From the Desktop

News & Info from Thinking Cap


Tons of ink spilled over Hi-Def DVD formats

This week marked the demise of the HD-DVD format pioneered by Toshiba. I was impressed by the rather noisy response by web and technology writers. It really was a torrent of discussion and analysis. I realize that the early adopters of this format are thinking they have an expensive doorstop now, but that's the risk of buying too early.

Sony's BlueRay wins, but I don't think there will be a big rush to the format for at least another year. Discs are too expensive, and so are the players. People are still investing in 1080P format TVs, and high definition tuners. Regular DVDs look very good, especially on upconverting (1080P) players, which you can buy for less than $100.

 

Project with Vancouver Playhouse Wine Festival launches

Thinking Cap is pleased to launch the 2007 Playhouse Wine Festival Symposium Highlights, featuring streaming video, downloadable mp3 clips, and graphical survey data. The wine industry forum is gearing up for their 2008 event, and we worked with the Festival to create an e-marketing strategy to promote next year's Wine Symposium.

 

Can Google rescue us from high cell phone costs?

Matthew Ingram of the Globe and Mail is skeptical about Google's entry into the cell phone market. A rumoured "GPhone" has apparently been the buzz of Silicon Valley for some time.

What many feel is that data transfer costs for cell phone use seriously inhibit the ability to make PDAs and iPhones ubiquitous communications devices with web access. The bill for an average high use for data transfer is huge. See this shocking graph of average costs in Canada.

Google apparently might have an answer for this. They are rumoured to be buying up unused cell phone bandwidth in order to compete with major carriers. It is the latter who are keeping costs unfairly high.

We can only hope that a company with the respectability and vision like Google will come into the market and shake things up.

 

Google to distribute StarOffice

Google Pack's productivity bundle will will now include Sun Microsystem's StarOffice. This can only be a good thing. We've felt for a long time that Microsoft Office needed a strong competitor.

Word processors and spreadsheet software does not need to be rich with features. Most of us write simple documents using Word and Excel.

Outlook is still the reigning calendar/email/contacts database solution, and that will remain for some time until a true competitor steps forward. For now, if you want to unchain yourself from Microsoft, then you can try StarOffice for free.

 

Microsoft Vancouver: Stirring controversy back home

While received as a big blast of good economic news here in Vancouver, BC, Microsoft's decision to open a software development studio in the Great White North is stirring some controversy back home, says the Seattle P.I.

If you look at the numbers of Microsoft employees in Washington state, the rest of the US, internationally and here in Canada, the vast majority are still based at the Redmond, WA campus. Over 35,000 employees are there as opposed to just over 200 planned for Vancouver.

Continue reading "Microsoft Vancouver: Stirring controversy back home"

 

Movable Type 4 is a great leap forward

There are lots of reasons why Thinking Cap prefers Movable Type as its preferred web publishing platform for client sites. But our main reason for liking MT is that they are committed and passionate about their core product, Movable Type.

We've just done a brief test run of the first Movable Type 4 beta version, and we very much like the direction this software is headed.

Anil Dash, their company evangelist, previewed MT 4 for Thinking Cap back in February at the Northern Voice Conference. Anil's unaffected and honest approach, plus his keenness for great user experience, really impressed us.

Here is Anil's excited description of what MT 4 has to offer. We're looking forward to continuing this great relationship with their parent company Six Apart, and their evolving product Movable Type.

 

back to top