Tech News: Google's PowerPoint

I guess this is expected every since the inception of Google Docs and Spreadsheets.
Google's future launch of a presentation tool was confirmed at the Web 2.0 Expo Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Expect integration of all their products (i.e. Blog, Docs, spreadsheet, presentation and mail. etc.)

Schmidt stressed that their office suite isn’t a threat to Microsoft. Of course, users feel slightly otherwise. Docs and Spreadsheet came after the acquisition of Writely and it seems that this time, the presentation tool announcment comes after the acquisition of Tonic Systems.

However, a search on the internet lists some sites saying that this technology has in fact been used in meetings at Google, fueling thoughts that this product has been under development for sometime now.

Most probably, the new tool will allow for the conversion of a document into a presentation, create slides and view full-screen presentations.

For now, consumers will have to wait for its slated release in Summer...

Yahoo's Photos and N.America Auction Closing

Last week, Yahoo made an announcement that it will close its auction service in North American with effect from 3rd June. This come just after the announcement that they will be closing down their photo service, Yahoo Photos.

Not much I can say for the N.America Auction site. Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan are unaffected by the auction site announcement...

The closure of the Yahoo Photos doesn't really come as a surprise. Its closure seemed inevitable since its acquisition of Flickr, which was deemed as a pioneer for Web 2.0. Yahoo underwent a significant reorganization in December to better focus its efforts. The closure is seen as an attempt to rationalize its services and remove what was deemed as overlapping services.

Yahoo Photos users will be given the opportunity to move their pictures over to Flickr, Shutterfly or Kodak Gallery.

However, much is to be seen from the closure.

I for one feel kinda sad. Flickr isn't suited for everyone. Especially with limited set creation unless you have a paid account, it doesn't really match up to that of Yahoo Photos.
For now, we just have hope that Yahoo removes that limit which is highly unlikely.

Maybe Google can come up with a photo sharing site with unlimited sets and free.....Possible?... Just maybe...

Tech News: Adobe Labs | Apollo

Always wanted to create cross-platform desktop applications? Well there is now a new solution for developers, in the form of the new Apollo platform from Adobe.

Web Developers have reasons to cheer too. You can use HTML and Javascript to actually communicate with the Apollo framework, giving web developers a change to put their web apps onto the desktop.

At the Adobe Labs, Apollo is described as "the code name for a cross-operating system runtime being developed by Adobe that allows developers to leverage their existing web development skills (Flash, Flex, HTML, JavaScript, Ajax) to build and deploy rich Internet applications (RIAs) to the desktop."

Currently in Alpha stages, it has demonstrated vast possibilities with the runtime. Sample applications can be found through out adobe's website as well as its weblog.

Whats more the Apollo runtimes are free just like Adobe Flex.

Let's Go Open Source: Eclipse IDE

All Programmers have heard of dreamweaver I'm sure. However, for budget programmers like me, I prefer to go the open source way. The tools I use for designing web pages, from Graphics to the coding are all open source software.

In the first Let's G.O.S. feature in this site, the software here which has been an integral part of my programming toolkit: the Eclipse Integrated Development Environment (IDE).

The Eclipse SDK (Software Development Kit) is the core of the IDEs. It features a framework which allows for IDEs to run. It is an open source and software independent framework. As such, you can run eclipse in most operating systems.

The Eclipse SDK comes with the Java IDE. However, it aims to be more than a Java IDE. It aims to be part of the entire software development cycle.

Eclipse has a large community of users, constantly extending the covered application areas. It is focused on building an extensible development platform, runtimes and application frameworks for building, deploying and managing software across the entire software lifecycle.

However, since my work is web-oriented, my IDE of choice is the PHP-IDE. Here is a screenshot of the Eclipse IDE:



There are various plugins and gems which can be found at the Eclipse Foundation website at http://www.eclipse.org

On top of that. If you're a Flex developer, Adobe's Flex is also able to integrate into the Eclipse environment..

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/