Downloads: Launchy 1.25

Launchy has just updated to version 1.25.

For the uninitiated, Launchy is a Windows only, open source keyboard launcher. Its similar to Quicksilver for Mac or Windows Vista's new built-in search engine and is powerful in its own right.

When you want to launch a program, just press Launchy's default shortcut, Alt-Spacebar and type in your program's name. Normally, after a few letters, Launchy would have guessed the program you want to open correctly. Just press Enter to launch your program.

Launchy can also be used to launch web searches and also has a built in calculator. The program is skinable and expandable through plugins.

This nifty application would be taken for granted easily. It is not until when you use another computer without launchy that you realized how useful and in a certain extent, dependent on it you've become.

Anyway, here's a screensshot

Get it at http://www.launchy.net/

Chart functionality in Google Spreadsheets

In another move that brings Google Spreadsheet's functions up to scratch, Google has added Chart functionality in its Online Spreadsheet program. Chart functionality was one area which Google Spreadsheets was lacking.

With the new feature, you can now create a decent number of types of charts: columns, bars, lines, pie, scatter. Just select the columns you want to plot and click on the new chart icon. Charts can be saved as a PNG file.

However, Charting is only available for Firefox 1.5 and above and Internet Explorer 5.5 and above. Users of other browsers will have their charts rendered as images, thus users will not be able to edit these images..

Here is a screenshot of the new function:



Other new features include Range Names and Comments. For more information, go to http://www.google.com/google-d-s/whatsnew.html

Google Spreadsheets can be found at: http://docs.google.com

Tech News: An 8-Core Mac Pro

Technology just can't seem to move fast enough for many. With the recent quad-core chips released last year, Apple rolled out the company's first eight-core processor Mac system a week or two ago, in the form of a custom Mac Pro configuration. The Mac Pro, is based on a 3.0GHz, 8-core Intel Xeon Processor.

According to Apple's website, you can "Opt for the 8-core Mac Pro and you get the power of two Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Clovertown” processors running at 3.0GHz. Or choose a quad-core Mac Pro featuring two Dual-Core Intel Xeon “Woodcrest” processors and decide how fast they fly: 2.0GHz, 2.66GHz, or 3.0GHz. At 3.0GHz, the quad-core Mac Pro runs up to 2x faster than the Power Mac G5 Quad." (This paragraph was quoted ad-verbatim from Apple's website at: http://www.apple.com/macpro/)

So the question becomes "what's next". Will the PC market respond with the same? We'll have to wait.

On a separate issue, Intel's vPro technology has made its way into several manufacturer's machines. It is said to improve on security and provide Intel's Virtualization Technology (VT). Read more about it at Intel's Website at http://www.intel.com/business/vpro/

Tech News: Yahoo Mail announces Unlimited Storage

As many would have heard by now, Yahoo inc, in an announcement, said that all Yahoo Mail users will have free unlimited email storage starting in May 2007. The current storage limit is 1 GB per account for the free accounts. With this move, Yahoo Mail will overtake Google Mail in the virtual war of email space likened to the cold war.

Google Mail, at the last count was offering about 2.5 gigabytes of space. Yahoo is currently the leader in terms of users, with about 250 million users worldwide.

Will this announcement make many change over? I don't think so. While a Yahoo Mail Account will be added into the service list of many people, I don't think it will appeal to users using POP mail interface as currently, Yahoo Free Users do not have this option.. This is unlike Google Mail which provides Email forwarding and POP access.

However, for Yahoo Singapore Users, the situation may be different as we do get POP mail functions. So the question will be now related to other value-added services like mail attachment size.

Furthermore, as an afterthought, it is wondered if a tool like Gmail Space will arise to allow users to make full use of the unlimited storage. I for one will be looking out for it...

It is now time to wait and see how will Google and Microsoft react to this.