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ie8 fix

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OLPC operating system free on a stick

The One Laptop Per Child operating system is now available for free downloading for "any" PC or Netbook, according to its maker.

Sugar Labs, responsible for building the low-cost device's XO-1 operating system, released it online last week for loading onto any USB flash drive greater than 1GB.

Called "Sugar on a Stick v1," Sugar Labs hopes it will help spread the use of the OS in classrooms, without the need for the OLPC machine.

An IDC analyst said earlier this year that the OS would be one of the OLPC's more attractive aspects … Read more

Yakkers, rejoice

YouMail's visual voice mail service adroitly blends voice message management in the cloud with an on-phone in-box for hands-on filing. After following the step-by-step activation process of only a few minutes, you'll be able to view the voice mail messages you missed from the app's in-box. More importantly, you're able to play the message in any order. Contrast this to the traditional method of calling an access number, inputting your PIN, and listening to your messages in chronological order. For those whose in-boxes remain full, either through neglect or significant popularity, the ability to skip around … Read more

Spreadsheets protection

Lock up your Excel spreadsheets and secure their formulas in binary format and protected VBA code using this compiler that converts the sheet into an EXE file. It offers options for prohibiting illegal copying and for including an end-user license agreement with the executable packet.

DoneEx XCell Compiler installs a DoneEx menu on the Microsoft Excel menu bar between the Window and Help commands. It performed well in our tests; after saving a worksheet and selecting the Compiler command from the new menu, the add-on launched a dialog box with a variety of options for compiling the sheet into an … Read more

So-so iPhone navigator

Gokivo seems to do it all: search for destinations, pair with Bluetooth, play iTunes songs and fade out and in when dictating directions, and deliver turn-by-turn navigation. In our road test, it just didn't perform all these functions uniformly well. The app possesses the navigation basics, plus those one or two surprises with iTunes and shaking the app to get alternative routes. You can switch between map, satellite, and hybrid view thanks to Google Maps, and can specify your route preference, like fastest, and variables to avoid, like carpool lanes. We like the address book tie-in to get directions … Read more

Windows 7 upgrade program nears launch

If you are thinking of buying a Windows Vista PC in the next day or so, you might want to hold off just a bit longer.

Microsoft has said that it will have a program whereby Vista PC buyers will be able to get a free copy of Windows 7, but only if they purchase after a certain date. Well, that date would appear to be June 26.

That is the date pointed to by enthusiast site TechARP and in a leaked Best Buy memo we reported on earlier this month. The Best Buy memo also mentioned a pre-order program … Read more

Motorola unveils the Karma QA1

Motorola and AT&T have launched the Motorola Karma QA1, a new messaging phone with a slight social-networking focus.

Motorola says that you can have one-click access to Facebook and MySpace directly from the device's home screen. Of course there's also a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard for easy messaging. Other features include A-GPS, a 2.0-megapixel camera, an MP3 player, stereo Bluetooth, a 3.5-mm headset jack, a microSD card slot capable of holding up to 16GB cards, quad-band GSM, and 3G.

The Karma QA1 will be available on June 28 for $79.99 with a new two-year service agreement. … Read more

Failed to report

This free program claims to monitor a selected folder and report any changes to that folder. Unfortunately, it offered nothing but an extremely utilitarian user interface, and an overall disappointing performance.

BeeWatcher's user interface is as plain as plain can be. The gray window houses options to browse for the folder you want to monitor, and to create a Save As file to send the monitor report. From there, check boxes let us select the events we wanted to report, such as folder changes, creations, deletions, and renaming. Below that are more specific options to select the changes we … Read more