iPhone Apps - Awesome Note

The iPhone comes with a simple note-taking App which works well and allows you to sync notes with a Mac's Mail application.

Personally, I find it too simple, with the lack of ability to change the order of notes being particularly frustrating.

There are a number of capable alternatives to the Notes App, but my favourite is the £2.39 Awesome Note.

The interface is friendly without being too 'cutesy', and you can organise things in folders, or in 'all-notes-at-a-glance' panels. Notes can be displayed with different folder icons, colors, fonts and paper backgrounds.

You can password protect notes, and import/export into Google Docs.

For more information, and a link to the App Store, visit Bridworks.
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Latest iMacs suitable for professional use

ComputerWorld has reviewed Apple's fastest iMac yet, excerpts follow:

"...finally, the the Core i5 and Core i7 27-inch iMacs have arrived - and let me tell you, it was worth the wait."

"With the new 2.66GHz Core i5 iMac and the 2.8GHz Core i7 iMac, Apple has not only blurred the line between consumer and professional systems, it's darn near erased it."

"The 2.66GHz Core i5 iMac offers faster performance at most tasks than the 2.66GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro. The Core i5 iMac also has more memory and more storage space than the 2.66GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro, while being $500 less (plus you get a 27-inch screen with the iMac)."

"Unless you absolutely require additional PCI cards, multiple internal hard drives, or a lot of RAM, the Core i5 iMac makes a strong case for the being the go-to system for most Mac professionals."
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Free font - League Gothic

The League of Movable Type reports: [edited]

League Gothic is a revival of an old classic, and one of our favorite typefaces, Alternate Gothic No.1. It was originally designed by Morris Fuller Benton for the American Type Founders Company (ATF) in 1903. The company went bankrupt in 1993. And since the original typeface was created before 1923, the typeface is in the public domain.

We decided to make our own version, and contribute it to the Open Source Type Movement. It’s free, not only in price, but in freedom.
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Free font - Quicksand

Font Squirrel is hosting this Web 2.0-friendly 'soft-sans' in 3 weights (and faux italics) plus a quirky 'dashed' version.
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LogMeIn

LogMeIn reports: [edited]

LogMeIn Free gives you remote control of your PC or Mac from any other computer with an internet connection.

Install LogMeIn on the computer you want to access, log into your account from another computer and click the computer you want to control. You'll see its desktop and be able to use all the applications on your remote computer as if you were sitting in front of it.

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Brett's 2p'orth: I've been using it for a while, and it works as advertised. I've also bought the iPhone App, which works just fine. If you want file transfer, remote sound, printing etc, LogMeIn Pro² is available for a free 30 day trial.
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X1 at Ascot

On a cold and drizzly Tuesday morning, a group of invited participants gathered in the warmth of a premium suite overlooking Ascot Racecourse to learn how to market their companies in the 21st Century.

Following coffee and danish, Tim Lance introduced Germàn Sacristàn, Kodak's Business Development Manager for Europe, Africa and Middle East, who entertained and informed us on the theme of 'Do good products sell themselves? Effective methods to differentiate yourself in the way you promote and sell your products'.

After a coffee break, Peter Lancaster, director of W2P, took us on a whistle-stop tour of how communications have changed over the past 30 years, along with ways in which we can harness this to develop and improve our marketing strategies.


Judging by both the lively discussions during lunch, and the positive response from the feedback forms, the attendees were given plenty to think about.

X1 plan to host an all-day seminar on 'Keeping Your Marketing Brilliant' early in 2010. If you are interested in registering, please contact Tim or George on 01753 215300, or sales@x1.ltd.uk
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Light Peak

blogs.intel.com reports: [edited]

A new technology was announced at Intel Developer Forum which provides initial data rates of 10 Gigabits and potential scalability to 100 Gigabits and beyond; something copper won’t be able to achieve.

Light Peak also supports multiple simultaneous protocols which will allow bandwidth aggregation of the various interconnects used in systems today onto a single high speed, thin, flexible, and long cable and small connector. Imagine being able to connect to your camera, display, docking station, or external hard drive through a single, thin connector.

Light Peak is in the developmental stages, but Intel Executive Vice President General Manager, Intel Architecture Group Dadi Perlmutter showed a demonstration of real silicon transmitting storage, LAN data and display (1080p) data across a 30m fiber optic cable.

The end goal is to make Light Peak a complement to existing I/O technologies by enabling them to run together on a single cable and at higher, and more scalable speeds.
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Adobe Creative Suite video tutorials

If you've got an iPhone, use Adobe's Creative Suite, and have a quid spare,do yourself a favour and download the snappily titled 'Learn Adobe Creative Suite with Terry White' iPhone app. It gives you access to a large number of concise tutorials to expand your CS4 skillset.

For more information click here.

Motorola Droid

Wired reports: [edited]

The Droid is Motorola's second attempt at an Android phone but the first one they've actually gotten right. More importantly, it's one of the first phones that can legitimately stand head-to-head with the iPhone - and come out ahead in some significant respects.

Physically the Droid is not much to look at because of its boxy, angular frame. Its hefty 170g weight doesn't make it especially pocket-friendly either. The touchscreen display is a shade bigger than the iPhone 3GS, but it has much higher resolution, with 854 x 440 pixels compared to the iPhone's 480 x 320. The virtual keyboard is fantastically responsive with very little input error.

The slide-out physical keyboard is one of the few disappointments of the Droid. The small, flat buttons make it difficult to crank out text.

The Droid runs Android 2.0 as its OS. It feels more refined than the first version of Android on T-Mobile's G1 and it's certainly better than the muddled interface on Motorola's Cliq.

The Droid's 5-megapixel camera produces photos that aren't too noisy and it does well even in low light, thanks to the built-in LED flash.

The most exciting feature of the phone, though, is the Google maps app - with built-in turn-by-turn, voice-guided navigation. With text-to-speech features, the maps are layered with traffic data and a satellite view. But here's the best part. It's free! You don't have to pay a $10 per month subscription or purchase a TomTom app

The browser is excellent and displays web pages quickly (though Flash websites are still out of bounds). You can toggle through multiple windows and scan them in an easy list view. You double-tap the screen to zoom in and out - which works, but we miss the 'pinch to zoom' gesture found on the Palm Pre and iPhone. There's no native multi-touch support in the Droid.

If it were 2 ounces lighter and had a better keyboard (or no keyboard at all), it would be hands-down the best smartphone on the market today. As it is, it's a solid contender in a market that has too long been dominated by just one top-quality handset.

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For a more extensive review, and lots of images, visit Engadget
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