Hi All,

Using Photosynth, CNN will stitch photos together into "the most detailed experience of a single moment ever".

CNN.com has put out a call for the millions of people attending President-Elect Barack Obama's inauguration at noon on Tuesday (6am on Wednesday, New Zealand time). Anyone there can send in their digital pictures of the moment Obama takes the oath of office and, using Microsoft's Photosynth technology, CNN will stitch the photos together into what it's hoping will be "the most detailed experience of a single moment ever”.

Very cool – you will be able to view the photos by visiting  cnn.com/themoment.

Nick.

Santa Call is back in action and ready to add magic to your kids' Christmas.

Just visit the Santa Call website [www.santacall.co.nz] to have Santa call your kids and record their Christmas wish-list. You will then receive an email with a voice recording of your child's wishes.

Nick.

Love the 5GB (soon to be 25GB) of free online storage provided by SkyDrive, but wish you could access it browser-free? That’s the promise of a new application called Gladinet, a desktop software program that delivers web applications and online files to your desktop. With Gladinet installed, online storage sites like SkyDrive and others become available through Windows Explorer, where they exist as a virtual drive.

To use Gladinet, you only need provide your username and password to the program once, then the credentials are stored in a "Safe Card," which can be managed separately from the application itself. When connecting to remote drives, some reports note that Gladinet may take a minute or two to connect to the resource.

In many ways, this program functions as a desktop app for services that don’t provide desktop access. However, with the upcoming Windows Live Photos service (which stores images on SkyDrive), the Windows Live Photo Gallery desktop app integrates seamlessly with the online service, making the need for another desktop app somewhat redundant if you only use SkyDrive for images. But for those who manage all sorts of files on SkyDrive, Gladinet could be a useful tool.

The Live Search team has just launched a new search promotion to encourage people to use Live Search. Dubbed “Big Ticket Search,” this promo is a contest that will run from October 31st through December 31st. Every time you perform a search at bigticketsearch.com, you have a chance to win prizes every hour, 24 hours a day. The prizes that will be given away include 2 new Mitsubishi Lancers, Raptors VIP package, Home Entertainment Systems, Laptops, $10,000 cash, Ticketmaster Gift Cards, Zunes, Xboxes, Raptors Season Tickets and Raptors Memorabilia.

After you enter in a search query in the box provided, you’ll be taken to a search results page where you’ll be informed as to whether your search was a winner or not. With the holiday season right around the corner, it’s a great time to try this out because - who knows? – you might just win some cash to go shopping with!

Nick.

Noah Edelstein stopped by and gave Channel 10 a first look at the Mac client for Live Mesh, so now if you've got some electro-diversity in your home ecosphere, you can drag & drop, share & push all your files to your other machines just like the I'm a PC folks. If you're already a Live Mesh user, this will be a familiar look for you, although some of the UI has been tweaked to conform with Mac norms. If you're dying to get your Mesh on your Mac, head over to mesh.com and sign-up, so that you'll be ready to be a part of this limited release once it goes live later today.

First Look: Live Mesh Client for Mac

Ori and some other folks from the mesh team decked out his car with a custom display and PC, controlled with touch, voice, a Griffin Powermate and Live Mesh! Because his car is 'on the Mesh', Ori can sync his music automatically, and even send an invite to his mechanic to view his telemetry and diagnostics in real time. With the built in navigation he can even share his location with people through Mesh.

Ori Amiga's MeshMobile - Very Cool!

A company called Celiocorp has launched a completely different take on the netbook phenomenon. Instead of offering a lightweight computer running either Linux or XP like today’s netbooks do, this notebook PC is entirely powered by a device you already own: your smartphone. Dubbed a “mobile companion,” the Redfly device has an 8-inch screen, a full-sized keyboard and touch pad, and is connected to your smartphone via a USB cable or Bluetooth.

To use the Redfly notebook, all you need to do is install the Redfly driver on your phone (see supported phones here). You can then use the netbook like any computer. Its bigger screen makes it easier to read documents, write emails, or surf the web. Redfly supports remote desktop, virtualization and other cloud-based environments like Citrix, GoToMyPC, LogMeIn, Microsoft’s Remote Desktop protocol, stoneware, inc., and others. The netbook also features a VGA connector so you can connect your Redfly netbook to a projector for presentations.

As you use the Redfly device, you can be charging your smartphone too, assuming it’s plugged in via the USB cable. The Redfly battery works for up to 8 hours, according to the company.

This is a very cool device!!

Nick.

Motorheads as well as those with a professional interest in cars are flocking to CarJam, the spare-time brainchild of two security software specialists.

CarJam is a vehicle information search engine for the New Zealand motorist, would be motorist hoping to buy a car or just the plan curious who want to see what mileage their old vehicle has been doing and generally research things starting simply with the rego.

Simpy enter the registration details, and you can receive the following information -

HOLDEN COMMODORE 2002 (in Red)

Plate: Current Rego

• Make: HOLDEN
• Model: COMMODORE
• Year: 2002
• Submodel: ACCLAIM SEDAN AUTO
• Main colour: Red
• Vehicle type: Passenger Car/Van
• Body style: Saloon
• No of seats: 5
• CC rating: 3,791
• Fuel type: Petrol
• Power: 152kW
• Assembly type: Imported Built-Up
• Country of origin: Australia
• Imported damaged: Find out by purchasing the report
• Reported stolen: Find out by purchasing the report

Identification

• VIN: Find out by purchasing the report
• Plate: Current Rego
• Engine no: Engine Number

Economy, safety and pollution

• Transmission: 4-gear automatic

Ownership information

Find out by purchasing the report

Security interests

Find out by purchasing the report

Licence

• Licence expiry: 2008, October 31st (expires in 1 week)
• Latest licence issued on: 2007, November 5th at 09:31
• Licence type: Licence
• Continuous licence: Yes

Registration

• Registration status: Active
• Vehicle usage: Private Passenger
• Cause of latest registration: New
• Date of first registration in New Zealand: 2002, November 1st
• Date of last registration: 2002, November 1st
• Registered overseas: No

Plates history

Plate
Effective date

Current rego

2003, September 25th

Old rego
2002, November 1st

Warrant of fitness (WOF)

The WOF expires in 11 months (23rd September 2009). Last inspection was successful on 23rd September 2008.

Miscellaneous information

• Gross vehicle mass: 1,519kg
• Maximum rated towed mass: 1,200kg (for unbraked trailer) and 2,100kg (for braked trailer)
• No of axles: 2
• Front axle group rating: 1033
• Rear axle group rating: 1200

Odometer history

• Is odometer reliable?: Find out by purchasing the report
• Latest odometer reading: 72,829 Km (on 2008, September 23rd, source: WOF Inspection)
• Latest usage: 31.38 Km/day (11,422 Km/year)

Reading, Km
Date
Source or reason
Usage (avg), Km/day/year

72,829
2008, September 23rd
WOF inspection
31.38/11,422

etc

 

Remote Gaming: Play YOUR Xbox from anywhere in the world!

Imagine...you are on a trip to Yawnsville, USA and you find yourself bored in your hotel room. Wouldn't it be GREAT if you just had your 360 with you and you could finish that level in Dead Space? Well, Vircion is going to make that possible. With their new product called Sero- you can tap into your console at home and access all your media and games with just a regular internet connection. You'll be able to finish that game you were playing and even jump into an online game and play with friends.

The amazing WorldWide Telescope had a lot of hype pre-launch but we haven’t heard much about in recent days. Although now the WWT is being used by a number of astronomers, scientists, students, and space enthusiasts across the globe, the Microsoft Virtual Earth team decided to give it a little more exposure to the general public. To do so, they’re going to include a little WWT in Virtual Earth.  So, in latest release of the Virtual Earth 3D control, the Virtual Earth team has now included the accurate placement of stars in space. Cool - now we have Earth and Sky in Virtual Earth!