The digital collaboration space is growing and the enterprise keeps on implementing and improving their collaboration capability across the whole organization. Google knows this as such they have released Google Wave technology to be able to complete in a vertical market. I have signed up for their user invitation weeks back but still wasn’t able to get an invite since I was too late on doing so.

Even if Google Wave is not yet open for everyone, the technology is progressing rapidly and Google has announced during the London meeting that the Google Wave would be opening an app store similar to what Apple has done.  This move shows the long term commitment of the search giant on this technology which they seem to roll-out to the consumer market first before pushing it to the enterprise. I think the move of Google Wave to the consumer market is aimed to help the technology grow and mature before they go full speed ahead on competing with enterprise collaboration tools like Microsoft SharePoint.

Google Wave is an interesting technology because aside from the usual collaborative functions it has, Google promises a real-time collaboration that gets updated as the user makes a keystroke instead of the usual submission of items, going through a workflow and approval process until the time the other user from the other end sees your thoughts.

The search giant also plans to create an extension gallery for Google Wave which includes hooks that invoke actions like opening new wave or launching shortcuts, merging waves, deployment on networks, etc.

As of the latest updates, third party developers have already developed applications in teleconferencing, videoconferencing, and multiplayer games.

I think the Google wave has a lot of potential and in time it would be a cheap alternative application for implementing productive digital collaboration across organizations.

Have you been given an invite for Google wave? What are your initial thoughts?

Image from Google Wave.

Post from: EveryJoe

Google Wave App Store and its potential

Qik is the quick way to share your videos to everyone else by shooting and streaming live videos from your phone. Qik can send out tweets whenever you are recording and you also have the option to embed your video in various sites using automatically generated embedded source code. This is a powerful function and feature that lets you enjoy video recording even more. You would have to remember to bring extra battery to power your phone because it would need to power multiple times than it would normally have to.

Qik is also integrated in different and popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter which ensure a wide range of audience for your loved ones.

Qik supports hundreds of devices and some of the more popular ones are the following devices: Amoi 6711, Apple iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, ASUS P320, AT&T 8525, AT&T SMT 5700, Blackberry Curve 8300, Blackberry Curve 8310, Blackberry Curve 8320, HTC Diamond, Motorola Q Music 9m, Nokia 5800 Express Music, Orange, Palm Treo Pro, Palm Treo 800w, Qtek 9600, Samsung Blackjack series, Sony Ericsson smart phones, Sprint phones, T-mobile and vodafone among others.

Go ahead and visit the official Qik site.

Image from Qik.

Post from: EveryJoe

Share Videos the Qik Way

Microsoft has already responded to this and have acknowledged the problems surrounding the Windows 7 student edition. Because of this recommendations on helping resolve this issue were written outside Microsoft. The three links below should be able to get you started on the Windows 7 student edition:

1. Upgrade Instructions – this can be downloaded via digital river and contains the step by step instructions on upgrading the operating system. This is just a one page instructions which has 5 steps. The following steps are supposed to be executed:

1. Prepare your pc

2. Download the ISO image file

3. Download and install the Windows 7 USB/Download tool

4. Using the Windows 7 download tool

5. Installing Windows 7 via bootable disc

2. ISO file – this is the file which contains the direct ISO link

3. Bootable DVD/USB Creator – you can use this to create a bootable usb medium

I am not using Windows 7 student and have no plans of using this version since I already have Windows 7 Ultimate edition. In case you are one of those people who have encountered problems on the student edition and have found a way to install or upgrade correctly, please do buzz us through the comments in this post. We and other users would appreciate this.

Image from Windows 7.

Post from: EveryJoe

Windows 7 Student Tips

In Windows 7 the show desktop icon is found on the right most side at the bottom of the taskbar (see image below):

I found the new show desktop icon placement to be convenient but nonetheless some people are still feeling nostalgic and would want to get their old Windows Vista / Windows XP show desktop icon.

To get your old Windows 7 desktop icon, below are the steps:

1. Create a new folder in windows explorer. You can place this folder anywhere you want but preferably place this folder in your document library. You can give the folder any name you want.

2. Create a new text file via notepad and name it “Show Desktop.scf”, please include the quotes as well. Save this text file to the folder you created.

3. On the text files paste the following codes:

[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop

4. Save the text file

5. Now go to your Windows 7 taskbard and do a right-click, click on “Toolbars” then “New Toolbar”. The folder dialog box would appear, open the folder you created in step 1.

6. The folder has now been added, again right-click on the taskbar and click on “Lock the taskbar”. By default, the taskbar is locked and by clicking on the unlock taskbar, it unlocks it.

7. The icon placeholder should appear as shown in the image below:

8. Right-click on the toolbar placeholder, and uncheck the “Show Title” and “Show Text”

9. Drag the toolbar on the left side of the taskbar

10. Lock the taskbar by following instruction number “6”.

11. Done.

If you are into the old nostalgic show desktop then go ahead and follow the instructions but I would suggest to stick it out with the new show desktop icon since it is more convenient, less intrusive and saves an additional space on the taskbar.

How would you like your show desktop icon to be?

Image from my Windows 7 computer.

Post from: EveryJoe

The Classic Windows 7 Show Desktop Icon

Another additional product on the Amazon web services is the Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) which Amazon feels would help streamline processes of settings up, scaling and operating relational data over the internet.

Amazon vice president of web services, Adam Selipsky, have noted that they have been working on the relational database for the last two years since many of their Amazon web service customers have given feedback that they require relational database in the cloud. These customers were already using Amazon’s SimpleDB which provides basic, simple and reliable database in the cloud.

Amazon’s relational database offering would include a full features MySQL database which automatically handles common database administration tasks namely: setup, provisioning, patch management, and backup duties. Amazon’s selling point on this is the cheap cost of subscribing to this service as they do not charge customer with upfront fees but are billed based on their actual usage.

I think having a relational database on the cloud is a big boost and selling point for the company. I have been working on SharePoint which is an internet based platform and for the last 8-10 years architects and developers have had challenges on building relational stuff on SharePoint as this doesn’t come out of the box. Amazon’s push to make this a major offering seems to have lots of potential and could get more customers into their services.

I would be watching the progress of Amazon web services closely. How about you? Have you had any experience on their cloud computing services? How did it go?

The Amazon relational database service can be found here – Amazon RDS.

Image from Amazon.

Post from: EveryJoe

Amazon on Relational Databases

How about an application that gives directions? This should fall under “common”, “uncreative” applications in the market. But what if its an application built for night life? I think that changes things and we now have a creative application. This application called Wertago is a premiere mobile application that was built for people with a nightlife. Wertago provides up to the second information about hot venues, the ability to share content and influence the social scene, be able to coordinate plans with friends and connect with socialites across the city. The review, ratings, tags and reviews are all done in real-time and could help you maximize your night activities.

I can recall that everytime I go to the United States for a business trip, I have barely enough time to see and enjoy various places at night and I end up going to restaurants or bar within my sight. Applications like Wertago should ease up the research workload for people like me.

Other features of this applications are as follows:

1. You can see where and check out where your friends are

2. You can browse profiles, personalize your own and you can meet new people

3. You can send messages to people

4. Coordinate meetup is easy with its features

5. Be able to say hello to someone you want to meet

In summary this is a full blown social networking site that resides on your mobile and only target people who are going out at night. If you are the party goer and would like to make your nightlife less tedious on planning and coordination, Wertago is right for you.

The supported mobile devices includes Google phones, iPhones and other web-enabled smartphones.

As an added information about this product, Wertago is the grand prize winner for Google’s Android developer challenge.

You can view from information from the official Wertago site – Wertago.

Post from: EveryJoe

Get Night Guidance via Wertago

I am a big fan of Alienware and they have consistently set the standards for the most powerful gaming laptops on the planet. The Alienware M17x is a beast of a machine that could make any user an extremely happy camper. Outside the Alienware M17x , there is still life and here we found EUROCOM M980NU XCaliber which also boasts of features that could give Alienware a run for its money.

The EUROCOM XCaliber has a whopping 18.4 inch high definition 1920 by 1080 pixels with glossy surface and an ultra bright LCD display. The 18.4 inch mobile gaming computer is packed with powerful hardware specifications having a Quad Core and Quad Core Extreme processors, a GTX 280M graphics card in either a single or dual SLI configuration. The computer is stacked up with a DDR3-1333 memory and three physical hard drives in RAID 0/1 configuration.

The specific default settings of the XCaliber are as follows

1. Upgradable processors, Intel Quad Core or Core 2 Duo Extreme Mobile Processor, FSB1066; can be upgraded to QX9300

2. nVidia MCP79xi SLI chipset

3. nVidia GTX 280M. Can be customized for either a single 1GB or Dual 2GB VGA / SLI configuration

4. Storage can go as high as 1.5TB on three physical storage of RAID 0/1

5. Can have either a DVD burner, Blu Ray Reader or Blu Ray Writer

6. Network is WLAN 802.11a/b/g/n

7. Bluetooth capable

8. Has eSATA ports, HDMI, DVI

9. 4 USB 2.0 drives

As you can see the starting settings of the EUROCOM M980NU XCaliber is already a powerful machine but like Alienware, you can bring the specs even further by customizing it via their site. The official page for customizing the EUROCOM M980NU XCaliber is here – EUROCOM Configuration.

This laptop can go head to head with Alienware’s laptop and you can consider looking at the specs if you are in the market for high end gaming notebooks.

Image from EUROCOM.

Post from: EveryJoe

Windows 7 Extreme Gaming with EUROCOM

Hulu Desktop integration is a freeware that integrates directly to the Windows 7 media center. The Windows media center are one of those apps that come free in Windows but despite its free nature it is one of the best media players in the market. I could even say it is the best media player had it not been for its DRM file format.

Anyways, the integration between Windows 7 media center and Hulu Desktop puts a one-click access link from the Windows 7 media center. When clicking on the Hulu link, the software would automatically close the Windows media center and start Hulu desktop in full screen mode. When finished viewing on the Hulu Desktop, the exit button would automatically fire up the Windows media center to continue where you left off.

The Hulu Desktop is still in its early phase on its integration with windows media center but I would expect that this integration would improve over time and Microsoft and Hulu could even allow viewing directly from the media center of Windows.

Have you used the Windows media center lately? Take my word for it, the windows media center is a very powerful application that comes cheap.

Go ahead and download the Hulu desktop integration here – Hulu desktop.

Image from my Windows 7 computer.

Post from: EveryJoe

Hulu on Windows 7 Desktop

Today, we are going to look into another high end laptop in AVADirect Clevo D900F. Again you can customize this laptop and the various specifications that you can choose from are as follows:

Processors

Core i7 920 (4×2.66GHz+HTT, 45nm, 4.8GT/s QPI, 130W)
Core i7 940 (4×2.93GHz+HTT, 45nm, 4.8GT/s QPI, 130W)
Core i7 950 (4×3.06GHz+HTT, 45nm, 4.8GT/s QPI, 130W)
Core i7 975 (4×3.33GHz+HTT, 45nm, 6.4GT/s QPI, 130W)
Xeon L5506, L5520, E5540, X5550, X5560, or W5580

Chipset

Intel X58+ICH10R

Memory

From 2×1GB DDR3-1066 to 3×4096MB DDR3-1066
2×2GB DDR3-1333 supported
3×2048MB DDR3-1066 CL7 as configured

Graphics

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M 1GB GDDR3

Display

17.1″ CCFL Glossy WUXGA (1920×1200)

Hard drives

Up to three HDDs/SSDs with optional RAID 0/1/5

Optical drives

8x DVDR SuperMulti
Blu-ray Reader/DVDRW Combo
Blu-ray Recorder/DVDRW

Networking

Realtek Gigabit Ethernet (RTL8168/8111 PCI-E)
Intel Wifi Link 5300 AGN WiFi
Bluetooth v2.1+EDR
56K Modem

Audio

6-Channel Realtek ALC662-GR HD Audio
(4 stereo speakers with four audio jacks+digital out)

Battery Adapter

12-Cell 95.04Whr, 14.4V, 6600mAh
220W Power Brick

Front side

4 x Audio/Microphone jacks

Left side

MS/MS Pro/SD/MMC reader
BDROM/DVDR Combo Drive
ExpressCard/54
1 x Mini FireWire
Gigabit Ethernet
56K Modem
Optional TV Tuner Input
1 x eSATA
HDMI

Right Side

4 x USB 2.0
Kensington Lock

Back side

4 x Heat Exhaust
Dual-Link DVI
Power Adapter

Operating system

Windows Vista, Windows 7, Redhat Linux, or Ubuntu

Dimensions

15.63″ x 11.73″ x 2.01-2.50″ (WxDxH)

Weight

11.88 lbs (with 12-cell battery)

Extras

2.0MP Webcam
99-Key Keyboard with 10-Key
5 customizable/programmable buttons

Warranty

1-year standard Warranty
3-year extended warranty available

Price

Starting at ~$2500 online.
Tested configuration priced at $3894.

As you can see the parts of this computer is very powerful that could provide years of gaming satisfaction, the only drawback on this is the price tag which starts at $2500 USD. The Alienware starting hardware is only at $1700 USD although the high end price of Alienware reaches around $6000 USD compared to the $3894 high scale price of Clevo.

Do you think the price of this hardware is reasonable? Do you have the budget to get one? Would you load Windows 7 on it?

Go ahead and look at the official page of the Clevo D900F.

Image from AVADirect.

Post from: EveryJoe

Another Windows 7 Gaming laptop in AVADirect Clevo D900F

Places Directory allows you to browse nearby places in the following categories: Restaurants, Movie Theaters, Hotels and Banks. Alongside the listing of the places, you are also given the distance, and direction to the place by tapping on the list on a short-press. Ratings and photos are also included and you can also call the business via a long-press on the listing. The location provided can also be viewed through GoogleMaps. This app uses GPS or the nearest cell tower to provide you with these locations.

The Places Directory application is only available in US English and Chinese. Go ahead and download the application via the Android Market.

If you travel a lot or just need direction, this is a good tool be installed on your Android device.

Image from Google Mobile.

Post from: EveryJoe

Find a Bank and More via Places Directory