Category: Software

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New LiveWriter Technical Preview Available

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Of interest to me and any other bloggers out there: Microsoft has a Technical Preview of the latest version of LiveWriter available here.

This release is largely about updates to the Writer SDK, which now includes hooks for pre- and post-publish events. These updates are still experimental and these APIs are not stable–we may make changes based on your feedback that break plug-ins that use these new methods. However, we’re really excited about the new set of scenarios have been unlocked and look forward to hearing feedback from all of you Writer plug-in developers out there.

For more details about the SDK, please see the blog post on Windows Live Dev.

New Features

You’ll also get an early look at some improvements and new features we’ve been working on:

Video and Image Publishing Enhancements

  • Upload videos to Soapbox
  • Image cropping and tilting
  • Additional border styles
  • Support for LightBox and other image previewing effects (like Slimbox, Smoothbox, and others)
  • Support for centering images

Editing Enhancements

  • Auto Linking
  • Smart quotes/typographic characters
  • Word count

UI Improvements

  • Revised main toolbar
  • Tabs for view switching
  • Improved category control with search/filtering
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Gathering data on Shavlik NetChk Protect

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shavlik_logo I just installed Shavlik’s NetChk Protect 6.1.0 (build 57), a product that that I used more than a year ago, back when it was version 5.31.   This previous product ran for a whole year and kept my six systems (one server, two laptops, and three desktops) fully up-to-date. 

Sure, Windows Update can do this for you for free, but the process is controlled by Microsoft, who does not always have the consumer’s best interest in mind when they install products like Windows Genuine Advantage, which can take a totally legitimate installation of Windows XP and disable it for no apparent reason.

Also, NetChk Protect updates a lot of common non-MS applications like Adobe Reader,  WinZip, etc…

I will be performing a product review of the NetChk Protect application in the future, so we’ll see how this product does in the next month or so…

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SoftMaker Office 2008 for Pocket PCs is shipping!

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softmaker_textmaker Now available: SoftMaker Office 2008 for Pocket PCs…

After extensive beta testing, we are proud to announce that SoftMaker Office 2008 for Pocket PCs is shipping and ready for purchase.

This new version of our mobile office suite has significant advantages:

  • NEW: SoftMaker Presentations, the mobile alternative to PowerPoint.
  • NEW: PDF export in all Office applications.
  • NEW: Printing from all applications (JETCET PRINT is bundled).
  • NEW: Many new features in TextMaker 2008 and PlanMaker 2008.

softmaker_planmakerIf you wish to edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files on the Pocket PC without losing formatting or content, SoftMaker Office is your only choice. There is no other mobile office suite that reads and writes your Office documents as faithfully as SoftMaker Office 2008.

Find out more:
http://www.softmaker.com/

If you own an older version of TextMaker, PlanMaker, or SoftMaker Office, you are entitled to special upgrade pricing — you can find the details on our web site above.

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Windows XP Service Pack is now available…

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I heard through a co-worker in the IT department at my day job that the Windows XP Service Pack 3 is now available, but I don’t know of anyone within the company who is considering deploying this update, as Windows Service Packs have been known to cause more problems than those that they are supposed to fix. 

Here too, the better part of wisdom might well be to leave it alone for a few weeks (or a month) in order to see what problems everyone else reports after having applied this service pack themselves.

As for me and my family, we’ll likely install this SP on one the home computers first, then, if no major problems appear in the near future, we’ll update our own company computers and see how well those work out…

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New version of GPS Tuner now available!

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GPS Tuner Logo

The Developer at Megalith Systems has completed work on a problem that has been nagging GPS Tuner users who own HTC P3300 devices.  This particular SmartPhone has a unique method for accessing system memory that prevented GPS Tuner from recognizing the built-in GPS receiver (GPSr).  landscape_mode

Temporary work-arounds used in the past required the use of 3rd party "port splitters", which were needed to allow GPS Tuner to properly locate and use the built-in GPSr.  This problem has now been resolved!

He also completed work on a previous update (V5.4a), but it was completed so soon (less than 5 days) after the initial release of V5.4, that I did not publish the update.

Version 5.4a

  • Google Maps and Open Street Maps zoom level calculation is improved.

Version 5.4b

  • GPS Connection on HTC P3300 devices is fixed (using Type 1 mode).

For more information, as well as download hyperlinks, please visit this page:
http://www.gpstuner.com/download/index.html

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GPS Tuner new release: v5.4 now available!

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GPS Tuner v5.4 and Map Calibrator v2.5 have been released.   Google_Topo

The new version of Award Winning off-road navigation software is now able to downlad Google Terrain (Topo) Maps and Open Street Maps from internet and use them without any calibration process. The new Map Calibrator also supports these new types of online maps. Suunto’s X9i off-road GPS watch data format (.sdf) is also supported, so you are able to see your X9i track in GPS Tuner or in Map Calibrator or upload your saved waypoints/routes to Suunto X9i internal memory. New map rotation mode (in 90 degrees steps) and built-in camera support are also implemented in GPS Tuner v5.4.

Overview

GPS Tuner is an off-road navigation software for Pocket PC devices. While most car navigation software gives you the possibility of planning your route based on a road network, GPS Tuner gives you the ability of navigation where the roads end.   GPS Tuner is an excellent tool for hiking, geocaching, boating, flying, driving and many other sporting activities, where the monitoring of duration, distance and speed can be important.

What’s new in v5.4

  • ‘Open Street Map’ has been added as online map source.
  • ‘Google Topo (Terrain)’ has been added as online map source.
  • Suunto X9i data format(.sdf) handling (Import and Export) has been added.
  • Automatic map rotation in 90 degrees has been added (instead of flipping 180 degrees).
  • Built-in camera photo can be taken and added to waypoint directly.
  • Waypoints can be exported via TXT output module.
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GPS Navigation service now Available from AT&T

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A new GPS Navigation service is now available on select AT&T wireless devices, including the new Motorola Z9, the Samsung BlackJack II, MOTO Q, AT&T Tilt, and BlackBerry devices (8310, 8800 and 8820).  Available as a 30 day free trial, this program is a vast improvement on TeleNav, this program features integrated speech recognition for address entry and points-of-interest searches!

For any one who is constantly on the go but sometimes not quite sure where to go or how to get there, AT&T Navigator is here to pave the way. AT&T Inc. announced today at CTIA Wireless 2008, the immediate availability of its company-branded GPS-enabled navigation service, AT&T Navigator.

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New public beta: SoftMaker Office 2008 for Pocket PCs

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A new public beta version of SoftMaker Office 2008 for Pocket PCs is now available as a free download. This new beta comes with several fixes and improvements, such as:

  • The setup program now optionally installs design templates and graphical bullets to a storage card, thereby freeing internal memory.
  • Umlauts and accented characters can now be entered on the Palm Treo’s built-in keyboard.
  • Opening the Zoom dialog doesn’t make the software unstable anymore.
  • If you move Jetcet Print to a different folder, SoftMaker Office will still find it.
  • Slideshows in Presentations now always fit on the screen.
  • SoftMaker Presentations now allows you to insert sound files.

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MapCapt new Release: V2.0 now available!

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My good friend Paludour, a programmer in the GPS Mapping field notified me a short time ago that a new version of his mapping capture program is now available for download. He is proud to announce a new version MapCapt (short for Map Capture), Version 2.0!

MapCapt is a map capture software program for downloading maps from various online sources on the PC. It has been greatly improved to accomodate the growing list of online mapping websites. A limited function version is available for free trial.

mapcaptdlg20en[1]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Here are the main new features:

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GPS Tuner v5.2 Now Available!

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GPS Tuner v5.2 and Map Calibrator v2.4 have both been updated with tremendous new mapping features, and are now available for download!
gps_tuner_googlemaps
The new version of GPS Tuner allows the user to download pre-calibrated GoogleMap and TerraServer maps, directly across any Internet connection that your device may have (GPRS/3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, etc).

I can personally attest to the greatness of this GPS application.  I find it the best program to have when doing off-road and doing things like Geocaching, hiking, etc. 

But don’t just take my word for it!   GPS Tuner was recently nominated and won in the “GPS Moving Map” category in the SmartPhone & PocketPC Magazine’s “Best Software Award”.

For your convenience, I am also including the URL for the directions on how to use the new map functions for both GPS Tuner and Map Calibrator.  Enjoy!