rocket

Hands-on with SlideRocket, a PowerPoint killer in the making

I spent some of this weekend using SlideRocket, a new service that's aiming to replace your presentation software with its flashy (actually Flexy) Web-based tools. Is it a real PowerPoint or Apple Keynote killer in its current iteration? Not yet, but I think it's off to a great start.

The service has all the flash and fervor of some other Adobe Flex-based apps we've seen like BuzzWord, Scrapblog, and Picnik. The transitions and stock slide templates are enough to distract you from how potentially boring your presenter is and thought has been put into making things look good from the get-go, no matter your design prowess. In many ways, the final results are indistinguishable from Apple's well-known presentation software Keynote, which has been a part of the company's iWork suite for Macs for the last three years.

Let's start by talking about what makes SlideRocket different from presentation software you might be used to. For one thing it's very Web-friendly. As I mentioned last week in our coverage of the company's demo at the Under the Radar conference (coverage), it's been designed to integrate media and information services you're already using. Big names on the list include Yahoo maps, Flickr, and Google Docs; I foresee others being added in the future--as long as the service has a data API.

Linking up to each of these services is handled with some grace, although I found performance to take a hit when adding several Flickr photos to a single slide since the service will check in with Flickr each time you load up the slide. It can be set to do the same thing for Google Documents, but this is actually a good thing in case the source data changes. I've been told local copies of the files will be able to be stored on SlideRocket's servers in the future to speed things up.

Speaking of local storage, SlideRocket has the beginnings of a very smart way to handle shared media. Similar to Keynote, all your files are put together in one place and can be sorted via keywords simply by name. The more time you spend categorizing it, the faster you'll be able to parse it, but the built-in search is instantaneous--which is very helpful. Users get up to 3GB of storage to share photos, music, and videos. These asset libraries are shared in the business editions.

So, how does it stack up against other Web-based presentation tools?… Read more

SlideRocket puts the 'wow' into online presentations

Flashy presentation tool SlideRocket is easily one of the best-looking services I've seen.

CEO Mitch Grasso's presentation at this afternoon's Under the Radar session about the virtual worker (using SlideRocket to present) got several oohs and ahhs. In many ways it takes a cue from Apple's Keynote product with great use of fonts, reflections, transparencies, and transitions to put together presentations that use hardware acceleration and cutting-edge design templates to impress clients, co-workers, and potentially your boss.

The app uses Adobe's Flex technology and has an offline client meaning users can create and edit presentations … Read more

Facebook app turns movie clips into messages

Paramount Pictures and application developer FanRocket announced a service for Facebook users that will allow them to send movie clips to each other. The clips, which are sent as messages and last from a few seconds to several minutes, are intended to help recipients "relive the moment" in a familiar film, a studio executive told the Associated Press.

The service, called VooZoo, certainly takes message ornamentation a step or two beyond the emoticon, letting the "stars do the talking," as the FanRocket site says. I'm not sure, though, that some Facebook users will be familiar … Read more

Declare war on your cubicle nemesis

Live out your fantasy of being an army commander with the USB wireless rocket launcher from ThinkGeek. Place the launcher within a 15-foot radius of your command center (that would be your computer), position the transmitting and receiving dish within sight of each other, and count down to D-Day saying, "Hasta la vista, baby." If you miss your target with the first missile, quickly send the command to reposition it and try again. You've only three foam missiles, so make careful use of it. To make the experience more complete, dig out your toy soldiers and station … Read more

Take control of your taskbar

Windows taskbars are notorious for being unfriendly, chaotic, and occasionally unresponsive. They also have poor social skills, but I'm not here to pass judgment. Instead, I'm going to show you three great freeware ways to lasso that unruly taskbar of yours and tame it right down, with Taskbar Shuffle, RocketDock, and Launchy.

… Read more

Episode 628: The second listener co-host show!

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Power Downloader discovers RocketDock

Power Downloader is a lifelong Windows PC user, but he has a lot of respect for those who use other operating systems. Power knows that it's not as important what kind of computer you use as it is the software you choose to run on it. He has even admitted to Kitty Kilobyte in the past that both Mac and Linux operating systems are as attractive as they are functional.

That's why Power Downloader was pleased with an e-mail he received from Kitty Kilobyte the other day with a special program for his Windows PC. Kitty explained she … Read more

A 'Sanford and Son' for the rocket age

Need an Aerojet LR87 rocket engine from NASA's Apollo era? Or an attitude adjuster for your model rocket? Look no further than North Hollywood--Norton Sales has you covered, for this is no ordinary salvage yard. Carlos Guzman and his son Roman sell everything from hydraulics to jet engines. Where else can you drop by for 150,000 pounds of thrust? Read more at Wired.

Now soaring at 500 feet, the rocket cam

The remote-controlled rocket phone may yet to become a reality, but in the meantime we can all amuse ourselves with another airborne gadget: a flying video camera. And it's just in time for football season--we can just see these projectiles knocking out those wimpy floating field cameras in midflight.

It may look like an ordinary toy rocket, but the remote-controlled mini-craft houses a digital camera in its nose cone that's "impact-resistant" (good thinking) and can capture images from an altitude of 500 feet. Once it lands, the video can be downloaded onto a computer through its … Read more