FORM

VIA's Em-ITX form factor: Less means more

In making embedded devices, one of the biggest challenges has always been reducing the physical size of the device without compromising the functionality. And the main component that decides the size of a computer is the motherboard.

In this regard, VIA Technologies has some good news. The company announced Tuesday its latest board form factor for embedded systems, the Em-ITX. The new board boasts dual Input/Output coastlines while still establishing an off-the-shelf standard for ultraslim embedded devices.

Measuring merely 4.7 inches by 6.7 inches, the Em-ITX form factor is 30 percent more compact than the existing Mini-ITX standard, … Read more

Poorly designed interface

This tool promises one-click auto-fill functionality, but for such a simple concept, we had to spend a lot of time figuring out how to navigate the program.

Once you get past the nag screen, Boondee Fast Form Filler has a very basic user interface. It consists of a single window with menu options at the top. Despite its simple appearance, it wasn't entirely clear how to add new entries. The Help file is a long, drawn-out paragraph that was more confusing than informative. We clicked the Create/Save List option, but it introduced another vague window. We seemed to … Read more

Monocle launches Monocle Weekly: Small talk, big issues

Yes, we live (again) in the "age of conversations." There is something reassuring about listening to smart people having cultured conversations. When I was young, I would listen for hours to music-free radio programming that sounded like black-and-white movies.

Today, Monocle Magazine brought some of that magic back by launching Monocle Weekly, a 30-minute audio podcast. Hosted by editor in chief Tyler Brûlé, the short-form show extends the publication's monthly print content by offering fresh angles on stories in current and past issues, discussions, previews, field reports, and interviews. The light conversations on serious … Read more

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Manage your passwords with RoboForm Pro, $20.95 (today only)

A good password-manager is absolutely essential, and most users of RoboForm would agree it's one of the best. (CNET certainly does: Check out the five-star review.) The program remembers your passwords for various sites and automatically fills them in when you visit. It can also auto-fill Web forms for you, generate robust passwords, and even sync with your Palm or Windows Mobile phone.

Alas, the free version of RoboForm has some serious limitations, which is why most users spring for the $29.95 Pro version. Here's your chance to save nine bucks: Deal-of-the-day site Yugster is offering RoboForm Pro for $20.95. … Read more

GrooveShield Form the best iPhone 3G case yet?

It's rare that we get a mobile phone case that really excites us--as you can imagine--but we think we've found one. The Cygnett GrooveShield Form iPhone 3G case is as simple as it is beautiful--yes that's right, we just called a case beautiful.

The GrooveShield Form is very straightforward: it's shaped in such a way that it hugs your iPhone 3G perfectly and protects the back, corners, and edges from scratches and general wear and tear.

Because of its thinness, the GrooveShield Form almost looks like it's part of the case, and in fact many … Read more

Charge the PC on the patio with a solar table

A fair amount of attention has been paid to the idea of solar-powered laptops as a perennial source of energy on the go, but there's no reason that the concept shouldn't be applied to desktops too as the greening of homes continues worldwide. Canada's Intelligent Forms Design addresses this need and--much to our liking--does so from the patio at the same time.

Its weatherproof "SOlo Lounge Table" (not a typo) not only charges the computer with built-in solar panels, according to Boing Boing, but it can also keep you updated on its status through Bluetooth … Read more

Google dips toes into 'deep Web' search

Google's ever-active search bots, which scour the Web constantly for new pages, have begun a new, more active phase of their indexing jobs.

In a blog post Friday, Jayant Madhavan and Alon Halevy of Google's crawling and indexing team said the company has begun an experiment in which its indexing software experimentally enters text in Web site forms to see what previously undiscovered pages may appear.

"In the past few months, we have been exploring some HTML forms to try to discover new Web pages and URLs that we otherwise couldn't find and index for users … Read more

Create a simple form in Microsoft Word

Microsoft Office includes industrial-strength tools for creating forms of all types, but the Access database and InfoPath information manager are overkill for my meager form requirements. If I need to collect basic information from a bunch of people in a hurry, such as for planning a potluck lunch, I stick with the simple form-creation tools in Word.

Word 2007 groups the options found on the Forms toolbar in Word 2003 into the Legacy Tools button in the Controls section under the Developer tab. These form fields are a subset of Office 2007's Content Controls, which allow you to populate … Read more