landscape

Claustrophobic garden helper

Garden Organizer Deluxe aims to help coordinate gardens and remember all the fine details that go into growing plants. While its intentions are good, we hated operating this claustrophobic program.

The program's interface got off to a bad start with us and things didn't really improve. While we generally viewed gardening as a happy, fun hobby, this program did nothing to reflect that spirit. With its gray layout and enormous collection of microscopic command icons, we felt nothing but dread navigating our way through this program. We needed to seriously study the Help file's instructions because nothing … Read more

Mediocre screensaver

Dino Glade Advanced is a dinosaur-themed screensaver that promises a variety of dinosaurs frolicking in a delightful landscape. We like dinosaurs, so we were excited. Then we tried this screensaver and our excitement turned to befuddlement.

We don't want to be mean, but Dino Glade Advanced looks like the work of someone who just learned computer animation. Both the dinosaurs' design and animation are utterly amateurish. The dinosaurs bend their heads as if to pick something up with their mouths, and their chins disappear into the ground. The insides of their mouths are empty and red, reminding us of … Read more

Tools for enhancing your curb appeal and garden

Now that summer is finally here, homeowners will be spending time outside, fixing up their homes' exterior and improving the backyard. Whether they want to do some landscaping in the front of their home, build a deck in the back, or paint the house, they'll be able to design great outdoor spaces with the help of these tools.

Home design tools

Dave's Garden Dave's Garden is a social network for landscapers or people who enjoy landscaping. Once you register for the site, you'll be able to create your own gardening blog to inform other users about the improvements on your home. Dave's Garden also lets you trade seeds with other gardeners who want to barter. It's a neat site that is ideal for landscaping, but I would like it more if it had a more attractive design.

Deck Designer Deck Designer is a great tool for anyone who wants to add a deck to their house. The tool walks you through all the steps of adding the deck, including how tall it will be, whether you want to add benches, and more. Once complete, it produces a full list of all the materials you will need to build that deck. It will even provide you with step-by-step instructions on installing it.

DIY Network Gardening At first glance, the DIY Network's Gardening & Landscaping page won't look like it can be of help. But when you start digging a little deeper, you'll find a variety of great how-to videos on landscaping. The site has videos on topics ranging from installing torches in your backyard to adding art to a tomato garden cage. My favorite video taught me how to install a weatherproof cedar TV cabinet.… Read more

TouchType Brings Landscape Mode to iPhone Mail

Mail on the iPhone mysteriously does not support landscape mode for reading and writing email. Fortunately, an intrepid developer, Mark Schneider, has come to the rescue with an App called TouchType. TouchType costs $.99 and it is a new iPhone App that solves this problem. Open the App and you get a landscape mode keyboard. You can then type your email and hit the send button and it auto-populates the Mobile Mail App. Enter your email address and off goes the message you just typed. If you would prefer to type your email messages in landscape vs. portrait mode than … Read more

New York taxi fleet to go all-hybrid

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg dropped by the Today show Tuesday morning to talk about cleaning up his city. No, it wasn't time for a get-tough-on-crime talk. Instead, he wants to make the urban air a little less noxious, and maybe give the fight against global warming a little more street-level cred.

Hizzoner used the morning news-and-lighter-fare show to say that by 2012, all of the city's taxis would be hybrid vehicles. "There's an awful lot of taxicabs on the streets of New York City, obviously"--13,000 licensed yellow cabs, 90 percent of them … Read more

Photos: LG's big LED billboards

Nothing says "Look at me" quite like a giant, multicolored video billboard perched above a city square. That's why advertisers are starting to adopt new LED technology that lets them blast their marketing messages your way--and why IT services companies like LG CNS are scrambling to become the providers of choice for the high-tech systems.

The South Korean company--the "consulting and solutions" (hence "CNS") arm of electronics giant LG--has been busy installing the systems from Guangzhou, the industrial hub of southern China, to Cairo to New York. CNET News.com has a photo … Read more