Mike Slocombe

Agenda Fusion v7.85 PIM for Pocket PC Review (80%)
With the under-whelming Pocket Outlook PIM that comes bundled with Windows Mobile, it’s not surprising that third party developers have been busy serving up their own offerings for users seeking more power.
We’ve already reviewed Pocket Informant, so we thought we’d take a look at its main rival, Developer One’s Agenda Fusion.
Proclaimed (by its makers, natch) to be the “#1 time and information management solution for your Pocket PC,” Agenda Fusion is a comprehensive suite of applications designed to replace the built-in appointments, tasks, notes and contacts tools on your Pocket PC.
Installation
Installation was straightforward enough with the option to either double-click on the self-installing .exe file on your desktop or download the CAB file directly to your Pocket PC.
Program files can be installed in the Pocket PC’s memory or on a storage card.
Once installed, you can assign your hardware buttons to work with Agenda Fusion’s views so you need never cast your eyes on the built in PIM tools again.
Calendar view
Predictably, the calendar application served up a feast of different views, including Today, Hourly Day, Hourly Week, Week, Agenda, Month, and Year, and you can jump from view to view via a drop down menu.
The interface seemed straightforward enough, although some screens looked like they were trying to pack a bit too much functionality in, making some elements of the interface a little confusing at first.
For example, whenever we tried to input a new appointment in the calendar view, the words, “ would appear in the subject box.
It was only after a while we realised that it was inviting us to select an appointment from a template menu by pressing a hardware button on the Pocket PC.
This then offered preset appointment selections like ‘Lunch with’ or ‘Visit’ before letting us tick off attendees from the contacts list. Neat.
Colours and icons can also be added to the interface to spruce up the week ahead, with the option to have the calendar’s colours highlight your working hours.
Contacts view
Although we didn’t find Agenda Fusion’s Contacts interface to be a vast improvement over Pocket Outlook, it does have a few extras, including a preview pane at the top and the ability to attach a mugshot to any specific contact.
Contacts could also be associated with appointments, tasks, and documents via the Linking feature, with category icons offering quick visual cues.
Notes view
We’ve never been particularly impressed with the way Pocket PCs handle notes – the Palm OS does it much better, in our opinion.
Mind you, Agenda Fusion’s Notes has a good stab it at, organising notes and alarm notes in a split screen view, with a preview at the top and a folder view below.
There’s also a handy Alarm notes feature that takes care of quick notes or voice recordings that can be set to pop-up at any time as a reminder.
Projects
We were pleased to see that Agenda Fusion had included an integrated project management tool, which lets you organise contacts, tasks, notes, appointments and documents into Projects with the ability to track time and create reports.
Usefully, projects can also be linked together to create a larger project, making it easy to track individual phases.
In the competitive Pocket PC market, we reckon this feature could prove very compelling to some users. Nice one Fusion!
Customisation
Just like Pocket Informant, there’s a baffling array of customisation choices available, letting you adjust anything that could possibly be adjusted, tweaked or fiddled about with – colours, fonts, displays, backgrounds, working days, categories – the lot.
Although this amount of control will no doubt appeal to pernickety types that like to have things looking just so, we suspect that many users will be totally overwhelmed by all these choices and thus be deterred from using the program to its full potential.
Conclusion
We liked Agenda Fusion, and although it’s not perfect, found it to be a very capable and powerful application, with the excellent Projects tool, adding real value to the package.
This definitely isn’t a program that reveals itself quickly, and its complexity may put off some users, but for those willing to to stick with it and discover what it’s got to offer, there’s enough productivity benefits on offer to easily justify the $30 investment.
Features: 85%
Ease of use: 70%
Value For Money: 80%
Overall: 80%
Agenda Fusion
30 March, 2006
Numark CD Mix 1 DJ Player Review (88%)
Aimed at aspiring superstar DJs, bedroom mixers and club jockeys, Numark’s entry level CD Mix 1 combo is a convenient package offering dual CD transports and a basic mixer.
The all-in-one unit is a breeze to operate, with its no-nonsense controls making it easy to professionally mix tracks, with additional features onboard for the more adventurous.
The wedge shaped unit houses two matching CD players, each offering the basic cue, track skip, play/pause controls, with advanced features letting wannabe Fatboy Slims fiddle about with the pitch, search backwards and forwards through songs at variable speeds and program a sequence of tracks.
A large pair of LCD screens above each of the CD’s controls offers useful information on the modes selected and time remaining/elapsed for the playing track.
Herds of wildebeest
Mentalist DJs wishing to bring da house down with a banging set of beatmatched tunes can avail themselves of the BPM display feature which, combined with the pitch feature, should help avoid the embarrassment of a ‘train wreck’ mix.
This is when a new track is faded in slightly out of synch with the previous one. The resultant unholy cacophony of mismatched beats is often likened to the sound of a herd of wildebeest rampaging across the dance floor. Not cool.
Although it has to be said that the beatmatching facilities on the CD Mix-1 are unlikely to thrill ‘ardcore drum’n’bass heads looking to mash it up bigstyle, it’s certainly a good place to start on.
Sliders galore
For controlling output, the Numark comes with four sliders for adjusting microphone levels (for making those all-important dedications), channels one and two and a master output control.
A row of three tone controls lets you tweak the EQ levels with a matched row of coloured LEDs indicating output levels.
Both mix channels have a toggle switch for selecting CD or turntable input with a switchable cue channel for preparing the next tune – DJs will appreciate the provision of both 1/8″ and ï¿½” output sockets for headphones.
Our verdict
In use, we found the CD Mix1 to be an exemplary performer – the CD controls were responsive with no discernable lag and the sound quality was impressive for an entry unit.
The CD decks managed to play any CD we threw at it (including CD-Rs), with a handy CD auto- fader start feature making basic mixing a piece of cake – even for drunken wedding DJs.
Hooking up some turntables and blasting some vinyl through the Numark revealed some decent quality phono pre-amplifiers onboard – our old 45s sounded great!
With a street price around £240, the Numark CD Mix 1 represents remarkable value for money and, to be honest, a whole load of fun.
Hook it up to your home system, your hi-fi or zillion watt soundsystem and you’re off!
Specifications:
Dual CD player and mixer combination
+/-12% pitch control with pitch bend wheel
True continuous play, track sequence programmable
External inputs for 2 line, 1 mic, 2 phono
Fader start
Balanced output, master EQ, stereo/mono control
Power Requirements DC 12V, 2.5A
Dimensions 17 1/2″(W) x 10″(D) x 6 3/16″(H)
445mm(W) x 255mm(D) x 157mm(H)
Weight 11.5lbs. 5.2Kgs
Overall rating: 88%
Numark
30 March, 2006
Mobile Music Download Market Explodes
Global revenue from music downloaded onto mobile phones went through the roof last year, with pundits predicting that the only way is up for the next five years.
ABI Research’s “Mobile Music Services” surveyed world markets for downloads of full music tracks, ringtones and ringback tones and revealed that the market for full track music downloads to mobile devices had ballooned by 2,000% in the twelve months to the end of 2005.
Compared to sales of $12.4 million in 2004, last year saw an explosive growth in the market, with handset owners shelling out a thumping great $251 million on music downloads – and that figure is expected to reach $9.3 billion by 2011.
The report notes that the high penetration of home PCs in North America has limited over-the-air downloads compared to overseas markets like Asia where mobile phones enjoy greater popularity than PCs.
Similarly, the absence of a Japanese iTunes store until Q4 of 2005 also helped telecom operator KDDI shift 30 million mobile tracks in Japan last year.
How to make a mint from mobile music
If you fancy chancing your arm in the music download market, Arthur Daley’s of the world will appreciate the list of ‘prerequisites for future success in the music-download business’ dished out in the report.
These include a 3G network capable of supporting the product, agreements between carriers and record labels and a distribution system that checks that handsets can accept the content and, crucially, ensures that punters fork out for the product.
Moreover, there must be robust copyright-protection software in place which allows mobile phone users to shunt tracks between devices with no bother.
Finally, the handsets themselves must come with enough memory to store an ample selection of banging tunes and be capable of supporting music downloads and transfers.
And with that, we’re off to launch the Digital Lifestyle Music Download service from our lock-up under the arches.
ABI Research
29 March, 2006
Google Increases US Search Dominance
After reporting Google’s huge dominance of the UK search market, new figures reveal that it also looks set to grab a gorilla-sized chunk of the US search market.
According to the latest statistics from ComScore Networks, Google is increasing its lead over rivals Yahoo and Microsoft, with its US domestic market share soaring to 42.3 percent in February, up from 36.3 percent in the same period last year.
While the vintage champagne corks popped (or water, if we know Google’s public modesty) in Google’s San Francisco’s offices, it was Woodpecker cider for the fading stars at Yahoo who saw their market share slump to 27.6 percent from 31.1 percent a year ago.
Elsewhere, Microsoft’s MSN share of the search market tumbled down to 13.5 percent from 16.3 percent , while Time Warner’s America Online saw their popularity ebb in a downwards direction, falling to 8 percent from 8.9 percent.
Only the newly rebranded Ask.com could muster any cheer, with the Jeeves-less company seeing their share rising to 6 percent from 5.3 percent.
Analysts reckon that that Google could be on an unstoppable roll, with RBC Capital Markets analyst Jordan Rohan commenting, “We see little to stop Google from reaching 70 percent market share eventually; the question, really, comes down to, ‘How long could it take?”
Merrill Lynch analyst Lauren Fine predicted that, “Google’s increased market share and better monetisation of queries will lead to an increased share of ad dollars relative to competitors in the first half of this year.”
Fine also said that Google’s clear strategic focus on search will continue to give the company a competitive edge in the coming months as leading competitors “struggle” to improve their search platforms.
Microsoft fightback
Although Google looks to be running away with the search market, things may get interesting later in the year when Microsoft roll out their new Live.com search and Windows Vista and IE7 packages.
“Microsoft is making a business and technology transition that could affect search in the short term. The company has placed its bets on long-term gains,” commented Jupiter Research senior analyst Joe Wilcox.
“Strangely, Microsoft seems to deliver best when the pressure is greatest. So, Google gains might actually benefit Microsoft over the long haul,” he added.
29 March, 2006
American Kids Losing Sleep Over Gadgets
American teens are getting far less kip they’re supposed to, and a new study points the finger of blame at electronic gadgets in bedrooms.
Boffins say adolescents should get nine hours of sleep a night, but a survey by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia found that 45 percent of middle and high school students were recording less than eight hours on a school night, with more than a quarter nodding off during lessons at least once a week.
Jodi A. Mindell, associate director of the Sleep Center at the Children’s said that computers, mobile phones, televisions, video games and other gadgets were all playing a part in keeping kids away from their slumbers.
“Those with four or more electronic devices in their bedroom were twice as likely to fall asleep in school,” she said.
The “Sleep in America” poll – which polled around 1,600 youths aged 11-17 and their caregivers – found that technological distractions were preventing kids from winding down and relaxing at the end of the day.
Back when we were kids (cue: Hovis music), we only had the option of listening to the radio or reading a book come bedtime, but American kids now have bedrooms positively buzzing with technological distractions.
The survey found that in the hour before bedtime kids would be kept wide awake watching television (76 percent), surfing the web/sending instant-messages (44 percent) or chatting on the phone (40 percent).
“Many teens have a technological playground in their bedrooms that offers a variety of ways to stay stimulated and delay sleep,” commented Mary Carskadon, director of the E.P. Bradley Hospital Sleep and Chronobiology Research Lab at Brown University.
“Ramping down from the day’s activities with a warm bath and a good book are much better ways to transition to bedtime,” she advised, adding that firmly upheld bed/wake times and TV-free bedrooms would all help kids get the kip the need.
Personally, we can’t imagine having a bedroom that wasn’t stuffed full of gadgets and gizmos but then we’re all, err, grown up. And tired.
Sleepfoundation.org
National Center on Sleep Disorders Research
29 March, 2006
Sanyo Xacti C6, World’s Smallest Camcorder
Sanyo have just launched what it’s claiming is the world’s smallest, thinnest and lightest solid state digital camcorder, the Xacti C6.
So small and cute you want to pat it on the head, the X6 measures up at just 2.7 ? 4.2 inches by 0.9 inches wide and barely troubles the scales at 159g when fully loaded with memory card and battery.
Compact enough to slide into your shirt pocket, the distinctive looking camcorder employs the same vertical ‘gun’ style seen throughout the Xacti range, featuring a swivelling 2-inch trans-reflective 2 inch, 210k colour LCD screen.
Saving space by recording straight to a SD card instead of using conventional tape, recordable DVD or hard disk, the Sanyo can grab an hour of VGA resolution (640?480 pixels) video at 30 frames-per-second on a 1 GB card using the “TV-HQ” mode (MPEG-4 bit rate: 2 Mbps).
The Sanyo’s six megapixel CCD sensor captures still images in standard JPEG-format with the camcorder claiming the world’s first 60 fps (frames-per-second) TV output, delivering playback quality that would rival a baby’s bum for smoothness.
There’s also a 5x optical zoom, 12x digital zoom and a Digital Image Stabiliser for correcting any wobbles, with the CCD sensor using 9-pixel mixing technology to record brighter and clearer video in low-light situations.
Available in three colours – gold, black and red – the Xacti has already whipped Steve’s Digicams into an enthusiastic froth, and should be available on the High Street any minute now for around £450 ($788, E652).
Sanyo
28 March, 2006
Panasonic Toughbook 74 Notebook Announced
More rugged than Chuck Norris in a suit of armour, Panasonic’s latest addition to their Toughbook notebook series is set to be introduced at the CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment 2006 event next week.
Billed as the “ultimate road warrior PC,” the semi-rugged Panasonic Toughbook 74 Notebook is an upgraded version of the company’s Toughbook-73 13.3-inch XGA model and comes stuffed with connectivity options.
Powered by a beefy Intel Core Duo T2400 1.83GHz Dual Core Processor, the mean, mo’fo’ Toughbook-74 comes with a 13.3″ XGA TFT Touchscreen HighBrite (Outdoor Readable) display, backed up by 512MB of RAM.
The built-in Mobile Intel 945GM Express Chipset, DVMT (Dynamic Video Memory Technology) provides external video support for screens up to 2048 x 1536 at 16 million colours.
In line with its rugged ambitions, the lappie is packaged in a full magnesium case with carrying handle and sports a water/spill resistant keyboard and a shock-mounted 80 GB hard drive.
Running on Windows XP, the Panasonic comes with a combo DVD/CD-RW drive, Intel Tri-band 802.11a+b/g (Wireless LAN), optional built in EV-DO WAN and Bluetooth.
Battery life has been ramped up to a claimed Mobile Mark-tested 7 to 8 hours – enough for a full day stomping around in the Great Outdoors.
Not surprisingly, all this portability, power and durability doesn’t come cheap, with a basic configuration costing around $3,000.
Specifications:
SOFTWARE
Microsoft WindowsÆ Windows XP Professional SP2 Setup, DMI Viewer, AdobeÆ Acrobat Reader, On-Line Reference Manual, Hard Disk Data Erase Utility
CPU Intel Core Duo Processor T2400: 2MB L2 cache; Processor speed 1.83GHz (Dual Core); 667MHz FSB
STORAGE & MEMORY
512MB SDRAM (DDR2) standard, expandable to 4096MB, 80GB HDD Combo Drive (DVD-ROM/CD-R/RW) standard
DISPLAY
13.3″ 1024 x 768 XGA transmissive, daylight-readable TFT Active Matrix Color LCD with Touchscreen
External video support up to 2048 x 1536 at 16,770,000 colors
Mobile IntelÆ 945GM Express Chipset, DVMT (Dynamic Video Memory Technology) up to 128MB
460 Nit LCD Brightness
AUDIO
SigmaTel STAC9200 AC-97 v.2.3 Compliant Audio Codec
Integrated stereo speakers
Convenient keyboard volume and mute controls
EXPANSION SLOTS
PC Card Type I or II
Secure Digital (SD) Card
Express Card
MULTIMEDIA POCKET
Combo Drive (DVD-ROM/CD-R/RW) standard
Accepts optional DVD Multi Drive (DVD-RAM/DVD-ROM/DVD-RW/CD-R/CD-ROM/CD-R/RW)
KEYBOARD & INPUT
87-key with dedicated Windows key
Electrostatic touchpad with scrolling support
Touchscreen LCD
Stylus with integrated holder
INTERFACE
External Video: Mini-D-sub 15 pin Headphones/Speaker: Mini-jack Stereo
Microphone/Line In: Mini-jack Stereo
Mini Port Replicator: Dedicated 84 pin
Serial: D-sub 9 pin (UART 16550 compatible)
USB2.0(x2): 4 pin
10/100/1000 Ethernet: RJ-45
56K bps Modem: RJ-11
WIRELESS LAN
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 Network Connection with respective drivers
Slide on/off switch
Security + Authentication: LEAP, WPA, 802.1x, EAP-TLS, EAP-FAST, PEAP
+ Encryption: CKIP,TKIP,128-bit and 64-bit WEP, Hardware AES
POWER SUPPLY
Lithium lon battery pack (11.1V,7.8Ah)
Battery operation: 8 hours
Battery charging time : approximately 4.5 hours
AC Adapter: AC 100V-240V 50/60HZ, Auto Sensing/Switching worldwide power supply
Intelligent power measurement for precise battery status reporting
Pop-up on-screen battery status reporting
POWER MANAGEMENT
Hibernation, Standby, ACPI BIOS
DIMENSIONS & WEIGHT
1.7″-2.4″(H) x 12″(W) x 10.3″(D) 5.9 lbs
Panasonic Toughbooks
28 March, 2006
UK Users Send 99 Million Text Messages A Day
Britain remains in the grip of a texting mania as new figures reveal around 99 million text messages were faithfully banged out on little keypads every day during February.
The numbers released by the Mobile Data Association (MDA) show that person-to-person texting has soared by a whopping 26 per cent compared to the same period last year.
Valentine’s Day turned out to be a bumper texting bonanza with 120 million little bundles of love text being SMS’d to loved ones (our modesty prevents us from revealing the proportion of that figure that were sent to digi-lifestyles staff).
The SMS stats revealed that while love may be – quite literally – in the air, most people preferred to profess it from the comfort of their keypad, with only ten million romantics going to the trouble of sending a proper Valentine’s card through the post.
Despite the bumper figures for February, last December still holds the record for the highest monthly total of texts, notching up keypad-melting 3.113 billion texts.
The MDA has forecast that text messaging figures will reach an annual total of 36.5 billion text messages by the end of 2006, compared to 2005’s 32 billion total.
Those who like to peruse pretty graphs and inhale feasts’o’figures are recommended to point their browsers in the direction of Text It where a veritable stat frenzy awaits.
Practice Safe Text
Mobile Data Association
Text It Campaign
28 March, 2006
Butterfly FMP3 Player MP3/FM/Headphone combo
Most built-in MP3/FM/headphone combos are so bulky it looks like the user has got two halves of a tennis ball stuck on their heads, but a new headset from Japanese manufacturers Thanko looks to change all that.
The slimline silver and black headphone combo looks like a regular set of ‘cans’ (as we musos like to call them) although a selection of buttons on the left hand earpiece reveals their bolted on gizmos.
The controls let users select the FM radio or MP3 options, adjust the volume, change tracks or fiddle about with four EQ settings offering POP, Classic, Jazz, Rock and Normal.
Clearly getting carried away with claims about the unit’s diminutive size, the (ahem) ‘ButterFly’ FMP3 comes in two flavours offering 512MB and 1GB flash memory capacities, with the built in MP3 player supporting MP3 and WMA at 32 – 192Kbps data rates.
Music files can be uploaded onto the ButterFly player by drag and drop over a USB 1.1 connection (Windows only).
Disappointingly, the 76-91Mhz FM radio only offers mono output and, as far as we can see, there’s no means to record anything on to the flash memory.
Powered by a non-removable 3.7V lithium ion battery, charged over the USB connection, the hazy web translation suggests that the makers are claiming up to 700 minutes for radio play and 350 – 400 minutes of continuous MP3 playback.
Priced at 9,000 Yen ($77, £44, €64) for the 512MB version and around 58 quid for the 1GB version, they’re cheap enough to tempt people looking for what a PR company might call a ‘wireless lifestyle experience’, although we’ve no idea when – or even if – they’ll ever be shipped into Blighty.
Butterfly FMP3 Player
28 March, 2006
Intel Mac Photoshop Users Face Long Wait
Frappuccino-supping designers desperate to run Adobe’s high-end Photoshop graphics suite on their shiny new Intel-powered Mac computers are going to be in for a long wait, according to Adobe engineer Scott Byer.
Writing in a company blog, Byer said that the costs of updating the latest version to run on Intel-powered Mac computers would prove too high, adding, “There’s no limited-cost option for getting most of the performance available on the platform for Photoshop in a short amount of time.”
Byer went on to say that that building a ‘universal binary’ version of Photoshop for OS X on Intel would be “no small task” because Apple’s XCode development tool wasn’t up to the job.
“Apple is doing an amazing job at catching up rapidly, but the truth is we don’t yet have a shipping XCode in hand that handles a large application well,” he said.
Apple’s switch from PowerPC to Intel chips has forced software vendors to rewrite their code to accommodate the different architecture as the chips don’t share the same ‘language.’
To bridge the gap, Apple created the Rosetta technology to translate PowerPC instructions into Intel code, but this interpreter can heavily impact on calculation speeds, with Vnunet claiming that tests running Photoshop on the new Intel Macs have shown the program running at only half the speed of a previous generation PowerPC machine.
With the graphic design sector making up a large chunk of Apple’s user base, the absence of a fully optimised version of the numero uno design application may prove a barrier to professional users switching to Intel Macs.
Currently, only Apple’s iMac, MacBook Pro and Mac Mini machines are powered by Intel chips, with the iBook and PowerMac machines still using IBM PowerPC chips.
With the current version of Photoshop CS2 being released last April, Intel Macheads may be in for a long wait for CS3, with Adobe’s usual timetable suggesting a projected release date some nine months away.
Finishing on a high note, Byer commented, that it would be “far better to focus on making sure Photoshop CS3 is able to absolutely squeeze every ounce of power out of what I’m sure will be pretty spankin’ Intel-based towers by that point than to do tons of work moving an old code base to new tools”
Scott Byer’s blog
27 March, 2006