LANcom Technology Blog

If you want to quickly refine your Google searches so you get more relevant results and save yourself some time, then here are 6 ways you can do it.

To learn more ways to refine your Google searches click here to see the Google Help cheat sheet.

We are happy to announce that we have released our ‘Free technologies that could improve your business’ report.

This report covers six free technologies and how they could be of use to your business. It looks at remote access, online file storage, website traffic analysis, calling online, time management and website filtering. If you would like a free copy please contact us at info@lancom.co.nz .

The first 6 pages of this report can also be read on the LANcom library site click here.

According to Computer World, Adeona a new free laptop tracking system will be released next week. Adeona can help you find your laptop if it gets stolen by providing you with the IP address that it last used and data on what routers it used to connect to the internet. If you are using a Mac it can even take a picture of the person using the computer for you to see. This information should make it much easier for law enforcement to track down your stolen laptop.

To use Adeona all you will need to do is download the free client software on to your laptop. Then if you laptop gets stolen you can download another program, enter your user name and password, and gain access to this information.

The information on where your laptop has been connecting to the internet can only be accessed by you with your username and password, so you don’t need to worry about any third parties spying on you.

To learn more about Adeona click here.

To read more about the release of Adeona from Computer World click here.

If you would like to translate an entire website from one language to another, both Windows Live and Google offer tools which can do this.

The Windows Live Translator offers 25 different language translation options and can display the translated site side by side with the original.

Another cool feature of the Windows Live Translator is that when you hold your mouse over a sentence, that sentence and the corresponding translated sentence will both be highlighted. You can also view the sites one underneath the other or just view the translated site by itself.

The Windows Live Translator can be found at www.windowslivetranslator.com

Google Translate on the other hand doesn’t offer a side by side view like the Windows Live Translator, but it can translate entire websites into more languages. When looking at the translated site you can highlight a section and Google will display the original text in a pop-up speech bubble.

Google translated can be found at translate.google.com

SlideShare in an interesting new website that allows you to share your slideshow presentations in a number of ways:

1. You can upload you slideshows to the site where everyone can see them.
2. You can upload your presentations to the site and then choose who you want to be able to view them by sending email invites.
3. You can upload your presentations privately so that only you can view them. With this option you will receive a secret URL to your presentation, which means that no one browsing the SlideShare site or the internet will find your presentation accidentally but you can still give this URL to other people. You could for example link to a presentation from your company’s internal website, and then only people who had access to the internal website would be able to find the presentation.
4. You can easy embed presentations you have stored on SlideShare into your website or blog. If you select the option ‘Allow embedding outside SlideShare’ SlideShare will provide you with a line of code. Then all you need to do is cut and paste this line of code into your website or blog and the presentation will appear (see below for an example).
5. You can add audio too. With slidecasting you can play any slidedeck synchronized with an audio file.

SlideShare will accept PowerPoint, OpenOffice, and PDF presentations with a maximum file size of 30MB. It does not yet accept PowerPoint 2007 files so if you’re using 2007 when you save your presentation you will have to go to ‘Save As’ and select 97-2003 Presentation.

To learn more about SlideShare click here.

| View | Upload your own

If you like to keep up to date with news on a particular topic, for work or for fun, here are three free technologies which can help you do it.

1. RSS feeds –As you may already know, RSS allows you to subscribe to blogs and other sites with regularly updated content. When using RSS all the new posts from all the sites you subscribe to will be added to your RSS feed list, so you know when all the blogs on your favourite topics have been updated without having to visit them all. You can also choose which new blog posts you want to read from a list of their titles.
   To learn more about RSS click here, or if you would like to search for a blog on a particular topic click here to visit the Technorati blog directory.
   
   
2. Google Alerts - Google Alerts is a free service that continuously scans the web for stories relevant to your selected topic and delivers updates to your email address. You can subscribe to receive updates about your topic from just news listings, the web in general, just blogs, or just groups and you can choose how often you receive these alerts too e.g. once a day, or once a week.
   To learn more about Google Alerts click here.
   
   
3. Personalised news aggregators – There are a number of services available that offer to aggregate news stories for you based on your interests. One such service is the DailyMe (click here for info), but you can also use iGoogle to aggregate news for you.
   iGoogle allows you to customise your Google homepage by adding gadgets, so you can see at a glance all the things that interest you on the net. For example if you were interested in technology you could add a gadget that lists the top technology stories from the New Zealand Herald, and the gadget from PC magazine that lists technology tips. There are literally hundreds of gadgets for you to choose from. To learn more about iGoogle click here.

It turns out that a surprisingly large amount of laptops go missing at airports. In the US 10,278 go missing every week from the largest airports and only 35% are recovered. Other common places include hotels and parked cars.

So what can you do to help prevent losing your laptop at an airport? The American FTC suggests you treat a laptop like cash when you are in an airport. You wouldn’t take your eyes off a pile of money when you are in a public place so you shouldn’t take your eyes off your laptop either. You should also take the laptop on the place with you so you can keep an eye on it.

For more tips on preventing laptop theft click here.

Hat tip to Computer World for the idea for this post.

Microsoft and the University of Washington are currently working on a interesting new technology called Photosynth.

Photosynth can take a large number of photos of a single place or object, analyse them, and then display them in a reconstructed three dimensional space. What this means is you can move through a scene, going where you want to go, and seeing photo’s from each view point as if you where actually there.

So how does this work? Each photo is processed to extract hundreds of distinctive features; photos that share features are linked together, and then when the same feature is found in multiply images then its 3D position can be calculated.

Another cool feature of Photosynth is its smooth digital rendering and zoom capabilities, which makes you feel like you’re really there and just moving closer to the object.

There are currently seven Photosynth collections you can view on the Photosynth Tech preview site including: the space shuttle Endeavour, the Ely Cathedral, and Piazza San Marco in Venice.

According to the Photosynth site in a future version you’ll be able to display your own photographs in a 3D space and even combine the photos you’ve taken with others who have taken photos of the same thing creating an even better 3D space.

To learn more about Photosynth or to experience one of the Photosyth collections click here.

Note: To use Photosynth you must have Windows XP SP2 or later, or Vista RC1 or later and be using Internet Explorer 6 or 7, or Firefox 1.5 or 2.

If you have a Windows Live Hotmail account, and use either Outlook 2007 or 2003, then you can get access to your hotmail emails through Outlook with the Outlook Connector.

The Outlook Connector is a free download that allows you to view your Hotmail emails along side your other email accounts, your hotmail inbox will simply appear as a separate inbox folder in your folder list. You will also have access to all of the contacts you have listed in Hotmail.

The advantages of connecting your Hotmail with Outlook include: the convenience of having your emails in one place, the ability to use features of Outlook 2007 like Instant Search, and the ability to access your information offline.

If you still have an old MSN Hotmail account and have not yet upgraded to Windows Live Hotmail you need to do this before you can use the Outlook Connector. It’s free, to learn more click here.

To learn more about the Outlook Connecter, and find out where you can download it click here

As you may have already heard the new iPhone 3G is set to become available through Vodafone in New Zealand on July 11^th.

The good news is, not only will it be faster at browsing the web it will also be significantly cheaper than the previous version. The iPhone 3G is priced at $199 in the US for the 8GB model and $299 for the 16GB model, which is about $259 and $397 NZ.

New features of the iPhone 3G include: fast 3G wireless technology, GPS mapping so you can find out where you are and how to get to where you want to be, and support for enterprise features like Microsoft Exchange. It will also make multi-tasking easier because you’ll be able to browse the web or check your emails while you are on a call.

The bad news is that the iPhone 3G will only be available on account, you will have to sign a long term contract to get one and contract prices are likely to be on the higher side.

You also won’t be able to get fast internet everywhere in New Zealand. According to Vodafone the fast 3G downloads will only be available in 19 New Zealand cities. In smaller towns and rural areas browsing the web will be at the much slower 2G speeds. A website that takes 20 seconds to load at 3G speeds will take about 1 minute at 2G speed.

To learn more about the iPhone 3G click here.

Update: The iPhone 3G contract pricing was announced on the 08/07. The plan with the largest ammount of data will cost $250 per month on a 24 month contract, but there is also a $130 per month plan and an $80 per month plan. For more details click here.