The June Update

Welcome to the June issue of Headstrong Update.

This month we have Google Picasa, domain names unleashed, and the birthday of the first computer.

Regards

Ben Roberts
Editor

Industry News

Internet overhaul wins approval

The net's regulator, Icann, voted unanimously to relax the strict rules on so-called "top-level" domain names, such as .com or .uk.

This means there will be an influx of new domain name types, and companies will be able to use their names or brands to create new web identities.

Read full article (BBC News)

HD TV in the UK

Popular take up of high definition TV services has moved a step closer with the launch of FreeSat - a free satellite based TV system provided jointly by the BBC and ITV. FreeSat includes two HD services for free, meaning millions of people who've already purchased an HD ready TV will now actually be able to start receiving HD channels without resorting to signing up with Sky and paying for the services.

There are also trials in progress testing out HD services over the existing FreeView terrestrial network, so the possible delivery options for HD services are certainly on the up.

Read full article (The Register)

One tonne 'Baby' marks its birth

"Sixty years ago the "modern computer" was born in a lab in Manchester."

This week marks the 60th anniversary of the first device recognisable as what we would now call a computer. It was the first machine to be able to hold a program, as well as process information in a predetermined way.

Read full article (BBC News)

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Software Selection

Google Picasa

Although it's been around for a while, I've only just got my teeth in to Google's Picasa software recently, and I'm very impressed. Picasa is a photo organiser and editor application - it allows you to sort out all your various pictures and photos, create and edit albums and much more.

In addition to organising your photos, Picasa allows you to edit and touch up images. It includes simple, intuitive ways to perform red-eye removal, lighting adjustments, cropping and many other artistic effects.

Picasa also allows you to directly upload photos to Google Web Albums, which is Google's answer to Yahoo's Flickr application. This makes it dead easy to share pictures on the web with only the click of a button (Google account is required).

Finally, to complete the package, Picasa allows you to burn photo albums to CD/DVD, including optional slide-show files and even a copy of the Picasa software in case the CD recipient doesn't already have Picasa.

Without a shadow of a doubt Picasa is the best all-in-one package for managing your photo and image collections. I've been so pleasantly surprised and know that it'll take something particularly special to come along to make me use anything else. Picasa is available for Windows, Linux and soon on the Mac too.

Picasa Homepage

Buttonator

Buttonator is a simple online tool that allows you to quickly and easily create buttons for your web site.

They might not be the best buttons in the world, but if you're just looking to quickly knock up something as an example, or test site, then you can visit Buttonator and create a wide variety of button styles in seconds, all from a simple web interface.

Buttonator Homepage

That's all for this month

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed this issue. If you know anyone who might appreciate this please take a moment to refer them - it will be much appreciated.

Until next time,

Ben Roberts
Editor

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The June Update