Life Remarks for Nokia S60

Life Remarks is a personal journal for your hand-phone. With it you can keep a daily log of your life.

Features

• Password protection
• Appointments organizer
• Sticked Notes
• Selectable background image
• Whole text diary export function

Free Download: here

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JBL in BFIs groundbreaking ambisonic expo

- Arup Acoustics create immersive audio environment for 3D video art installation with JBL Control 29 speakers. -

BFI Southbank Gallery has gone 3D — thanks to a new immersive video installation by British artists Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard

Radio Mania: An Abandoned Work is part film and part rehearsal, a contemporary adaptation of 1922 3D silent film The Man from M.A.R.S. captured using contemporary 3D video and audio technologies. A 2D version of the original film resides in the BFI National Archive

Forsyth & Pollard worked with Arup Acoustics in New York to create the multi-channel surround environment in the Gallery’s adaptable 190 sq. metre space for soundtrack playback; their system designer/lead engineer Ryan Biziorek then worked with Sound Technology, the Harman Pro UK distributors, who provided 12 x JBL Control 29AV’s and a pair of SB210 subs, linked to the ambisonic platform. They also supplied a pair of Crown CTs 8000 amplifiers.

According to Dominic Simmons, the BFI’s Technical Manager for exhibitions, “Generally we would use JBL Control 25’s for our exhibitions but for this show we needed additional power.”

Ryan Biziorek explained, “The Control 29’s produced the SPL we were trying to achieve in the listening area within the gallery. We have used JBL on previous ambisonic installations and have been very happy with the loudspeaker sound quality, seamless coverage and easy mounting hardware.”

Full story:
www.soundtech.co.uk/jbl/news/control29-bfi-ambisonic

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Canon PowerShot SD880 IS

The 10 megapixel PowerShot SD880 IS Digital Elph is the follow up to the popular SD870 IS, and what a worthy successor it is. It's capable of producing truly excellent pictures for a camera of its size and it has nice components for a sub $300 model including a wide angle lens and optical image stabilization. There are a couple weaknesses, but nothing that keeps it from being an excellent point and shoot camera.

At 6.3 ounces and measuring 3.7 inches wide by 2.2 inches high by 0.9 inch deep, it'll fit more comfortably in a pants or coat pocket than a shirt pocket, but it's by no means big. Compared with the SD870 IS, the SD880 IS has the latest version of Canon's image processing engine, Digic 4, jumps from 8 megapixels to 10, and offers a few more scene modes. The 4x f2.8-5.8 28-112mm lens is a highlight of the camera the wide angle is so nice to have on a camera this small, and it's a tad longer zoom than on the SD870.

It also records video using the H.264 codec instead of Motion JPEG. The directional pad is pretty standard; instead it's the thumb dial that adds interest here. In SCN mode, the dial is used for rifling through your options. It's also used for swapping between Auto and Program in Shooting mode and tone control in Video. It works well, but you can barely feel stops when spinning the dial making it just a little too easy to switch out of whichever mode you want.

The dial can be used for navigating Menu settings, too. Overall, I like the key design and wheel, but I can also see it confusing new users to the point of frustration. The buttons have a pillowy, convex shape, which is not only attractive, but makes for unmistakable presses. The Print and Share button can be turned into a shortcut key to access one of nine shooting functions. As for performance, the SD880 IS is fractionally slower than the first rate SD870 IS.

Time to first shot is 1.2 seconds and you can shoot again in 1.9 seconds. Shutter lag was great just 0.4 second in bright conditions and 0.8 in dim. The only marked decrease in speed is if you're using the flash. The shot to shot time extends to 3.2 seconds, which is a generally slow time and nearly a second longer than the SD870 IS. The typical burst speed is a respectable 1.4 frames per second.

The 3 inch Canon PureColor LCD II performed well in direct light and has a wide viewing angle. More impressive than the SD880 IS's speed is the picture quality. Colors were always natural and vibrant. White balance was accurate and pictures showed good detail and sharpness at ISO 200 and below. Also, if you take a lot of landscape photos, note that the SD880 IS is prone to fringing. Video is better than average considering it tops out at 640x480.

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Kodak EasyShare M1033

Measuring 2.3 inches tall by 3.7 inches wide by 0.8 inch deep, the M1033 slides easily into a back pocket, and at 5.2 ounces, it won't weigh you down, either. The camera's mostly metal body comes in six colors black, silver, pink, copper, red, and gray feels sturdy, and has a clear cut design, so you can hand the camera to anyone and let them shoot away. Buttons for the shutter, power, flash, and mode selections are on top, flush with the body, adding to the camera's streamlined looks.

On back is a 3 inch LCD that's bright enough to remain visible in sunlight. A relatively large rocker zoom switch for the 3x 35-105mm equivalent f3.1-5.7 lens is well positioned to the top left of the screen. Below it sits a five way joystick for navigating menus and for the playing of images and video. That's flanked by Delete, Playback, Menu, and Kodak's standard Share button, which lets you tag an image to be printed or e-mailed the next time the camera is connected to a computer.

Powering on to first shot takes 1.7 seconds on average and typically takes the same amount of time from shot to shot. Using the flash adds nearly a second to that. Shutter lag is very good for its class at only 0.4 second in bright conditions and 0.9 in dim. Burst mode offers only a three shot spurt in approximately 1.4 seconds. It's important to note that if you let it by pressing the shutter button completely rather than halfway and waiting for a focus confirmation will take a picture without locking focus.

This does let you capture images extremely quickly, but they'll frequently be blurry. Press the Mode button and you get four options Smart Capture, Program, Scene, and Video. Smart Capture mode integrates scene and face detection, optimized auto ISO, and a broader dynamic range among other things, so you truly don't have to worry about a setting to take a decent picture. This mode also applies Kodak's PerfectTouch technology to help improve detail and contrast.

In general this system works, producing fine photos regardless of subject or lighting conditions. Which is good, since the camera always starts in Smart Capture, regardless of your settings at power off. Kodak EasyShare M1033 also has 22 Scene modes you can switch to in seconds. These include standards like portrait and landscape as well as things like in camera panorama (left to right and right to left), candle light, panning, and blur reduction. The Program mode gives you slightly more control for exposure compensation and metering, color (natural, low, black and white, sepia), white balance, and ISO. It's nice to have, though I'm not sure it's wholly necessary.

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PhoneTime for J2ME phones

PhoneTime is a freeware Java MIDlet for mobile phones that tells you when it is ok to call your relatives and friends living all around the world in different timezones, and when better not to call because it is night there.

Free Download: PhoneTime10.jad and PhoneTime10.jar

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StopWatch for J2ME phones

StopWatch is Java stopwatch for mobile phones has some nice features, like being able to take many lap/split times (only limited by the displaysize of the device).

Free Download: stopwatch.zip

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View new SSL X-Logic brochure and download full X-Desk User Guide online

Solid State Logic is now shipping the X-Desk, built from the very same SuperAnalogue™ DNA as their AWS, Duality and Matrix consoles. X-Desk combines a 16 channel SSL SuperAnalogue™ summing mixer with a compact analogue audio hub for your studio.

View the new X-Logic Series brochure online (which includes both X-Desk and X-Rack) and read the full X-Desk User Guide.

http://www.solidstatelogic.com/music/Xlogic%20X-Desk/documentation.asp

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Harman International And NETGEAR To Launch Co-Branded AVB Switches At InfoComm ‘09

Harman International Industries, a leading provider of branded audio and infotainment electronics for the home, the car, and sound professionals, today announced an agreement between its BSS division, and NETGEAR®, Inc., a worldwide provider of technologically innovative, branded networking solutions, to launch the world’s first AVB (IEEE Audio Video Bridge) switches for networking multichannel audio and video over standardized Ethernet.

Today’s announcement, made at InfoComm ‘09, sees the immediate introduction of a pair of 16-port and 24-port co-branded switches featuring specialized AVB hardware and software for use in a wide array of fixed installation audio video applications. Standardized multichannel audio and video over Ethernet, enabled by AVB, provides AV professionals and their customers with considerable cost-per-node savings in deploying complex AV systems, while advancing integration, ease of use and system functionality and control.

The IEEE 802.1 Audio Video Bridging Task Group is an IEEE initiative comprising engineers from a host of technology leaders in the semiconductor, enterprise computing, automotive, professional AV, consumer electronics and networking solutions markets. The group has developed protocols to allow vendors to build a standards-based network with the appropriate quality of service for high-quality audio performance and production.

Co-branded BSS Audio|NETGEAR, today’s introductions are available through Harman Professional’s global distribution network and will complete the signal chain between Harman Professional’s new pre-standards AVB-enabled products including Crown Audio CTs amplifiers and dbx processors. Like dbx, and Crown Audio, BSS Audio are members of the Harman Professional Group. BSS Audio is a recognized leader in highly reliable audio networking technologies for fixed installations and professional touring.

Commenting, Robert Urry, Harman Professional Chief Technology Officer, noted, “Today’s introduction is a game-changing moment in AV integration that immediately makes advanced AV networking simpler, more affordable, more effective and more compelling to a broader market than was ever before possible. I am confident that AVB will grow the market for professional-grade AV products and services by enabling a new, wider variety of AV applications from distance learning in education and corporate training and communications, to digital signage in retail, hospitality and municipalities countless other uses in medicine, banking and, of course, entertainment and infotainment. We’re very pleased to work with NETGEAR in leading the industry by being the first to launch an AVB-capable switch.”

Sanjay Kumar, NETGEAR’s Director of Product Management for Switching agrees. “NETGEAR is always striving for innovations and developing products that will bring its customers the maximum benefits from the latest technologies. We foresee the market potential and benefits of AVB switches to our customers. Working with Harman Professional enables NETGEAR to prove this remarkably high-performance and rugged technology in the most demanding professional-grade applications before migrating it to other markets. We’re confident that the new BSS Audio|NETGEAR switches will provide the professional community with plug & play standardization coupled with great sound and video!

The new IEEE 802.1 Audio Video Bridging standards provide three major enhancements for 802-based networks:
• Precise timing to support low-jitter media clocks and accurate synchronization of multiple streams
• A simple reservation protocol that allows an endpoint device to notify the various network elements in a path so that they can reserve the resources necessary to support a particular stream
• Queuing and forwarding rules that ensure that such a stream will pass through the network within the delay specified by the reservation

The enhancements enabled by IEEE 802.1 standards require no changes to the Ethernet lower layers and are compatible with all the other functions of a standard Ethernet switch (a device that follows the IEEE 802.1Q bridge specification).

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BSS Audio™ Introduces AEC Input Card to the Soundweb™ London Family of Digital Signal Processors

BSS Audio™ today introduced the Acoustic Echo Cancellation (AEC) card to its acclaimed Soundweb™ London family of digital signal processors. Designed specifically for the Soundweb London BLU-800, BLU-320, BLU-160 and BLU-120 devices, the Soundweb London AEC input card complements the analog and digital, input and output, card options, extending the reach of Soundweb London into teleconferencing applications.

The Soundweb London AEC input card utilizes a proprietary algorithm developed by Wavemakers®, a Harman International company and specialist in voice optimization software for automotive and communications applications. The algorithm used on the Soundweb London AEC input card has been specifically designed to meet the needs of Installed Sound applications and the high expectations of today’s teleconference participant.

The Soundweb London AEC input card features four microphone / line level channels with Acoustic Echo Cancellation per channel. A direct microphone feed is made available to facilitate local sound reinforcement. Configuration, control and monitoring of the AEC input card is provided by Harman HiQnet™ London Architect.

The Soundweb London BLU-800, BLU-320, BLU-160 and BLU-120 devices joined the existing BLU-80, BLU-32 and BLU-16 devices. The newer devices feature a low-latency, fault-tolerant digital audio bus of 256 channels. In addition to providing a backbone for the transportation of multiple channels, this bus also facilitates the creation of large, fault-tolerant, centralized matrices containing multiple devices. The BLU-800 and BLU-160 models feature configurable DSP, boasting four times the processing capability of BLU-80 and BLU-16 devices.

The BLU-BOB cost-effective break-out box was also added to the family and represents an inexpensive solution to increasing the number of outputs in a Harman HiQnet networked system.

Since its advent, the BSS Audio Soundweb London family has drawn acclaim for its flexibility and intuitive operation. All eight models offer pristine audio quality, advanced A/D and D/A conversion, 96kHz capability, drag-and-drop system design with CobraNet™ bundle assignment, Ethernet based control, an extensive range of control options from simple to sophisticated, easy expansion or reconfiguration of system hardware in the field and an upgrade path for future enhancements.

Each of the eight different Soundweb London devices offer a different mix of signal processing, CobraNet and digital audio bus functionality, making a Soundweb London system the perfect match for any application.

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Crown Introduces PIP-USP4 Processor For CTs Series Amplifiers

Delivering unprecedented power and flexibility while offering clear sound and the widest dynamic range possible, Crown today introduced the PIP-USP4, the fourth generation DSP-based PIP™ (programmable input processor) module for CTs Series 2-channel amplifiers. The USP4 is a Harman HiQnet™ series component and connects to the audio control/monitor network using 100MB Ethernet hardware. The single plug solution contains audio distribution, control and monitoring.

“We are proud to bring the same next generation OMNIDRIVEHDTM DSP Engine that is featured in our I-Tech HD line to the PIP-USP4. This technology represents what will soon become known as the industry standard and we will continue to implement it for the ultimate in processing for other Crown products,” stated Brian Divine, director of marketing for touring and installed sound for Crown.

The USP4’s OMNIDRIVEHD™ processor gives the user ultra smooth processing with 24-bit, 192 kHz Cirrus Logic SHARC A/D and D/A converters and true 96kHz processing. LevelMAX™peak, RMS and transducer thermal voltage limiters combine for a smooth and accurate response, better sound and higher usable SPL. Also available are proprietary FIR and IIR filters for unmatched clarity and detail. The USP4 is capable of connecting to an Ethernet network, allowing it to be remotely controlled and configured via HiQnet System Architect™. Additionally, the USP4 allows the transport of real-time digital audio via CobraNet™ or Ethernet AVB.

A digital audio on/off ramp allows users to send pre or post processed analog signal out of the module to adjacent amplifiers. This capability can reduce DSP cost for a system by up to 40% on its own.

Other features of the PIP-USP4 include auto standby for increased energy efficiency, SLM (sweep load monitoring) with system-level diagnostics, 25 user selectable presets and over two seconds of delay per channel. Available input options include analog, CobraNet or Ethernet AVB, and AES3 Digital Audio.

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Crown Expands Range Of Class Leading Fixed Installation Amplifiers With CDi 6000

Further proving its ability to offer sound integrators the best available solutions for power amplifiers in fixed installation applications, Crown Audio today introduced the CDi 6000 amplifier, the fourth amplifier in the CDi series.

“The CDi 6000 provides an unmatched combination of processing, power and a competitive price that makes it the clear leader in its class. The new CDi 6000 is a reflection of our commitment to providing integrators with the greatest range of options for power and scalability for the challenges that each individual installation presents,” stated Brian Divine, director of marketing for touring and installed sound for Crown.

The CDi 6000, like the other amplifiers in the series, has the ability to run both low-impedance two-, four- and eight-ohm loads as well as 70- and 140-volt outputs. The amp also features 20 available presets that can be recalled at the touch of a button. All CDi amplifiers can be controlled and configured through Harman HiQnet™ System Architect™.

All CDi Series amplifiers feature an intuitive front panel LCD display that guides installers through their configurations. All amps in the CDi series also offer onboard DSP for loudspeaker signal processing. Other features include a switch-mode universal power supply, useful function indications, proportional-speed fan-assisted cooling, removable Phoenix-style inputs, as well as barrier strip outputs for 70V/100V/140V loads.

Equipped with Crown’s extremely light and efficient universal switch-mode power supply, each of the four CDi models weigh only 19 pounds and can be conveniently and reliably run off of a standard 15-amp outlet.

Power output ratings on the CDi 6000 are as follows:

• 3000W per channel at two ohms
• 2100W per channel at four ohms
• 1200 per channel at eight ohms
• 2500 per channel at 70V
• 6000W in bridge-mono mode at four ohms
• 5000W in bridge-mono mode at 140V

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Egg Timer for J2ME phones

Egg Timer for J2ME is a mobile application that helps you boil perfect eggs! It works as a standard egg timer, but it has also got presets for different styles of boiled eggs.

Free Download: eggtimer.zip

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JBL Professional Offers Unique Combination of High Design, 70V/100V Transformer And Weather Resistance In Control® CRV Loudspeaker

Providing remarkable versatility for a broad scope of applications, JBL Professional is introducing the Control® CRV loudspeaker at InfoComm 09. The Control CRV offers numerous mounting options and a wide range of configurations, providing an endless variety of solutions in terms of coverage, appearance and mounting.

Immediately noticeable is the Control CRV’s unique, contemporary, quarter-round design that makes a modern design statement, adding to any venue’s visual aesthetics in either a wall-mounted or corner-mounted configuration. In addition, this sleek appearance serves a notable functional purpose, as the Control CRV is combinable into half-round, three-quarter-round or a full, 360-degree round arc cluster that is suspendable from the ceiling via a fan pole assembly. A single Control CRV mounted at a wall-wall or wall-ceiling junction physically curves across the junction, acoustically coupling with the adjacent surfaces, widening the sound field, and producing an increased sense of sonic spaciousness.

A multi-tap, 30-Watt transformer allows for use on 70V or 100V distributed speaker lines, providing the capability to run multiple speakers on a single amplifier channel as well as individual level taps for each speaker and the ability to be connected via long cable runs. Available in either black or white, both models have a high level of weather resistance, allowing the speakers to be located either indoors or outdoors. The Control CRV is ideal for a wide variety of professional applications such as retail stores, restaurants, music cafes, outdoor patios, hotels, and anywhere that a high design loudspeaker with a 70V/100V transformer and indoor/outdoor capability is required.

The 75 Watts continuous pink noise power handling (300 Watts peak) and dual 4-inch Polyplas™ woofers provide superb sound quality, offering a frequency range of 80 Hz-20 kHz.

“With the Control CRV, the contemporary design, configurability — and of course, excellent sound quality — give designers and integrators a great range of versatility from one loudspeaker,” said Rick Kamlet, Senior Director, Commercial Installed Sound, JBL Professional.

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JBL Professional Introduces 8138 In-Ceiling Loudspeaker

Expanding on its successful 8100 Series, JBL Professional is introducing the new 8138 full-range, in-ceiling speaker, offering high sensitivity and a stylish look. Ideal for a wide variety of commercial sound applications, the 8138 is an addition to the 8124 and 8128 loudspeakers, which were introduced at last year’s InfoComm show.

The 8138 is an 8-inch, full-range, in-ceiling loudspeaker designed for use with a pre-install, in-ceiling backcan, resulting in high-fidelity performance at a cost-effective price point. The 8138’s built-in, 6-Watt, multi-tap transformer allows for use on 70V or 100V distributed speaker lines. Additionally, its high sensitivity of 97 dB delivers maximum sound levels using minimal amplifier power, allowing the use of smaller power amplifiers compared to lower sensitivity drivers.

The 8138’s driver features a 1-inch voicecoil with Kapton® coil former for reliability. The treated cloth surround provides deeper bass response compared with typical paper-roll surrounds, for fuller sound quality. the 8138 fits the MTC-81BB backcan and MTC-81TB tile bridge, or can be used with most in-ceiling backcan/tile bridge systems designed with four mounting points on a standard 11.25-inch diameter mounting circle. Moreover, with its contemporary grill design, the 8138 provides a stylish, upscale look that fits into many décors, bringing style and performance to basic commercial sound systems.

“Since introducing the original 8100 Series ceiling speakers—the 8124 and 8128, which are designed for applications where backcans are not needed—we have received requests to bring the same fashionable look and affordability to projects where pre-installed backcans are required,” said Rick Kamlet, Senior Director, Commercial Installed Sound, JBL Professional. “The 8138 addresses that need. By adding these new items, 8100 Series models are now available for both application types.”

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JBL Professional Extends AE Series With Five New Subwoofer Models

Further extending the versatility of its workhorse AE (Application Engineered) Series, JBL Professional is introducing five new subwoofer models: the ASB7118, ASB7128, ASB6115, ASB6125, and ASB6112. The five new models bring the total model count in the AE Series to 46, ranging from the eight recently introduced 2-way AE Compact models to the 33 original models introduced in 2002. As with all AE Series models these five new subwoofers are designed specifically for fixed installation sound reinforcement applications.

These five new models include the very high output ASB7118 single 18-inch and ASB7128 dual 18-inch models, both utilizing the JBL 2269H ultra-long excursion transducer. The 2269H is a Differential Drive® dual 4-inch voice coil high output woofer rated at 2000W continuous pink noise. The compact ASB6115 single 15-inch and ASB6125 dual 15-inch models utilize the Differential Drive dual 3-inch voice coil 2265H transducer rated at 800W continuous pink noise. The ultra-compact ASB6112 is fitted with the all-new 12-inch 2263H 3-inch dual voice coil Differential Drive transducer, rated at 1000W continuous pink noise.

All woofers in these five new models utilize JBL patented technologies and feature neodymium magnets, dual voice coils and magnetic gaps, and ultra-robust cones for extra long life. Cabinet construction consists of top-grade multi-ply hardwood finished in JBL’s exclusive DuraFlex™ paint. Each of these new enclosures is equipped with 16 M10 fittings. Input cups are fitted with screw terminals and a Neutrik® NL4 connector. Input cups used for the dual woofer models are user configurable to operate with the woofers in parallel or in desecrate mode. JBL offers two standard levels of weather resistance for AE Series loudspeakers. WRC is intended for outdoor placement where the loudspeaker will be sheltered from direct exposure to the elements. WRX is suited for direct exposure to the elements.

As with previous AE Series models, these five new models are optimized for applications including theatrical sound design, auditoriums, worship facilities, live clubs, dance clubs, sports facilities and themed entertainment venues. These five new additions to the AE Series further support JBL’s commitment to sound system designers worldwide.

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JBL Professional Breaks New Ground With CBT Series Line Array Columns

Offering unprecedented levels of directivity control, sonic fidelity and affordability, JBL Professional today introduced the CBT Series of passive line array columns, featuring JBL’s patent-pending Constant Beamwidth Technology™ circuitry, a breakthrough in pattern control that provides remarkably consistent constant directivity coverage and superb audio clarity, even in difficult acoustical environments.

“With the CBT Series, JBL is improving upon a number of challenges customers have typically faced with traditional passive columns, which causes the listening area to be covered inconsistently and every listener hearing a different sound character, including inconsistent coverage angles at every frequency, frequency response that changes considerably with distance, and out-of-coverage lobes that contribute to a destructive reverberant field,” said Rick Kamlet, Senior Director, Commercial Installed Sound, JBL Professional. “All these factors result in the listening area being covered inconsistently and every listener hearing a different sound character. After years of research by JBL engineers, the CBT Series, with Constant Beamwidth Technology, represents a new benchmark in performance and versatility for passive column loudspeakers, providing not only constant directivity, but also adjustable coverage control, full-fidelity sound quality, and one model that provides a very versatile asymmetrical pattern for more consistent front-to-back sound levels within the room while reducing reflections from the back wall. These features, along with high output levels, make the CBT Series a great choice not just for traditional column applications, but also for projects where larger point-and-shoot speakers would normally be utilized.”

The coverage pattern of the CBT models can be adjusted—with a simple switch—between Broad Mode (designed for mid-throw situations) and Narrow Mode (for long-throw applications). This versatility allows the CBT’s to meet the requirements of a broad range of applications. In addition, the CBT speakers provide Dynamic SonicGuard overload protection circuitry, which reduces distortion at high drive levels, along with user variable voicing which allows selecting a flat frequency response or a midrange presence peak for especially clear speech intelligibility.

The CBT 50LA is a very compact 50 cm high column that utilizes a straight line of eight 2-inch drivers, while the taller CBT 100 LA is a straight 100 cm high column utilizing 16 2” drivers and handles 325 Watts continuous pink noise for high output levels. Combined with Constant Beamwidth Technology circuitry, both provide constant directivity coverage. Both also contain low-saturation transformers, so they can be used on 70V/100V distributed speaker lines or as low impedance speakers.

The J-shaped CBT 70J is a 2-way coaxial line array utilizing 16 soft dome tweeters and four high power 5-inch woofers at a 70 cm height. The J-shape of the array works in conjunction with the Constant Beamwidth Technology circuitry to provide asymmetrical coverage similar to that of expensive line arrays commonly used in concert systems. The column’s top half projects highly concentrated sound toward the back of the venue, while the bottom half down-fills a broader, less concentrated sound to the front of the venue, resulting in more consistent sound levels from front to back.

This 500W system contains a pattern control switch for either 45 or 25 degrees vertical coverage.

The CBT 70JE is an extension cabinet for the 70J, further extending the pattern control of the CBT 70J by doubling its height, which lowers the frequency to which the speaker holds a consistent pattern of coverage, and doubling the power handling. The 70JE also increases the bass capability and extends the low-frequency response of the system to 1000 Watts continuous pink noise. The selectable vertical coverage, music/speech settings, the option to add an extension for bass and pattern control, asymmetrical vertical coverage, high output, and wide bandwidth makes the CBT70J an extremely versatile loudspeaker that fits into a wide variety of applications.

Despite the advanced features and performance built into the CBT Series, they are extremely easy to use, encompassing a new level of user-friendliness that makes them very straightforward to design into everyday projects. The CBT models can be installed either indoors or outdoors and the thin and sleek design is so unobtrusive that they almost vanish into the décor.

The wide variety of applications for the CBT Series include performance spaces, transit centers, lecture halls, multi-purpose rooms, board/meeting rooms, retail stores, courtrooms, theme parks, houses of worship, fellowship halls, movie theater lobbies, cinema surround, audio supporting video, race tracks, and many others.

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Soundcraft’s Popular Guide To Mixing Video Now Free On YouTube

Get Tips And Techniques On Mixing Live, Online For Free

Previously available only on DVD, Soundcraft has published its popular Guide To Mixing video series on its own YouTube site, SoundcraftUK (www.YouTube.com/SoundcraftUK ).

All 18 chapters from this successful tutorial may be viewed online, including sections on microphone placement, setting up a mix and monitor mixing.

To complement the video tutorials, a PDF text version may be downloaded from the company’s website, www.soundcraft.com

Qualified Educational establishments may request printed copies of the Guide To Mixing, as well as the full-resolution videos on DVD.

More information:
www.soundcraft.com

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Free Quality Malware Protection from Microsoft

Microsoft has just released the Beta for their free malware protection product called "Windows Security Essentials" (Codenamed Morro).

This antivirus and anti-spyware program uses the same tried and tested scanning engine and signature updates as Windows OneCare (which goes away once MSE is out) and the ForeFront Client Security (Microsoft's business focused AV solution). It is available in 32bit and 64bit versions and has been optimized to provide a small system overhead and minimal user interface. This is in stark contrast to the bloated AV products available today from many of the main AV vendors.
Although this tool is intended as a consumer product it is difficult not to consider this in the SMB space as well, in the same way Windows Defender has become a standard part of most small business installations.
Those of you old enough, may well be asking yourself if this is going to be any different from the MS-AV farce in the days of MS-DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1? Well we at CM have been testing this application for a few weeks now and we have found it to be excellent! The UI may be minimal but don't think for one minute that this product has cut back where it matters, its ability to detect and protect your system from malware attacks is top class. Check it out here: http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/
So tell you family and friends! Good, simple, solid AV protection is, at last, available for free!

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Panasonic TC-P54V10

The same basic story stays true for the TC-PV10 series, but it's even better than the G10. This Panasonic plasma has the same deep blacks that grace its less expensive little brother, and adds a couple of key improvements: better video processing to handle 1080p/24 sources, and more picture adjustments that allow it to transcend the limitations of THX mode. Its picture should satisfy all but the pickiest of videophiles, and it also outperforms any LCD based display, LED or otherwise, we've ever tested.

Beyond image quality, the V10 delivers plenty of features and an eye catching one sheet of glass design, for a combination that deserves serious consideration from buyers willing to pay for it. The 50 inch Panasonic TC-P50V10, but this review also applies to the 54 inch Panasonic TC-P54V10. The two sizes share identical specs and should have very similar picture quality.

The Panasonic TC-PV10 series also includes 58 and 65 inch models, but we will review those larger sizes separately when review samples are available later in 2009. Panasonic TC-PV10 is one sleek plasma. Its main external differentiator is what the company calls "one sheet of glass" design, where a pane of glass extends beyond the edge of the screen and over the bezel itself, leading to a seamless look that's even more impressive in person than in pictures.

(It's worth noting that only the 50 and 54 inch models feature the one sheet design the larger members of the series have the more traditional, visually separate bezel around the screen). The V10 series eschews the relatively bright silver fade along the bottom of the frame seen on the company's step down TC-PG10 models, instead opting for a much subtler silver accent that arcs slightly upward in the middle.

We think the V10 looks more attractive and sophisticated than the G10, and indeed it's one of the coolest looking TV designs we've seen this year. As Panasonic's nearly top of the line plasma series, excepting the Z1, the V10 models offer a couple of extras. One is the ability to refresh the screen at 96Hz, which allows the TV to properly maintain the cadence of film when fed a 1080p/24 source typically from a Blu-ray player (the refresh rate remains fixed at the standard 60Hz for non-1080p/24 sources).

The V10 also has a 48Hz setting, but we recommend using 96Hz instead since the 48Hz option can introduce flicker. (Here's where we mention that, like all Panasonic plasmas, the V10's spec sheet includes mention of a 600Hz subfield drive. Our best advice is to ignore this spec it has no visible bearing on picture quality, aside from a slight improvement in motion resolution that's extremely difficult to see.)

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Panasonic TC-P50G10

Panasonic announced the TC-PG10 series at CES, we immediately knew it would go up against the Kuro in our lab. What we didn't know is that Pioneer would stop producing HDTVs, leaving the hill wide open for anybody to claim the king's throne. Panasonic G10 series is the new king. No, it's not as good overall as the soon to be extinct Kuro Elite, but it comes closer than ever in the arena of black level performance, and mounts a good fight in just about every other field of picture quality, with the exception of some color accuracy issues.

Panasonic steeped the G10 in extra features compared with its less expensive brethren, adding a THX mode that's largely responsible for its excellent picture, along with VieraCast for access to a limited range of Internet extras. The downside, as always, is that it costs significantly more than lower end models, but if you're looking for the best picture quality in a post Kuro world. The Panasonic TC-PG10 series is the safest bet so far this year.

The 46 inch model, the TC-P46G10 ($1,699 street price), but our remarks on picture quality also apply to at least two other models in the series, the 42 inch TC-P42G10 ($1,299) and the 50 inch TC-P50G10 ($1,999) all three share identical specifications except screen size. The largest model in the series, the TC-P54G10, also shares similar specifications, but the screen size difference is great enough to warrant another hands on evaluation when that model becomes available.

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VDI, Microsoft, Citrix, Quest. XenDesktop vs vWorkspace

Hi

I was wondering about Microsoft Windows 2008 R2.
I like VDI, but I need than the ThinkClient was transparent. That is,
The user is a poor technology user.
Citrix and Quest install a plug-in in the ThinClient.
I dont know this plug-in in MS W2008 R2.
With this plug-in, the user only use the VDI. The window in the ThinClient is transparent for him/her.

What is the best VDI broker?

This is my picture in the Citrix Lab.

santos

Greetings

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ScratchMMS for Nokia 5800XpressMusic

With ScratchMMS you can hand draw a message and send it in a MMS.

Free Download: here

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QuickBlock for Nokia 5800XpressMusic

The game features smooth animation, fantastic graphics and uses touch screen technology available in S60 5th edition phones. All of this creates rich background for great fun! In future releases we will enhance this game, so please keep in touch with us!

Free Download: here

via: rodrigostoledo.com

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Samsung Preston S5600

Samsung Preston S5600 mobile phone in global market. Boasting a compact design and intuitive usability, the new smartphone answers today’s customer needs of a full touch phone at an affordable price. Supporting 3G networks, Samsung is able to expand its full touch product portfolio and target various consumers.

Prior to the market availability, Samsung Preston has attracted tremendous market interest and demands. Samsung Preston attracts style conscious users with its slim and compact design. Full Internet browsing support with an accelerometer sensor for auto rotation also gives users exciting mobile Internet experiences via 7.2 Mbps HSDPA connectivity.

Equipped with a 2.8 inch QVGA full touch screen, Samsung Preston adopted the TouchWiz User Interface and "Gesture Lock" feature, designed to customize and personalize the way you use your phone. Mobile widgets can be placed on the screen for one click access to your favorite applications.

Samsung Preston comes with a 3.2 mega pixel camera, Music Recognition using Shazam's "Find Music" service, and Multi codec support including H.263, MPEG4, and WMV. The handset's generous memory (80MB and Micro SD slot up to 8GB) ensures ample storage space for multimedia content. Samsung Preston will be available in Sweet pink, Snow white, and Charcoal grey colors. Samsung S5600 Preston will be available in Europe and Asia.

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Samsung Jet S8000

Samsung Jet mobile phone offers the very best in speed, power, and dominant performance and will be at the subject of Samsung’s latest advertising campaign 'Impatience is a Virtue'. Samsung S8000 Jet is not simply another full touch mobile phone it is the must have product for those who live fast paced lives and want to pack more of everything in their day.

Samsung Jet epitomises speed, quality and choice with vivid display and a super fast processor which makes Jet the fastest full touch handset on the market today. Samsung Jet also supports the latest smartphone features which include multi task manager and Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, bringing user friendly menu navigations in a sleek and compact design. Samsung Jet cell phone will be supported by a £5 million advertising campaign ‘Impatience is a Virtue'.

The campaign will run during the months of July and August and will challenge the assumption that impatience is bad, and look to emphasise how consumers increasingly want more of everything in their day to day life and how new Samsung Jet can provide this. Samsung Jet smartphone boasts worlds first in both display technology and speed of performance.

Its pioneering 16M WVGA AMOLED display (3.1") offers the most vivid and colorful full touch mobile experience available the WVGA AMOLED screen provides a resolution that is four times higher than a WQVGA screen. Its 800MHz application processor delivers breathtaking speed and stunning performance, making Jet the fastest full touch handset on the market today.

With its eye catching brilliant screen, Samsung's latest TouchWiz 2.0 user interface gives an unrivalled user experience and includes iconic new features such as motion UI, smart unlock, customisable widget screen, which are all perfect for managing your life at work and at play giving you what you want, faster than ever before..

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MoStacks is a data management for UIQ3

MoStacks is a data management freeware (a "database") for the SonyEricsson P1i, P990i and other Symbian/UIQ3 smartphones inspired by Apple's then-revolutionary HyperCard program.

Free Download: MoStacks094.sis

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MSI X340

MSI X340 is the first laptop we've reviewed with the single core SU3500 processor, and it seems like an excellent test case a superslim 13 inch that reminds us of much more expensive systems such as the Dell Adamo or MacBook Air, albeit with a much more plastic feel. At the same time, MSI X340 ends up in the same murky middle ground as systems with AMD's new Neo processor that are aimed at Netbook users who want to trade up to a bit more power for a bit more money, but without buying a standard sub-$1,000 Intel Core 2 Duo mainstream laptop, or Apple's $999 basic 13 inch MacBook.

We've never met anyone who admitted being part of this highly specific target demographic. But while X340's price may seem excessive viewed through the prism of low power 11 and 12 inch Netbooks, it seems much more reasonable when compared with traditional ultraportable systems or the aforementioned slim 13 inch models, which can cost $1,500 to $2,000 or more.

MSI X340 scores points for feeling much lighter than it looks like it should. It's also among the slimmer 13 inch systems we've seen, matching up nicely with the MacBook Air and Dell Adamo. The somewhat schizophrenic chassis mars the look a little, with a glossy black lid and screen bezel, but a matte black keyboard tray and wrist rest.

The large flat key keyboard is similar to what you'd find on an Apple or Sony laptop, and is well laid out, with the exception of a shortened right shift key and a shortened backspace key, which made it far too easy to hit the "Home" key just to its right. Our main complaint was that the keyboard flexed a great deal while typing, making the entire system feel flimsy. The large, indented touch pad gave us plenty of room to mouse, but we'd prefer separate left and right mouse buttons, rather than the one long rocker style button included here.

The F5 key is also labeled "Eco," and using it with the Fn function key cycles through several screen brightness presets, including a very dim "turbo battery" mode. The 13.4 inch display has a 1,366x768 pixel native resolution, standard for a 16:9 display this size. While it lacks the clean looking edge to glass of more expensive 13 inch systems, this display was clear and bright, and not excessively glossy.

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TouchCalc for UIQ3 phones

TouchCalc is a simple and easy-to-use freeware calculator for UIQ3 devices like the P990i and the P1.

Free Download: TouchCalc091.sis

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Samsung Tocco

Although it is considered a trend, not everybody seems keen to rely solely on a touchscreen, and it are exactly these consumers that demand a general keypad. They're hesitant to switch to a full touchscreen operated mobile phone. The solution for this group is the Samsung Tocco. This mobile phone combines a general numeric keypad with a touchscreen, thus providing the user with two operating options.

Samsung Tocco handset (also called Samsung Ultra Touch, and Samsung S8300), with the included accessories located one level below. The phone comes standard with a battery charger, a headset, a memory card of 1GB including adapter, a data cable, instruction manuals and a software CD. Samsung Tocco can be considered compact yet bulky at the same time it may seem reasonably compact for a touchscreen phone, but for a slider, it is still rather bulky.

The handset is colored in grey or black with several red details. The edge around the screen is brushed aluminum and quite scratch prone, unlike the rest of the phone. The first impression is good, although the phone is slightly smaller than expected it to be. Samsung Tocco is its dual operation touchscreen and general numeric keypad at the same time. The idea is appreciated people who are not sure whether they like a touchscreen will still get a chance to work with it.

In fact, the common keys are superfluous, since every action can be done via the touchscreen. It is simply an extra option to enter phone numbers or write text messages. From experience, we know that you will start by using the keys, but from there you will soon move on to the touchscreen. It only takes some time to get used to, and it really does work well. You'd soon open the phone when in use, even if you don't use the keys.

Personally, I don't really like the phone's hand-fit when using the keys. As said before, the handset is just a tad too big for a slider phone. You will really notice it when sending a text message using one hand the space bar is located bottom right, and if you use it, the phone becomes top heavy.

You also have to confirm every setting via the touchscreen, there are no general keys available below the screen except for the answer or end call buttons. However, it is always an extra option to fall back on if you prefer not to use the touchscreen for sending text messages. I expect the user to work via the touchscreen in the end, which makes the phone needlessly heavy and bulky due to the available numeric keys.

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Samsung Alias 2

Samsung Alias 2 mobile phone, also known as Samsung SCH-U750, gives you the convenience of a QWERTY keypad in a unique flip style format. The Samsung Alias 2 cell phone from Verizon Wireless has the same dual hinge design that made the original Alias a hit, but Alias 2 adds a touch of magic a Magic Key keypad using e-ink technology. In phone mode, it’s a standard phone keypad.

But in texting mode, the keys change into a full QWERTY keypad. It makes everything you do faster and easier. Samsung Alias 2 handset also has a large 2.6" QVGA display for crisper, clearer viewing, a 2.0 megapixel digital camera and dedicated hot keys for one touch access to the features you use most. Who says sequels are never better than the originals?

Samsung Alias 2 mobile phone has the same dual hinge design that made the original Alias so special open one way to call and open the other way to text. And with One Touch Access, you will always be one touch away from texting, Bluetooth, Visual Voicemail, games and more. With a Bluetooth headset you can go hands free and wireless with the Samsung Alias 2. Now it's easier than ever to carry on conversations without putting your job (or your life) on hold.

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wakeonlan-s60 - Open source Symbian S60 application to wake a computer over WiFi

Wakeonlan-s60 this is a simple application allows you to power on your computer wirelessly using your Symbian phone. It works by sending the famous magic packet over WIFI to a computer connected to an ethernet wired network. The main feature of this application is the single click wake on lan : once the application is configured, every time you click on the icon, your computer is powered on and the application automatically exit after a few seconds.

Free Download: here

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Harman Professional Debuts Next Generation HiQnet System Architect™ Version 2.0 At InfoComm 2009

In an introduction that radically simplifies professional audio networking, delivers greater design and integration capabilities to audio professionals and improves system performance and efficiency, Harman Professional today debuted HiQnet System Architect™ version 2.0. A highly intuitive, highly functional audio configuration and control interface for designing specialized audio networks for a wide array of applications, HiQnet System Architect 2.0 takes a newer approach to system design than the previous generation by providing users with intelligent choices based on job function, system application and system sophistication.

System Architect 2.0 features a new system design philosophy centered on workflow and the use of a diagrammatic representation of the installed or live sound venue. Devices are arranged by both their physical and logical placement allowing the designer to ‘educate’ System Architect about how they are to be used. In return the software is able to provide automation of many of the laborious system design tasks for free. For example, once the user has defined the layout of the venue and informed the software about which areas of it the amplifier outputs logically serve, System Architect provides embedded control panels which are automatically tied to the correct devices and provide source-selection, level, mute and metering, instantly accessible for each user-defined space, directly from the main Venue View. The factory-supplied panels can also be edited or completely replaced with fully-customized user control panels. The use of the user-defined spaces also provides feedback to the user by informing of any errors or warnings of the devices contained within by turning yellow or red, depending on the level of the condition. Combining this functionality with control panels for each space within the venue is the beginning of a long-term plan to merge the boundaries of system design with system control and monitoring.

According to Rick Kreifeldt, Harman Professional SDIG Vice President, System Architect Version 2.0 is a significantly more intelligent application than any professional audio industry application that has come before. “System Architect Version 2.0 is powerful because it seeks to combine the intelligence, experience and objectives of its users, and it’s been designed in close cooperation with the world’s leading practitioners in AV integration,” Kreifeldt explained. “The workflow oriented interface readdresses the interaction between designers and system design by framing his or her input not simply in terms of technology components but also on how the system is used. Couple this with a new informed approach that provides each participant with a tool suited to their needs and permissions, and you’ll quickly appreciate how System Architect makes the design process more efficient”

System Architect 2.0 also provides tour sound professionals and fixed installation system designers with considerable additional organizational benefits: adding the ability to create racks and arrays directly in the workspace, further enhancing the mechanisms of grouping devices. And by understanding more about the responsibilities of a certain device and its physical location within a rack, an array or a room, finding a specific device is made easy with new comprehensive list filtering techniques.

“System Architect Version 2 improves the system design experience for all users of the application, enabling significantly more efficient workflows,” Kreifeldt continued. “Designers can start with their end-goal — more often than not the loudspeaker configuration — and very quickly and intuitively work backwards because System Architect essentially connects the dots in an intelligent, logical way to evolve the speaker configuration into an AV system.”

In interviews with industry professionals, several complicated or time-consuming system design elements became common threads of conversation. The philosophy behind System Architect 2.0 is to speed up system design by tackling the organization of devices, the grouping of devices for control, system-wide routing of networked audio and creation of custom control panels. Importantly for the future, the underlying mechanisms by which these common issues have been addressed in version 2.0 also provide the foundations for several more considerable time-saving system design tasks to come.

At InfoComm this year, SDIG will also demonstrate Harman HiQnet™ products streaming Ethernet AVB in a technology preview. The company will showcase several new Ethernet AVB products including a dbx SC 32 Digital Matrix Processor, an Ethernet AVB architectural wall-plate from BSS Audio and a Crown CTs amplifier. The demonstration system will be connected together with an Ethernet AVB switch. The demonstration brings to fruition over three years of research and development as well as comprehensive participation and leadership in the IEEE AVB 802.1 Audio/Video Bridging (AVB) Task Group initiative.

A preview of System Architect will demonstrate how it will use the new venue design concepts to provide Ethernet AVB routing not just on a device-by-device level, but also to entire physical and logical spaces within a system, with one simple drag of the relevant signal.

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Soundcraft Si2 wins Best New Sound Product award at A.B.T.T.

The ABTT Theatre show awards saw Sound Technology winning the Best New Sound Product category for Soundcraft's new Si2 console.

The new board was commended for its easy and intuitive layout, which makes the transition from analogue to digital very simple.

Pictured Above - Sound Technology's Gareth Collyer: delighted to collect the award.

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nWhack for Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and Nokia N97

nWhack is a flash based game for Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and Nokia N97.
This game give a answer: How many moles can you whack in 60 seconds?

Free Download: nWhack_1.4.zip

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Casio Exilim C721

Casio has decided to combine the Exilim camera brand with its rugged handset philosophy, resulting in Casio Exilim C721, possibly the country's first high end megapixel camera phone built to be water and shock resistant. Indeed, the C721 has a 5.1 megapixel camera with plenty of features that rival that of standalone point and shoots. It even has a rotating display that fold out to act as a camera viewfinder. On top of that, it comes with a music player, EV-DO Rev.

A, and a HTML Web browser. If you want a high quality feature phone built to withstand the elements, Casio Exilim C721 is certainly the one to get. Still, the C721 won't be cheap it'll cost $279.99 with a two year service agreement and a $50 mail in rebate, which is pricier than most smartphones. Casio Exilim C721 does not look a thing like a ruggedized phone. Unlike its G'zOne brethren, Casio Exilim C721 has a sleek, smooth, and stylish exterior, which is more indicative of the Exilim brand.

You would never think that the Exilim C721 is military certified (under code MIL-STD 810F) to withstand immersion in water, blowing rain, shock, dust, vibration salt fog, humidity, solar radiation, and high altitudes. The chassis is a hard plastic shell, and the headset and microSD ports are protected with tight rubber seals. There's also a slide lock mechanism for the battery cover.

Though we didn't submit Casio Exilim C721 to the same battery of tests as the military, we did dunk it in water and throw it on the floor a few times to test its durability. It kept on working without a problem. We even managed to take a couple of photos with the camera while it was still in a tank of water. Measuring 4.06 inches long by 1.97 inches wide by 0.77 inch thick and weighing 4.76 ounces, Casio Exilim C721 is wide yet slim, and has a nice solid heft in the hand.

The entire front surface of Casio Exilim C721 is clad in glossy black save for the Verizon logo at the bottom. However, if you activate the phone, you will see a monochrome OLED display that shows the signal strength, battery life, and a digital or analog clock (you can choose the clock format in the settings). It also displays caller ID, and if you have any new messages or missed calls. It even shows the currently playing track if you have the music player activated.

Of course, it doesn't support photo caller ID, and you can't adjust things like backlight or font size. On the left of the phone are a microSD card slot and a charging pad. On the right are a headset jack, a back button that doubles as a rewind or previous track key for the music player, volume controls that can be used to navigate the camera's menu and as camera zoom controls when in camera mode, a side control key that can only be used in camera mode for selecting functions and settings, and the camera shutter button. On the back of Casio Exilim C721 are the camera lens, a very bright LED flash that can also act as a flashlight, and an external speaker.

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Soft Touch StopWatch is a chronometer for Symbian S60 5th Edition.

Soft Touch StopWatch is a digital/analogic stopwatch with memory.

Features:

• 10 memories
• Analogic and Digital time indication
• 4 intermediate times
  

Free Download: here

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Touch Calc 60 is a scientific calculator for s60 5th edition phones.

Touch Calc 60 is a full screen scientific calculator. Simply enter the expression to calculate and hit '=' key to evaluate.

Functions

• Standard operations: *,/,+,-
• Trigonometric Functions: sin,cos,tan,asin,acos,atan
• Natural and Base 10 logarithm: log, ln, e^x
• Power Functions: x^2,y^x
• Ans key: last operation result
• Exponential Notation
• Display: 6 + 1 lines

Free Download: here

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Sony Ericsson W995a

Despite its many features, Sony Ericsson W995a manages to be rather compact (3.8 inches tall by 1.9 inches wide by 0.6 inch thick) and lightweight (4.0 ounces). The phone travels well and it has a solid feel, but we noticed that the slider mechanism wobbled just a bit. The W995a comes in progressive black, cosmic silver, and energetic red, though the features are the same on all models. Sony Ericsson W995a's real estate is dominated by a gorgeous 2.6 inch display.

Supporting 16.7 million colors (320x240 pixels), it lends itself well to still graphics, photos, and simple animations. The menu interface is standard Sony Ericsson you can choose from four styles, but we consider the list and grid options to be the most intuitive. You can adjust the brightness to your liking. Sony Ericsson can stumble when designing navigation controls, but the W995's come off pretty well.

The circular toggle and central OK button are large and pleasantly tactile. The surrounding navigation controls, which are shaped like half circles, are a bit small, but they're also raised above the surface of the phone. You'll find two soft keys, a clear button, and a control that activates a user customizable shortcut menu. Spacious Talk and End or power keys sit on either side of its navigation array. The keypad doesn't fare quite as well, unfortunately.

The buttons are rather small and they have a slippery feel. Compared with other slider phones we could dial without looking, but it wasn't the most comfortable experience for rapid dialing or texting. Also, we're worried about long term durability since the area that surrounds the keys "gives" just a bit when we pressed down. It's worth noting that a similar phone the Sony Ericsson W580i developed cracks over time.

On the left spine you'll find a Walkman player shortcut and the proprietary Sony Ericsson headset jack. We're hoping that before too long Sony Ericsson joins other manufacturers in moving to a standard Micro-USB charger connection. On the right spine are a camera shortcut, music player controls, and a volume rocker. The latter doubles as a zoom control for the camera, though it's a little too small for our tastes.

The 3.5 millimeter headset jack rests conveniently on the top of the phone between stereo speakers. You'll be able to use your own headset while carrying the phone in a pocket. On the rear side are the camera lens, flash, and kickstand. The former two are in the top right corner so that Sony Ericsson W995a resembles a standalone camera from behind. The camera controls are easily accessible when the phone is the horizontal position just be sure to keep your fingers out of the way.

As we mentioned, you can use the kickstand to prop the W995 on a table without resting it against your hand or a book. It certainly makes for convenient media viewing, though the kickstand's hinge is rather loose. We'd prefer that it click into place in the open position. And for what it's worth, we'd like it even better if the display offered better video quality.

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TouchMaths for touchscreen mobile phones.

TouchMaths is a revolutionary mathematical tool for touchscreen mobile phones. The program is must-have for students, engineers and researchers. TouchMaths program includes six (06) applications (Calculator, Plot 2D, Integral solver, Function solver, Equation solver and Linear system solver) with a large of features.

Free Download: here

via: rodrigostoledo.com

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SharePoint and Tagging Content

Plenty has been written in the Blogosphere about Web 2.0 and more recently the idea of Enterprise 2.0 in which the kind of functionality that we're now used to on Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, Delicious and so on are used within an organisation's intranet and extranet to improve collaboration. You'll also see Enterprise 2.0 called enterprise social software. It's not a surprise; most people reading this will be users of many of these services and know how helpful they can be for keeping in touch, finding obscure information, and meeting new "friends". It's really easy to see how such technologies would be useful on an intranet, particularly in a large, global organisation where employees can feel lost or isolated. When users know about blogs, wikis and social networking, they'll be comfortable with similar tools for sharing knowledge with their colleagues should they should start using them rapidly.

SharePoint, particularly MOSS, is an ideal platform for Enterprise 2.0 and supports many of the features required straight out of the box. Take a look, for example at the list of features in the Wikipedia article on Enterprise 2.0 (a list which was taken from Andrew McAfee):

• Search: allowing users to search for other users or content.
  

  SharePoint has market-leading search functionality for locating content and MOSS includes people search for locating users.
  

• Links: grouping similar users or content together.
  

  In My Site you can identify colleagues and those who have things in common with you. Content can be grouped in lots of ways.
  

• Authoring: including blogs and wikis.
  

  SharePoint includes site templates for blogs and wikis. They're very rapid to set up. There's very rich functionality for collaborative authoring of documents.
  

• Extensions: recommendations of users; or content based on profile
  

  MOSS has lots of ways to do this in My Site.
  

• Signals: allowing people to subscribe to users or content with RSS feeds
  

  Any SharePoint list or document library can have an RSS feed.
  

• Tags: allowing users to tag content
  

  Bad news: SharePoint is a little lacking here and it's this that I want to discuss in this article.
  

Take the default SharePoint blog template as an example: When you add or edit a post, there's no field for tags. You can place the post in a category, but that's not the same thing because the categories are pre-determined and you can't create a new one on-the-fly. Also you can only put the blog entry in a single category, but you often want to tag it with several different words.

In Web 2.0 there are two kinds of tags. The ones added to content by the author are stored with the content. For example, I've tagged this entry with the word "SharePoint" so that when you click on SharePoint in the word cloud, it will appear. Then there are tags that readers add to the content. Since they only get read access to the site, readers can't store their tags with the content. Instead they save a list of links on a site like Delicious and add tags to those links. I'll deal with these two types of tagging separately.

Author Tags

Of course it's straight forward to add a new column to SharePoint for tags. It's just a text field after all. In the blog homepage click Manage Posts, then under Settings, click Add Column. When you edit a blog entry you'll be able to edit this new field. In most blogging tools, this would be a comma separated list.

Display is a little harder. It would be relatively simple to write a Web Part that displays the tags for an item. This would work when a single blog post is displayed (The view where comments are visible) but you wouldn't see it in the list of all posts. To display tags here, under each post, you'd have to write your own Web Part to replace the Posts Web Part, and include a list of tags for each post. This isn't advanced programming but it would take a little time to get right.

Perhaps more importantly there is no tag cloud display in SharePoint out of the box. I know you've seen a tag cloud before because there's one just to the left of this text. It shows a list of all the tags used in the blog and each is sized according to how often it has been used (SQL Server is the most popular tag as I write). Again, it isn't hard to create a Web Part that does this: you'd need to loop through all the entries in your blog, evaluating and counting the comma-separated terms in your Tags column. Then you output text and probably render style attributes to size each term.

I'm not showing you example code for all this because plenty of people have already written some. Notably the people at wsssearch.com whose tagging controls are part of the Community Kit for SharePoint. Here's their Tag Cloud control running in the standard SharePoint blog site:

Two things to point out about these controls: firstly, they don't just work with blog posts. You could use them with announcements, contacts, or just about any content type including your own custom content types. Secondly, they're open source, which means you can use them as a starting point for more ambitious functionality. For example, you can have a tag cloud that linked to content from across a site collection or even across your whole enterprise. You'd have to be careful about indexing and so on to achieve good performance but with care this could be a really useful control to show users hot topics in your organisation.

User Tags

Delicious-style, user tags are in some ways more interesting than author tags because they work in your community of readers and this is really what Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 are all about. It allows you to find people with similar interests to your own and find links that they like: these will probably help you.

SharePoint is already excellent at finding people, particularly when My Sites are widely used. You can find people with similar skills or who have worked on similar projects or have other things in common with you. You can search by name, department, skill, or any other managed property. So what we need is a simple way for users to save their favourite links and tag each one. These can be displayed on the user profile.

Each user will need a new list in their My Site page, with columns for the URL, the tags (probably in a comma-separated list as before), and then maybe Name and Description. Delicious has Title and Notes fields. There's a good blog entry on deploying list templates to My Sites here if you need help with this.

So far, so simple. Now users can find people like them and see their favourite links and tags. We must make this system effortless to use because it will only be helpful when lots of users add all their favourite links and continue to add them as they find new ones. Users' links are stored in their browser favourites or bookmarks so it's essential to give them a tool for importing these into their My Site profile. How would this work?

On Delicious you export a list of favourites from the browser using its standard tools. You then upload this to the server and tag the imported links. If a link is in a folder, for example one called "SharePoint", that name is added as a tag. But you should then review all the imported links and add tags as you need. This kind of solution would be easy to implement in SharePoint in a Web Part. You would add the ASP.NET FileUpload control to the Web Part. When the user clicks "Upload" you can get this file from the FileUpload.PostedFile property and parse it for all the links and folder names. For each link you'd add a new entry to the user's list in their My Site.

If you build such a solution, you should give careful attention to usability. For example, having uploaded a hundred favourites, a user won't like editing each one individually. You should give them a form with arrow controls that enable them to move to the next and previous entry with a single click. You should give them a list of the other tags they've used before: a single click on the tag adds it to the list. You should use Silverlight or AJAX to maximise the responsiveness of the form and cut down on page reloads.

Finally, consider how to make these tags available and interesting to users. Again a tag cloud control will be really helpful, but this one would have to evaluate many more tags spread throughout a large number of My Sites (each of which is a separate Site Collection). Think carefully about performance and indexing to ensure this cloud runs fast. Again, I'd use the Community Kit for SharePoint code as a starting point. I'd also suggest a hierarchical control to enable browsing tags by user, without having to open multiple My Sites, and other displays such as "Lastest 20 tags", "Most popular 20 tags" and so on. Placing these controls on key intranet pages should help users communicate and generate a buzz around hot topics.

Conclusion

So SharePoint 2007 does indeed do full Enterprise 2.0 functionality with a little bit of custom coding. I think we can safely expect SharePoint 2010 to improve on this. It's almost certain to have a Tag Cloud control built-in for example. But it may be a year or more before your organisation upgrades and as I've shown here, we can make big strides right now without a massive effort. Also, you should be considering the Enterprise 2.0 concepts because they enable users themselves to make their intranet a compelling place to surf. This will be a big topic in SharePoint 2010.

Links

Wikipedia Enterprise 2.0 Article

Delicious

Community Kit for SharePoint

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