Cairo Milestone 1 Delayed
March 14, 2008
Following the announcement a couple of weeks back about the invitations being sent out for the alpha testing, Cairo have announced that Milestone 1 has been delayed.
this from the Cairo Blog
To all of our loyal supporters we are sure this comes as no surprise, but the first Milestone test has been delayed. At this point in time Cairo is not where we want it to be and in the interest of making the most of our first test, have pushed back the alpha. At this point we cannot make a guess about a release, but we are working diligently to get Cairo out.
I know what you all must be thinking: will we ever see Cairo? Is Cairo worth the wait? Whole-heartily: YES! Vaporware we are not. The whole team is disappointed that we needed to pull an Apple and delay what we know you are all waiting patiently for, but we echo the sentiments of many forum members who would rather have a stable, feature rich milestone instead of, well, the opposite.
I know many of you are also confused by our lack of information disclosure, but that’s how we must roll until we can realistically divulge information without the threat of imitators. As always, we appreciate your support and welcome any suggestions to help make the time go by faster. (Perhaps a forum contest and the winner gets a custom title?) Just throwing that out there.
-Best,
The Cairo Team
I’m sure it’s going to be worth the wait.
Second Brain gets an update
March 14, 2008
Second Brain, the personal content manager that helps you collect, organise, search and share content from multiple online services in a single library has been given some new features
- Support For Twitter
- Invite your Gmail contacts
- Edit Second Brain bookmarks
- Improved bookmartlets
- Improved performance
- Several bug fixes
Twitter support
You can now add Twitter as a service. Just follow the same procedure as for the other services: go to +Add Content -> select Import content -> Select Twitter. By default you can import your tweets, but you can also select to post to Twitter from the “What’s on my mind” panel.
Invite your Gmail Contacts
If you’d like to see more of your contacts in Second Brain, we’ve created a simple way for you to invite your Gmail contacts. Just go to you personal page
Edit S|B bookmarks
Edit the title, description and tags of bookmarks that you’ve added directly to Second Brain. Just click on the bookmark to go to the bookmark page and select the field that you’d like to edit.
Improved bookmarklets
When you add a bookmark you can now put it directly into a collection. This makes it really easy to use collections to organise your content. You can also add a description to a bookmark automatically by selecting text on the page you’re bookmarking.
If you haven’t already signed up you can do so here
Zoho launch Zoho People
March 12, 2008
Zoho have announced the launch of Zoho People, a Human Resource management application for HR teams in an organisation. This new business application joins zoho’s other business applications - Zoho CRM, Zoho Meeting, Zoho Projects and Zoho DB.
Organisation Module:
This module is used to define the structure of your organisation including departments, designations/titles and also the Org Chart.
Recruitment Module:
The Recruitment module eases the hiring process in an organisation. It automates the steps involved between searching a candidate from resume database to hiring him an employee. This module also lets managers raise job requirements and admins post openings on the website.
Forms Module:
The Forms module has a set of pre-created forms (mini-applications) for common tasks in an organisation like filing expense reports, reporting leave etc. With Zoho Creator integration, this module lets admins create new forms or customise existing forms and make them available to all employees.
Checklist Module:
This module lets admin automate business processes and define the flow based on conditions. Tasks can automatically be assigned to users or groups based on defined flow.
Self Service Module:
This module acts as a self-service module for Employees and Managers. All the employees have access to this module. Managers can define job openings and organise their team structure. Employees can submit information to the HR department using the forms defined by the HR team (like submitting an Expense Report or informing about a leave etc).
Roles and Permissions :
This module is used by admin to define fine grained access for different roles based on permissions - which drill down to field level, action level and form level.
See this video for a more detailed look
Zoho People from Raju Vegesna on Vimeo.
PhotoBucket Launched Intigrated image editing
March 7, 2008
Photobucket the image hosting site has launched integrated image editing on Photobucket. Now you can crop, rotate, and flip, remove blemishes, smooth out wrinkles, add shapes, play with colour effects or you can add your face to a celebrity and much more.
To edit your images in your album, zoom into full view and you will see the new edit feature.
For more examples of the new editing features click here.
[Source: photobucket blog]
Flock gets an Update
March 7, 2008
Flock, the social web browser has announced the latest release of it’s web browser. Flock 1.1 includes new features such as integration of Gmail and Yahoo, as well as letting you know when you have new messages waiting.
The new version includes key enhancements to Flocks MyWorld page, you can now rename it to make it yours and they have also added a friends activity feed so that you can keep up to speed with the latest actions of your friends from the the people services supported by Flock.
Apple Announces iPhone 2.0 Software
March 6, 2008
Apple today previewed its iPhone 2.0 software, scheduled for release in June, and announced the immediate availability of a beta release of the software to selected developers and enterprise customers. The iPhone 2.0 beta release includes both the iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) as well as new enterprise features such as support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync to provide secure, over-the-air push email, contacts and calendars as well as remote wipe, and the addition of Cisco IPsec VPN for encrypted access to private corporate networks.
“We’re excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community with potentially thousands of native applications for iPhone and iPod touch,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPhone’s enterprise features combined with its revolutionary Multi-Touch user interface and advanced software architecture provide the best user experience and the most advanced software platform ever for a mobile device.”
With the iPhone SDK, third party developers will be able to build native applications for the iPhone with a rich set of APIs, including programming interfaces for Core OS, Core Services, Media and Cocoa Touch technologies. The iPhone SDK will allow developers to create amazing applications that leverage the iPhone’s groundbreaking Multi-Touch™ user interface, animation technology, large storage, built-in three-axis accelerometer and geographical location technology to deliver truly innovative mobile applications.
Apple has licensed Exchange ActiveSync from Microsoft and is building it right into the iPhone, so that iPhone will connect out-of-the-box to Microsoft Exchange Servers 2003 and 2007 for secure over-the-air push email, contacts, calendars and global address lists. Built-in Exchange ActiveSync support also enables security features such as remote wipe, password policies and auto-discovery. The iPhone 2.0 software supports Cisco IPsec VPN to ensure the highest level of IP-based encryption available for transmission of sensitive corporate data, as well as the ability to authenticate using digital certificates or password-based, multi-factor authentication. The addition of WPA2 Enterprise with 802.1x authentication enables enterprise customers to deploy iPhone and iPod touch with the latest standards for protection of Wi-Fi networks.
The iPhone 2.0 software release will contain the App Store, a new application that lets users browse, search, purchase and wirelessly download third party applications directly onto their iPhone or iPod touch. The App Store enables developers to reach every iPhone and iPod touch user. Developers set the price for their applications—including free—and retain 70 percent of all sales revenues. Users can download free applications at no charge to either the user or developer, or purchase priced applications with just one click. Enterprise customers will be able to create a secure, private page on the App Store accessible only by their employees. Apple will cover all credit card, web hosting, infrastructure and DRM costs associated with offering applications on the App Store. Third party iPhone and iPod touch applications must be approved by Apple and will be available exclusively through the App Store.
During the beta iPhone SDK program, a limited number of developers will be accepted into Apple’s new iPhone Developer Program and offered the ability to get code onto iPhones for testing. The Standard Program costs $99 (US) per year and gives members an iPhone SDK and development tools; access to pre-release iPhone software; technical support; the ability to get code onto iPhones for testing; and distribution of applications via the new App Store. The Enterprise Program costs $299 (US) per year.
In addition to these new iPhone network and security features, the beta iPhone 2.0 software provides several new Mail features such as the ability to view PowerPoint attachments, in addition to Word and Excel, as well as the ability to mass delete and move email messages.
[Source: Apple]
Wordpress gets a Buddy
March 5, 2008
Automattic, the brains behind wordpress have snapped up the services of Andy Peatling and his BuddyPress plugins.
At the moment a place holder is all that we can see at the BuddyPress site, but Andy on his blog says…
I’ve been all consumed in WordPress for the past two years now, I think almost every single site I’ve built since working as a freelancer has used WordPress in some way. To get the opportunity to concentrate fully on WordPress everyday, and also the chance to help mould WordPress in new ways is a fantastic one not to be missed.
Also, the buddypress.com domain is in the process of being moved, so further updates on the project will be available there once the move has been completed.
BuddyPress is a series of plug-ins that turns your Wordpress installation into a Social Network, Automattic have already indicated that they would like to dip their toe into world of Social Networking so this acquisition makes sense to them.
Microsoft Announce Office Live Workspace
March 4, 2008
Microsoft today announced the public availability of Microsoft Office Live Workspace beta (http://workspace.officelive.com), the new Web-based extension of Microsoft Office that lets people access their documents online and share their work with others. Office Live Workspace was among the first entries in the new wave of online services in Microsoft’s software plus services vision previewed last fall.
Office Live Workspace is now available worldwide in English. People can sign up for free at http://workspace.officelive.com and will be granted immediate access to the service. Microsoft is also unveiling a number of new Office Live Workspace features, such as an activity panel, notifications, direct links and multifile upload.
“Today’s announcement moves us further down the path of bringing a software plus services experience to people at home, work and school,” said Stephen Elop, president of the Microsoft Business Division. By combining the rich client experience of Microsoft Office with flexible, intuitive service offerings, we’re providing seamless computing experiences for our 500 million Office users worldwide.”
Access Anywhere, Share and Extend the Microsoft Office Experience
Office Live Workspace lets people organise documents and projects online and work on them from almost any computer. People can save more than 1,000 Microsoft Office documents to one place online,* and access and share them via the Web. They can view and comment on documents in the browser as well as create simple Web lists and Web notes, and share documents in real time through integration with Microsoft SharedView.
Microsoft has also added several new features to Office Live Workspace, based in part on feedback from early beta participants:
| • | Activity panel. A new activity panel shows all the activity in a workspace at a glance. |
| • | Notifications. People can now receive e-mail notifications about changes made to their workspaces or documents. |
| • | Direct links. People can now bookmark their workspace or a workspace item via a unique URL in a browser window. |
| • | Multi-file upload. People can now upload several files simultaneously by simply dragging and dropping from their desktop. |
| • | Improved sharing. New sharing functionality includes an easier user interface and auto-completion of e-mail addresses. |
