Money Management Sites

Managing your finances online
The internet has made it easier than ever to manage, track and plan your finances without having to dig up your calculator or aggravatingly create an Excel spreadsheet. From investing to budgeting and debt-planning to retirement, the tools, education and means are available online to get your financial life under control.

budgeting

Quicken.com

The award-winning Quicken financial-planning and tracking software is now available online via a private beta test. For years, Quicken has provided desktop-based software that has been installed on your computer to track your spending and control your finances. The Quicken Online version will provide the same tools, but with secure access to your finances from any computer with an internet connection. Intuit, which owns Quicken, has had success with their online version of QuickBooks and is hoping to see the same with Quicken, which is primarily aimed at individual users rather than business users.

Mint.com

Mint.com is a free web-based service that lets you manage all of your finances in one place. Create a free account on the site and start entering your bank accounts, loan accounts, paychecks, and other elements of your financial story. Mint.com gives you instant real-time feedback on your finances. The biggest advantage, however, is that Mint.com is always working for you, constantly scouring the web for better deals on your credit card interest rates, cash-back cards, savings account yields, and more. Mint.com then introduces these special offers and provides you with immediate insight on exactly how much switching will mean to you in terms of savings. For instance, if it finds a savings account with a 1% higher interest rate, it will forecast how much more you will earn by going this way. Mint.com also features an array of customizable e-mail alerts that provide warnings when you’re coming too close to your optimal debt load and high-spending ratios. Mint.com takes a more interactive, action-oriented approach than traditional budgeting and financial-management software.

planning

Kiplinger.com

Kiplinger.com is one of the most trusted names when it comes to personal finance and it offers the tools to back up that reputation. Find dozens of financial tools, resources and calculators on the site that help you plan accordingly. Everything is covered: retirement, insurance, college, mortgages, and much more. Kiplinger.com’s tools are also categorized by a specific goal or application. For instance, rather than telling you how much debt you’re in -- which you already know the answer to -- Kiplinger.com offers a calculator that tells you what it’ll take to eliminate that debt. All the tools on Kiplinger.com are free and supplemented by their award-winning articles and financial commentaries.

research

TheStreet.com

Founded by Jim Cramer, the notorious host of Mad Money, TheStreet.com is an excellent source of research and commentary on the stock market and investments. TheStreet.com features far more than financial ratios and stock quotes as it aims to provide some education and explanation as to why things are the way they are. If you have a particular interest, such as real estate, TheStreet.com is broken down into dozens of channels that cater to specific subjects. Most of the content is free, but a handful of items, such as some of the stock-picking newsletters, carry a subscription fee. The trick is to confidently navigate through the broad spectrum of content. Insight and opinions (remember, that is all they are) are presented on everything, ranging from the active trader to the buy-and-hold-forever investor. The upside is that everything is covered; the downside is that you could end up reading and subscribing to investment advice that is outside of your investment comfort zone.

Finance.Yahoo.com

Yahoo! provides one of the most extensive stock-research sites on the internet. Yahoo! aggregates market data, news, highlights, and SEC filings from an array of third-party sources and puts them into a nice wrapper for your viewing pleasure. This site focuses on the numbers; if you’re looking for the next big thing, this is likely not the best place to start. But once you’ve found an investment idea, you can easily review financial numbers, historical prices and charts, and public filings, and read recent headlines. Yahoo! Finance also features a fairly easy-to-use stock screener that lets you search for stocks by specific criteria, like P/E ratios, dividend yields and market capitalization. Understanding the underlying numbers and investment fundamentals is essential to successfully investing in the long-term.

taxes

TurboTax.com

Every year, it’s the same old story: You scramble to find all of your paperwork for your taxes, and then fret while barely postmarking the envelope by April 15th. TurboTax.com, an online tax-preparation and -filing service, makes doing taxes a lot easier. It has the databases and knowledge to help you maximize your deductions and refund. Even better, TurboTax.com lets you try their service out for free. So, take last year’s tax return, visit TurboTax.com, and see how you would have come out if you took this route rather than the traditional tax-planning way. TurboTax.com also lets you e-file immediately, which helps to expedite your refund and save some time. Most importantly, TurboTax.com helps you plan during the course of the year so that when it comes to tax time, you are not madly scrambling around trying to find your receipts and make sense of them.

mind your money

As much as the internet is great for idly watching videos and playing games, commit some time to taking advantage of the abundance of financial tools and programs available on the web. With most tools available for free, it is easier than ever to access the information you need to get your financial future moving in the right direction.

Strategies for Conserving Battery Power

Have you ever run out of battery power on your mobile PC during a meeting or a class? Have you worried about running out of power while waiting to meet with a client? Have you asked yourself how much longer your battery will last? Sufficient battery life is a persistent challenge for mobile PC users. Microsoft Windows XP, though, offers several ways to help maximize the battery life of your mobile computer.

In this article, I'll discuss how to take advantage of Windows settings to manage power more efficiently. I'll also introduce some non-software related tips that you can use to extend battery life.

Optimize Your Power Settings

The display and hard disk on your mobile PC are the two biggest consumers of battery power. By customizing the existing power schemes in Windows XP you can extend your battery life. Windows XP provides a number of power schemes, which are predefined collections of settings designed for different environments and circumstances.

Windows includes two power schemes that were created specifically for mobile PCs.

•	The Portable/Laptop power scheme minimizes the use of power to conserve your battery, but adjusts to your processing needs so that the system speed is not sacrificed.
•	The Max Battery power scheme minimizes power use but does not adjust as your processing demands change. You should use Max Battery only in situations that require minimal processing, such as reading documents and taking notes in a meeting.

To use a power scheme designed to maximize battery life:

1.	Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2.	In Control Panel, verify that you're in Category view, and then click Performance and Maintenance.
3.	In the Performance and Maintenance window, click Power Options.
4.	On the Power Schemes tab of the Power Options Properties dialog box, click the arrow under Power schemes, and then click Max Battery.
5.	Click OK.

You can also create a custom power scheme to suit your specific needs. You can create as many custom power schemes as you want.

Take Advantage of Low-Power States

Windows XP provides two battery-saving sleep states: standby (which is like snoozing) and hibernation (which is like deep sleep).

Standby

In standby, your display and hard disk turn off, and all open programs and files are saved in random access memory (RAM)—your computer's temporary memory—rather than to the hard disk. Information stored in RAM is cleared when the computer turns off, so it's a good idea to save your work before placing your system in standby mode. Otherwise, you may lose data if you lose power, you swap batteries, or your system crashes.

Standby is particularly useful when you're using your mobile PC intermittently during the day. For example, when driving between clients' offices during the day, put your computer on Standby to maximize the life of your battery and maintain quick access to open programs, files, and documents.

In standby, your battery consumes only a small amount of power. When you want to use your computer again, it wakes up quickly, and your desktop is restored exactly as you left it.

To put your computer on standby:

1.	Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2.	In Control Panel, verify that you're in Category view, and then click Performance and Maintenance.
3.	In the Performance and Maintenance window, click Power Options.
4.	In the Power Options Properties dialog box, click the Advanced tab.
5.	Under Power buttons, click the arrow, and then click Standby.
6.	Click OK.

Hibernation

In hibernation, your computer saves everything to your hard disk and then shuts down. When you restart the computer, your desktop is restored exactly as you left it. Hibernation uses less power than standby, but it takes a bit longer to resume.

To manually put your computer in hibernation:

1.	Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2.	In Control Panel, verify that you're in Category view, and then click Performance and Maintenance.
3.	In the Performance and Maintenance window, click Power Options.
4.	In the Power Options Properties dialog box, click the Hibernate tab.
5.	Under Hibernate, select the Enable hibernation check box.
6.	Click OK.

Adjust Screen Brightness

You can also conserve battery by reducing the screen brightness. To adjust your screen brightness, refer to the instructions from your mobile PC manufacturer. Every computer is slightly different, but you can usually use a combination of keys, a function key, or a software tool to dim the screen.

Even better than dimming the screen is blanking it completely when you're not using your computer. You can further minimize power consumption by reducing the amount of time the computer is idle before the screen goes blank.

Turn Off Wireless

Another significant drain on your battery power is your wireless card. You should turn off your wireless device when you're using your mobile PC but are not connected to a wireless network. You can either remove your Wi-Fi card or press the manual hardware button on your computer if you're using a Centrino-based mobile PC. Refer to the instructions from your mobile PC manufacturer to learn where the manual hardware button is.

Additional Power Saving Tips

In addition to adjusting power settings to maximize battery life, consider the following tips to minimize power consumption when you're away from electrical outlets.

•	Turn off scheduled tasks. If you use scheduled tasks to run programs or scripts, or if you schedule other tasks to occur automatically at a preset time, specify that these tasks won't be performed when the computer is running on battery power.
•	Keep the use of tools in the notification bar to a minimum. Try to minimize your CPU's usage. Look at the notification area of the taskbar and close any tools (or utilities) that are not necessary. Often, these tools are installed on the computer when you first receive it. The notification bar, shown below, is on the bottom right of your computer desktop.
•	Limit power-intensive activities. Avoid watching a DVD or playing online games on your mobile PC when you need to conserve battery power.
•	Add memory. You can minimize the reliance of Windows on virtual memory and reduce power consumption by adding memory to your mobile PC.
•	Carry at least one spare battery. Buying an extra battery is a good investment for your peace of mind. Battery prices vary widely. You can significantly increase the power available to you if you're willing to splurge a little. Contact the manufacturer of your mobile PC to find a replacement battery.
•	Charge your battery often. When you're on the road, be sure to carry a power cord and plug your computer in whenever you have the chance.
•	Completely drain nickel-based batteries. If you're using an older laptop (at least 3 years old) with a nickel hydride battery, be sure to completely drain it and recharge it monthly to ensure that it will hold its charge. Most newer mobile PCs use lithium ion batteries, which don't need to be drained to maximize their capacity.

By adjusting your mobile PC settings to conserve battery power and by implementing these tips, you can relieve the stress and inconvenience of running out of battery power.

Tips for searching the Internet

The Internet contains a vast collection of information, but finding what you are looking for can be a challenge. Here are a few tips to help you search the web more effectively.

Use the Instant Search box

In the Internet Explorer Instant Search box, type a keyword or phrase and then press ENTER (or press ALT+ENTER to display the search results in a new tab).

Internet Explorer Instant Search box

Press Ctrl+E to go to the search box without using the mouse.

Use the Address bar

In the Internet Explorer Address bar, type Find, Go, or ? followed by a keyword, website name, or phrase, and then press ENTER. If you want the search results to display in a new tab, press ALT+ENTER after typing the phrase.

Use more than one search provider

If you do not find what you're looking for with a particular search provider, you can search using a different one. Internet Explorer's search box lets you add additional search providers and switch between them to improve your search results.

To learn how to use different search providers, install new search providers, or change the search provider that Internet Explorer uses by default, see Change or choose a search provider in Internet Explorer.

Search more efficiently

Here are a few ideas for improving the results of searches. When searching using the address bar, first type find, go, or ?. :

	Use specific words rather than generic categories. For example, instead of searching for dogs, search for a specific breed of dog.
•	Use quotation marks to search for specific phrases. Surrounding terms with quotation marks limits the search results to only those webpages that contain the exact phrase you've specified. Without the quotation marks, the results will include any page that contains the words you've used, regardless of what order those words are in.
•	Use the minus (-) sign before a keyword to tell search providers to exclude pages with that term. Using a minus sign will retrieve webpages that do not include the word. It's important not to include any spaces between the signs and the search terms (for example, -Bogart, not - Bogart).
•	Eliminate common words such as "a", "my", or "the", unless you're looking for a specific title. If the word is part of something you're looking for (a song title, for example), include the common word and surround the phrase with quotation marks.
•	Use synonyms or alternative search terms. Be creative or use a thesaurus for ideas. Type thesaurus in the search box to find an online thesaurus.
•€	Search only a specific website or domain. Type the search term you're looking for followed by site: and the address of the website you want to search to narrow the search to that specific site. For example, to search Microsoft.com for information about viruses, type virus site:www.microsoft.com (with no spaces between site: and the domain).
•	Use a specialty search engine or provider, such as MSN Image search, to look for pictures. Many websites offer their own special searches for anything from shopping to hobbies. Internet Explorer can detect specialty search providers on some websites, which you can add to your list of search providers.

iPod touch : Hold Me, Touch Me, Thrill Me

The amazing next generation iPod, reviewed.

Unless you’ve been living under a chicken barn, you might have heard of the most anticipated phone in history (other than Alexander Graham Bell’s) – the Apple iPhone. And when Steve Jobs said, “the iPhone is the best iPod we’ve ever made” at the Apple event this year, technology insiders already knew that it was a big clue of things to come.

It finally came true on September 5th, when the new line of iPod touch was shown to the world for the first time in San Francisco, with all the bells of whistles of the iPhone sans the mobile phone functions. (Looks like your Nokia is safe for now). So what is the best iPod ever made like? Let’s find out.

Multi-Touch Interface
The iPod touch features the same technology pioneered by the iPhone. Using your fingers instead of a stylus for the controls means easier and faster acces to everything.
Just gently glide your fingers through albums with Cover Flow, flick through photos and enlarge them with a pinch, or zoom in and out on a section of a web page. It also features a touchscreen QWERTY keyboard perfect for browsing the web in the built-in Safari browser. The entire experience is extremely organic, if pleasantly overwhelming at first. It’s very Minority Report and you will love it. Thanks Apple, we’ve always wanted uncool toothpick styluses to be reserved only, for err, tooth picking privately.

Video Worthy
This is where the magic happens. The most feature packed iPod ever, packs a high-resolution big screen that you can touch, watch and love. Movies now pack more details – very useful for differentiating the good guys and the baddies in a high-speed car chase or horror movies like The Eye, which rely on subtle effects. What it’ll do even better than any other smartphone, however, is in the web browsing experience. Thanks to the big 3.5” screen, now you can actually read a full web page, not a watered down mobile edition, on-the-go without a magnifying glass or lasik surgery.

Your Best Photo Album
3.5 inch screen, 480-by-320-pixel resolution at 163 pixels per inch, bright and vivid color display. What more can one say, when it’s already said in a thousand words? iPod touch holds up to 20,000 photos and you can flick through the thumbnails. And touching is believing. Tap to view full screen. Rotate for landscape format. Or perform some sleight of hand by opening two fingers to zoom in. You can even play slideshows, complete with music and transitions. Set any photo as your wallpaper to personalize your iPod touch...with a touch.

Music Like It’s Supposed To Be
The state-of-the-art iPod hasn’t forgotten its roots. The 16GB iPod touch can hold up to 3,500 songs in 128 kbps AAC format, 20,000 photos and 20 hours of video. For the 8GB, just cleverly divide the above specs by half. The music is typically a high quality affair for the iPod. The biggest difference in the music aspect is the album art browser and the hands-on experience of looking through a library of album covers. Ah, just like the old times when we used to listen to cassettes and vinyls, only a few light years better!

Wi-Fi Web Browsing
Mac OS X computers have been using Safari browsers for a few years and recently a Windows version has been released. It’s fast, reliable and relatively secure browser experience on the computer as well as in the iPod. This is by far, the feature most people are impressed with. Sitting in the café, waiting for your chronically late friend to arrive, you can update your blog or read up on what crazy things Britney is up to lately – that should take about an hour (or two). Sync your bookmarks or add a few as you go. Search the web using the touchscreen keyboard. Zoom in and out of the page by tapping the multi-touch display. Forget your mobile phone, you’ve never seen Nokia make web browsers for your PC, so what do they know?

YouTube Player
Have you caught on a YouTube fever, that’s been spreading all over the world? It’s crazy what people put up on the video publishing website. Home-made comedy skits, movie bloopers and your favorite moment in sports - iPod touch feeds them from anywhere with a special YouTube player and Wi-Fi connectivity built right in. Watch featured videos, check out the most viewed, search for something specific, then bookmark your favorites for future reference. It’s all the fun of YouTube — pocket-size.

b>Accelerometer, Ambient Light Sensor & Everything Else…
It’s not all hands-on though, there’s also something magical about the things you don’t touch. If you’re holding the device horizontally, it can detect the change and adjust the display to fill up the whole screen in widescreen format automatically. That’s the genius of the accelerometer. And to be forgiving on the eyes, there’s an ambient light sensor that dims and brightens the display to suit the viewing environment, to conserve energy and go easy on the eyes. And you can bet on your iPod touch to look fabulous till a ripe age, because of its exceptionally metal casing and expensive glass that’s more resistant to scratches than the average plastic.

Battery Life
The iPod touch comes alive for about 22 hours of music and 5 hours of video on a full charge -enough for even the longest trans-world flight from Kuala Lumpur to New York. If you’re in a hurry, it charges up to 80% in 1½ hours, which should be enough to last until London, maybe. It’s a marvelous device that’ll keep you happy for years. Truly as a portable entertainment machine, nothing comes close to the iPod touch. It’s a small step for Apple, a giant leap for bored people all over the world!

D-LINK Xtreme N Router now includes Yahoo! Widgets Desktop

D-Link International has announced that its award-winning Draft 802.11n Xtreme N Gigabit Router (DIR-655) now allows users to monitor network performance through the use of Yahoo! Widgets. D-Link is the first network company to offer support for Yahoo! Widgets utilities on its home network products.

"We're excited to offer Yahoo! Widgets as an added value to our customers," said Mr George Wong, Marketing Director, D-Link International Pte Ltd. "D-Link's addition of the popular desktop utility tool demonstrates our ongoing commitment to making our networking products as best in class."

The ‘D-Link Network Monitor' Widget will display key network performance data for Internet, WLAN and LAN connections. Over 30 types of network data are easily viewable from the widget, including the number of networked devices and security settings, making management of a home network easier and more convenient.

Yahoo! Widgets provide users with access to more than 4,800 desktop applications that allow them to stay current with a live, at-a-glance view of their favourite Internet information and services, PC performance and the status of peripheral computer components such as an Xtreme N network.

Users can get the ‘D-Link Network Monitor' Widget, visit http://www.dlink.com.sg/products/widgets/ or download directly from the Yahoo! Widget Gallery by visiting widgets.yahoo.com and searching the gallery for ‘D-Link'. Users will also need to update their Xtreme N Router with the latest firmware available from the D-Link Support Site at http://www.dlink.com.sg/support/.

Powerful wireless connection

Powered by Xtreme N technology and equipped with three external antennas, the DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit Router is D-Link's most powerful home network router that provides superior wireless coverage for larger homes and offices, or for users running bandwidth-intensive applications. Up to 1400% faster than wireless products featuring the 54Mbps 802.11g wireless connection, the DIR-655 features Dual Active Firewall protection for enhanced wireless security. It is the industry's first Gigabit Draft N router to incorporate Intelligent Wireless Quality of Service (QoS) Technology that automatically prioritizes high-bandwidth, latency-sensitive wireless data traffic and allows users to experience smooth High Definition video stream, lag-free gaming and jitter-free voice over Internet (VoIP) calls.

Price and Availability

Firmware (1.05 or later) to enable the Yahoo! Widget for the DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit Router is free of charge and now available on http://www.dlink.com.sg/support/. The DIR-655 is available at authorized retail, reseller, and distribution partners.

And now for something (almost) completely useless

Do you ever get wistful thinking about programming on your old Apple II or Commodore 64? Then you need to check out the LoseThos operating system, an absolutely free, "clean slate" 64-bit operating system for writing games. As its developer is quick to admit, commercial developers are not the target of this retro, wholly homespun (and ultrafast!) OS. But you'd have to be a cold-hearted and humorless developer not to appreciate the earnest effort at work here. Virtual memory and CPU privilege levels? Nah. Security? Forget about it. Support for the Internet? Who needs it? But if you want a fun, fast toy environment for programming as entertainment, LoseThos could be it.

Want more functional functionality this week? You can find plenty in this week's software picks: Multi-Edit is a potent low-level source-code editor with nigh-infinite customization options; King Solomon Web can help you put hierarchy and indexing on a generic Unicode-based foundation that's perfect for "knowledge base"-type Web sites; and CodeVeil is a high-end .NET code obfuscator that can hide your ASP.NET, DLLs, EXEs, components, and Windows forms.

New Palm PDA phone

Remember the Palm devices? Well some of you might remember them and it wasn't that long ago that the Palm Treo 680 was released. Well, what most people might think is a dying brand is still breathing and they've launched their latest Palm PDA phone called the Palm Centro.

With voice, text, IM, email, web, contact and calendar capabilities, a full-color touch screen and full keyboard, Centro brings Palm simplicity and organization to customers who want to stay connected with co-workers, friends and family. With a new compact design, Centro is the smallest and lightest Palm phone to date. Centro has a modern, stylish look that feels comfortable in the hand, pocket or evening purse.

Palm Centro is only available in the US via Sprint come mid-October in onyx black or ruby red. However, sooner or later it will hit our shores and Palm fans can rejoice over a new device.

Centro was designed as a great phone, messaging, and organizational device, and is incredibly easy to use. It allows users to easily connect with friends, family and co-workers by voice, email or text. And with its full keyboard, Centro makes it easy to quickly and efficiently type text messages and respond to emails, communicating complete thoughts and ideas. Since Centro comes with the Palm OS(R), it offers all of the great organizer functionality that Palm is renowned for, such as a detailed and integrated Contacts list. Also, the simple and handy calendar makes it easier to manage increasingly busy lives, whether it's juggling business meetings or keeping track of school activities.

Additional Palm Centro Features and Benefits

-- Superior Phone - Centro's touch screen and keyboard, combined with the simplicity of Palm OS, make it easy to use key features such as one-touch speakerphone, conference calling, ignore a call with text messaging and Bluetooth(R) connectivity.

-- Easy Text Messaging - Centro's full keyboard makes typing out complete messages fast and easy when sending text, pictures, audio and video clips. Plus, Centro keeps all your conversations in a chat-style view, just like IM, so you can see the entire conversation unfold.

-- Personal and Corporate Email - New users to the smartphone category now have an easy mobile email solution using Microsoft Direct Push Technology(5) for delivery of Outlook email as well as personal email, such as Gmail, AOL and Yahoo.

-- IM with AIM, MSN, or Yahoo! - Compose messages quickly and easily with a full QWERTY keyboard. Instant message your buddy list with direct access to Yahoo, Windows Live Messenger or AOL's AIM service.

-- Web Browsing - Fast and easy web access on the Sprint Mobile Broadband Network at fast EvDO speeds. The full keyboard and touch screen provide quick access to online information. The built-in Google Maps application offers fast access to directions, traffic updates and local search.

-- Multimedia - "Sideload" songs and manage music easily with Sprint Music Manager. Centro is the first Palm phone to include PocketTunes Deluxe. Shoot pictures or video with the built-in digital camera.

Tech Specs

Display	320x320 pixel Transflective color touchscreen, supports 16-bit color (up to 65K colors)
Radio	Dual-band CDMA2000 EvDO backward compatible with 1XRTT and IS95
Platform	Palm OS 5.4.9
Bluetooth® Wireless Technology	Version 1.2
Memory	64MB available user storage
Camera	1.3 megapixels with 2x digital zoom and video capture
Battery	Removable 1150mAh, lithium-ion 3.5 hours talk time, up to 300 hours standby time
Expansion	microSD card (up to 4GB supported)
Connector	Multi-connector
Dimensions	4.22" (L) x 2.11" (W) x 0.73" (D); 4.2 oz
Colors	Ruby and Onyx
System Requirements	Windows® XP Windows Vista™ Mac OS X v10.2-10.4

Live Search new update

Microsoft is releasing an update to Live Search, (http://www.live.com) centered on improvements to the core search technology and deeper advancements in the vertical search areas of entertainment, shopping, local and health. Collectively, these improvements mark a quality milestone based on the company’s focus on delivering a better search experience for consumers and advertisers.

“With this update to Live Search, our engineering focus is on the areas that matter most to our 185 million consumers who use our service every month. We have made dramatic progress in delivering a better search experience for our customers,” said Grant Watts, General Manager of Microsoft’s Online Services Group in Southeast Asia.

The majority of Live Search customer feedback has focused on improving overall search relevance to deliver richer and deeper results and investing in differentiated experiences in high-interest consumer areas such as entertainment, shopping, health and local search.

Microsoft’s efforts toward satisfying its Live Search customers can be grouped into a few key areas:

• Over fourfold increase in index size. Nearly 20 percent of customer challenges came from the long tail of the Web, indicating a need for broader coverage to help ensure that the right results can be returned for the highest percentage of queries. The updated Live Search has exceeded the goal of quadrupling its range of coverage, setting a foundation that will enable it to keep pace with the growth of the Web.
• Substantial improvements in query intent. The new Live Search does a much better job in predicting the intent of the query to return the best results possible. New investments improve the search service’s ability to read and understand queries in a way that more accurately determines intent despite common problems such as spelling errors, stop words, punctuation and synonyms.
• Significant enhancements to core algorithms. The new Live Search has incorporated more user click-stream data to inform ranking and relevancy processes, yielding more relevant results across queries.
• Increased focus on query refinement. Intelligence in the back end designed to help customers arrive at improved query suggestions helps Live Search deliver the best results, even making proactive changes to the query in cases where the engine is confident of the customer’s intent.
• New Web data extraction model. Core search innovation enables Microsoft to build rich vertical experiences that update on the fly. This technology extracts information from across the Web on products (including ratings and reviews); businesses (including locations, contact information, photos, hours of operation, ratings and reviews); celebrities (including buzz, images and videos); and more.
• Expansion of Rich Answers. Based on user feedback that sometimes people are just looking for a specific fact or answer, Live Search’s improved Answers platform provides specialized responses to queries about specific areas such as weather, images, celebrities and entertainment, sports, stocks, Yellow Pages, maps or quick facts from Encarta. This specialized content has been more deeply integrated into the main search experience to add to custom searches such as images and mapping.

Additional improvements to the service include a new, cleaner user interface that makes the results pages easier to read and use; a more robust Answers platform that provides instant access to information from trusted sources while increasing relevancy; and organization of results pages based on the high-interest search verticals of entertainment, shopping, local and health on one page.

High-Interest Verticals

With up to 40 percent of searches falling into the categories of entertainment, shopping, health and local search, the new Live Search has made deep investments to deliver specialized content presented in a compelling way across these key vertical search areas:

• Entertainment. Helps customers stay informed on the latest entertainment news with celebrity instant answers accompanied by images and a new video search feature that offers smart motion previews, facts and buzz and new xRank celebrity ranking.
• Shopping. Helps customers easily find and discover products along with reviews, guides, prices and other relevant information.
• Health. New health search functionality intuitively organizes and surfaces the most relevant online health content from trusted sources, allowing consumers to refine searches faster and with more accuracy.
• Local. Allows customers to search local business listings for help with making informed decisions based on rich details and reviews.

With improvements across the core search experience and infrastructure as well as new experiences and specialized content in key, high-interest vertical areas, the new Live Search puts in place a platform that enables Microsoft to keep pace with customer demand and continue to deliver new and innovative search experiences across a range of scenarios and devices.

An early example of these new experiences is the mobile search client, a Software plus Services implementation for the mobile phone that puts the power of the Live Search service in the palm of the hand.

Watts added, “Speech-based search combines powerful speech-recognition software on the mobile phone with the Live Search service over the Internet. There is still plenty of room for innovation, and Live Search is well poised to lead in this arena.”

More information on these updates is available from http://livesearch.spaces.live.com/ or http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/newsroom/factsheet/LiveSearchFS.mspx.

Sony Notebooks Become Head -Turning works of art

Sony unveiled the VAIO Graphic Splash Maya Hayuk Edition notebooks featuring designs from New York-based, emerging artist, Maya Hayuk. These limited edition PCs are available in two head-turning designs-"Grow" and "Never Stop". Known for her colorful and symmetrical imagery, Hayuk conceptualized and painted these designs for Sony. These new styles transform what was already a stunning PC into a functioning work of art, beautifully blending cutting-edge images with a sleek design.

The "Grow" edition captures the feel of an organic forest with deep green, blue and purple flower-growing wildly across the top of the notebook while "Never Stop" is a colorful, kaleidoscopic design that is decked in interlacing lines and spherical shapes.

Hayuk's extraordinary artwork is also featured on the interior of the PC. These models include wallpaper that matches each design, a limited edition engraving and a pre-installed video of Maya discussing her inspiration behind the designs. Each notebook comes with a certificate of authenticity with Hayuk's original signature as well.

Also, a percentage of each purchase will be donated to Creativity Explored (www.creativityexplored.org), a non-profit organization supporting artists with developmental disabilities.

Secure your mobile

DID you know that smartphones are also vulnerable to malicious software that can render the device unusable, leak stored personal information and even cause the device to make expensive calls to premium numbers?

PDAs and PDA phones are also not spared as mobile viruses can gain access through multiple entry points including Bluetooth, WiFi, e-mail attachment, instant messaging and even web downloads.

If you cannot imagine a day without a mobile phone or a PDA, get it protected with an antivirus such as F-Secure's Mobile Anti-Virus.

It takes just minutes to install after which it will remain working in the background without requiring user interaction.

The software supports Symbian 60, Symbian 80 as well as Windows Mobile 2003 and newer operating systems.

Its virus database is updated automatically when an Internet connection is established.

Critical updates, on the other hand, are delivered via push SMS.

Just like its desktop counterpart, the mobile antivirus automatically scans all files both in the phone's built-in memory as well as on the external memory card and when an infected file is detected it is immediately quarantined to protect all other data in the system.

A list of supported devices and a trial version are available at the company's website.

http://mobile.f-secure.com

Office of the future?

For most everyone working in the U.S. corporate world, Microsoft Office is a must: Outlook for e-mail/calendar; Word for word processing; Excel for spreadsheets; and PowerPoint for presentations.

However, a recent rise in free office suites has given end users much more choice in productivity software than they've had in many years. Just two weeks ago, IBM announced a free version of Lotus Symphony. Though it's still in beta release, the freeware includes serviceable word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation software, all of which support Microsoft Office file formats.

The best known Office alternative is still OpenOffice.org, which also includes word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations, but it also throws a database application (Base), a vector-graphics program (Draw), and a mathematical formula tool (Math) into the mix. The open-source productivity suite is based on StarOffice, now owned by Sun Microsystems.

Curiously, Sun recently made StarOffice (listed for $69.95 on its Web site) available for free via a partnership with Google Pack.

Speaking of Google, the online giant hopes to give Microsoft a run for its office money by providing free Web-based tools that anyone with a browser can access. Google Docs & Spreadsheets is much more limited than Word and Excel, but the collaboration features are mighty attractive. Also, online software such as Zoho Virtual Office is even more advanced than Google's offering.

What do you think? Do you still rely on your trusty Word, Excel, and PowerPoint applications, or have you moved on to an alternative. How many of you have tried online word processors or spreadsheets?

Top 5 Cameras

Each on of them has their own flair and purpose. Life will be perfect when they find a way to combine these five optical wonders together. Until then, these digital cameras are sold separately.

Panasonic Lumix FX-9 What is it: Hassle-Free Ultracompact Specs: 6 mega pixel, 3x optical /4x digital zoom, 2.5 inch hi-res LCD screen, Panasonic’s Optical Image Stabilizer (O.I.S.), VGA (640 x 480) video recording at 30fps Price: RM 1,699 If you’re looking for a simple to use, yet reliable performer look no further than the Panasonic Lumix FX-9. It turns spontaneous clicks into awesome display photos thanks to its fast image stabilizer). What you really want to do with a hassle-free camera is to turn it on, frame the subject and shoot. Any camera can do that, but the question is how well does it perform that simple function? If you have to take a picture twice or thrice, then you desperately need a solid performer like the Panasonic Lumix FX-9. The Leica lens, the bright big screen, the compact design and user-friendly interface is guaranteed to be a sure hit. Sony Cybershot N-1 What is it: Small Stylish Camera with Fancy Features Specs: 8.1 mega pixel, Carl Zeiss® Vario-Tessar lens, 3 inch hi-res LCD touch panel, 512MB memory stick, 3x optical zoom Price: RM 1,999 It’s a lot like a ladies camera and something families will love. If you ask grandpa to take a picture for you, it wouldn’t be a problem either – it’s got a huge 3-inch screen. If that doesn’t help grandpa, only an overhead projector will. Just tap the screen to select the object to focus on or draw a little mole on your best friends face to make her look like Marilyn Monroe. This fun camera allows you to personalize your slideshow and movie with downloadable music (up to 180 seconds). Add text, fun, spice and everything nice into a digital camera and you’ll get a Sony Cybershot N-1. Canon EOS 5D What is it: Super SLR – digital camera for the pro and wealthy Specs: 12.8 mega pixel, 2.5 inch TFT LCD screen, 3 frames / sec shooting, 50-3200 ISO range, CF card & MicroDrive supported, plus a host of serious Earth shutter-ing features Price: RM 13,999 The EOS 5D is unlike any previous digital SLR in that it combines a full-frame (35 mm sized) high resolution sensor (12.8 megapixels) with a relatively compact body. Professionals will like it’s weighty and robust construction that weighs almost 1kg (actually 895g with battery) while those with a weaker arm will not. It costs a whopping RM 13,999 but it doesn’t come with a built-in flash. When you’re this rich or this serious about photography, you shouldn’t skimp. Splurge on high-speed, high capacity CF (CompactFlash) cards too - a full sized 12.8 mega pixel JPEG files are about 5.5 MB each! Olympus µ (mju) Digital 800 What is it: All-weather, world traveler pocket camera Specs: 8.0 mega pixel, 3x optical/ 5x digital zoom, 2.5 inch LCD screen, 7.9MB internal memory Price: RM 1,999 Today you’re in Melbourne – the city with four seasons in a day. You’re jetting off to Stockholm and Johannesburg in the next few days. Ah, the life of a flight attendant, tough as a thermometer. You need a camera that performs under pressure and across all weather conditions to document your travels. It has ordinary looks but trust the Olympus µ (mju) Digital series to perform with flying colors under tough conditions, being one of the first and most established names to feature weatherproof construction. With its exclusive TruePic TURBO image processor and comprehensive built-in help guide, taking good pictures as easy as ABC too. Just make sure you’ve got your raincoat and cold tablets to keep up with the camera. Panasonic Lumix FZ-30 What is it: A super-zoom prosumer camera Specs: 8.0 mega pixel, 12x optical zoom, 4x or 2x digital zoom (depending on size), 2 inch hi-res TFT LCD screen, 14 scene modes, optical image stabilizer (Mega O.I.S), Leica DC Vario-Elmarit lens Price: RM 2,499 A prosumer (professional consumer) camera is one that offers an advanced set of features in a less complex set-up than a digital SLR. The Panasonic Lumix FZ-30 is the successor of the highly successful FZ-20 and is one of the best sub-SLR money can buy. Its powerful class-leading 12x zoom, extensive manual controls and outstanding picture quality is reason why many have deemed this to be the definitive prosumer digital camera.