Featured Office Time Waster: Gazelle, Kallow, Closure
In how many different ways can you say that today is Friday, introduce a fun online game, and use this opportunity to present the week’s most important software news? From what we’ve seen so far in our Featured Office Time Waster series, a lot. Today I am going to just slightly break away from the norm: I am still going to present a game (called Closure), but I am also going to show you two online services that will come in handy when you want to sell your current hardware and purchase new equipment.
Why did I choose this game? Well, in the game you have to get from point A to point B – the trick is that you are in a creepy, strange world immersed in darkness and only a small area around you is illuminated (think of it as stumbling in the dark with a hand lamp). Achieving your goal is made easier by the possibility of placing lights here and there, just make sure to place them in a manner that helps you. Also, you might want to keep a close eye at the walls because sometimes they have hints painted on them. This is similar to the current economical crisis (some countries have even announced they’re in a recession); nobody knows how and when we’ll get out of it – so getting rid of your old hardware for a good price might prove to be a good idea.
But first, let’s see what happened in the software world this week. Starting with Microsoft, it must be said that the Redmond company extended the download deadline of Windows 7, the first screenshots of Windows 7 Build 7025 were leaked, IE8 RC1 (Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1) was released, the Live Search Firefox ad-on was made available to the general public, and issues with how Windows 7 handles defragmenting and gaming were addressed.
Over in the Apple camp we found out that one could maliciously attack the Mac OS X and leave no trail, we found that pirates really like iWork 09, and we got a look at the updated iPhone OS 2.2.1. Speaking about the iPhone, here are some apps we covered this week: turn your iPhone into a remote control, sexually oriented iPhone apps, health oriented apps, tracking oriented iPhone apps, and a George Costanza-like app. If you really like iPhone games, then you might want to join the first iGames summit.
We’ve also seen a multitude of Firefox add-ons: to access hidden tweaks, to reveal passwords , minimize Firefox to the system tray, close all related tabs and remove the Next button, to prevent menus from closing, to hide Find and iGoogle tab, to get Chrome-like tabs, and to seamlessly keep all extensions up-to-date.
Now that you are pretty much up-to-date, I present to you Gazelle, an online service that assesses your electronics online and gives you the money right then and there, so you can forget about placing ads and waiting for potential buyers. You will not exactly get the best price around, but it is a very convenient way of getting rid of the electronics you do not need anymore (they’ll even cover the shipping charges).
If on the other hand you would like to purchase electronics but you are not exactly technical oriented (cough, geeky), then let Kallow address your “ technologically challenged ” status.
If you would like to play Closure, you can do so here.
Why did I choose this game? Well, in the game you have to get from point A to point B – the trick is that you are in a creepy, strange world immersed in darkness and only a small area around you is illuminated (think of it as stumbling in the dark with a hand lamp). Achieving your goal is made easier by the possibility of placing lights here and there, just make sure to place them in a manner that helps you. Also, you might want to keep a close eye at the walls because sometimes they have hints painted on them. This is similar to the current economical crisis (some countries have even announced they’re in a recession); nobody knows how and when we’ll get out of it – so getting rid of your old hardware for a good price might prove to be a good idea.
But first, let’s see what happened in the software world this week. Starting with Microsoft, it must be said that the Redmond company extended the download deadline of Windows 7, the first screenshots of Windows 7 Build 7025 were leaked, IE8 RC1 (Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1) was released, the Live Search Firefox ad-on was made available to the general public, and issues with how Windows 7 handles defragmenting and gaming were addressed.
Over in the Apple camp we found out that one could maliciously attack the Mac OS X and leave no trail, we found that pirates really like iWork 09, and we got a look at the updated iPhone OS 2.2.1. Speaking about the iPhone, here are some apps we covered this week: turn your iPhone into a remote control, sexually oriented iPhone apps, health oriented apps, tracking oriented iPhone apps, and a George Costanza-like app. If you really like iPhone games, then you might want to join the first iGames summit.
We’ve also seen a multitude of Firefox add-ons: to access hidden tweaks, to reveal passwords , minimize Firefox to the system tray, close all related tabs and remove the Next button, to prevent menus from closing, to hide Find and iGoogle tab, to get Chrome-like tabs, and to seamlessly keep all extensions up-to-date.
Now that you are pretty much up-to-date, I present to you Gazelle, an online service that assesses your electronics online and gives you the money right then and there, so you can forget about placing ads and waiting for potential buyers. You will not exactly get the best price around, but it is a very convenient way of getting rid of the electronics you do not need anymore (they’ll even cover the shipping charges).
If on the other hand you would like to purchase electronics but you are not exactly technical oriented (cough, geeky), then let Kallow address your “ technologically challenged ” status.
If you would like to play Closure, you can do so here.
