How to Scan a Book

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

                                       
There are numerous reasons why you might wish to scan a book. For instance, if a beloved book falls apart on you, scanning its pages will enable you to keep a permanent copy of the book in digital form. Scanned books are weightless, making them easy to carry around and there will be less clutter and less need for bookshelves. Scanned books are easier to transmit and propagate. A scanned book can also be adjusted to make the font into an easily readable size, and with a multi-monitor set up, you can word process on one monitor and read the textbook from the other monitor.
Note: This article assumes that you are using Windows and a scanner compatible with Windows.

  Steps

1. Choose a scanner, preferably a sheet feed scanner. You'll need to make a choice between a flatbed scanner and a sheet feed scanner, depending on what you can afford and what you're looking for:
   
   • The flatbed costs less and your scans will be precise. The benefit of this scanner is that it leaves the book intact.
   • A sheet feed scanner is able to scan both sides of the page and is much faster than a flatbed. A sheet feed scanner requires the same amount of space, as a flatbed, when storing it.
   • Look for an extended warranty offer when purchasing it. A good sheet feed scanner, even at the low end in price, is an investment, so consider getting an extended warranty from a third party. And if you'll be using your scanner a lot, get an extended warranty.
     
     • The well known third party warranty users like "Square Trade" cost more compared to other warranty issuers, but because such companies tend to be affiliated with well known companies, you can have more confidence in them.
     • The warranty price and length will be a bargain compared to getting an extended warranty bought locally. Weigh the costs by factoring in the costs of shipping, if any, insurance, your confidence in the warranty issuer, and your estimate of the frequency of repair.
2. Separate the book into individual pages. This is an absolute necessity with a sheet feed scanner. With a flatbed scanner, it is a good idea to separate the pages to achieve an excellent scan and to avoid damaging your scanner because scanning a bound book requires pressing the cover on the book with some force.
3. If there is a print shop nearby, you may be able to take the book to them and ask them to cut off the binding with the large powerful paper cutters they usually have. A box of bagels or doughnuts is often all it costs and this will save a great deal of time as it pretty much eliminates the next few steps and all your pages will be square and devoid of binding glue or stitching.
4. Peel off the binding glue, on each page, to protect your scanner. There might be an adhesive type of glue also, remove this too - you want to avoid paper jams. When you have streaks on your scanned images you probably have some glue on the glass lens.  Wipe the sticky, rubber cement glue off of the glass lens with a soft cotten cloth moistened with rubbing alcohol or glass cleaner.
5. Pages will tear when separating them, so peel or carve off the binding glue with a sharp knife first. Clamp the book in a vise to be safe.
6. because it can trim thin strips of paper.]]A paper cutter is not essential but if you decide to purchase one, choose the old style cutter because it can cut thin strips easily. When cutting with a rotary cutter, overlap the paper, on the cutting platform, or else the paper will sink into the groove and the ends will not cut thoroughly. Additionally, to minimize uneven cutting, when using a rotary blade cutter, reduce the amount of sheets you cut. With a rotary cutter, your margins will be narrower on one side (cropping can adjust the margin width). A good scissors and a photo editing program like Windows Live is all that you need.
7. Keep your work area neat and organize your project to give it order. Separate your book scanning project into several parts. By doing this, you will think of ways to do each part more efficiently and faster. For example, the first phase could be going through the entire book and straightening folded page corners, mending missing corners and numbering blank pages, the second phase is separating the book into individual pages, the third phase could be going through each page and removing the glue from each page, etc.
   
   • Organize your work with many folders - each serving a purpose for every step of the scanning process. Do not delete these files until the final product is completed and backed-up. As a last resort, go to the Recycle Bin and retrieve your deleted files.
   • Experiment as you proceed and try to improve your scanning method. Explore the different features of your scanner to optimize the scanning methods that work for your needs.
8.   Do not change the layout of the pages, especially the margins. A book that has small fonts is a good candidate for scanning, but do not crop your scans and reduce the margins (for example, because you want to make the book more readable) because margins serve a purpose. Basically, margins are like a frame on a picture, and a page looks better with margins. When reading that book, with the small fonts, later on your computer, you can easily make the fonts bigger by using the "zoom" feature. When working with books with very small print, you could crop each page a bit to make the final product a few percentage points larger and more readable.
9. If you do not have Paper Port, purchase this software or software similar to it. Paper Port connects the scanned pages together and it also converts your scans to various file types such as PDF, tiff, JPEG, BNG, etc. PDF files are good because they cannot accidentally be altered later when reading your book on your computer. For basic scanning, PDF and tiff files are enough.
10.   Scan the book completely including the blank pages. The blank pages have a purpose – they stop the flow of thought. If you do not include blank pages, include a note of this. For example, if blank pages 95 and 96 were omitted, put a note on page 94 (write: "page 95 and 96 were blank"), because in the future it might be temporarily confusing to find those two pages missing.
11. Use color scans for the front and back covers and for the pages with color photos. Do a few color scans with different DPI setting and check the size of each page when scanning a book totally in color. Multiply the scanned page size with the number of pages to calculate the total size of whole file. Choose the DPI considering the readability and size of the scan. Color scans use a lot of space.
12. Use grayscale for black and white pictures. For each grayscale and color scan with picture (or photos) and text, edit the exposure so the text will be readable. Editing, here, is an absolute necessity - will be pale and editing the exposure, to make the text readable, will not affect the photo or picture.
13. Use black and white for scanning just words.
14.   Protect your home scanner by feeding it just one page at a time. Paper jams from feeding more than a page will wear out the scanner roller area faster. Pages that were joined (stacked) by Paper Port can be separated into individual pages by Paper Port, but if you have have a batch of pages, all on one page, and made by your scanner -this file cannot be altered. If you scan your pages separately, any mistake can be deleted and replaced with a rescan of that page.
15.   Review your scanned images. Always save the scanned images as tiff files because tiff files are easy to navigate and edit. Although your ultimate file type will be PDF (Paper Port can only join PDF files), PDF files in separate pages are difficult to navigate through. For example, if you are reviewing 100 pages of tiff files, you could scroll through them, but with PDF files you have to open (and close) each file one at a time. Furthermore, PDF files cannot be edited, so if you have a PDF file of 100 pages all connected from the beginning, and there are several pages that are unsatisfactory, you cannot do anything about it. So, save your scans initially in a tiff format or some other format that can be edited, and change to PDF later.
16.   After reviewing your scanned images in the tiff format, and you are satisfied with them, save your images in the PDF form. Next, using Paper Port, join (stack) the pages into one big file. Stacked files can be unstacked, in case you find an error later. A stacked PDF file will be easy to navigate through.
17.   Take note of how your scanner assigns scan numbers:
    
    • If your scanner assigns each scan a counter number, then do nothing. This is ideal for inserting a missing page or a page that had to be rescanned.
    • If your scanner automatically has the date and time for a scan number, configure your job to be on a counter - which is much easier to work with.
    • When working with scans that were assigned time or date scan numbers, an option (tedious) is to change those numbers to sequential numbers.  A better option, when working with time or date scan numbers is to divide your scanned pages into small batches. The pages tend to stay in sequence when working with small batches.
    • When using Paper Port, divide your work in batches. Paper Port works much faster when working with a small amount of pages versus a large amount. Instead of stacking 350 pages in one step, do it in several steps, of 60 pages per batch, and it will be much faster and less of a burden on your computer's memory.
18.   Download Windows Live image editing program - it is free. Use Windows Live to fix the irregular edges of the pages by cropping them. These irregular edges were caused from separating the book into individual pages and they could be distracting to view. Use the "straighten image" and "cropping" features in Live.
    
    • If you so desire, make your scanning projects technically correct. Live works well because the final product will be uniform in size without configuring (for example, with Windows Paint the images later will be uneven).
19.   Have a good backup system on your hard drive, and on an external drive, as a precaution against computer failure, mistakes and accidental deletion. If your backup system fails, restore your deleted items from the recycle bin. Scanning can get confusing and mistakes happen. Ideally, do your scanning when your mind is rested and clear, but as this might not always be the case, so use a double backup system, at the very least.

  Video

This video shows how to chop a book in readiness for scanning and gives a brief view of actual scanning as well.

  Tips

• Know the rules of alphabetizing for your computer programs, scanner and Paper Port.
• Decide up front what you want to end up with: a PDF, a word processing document or image files. It is very time and disc space consuming to scan a book for use in all of these if you really only want to end up with one.
• If you can get a copy of Acrobat Pro, you can often scan it directly to PDF without the interim steps of Paper Port or image files.
• If there are only a few figures or illustrations in the book, scan it all in black & white only (not grayscale)then scan the figures alone as images and insert them into the page images. Black & white only text will read much clearer on the screen, be easier to accurately OCR and will make a much smaller file size. However, with Windows Live Photo Gallery free editing program, the text on grayscale scans can be made darker and comparable in readability to black and white scans.
• Always be thinking of ways to improve each phase of scanning and act on it. Improve the speed and ease of scanning.
• When the binding glue is thick, the book tends to come apart easier. So when buying a book (not for scanning purposes) choose one that has a moderate (and thus flexible) amount of binding glue. By opening a book at various pages, you will be able to know how thick the binding glue is.
• Listen to music, the radio, or turn on the TV while scanning to make the experience more enjoyable.
• Read the owner's manual for Paper Port and your scanner. Read a book on scanning. Get ideas and help online. Ask questions of people who work in copy shops.
• Unplug the scanner power cord between jobs to extend the life of the ac adapter (which can be very expensive to replace). Check Ebay for ac adapters.
• Clean the inside of your scanner of paper particles, if you scanned a few books, your scanner will be filled with paper particles. Use canned air, a blower, a mini vacuum cleaner, a duster or a damp rag.
• Always close your scanner when it is not in use and be careful when using you scanner. Close the sheet feed and retract the holder that receives the scanned pages. All this is not just to reduce dust but to keep these fragile parts from accidentally breaking - a non-commercial scanner is not as sturdy as a commercial scanner. When using your scanner, be careful not to break those parts that retract and protrude or any part of your scanner that looks easy to break.

  Warnings

• Read your individual scanner's instructions! While this article provides an overview, every scanner will have its own procedures that you must be aware of before proceeding. Reading the instructions will not only help you to use the product better but will speed up your scanning experience and reduce the potential for errors.
• Be sure to follow all copyright laws regarding printing and distribution. Look on the inside of the front cover of a book for the rules about reproducing its content. It may only be allowed for educational or for non-commercial purposes.
• If you must destroy a book by cutting its binding and separating it into individual pages in order to scan, you must weigh the value of the book against the valued of the scanned book, making sure the latter outweighs the former before proceeding.

  Things You'll Need

• Scanner of choice
• Books for scanning
• Paper cutter, cutting mat or board, and craft knife (if chopping book)

  Related wikiHows

• How to Edit Text After Scanning
• How to Prepare Paperwork for Scanning
• How to Understand 3D Laser Scanning
• How to Turn a Scanned Document Into Microsoft Word Document
• How to Copy a Whiteboard With Your Digital Camera or Camera Phone Using ScanR
• How to Digitally Scan 35mm Slides

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Scan a Book.  All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

Google search now supports Cherokee (ᏣᎳᎩ)

Google search now supports Cherokee (ᏣᎳᎩ): "With the help of Cherokee Nation staff and community members, we’ve added Cherokee (ᏣᎳᎩ) as an interface language on Google, making a small contribution towards preserving one of the world’s endangered languages.



You can now select Cherokee as your default from the Language Tools page (available from the right of the search box), and the entire Google interface will transform into Cherokee:

We’ve also included an on-screen Cherokee keyboard on the search page through the Google Virtual Keyboard API. This makes it easier for people to search web content in Cherokee without a physical Cherokee keyboard. To access the keyboard, simply click the icon at the right side of the search box.

Cherokee is an Iroquoian language spoken by the Cherokee people. The Cherokee syllabary writing system was developed by Sequoyah in the early 19th century. He realized the power of writing systems, and wanted his people to benefit from that power. Some of the 85 characters he developed for his syllabary were modified from his original handwritten script for a printing press in the 1820s, resulting in characters that resemble Latin and Greek letters. Despite the resemblance, they are pronounced differently. The modified script was quickly adapted for printing Cherokee newspapers, books and pamphlets. The adoption and use of the script enabled the Cherokee people to maintain their language and culture. Today, Cherokee is spoken mostly in the states of Oklahoma and North Carolina. (The Cherokee Nation is the sovereign operating government of the Cherokee people. It is a federally recognized tribe of more than 300,000 Cherokee citizens, with its capital located in Tahlequah, Okla. To learn more, please visit www.cherokee.org.)



We’re honored to have the opportunity to continue this tradition, and we’d like to thank the Cherokee Nation for working with us to translate the interface for Google search into Cherokee.



Search is now available in 146 interface languages—and the list is growing. If you speak an endangered language that you would like us to support, please sign up for Google in Your Language and submit community translations.



Update 10:26 AM: You can find the press release from the Cherokee Nation here.



Posted by ᏇᎩ (Craig Cornelius), Software Engineer, Internationalization

"

Sprint integrates Google Voice

Sprint integrates Google Voice: "(Cross-posted from the Google Voice Blog)



Over time, we've worked to bring an integrated Google Voice experience to your mobile device by building mobile apps, introducing Google Voice Lite, and most recently Number Porting. But we felt that ultimately, the most simple solution would be to partner with carriers to seamlessly integrate Google Voice with your mobile phone.



Today, we’d like to share that we’ve teamed up with Sprint to do just that.



First, Sprint customers will be able to use their existing Sprint mobile number as their Google Voice number and have it ring multiple other phones simultaneously. So now, calls to your Sprint mobile number can easily be answered from your office or your home phone, or even your computer through Gmail. Calls from Gmail and text messages sent from google.com/voice will also display your Sprint number. This basically gives Sprint customers all the benefits of Google Voice without the need to change or port their number.



Alternatively, Google Voice users can choose to replace their Sprint number with their Google Voice number when placing calls or sending text messages from their Sprint handset. This feature works on all Sprint phones and gives Sprint users all the benefits of Google Voice without the need for an app.



In both cases, Google Voice replaces Sprint voicemail, giving Sprint customers transcribed voicemail messages available online and sent via email and/or text message. International calls made from Google Voice users’ Sprint phones will be connected by Google Voice at our very low rates, and Sprint customers will also have access to the rest of Google Voice’s features, like creating personalized voicemail greetings based on who’s calling, call recording, blocking unwanted callers and more.



To learn more, watch the video below and visit google.com/voice/sprint.







This feature will be available soon to Sprint customers in the United States. Once it is launched, it will be rolled out gradually to all Google Voice users, and can be enabled through the Google Voice website. If you don’t see it right away, don’t worry—you can leave your email address at google.com/voice/sprint and we’ll notify you as soon as this becomes available.



In addition, today we’re introducing the Nexus S 4G for Sprint—which takes advantage of Sprint’s high-speed 4G data network and lets you enable Google Voice directly from the mobile app. Learn more on the Google Mobile Blog.



Posted by Jacob Hesch, Software Engineer

"

2 hidden ways to get more from your Gmail address - Official Gmail Blog

2 hidden ways to get more from your Gmail address - Official Gmail Blog

Teach your old docs new tricks with Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office

Teach your old docs new tricks with Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office: "
Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office is now available to download for all Google Apps domains. With this plugin, you can now share, backup and simultaneously edit Microsoft Word, PowerPoint®, and Excel® documents with co-workers without the need for sending attachments back and forth.



Features:

- Simultaneous editing for Word, PowerPoint and Excel files when using Microsoft Office.

- Google Docs sharing URLs for each Microsoft Office file.

- Revision history for Microsoft Office files, stored in Google Docs.

- Offline editing with smart synchronization of offline changes.

- No Microsoft Office upgrade or SharePoint® deployment required.



Editions included:

Google Apps, Google Apps for Business, Government and Education



Languages included:

English only but the plugin will work with whatever language is installed on the user’s system



How to access what's new:

- Make sure your system meets the system requirements for the plugin. Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office supports Microsoft Office 2003, Office 2007, or Office 2010.

- Ensure that Google Docs is an activated service in your Google Apps control panel.

- Allow users to install the plugin themselves or distribute it on your network using an .msi file.

Download page

Deploy Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office



Note: Google Cloud Connect is not available for Macs. Unfortunately due to the lack of support for open APIs on Microsoft Office for Mac, we are unable to make Google Cloud Connect available on Macs at this time. We look forward to when that time comes so we can provide this feature to our Mac customers as well.



For more information:

http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2011/02/teach-your-old-docs-new-tricks-with.html

Admin Help Center and supported features.

End User Help Center



Join us for a live webinar on March 3rd, 2011 at 10am PST / 1pm EST / 6pm GMT to learn more about Google Cloud Connect. Register to attend the live event.





Get these product update alerts by email

Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates

"

Easier uploads to Picasa Web Albums

Easier uploads to Picasa Web Albums: "Posted by Shuangfeng Li, Software Engineer



We’ve made sharing and storing your images in Picasa Web Albums even easier by improving the image upload process. Now you’ll find a smoother upload flow, the five-at-a-time limitation has been removed, and you can upload HD video, too.



To get started from Chrome, Firefox or Safari click the Upload button, select an album and then choose the images and videos you want to upload. After your images have uploaded, you will see large thumbnails where you can easily add a caption, zoom in or delete right from the upload screen.

If you use Internet Explorer, you can continue to use the basic uploader or use the plug-in for drag-and-drop bulk uploading.



Another easy way to upload to Picasa Web Albums is from Gallery on an Android device. For example, with Android 3.0, Honeycomb, you can capture an image or video with your tablet's camera and upload directly to Picasa Web Albums to share with friends.

We’re always working to improve Picasa Web Albums, please share your feedback in our forum. Happy uploading!

"

How to Set up a Computer Centered Workspace

How to Set up a Computer Centered Workspace: "

An ergonomic workstation

Want to enjoy working at your computer, thinking better, and getting your work finished faster? Take a hint from activities that require much more sitting (like watching TV), endurance (like trucking), and sustained maximum performance (like car racing). Don't slump over your work – recline and look up into it! Unless your job requires it, there's no need to look attentive like a receptionist (an activity of interruption and stress). Instead, focus on setting up a computer centered workspace that helps you to work in a comfortable way.

Steps

1. 

   In space, you can work in the fetal position. On Earth, you'll need a few adjustments.
   Adopt a neutral posture.^[1] Arrange your body in its natural relaxed geometry. Unfortunately, since that is the fetal position, you'll have to make a few changes to be able to do anything. Sit up to free your arms for work. Since doing this puts weight on your back, straighten out so that the weight not supported by the back of the chair transfers neatly down your spine without strain on the back muscles and connective tissues. And balance your arms and legs so that they don't pull on your back or put stress on the more delicate extremities. This will free your full attention for work.
   
   • Use what you have. You might not have a particular kind of equipment, your equipment might not have a particular adjustment, or a particular adjustment might be incompatible with your work (perhaps you're a receptionist required to sit erect). Go through all these steps and get as close as you can to the suggestions outlined here. Adjustments to one part of your setup can often mitigate deficient adjustments to others. Then consider where money might well be spent on additional equipment to fix remaining problems.
     
   
   
2. 

   Manager's chair
   Select a chair. Look for:
   
   • Surface:
     
     • Vinyl^[2] or similar smooth plastic requires little care. ('Bonded leather' is essentially vinyl, not leather: don't pay extra for it.)
       
     • Leather^[3] is stylish and also tends to stay clean. 'Full grain' leather is best; 'top grain' is a middle grade; 'split grain' is cheaper but can still be fine.
       
     • Cloth is grippy, breathable to prevent sweat accumulation, and can stay cleaner if treated with fabric protectant such as Scotchgard^[4] by the manufacturer or after purchase, preferably when brand new to protect as clean fabric as possible and not seal in dirt.
       
     • If you're buying used, you may prefer an impermeable surface such as vinyl, shiny leather in good condition, or wood or hard plastic (for which you'll need an exact fit) because it can easily be made about as clean as new. Natural materials often require more careful cleaning than synthetics.
       
     
     
   • Support: Mesh is a surface and a support. It allows air to circulate for coolness. But since each part is supported only by adjacent parts, it tends to sag like a hammock or waterbed, and ramp up toward a relatively immovable edge supports. Adjustments within the middle of large padded areas, such as for the lower back, and clever design of edges which the body will contact, such as a rolled-over or foam-padded seat front, can help. Foam supports better, lifting each small area discretely from underneath, like a mattress. Avoid thin, soft-when-new foam (or, with used furniture, foam with softened or compacted spots): it will rapidly 'bottom out' under heavier areas.
     
   • Style: The chair should support the back and the shoulders. This style is often known as a 'manager's' chair. Your neck should be straight so your head will balance itself and not need the headrest characteristic of an 'executive' chair. While an executive chair can work, be sure to check that it has the full range of adjustments. Some are more ostentatious than practical.
     
   • Fit: There are many different kinds of chairs carefully designed many different ways. Most of them probably fit someone very well before the manufacturer decided to make many, many copies. More expensive ones often adjust more to fit more people in more positions. It's generally best to try out and buy a chair in person to make sure it can fit you, and well worth paying a reasonable premium for having the facility to try it and the salesperson to explain it. Sit in it at a desk as if typing, not just relaxing or hunching attentively forward. Look for one that fits well with each of its major adjustments somewhere in the middle of its range, not all the way at one end: you might decide you'd like your chair a little different later.
     
   • An old-fashioned highly adjustable wooden chair looks great, but make sure the contours fit you perfectly and the armrests (which are typically not adjustable) are at a proper height and will not interfere with keyboard placement. If they do, they'll support you just as well as a foam chair your body would mesh to that shape. These chairs tend not to have upper-back support, though.
     
   • You can even Make a desk chair from a car seat.
     
   
   
3. Adjust the chair. You may need to fine-tune some settings once the others are about right.
   
   • Adjust the back tilt. The further you recline, the more the weight of your torso rests on the chair back and the less it presses down on the backbone. Try 20 to 30 degrees back.^[5] This substantial tilt will also gently pull you back into the better-supported reclined position rather than letting you slump forward into a slouch after you lean forward out of, or to show, interest in something.^[6]
     
     • Lock the back in place at the proper tilt.
       
     • If the back can't be locked, see if you can set the maximum amount of recline and reduce the tension so it readily flops into place.
       
     • If the amount of recline can't be adjusted (on some chairs it may lock at each end of a range, neither of which is desirable), adjust the tilt tension so that the chair tends to balance at the proper angle when you relax in it.
       
     • Reclining more would reduce the stress on your back even more, but would require odd placement and angles for the monitor, keyboard and other office equipment.
       
     
     
   • Adjust the seat tilt. The seat should be tilted back a little so that your hips are not extended unnaturally and the angled downward force from your back doesn't tend to slide you out of the seat. Some chairs tilt the back and seat as a unit; others tilt the seat with the back, but not as much, through a more complicated mechanism often called 'synchro-tilt'. Some might allow tilting the seat separately. See which you prefer.
     
   • Adjust the back height. Chair backs often have a more protrusive part to go under the mid-back and a hollower part for the shoulders. Adjust the back (or, on some chairs, different parts of the back) to put these in the right places.
     
   • Adjust the seat extension. Chair seats often have a hollower part to go under the upper thighs and a fatter part to go under the lower thighs. Slide the seat forward so that the lower thighs are well-supported, but not so far forward that there is pressure on the inside part of the knees or associated tendons. The tailbone should go all the way against the back of the chair.
     
   • Adjust the feet. The feet should be supported at a neutral angle (extended a little), and at a height such that the legs neither dangle and pull on the knees and themselves, nor push up the knees allowing the hips to twist forward and not support the lower back as well. There should be a moderate amount of pressure on the lower thighs.
     
     • The best way is an angled footrest. Some are adjustable.
       
     • Don't wear high-heeled shoes; if you must, prop the balls of the feet on something for a comfortable angle in them.
       
     
     
   • Adjust the arms. The armrests should be close to the body, so the arms don't tend to slide out from supporting the shoulders. The armrests should be at a height just a little lower than that to which the arms would dangle naturally on their own, so as not to allow the arms to pull on the shoulders or push them up. The wide part of the forearm muscles, the central outside surface of the forearm bones, or both, not the point of the elbow or the wrist, should rest on the armrests. The forearms should balance in such a way that the wrists extend straight from them (as viewed from the back surface of the hand) to a point an inch or so over the keyboard, propped up gently by the natural relaxed curl in the fingers which are resting on rather than striking keys at any given time. This will balance the arms so there is no weight continually to be supported by the wrists, except a tiny amount supported by the fingers in their naturally curved positions, or hanging continually on the shoulders. Allow the upper part of the upper arms to rest against the chair back, in plane with the torso (but elbows out a little so the arm muscles can all move freely). The elbows can rest on the arm rests too, but much of the weight should be on the fat part of the forearms.
     
     • Broad, convex, padded armrests are best.
       
     • The armrests and their supports should not extend forward much lest they interfere with the keyboard drawer extension. The armrests normally extending forward from a post on some chairs can be reversed side to side to extend backwards. The then-backward-extending part is ignored, and the forward-extending part is just long enough to set the forearm muscles on. The armrest for the non-dominant arm may need to be a little higher because the muscle leaning on it may not be so large.
       
     • The distance from the armrests to the body is often nonadjustable. Avoid a chair that is very wide, unless you are too.
       
     • The wrists should not be supported directly, only by leverage from a well-balanced forearm and weakly by the relaxed and key-striking fingers. They have many tendons running across the inside surface that control the hand and wrist with muscles in the arm.^[7] They tend to bob outwards with use and are much more sensitive to tangential pressure than the arm muscles. Wrist pads can actually make them sore.
       
     • Don't support the palms directly, either. Without an unusual-shaped support, this would require bending the wrist, stressing the tendons running through it, and twisting it, making finger-control awkward; impede swinging the whole forearm slightly reach out-of-the-way keys quickly and without finger strain, and require more key striking force to come from the weaker fingers than from the stronger wrist, hand and arm, which otherwise shift about a little as you type.
       
     
     
   • You don't need a headrest. The head and neck should be perfectly vertical so they tend to put all their weight neatly onto the bones, requiring only small weak muscle movements to maintain the position.
     
   
   
4. 

   Microsoft Natural Elite ergonomic keyboard
   Select a keyboard. An 'ergonomic' style, curved outward and preferably raised at the center, is best, but takes a while to get used to. It keeps the wrists straight and at their relaxed state of rotation when the elbows are at the user's side or out just a little, so that the shoulders are supported, and the arms turned inward toward the center of the keyboard.
   
   • The keys should have a snappy feel for feedback when they are pressed. Don't push them so hard they 'hit bottom' firmly; the shock is very wearing to the body. If you can't stop doing that, get a buckling-spring type keyboard like an IBM Model M^[8], which can be tapped harder. Those are very loud, though.
     
   • Unless you spend much time entering numbers, look for the absence of a numeric keypad so that the mouse can be closer to the keyboard.
     
   • You might like to try a keyboard like the Microsoft Natural Elite keyboard. Microsoft keyboards and mice work well with most operating systems and programs, including free software.
     
   
   
5. Adjust the keyboard. Make it close to flat (retract any rear props). Place it so the typing 'home keys' are directly in front of you, close to your body, and low enough that your forearms stay straight, with your wrists straight and fingers curving gently down onto the keys. That will probably require a keyboard drawer.
   
   • Remember not to rest your wrists on or in front of the keyboard, even if it has an extended area there.
     
   
   
6. 

   Optical scroll mouse
   Select a mouse. If you mostly type, the mouse is not very important. Ideally, it should be an optical mouse, which works more consistently than a ball-containing mouse, and on a cloth-covered neoprene mouse pad for smooth movement. If you're left-handed, get a left-handed or symmetrical mouse. Some users like trackballs, which require less wrist movement, but they're less precise and, because sensitivity thus can't feasibly be increased as much, slower. A mouse with buttons discrete from a fat rear part upon which the front part of the palm simply rests (namely, most mice aside from some Apple ones) allows the hand and arm to stay relaxed.
   
   • A mouse with a cord is lighter and easier to move than one without a cord. The cord will also keep it from falling off a small surface like a keyboard tray and getting lost. Secure the cord loosely to something near the mouse, leaving some slack, so the weight of most of the cord has no effect on moving the mouse.
     
   • Avoid some more-complicated keystrokes by using a mouse that has the full range of common buttons, including at least a left button, right button, and clickable scroll wheel. Five buttons are the most that is commonly used. A scroll wheel that clicks as it scrolls is less smooth but more precise and much better for games, in which each click performs a discrete act such as making a new selection.
     
   • Some trackballs and touchpads are integrated into keyboards. The best place for these devices is generally a spot on the keyboard easily reachable from the typing 'home' position, such as in the plastic flange 'wrist-rest' (use thumbs).
     
   
   
7. Adjust the mouse. It should be near the keyboard to reduce arm motion and the need to extend the arm to a less-than-optimal position.
   
   • If you're left-handed, consider switching the left and right buttons' function in the operating system.
     
   • Increase mouse sensitivity, preferably with acceleration, to reduce the total distance you need to move the mouse. Gentle wrist or even finger motion should be all that is needed.
     
   
   
8. Select other input devices as necessary. Try to keep them near and at the same level at the keyboard.
   
9. 

   Keyboard drawer with mouse tray
   Try a keyboard 'tray' or 'drawer'. The arms and tops of the hands, which contain tendons extending into the arms by which the fingers are controlled, should extend straight forward. The easiest way is with a keyboard 'tray' or 'drawer'. It should be just about on your lap – the precise height will depend on your arms, their supports, and the keyboard itself.
   
   • A big wide tray is usually best because a mouse can go next to it and things will not tend to slide off, but sometimes interferes with armrests.
     
   • The elbows should be slightly outward so the hands need not themselves turn inward to reach the keys. This will mean the keyboard needs to be close to the stomach. Pull the tray out, and pull the chair up to it.
     
   
   
10. 

    Wraparound LCD monitor array
    Select one or more monitors. LCD monitors are pretty much universal now and tend to cause less eyestrain than CRTs. Use digital connections such as DVI (no need for expensive cables; a major benefit of digital transmission is that a problem not large enough to turn 'zeros' into 'ones' has no effect whatsoever). Some monitors do not support digital connections; some video cards do not support digital connections or resolutions over 1920x1200, many do not support two monitors, and few support three. Getting these features is more a matter of looking for them than paying much of a premium, except perhaps for triple-head video cards.
    
    • If you have a CRT monitor, turn up the refresh rate (60 Hz or slower is badly noticeable as flicker; 70 Hz is better; 85 Hz or higher is good) and consider a glare filter. If you're choosing a CRT monitor, look for one that is vertically or entirely flat, so that its entire surface faces the same way (with respect to at least one axis) and by tilting slightly can reflect glare from a given direction unnoticeably away from you across its entire surface.
      
    • The monitors should cover a wide enough area that you can have all of the documents you would work with at once open simultaneously and showing enough data that you don't have to regularly click or scroll back and forth, wasting time and struggling to remember their contents.
      
    • Place multiple monitors side by side. The neck unbalances when tilted up and down, and the eyes do not move very far up and down on their own, so there is little to gain from stacking monitors.
      
    • Bezels can be distracting, particularly between multiple monitors. Choose a monitor with a narrow, unobtrusive, non-glare bezel, preferably matte black or gray. Huge monitors are more expensive per unit area than medium size ones, though. One or more 2560x1600 30 inch (76cm) monitors are great, but 1920x1200 24 inch (61cm) monitors would be a better bargain for most.
      
    • The higher the resolution, the better (generally). If text is too small, you can scale it up to be bigger but very sharp.
      
    • Covering an area wider than your forward field of view with monitors brings diminishing returns.
      
    • Avoid glossy monitors. They look better when turned off, but not much different when turned on, and create glare by reflecting bright lights behind the monitor.
      
    
    
11. 

    Comfortable monitor placement
    Adjust the monitors.
    
    • Place them toward the back of the desk to reduce too-close focusing. This will reduce eyestrain and possibly nearsightedness.
      
    • The most-used monitor should be directly in front of you to facilitate keeping the body straight. Others should be on one or both sides.
      
      • Identify the most-used monitor to the operating system as the primary monitor so items such as program menus can be placed on it automatically. If your monitors are different sizes, use the biggest one.
        
      
      
    • With your head straight, raise the monitors so their centers, height-wise, are roughly directly in front of your eyes or even a little above. This will prompt you not to slump.
      
    • Tilt them so that they are perpendicular in both axes (i.e., normal) to your field of view. Multiple monitors should be in an arc, with their centers equidistant from your head. This keeps as much of them in focus at once as possible; your eyes won't have to refocus as you glance around.
      
    • Match monitor illumination to ambient light. Don't work in the dark. Keep ambient light as diffused as possible and adjust its intensity to keep white objects in the room not much dimmer than white areas on the monitor – which is pretty bright. You can also adjust the monitor brightness, but with most monitors will likely prefer that turned down most of the way. Match the white balance on the monitor roughly to the ambient light, generally with a setting on the monitor or in the operating system.
      
    
    
12. Make your papers an extension of your monitors. Just as it's easiest to switch attention between computer documents by having them near one another across a wide monitor area, it's easiest to switch attention between paper documents and a computer by keeping the paper documents near the computer and a similar distance from your eyes. Prop a paper document up on a stand next to the computer if you'll just read from it, or on a sturdy stand in front of and tilted up toward the monitor if you'll write on it too. Make sure the stand can't bump or scrape the screen.
    
13. Adjust your work environment.
    
    • 

      Galileo thermometer showing a comfortable 76 degrees
      Temperature. Keep warm. Cold numbs, stiffens and slows the fingers. Excessive heat or cold numbs, stiffens and slows the mind. 72 degrees Fahrenheit (22 degrees centigrade) is best for most people.^[9] If the office is too cold, wear something that is warm and, particularly around the wrists, loose-fitting. If too warm, wear less-covering, thin, loose, and porous clothes, and cool off with a fan, preferably quiet, or a natural breeze.
      
      • Heat doesn't flow well from the heat-producing, contiguous, insulated body core to the fingers when one is just sitting at a desk, so insulating yourself with heavy clothes to conserve enough heat to keep the fingers supple in a cold environment may overheat your core (and head) a little and make you sleepy. A sufficiently warm environment makes this trade-off unnecessary.
        
      • Feet don't usually need to do much at the computer, but can distract you relentlessly if they get cold. You can heat them selectively with a heated footrest, or with a heater under the desk – preferably the forced-air type so it can't set fire by radiation, and with all modern safety features – which will consume much more energy and heat the legs and torso significantly too.
        
      
      
    • 

      Window open for fresh air
      Air quality. Keep it clean. Perhaps scented if you're good with aromatherapy.
      
      • Stenches, excessive dust, or other pollution will be distracting, and will have to be dealt with according to individual circumstances.
        
      • Carbon dioxide can build up in densely populated areas and cause lethargy and a distracting general sense of 'stale air'.^[10] Houses generally leak in more than enough fresh air for their limited number of occupants, but one can use a carbon dioxide meter to adjust ventilation equipment for adequate air replacement in a big building. (Too rapid air replacement wastes heating energy in winter and cooling energy in summer.)
        
      • Too-low humidity commonly causes dry skin and sinuses in winter. Correct it with a portable or automatic permanently-installed humidifier. Too-high humidity can, most often in summer, cause mold, leading to bad smells and illness. Air conditioning will generally correct excessive humidity: it chills the air and the condensate is drained away or evaporated outdoors. (A dehumidifier is essentially an air conditioner whose warm coils are indoors too; it's generally better to use an air conditioner and keep the cooling.)
        
      • Pleasant aromas can improve mood and attentiveness. For instance, citrus may increase alertness, flowers may calm and improve concentration, and forest scent may relax.^[11] You can tend to become acclimated to and not notice scents after a while. It's therefore a good idea to alternate them with scent generators on timers: buy an integrated unit, or simply plug an electric vaporizer into a timer.
        
      
      
    • 

      Bright, soft office lighting
      Lighting. Darkness probably makes you sleepy. It strains your eyes to focus precisely, and your mind as, having shallow depth-of-field from dilation, a lag for focusing precedes seeing much when you shift your field of view.^[12] It may come as no surprise that dark winters can even depress you.^[13].
      
      • Bright, even light is best. Aim for at least two 27-watt-plus compact fluorescent light bulbs (or four-foot fluorescent tubes) to light a small room; four for for a big one.
        
        • Incandescent bulbs require wasteful or even dangerously-hot-running wattages for this kind of light. And the color temperature is wrong.
          
        • Fluorescent troffers with diffusers, shop-lights inverted atop shelves to reflect off the ceiling, or multi-bulb torchieres are best.
          
        • You may prefer the look of a table lamp, but high-wattage compact-style fluorescent bulbs are hard to fit in them. Use a plain white synthetic fabric, namely, largely translucent, shade to diffuse the light while blocking as little as possible. A Sylvania 65W Dulux-EL bulb is particularly small for a high-wattage bulb and a 12 inch (30cm) lamp harp can be bent wider (at the top and back again at the bottom) to fit around it.
          
        • Even relatively diffuse light has 'hot spots', typically the fixtures themselves or the ceiling spots above them, specular reflections (glare) from which can distract. A dark, matte desk surface is best. If yours is light or shiny, try a plastic desk pad. Look for one with a soft-looking, leather-like surface, not just a texture in a shiny surface. A visor or baseball cap keeps overhead light out of the field of view from entering the eyes directly or off the cheeks to produce subtly distracting and tiring veiling flare.^[14]
          
        • Fluorescent lights should have 'electronic' ballasts which flicker unnoticeably thousands of times per second, not 'magnetic' ballasts that flicker noticeably, especially in peripheral vision, or at least annoy subconsciously. Cheap compact fluorescent bulbs and fluorescent fixtures often have the magnetic type.
          
        
        
      • Color temperature (tint).^[15] Incandescent and 'warm white' fluorescent bulbs (2800-3400 K color temperature) are orange, like early-morning and late-evening light. 'Daylight' (5000-6500K) bulbs are blue-white, like noon sun and sky light. 'Bright white' or 'cool white' (4000 K) bulbs are in-between, common in kitchens and commercial buildings. Daylight bulbs look distinctly blue next to the other kinds, but you'll probably get used to them over time. And, because the tint suggests to the body that the time is mid-day, they increase alertness.^[16] Bright white provides a partial benefit.
        
      • Balance brightness and color temperature. Bright light and blue-white high color temperature are best, but they need to go together.^[17] Just as a blue sunset rather than an orange one would make the world look very strange, a daylight-type bulb's blue-white light looks odd if there isn't very much of it. Conversely, intense warm-white light looks dingy. If you find bright light distracting, or don't have enough light fixtures for the intensity needed to make daylight bulbs' light look right, use bright-white.
        
      • Eventually you'll need sleep, even if only a little. Constant bright, blue-white light can make you lose track of time and extend your energy past your bedtime and past your intelligence. You may not want too much of it at home. Notice the light outside if possible and glance at the clock occasionally to leave work on time and leave your home computer at a reasonable time.
        
        • You could put a daylight bulb on a timer to turn off on a schedule leaving a dimmer, yellower bulb behind as a gentle reminder to finish each day. There is even a program available, Redshift, that will automatically adjust your monitor color balance to mimic nature as the hours go by.^[18]
          
        
        
      
      
    • Sound. Quiet is usually best. White noise is better than distinct, distracting sounds.
      
      • Reduce noise, including computer noises, as much as possible.
        
        • Keep noisy office equipment above or below you, shielded by furniture, and with noise-emitting orifices directed away if you can't move it elsewhere entirely. But don't block its vents. High-speed printers can sometimes be set to run a little slower and much quieter.
          
        
        
      • 

        Noisy office driving worker to distraction
        Earplugs or noise-blocking or canceling headphones can calm excess noise. A white-noise generator can mask more-distracting noise, but keep it near you so its volume can stay low and contribute little to the overall noise level for everyone.
        
      • Fast, cheerful music (try Internet radio) can help keep your mind semi-occupied rather than frustrated and pace you through simple, repetitive tasks requiring little concentration. But don't distract others: consider headphones.
        
      
      
    • Shift and stretch. Even with the best workspace, you'll be more comfortable if you shift about in your chair occasionally. Stretch or walk every couple of hours to relieve and redistribute pressure, stress and strain, and see and hear a few new things. Maybe even humans.
      
    
    

Tips

• 

  Receptionist's ergonomic workspace
  If you have to look attentive:
  
  • Recline less, but not so much that you tend to slump forward when relaxed.
    
  • See and be seen past your monitor (or two little monitors). If you are short, raise your seat and footrest higher. Lower your monitor so you can see and be seen over it, but not so much that you have to lean your head down into it and strain your neck to keep it from slumping further. Maintaining sufficient distance will reduce the angle by which you have to look down. Consider a desk with a beveled corner in which to arrange the computer for comfort but see people in your peripheral vision.
    
  • Readjust your monitor angle perpendicular to your line of sight toward its center, and your footrest angle to prop your feet slightly extended.
    
  
  
• Laptops present a few options, depending on how much extra equipment you want to have at the place of use:
  
  • Connect an external monitor, keyboard and mouse, directly or through a docking station, to use a laptop almost exactly as a desktop.
    
    • A laptop as a desktop does introduce a few compromises. The fan is often loud and high-pitched compared to a desktop's fans, and the laptop often can't practically be placed on the floor to distance its noise from you. Often carpet would cover the air inlet. Laptops rarely support dual monitors or resolutions over 1920x1200 externally, or ECC RAM for improved stability in extended operation.^[19]
      
    • Connecting accessories with radio links built into the computer such as Bluetooth, or with small wireless adapters that sit almost flush with the edges of USB ports and can be left in place, reduces the chance of dropping the computer or breaking connectors by accidentally pulling on the accessories or pushing on their plugs.
      
    
    
  • Elevate a laptop on a less-slippery rubber-footed stand, or, in a pinch, a more-slippery box or books to put its screen at a correct height, and connect an external keyboard and mouse to optimize everything but monitor size.
    
  • If you're just using a laptop by itself, try putting it in a keyboard drawer (a big one with a rim, to avoid dropping the laptop).
    
  • Or simply recline in a chair with it in your lap. Rest your arms on the armrests or simply in your lap. While resting your forearms on your lap or resting your palms in front of the keyboard and angling your hands up into the keyboard area isn't ideal, it's not nearly as bad with a laptop as with a regular keyboard because a laptop is typically thin and the keyboard is slightly recessed. Check that your leg isn't blocking any bottom air intake; a laptop with air intakes and exhausts on the edge rather than the bottom is best.
    
  
  
• Try the Dvorak keyboard layout to reduce finger motion by assigning more-common letters under more-easily reached and pushed keys. You simply tell the operating system to 'remap' (recognize different symbols for) the keys, and re-label them if you like; you don't need a new keyboard and can switch back easily. Your finger dexterity won't go away, but the new key positions will take some time to learn.
  
• Lose Weight so there's less of you to support, and Build Muscle so you can support it better.
  
• Wear lower-body garments, including underwear, that when you stand are loose around your waist. Sitting will tighten them as it pulls the back down and pushes the front up so they fit around you obliquely. When you sit for hours, they should still be somewhat loose and comfortable. If you relieve the pressure by slouching to widen the angle your abdomen and legs form by curving your lower back, you'll trade the gentle support of your chair and strength of a straight spine for straining a bent spine. So, instead, eliminate the pressure.
  
  • A garment suspended from the shoulders, like a pair of pants with suspenders or a dress, is best because it doesn't need to hold onto the waist to not fall down.
    
  • A garment that doesn't fit tightly around the legs, such as a loose skirt, shouldn't pull itself crooked as much. But it might tighten as you sit as some body areas push upward. Look for one just snug enough in areas that tighten little or not at all to hold it up, and loose in the areas that do constrict.
    
  • A garment suspended from the hips only, like pants without suspenders, can if necessary for moving about be tightened temporarily with a belt. Or it can snug itself gently with elastic or an elastic-bearing belt.
    
  • Compare elastic-bearing garments carefully. Look for ones with plenty of extra length in the pleated and interwoven non-stretchy cloth associated with the elastic so it stretches with tension that is not high and increases only modestly over the range it will stretch as you sit, stand, and move about.
    
  
  
• Leaning back in the chair with your feet forward a little but supporting your knees pushes the chair backward. If it tends to roll away from its most comfortable position, avoid a slick plastic chair mat or even add a rug with a non-slip pad to keep it from rolling too easily.
  
• Keep these principles in mind as you adjust other kinds of seats and controls, such as those on a car.
  
  • Sometimes there's a tradeoff between relaxation and leverage. In a power-everything, cruise-controlled car, keep your seat low and rest your heel on the floor so you need only extend rest and extend your foot periodically to stop or go. Keep your elbows rested to the sides, preferably on level armrests, and hands rested in a self-leveling fashion around the eight and four-o-clock positions on the wheel--not an unstable position near the top. You may need to offset your hands a little so the car tracks straight (or very slightly away from oncoming traffic) without constant strain if your arm rests aren't level, or something isn't entirely symmetrical. For a vehicle or driving style requiring greater or more frequent effort, you might prefer to sit up over or closer to the controls to bear down on them. No matter what's most comfortable, make sure you have enough reach and range of motion to manhandle the controls in an emergency.
    
  
  
• The most expensive part of most computing systems is not anything in the computer, but the operator in front of it.^[20] So, removing bottlenecks in the operator's sustained focus, clarity of thought and data-entry speed and accuracy is a great place to start efforts to improve productivity.^[21] Soft armrests might save much more time in transferring data to the fingers than a fast CPU would save in shuffling it around once it's reached the keyboard.
  
  • Keeping the space around a computer well-lit and at proper temperature will pay for itself many times over through increased productivity.^[22]
    
  • To save energy on climate-control of a big, mostly-empty house, choose a cool area in summer, and a warm area, space heater, or electric blanket in winter.
    
  
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Set Up an Ergonomically Correct Workstation
  
• How to Sit at a Computer
  
• How to Recline and Use a Computer
  
• How to Select an Ergonomic Office Chair
  
• How to Buy a Computer Desk
  
• How to Build a Powerful Quiet Computer
  
• How to Get Rid of Bad Back Pain
  

Sources and Citations

• Cornell University Ergonomics Web, http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/ - research source
  

"

Android 3.0 Honeycomb Event 2 FEB 11

The next generation of mobile maps

The next generation of mobile maps: "(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog and the Google Lat Long Blog)

I’m excited to announce Google Maps 5.0 for Android, with two significant new features: 3D interaction and offline reliability.

We launched Google Maps for mobile a little more than five years ago. Since then, we’ve added dozens of features, and we’ve grown from a few thousand to more than 100 million users. Still, a couple of things have remained the same: a flat, north-up map and the need for a strong Internet connection. Today, we’re changing that for the first time.

Tilt while zoomed in (left) or use compass mode (right) to orient yourself with 3D buildings.

Explore maps in 3D
Until now, Google Maps has always downloaded the map as a set of small, square images that we stitch together to form the map you see. (You’ve probably seen those gray squares getting filled in, block-by-block, as the images load over the network.) Starting today, we’ll use vector graphics to dynamically draw the map on your device as you use it, allowing you to interact with it in new ways:

• Tilting: Drag down with two fingers to tilt the map. Tilt while zoomed in on one of the 100+ cities around the world with 3D buildings to see a skyline spring to life.
• Rotating: Twist with two fingers to rotate the map. After tilting to see 3D buildings, rotate around them to gain a new perspective from any direction.
• Smooth zooming: Slide two fingers together or apart, and see the map and labels continuously scale to any zoom level, stopping when your fingers stop.
• Compass mode: Center the map on your location, and then tap the compass button in the top right corner. The map will flip into 3D mode and start rotating to match your perspective, while still keeping all the labels upright and readable.

I found 3D buildings especially useful on a recent trip to New York. From my hotel to the Google office in Chelsea and bars on the Lower East Side, this richer representation of the real world made the map much more helpful. And whenever I walked out of a building or subway station, I used compass mode to get myself quickly oriented and on my way. Check out the video below to see tilt, rotation, zoom and compass mode in action, or see more pictures.



Offline reliability
Google Maps has always been, and continues to be, a fundamentally Internet-connected experience, meaning you always get the freshest map and place data, search and voice search, live traffic conditions, satellite and Street View imagery, and much more. Still, we understand that mobile Internet connections aren’t 100% reliable. So today we’re happy to take the first steps toward greater offline reliability, so you can find your way even if you lose your connection.

In the past, you’ve probably had frustrating moments when you get stranded without a map, whether ducking into the subway, sitting at the back of a restaurant or traveling anywhere with a flaky Internet connection. But dynamically drawing maps requires 100 times less data to get maps across all zoom levels, so now we’re able to proactively cache (or store) large areas on your device based on where you use Maps the most. This way, you can rely on having fast, robust maps available to you where you’re most likely to need them.

For example, I live in San Francisco and work in Mountain View, so Maps makes sure I can always pull up detailed street maps of each city and area maps for the whole San Francisco Bay Area. When I do have an Internet connection, I still get live traffic, imagery, richer map details and all the other features I’m used to with Google Maps.

Rather than having a static set of maps when installed, Maps will automatically start caching the areas you visit the most when your device is plugged in and connected to WiFi (e.g., the nightly charge). We’re already hard at work improving the algorithms and technology behind these features, so over time you can expect to see maps work better in more offline situations.

Offline rerouting
If you’re one of the more than 10 million people relying on Google Maps Navigation (Beta), our free turn-by-turn GPS navigation feature, losing your Internet connection can be particularly painful. (This happened to me on a recent ski trip to Tahoe, and I was left trying to manually find my way back to my route.) So we’re also introducing offline rerouting. You’ll still need a connection to start a route, but if you miss a turn along the way, we’ll quickly get you back on track, even if you don’t have an Internet connection. We’ll be rolling this feature out gradually over the next few weeks.

Google Maps Navigation now automatically reroutes you, even if you lose your connection.

These new features are just the first steps in maximizing dynamic map drawing technology to create a faster, more interactive experience where efficiency really matters: mobile devices. For example, we estimate that viewing maps now requires almost 70% less mobile network data overall than before. We can’t wait to take the next steps in making Google Maps faster, more reliable and even more useful no matter where you take it.

Get Google Maps for mobile 5.0 by searching for Google Maps in Android Market (or tap on this link if you’re on your phone). Android 1.6+ devices can get Maps 5.0, but 3D and offline features require Android 2.0+, and some features may not be supported for all devices or countries.

So try it out. Wander around in compass mode, explore 3D buildings—even dare to open Maps on the subway! I hope you enjoy all the new features as much as we do.

Posted by Michael Siliski, Product Manager

"

Christmas Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus - Must See!

Update: Evernote 4.1 for Windows

Update: Evernote 4.1 for Windows: "

Evernote 4 for Windows got a few nice improvements this morning. If you are using Evernote 4 already, then check for updates. If you are currently using Evernote 3.5, then please download version 4 here. The auto-update from 3.5 to 4 is coming soon.

Here are the new features.

Notebooks Stacks

Visually organizing your notebooks just got easier. Notebook Stacks allow you to group related notebooks together. For example, you can create a ‘Work’ Stack and a ‘Personal’ Stack. Put all of your work projects into one and all your personal notebooks into the other.

Creating a Stack

To create a Stack, drag and drop one notebook onto another or right click on a notebook to add it to a new or existing Stack.

Search in Stacks

Say you’re looking for something that you know is in a particular Stack, but you’re not sure in which notebook. No problem. You can search across all the notebooks contained within a Stack by opening the Search Explanation and choosing the Stack you’re interested in.

The great thing about Stacks is that they will be visible across all Windows and Mac computers where you have Evernote installed. So, you can have your ‘Work’ Stack open in the office and your ‘Personal’ Stack open at home.

Create more notebooks

We’ve increased the total number of synchronized notebooks that you can have in your account from 100 to 250. This increase is very useful for educators that organize student work in Evernote, teams that collaborate on projects using Evernote’s sharing capabilities, and anyone else that uses notebooks to organize their work.

Improved Note Info panel

The Note Info panel now has three possible states, so you can choose how much information you want to see.

• Completely open: displaying tags, source URL, geo-location, created and updates dates, and more.


• Partially open: displaying only tags and source URL


• Closed

Other improvements

• Installation is now possible even if you do not have administrative access to your machine


• Improved search for to do and notes with encryption


• New languages: We now support Korean and Traditional Chinese


• Updated the Note Info panel

Download Evernote 4.1 now »

"