Before the internet disappeared on me yesterday, I was able to try out the new Google Talk VOiP phone service launched by Google yesterday. After downloading the application and installing it (for Windows only at the moment), I chatted with Fredrik in Sweden. While just one use of the service clearly isn’t a good basis […]
Category: Software
Movable Type 3.2 launched
After months of beta testing, Six Apart launched version 3.2 of its Movable Type blog publishing and management system yesterday. Boasting a wide range of new and improved features, this version offers static or dynamic publishing; built-in support for multiple authors, blogs, categories, and templates; automatic archiving and publishing of XML feeds; and better platform […]
New Movable Type disappoints
I’ve spent a bit of time this weekend upgrading my Movable Type experimental blog to the latest MT version 3.2 released on 25 August. Installation of the new version was pretty smooth, no real issues with it, thanks to the excellent installation guide in the new 3.2 manual. I do have issues, though, with expectations […]
Hot recording Google Talk
I installed Hot Recorder on my new Dell PC today, which I use for recording occasional Skype conversations for the For Immediate Release podcast. Hot Recorder is a great application, as I enthused when I first discovered it in May. As a software-based option for recording phone interviews over Skype for use in podcasts, I […]
Microsoft snaps up Teleo
The instant messaging market just shifted up a few gears with the news today that Microsoft has acquired Teleo, the Skype-like internet phone/chat service. In a press release this morning, Microsoft said it plans to use this acquisition as a means to greatly extend the capabilities of MSN Messenger. An announcement on the Teleo website […]
Spoiled for choice for getting podcasts
I use Winamp as my default media player. I also have iTunes as well as Windows Media Player that comes with the operating system. But I use Winamp when I want to listen to podcasts on my PC. It’s a compact program with a minimalist display that scrolls the show title and has a nice […]
‘Project Green’ begets Microsoft Dynamics
“Project Green” was a code phrase I heard a lot of during my career with Scala Business Solutions, a mid-market ERP vendor and Microsoft Gold certified partner acquired by Epicor last year, and where I spent five years as VP of corporate communication. So it was with some interest that I read the news yesterday […]
iPod nano… Hot cakes
Now this is sexy! Today Apple announced the iPod nano, a very elegant, slim digital player that supersedes the iPod Mini (which is no longer listed on Apple’s website but is there if you know the URL). Super slim, light and a bright colour screen are three of the great form factors of this cute […]
iTunes 5.0.1 released but woes continue
Apple released iTunes 5.0 earlier this month, which generated quite a number of complaints from users such as this one by Michael Hyatt. I installed version 5 for Windows and have not experienced any problems with it nor with syncing music and podcasts to my iPod Mini. Nevertheless, clearly there were issues with version 5, […]
Cool features in FeedDemon 1.6
Release candidate 1 of the next version 1.6 of the FeedDemon RSS aggregator for Windows is now available for testing by registered users, and it’s very good indeed. I’ve been using the betas of this upcoming version for the past couple of months. With RC1, some of the cool new features that will be in […]
BBC innovation to annotate audio content
The BBC is involved in some major innovation for audio-visual content management that looks far beyond the needs of only a mainstream broadcaster. Tom Coates writes a detailed post describing the BBC’s Annotatable Audio Project, an experimental internal-BBC-only project designed to allow you to collectively describe, segment and annotate audio in a Wikipedia-style fashion. He […]
The easiest way to record and email voice messages
In the last couple of editions of FIR: The Hobson & Holtz Report podcast, we’ve been going on about Waxmail, a very cool new tool for creating and sending voice email messages. There are other apps out there but this is the easiest and simplest one to use that I’ve seen. I’ve been playing with […]
A bit of Web 2.0 from Microsoft
I haven’t yet absorbed all the information about Microsoft’s introduction of Windows Live and Microsoft Office Live yesterday, although I have read the press release plus scanned a few tech-focused articles this morning via Memeorandum. A good (ie, easiest for me to understand) news report I read was this one from Dan Farber at ZDNet: […]
Blogging with Flock
For the past couple of days, I’ve been playing with Flock, the new web browser. Not so much for its capabilities as a browser – and it is pretty good at that – but more its capability as a blog editing tool. Even though it is still in development (nice warning when you download the […]
Killing Skypekiller FUD
As a long-time user of the Skype internet phone service, I read with more than passing interest about SkypeKiller, an application that’s designed to remove the Skype software from your computer. Not just uninstall it as you would on a Windows PC with the Add/remove programs applet. No, this eradicates Skype completely, either from a […]
Sony’s rootkit woes tip of the reputation iceberg
Mainstream music publisher Sony BMG is getting hammered left, right and center as fall-out continues over Sony’s rootkit debacle. The rootkit in question was a spyware-like application encoded onto certain copy-protected music CDs that Sony sold in the US and which did some “ET phone home” type of activities from your computer without you knowing […]
Who cares about Windows XP N?
CNET News: A major U.K. retail store and three of the largest PC vendors worldwide still have no plans to sell the version of Microsoft Windows that does not contain its media player, five months after the version was released. Microsoft started offering Windows XP N, a version of Windows without a bundled media player, […]
Audacity releases upgrade of audio editing software
Audacity, the open-source cross-platform sound editor beloved of podcasters, has released an upgrade to its current version and a beta of a new version: Audacity 1.2.4 is a new stable version of Audacity, the free audio editor. It includes a couple of bug fixes and minor improvements and is recommended for all users. Audacity 1.3.0 […]
At the bleeding edge with Skype 2.0 beta
I installed the new Skype 2.0 beta for Windows the other day – and uninstalled it yesterday. Lots to like about it, especially the video calling capability which worked faultlessly when I tried it with a Philips Toucam webcam. Overall, this new Skype version has a rather bright program interface for my taste plus pathetic […]
Cool Nokia N70 is the business
Yesterday was a rare day, a day during which I enjoyed playing around with a gadget purely for the sake of it. Getting to know it a bit, trying things out on it to see how it works. Generally, just having a great deal of fun with it. The gadget is the Nokia N70 smartphone […]