Category Archives: Computers & Electronics

Getting Screenshots in Picasa

Computers & Electronics, Photo & Video,

When you want to take a screenshot for whatever the reason, one of the easiest ways to do it or to actually edit the screenshot is by using Picasa, the photo editing software from Google. There is a whole lot of changes that you can do in Picasa to enhance your images or just to change them a bit and the software is free.

So, to get your screenshot in Picasa there is one essential thing that you must do. To get the screenshot you would normally just click on the print screen button on your keyboard (located between the keys and the numbers on a standard keyboard or often to the right of the function keys on a laptop keyboard), however to get a Piacasa screenshot you actually need to have Picasa open before doing so.

Once Picasa is open then you can flick back to the page that you want to get a screenshot of and hit the print screen button. Immediately that you do this you will see the pop-over appear in the bottom right corner of your screen that shoes that picasa has another image loaded. If you click on this image as it pops over it will take you straight to the screenshot, or, if you are not quick enough then you can go to picasa and in the search bar enter ‘Screen Captures’. This will take you to the screenshots that you have taken so that you can edit them.

Screenshots in Picasa are initially saved as bitmap files but you can crop and change them and then export them as jpgs without leaving Picasa.

Steve Jobs Resigns from Apple

Computers & Electronics, ,

Steve Jobs was one of the founders of Apple and had been active in it’s management since the start. He had previously worked for other high profile companies including HP and Atari (the biggest maker of computer games and consoles in the 70’s) and also went off to form his own company as a kind of spin off from Apple.

He worked as the CEO of Apple until he was unfortunately struck with cancer in 2004 –  although it appeared to be a non-aggressive and rare form of pancreatic cancer that was treatable.

He was seen at various conferences and keynote speeches for Apple after his treatment and although he appeared thin and gaunt, continued to work for the company. There are many of Steve Jobs keynote addresses and presentations that can be found on Youtube so that is a great place to look to see what Steve Jobs is about.

In August 2011 Steve jobs resigned from Apple on health grounds, after a period of medical leave but continues as the Chairman of the Board of directors as he had requested in his resignation letter.

Postscript – so the sad news came through on 5th October that Steve Jobs had passed away peacefully at home with his family around him at the age of 56.

HP Touchpad

Computers & Electronics,

The HP Touchpad was HP’s venture into the world of the tablet PC. When Apple brought out the iPad this led to a wealth of new tablet PCs being introduced by various major players in the market. The HP Touchpad was integrated with Microsoft products and was one of the products that Microsoft had in its arsenal for it’s battle against Apple.

Reviews were good for the HP Touchpad and so many people were surprised when HP announced that they would be no longer manufacturing the tablet PC but would only be continuing production to keep up with any outstanding orders.

It may well be that HP will sell off certain parts of the business so that someone else can continue what the touchpad has started but at the moment that is just a possibility. When the financial climate is hard then tough decisions need to be made and it seems that is what HP have done. The tablet PC market is a tough one with a lot of players now so maybe the lack of sales of the HP touchpad have sent ti to it’s death.

In any case it seems that HP will keep making the touchpad until very late in the year (2011) to fulfill the demand and then we will just have to see what happens to it after that.

Apple vs Microsoft

Computers & Electronics,

The big battle out there in the land of super players of the computer world is always Apple vs Microsoft. It seems like people have to be on one side or the other. But more recently the battle lines have been reduced a bit by the huge popularity of the iPhone. For some people the iPhone is their first venture into Apple products. They have not used a mac before and have been solid users of Microsoft Windows on the home computers. But with the advent of the popularity of the iPhone more people are realising that a mac is maybe not such an alien thing as they thought and might be worth a try.

There are many fundamental differences between using an Apple Mac and a Microsoft based computer that for most of your everyday users, who have got used to using one and have found that hard enough, they are not going to learn a whole new set of commands and a different user interface. Most people  in fact do not really need a Mac. In fact I would go as far as saying most people do not really need a full spec computer. How many people do you know that just use their computer or laptop just to check emails, surf the web and maybe create the odd document? It would be interesting to see the statistics on that kind of usage. Maybe that is limited to the older age group and that kind of use will drop out in time. If that is the case then there is an argument to be had that the use of Apple products will increase in time with the users wishing to maximise the available technology.

It would be a bit of a generalisation to say that the majority of Apple mac users are in some way connected to art and design – the Apple system has long been heralded as the best way to view and edit photos, graphic and other kinds of artwork, but as digital manipulation expands, maybe the use of Macs will too.

For Microsoft users there are plenty of programs that may match up to the capabilities of the Apple Mac (although that is disputed by the Mac users) plus with the ‘everyday surfers’ they still have a large proportion of the market, so they should still have a huge user base for years to come. However, the more that people use their iPhones as a computer (and if you can do your email and surf then that is a big bonus), then the use of standard PCs and Laptops may diminish in time anyway and at that point, who will lose the lion’s share of the market?