Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on February 21, 2008 by CyberNet.

Microsoft just publicly launched their Windows Live SkyDrive service which now offers a whopping 5GB of storage at no cost. In the testing stage users were only given 1GB of storage space, and it was only expected that Microsoft would up that to 2GB upon launch. Well, we’re happy to say that they proved us wrong.

SkyDrive is supposed to be both faster and more reliable now that the Beta tag has been lifted from the service, and users across the world will be able to bask in the plentiful storage:

SkyDrive is also available now in 38 countries/regions. In addition to Great Britain, India, and the U.S., we’re live in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, France, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Turkey.

Each file can be up to 50MB in size, and if you’re using Internet Explorer you can actually install an upload tool that they have created. When you go to add files there will be a box that asks if you want to install the upload tool. This is an ActiveX add-on which is why you must be using Internet Explorer for it to work.

I think it’s cool that Microsoft has come out with such a service, but I’m pretty disappointed with how well they’ve integrated it into Windows. Aside from the Internet Explorer add-on there is no advanced way to manage your files. I thought that there would be a Windows Explorer app to make it look just like a drive on your computer, and even a Vista sidebar gadget for easily uploading your files. Those things were a no-brainer to me, and the lack of tools available is the reason I’m still holding out for that “perfect” file storage solution.

I know many of you were participating in the Beta program for SkyDrive and I would love to hear how the service has been handling for you.

SkyDrive Homepage

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This article was written on March 13, 2008 by CyberNet.

Google Blogoscoped noticed that there was a presentation given by Google at KMWorld the other day, and while there they gave an inside look at some of the tools they use internally to stay productive. There’s really no need to to say that a lot of what they had to show were their own products, such as Google Docs, Calendar, and Gmail, but they also showed off some things that aren’t available to the public.

What’s even better is that if you look closely in the screenshots they provide you might even be able to catch a glimpse of some upcoming features that may or may not be released. Read on to see what I’m talking about…

–Google Ideas–

When a Google employee has an idea for the “next big thing” they don’t just keep it bottled up inside. Instead they submit it to an internal site where other Googlers can vote and comment on it:

(Click to Enlarge)

–Moma–

This is Google’s internal search engine, and it can even be used to search through a database of Google employees.

(Click to Enlarge)
 

–Google Docs–

And this is where those “new features” I was talking about come into play. Google Docs as you know is a public service that is available to anyone who wants it. Back in January there were some hints that offline access to Google Docs was going to be coming soon via Google Gears, and the screenshot below on the left appears to confirm that. In the upper-right corner there is a link that says Experimental Offline Access, which matches what we saw in January.

The screenshot on the right shows off what appears to be another Google Docs redesign. This time around they have created what appears to be a menu structure along the top (File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Tools, and Table) instead of using the tab-like system currently implemented. Also, did you notice that the document is centered on the screen instead of taking up the full width?

(Click to Enlarge)

There’s really no telling when we might actually see these features make their way into Google Docs, but I’m hoping it is sooner rather than later.

–The Presentation–

Want to see what else was in the presentation? We’ve converted the presentation into an image which can be viewed here.

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This article was written on March 22, 2008 by CyberNet.

Weekend Website

If you’re looking for something fun to do with your mounds and mounds of digital photos, look no further than a fairly new website called FACEinHOLE.com.  At first glance it’s nothing special, but it is one of those sites you’ll have to at least check out once, just for fun. And it’s simple enough that even those that aren’t so tech-savvy can do it too.

What is FACEinHOLE

FACEinHOLE is a site that allows you to take one of your photos and upload it into one of their prepared scenarios.  It’ll look like you used Photoshop except you don’t actually have to put the work in to get results. You’ll see what I mean in just a minute by prepared scenarios. They have a variety to choose from and it reminds me of when you’re at an amusement park and they have the wood cut-outs where you can go stick your face in the hole and have your picture taken. Getting results takes just seconds.

Below are a few examples of the “prepared scenarios” so you get an idea of what they are. On their site, all of the scenarios are divided into categories which include:

• Advertising
• Film & TV
• Greeting Cards
• Kids
• Miscellaneous
• Music
• People & Celebrities
• Sports

You can view them by most popular, or most recently added. You can also view the whole collection on one page. Below are the prepared scenarios for Shrek, James Bond, Austin Powers, Star Wars, Spiderman, and Harry Potter.

Creating a Scenario

If you find a scenario you like while browsing through them, you can easily use it . At the top of the scenario will be the option to select your image source whether it be from a Webcam or an Image file (it must be JPG). Once your photo has either been uploaded or taken with your webcam, you can start the process of editing the photo and adjusting it so it looks just right.

Adjusting Your Scenario

To make your scenario look as real as possible, you’ll want to make some adjustments. Adjustments that you can make include:

• move it around
• make it larger or smaller
• rotate it
• adjust the brightness
• adjust the hue/saturation

The image below shows the tools that are available to you:

Results

After I was done tweaking my photos, I ended up with these results:

Steve Jobs as Indiana Jones and Bill Gates as Harry Potter:

Sharing Your FACEinHOLE:

Once you’re done, there are buttons to save and print your creation. You can also quickly post to the following sites:

• MySpace
• Bebo
• Live Spaces
• Friendster
• Piczo
• Facebook
• Blogger
• Hi5
• and more…

If you have a blog you’d like to put it on you can also just copy a line of code and then paste it to any site. Overall FACEinHOLE is fun place to visit when you’re looking for something fun to do with your photos. It’ll look like you spent some time using Photoshop when in reality, you just spent a minute or two uploading your photo to the service and making a few minor adjustments.

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This article was written on December 19, 2006 by CyberNet.

Fauxto is a pretty cool online Photoshop Clone.  It looks so close to the real thing, you may have to look twice! Major differences are hard to notice. At first, I was confused with the name, but it’s actually pretty simple. Fauxto = Fau-to = Fo-to = Photo. Fauxto….like photo. So far, it’s the best use of Adobe Flex that I’ve seen.! It is super easy to use, even for those who don’t have any photo editing experience.

With all of the different options for editing your photos online, some may wonder why it’s worth spending the time creating yet another.  Fauxto looks and performs so much like Photoshop, that you’d hardly know it’s simply a free web application.  They even included the filters! I haven’t seen another online editor that has allowed you to use filters.  The filters that are included are:

• Sharpen
• Blur
• Find Edges
• Emboss
• Enrich
• Clouds

One thing that I did notice is that if you’re wanting to remove a layer, it takes a few extra clicks. I’m sure there are other glitches that you’ll come across, however this is completely understandable considering the program is “way beta” and “definitely in development” as the site notes. Along with the filters, there are the basic drawing and editing features. You’re also able to open multiple images at one time which show up in tabs so that switching from one to the other is easy.

Fauxto gets two thumbs up from me, and I can’t wait to see how it progresses!

News Source: Digital Inspiration

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This article was written on April 09, 2007 by CyberNet.

Google Blogoscoped just noticed a new link in the top navigation bar when performing a Google search. The new “My Notebook” link will actually pull up a notebook manager that is very similar to what the Firefox extension has to offer, except this one is completely coded using JavaScript and requires no installation. In it you can add or remove notes as well as manage all of your notebooks.

This also integrates very well with the “Note This” link located at the end of each search result. When you click on the Note This link it will pull up your notebooks and automatically insert that search result. If you don’t want to use the Note This link you can also highlight any text on the page and drag it into the notebook…where it will automatically copy the selected text into a new note.

I am very happy to see Google developing this notebook management tool because it is a sure sign that it can be turned into a cross-browser bookmarklet. I did, however, try it out in Opera (I had to mask the browser as IE or Firefox to get the My Notebook link to appear) but it didn’t work quite right. It seemed to be just a formatting issue that Google could probably solve if they wanted to (or something that Opera users could fix once they view the JavaScript code).

Not only that but a bookmarklet would mean that this simple tool would be usable on any site we visit. Many of the note taking services that are currently available lack a powerful bookmarklet that even comes close to what Google’s does, so I’m sure it would be a welcomed addition to the service.

There is one last thing I wanted to point out even though it is slightly unrelated to the topic. It appears that some Google bombs are making their way back up to the top such as the infamous “failure” search, even though the Google bomb issue had supposedly been solved.

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