By David Johnston
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

The Paint.NET team, which offers a free replacement for Microsoft’s lacking MS Paint program that rivals much more advanced (and expensive!) programs, released a major update today. Many features were added or improved including a better interface, more language support, more effects, and better performance and disk usage. My favorite addition in version 3.0 is the use of tabs to keep track of different photos that you’re editing. The tab feature is a huge step forward, particularly for those of us who frequently have multiple photos open at a time. The tabs themselves show thumbnail images of the photos they represent as well, so it’s very easy to keep track of which picture is which. There is also a very easy-to-use gradient tool that was lacking in previous versions. The only bad thing I have to say about Paint.NET is that it’s Windows-only as it requires the .NET framework and now no longer supports Windows 2000. But for the price, I’m certainly not going to complain.

Check out Paint.NET 3.0 here.

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

This hasn’t hit any major news outlets, probably because it looks like the photographer simply sent the picture to PSPHome.com, but it’s amusing, as well as disconcerting. I mean, yes, a police officer’s life is a stressful one, and relaxation is important, but not while you’re watching a wall that might collapse (the picture was taken in East London; remember those gales last week?).

A builder took the snap of the cops. He said: “They were oblivious to everything else.” The Metropolitan Police said: “The use of the games console was inappropriate and unprofessional. Senior officers are dealing with the matter.” Source: PSPHome.com

We Say: They were obviously engrossed in the game enough to let multiple pictures get taken. At the very least, I hope he won the game, because he’s going to lose a few days of work (if not worse).

By Kyle Reasons
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

Rumors sure are fun, especially rumors surrounding Apple. Apple has always been the type of company to keep their new products on a “hush-hush” basis, which is part of the reason why there always so many rumors floating around about Apple. Since Apple switched the company name from Apple Computers to Apple INC., there is even more speculation floating around as to what Apple is going to do next. As Kevin Rose of Diggnation put it:

“They could make a car or some shit and you would be like: holy shit!”

Apple isn’t only a computer company anymore (hence the name change). Apple’s new (and successful) venture is media, whether it be Music, TV shows, Movies or Podcasts. You can put this media in your pocket with your iPod, hook your iPod up in your car, plug it into your home stereo and now enjoy it on your television through Apple TV.

So what do I see as being the next Apple product? An Apple TV. Not the Apple TV released at MacWorld, but an ACTUAL Apple television. Apple has been making great cinema displays for years so it only makes sense for them to come out with their very own HDTV especially after releasing a media extender that hooks up to TV’s. Can you imagine walking in an Apple store and seeing Apple TV’s hooked up to television sets made by companies such as Sony, Phillips and Samsung? I for one can’t. The Apple TV doesn’t ship until February and with rumors of an Apple special event planned for February 20th, I say we just may see an Apple HDTV.

By Martin Regtien
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

Ever heard of Bella keyboards? Unless you are in the video editing industry chances are slim that you would have come across the exciting range of digital video editing keyboards that Bella makes.
We chose to review the Bella DV 3.0 Video Keyboard and came away mightily impressed!
This is the only keyboard with a built in jog & shuttle dial. And a built in lamppost!

Click away to the review on DigitalReviews.net

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

This is a definite no-no. Microsoft apparently was trying to commission a blogger to make some edits in articles it was “sure had technical errors”. Jimmy Wales and company are not amused.

“We were very disappointed to hear that Microsoft was taking that approach,” Wales said Tuesday.

Spokeswoman Catherine Brooker said she believed the articles were heavily written by people at IBM Corp., which is a big supporter of the open-source standard. IBM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Wales said the proper course would have been for Microsoft to write or commission a “white paper” on the subject with its interpretation of the facts, post it to an outside Web site and then link to it in the Wikipedia articles’ discussion forums. Source: CNN

We Say: It’s still not too late to take the correct steps, as Wales suggested, Microsoft! I don’t know why they didn’t just edit it surreptitiously, as we’ve seen done before (not necessarily by them) … ahem.

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

OK, here’s your date, sorta. Microsoft has targeted the second half of 2007 as the date for the Service Pack. That only gives us a 6 month window, and most likely means December.

The company has put out a call for “customers and partners (to) actively test and provide feedback on Windows Vista SP1 to help us prepare for its release in the second half of CY07 (calendar year 2007).” Source: APC Mag

We Say: Although of course they’d love to get in features that missed the original release, as the article indicates, “regressions from Windows Vista and Windows XP, security, deployment blockers and other high impact issues as are the primary focus for the Service Pack.”

Well, yeah, the whole newness and compatibility issues will hold me back from Vista, as it will IT managers, who have a lot more to lose than I do. My idea will be once I get my Dell upgrade, I’ll image my system (so I can go back if necessary), then give it a shot. Once it fails (observe my confidence ) I will revert to the old image.

By Chief Gadgeteer, Gizmos for Geeks
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews.

While at CES, you couldn’t help overhear or be part of conversations discussing the coolest or most popular gadgets and/or announcements. So I wondered if there was a more structured way to determine what indeed were the most popular products/topics, and I hit upon using YouTube to give me at least a rough idea. YouTube also ranks items based on a few factors: View Count, Rating and Relevance, although I have no idea how YouTube calculates relevance based on your search.

YouTube’rs do a decent job of describing their content, as the first frame of most videos is hardly appealing enough for viewers to want to watch them, and I made this assumption when I used the search term of ‘CES 2007′. What I felt was interesting was that there was significant overlap in the top items when ranked by View Count, Rating and Relevance.

While I realize this is purely non-scientific and probably only applicable for certain subjects, it seemed to fit this one nicely. What other types of things would you imagine this could be used for? What could we call it? The ‘YouTube Thermometer’ perhaps?

Source: Gizmos for Geeks.

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

Ever get cut off by a driver who seemed to think a turn signal mandates entry into your lane … even without any space? Nowadays a honk generally gets a response, but generally not the kind my mother would have gotten … an apologetic wave or something. Nope, you’ll be ignored, or flipped off.

Or maybe my pet peeve: people leaving their cell phones on in a movie and maybe even answering them.

Several websites have opened up to cater to frustrated people. Among them are advicegoddess,com, rudepeople.com, platewire, and hollabacknyc.

“Just to say to someone, ‘Careful you could kill someone,’ they’re like, ‘Yeah, whatever,’” she said. “But once I put their picture up on my site, it’s not just you I’m deterring from that behavior again. It’s other people.”

But can these sites actually change behavior? In some instances, yes. One Santa Barbara, Calif., man used to steal neighbor Tim Halberg’s morning newspaper until he was caught on videotape by Halberg himself. Halberg posted the video on youtube.com and the stealing stopped. Source: ABC News

We Say: I took a look at these sites and noted many examples that have experienced. A lot of it, to me, is that common courtesy and politeness have gone out the window, as more and people now have a sense of entitlement about their actions … kind of like, well, I exist, therefore I’m entitled to do whatever I want.