Category: Uncategorized

4” iPod Touch, iPad Mini & DOJ Rejects Apple’s Criticism of E-Book Anti-Trust Suit

Linda Reimer

4” iPod Touch: According PC Magazine an Asian tech manufacturer has said that Apple will be unveiling not just a new iPhone with a 4” screen in September but also will upgrade the iPod Touch which too shall have a 4” screen.

So those of us who have been waiting to upgrade our iPod Touches can plan on finally doing so this September. Here’s the link to the PG Magazine article tilted Rumor Points to 4-Inch iPod Touch Display:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2407543,00.asp

iPad Mini: CNET is reporting that Apple is indeed getting ready to debut a 7” mini iPad in September. September is the month Apple usually releases iPhone and iPod Touch upgrades so September does seem like a good bet for this new product to be unveiled!

Here’s the link to the CNET article titled iPad Mini to debut in September, says analyst:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57478520-37/ipad-mini-to-debut-in-september-says-analyst/

DOJ Rejects Apple & Publishers Criticism of E-Book Anti-Trust Suit: The U.S. Department of Justice has rejected criticism from Apple and seven of the largest publishers in the U.S. that argues that its E-Book anti-trust suit against Apple and those seven publishers: Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, Penguin, Macmillan & Pearson, is unfair and benefits the e-book seller Amazon.com. Apple and the seven publishers have argued that prior to 2010 Amazon had a monopoly in e-book sales and they state they did not collude to raise e-book prices via the so-called “Agency Model” of selling books. The DOJ rejects the criticism and counters that Apple and seven of the largest publishers in the U.S. did indeed colluded to raise e-book prices – as just after those eight companies adopted the Agency Model in 2010 e-book prices rose dramatically – seemingly overnight.

Here’s a link to a Wall Street Journal article on the subject titled U.S. Defends E-Book Antitrust Case Against Apple, Others

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120723-710446.html

Linda R. 

Off Tech Topic — Harry Hole Mystery Series

Linda Reimer

Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole Mystery Series: This is one of those completely off the tech topic postings! If you like mysteries and aren’t familiar with Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole series you may want to check it out. Author and musician Nesbo has created a multi-faceted character in Harry Hole.  The mysteries are set in and around Oslo, Norway, are a bit gritty in tone and always interesting both in the unfolding of the-who-done-it-ness of the mystery itself and in the character development, i.e. finding out what-is-going-to-happen-to-Harry next.

And NPR has a nice article and seven minute podcast on their website about the author and the series titled Jo Nesbo’s Fiction Explores Oslo’s Jagged Edge.

Here’s the link:

http://www.npr.org/2012/07/23/156910051/jo-nesbos-fiction-explores-oslos-jagged-edges

And should you wish to request one of the Harry Hole mysteries here’s a link to StarCat!

http://enterprise.stls.org/client/default

Linda R. 

Google’s Nexus 7 Tablet Is Hot & iPods Benefit Nursing Home Residents

Linda Reimer

Google’s Nexus 7 Tablet Is Hot: Google’s new tablet, the Nexus 7, which was just introduced this month, is selling like proverbial hot cakes! There are two versions of the tablet an 8 GB ($199) version and a 16 GB ($249) version, and it is the 16 GB version that is sold out.

CNET reviewer Eric Franklin gave the 7” tablet high praise noting in his review that “With a beautiful screen, fast performance, a comfortable design, and overall great media options, the Nexus 7 is easily the best 7-inch tablet available and one of the top tablets on the market” and tech fans seem to agree as they have thus far snapped up so many of the 16 GB version of the tablet that there is now a waiting list for it!

Here are links to two news stories on the subject:

The first is to a CNET article, with a link to the Eric Franklin review, titled Nexus 7 16 GB Tablet Out Of Stock At Google Play Store:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57477403-94/nexus-7-16gb-tablet-out-of-stock-at-google-play-store/?tag=mncol;txt

And the second article is from The Guardian and is titled Google halts new orders for 16GB Nexus 7, surprised by demand; here’s the link:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jul/22/google-nexus-7-16-surprise?newsfeed=true

iPods Benefit Nursing Home Residents: The technological revolution has put an iPod in almost everyone’s pocket it seems. However, social worker Dan Cohen realized that there is one place within our society were technology hasn’t really permeated and that local consists of the approximately 18,000 nursing homes in North America – and in those nursing homes there are no computers or iPods or Wi-Fi; so in essence, the high tech revolution has passed the residents of those nursing homes by. And Mr. Cohen wondered if nursing home residents would benefit from being given their own iPods with pre-installed music of the era in which those residents were young. So Mr. Cohen introduced iPods to a nursing home and found that not only did nursing home residents respond to the music but that for many residents the music brought them out of themselves and had them interacting with the world again! Residents who hadn’t spoken in a long time were found to speak and even to sing after having music played to them on their iPods for a regular period of time. Mr. Cohen’s findings were backed up by a study done by The Atlantic Institute of Aging of New Brunswick, Canada and with studies done by neurologists like Oliver Sacks who famously recorded his work in the best selling book Musicophilia.

Here’s a link to a Venturebeat article titled iPods for seniors: viral hit “Alive Inside” still needs your help on Kickstarter that offers more information on the subject:

http://venturebeat.com/2012/07/23/ipods-for-seniors-success-alive-inside-needs-your-help-on-kickstarter/

Linda R.

 

Apple TV Really Isn’t A Hobby, E-Books Are Gaining in Popularity, The High Tech Future of Buying Things & A Cool Star Wars Mug

Linda Reimer

Apple TV: Really Isn’t A Hobby:  Apple has said over the last few years that the Apple TV box, which really isn’t a TV but instead a small Media Streaming player about the size of three slices of bread, is a hobby for them. However, if you’ve ever used one of these cool media streaming devices* you’ll know that it is a really cool gadget and that Apple has put enough time and effort into the device to make it that cool – so it really isn’t a hobby for them no matter what they say!

And if you’re not familiar with it,  the Apple TV does two major things: 1. It allows you to access television shows, movies and music from iTunes and play them on your TV (or hopefully through the sound system in your living room) and 2. If you also own an iPhone or  iPad it allows you to mirror what is on your screen– and that means that you can send what is on your iPhone or iPad screen through the Apple TV to your television. So you can show off the photos you took on your iPhone on vacation by easily streaming them to your television, you can stream a presentation you’ve created on your iPad or you can stream media content via apps.

And as far as streaming media content via apps goes let me give you two examples! 1) There is an iPad app for the Brian Williams news show Rock Center and 2) there is a PBS app. So I can bring up the entire Rock Center show from this week on my iPad — any time I want — and send it to my 42” HDTV and watch it on that much larger than an iPad screen! Likewise, if I missed the last Inspector Lewis episode or the last Story of England episode on PBS this past week – I can open the PBS app on my iPad, access those two videos and send them through my Apple TV to my television to watch them! I caught up with Michael Wood’s The Story of England last night and will catch up with the Inspector Lewis series tonight by watching the episode that aired on TV last weekend. So in essence, the Apple TV allows you to access an increasing amount of video content on-demand and then stream it (aka send it) from your iPhone or iPad to your TV.

And here’s a related link to a Tech Radar article titled Why Apple TV Is More Than A Hobby that gives you even more information (and some nice photos) regarding the Apple TV and what it can do for you:

http://www.techradar.com/news/home-cinema/why-apple-tv-is-more-than-a-hobby-1089045

E-Books Are Gaining In Popularity: This point is probably fairly obvious to anyone who reads or watches the news on a regular basis — but e-books are indeed gaining in popularity. This is, as you would expect, a big topic of discussion in the library world and also in the publishing and business world. And the New York Times offers a brief blog article on this subject titled Survey Shows Growing Strength of E-Books which offers some stats on this trend – foremost of which is the stat that, to quote the article “Publishers’ net revenue from sales of e-books more than doubled last year, reaching $2.07 billion, up from $869 million in 2010” and that they now account for “15.5 percent of publishers’ revenue” – and that is big gain considering that the first Kindle only came out five years ago. Here’s the link:

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/18/survey-shows-growing-strength-of-e-books/?ref=technology

And in relation, here’s another link to a cool article from The Guardian titled Flying off the eBook shelf: Readers want the cheapest read – and eBooks are winning:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jun/18/flying-ebook-shelf

The High Tech Future of Buying Things: The Wall Street Journal features a cool essay today titled The Customer as a God; which they describe as being about the fact that “Businesses today tend to herd customers as if they were cattle, but a revolution in personal empowerment is under way – and buying will never be the same again.”

The article starts out by giving us a scenario. It is 2022 and all the items we purchase, including clothes and coffee makers, have smart tags in them that allow us to find out via our hand held device (think a more advanced iPhone than we have today) when we last wore the clothes we are considering wearing, what shirt we wore our favorite pair of cargo khakis and what type of coffee maker or ice cream maker we own – just in case we need a replacement.

So say I am going to have family and friends over for a barbeque on a summer Saturday evening in 2022 and I haven’t been able to get that pizza sauce induced stain out of my favorite pair of summer cargo kakis; and worse luck my fancy ice cream maker bit the dust with that cone I made last night…

Well, nuts! What am I going to do?  I have many little details to take care of just to get ready for the barbeque and I don’t have time to order an ice cream machine and go shopping for a new set of khakis! And fortunately, I don’t have to! My ice cream machine and my khaki pants both have smart tags contained within them and all I have to do is talk to my hand held device and tell it I need a new pair khakis and a new ice cream maker; and my hand held will connect to the Internet and order those two items, the same style and size pair of khakis and the same model of ice cream machine, and arraign for them to be delivered this afternoon! Which will leave me time to take care of the final details for the party. Sounds cool, right? Well it is coming! The scenario the WSJ uses deals with a coffee maker that bit the dust – but as it is summer time I figured I’d go with an ice cream maker for my upcoming party – in 10 years!

Here’s the link to the Wall Street Journal article with their coffee maker scenario and their insight on both the online purchasing privacy options relating to the new technology (they can be made very private) and how this new technology will be both empowering for consumers and very, very convenient for them too!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444873204577535352521092154.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

A Cool Star Wars Mug:  And on a final note, for Star Wars fans here’s a link to a new product that I think is just plain fun! It is an R2D2 coffee mug with removable lid!

http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20120720/r2d2-mug-lid/

 Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Linda R.

 

*Media streaming means the device connects to the Internet to stream content to your television.

The Future Is Here: Paying Without Cash, Credit Or Debit Cards & Registering To Vote Via Facebook

Linda Reimer

The Future Is Here: Paying Without Cash, Credit Or Debit Cards: David Pogue, The New York Times tech guru, offers an article today titled Pay By Voice, So Long Wallet; and it relays the future of paying for items in stores sans any type of credit or debit cards – and cash? That is not allowed either!

Right now the big thing in payment technology is actually an app and small credit/debit card scanning device you can fit on an iPhone or iPad and that lets merchants swipe a customer’s credit or debit card to quickly and easily pay for the items being purchased. And you may be thinking “Yes, but isn’t that the same thing we already do when we use cash registers?” And the answer to that is not quite because if you have an iPad or iPhone with a cellular connection all you need to do is use an app and the small scanning attachment* and that makes it easy for anyone to take payments via credit or debit cards from almost anywhere. So this new technology impacts not just merchants in stores but anyone selling items anywhere because they can quickly and easily accept credit or debit card payments – thus vendors at fairs, parades and concerts can quickly and easily accept payment for items as can the clerk at your favorite coffee shop and the local high school kids making money by babysitting or mowing lawns.

And as impressive as the iPhone and iPad credit/debit card swiping system is – just wait because on the horizon is something even more impressive! Imagine buying those same items – coffee at your local coffee shop, a t-shirt at a concert or hotdog at the ballgame and not even having to present a debit or credit card at all but instead simply being able to pay by saying your name! Not only is that technology coming, but in fact it is already here! The company Square, which was one of the first to offer the previously mentioned pay with a credit or debit card via the swiping/iPad/iPhone system, now has developed a way to use an iPad or iPhone to allow people who also have iPads or iPhones to pay for items without them even having to take out a credit or debit card or even take their iPads or iPhones out of their pockets or backpacks! This new system is called Pay With Square and if a coffee shop or vendor or any sort had the proper equipment (an iPad and the appropriate Pay With Square app) and the customer is signed up for the service – than the customer can indeed pay by simply walking up to the clerk at the coffee shop or t-shirt vendor at the concert and simply saying his or her name!

Cool stuff! And here’s the link to the Pogue article which relays all the details:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/19/technology/personaltech/as-pay-by-phone-advances-square-takes-another-leap-state-of-the-art.html?_r=1&ref=technology

Registering To Vote Via Facebook: ABC News & CNN both offer articles today regarding the fact that the State of Washington has just become the first state to allow its residents who are U.S. citizens, to register to vote via Facebook! Washington is actually the twelfth state to allow residents to vote online but it is the first to allow residents, who are registered Facebook users – to register to vote via Facebook. The State of Washington, in conjunction with Microsoft and Facebook, has set up this new way for people to register to vote to try and entice younger people to register to vote – this is an issue because less than 10% of state residents between the ages of 18 and 29 voted in the last general election and state officials hope that offering those young people the option to register to vote via their Facebook accounts will increase the number of registered voters in that age group.

Here’s the link to the ABC News article which is titled Register to Vote? There’s an App for That:

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/07/voter-registration-theres-an-app-for-that/

And one to the CNN article, titled Washington state to become first to offer voter registration on Facebook:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/18/washington-state-to-become-first-to-offer-voter-registration-on-facebook/

Linda R.

 

*Depending upon which app you use there is a fee which usually costs 2-3% of the price of the sale of the item(s).  

Great iPad Accessories & Did You Know You Can Buy Bluetooth Headphones That Allow You To Make & Receive Phone Calls? And The Library Now Has Circulating E-Readers!

Linda Reimer

Great iPad Accessories: CNET, the knowledgeable and popular tech review site, has a great article and slideshow showcasing some accessories you can buy that make your iPad an even greater device that it is to begin with – and that is saying something!

These accessories include the Apple TV ($99) (not really a TV instead it is a hockey puck sized media streaming player), a Bluetooth (wireless) keyboard case, a Camera Connection Kit ($29)so you can plug your digital camera directly into your iPad, an HDIM Connector ($39.99), a  Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover ($99) which connects to your iPad and allows you to use it like a lap top — by typing on an attached keyboard and more!

The article is titled Must Have iPad Accessories and here’s the link:

http://reviews.cnet.com/2300-31747_7-10011949-1.html

Did You Know You Can Buy Bluetooth Headphones That Allow You To Make & Receive Phone Calls? I didn’t! I have a Wireless pair of headphones that I’ve used for years that allow me to listen to wireless listen to music while walking around the house or taking the trash out to the curb. However, I didn’t realize that headphone technology has advanced to the point where you can actually buy a pair of wireless (Bluetooth) headphones that have the built-in capability to allow you to make and receive phone calls and wirelessly stream music! And you can stream music to these headphones not just from your home theater system but also from your smart phone or tablet! Cool stuff! And it is certainly time for me to upgrade my headphones! I found a link to the article which is actually titled Best Headphones Under $100 within the CNET article on great iPad accessories. And notably, not all of the headphones featured in the article are the wireless kind – but two of them are the Creative WP-350 Bluetooth and the MEElectronics Air-Fi AF32. And in relation, Amazon sells both those wireless headphones for less than $70.

And here’s the link to that article:

http://reviews.cnet.com/2300-6468_7-10011889.html?tag=mncol

The Library Now Has Circulating E-Readers: And here’s some big news from the local library front! As of today, our library offers patrons the option to check out circulating Nooks that are pre-loaded with books. We will initially have 10 circulating Nooks that patrons may check out and take home or on vacation! The

Nooks are pre-loaded with three e-books each in specific categories as follows:

 

Nook 1: Popular Fiction:

E-Book 1: Betrayal by Danielle Steel

E-Book 2: Private Games by James Patterson

E-Book 3: The Lost Years by Mary Higgins Clark

 

Nook 2: Popular Non-Fiction:

E-Book 1: Steve Jobs by Water Issacson

E-Book 2: Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer

E-Book 3: The Power of habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business by Charles Duhigg

 

Nook 3: Popular Young Adult E-Books:

E-Book 1: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

E-Book 2: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

E-Book 3: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

 

Nook 4: Critically Acclaimed Titles:

E-Book 1: Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey From North Korea To Freedom In The West by Blaine Harden

E-Book 2: Immobility by Brian Evenson

E-Book 3: A Day In The Life Of A Smiling Woman by Margaret Drabble

 

Nook 5: Science Fiction & Fantasy:

E-Book 1: Joe Golem And The Drowning City by Mike Mignola

E-Book 2: Unholy Night by Seth Graham-Green

E-Book 3: Wind Through The Keyhole by Stephen King

 

Nook 6: Popular Fiction 2:

E-Book 1: Fifty Shades Of Gray by E. L. James

E-Book 2: Fifty Shades Darker by E. L. James

E-Book 3: Fifty Shades Freed by E. L. James

 

Nook 7: Mysteries:

E-Book 1: Elegy For Eddie by Jacqueline Winspear

E-Book 2: Beastly Things by Donna Leon

E-Book 3: One Red Bastard by Ed Lin

 

Nook 8: Non-Fiction 2:

E-Book 1: Krupp: A History Of The Legendary German Firm by Harold James

E-Book 2: The President’s Club: Inside The World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity by Nancy Gibbs

E-Book 3: Why Nations Fail: The Origins Of Power, Prosperity, And Poverty by Daron Acemoglu

 

Nook 9: Romance:

E-Book 1: The Marriage Bargain by Jennifer Probst

E-Book 2: A Turn In The Road by Debbie Macomber

E-Book 3: Redwood by Robin Carr

 

Nook 10: Action, Adventure & Thriller:

E-Book 1: Ashes To Dust: Thriller by Yrsa Sigurdardottir

E-Book 2: Scarecrow Returns by Matthew Riley

E-Book 3: The inquisitor by Mark Allen Smith

 

You can check out available e-readers at the Circulation Desk and can request one of our circulating e-readers (Nooks) through StarCat.

And here are a few of the general rules regarding patron usage of the circulating e-readers which are taken from the Library’s official circulating e-reader policy:

Circulating E-Reader Basics:

  • Circulating e-readers may be checked out by patrons of the Southeast Steuben County Library.
  • E-Readers circulate for two weeks and may be renewed for an additional two weeks if there isn’t a hold (request) for the e-reader
  • E-Readers must be returned to a library staff member at the Circulation Desk during the library’s business hours. They cannot be returned in the book drop or to another library in the system.
  • Patrons must fill out an E-Reader Policy Agreement form, at the Circulation Desk, before checking out an e-reader.

The entire circulating e-reader policy may be viewed at the Circulation Desk – ask the staff for details or feel free to call the library if you have any questions about our circulating e-readers! Our telephone number is: 607-936-3713.

You can also email me with questions! My e-mail address is REIMERL@STLS.ORG

Linda R.

You Can Now Read Nook E-Books On A PC Or Mac & YouTube Is A News Source For Many

Linda Reimer

You Can Now Read Nook E-Books On A PC Or Mac: Today Barnes & Noble released Nook web browser software for its Nook e-books. This means that finally you can read Barnes & Noble Nook e-books via the web browser on your PC or Mac as well as on your Nook or tablet.

Amazon of course has offered Kindle e-book browser access for several years and now Barnes & Noble has jumped on the same bandwagon. And to translate all of that tech talk into our basic common every day tongue – you can now access any Kindle or Barnes & Noble e-book that you have purchased, or will purchase, through the web browser on your PC or Mac. And so if, for example, you’ve previously purchased a non-fiction e-book to read on your e-reader or tablet and you wish to refer to facts contained within it because you are typing up a report and wish to double check a fact– you can download the appropriate software from Amazon or Barnes & Noble and open that e-book up and read it on your computer. It certainly makes it easier to look up facts if your report is being typed up in Word on the same computer!

Here’s a link to a CNET article on that subject titled Nook Chases After Kindle with Browser Based Service:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-57473687-2/nook-chases-after-kindle-with-browser-based-service/

Here’s a link to the Barnes & Noble page that allows you to download the software you need to read Nook e-books on your Mac or PC:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/nook-for-web/379003594

And in relation, here’s the link to that Amazon web page that offers you the option to download the Amazon Kindle reader for Mac or PC – Amazon now calls it Kindle for the Web:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_short_webvanity?docId=1000579091

YouTube Is A News Source For Many: Did you know that many people now check the video site YouTube when a news story breaks? I didn’t either! However, it seems this is a growing trend as people look for videos shot by amateur reporters, professional reporters, and frequently, every day citizens who have simply been in the right place at the right time to video tape a news story on their smart phone and then uploaded it to YouTube.

So the next time a story breaks you may want to search the YouTube site, located at YouTube.com, to find information and videos dealing with breaking news stories.

NPR has a really cool story on this growing trend today it is called

Here’s A Scoop: When News Breaks People Check YouTube For Videos and can be accessed by clicking on the follow link:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/07/16/156832856/heres-a-scoop-when-news-breaks-people-check-youtube-for-videos

Linda R.

Tablets, Tablets & More Tablets, Always Being Connected & New Microsoft Office Suite

Linda Reimer

Tablets, Tablets & More Tablets: If anyone has any doubt that tablet computers are now a mainstream device an article in todays’ New York Times should put those doubts to rest! The article is titled As Tablet Race Heats Up, Apple May Try Smaller Device and it offers a succinct overview of the tablet market today which is indeed heating up. Apple’s 9.7” iPad has dominated the market; however, Microsoft has just announced its own entry into the market with its Surface (it offers a 10.6” screen; no list price announced yet), Google has just started shipping its first tablet – the 7” Nexus 7 ($199 list price; available now), Amazon is rumored to be readying a new and larger Kindle Fire tablet and Apple is rumored to be readying a new 7.85” mini iPad – so if you’re looking for a tablet to buy – there are many more options this summer than ever before!

Here’s a link to the New York Times article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/16/technology/apple-may-meet-tablet-competition-with-smaller-ipad.html?_r=1&ref=technology

Always Being Connected: The Internet/High Tech Era offeres us more access to more information than ever before and the ability to contact others with others via email, Skype, Instant Message etc. at all times of the day and all hours of the night; and of course, not only is that a huge benefit but it can also be something of a burden. Because people can be connected to the Internet and/or have their cell phones on at all times; many people feel as if they have a responsibility to stay connected to the technology and keep checking for messages just in case something has cropped up in their business or personal lives that they should take care of A.S.A.P. And that just goes to show there are plusses and minuses for almost everything!

For my own part, I wouldn’t suggest we should all give up technology and go live on Walden’s Pond like Thoreau; but of course, being connected to the technology, and feeling as if you should be at all times, can be overdone. We’ve all seen it; the person in a restaurant who has to take that cell phone call and thus rudely ignores the people he’s sitting with for 20 minutes while he discusses business with a client; the woman at the coffee shop who is intently texting on her iPad or cell phone and makes the wait staff – wait – until she’s done texting, while a line of people wait behind her, before giving the wait staff her order etc. And so I’d say the ability to access the technology and communicate with others 24/7/365 is a great one – and I’d also suggest that sometimes we need to disconnect from the technology and take the time to smell the proverbial roses, focus on the people we are having dinner with and give that wait staff girl our order for a double mocha latte pronto! And leave the communicating for later so we can re-charge our own personal batteries and connect in an in-person way with other people. 

And The New York Times features a cool article on just this subject day!

It is titled The Workplace Benefits of Being Out of Touch and here’s the link for it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/14/your-money/companies-see-benefit-of-time-away-from-mobile-devices.html?ref=technology

New Microsoft Office Suite: Microsoft has of course already announced that it is upgrading its OS to Windows 8 this fall. And today Microsoft announced it will also be rolling out a new version of its popular Office Suite (Office 2013) to complement the new Windows 8 software. This new version of Office will have a new Interface, touch screen capability, built in social media support and is much more streamlined as far as accessing options goes.

Here’s a link to a brief CNET article on the subject titled New Microsoft Office Gets More Social:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57473060-75/new-microsoft-office-gets-more-social/

And a link to a longer CNET review of the new Office Suite:

http://reviews.cnet.com/office-suites/the-new-microsoft-office/4505-3524_7-35374636.html?tag=mncol;txt

Linda R.

CNET Tech Tips For Older Job Workers & Job Seekers

Linda Reimer

And just an addendum to the first blog posting I put up today – I came across an informative CNET video titled Tech Minute Tips For Older Job Seekers that offers tech tips and resources for job seekers over the age of 50 – those persons that may have been out of the job market for awhile or those who wish to beef up there tech skills or even to simply get the word out about their own small business.

Here’s the link:

http://cnettv.cnet.com/tech-minute-tips-older-job-seekers/9742-1_53-50127437.html

Have a great weekend!

 Linda R. 

 

 

From The Makers of Angry Birds — Amazing Alex, More Seniors Online Than Ever Before & Apple App Store Adds Food & Drink Category

Linda Reimer

From The Makers of Angry Birds – Amazing Alex: Rovio, the company responsible for the exceptionally popular Angry Birds game, has come out with a new game called Amazing Alex. The game has users move wooden planks and card board boxes around the screen to get tennis and soccer balls to move the right way and wind up in the basket they are suppose to go in. The first ten levels or so are relatively easy and feature on screen clues but above level ten you have to be a bit more creative and ingenious and think of ways to get the tennis and soccer balls to bounce the right way to go into the basket if you want to advance to the next level.

Here’s a link to a Wall Street Journal tech article, titled Angry Birds Company Rovio Launches Amazing Alex Game, on the subject:

http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2012/07/13/angry-birds-company-rovio-launches-amazing-alex-game/?mod=google_news_blog

More Seniors Online Than Ever Before: NPR offers a cool article, titled New Online Users Have A Longer Timeline, that discuses the fact that today, and for the first time, more than half of the people in the U.S. over the age of 65 are now Internet users. And most of those people too are Facebook users.

Here’s a link to the article and its accompanying audio podcast:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2012/07/12/156632008/new-online-users-have-a-longer-timeline

Apple App Store Adds Food & Drink Category: Apple has introduced a new Food & Drink Category to its app store. So now cooks, those who entertain and all the rest of us too can access apps that just relate to food and drink. So if you’re planning a party, hosting a family meal or even just looking for new dishes to fix your family – you may want to check it out!
CNET offers a very brief article on the subject, simply titled Apple Adds Food And Drink Section To App Store.

Here’s the link:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57471733-37/apple-adds-food-and-drink-section-to-app-store/

Have a great weekend everyone!

Linda R.

P.S. If you’re looking for cool and fun entertainment this evening join us for the Float and Flick Night! This event, which is being co-hosted by the Library and Corning’s own Parks & Recreation Department, is being held at the Denison Park Pool and will offer kids the option of swimming and watching a movie! The movie is the Adventures of TinTin. The event starts at 6:30 PM and snacks will be available for purchase.  And please feel free to call the Library if you have any questions about the program. You can reach the Children’s Department at: 607-936-3713 ext. 503