Latest Inventions

posted by admin on Jun 27

It’s strange. Microsoft, with all it’s power, has been dragging along behind Google for some years now. It was really seen as the poor cousin in internet circles and most “serious” users opted to use Google for all their searches. From my experience the majority of users of Microsoft’s MSN.com or their rebranded Live.com search engine seem to have used it because it was easy - they either had MSN set as their home page or they used Hotmail regularly and so MSN was always to hand.

Personally, I’ve always used Google, primarily because of the quality of their results. A search on MSN or Live was a slow and inaccurate process that inevitably turned up all sorts of poor quality or irrelavent sites.

However Microsoft have recently rebranded their search engine *again* (how many times are they going to do it?!) in the form of Bing.com, which is being backed by a massive advertising campaign to promote the new site.

So, is it actually any good, or is it just MSN by another name?

I recently set out to test the search engine out for size, and I have to admit that Microsoft really have added some neat features.

But before I get to them, it’s worth mentioning that the search results that Bing spits out are far more accurate than before, and in my experience now rival Google’s for quality. So that’s a big move in the right direction.

But there are two other features which really jumped out at me when using Bing, which really add to the useability of the site.

Firstly, down the left hand side of the page, you will find a list of related searches, much like Google shows at the bottom of each page. Having them at the side, however, encourages more searching and, as with all long string keyword searches, will likely lead to more accurate search results.

Secondly, as you move your cursor over the search results, you are followed on the right hand side of the page by a small orange circle which shows a preview of the content on each page listed in the results.

This means you can see a snippet of the text *before* you click through, potentially meaning that you will not only find better sites far quicker than before, but also that junk sites will struggle to attract visitors based only on their search engine rankings.

So better search results, a preview feature and related searches all rolled into one. I personally am therefore quite impressed with Bing and while it will need to go further to beat Google, it is certainly a step in the right direction in my opinion.

.

posted by admin on Jun 22

Here at Latest Inventions we are working actively to try and reduce our effect on the environment.

I have recently been reading about the carbon created by even a single query to the Google search engine and with fossil fuels running out but green technologies still really in their infancy I was interested to see if we could find a “green” web hosting company.

And let me tell you - they’re certainly thin on the ground! Lots of companies state that they are trying to be as green as possible by recycling paper and so on and also point out the benefits of running an online company as opposed to the vast majority of businesses with their fleets of vehicles, huge amounts of rubbish produced and so on.

But finding one that really is “green”, rather than just trying to be, was rather more of a challenge.

However I’m pleased to say that our search did eventually bear fruit, in the form of Think Host. Now the company has been around for some years - so the use of “latest” here is possibly not the most accurate - but very few people know about green web hosts and with the increasing pressure on the planet I think this is a topic that many of our readers will be interested in.

Think Host runs on 100% green energy from wind farms and solar energy and prides itself on being carbon neutral. They even have an active tree planting program in place to help capture more carbon from the atmosphere.

Fortunately, Think Host isn’t *just* about green issues. Certainly, that’s their main selling point but they also offer all the other web hosting elements you would expect from a reliable, bone fide web host. For example they offer support for unlimited domains, unlimited bandwidth and even unlimited MySQL databases. In essence, when you dig into the services they offer, and at what cost, they seem to rival the supremely popular Host Gator, but do so with green credentials.

So if you want to do your bit for the planet and are looking for web hosting, you could do a lot worse that finding out more about Think Host. To find out more, just click here now.

posted by admin on Jun 16

Hello again and welcome to the summer Latest Inventions Carnival.  I have split the articles into  3 groups for this one and they start with Gadgets!

Gadgets: 
Erika Collin kicks things off with 100 Awesome iTunes Feeds for Technology Junkies where you can find out a lot with very little effort.  Sarah Scrafford also saves you a load of time with another ‘100 tips’ in her 100 Apps to Turn Your iPhone into the Ultimate Personal Assistant.

Eric Van Haesendonck tries to make things easier as well with decisions on your next (or first) netbookHow to choose the best netbook computer?

Medical:
Dan offers up a debate on some new medical technology and patenting human body parts in Cancer Genes Patented - What this means for Innovation and Monopoly Power. Mike encourages further debate with a new technology instead with his article on the topic of Brain Stroke Clinical Trial Using Stem Cells

Nancy Miller follows on with a cheeky look at all the applications that can help you get fit! Here is her 50 Awesome iPhone Apps for Serious Athletes!

Eco Friendly:
Harold starts of the eco friendly posts with a way of working out your miles per gallon. We all have the tips for saving fuel and we need to - a car infront of me at the pumps put over twice the amount of fuel I need for a full tank! So he will certainly need the tips given here: What Factors Affect Your Car?s MPG Rating?

Brian young presents Blue-Ray Goes Green: Eco-Friendly Entertainment for the 21st Century. Bearing in mind how they are trying to sell themselves as better than other HD formats - they might just win with these green credentials!

Enjoy and don’t forget to add your feedback!

posted by admin on Jun 14

The Palm Pre has now launched - and has won several awards, but it has already been having some problems - Apple don’t like it! 

The concept itself is fine: a new smart phone with multi-touchscreen, full keyboard, camera, media player and GPS as you would expect these days.  But it runs on Linux-based Palm webOS.

Not many people have worked with Linux - and this software has been designed from scratch just for this - so it’s like nothing you have seen before.  Some people say it is easier to use than the iPhone which can’t be bad except if you are Apple of course!

The Phone Itself:
Smaller than the iPhone but with a great 3.1 inch screen it’s size is similar to a basic phone which wins it the thumbs up - the iPhone is a lot larger but of course we just love the iconic look!

The Palm Pre has it’s neat little slide-away full keyboard (rather than on on the touch-screen) which although compact is very easy to use.

The touchscreen is also adapted to be used with fingers rather than the stylus so is much more receptive to contact than it’s competitors.

It has all the standard features you would expect including landscape-to-portrait flipping, sensors to turn of the touchscreen when near your face and a 3mp camera (with LED flash!)

It has several applications in the pipelines, but more will come no doubt - and it needs them to compete with the iPhones massive amount of around 50,000!!!

Connectivity?
With high speed EV-DO Rev. A depending on location, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR it’s all in the bag really!

GPS navigation was an obvious addition here, as was the microUSB connector for data-transfer ( 8.0 gb of internal flash storage) and for charging - plus the 3.5mm headphone jack for stereo sound of course!

Also Out New:
The Nokia N97 is also out there to compete with the Palm Pre and the ‘new’ Apple iPhone 3G S!

The best features of the Nokia N97 are the 5mp camera and a 400 minute talk time - and is great for gaming!

The new iPhone 3G S is just as good as the 3G was, but has 720 minutes talk time (!) access to thousands of apps and improved voice control for number dialling and iTune selection.

The camera - although only 3 mega pixels gives you the benefit of touching the screen on the item you want to focus on in the picture so can give you some great shots - which of course can be uploaded straight to the Internet along with your videos.

What’s your choice gonna be?

posted by admin on Jun 10

Among the dozens of other Girl Scout Badges available to earn - you can now try out for one signed by Dolly herself! 

The Coat Of Many Colors Badge

Inspired by the famous song of the same name - this badge focuses on the way that people should just accept other people for what they are, and is hopefully linked closely to the aim and concepts of modern girl scouting today. And it certainly has got some publicity!

Dolly Parton was at a ceremony to explain all and sing the famous song about her past - in her new girl scouts uniform having been made a Girl Scout just over a year and a half ago.

Why The Coat?
Dolly had a poor upbringing - and no winter coat - so her mother made her one out of different colored pieces of scrap material that they had been given - hence ‘the coat of many colors’. 

She was bullied at school because of this coat - even though she loved it dearly and continued to wear it to classes because of how special it was to her.

The new badge has already inspired kids to make their own versions of this coat adding personal touches of their own to make them special - regardless of what other people think of say!  Some have been adding pictures of family members and other have been adding various patches and accessories to make their coat individual.

What The Badge Means:
In addition to inspiring the girls into physical action, it also hopes to encourage them to recognise when someone is less fortunate than themselves and to accept them as a person rather than as just being ‘poor’.  And hopes to get girls scouts to offer help to people and causes that deserve some support.

The badge also represents the idea that girl scouts should not be afraid to do something that they like that is different or unique - and should therefore accept anything that another person has done as they themselves are being different.

And from the words of Dolly herself:

Now I know we had no money
But I was rich as I could be
In my coat of many colors
My momma made for me…….

It certainly seems an odd addition to the scouting world - but if its aim is to help inspire young girls to become accepting of others and to want to achieve great things - then get stitching!