Happy New Year!
The Google Desktop Team would like to wish all our users and developers a very happy and prosperous New Year. See you in 2006!
TASCAM HD-P2
TASCAM HD-P2
The HD-P2 from Tascam is now shipping apparently...supposed to be a lot cheaper than Marantz. I like the look of the display.
Handy plug-ins for everyday use
Having fun with plug-ins lately? Our developers sure do!
Several of the Google Desktop plug-ins we have received combine a
geeky sense of humor with helpful information. Here are some of our
favorites:
- Laundry Timer - Helps you remember when your laundry is done.
- Global Surfari Notifier - Beach wave & wind information for surf trips.
- Lottery Results - Lottery results for your state.
- Blood Pressure Tracker - Displays blood pressure measurements.
- Today's Deity - Displays "Today's Deity" from the Encyclopedia Mythica.
- Hard Disk Life - Displays a disk health indicator and alerts you about
problems before they happen.
Transom Review M-Audio Microtrack 24/96
Transom Tools: M-Audio Microtrack 24/96: "The M-Audio Microtrack 24/96 "
Despite promises, the M-Audio track is not available in the Netherlands at the moment. It would appear they are feeding customer requirements in the US and UK first. I have given up trying to review this model in 2005. The link above is to one of the best in depth reviews I have seen so far. I am told there IS now a firmware upgrade allowing mono recording without having to make up a special lead.
Despite promises, the M-Audio track is not available in the Netherlands at the moment. It would appear they are feeding customer requirements in the US and UK first. I have given up trying to review this model in 2005. The link above is to one of the best in depth reviews I have seen so far. I am told there IS now a firmware upgrade allowing mono recording without having to make up a special lead.
Desktop goes international
About a month ago we released the English out-of-beta version of Google Desktop. Since then we have been working on providing the latest features and enhancements to our non-English language users as well.
Today we're pleased to announce the out-of-beta release of Google Desktop in 16 languages, including Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese/Brazilian, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish.
In addition to stability and performance improvements, this release introduces exciting new features such as an international Weather panel, a Google Maps panel and support for script plug-ins.
Livesupport Nears Completion of First Stage
Radio is still the most powerful method of disseminating news and educational material to disadvantaged groups and in areas with high poverty, fragile technological infrastructure, and/or instability. But while radio is extremely effective, the tools available to most community stations are very limited in function. The LiveSupport project, based in Prague, seeks to address this by giving stations an open source, end-to-end solution for managing a radio station.
LiveSupport is the first free and open radio management software that provides live studio broadcast capabilities as well as remote automation in one integrated system. They have also understood that such software is worthless unless it is backed by support - and a simple way to maintain it. I've been impressed by the first betas, all of which are posted on the website
As in all Campware products, LiveSupport software is language independent: virtually everything in the user interface can be translated into any language using Unicode. Multilinguality is implemented on all levels of the user interface as well as for the metadata for audio files in the storage system.
LiveSupport has been designed for a Linux environment, but it was built it on top of standard, cross-platform classes. Such an architecture allows for easy porting of LiveSupport to different operating systems in the future.
In short, expect interesting developments in this sector from these guys in the first quarter of 2006.
More plug-ins...
Thanks to our dedicated developers, new Google desktop plugins are available for download:
- Del.icio.us Bookmarks plug-in - View your del.icio.us bookmarks in the Google Sidebar.
- JobSearch plug-in - Search jobs on thousands of job sites, newspapers and company websites. Receive new jobs as they are added.
- Horoscope plug-in (updated version) - Read your daily horoscope.
- Logitechio2 plug-in - Index and find all handwritten notes taken with the Logitech io2 Personal Digital Pen.
- Google Earth plug-in (updated version) - Index and find Google Earth files on your computer.
Past the 500 Reactions - Thanks
Just to say thanks for the feedback already received on the Podcast recorder survey. I didn't realise people were so passionate about having better recording equipment. It is a real shame that the audio recording quality on the iPod is deliberately crippled (presumably to stop bootlegging at concerts). In the meantime, Numark has released what it calls "iDJ" which is a 2-channel mixer that enables mobile DJs and iPod enthusiasts to seamlessly integrate their portable music libraries with other music systems—transforming the iPod from a personal music player into a source playback device.
Plug-in Checkup
You had a great idea for a plugin which you have already developed. But if you're wondering how to test it before you submit it to us, wonder no more. Here are some tips:
- Your plugin should do what it says it does.
- Make sure that it doesn't crash Google Desktop -- or another plug-in.
- Make sure that it's easy to uninstall.
- If your target audience is global, test to see if your plugin works well in languages other than English.
- Make sure it doesn't hog resources like the processor, memory and network. We recommend that you use asynchronous calls to receive data so that your network activity does not block the sidebar and other plugins.
- If it connects to the Internet, test it without a valid connection to make sure it works well in offline mode.
- Have good online documentation about its installation and use (it will help us test it before publishing).
- In addition to submitting the plugin, plan to post it in the Google Desktop and Google Desktop Developer groups so that a variety of users will try it out and point out potential issues.
Plug-in of the Week: Movies
Fridays are for movies...
Now the Sidebar Movies plug-in makes it easier for you to find out which movies are playing in your neighborhood. Showtimes, reviews, and movie theater information are now just one click away. Give it a try!
The Movies plug-in group or the Google Desktop Developer group are good places to submit feedback and suggest further plug-in improvements.
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