Monday, October 26, 2009

Lenovo gets official with Win7-powered IdeaPad and IdeaCentre machines

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/26/lenovo-gets-official-with-win7-powered-ideapad-and-ideacentre-ma/

Lenovo already got official with a couple of its Windows 7-powered machines last week, but it looks like the rest of the crop is landing today. Of course, we've already seen the 11.6-inch IdeaPad U150 and 15.6-inch U550 pop up in various corners of the globe this month, and the IdeaPad U350 has been around since the summer. That said, we'll take the OS refresh and minor spec bumps any day of the week (along with new colors on the S10-2), and that's exactly what we're getting. We'll spare you the rehash (it's all there in the read link if you need a refresher), but over on the desktop front, we're pretty stoked about the stylish (and previously rumored) all-in-one IdeaCentre B500. Packing a Core 2 Quad CPU, 1TB of HDD space, up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM and a 23-inch LCD, this thing may actually perform fairly well in tasks more strenuous than checking email. The business-minded K300 and bargain-priced H230 ($299 starting point) are less thrilling from a hardware perspective, but they'll certainly fit their respective molds quite well. The whole lot should be available to order soon directly from Lenovo, and there's bound to be plenty of options for those not content with base configurations.

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Lenovo gets official with Win7-powered IdeaPad and IdeaCentre machines originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GlideTV Navigator gets a thorough hands-on and critiquing

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/26/glidetv-navigator-gets-a-thorough-hands-on-and-critiquing/

If you're not down with snapping up an HTPC-centric keyboard with an integrated trackpad or trackball, controlling the likes of Hulu, Boxee and ZeeVee's Zinc TV viewer can be a real chore. Dave Zatz was able to wrap his paws around the problem-solving GlideTV Navigator, and while he deemed the actual remote trackpad "the best he'd ever used," he couldn't unequivocally say that this beauty was worth a buck-fifty. He also found that the remote could be used one-handed with a bit of practice, and he expressed understandable concern about this thing's ability to stay functional as the software around it evolves. If you've been waffling on pulling the trigger here, you owe it to yourself to give the read link a look.

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GlideTV Navigator gets a thorough hands-on and critiquing originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Export All Your Google Docs to a ZIP File [Backup]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/17XxWo682kk/export-all-your-google-docs-to-a-zip-file

Google Docs has officially thrown open their data doors, allowing users to back up all their documents to whatever formats they choose and compressed into a ZIP file. It's serious peace of mind for those concerned about the cloud.

The feature seemed to arrive very recently without any official blog post or explanation, but it seems to be working for more than just a select few testers. The only catch to using it is selecting all your files, as the Google Operating System blog explains. I frequently "hide" (or basically archive) documents I'm not using frequently, so I only had to head to the "Hidden" view in the left-hand view selector—those with more complex filing schemes should try the "All Items" view, or a wildcard asterisk search to pin down what they want.

Once you've selected or searched for what you want to export, you'll have to scroll all the way down until all the documents are exposed, then hit the checkmark box to select them all. Finally, right-click somewhere in your selected docs, choose "Export," and tell Google how to export your word, spreadsheet, and PDF files.

While you're securing your Docs data somewhere other than on Google's servers, take a peek at other free tools to back up online accounts—you'll feel a bit less tethered to the whims of various server administrators and account security representatives.

Google Docs Batch Export [Google Operating System via Digital Inspiration]



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Imo.im Provides a Web-Based Portal to Messaging and Social Networks [Instant Messaging]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/rvPkbrvfUGs/imoim-provides-a-web+based-portal-to-messaging-and-social-networks

When you're away from your home terminal and without your favorite portable cross-service IM application, imo.im can help you get all your messages back into one window again.

Imo.im is a web-based tool to help you log in to multiple messaging and social networks. It currently supports MSN Messenger, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, Google Talk, Skype, MySpace, and Facebook. You can log in to one or all of the supported services and access your contact lists. Messaging windows are all displayed within the imo.im site and denoted by service type and the user name of your contact.

In addition to the spartan but effective chat interface, imo.im also has a photo sharing tool and a whiteboard system. Using imo.im requires no special login, you access each account with the login you're already using. Have a web-based chat solution you love? Just tried out imo.im and want to share your opinion? Let's hear about it in the comments.




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uTorrent Portable Puts BitTorrent on a USB Drive [Downloads]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/9e2mBxZezqs/utorrent-portable-puts-bittorrent-on-a-usb-drive

Windows (Portable): You've always been able to grab uTorrent's program folder and drop it onto a thumb drive for portable BitTorrent handling. Now the PortableApps.com suite has packaged our favorite torrent client and integrated it with their application menu.

If you wanted to try out uTorrent with no commitment, this portable download would be a handy download for any Windows system. More likely, however, is that you'll grab uTorrent Portable for stand-alone installation on your USB drive, or integrate it into your existing PortableApps.com USB installation. All the same features that you've come to love about uTorrent, like remote web control and organized downloads, are present in the portable version. In short, you'll never be stuck at mom's house without a means to access crucial content again.

uTorrent portable is a free download, runs from anywhere on Windows systems.

µTorrent Portable [PortableApps.com via Download Squad]



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