Bink.nu has a funny article about tonight's Keynote where Gatesand Balmer played each other in boxing on the Xbox 360.

Tonight Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates presented the keynote address here at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.  WinCustomize.com is there in the press room blogging live from the event right now!

Windows Vista as well as gives a vision on how personal computing technology will go in the future.

During his demo, Mr. Gates was able to integrate his information and data seamlessly across a cell phone, tablet PC, and his desktop PC that was connected to a 40 inch monitor that divided the display into 3 work areas.

During the upcoming announcements, Microsoft showed up the new Windows Media Player which is a lot cleaner than previous versions.  The next Windows Vista explorer provides a host of useful features for modifying data such as being able to crop and do basic editing on images without having to load a graphics editing package.

Internet Explorer 7 was shown off with its Firefox-like tabs but with some very interesting twists.

Much of the push on Windows Vista so far has highlighted a cleaner, faster, more polished look combined with a heavily revamped plumbing underneath.  GDI and the myriad of vulnerable networking APIs are gone and replaced with a new architecture.

Those who were worried that Vista was just Windows XP with a new look have nothing to fear, it's a very definite change for better.

Keep an eye on the coverage in the Articles tab here on WinCustomize.com

Survived the trip to Las Vegas. I hate traveling. And being cramped in a seat for 4 hours is no fun.  To small too tight fitting to be comfortable with. Which brings me to a related issue - young overweight females should not wear tight fitting shirts that don't cover their bodies completely. It's yucky, gross, and just wrong.

As soon as we got to the hotel, ran into Steve and Marcel (Neowin admins) along with other friends from the community.  Went to the Vista lab with them and the others to get the latest goodies on Windows Vista.  A lot of it is under NDA but Microsoft certainly has an ambitious vision going on.

It's ironic but Microsoft has a mockup of IE7 that is clean and simple -- what people really want.  They use the mockup to display screenshots of web pages.  I wish they'd replace IE7's UI with that.

My cell phone died yesterday which really really stinks.  And the hotel I'm in has no internet access unbelievably.  Normally I'd just hook in my SprintPCS Samsung A800 multimedia phone to the laptop and voila.  But without that cell phone, I'm somewhat crippled.

I will try to find a way to get a better phone or some internet solution. After all I'm at CES.

Hey all!!

Happy 2006. I was looking at some of my work in DX this past year, and I was curious as to what YOU think are the BEST & WORST Widgets or Gadgets of 2005?

Rules:

• The Gadget/Widget has to have been posted or created in 2005 - not just updated!!
• It has to have a trial/demo (if its on DG) so everyone can check it out
• You must post a LINK to the widget or gadget so we can easily get to it!!
• You need to post WHY you think its worthy of this list.
• Also post why you think it sucks (if its a looser!)

Also,

What is on your DX wish list for 2006? 
Or, What is the BIG DX widget/gadget you have planed for 2006??

A lot of great widgets/gadgets have come out of requests from you, so this is a great time to let us know what you want!

I need to look thru the system and see what I would put on my list..

RomanDA

Stardock Magazine is nearing its 10th year anniversary.  In the old days, Stardock Magazine was done as a regular magazine.  The ones from 1996 were done with Page Maker 5 (Which I can't convert with Adobe InDesign).  So here's one from early 1996 as a PDF.  Some of the graphics and fonts are wrong (i.e. the layout errors and such weren't in the actual paper version) but it gives you an idea of what kinds of things Stardock was up to way back then.

Weekly Widget Report for December 11th - December 18th 2005

Kapsules


Mr. Fruit 1.0.0
Make your desktop fruity (in a good way).


My Widgets! 1.0.0
Just open your widgets directory!
What is special in that? There is no need to configure. The widget tries its best to respond to a single click (even if you were using another application/widget before).

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AveDesk Desklets


RoAr 1.0
Roman & Arabic numerals forth and back converter


WhatPulse Desklet
This desklet reads whatpulse statistics from any account that has XML Feeds enabled. You input the userid and everything else works on it's own. This is just a first version and there will be updates to support teams.


Curs valutar 1.0
Show euro and US dollar currency exchange rate and graphic evolution (usefull for romanian people).

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AveDesk AveScripter Widgets


Reflective Albumart v1
This desklets shows the current albumart from iTunes on your desktop, but it does a nice reflection-effect to it.


Proportional Calculator 1.0
The widget to calculate according to the rule of three

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Yahoo! Widget Engine
(Due to the extremely high number of Rss readers, clocks and webcams, they have been excluded from this report)
(Also, due to the 50+ some odd widgets that were posted this week, I unfortunately wont be including all of them.)


FGDL Update Widget 1.0 [Rating 4 of 4]
This Widget monitors additions and updates to the Florida Geographic Data Library (FGDL). The FGDL is a mechanism for distributing satellite imagery, aerial photographs and spatial (GIS) data throughout the state of Florida. You can download new layers and view their metadata directly from the Widget interface.


The DALEK 0.9 [Rating 3 of 4]
Meet an old "friend" of Doctor Who: The Dalek! Indestructable it explores your desktop, just waiting for something to exterminate.


UV Index 0.1
Shows the UV Index at Lauder, Otago, New Zealand (~120 km NW of Otago) as measured by NIWA.


SoccerDatabase 1.0.1 [Rating 4 of 4]
Display standings, scores, and fixture of the selected world soccer league or cup in two languages, English and Turkish. Widget gets its data from www.mackolik.com.


Car Rental Widget 1.0
An easy one-click way to compare prices and availability on over 40 car rental companies at every city and airport in the world. You can specify any brand or class of car to include in your search or even the "Best Buys" for each company.


Image Croppers 1.0
A simple Widget to enable photographers to use onscreen 'croppers' (or L's) to assist in making cropping decisions. Useful for critiques and other non-destructive/evaluative image editing.


wwndata.worldofwar.net Search 1.0
This Widget searches the worldofwar.net database.


Chicago Area Traffic 1.0 [Rating 3 of 4]
This Widget will display real time traffic information for the entire Chicago area; from Downtown to Joliet to Elgin to Deerfield.


RadioPack #1 1.0
Three audio webcast Widgets : DNA Lounge (Techno), Morning Becomes Eclectic (alternative/college rock), and nugs (jam bands), all available to you in one convenient download. Double click window to turn on/off. Requires Realplayer installed to play.


Slimline Radio Players 1.0 [Rating 3.5 of 4]
12 small radio players that play the live streams from their respective websites.

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DesktopX Widgets


Silica RAM Meter
Shows RAM usage in Percentage. Idea from Stardock's Silica CPU/Disk Meter.


Vista Search 2.0


SD System Navigator Update (3.02 beta)
This device is not only measures and indicates more than 60 parameters which characterize your System's Performance but it is a portable User Interface also.

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DesktopX Gadgets


SD System Navigator Update (3.02 beta)
This device is not only measures and indicates more than 60 parameters which characterize your System's Performance but it is a portable User Interface also.


SportStrip
Shows LIVE sports scores, updated every few minutes.
Keeps you current on all the latest games, scores, and more!

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Samurize Widgets

Nothing new since October 10th.

Talk radio commentator Dennis Prager states often that downloading music is the same as stealing, and I'll grant that on the surface it does seem like it. Particularly to the artists who generated the original soundwaves. But consider the following:

I have a neighbor. He just went to the store and bought a brand new widget. It's a really cool widget, and it's manufacturer has the appropriate patent.

My neighbor invites me over admire his new widget. I bring my tape measure, my calipers, my camera, my scale, and my laptop for taking notes.

I reverse engineer the widget, and build one for myself in my shop, with my own material. I like my cool new widget, especially since I didn't have to pay for it.

Now I get even more clever. I build a machine that has the ability to copy widgets. Whatever widget you have, you pop it in, and a copy is made. I never sell the copies I make (that would be a violation of the patent), but I do borrow alot of my friends widgets to make myself a personal copy.

Having perfected my widget copying machine, I get a patent, and begin to sell widget copiers. They're a hit, and the manufacturer of the original widgets sees a decline in sales, and blames me!

At what point in this fairy tale have I committed theft? If it is illegal to make copies for personal use, how exact does the copy have to be? In a world where nearly everything is available commercially, will it become illegal to make anything yourself if you got the idea from someone else?

Perhaps the real trouble is that the revenue generating paradigm for Musical Artists is antiquated. Maybe instead of trying to collect money from people listening to synthetic reproductions of their music, they should find another way to generate income from their work. More concerts, for example. Maybe the days of unbelievably wealthy music studios are over, and musicians are facing the inevitability of technological progress. Physical manufacturers may also one day face this scenario, like in the story above!

Just in time for Christmas, Stardock has released the Desktop Pet.  The Desktop Pet lives on your Windows XP desktop. He will interact with various included desktop objects. A sophisticated artificial intelligence engine helps bring him to life by giving him needs such as hunger, sleep, boredom, and even (ahem) the need to take a potty break. 

Users can set the various included desktop objects to be automated or take care of the feeding and cleaning up on their own.  It also includes options for muting sound, pausing, and unloading. The pet is saved to disk regularly so that if you close it or reboot he will be back to where he left off when you bring him back up again.

Stardock hopes to keep updating the pet after release to keep adding new behaviors, additional objects, and new habits to help keep the experience fresh and to respond to customer input.  The Desktop Pet is a fun $10 diversion and makes a great stocking stuffer for the computer user in your family. 

The home page for the Desktop Pet is https://www.stardock.com/products/desktoppet 

Recently I recieved permission from the site administrators to compile and make a weekly post regarding new widgets each week for Kapsules. It was suggested however, that users here (and elsewhere) might take more interest if this report of sorts was for every widget enabling application out there.

I feel that this is a great way to highlight each program and get the word out on new widgets for each. Afterall, the widgets really make the app. Please feel free to lend your suggestions, but keep in mind that this is intended to be a summary of widgets.

What I had in mind:

• A 'section' for Kapsules, AveDesk, Konfabulator and DesktopX
  
• Preview screenshots for each widget (hosted at imageshack of course, or directly linked with permission)
  
• Short description of the widget
  
• Current widget rating (if applicable)
  

To that end, and since I really dont use any other widget app other than Kapsules, I will have to rely on you - the user - to let me know what new widgets you would like showcased for the week. I have setup an email address with gmail (because its good at trapping spam) specifically for people to email me details on widgets for the report. kapsules@gmail.com.

Please feel free to send a short description if you like, but make sure to include a link where the download can be found. For instance, a link to the widget's card on www.widgetforge.com, the information page on www.wincustomize.com for DesktopX widgets, or even a forum post here on AquaSoft. If the demand is there for Dashboard widget's I would be happy to include those as well.

I'm relying on your input and suggestions for the report, so please help a brutha out