writing

Imeem, Lala investments not paying for Warner

Investments made in Web music services Lala, Imeem, and MySpace Music haven't paid off for Warner Music Group, at least not yet.

The third largest of the four biggest recording companies said Thursday it would write down $33 million, most of it from investments made in Lala and Imeem. Edgar Bronfman Jr., Warner Music's CEO, also said after the company issued quarterly earnings report that MySpace Music's performance has so far "disappointed."

Warner Music's write down--$16 million in Imeem and about $11 million in Lala--is a reflection of the company's valuations during … Read more

Five iPhone apps for writers

When people ask me if it's hard to be a writer, I tell them the challenge is not just thinking up the words, but putting them in the right order. Then they roll their eyes and walk away, reminding me I need to work on both my material and my delivery.

Anyway, like any professional, a writer relies on tools. Here are five that make a great addition to any iPhone or iPod Touch:

Dictionary.com Duh. Every writer needs a good dictionary and thesaurus. This one, a freebie, serves up 275,000 definitions, 80,000 synonyms, and even … Read more

Desktop sticky notes

Jot down notes and keep them organized on your desktop, keeping your other desk top a bit less cluttered. Freebie Notes provides a simple alternative to the paper sticky note.

This freeware is incredibly simple to use. By choosing a new note from the toolbar, users write themselves a quick note and place it on the desktop. This no-frills note system is perfect for jotting down ideas, phone numbers, or other brief info. Freebie Notes also provides several helpful options to go along with its primary function. A wide spectrum of colors ensures that you don't have a desktop … Read more

Write like mad with WriteMonkey

This lightweight and portable program is similar to other focus-driven programs like Dark Room or Q10. Still in beta, WriteMonkey can be run in a window, but the intent of these one-hit writing tools is to be used at full screen, eliminating distractions.

There are a couple of things that WriteMonkey does very well. First off, all the major program commands are accessible from the right-click context menu. When the program loads in full-screen mode, you can easily minimize it into a window by right-clicking and choosing the first option, "Toggle fullscreen/window." Once in window mode, WriteMonkey'… Read more

WriteOnIt turns pics into fake magazine covers

WriteOnIt is a simple service that lets you caption and manipulate uploaded photos. Just like BigHugeLabs' Flickr toys project (story), it can take uploaded photos and stick them into magazine covers. It can also slyly insert them onto coffee mugs, billboards, art easels, and fake mirrors within ready-made photos.

You have very little control over the complicated bits, like transparency, placement, and cropping--which are all absent. However, with that simplicity you can very quickly put together something that both looks polished, and that could fool your viewer.

Of all the tools my favorite is the newspaper creator. You have five … Read more

Nokia updates Qt open-source developer platform

Nokia has released the first major update to the Qt "cross-platform application framework" since it acquired Trolltech a year ago. Qt 4.5 is now available under the open-source LGPL (Lesser General Public License) and GPL licenses, along with two commercial licenses for older versions.

ReadWriteWeb highlights what a "cross-platform application framework" means:

Before we get into the details, let's examine the term cross-platform application framework. What does that really mean? It means that software developers can write an app that will run anywhere Qt (pronounced cute) is supported.

In practice, then, the app will … Read more

WiebeTech makes write-blocked access to hard drive portable

Most people won't have any use for this thing, but if you need to analyze evidence from a hard drive without changing its content, you'll probably be interested in the Forensic RTX.

This is the newest product from WiebeTech, the maker of the UltraDock V4 and the Drive eRazer, for the forensic field.

Basically, it's an external hard-drive enclosure that can house four 3.5-inch hard drives at a time. However, it differs from any regular external enclosure in many ways.

First, the device supports both the currently popular SATA and the older IDE interface standards. This … Read more

Write without distraction

JDarkRoom is a free, full-screen text editor that's designed to help you focus on your writing by eliminating distractions. When you open JDarkRoom, your screen goes completely black except for a blinking green cursor. By design, JDarkRoom gives you a limited feature set, with support for only basic word-processing functions such as cut, copy, paste, undo, and line and word count. JDarkRoom opens quickly (although not quite as quickly as Text Edit) and offers many options for fonts, auto-saving, and screen and type color. Its interface can take some getting used to (for example, it uses some nonstandard keystrokes, … Read more

Create a professional resume

Recent developments in the global economy have sent shockwaves through industries and companies around the world. Whether or not the economic downturn has hurt your employer or your job, it's a good time to take a look at your professional resume and update it or polish it as necessary. These six applications offer resume templates, styling advice, and helpful guidelines to help you develop a resume that impresses your next interviewer.

ResumeMaker Professional Ultimate

This jam-packed resume software is loaded with thousands of samples and templates from a wide range of industries. It also allows users to browse or … Read more