power

SlideAware makes PowerPoint a Web 2.0 app

We're big fans of Web-based productivity apps here at Webware, but we also like tools that bring Web 2.0 features, such as easy collaboration and access from anywhere, to the apps we know and use already. Xcellery (see Xcellery review) does that for Excel, and a new app, SlideAware, does a similar thing for PowerPoint.

SlideAware has two components. First, there's a plug-in you add to your PowerPoint toolbar (it doesn't work for Office 2007 yet, so I couldn't test this component). The plug-in lets you zap your PowerPoint presentations directly to the SlideAware service. … Read more

Surrealists rejoice: here's a power strip for you

Are you one of those artsy-fatalist types who has a poster of Salvador Dali's The Persistence of Memory up on the wall? That's the "melting clock painting," also known as the backdrop of the 1938 cartoon short "Porky in Wackyland." (Yes, it's on YouTube.)

If so, we've found something perfect to further indulge your fantasies of things that appear to be melting into a puddle of surrealist goo. Called the "ElectriciTree," this stretchy power strip/extension cord is technically supposed to look like the branches of a tree to remind … Read more

News Roundup: Viacom sues YouTube, MySpace News screens leaked, Microsoft to buy Tellme

Viacom drops $1 billion lawsuit on YouTube. The news came this morning that Viacom is suing Google-owned YouTube for "massive intentional copyright infringement." The suit is due to the repeated viewing of almost 160,000 clips of Viacom-owned content that were hosted on the service. It was only a matter of time before the big lawsuits came from content providers after Google's acquisition of YouTube late last year. It's worth noting that the lawsuit amount is more than half of what Google paid for YouTube in stock in November. ( CNET News.com)

Shots of MySpace News surface. … Read more

A purse that can charge up your phone

Regardless of what you think of its design, this is no ordinary handbag. The "Power Purse's" name refers not just to its importance as a fashion accessory but also to its functionality--as a portable source of solar energy.

The bag is covered with small solar panels that can power cell phones or any other gadgets through a USB port built into its interior. MobileWhack says the ingenius purse was designed by a student at Iowa State University and marketed through Solarjo, "a company that produces unlikely items from something that looks quite ordinary."

The price … Read more

2007 Canon PowerShot SD models hold a few surprises

Another year, another crop of snapshot cameras. This year, Canon's going a bit retro with its Elph design, bringing back the high-contrast black accents that appeared on the original film Elphs 10 years ago.

They've come a long way in that decade. This year's SD750 and SD1000 are 7-megapixel replacements for the the very popular 6-megapixel models, the SD630 and the SD600, respectively. Yes, that's right: The SD750 is the higher-end model of the two.

Despite disparate outsides, the two cameras are fundamentally the same. The major difference is a 2.5-inch LCD on the SD1000 … Read more

Canon's skyscraper cam

Cramming large lenses into ultracompact cameras isn't very new. Neither is a vertically oriented digital camera design--in fact, most of the earliest models looked more like camcorders than traditional film cameras. But most manufacturers have been folding their optical path sideways to fit 4x-plus lenses into tiny cameras. But when Canon went looking for more interiorl real estate to fit a 10x 39-to-390mm-equivalent lens into its new 7-megapixel ultracompact, it took a New York approach and went vertical.

The lens completely retracts back into the camera when powered off, and extends just about a half-inch past the camera body … Read more

Canons for beginners

Canon is on a roll. Just after the release of the PowerShot A460 and the A550, the company announced two new PowerShot A-series cameras on the way, the Canon PowerShot A560 and the A570 IS.

The two 7-megapixel cameras are nearly identical, save for one important distinction. The A570 IS, like other Canon -IS cameras, the PowerShot SD800 IS and the A710 IS, uses optical image stabilization. This handy feature mechanically shifts the lens to reduce the effects of shake when shooting. Optical image stabilization can be very useful when zooming in to take shots. The A560 doesn't have … Read more

Mixed-up bandwidth machine does 3.6 petabits

Herald the dawn of Loki, Norse god of mischief and now high-speed chip-to-chip signaling.

At the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco, Rambus, the company everyone seems to love to hate, showed off for the first time a technology code-named Loki that it says could significantly cut down the energy consumed by input/output devices.

The experimental device can operate at 6.25 gigabits per second and pass information at 2.2 milliwatts per gigabit. Similar products on the market now can transfer more gigabits per second, but they operate at around 15 to 30 milliwatts per gigabit. … Read more

A precious rose for you

It's that time of the year, when chocolate candy, jewelry, and other romantic gifts scream "I Love You" or "Be My Valentine" from all corners of the globe. This year, however, give a "precious rose," specifically the Canon PowerShot SD40 (precious rose). You'll not only come off as a hopeless romantic, but also a smart technology buyer.