As expected there has been a lot of development on Windows Live writer. Microsoft have announced that plugins will have their own page on the Live Gallery – until then a blog has spawned to capture current plugin releases – Windows Live Writer Plugins.
Author: iandick
Apple Special Event
September 12th could be an expensive day. Apple are doing another of their ‘special events’ which has everyone speculating on new products. Hot tips are a new iMac and an iTunes movie store and maybe a new iPod or replacement for the Nano.
I would love to see Macbook Pro updated with at least the new Intel chips – that would be enough for me to purchase. I also want, well, need a new iPod as my current one is full and I can’t be doing with picking and choosing what music I want on the player. I’m still not sold on a video iPod though especially if it’s larger than the current models. Would be nice to see a video and a music iPod developed.
One thing on the movie store – rumours are $14.99 for new titles and $9.99 for older movies – sounds a bit steep considering the movies will come with DRM restrictions. Surely that wouldn’t be the price for a movie sized only for a new iPod? That got me thinking – would we see hi-def movies sold for that price through iTunes? The movie’s would be large but would users be willing to download hi def movies and play then from their laptop or pc rather than buying an HD-DVD or Blu-ray player. Will probably never happen but the option would be nice.
This is Living?
Thats the official PS3 slogan for Europe but I’m sure there’s something missing. This is living on the breadline? This is living in a world where the 360 does not exist? This is living in a world of crap fonts and 3d renders? (check out the launch video for Spiderman and clothes label fonts – quality). Firstly the price of the PS3 looks expensive at £425 and the launch games are looking average with no exclusive OS3 title standing out as a must have. Launch titles are never the best judge of a platform but with the 360 titles coming along over the next 6 months the PS3 looks weak in comparison.
Now there’s news that there will be no HDMI cable included in the box and also confirmation that the lower end PS3 will not play copy protected Blu-ray discs at 1080p due to lack of HDMI port. Add in the lack of 1080p screens, the dismal launch of Blu-ray and HD-DVD outperforming the Blu-Ray movies so far and thats a far from appetising console. Add in a non-rumbling pad that isn’t a patch on the 360 design and an internet service that in my experience hasn’t been a patch on Xbox Live and I’m struggling to find reason to part with the cash. Where is the next gen Wipeout? That game alone sold me on the PS1 and truly differentiated the PS1 from other consoles of that period. There seems to be nothing of that ilk on the PS3. Maybe the Tokyo Game Show will tell a different story later this month.
In fact the only reason I can see me buying one is that there will be a shortage at launch which usually means a profit on Ebay. Oh, there is another. My ‘habit’ of needing the latest and greatest which after all these years I’ve not managed to break. Yet. Maybe the PS3 will be my cold turkey.
Geotagging at Flickr
Flickr finally supports geotagging from within it’s toolset without the user having to add on their own geotagging apps. It’s really easy to use – search the map, search for your photo’s and then drag the photo to the point you want to map to. Done. At the weekend I had added in some photo’s from my trip to America in 1995 and as I had heard Flickr may add the new functionality I had geotagged them. But wait. Thats was done using Google and an add-on to Flock. Would the tags work with Flickr?
The answer is yes – Flickr have provided an importing tool so that photo’s already tagged can be imported. Worked with all my photo’s and gives me an excellent new way of viewing my albums. The only downside is that at the moment there are no high resolution pictures or maps of Glasgow. Doh. Searching for an address still returns an accurate point on the map but the lack of a decent street map or photo takes away the immediacy of adding pictures or where exactly the picture was taken. Still – theres a few added to Glasgow already.
Even easier – if a photo has been mapped then a map link will appear next to the photo or in the information panel at the bottom right of each photo. Also the ugly lat and lon tags are no longer required. Instead you will get a real world destination i.e. Taken in Las Vegas, Nevada. For those photo’s imported the tags will be automatically removed at a later date.
The best online photo management and sharing application in the world just got a little bit better and this new feature makes it easy to find great photo’s of an area without having to tag it.
Zooomr adds Portals
I’ve tried Zooomr out a couple of times but Flickr still wins due to size of community, other application support and features. However Zooomr today added Portals which is a nice way of adding details to photo’s and linking through to other photo’s in a set – almost like picture within picture on a TV. Good examples can be seen in the video on Zooomr Blog.
Click on the sample below that you allows you to see it in action (not IE7 friendly but works well in Firefox)
Wheres the toys? Hosted on ZooomrSony Ericsson K800i
Another year, another phone. This is the 3G follow up to the k750i, my current phone. Although it’s been out for a couple of months I wanted to get the phone on T-Mobile’s Web ‘n’ Walk deal and take advantage of all that 3G speed online. So after a few days how has it faired?
What do you get?
In the box you get the phone plus USB cables and also headphones that double as an aerial for the radio. The k800i uses a new memory stick format, the M2. This really grinds with me – just how many different formats do manufacturers think we need? Also it means my previous cards wouldn’t work with the phone – more expense. However the T-Mobile deal included a 256Meg card which is more than adequate.
The Phone
The phone itself is heavier, taller and slightly more bulky than the k750i although it’s a great size for a 3G phone and the build quality is excellent. The back of the phone is rubberized and the only issue I have is with the lens cover – I’m sure that will break off over time. The back of the phone is also difficult to open which I guess is good in the long term – wouldn’t want it to easily slip off. The screen is excellent – more readable than the k750i, photo’s and in particular small text is clear and sharp. The software built into the phone is almost identical to the k750i except additions for RSS and Video calling. Voice quality has been excellent and on a par with the k750i which was one of the best phones I had used. Signal strength has also been excellent over the last few days.
The software on the phone also supports apps working in the background. You can be on a call or listening to music and at same time surf or get/receive e-mail. You can swap to apps running in the background via one of the keys on the front of the phone – very swish.
I was disappointed though with the software for synchronizing with Outlook. It is buggy and will only sometimes detect that the phone is connected. When this happens the launcher for file transfers also doesn’t work. Although it’s easy to connect in file mode so that transfers from the memory card can be made I recommend you download MyPhoneExplorer which has worked 100% for me. You can transfer files, sync calendars and get some other info like firmware version, battery life and temperatures. Another disappointment’s is lack of Mac support from Sony.
The big new feature of this phone though is the 3 Megapixel camera. Continue reading “Sony Ericsson K800i”
Live Writer Plugins
Less than a day after launch Flickr and Tagging plugins are available here. Think how extensions make Firefox and you can see where Live Writer may end up.
Windows Live Writer
Microsoft have just launched a new blog editing tool, Windows Live Writer. This is a desktop based tool that allows anyone to post to their blog using a rich GUI driven environment that offers spell checking and easy insertion of pictures and maps.
Once downloaded you insert your user details and Live Writer will then connect to your blog and download categories, check blog type and ensure a connection can be made. You then choose a title and start blogging. Inserting links and pictures was very easy but the key test will be the markup that is applied to the post on the real site.
One nice feature is that drafts can be saved to your website (unlike Flock) so that editing can take place at a later stage. Web Preview is also useful as it allows you to see how you post will look once it is uploaded to your site. The tool has full undo and redo and while it is GUI driven there are only options for common tasks like font weight, bulleted and numbered lists, blockquotes, hyperlinks and images.
Multiple categories can be selected as well as options to turn off comments and trackbacks. Spell checking isn’t live and has to be run at the end of you post.
This post was written in Live Writer so the real test will be how this looks on the site. Will it handle the publication of images and also the formatting? If so then this is an OK tool for some quick blogging but no different to whats available in Flock or Performancing. I’m sure it will appeal to some users especially as there is an SDK allowing plugins to be developed for the platform but for me I’ll stick to using the WordPress GUI as I feel more in control, know it works and can apply tags and other features with ease that aren’t supported in Live Writer.
*Update* – posted with no problems. Markup looks a bit ‘iffy’ but images got to the site once I’d setup FTP properly. More difficult to edit as the text is one big blurb rather than a nicely spaced out draft post but I can see this tool becoming quite popular. Ah – just spotted categories didn’t come through properly. Still – it’s only a beta.
Small Things
Lots of little things going on at the moment, best summarised with a list. Yep – not in a posting mood at the moment.
- Glasses finally (I hope) sorted. New right lens has made a big difference.
- Few days off work which is great – really need some time away from it.
- No big plans though – jobs round house mostly.
- K2 and WordPress updates have made things a bit nippier round here.
- Tidy up of blog also – removed some redundant pages/features.
- Ordered some new kit…NAS & USB drive to finally get my data and backup issues sorted. I’ll post results once gear is here and up and running.
- I hate wasps!
Flock Update
Updated to new version of Flock which is based on the latest and greatest Firefox 1.5.0.6. Working well and this time I also sorted my bookmarks out removing redundant or easy to Google links and reducing their number by half – used Gordon’s post as a guide.
This cleanup has lead to making Flock my default browser – it really is that good and can’t be more highly recomended as it does everything that Firefox does but more. I also found a solution to getting my back button working in Flock:
Hi,
Just wanted to add that I recently purchased a Logitech MX610, and likewise the default mapped “back and forward” buttons (via Logitech’s SetPoint) do not work.
Temporarily, to get the “back” button to work, I mapped it to keystroke ‘BACKSPACE’.
Thanks,
Phil..
reply
Blogged with Flock