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Google Desktop 4 looks to be coming out of beta today and will be available in 26 languages, including Romanian. A few of the new features include an easier interface for finding gadgets in other languages, a configurable taskbar gadgets button and the ability to change the sidebar font size. Also announced by Google was the availability of the Desktop Gadget Designer in several new languages.
Read More 
| Google Desktop Blog
Gallery: Google Desktop 4 Comes Out of Beta
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CBS Goes Broadband with Evening News with Katie Couric
Posted by Nino Marchetti Categories: Internet,
CBS is making an attempt to grow eyeballs for the fading nightly news crowd as they announced today plans to begin webcasting the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric on Tuesday, September 5. The news program will be broadcast live online at the same time it airs on CBS, said the television network. It will also be made available in an on-demand format after the simulcast and will give viewers the choice to watch it in its entirety or by selecting individual reports from each program.
The network said also they would be making available online other Couric related broadcast features.
Read More | CBS To Air Evening News Live On Web
Gallery: CBS Goes Broadband with Evening News with Katie Couric
If SpeedTest.net is anything, it’s addictive. We know, the validity of various broadband speed tests across the Internet is questionable. With so many variables across both your internal network as well as the Internet as a whole, along with bursting services like Comcast SpeedBoost, these tests can be off. That’s fine, but we still can’t help getting pissed at Comcast when our speed test to a server across the world isn’t up to par with advertised speeds (of course, we typically are pissed at Comcast regularly anyway.)
Nonetheless, if you want a cool interface you can use to test your broadband speed, give this site a look. They do try to be a bit better than the standard test, as they account for jitter, client location, distance to server, and latency. They give you all those numbers (as well as ping), along with distance to test server, and a way to save and share your results. Oh, and if you didn’t get it by now, they feature test servers from across the globe. Fun times.
Read More | SpeedTest.net
Gallery: SpeedTest.net Beta: Addictive
The new VIVOphone Voicekey is being dubbed by its maker as the world’s smallest VoIP adapter. This new USB accessory works with either VIVOphone or Skype and is essentially a device which connects your compatible VoIP service on your computer to a regular phone or PBX.
The VIVOphone Voicekey, besides letting you receive VoIP calls, also lets you make VIVOphone and Skype calls from your regular phone. Other features include the ability to make multi or conference calls, as well as support of cordless phones.
Read More | VIVOphone VoiceKey Product Info via Gizmodo
Gallery: VIVOPhone Voicekey a Tiny VoIP Adapter
Search Suggestions Helps Amazon Users Find What They Want
Posted by Nino Marchetti Categories: Internet,
Amazon.com today said they’ve launched a new feature on their ecommerce site which lets customers, sellers, authors, and other members of the Amazon.com community help customers find what they’re looking for. Search Suggestions are “user-submitted recommendations for connecting a product to specific keywords, as well as an explanation of why the connection is relevant. Once a Search Suggestion is approved, the product along with its relevancy explanation appears in search results the next time a customer searches using those keywords. Anyone can submit a Search Suggestion directly from the detail page for a product.”
An example of this feature, already rolled out across most Amazon.com categories, is “searching for ‘cheryl tweedy’ now finds music and posters from the band Girl’s Aloud, of which tweedy is a member”.
Read More | Amazon.com Search Suggestions Press Release
Gallery: Search Suggestions Helps Amazon Users Find What They Want
Watch The WWDC 2006 Keynote Video
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Corporate News, Internet,
So, in case you weren’t able to get into the WWDC, and were quickly refreshing your Apple website of choice for all the live-blogging coverage of the keynote, you can now sit back and enjoy the show. Apple has just made a downloadable video of the Steve Jobs keynote from earlier this morning available on the Apple website. Since it just became available, you might have a bit of trouble downloading it at first - but be diligent, as the features of Leopard are pretty cool, and that Mac Pro is super sexy.
Read More | WWDC Keynote Video
Gallery: Watch The WWDC 2006 Keynote Video
Wikipedia Goes Portable As Wikimedia Conference Opens
Posted by Nino Marchetti Categories: Internet,
If you’re addicted to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia like I am, these following two news items will make you happy. The first is that the second annual Wikimedia Foundation conference is taking place August 4-6 at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “This year’s event will bring together more than 400 Wikimedia contributors, enthusiasts, and scholars from a wide range of fields. Community members from Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects are attending the conference.” The conference will highlight the latest Wikimedia project developments, wiki research, and practices in peer production, as well as the people behind this work.
The other news item relates to the conference and a new offline Wikipedia resource. Webaroo, a provider of offline Web technology, is making available Wikipedia…Unplugged, a downloadable, searchable “Web pack” which contains the entire contents of the online encyclopedia’s more than 1 million articles of collective knowledge. The pack, which is around 6GB in size, can be downloaded to a memory card for carrying on a smart phone, for example. The content automatically updates in the background when one connects a loaded device to the Internet.
Read More | Wikimania 2006
Gallery: Wikipedia Goes Portable As Wikimedia Conference Opens
So it looks like Internet portal company Yahoo finally has a general corporate blog, much in the same way Google has its own. The Yahoo Yodel Anecodal blog, which was started on August 1, begins with an entry titled “Yet another self-serving corporate blog!”. This entry has a great video which shows what a day in the life is like for the Yahoos who wander around and work at the Yahoo campus in Sunnyvale, California. This blog is not the first for Yahoo – a check of the sidebar on the Yodel Anecdotal page reveals at least 15 other corporate blogs, mainly focused on specific areas of the Yahoo Network.
Read More | Yahoo Yodel Anecodal blog
Gallery: Yahoo Yodels Its Own Corporate Blog
PrinterAnywhere: Just What It Promises
Posted by Dave White Categories: Internet, PC / Laptop, Peripherals, Software,
Printers of the world, rejoice!You can now print on anyone’s printer anywhere in the world. No more wires! No more FAXes! No more hassles!
Okay, so that’s a little over the top. I maintain, however, that this free application will be very popular with a growing number of people in the coming weeks and years. It’s called PrinterAnywhere, and its name says it all. The only thing you have to make sure of is that your destination printer is connected to a PC that is online and that you, in turn, are online. So you download the software, install it on your machine, and then list your printer. Anyone else who can see your printer can print to it. Of course, you wouldn’t list your printer where just anyone could see it, and neither would other people. You can choose who you share your printer with, and vice versa.
The number of applications of this functionality are mind-boggling. No need to send an attachment with an email. No need to send a FAX. No need to worry whether your friend has upgraded to the latest version of your word processing software. No need to wonder whether your friend will ever be able to print out what you sent him or her. You do the printing for your friend.
One note of caution: This is still a beta version, and the company will undoubtedly be working out the kinks for a few months. You’ll also want to make sure that you don’t list your printer as ready for everyone you know; otherwise, you’ll be the one paying for all the paper and ink.
One other note: As of now, this is a Windows-only application.
Read More | PrinterAnywhere via OhGizmo
Gallery: PrinterAnywhere: Just What It Promises
Coca-Cola today said they’d done a worldwide re-launch of their Web site has part of a new global marketing platform embracing the idea of “The Coke Side of Life”. Today’s move impacts 26 countries and six languages.
As part of the new launch, said Coca-Cola, the site will offer a series of bi-weekly and monthly challenges to consumers around the world. The first of these is “a challenge for consumers to create a ‘bottle film’ based on a personal interpretation of ‘The Coke Side of Life’. Winners will receive prizes to help further their creativity. First prize includes a computer, digital camera and editing software valued at approximately $5,000. After the finalists have been chosen by their peers, a panel of experts from around the globe will judge the top entries and award the prize.”
Read More | Coca-Cola Web Site
