTV and DVR capabilities.

In order to use the service, you’ll need a U-verse account and set-top box. There’s also a mandatory Xbox kit, which includes a 360 remote control–that’ll run you an extra $99. Oh, and an AT&T cable guy is going to have to come to your house to install the thing. The handy video above will explain everything to you.

U-verse is currently available in a number of markets across the US.

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Oct 14

Free Vista SP1 Support by Microsoft

Posted in: Microsoft, Software, Today's Chili, Web Sites, Windows

This article was written on March 25, 2008 by CyberNet.

vista sp1 support Microsoft is obviously very anxious to get people to adopt Vista Service Pack 1 because for the next year they will be offering free technical support to help users get it up and running. This is not anything abnormal for those of you who have purchased retail copies of the operating system, but if Vista came with the computer you would be deferred to the manufacturer for any support.

Right now you can get free support via email and they will get back to you within one business day. Alternatively you can start a chat conversation to help troubleshoot any problems you’re having provided that you try contacting them between their hours of operation:

  • Monday – Friday: 5:00 A.M. – 12:00 A.M. PST
  • Saturday & Sunday: 6:00 A.M. – 6:00 P.M. PST

I’ve seen the wait time for reaching a chat representative fluctuate between 0 and 17 minutes which isn’t really that bad. There is also free phone support if you’re a member of MSDN, TechNet or a few of their other programs.

What I’m wondering now is how good the support actually is. Normally the people on the other end are less than helpful, and typically provide you with answers that are obviously scripted. If any of you decide to hit up the support to try and solve a Vista SP1 problem please let us know in the comments how it goes.

Microsoft Vista SP1 Technical Support [via Computer World]

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Oct 13

Windows 7 Demo Not too Exciting

Posted in: Microsoft, Pre-Release, Software, Today's Chili, videos, Windows, windows 7

This article was written on May 28, 2008 by CyberNet.

Last night at the D6 conference both Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer sat down together for an interview. We’ve got two highlight videos from the conference below, and there were actually some interesting things brought up. What’s even more surprising is that there were some jokes being thrown around.

Before we get into that we wanted to bring some attention to the multi-touch Windows 7 interface that was demoed. Despite being rather tight-lipped on Windows 7 Microsoft decided to show off a glimpse of what’s in store for the future operating system, but it didn’t go any further than the multi-touch capabilities. My question is whether people are actually looking for multi-touch capabilities in a laptop? The Tablet PC market never really seemed to explode like Bill Gates said it would, and I don’t think that on-screen multi-touch laptops are going to do any better. Sure there will be a chunk of the population who will find it useful, but the hardware required will probably fall outside of the price range for general consumers. Take a look at this video demonstration by Microsoft and give us your opinion:

And as you can see in that video there is not a drastically new interface in Windows 7 like those pictured over at Crunchgear. In fact the credibility of their “screenshots” has already been smashed. All of them are clearly mockups (apparently not even done by Microsoft), and some even look like they date back to the Longhorn days.

If you’ve got 12-minutes to kill here are the highlights from the Bill Gates and Steve Jobs interview, and they are worth watching in my opinion. The first video covers their chat about the history of Microsoft, and the second half focuses on current/future developments.

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