News: Amazon customers snap up $10 ‘goodies’

By | November 24, 2011
0 Comment
 From the ‘people will buy anything so long as you don’t tell them what it is and it comes in a box’ department, Wired reports of a new service from Amazon, where customers can buy a Goodie Box of 1 to 5 “goodies” — freebies, basically — from software publishers randomly dropped into a box. Technically it’s free, since the box costs $10 but includes a $10 mail-in rebate. (The buyer pays for shipping, which starts at $4, and one assumes most folk forget to mail the rebate coupon.)
Recent boxes included a Microsoft Money trial CD, a CD wallet from Roxio, a Photoshop Album Starter Edition CD from Adobe and some Post-It cubes from Apple.
 
Needless to say, since the service started in May it’s been so popular they’ve sold out and are waiting to get more stuff. I can well believe something like this is popular. Any time I’ve mentioned I’ve got cupboards full of this kind of stuff, folk send me emails asking me to send it their way. Short answer: no. Bids start at $10.

News: Bloggers free to speak

By | November 24, 2011
0 Comment
 Bloggers Gain Libel Protection 
 
Wired reports that the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last Tuesday that Web loggers, website operators and e-mail list editors (folk like me, in other words) can’t be held responsible for libel for information they republish, extending crucial First Amendment protections to do-it-yourself online publishers.
 
The ruling, the Wired article by Xeni Jardin says, effectively differentiates conventional news media, which can be sued relatively easily for libel, from certain forms of online communication such as moderated e-mail lists. One implication is that DIY publishers like bloggers cannot be sued as easily.
 
My tuppence? It’s good news in the sense that blogs and the like are more like commentaries, and therefore free speech, than publications. But that doesn’t mean they should not strive to be accurate, and differentiate between facts and opinions: Product X does A, B and C; I don’t think it’s any good because of D, E and, er, F. Blogs on specific topics (I’m not talking about daily journals about what your pet tortoise has been up to, unless it happens to be designing a new Bluetooth standard) will only be read if they’re considered to be reliable, if not authoritative.

Update: AlphaSmart to go wireless

By | November 24, 2011
0 Comment
 The folk at AlphaSmart tell me that yesterday they showed off the next generation version of Dana, the cool word-processing keyboard I reviewed a few weeks ago, at the National Educating Computer Conference in Seattle. (Their website has no details so far.)
 
 
The new model offers built-in Wi-Fi technology (802.11b), allowing Dana users to access email and the Internet wirelessly. AlphaSmart will launch the model before the next school year and hope this will “enhance Dana?s position as a true laptop alternative”. Dana Wireless also offers a better display and additional fonts.

Software: Jot this

By | November 24, 2011
0 Comment
 Jot+ Notes, one of those programs that never go out of style, is today into its third version. Jot+ Notes is a note/cardfile program with an added dimension: each note can have sub-notes, which in turn can have their own sub-notes, until you end up with a hierarchical tree or outline of notes. Sounds complicated? It’s not.
 
 
It’s very simple, and great for any loosely structured information — stuff that’s too important to just leave in a text file, but too vague to put in , say, Outlook. It’s good for address books (it even has an Autodial function), diaries/journals, Internet links/bookmarks, e-books, or just random notes.
 
A few of the many improvements in Jot+ Notes 3.0:
  • Improved editor, with more formatting options, plus support for embedded objects and images.
  • Plugins, to extend Jot+ Notes even further.
  • Enhanced import/export, with new XML support and enhanced HTML and CSV support.
  • Modern user interface, with colorful icons, configurable toolbars, configurable keyboard shortcuts, and XP theme support.
  • Note titles can be displayed in different styles with a choice of icon from a large library.
  • Notefile compression reduces notefile size by up to 90%.
Jot+ costs $30, or $9 (or free) for upgrades from previous versions, depending on when you bought it. I’ve checked the program out, and it’s good, very good. Gripes? It would replace my address book entirely if only it came with a version I could run on my Palm/Pocket PC.