Software utilities

Holding Pattern Coach Class is a very attractive and free screensaver. It shows you a lot of aereal views, as seen from a plane window. You can choose between 15 different images. The pro version, Holding Pattern 2.0 First Class, shows even more pictures, which you can personalize with audio and other effects. Idle time software (http://www.idletimesoftware.com) has also planned the release of new screensaver, come back soon for more news!

Tim, the main Italian mobile service provider, has started talks with Apple and its CEO, Steve Jobs, for deploying the iPhone in Italy, to Tim costumers. The iPhone will be available in Europe in autumn, but no agreement were signed with an Italian mobile carrier; Telecom Italia Mobile is the first, to offer an unique and very attractive mobile phone (and much more) to its costumers. No press release has been released about his, so stay tuned for more iPhone news!

Nokia today launched a new music store, the Nokia Media Store, hoping to loosen the grip of Apple on online music market. The service will be launched in Europe in autumn, when Apple will distribute its iPhone in the European market. Nokia also announced 4 new headsets: two of them, the N95 and N81, could be a direct rival to iPhone: they both have 8 Gb of memory and 3G connectivity (while iPhone will run on the slower EDGE network); the N95 will also have a 5 megapixel digital camera (iPhone only 2 megapixel).

Whit this move Nokia is hoping to become also a leader in the service provider market, especially in the online music section, where now Apple control roughly 75% with iTunes service.

Starting from the Monza GP in September, a new way of watching live Formula1 GP will be available. Kangaroo Inc. has signed an agreement with Formula One Administration (FOA), which will enable this Canada-based company to broadcast TV-like video streams to its own (patented?) portable TV, which will be available for rent on site in every GP from now till 2011.

This will be made feasible by Onsite Broadcast Technology (OBT), a new technology developed by Kangaroo itself.

This new device will enable GP fans to watch Ferrari also in the farther, hidden parts of the circuit.

How much will it cost? Only 50 EUR for a single day, or 75 for the whole weekend. Seems nice!

Monza, I’m arriving!

WPanorama is a small freeware utility useful for displaying panoramic 360° pictures, scrolling them both horizontally and vertically. It includes a small application, useful for displaying photos, and a screensaver (Vista compliant) that lets you use 360° pictures as screensavers.

Some of their features are:

- 360° continuous scrolling
- Back and forth scrolling for non 360° pictures
- Automatic detection of 360° panoramas
- Horizontal and vertical scrolling
- Multi-monitor systems support (the scrolling panoramas can span over
several monitors)
- Mini slide show (one sample of it included in the package)
It is possible to display in full screen mode slide shows which aspect ratio
is different from the one of the display
- Mirror function for special interesting effects
- Miscellaneous stretch filters
- Variable scroll increment and speed
- Extensive help with a “Question and answers” section
- Direct access from the programs to the update on the Web

Visi their website for more information! http://www.wpanorama.com