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Plugin enables useful social features in Outlook


Spell “inbox” backwards and you get “xobni”.  It is a creative name for a company that develops an increasingly useful Microsoft Outlook plugin.  Xobni indexes all the e-mail stored locally within Outlook and remotely in Exchange servers.  It then makes connections between recipients and social portals like Facebook and Linkedin.

Lets say John Doe is one of your contacts.  You will be able to view John’s Facebook profile picture and additional public information by simply highlighting an e-mail received from him.  You will also get a listing of past conversations. Continue reading “Plugin enables useful social features in Outlook”

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True access to your personal data from anywhere

A recent MacRumors article mentions Apple’s interest in Near Field Communication and the possibility of it being a feature on a future Apple mobile device.  NFC is presently utilized in “tap and go” credit card payments.  The feature enables users with NFC enabled cards to pay “wirelessly”.  Users can simply wave their card at the merchant’s payment sensor and this will transmit the information necessary to process payment.  This also opens the possibility of having an electronic wallet instead of the traditional credit card. Continue reading “True access to your personal data from anywhere”

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Make HD recordings from a DVR portable


Digital video recorders (DVRs) are presently the norm.  Many people are able to pause live TV and watch shows hours and even days after the original broadcast date.  The problem now is how to extract the programs from proprietary DVRs like the ones from Comcast, AT&T U-Verse, DirecTV and others and view them on the many portable devices now available.  The El Gato EyeTV HD can easily accomplish this.  The kit contains the award winning EyeTV 3 software and a box with analog component audio and video inputs.  These can be connected to any modern DVR and allow for the recording of videos in HD.  Component video is mostly limited to 1080i, but this good enough for most portable devices, specially since most HD broadcasts are in 720p.  The software can be configured to automatically convert video to a format compatible with an Apple iPad, iPod, and many other mobile devices.

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The next frontier, wireless electricity

Imagine sitting in a room and the mobile phone in your pocket is automatically charging.  Furthermore, the TV, digital picture frame, and lamps around you have no electrical cable.  This is the world WiTricity is trying to realize.  They are conducting research to allow for the distribution of electricity using magnetic fields.  The technology is thoroughly explained in their website.  There is also a wide range of immediate uses for the technology.  Aside for powering electric devices in a home, the technology can be used to replace single use batteries, power medical devices, automatically recharge electric cars, and even power robotic devices.  In this day and age almost everything is without wires, wireless electricity seems to be the next frontier.

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HD videoconferencing for the family room


Cisco recently announced the Umi high definition video conferencing system for the home.  The system is composed of an HD camera, control station, and remote control.  The camera is designed to mount atop a flat panel display.  At almost $600, it is at the high end of the residential conferencing offerings.  A close competitor is the Logitech Revue with an accessory camera, which together will cost about $150 less than the Umi.  Cisco has a long history of producing great video and teleconferencing products.  We will have to wait until it is released to see how the Umi stacks up to the competition.

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Watch TV in a new way with GoogleTV

It seems that Google might again revolutionize another area of life, watching TV.  The Logitech Revue will be one of the first devices to come to market with the innovative GoogleTV technology.  The device connects between your TV and video source.  The video source will typically be a CableTV or satellite receiver or digital video recorder.  To accomplish this, the Revue has two HDMI connectors.  This allows for the display of a video overlay with menus and other GoogleTV options.  For example, you could be watching a football game and need to check scores of some other games.  You would simply bring up Google Chrome on the Revue and go to Yahoo while still watching the game on a picture-in-picture window on the screen.

Several other content providers also signed up.  Services like Netflix, Amazon, CNBC, and Pandora Radio are some of them.  Users will also be available to use the Revue to access digital media locally stored like family pictures, music, and movies.

The device goes head to head with the AppleTV, with the main difference that the Revue provides seamless TV integration.  Google is also working with other manufacturers like Sony to embed the software within TVs and Blu-ray players.

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Flipboard, an electronic social magazine for the iPad

The makers of Flipboard devised a very clever way to present media content from numerous sources in a “magazine” format.  Magazines are easy to read because of layout of text and pictures.  The format is more appealing than the traditional social networking or blog website.  The Flipboard application for the iPad also provides an elegant way to navigate through content from Twitter and Facebook as well as pictures and other digital media.  The content is then easy to comment and even share.  Pages are passed just like in a magazine.  Page transitions are smooth and the content is easy to read.  The “virtual slate” application is free and works very well.

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Meet the next generation chemistry set


Not too long ago I came across a Thames & Kosmos chemistry set.  I looked further into the company and discovered that they make a plethora of other science experiment sets.  The experiments cover areas like electronics, astronomy, biology, chemistry, physics, alternative energy, and many others.  The kits range from under $20 to well over $100.  They are designed for children over 5 or older.  The fundamental series is a great place for a young scientist to start, particularly the Core Science kit.