events

Report: Apple music event September 9

It looks like the annual Apple music event will be held on September 9 this year, according to AllThingsD.

Though it had been reported earlier that the event would take place sometime that week, a source now tells AllThingsD that the exact date will be September 9, and that it will focus on music, meaning no tablet announcement.

If the date is correct, holding an event on a Wednesday would be a departure from Apple's habit of holding these types of events on Tuesdays. The date also gives more credence to the rumor that it might be the day … Read more

Apple planning September event?

It's happened every September for the past few years, and it appears it's on track again: Apple is planning a keynote event rumored to take place the second week of September, according to AllThingsD's Peter Kafka.

He says he has heard from "multiple music industry sources" that there will be an Apple event held sometime during the week of September 7. Now, this isn't a huge surprise since Apple has held an event announcing the latest upgrade to the iPod and iTunes around this same time every year. But this year there are some … Read more

Windows Live Events shutting down soon

Microsoft has decided to close down Windows Live Events and will be focusing its development efforts on building event planning and management tools for Windows Live Calendar instead. Beginning next month, users of Windows Live Events will be unable to create new events. And sometime next year, the site will simply redirect to Live Calendar instead.

In the meantime, Microsoft is encouraging users to download any photos or documents they have stored in their events, either to their hard drives or to Windows Live SkyDrive. The service has also long had a way to export events to other services including … Read more

Feature-packed day planner

DayMate is a powerful and easy-to-use day planner that's full of great features. Overall we were pleased with it, but certain features weren't as functional as they should have been.

The interface will look familiar to users of Outlook and could not be more intuitive. Basic functions are represented with large, obvious buttons, and menus are well organized. We were able to dive right in and start scheduling things. The bulk of the program's functionality is contained within its appointment scheduler, but it goes far beyond reminding you of your 2 p.m. dental appointment. Users can … Read more

Prevent your search default from being changed

The first thing I saw when I booted my PC yesterday evening was a notice that Google had prevented my default search setting from being changed. I certainly didn't want to switch from searching via Google by default. I hadn't even been considering a search change, regardless of Bing's pretty wallpaper.

To find out what program was trying to change my search default, I opened Vista's Event Viewer by pressing the Windows key, typing event viewer, and pressing Enter. I clicked Application in the left pane and scrolled to the approximate time the warning popped up. … Read more

Versatile calendar

Desktop iCalendar Lite offers users a way to keep their calendar at the forefront of their computer. With a simple interface and few problems, this is a great way for users to stay on top of the day's events.

This free program lays itself out on the upper right corner of your desktop. A month-view calendar appears, with the current day highlighted, and below it is a list of reminders for the day and a to-do list. All are dark and hide well on the computer desktop with text that is either orange or white. In addition, the entire … Read more

Simple reminder tool

Events Manager offers to help users avoid missing important events with its simple task reminder system, but it may be too basic for some.

This freeware program has an interface that could not be much simpler: a rectangular blank screen with some menus along the top of the box. Here users can choose between File, Events, Options, and Help. By selecting a new event, users are prompted to enter data in the appropriate fields. Event name, notes, time, and date are all easy to add. In addition, users can choose any MP3 or WAV file of their choice to use … Read more

Overly-complicated stopwatch

Virtual Stopwatch attempts to be the most diverse time-keeping device you computer has ever seen. With an amazing array of options, it certainly reaches for that goal, but most users will probably find it overly-complicated.

The program appears to users as a small rectangular box with red digital numbers representing hours, minutes, seconds, and hundredths of seconds on a black background. Below the stopwatch are buttons for starting and resetting, along with a lap counter. Each button should be intuitive for anyone who has used a stopwatch, virtual or physical. Virtual Stopwatch's simplistic design takes a nosedive once users … Read more

AOL thinks local, acquires Patch and Going

A nice little summer shopping spree for AOL: Under the auspices of new CEO Tim Armstrong, the company has acquired "hyperlocal" news site Patch and hipster-oriented events listing site Going.com.

The acquisition of Patch isn't too much of a surprise. Armstrong founded and invested in Patch while at his former gig as Google sales chief. The start-up offers a model for local news on the Web and plans to have launched in a dozen cities by the end of 2009. Going, meanwhile, has been around since 2006 and offers event and invitation services along with ticketing. … Read more

Information-capturing software

If you've ever spotted a piece of crucial information while surfing the Internet or reading an e-mail, you might have stumbled trying to find a way to copy it and keep it organized. Anagram claims to be the perfect software for this situation.

The program has a unique interface that takes a trip to the Help menu to understand. However, after some research and experimentation, users should be familiar with Anagram. To activate it, simply highlight some text from an e-mail or Web site and hit CTRL+C twice. This will bring up Microsoft Outlook and Anagram's small … Read more