'Cross The Breeze

Windows Live feature hotlist

April 26, 2007 by Kris Hoet 0 Comments

LiveSide made a nice post today about the ‘10 Windows Live features you don’t yet use and should‘. Even if you don’t use the Windows Live services these features belong to, they still make ‘em worth a look.

I remember Chris from LiveSide asking me on IM a couple of weeks ago which litlle – not well known features – I like most and I think these must be it:

Windows Live for Mobile (aka G2) and Live Search for Mobile which offer you very nice apps to have your Messenger, Mail and Maps Search on your mobile. The Live Search for mobile is even available for Java-running phones
Live Search activity in Messenger: You’re in a conversation and looking for something on the web, no need to open up a browser, just launch the activity in the conversation window and search the web/images. With one-click link to share specific results in the conversation
Add a nickname in Windows Live Messenger which will allow you to change any name in your buddylist to something less cryptic than these names usually are and avoids having 8 Tom’s, 4 An’s, … in your list
Windows Live Writer, now that is a great tool for any blogger out there. And hopefully more people will develop plugins for it like the Flickr4Writer that make things really easier

… and Bird Eye view for Antwerp of course :). Expect more soon.

Technorati tags: windows live, writer, blogging, messenger, live search, mobile, features, liveside

blogging, community, gadgets, internet, windows live

Incredible virtual desktop manager

April 1, 2007 by Kris Hoet 1 Comment

A colleague of mine send this to me a few days ago, fantastic. This little application offers you 4 desktops instead of one, on which you can keep different programs open. Flipping between these desktops happens like this 3D cube you can see in the image. Apparently this is something that exists for a while on Linux, an the Yod’m 3D application works on XP and Win2000 as well.

I’m also amazed with the little impact it seems to have on your performance, truly a great app this one. I have only one comment: I use my keyboard shortcuts a lot and I can tell you the CTRL+SHIFT shortcut is not ideal for me as I’m used to it for other functions. Tell me I can change that to something else ;)

[Update: Iñigo - the colleague who sent me this - pointed out in the comments that you can change the shortcut keys which I did and now it's all perfect. Thanks!]

Technorati tags: yod’m 3D, virtual desktop manager, application

gadgets, software

The universal widget/gadget

March 1, 2007 by Kris Hoet 0 Comments

If there was one central prediction for 2007 that everybody seemed to agree on, it was that 2007 would be the year of the widget/gadget. MSM like Newsweek, or bloggers like Richard MacManus from ReadWriteWeb all believe in that evolution and I can only agree. But a universal widget/gadget is probably what’s needed to reach the tipping point for the widgetized web.

So this evolution was bound to happen. With all these different widgets & gadgets for Yahoo!, Google, Mac, Vista, Netvibes, Live.com, Windows Live Spaces … the choice is immense but hardly ideal. The platforms, the developers, the end-users, .. nobody really wins. The idea of a widget is to allow you to bring little parts of the www to your central dashboard, not to build a new type of walled garden.

Given the fact that Live.com & Vista are both from Microsoft, it’s only logic that you can develop gadgets that you write once for both platforms. But end-users also created their own ways already to transform Google widgets into Vista gadgets for instance, using The Amnesty Generator. Pretty cool if you ask me, and good proof that consumers want to be able to drop any widget/gadget on their preferred dashboard or personalize page. And this is only the beginning, as W3C is working on a draft widget specification as well.

The most exciting news is coming from Netvibes though, in an announcement they made at the Future of Web Apps in London two weeks ago, reported by Techcrunch:

“Today at the Future of Web Apps conference in London, Netvibes founder Tariq Krim announced that their upcoming “Coriander” release will do just that. The new product will be called the Universal Widget API and will be available at http://eco.netvibes.com/uwa (this site is live now with a landing page, more information will be available next week). Once launched, any widget created for Netvibes, Krim says, will work on the Vista, Google, Mac and Opera platforms as well. Support for Yahoo Widgets and other platforms will follow soon after.”

I hope this will be the real start of a real universal widget, as a truly open platform. Now that would be really cool.

Technorati tags: netvibes, live.com, windows live, google, yahoo!, widgets, gadgets, platform, standard, predictions, 2007

beta, community, gadgets, internet, microsoft, software, windows live

I love it!

February 12, 2007 by Kris Hoet 0 Comments

Yesterday I stumbled upon this OS X Exposé clone for Vista and today I found the time to install it on my machine. I think Exposé is a really cool feature and this was exactly what I was waiting for. I was thinking it would be one of the Ultimate Extras one day, but now it’s there for all Vista users… and it works just perfect. You can access My Expose with F9 or by pointing the mouse cursor to the top left corner of your screen… again sort of like with the Mac.

If you are on Vista, download it here.

Technorati tags: expose, mac, apple, osx, vista, freeware, download

beta, gadgets, microsoft, software

For sale: Ecto-1

January 29, 2007 by Kris Hoet 4 Comments

Since I started this with the DeLorean a couple of months ago, from the sell-old-tv-and-movie-related-cars-department, it is now the turn for the Ghostbusters Ecto-1. For a mere $150.000 this can be yours. It seems like Hollywood don’t want them anymore. Which one will be next? KITT? The General Lee?

For sale: DeLorean
For sale: Batmobile

Technorati tags: batmobile, delorean, kitt, general lee, ecto-1, ghostbusters, sales

fun, gadgets

Zunely in Belgium

January 23, 2007 by Kris Hoet 0 Comments

Together with my new PC, I’m finally on the Vista RTM and not on RC1 anymore. This meant that I could install my Zune after it had been lying here for almost a month apart from the occasional FM radio usage. Now I got all my music (ripped CD’s), images and movies on there and I quite like it. One thing is a petty, and that won’t change that soon here in Belgium, that is that there’s not too much music sharing going on… or as Gizmodo called it: I’m so Zunely.

Technorati tags: zune, mp3, vista, music, zunely

electronics, gadgets, microsoft, movies, music, software

For sale: Batmobile

January 20, 2007 by Kris Hoet 1 Comment

In May last year I wrote about the DeLorean from Back to the Future being for sale. Today Gizmodo reports that 1 of the 4 original Batmobiles is for sale as well. It’s going on auction in London this February, expected to sell for $150.000. Anyone?

[Via Gizmodo]

Technorati tags: batmobile, batman, auction, movies, delorean, back to the future, for sale

art, gadgets, news, racing

Ads of the week

October 24, 2006 by Kris Hoet 1 Comment

Last week Sony released it’s new Bravia commercial. And how much I liked the “bouncing balls” commercial, I don’t really like this one. I don’t think it’s bad, but apart from a lot of special effects, I don’t get the feeling it stands out. It doesn’t move me or anything. Too bad, I was really looking forward to it (maybe that’s part of the reason?).

An commercial that I did think was quite interesting, was the new ad for Dove. “After their campaign for real beauty, they stretched the idea for reality in advertising a bit further. Stunning.” I couldn’t agree more, here it is:

The last campaign I wanted to highlight is Le Défi (The Challenge) from Stella Artois. I think it’s a great example of how you can bring online & offline together in a well integrated campaign. Coolz0r has the complete story, or just play the game!

Tags: dove, real beauty, bravia, sony, stella artois, le défi, advertising

advertising, art, gadgets, marketing

Innovative HUD (Heads Up Display)

August 2, 2006 by Kris Hoet 0 Comments

Take a look at this innovative HUD for your car, it’s easy to install ;-) I’m not sure if it’s still in beta or not…

electronics, fun, gadgets, travel

WordPress in Live.com

July 28, 2006 by Kris Hoet 1 Comment

Geert at Brandopia just wrote about this cool Live.com gadget for WordPress. I hand’t seen this before, but looks pretty cool. I installed the gadget on my Live.com page and played around a bit with the gadget. Although I don’t think I’m going to use it to blog with – way too small, no links… and I already have enough tools to blog from I guess – I like that I can have some stats from my blog on my Live.com page. I hope they ad some of the other available statistics as well, that would be great.

blogging, gadgets, internet, windows live