Gear Up For A World Party

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday July 22, 2006

David Stonehouse

Haunting singers, mobile filmmakers and the globe in a PC are at your fingertips, writes David Stonehouse.

MUSIC

Allison Crowe's voice holds a haunting poignancy, carrying with it an arresting power that even Jewel can't help but admire, once enthusing: "Beautifully moody or riotously rocking, Allison Crowe creates piano-based music of transcendent quality." Crowe's impressive talent is on full display at www.allisoncrowe.com - a complete range of her own tunes and covers available for download or streaming, including live tracks and even some video.

MOBILE

The festival might be over, but the mini-films fit for mobiles are still there. Palm, a leading software developer for handheld devices, hosted a "mobile film festival" on the Canadian arm of its website, with the winners chosen at an event on May 17. View entries at www.mobifest.ca.

SOFTWARE

In a three-dimensional world, resorting to two-dimensional sketches or photos to plot your newest invention, creation or vision is, well, flat and unsatisfying. Sure, there is plenty of software that will help you step out into a 3D view - though it has usually been pricey and encumbered with a steep learning curve. Now there is SketchUp (sketchup.google.com) from Google. This free software for Windows machines allows you to build virtual 3D models of just about anything, import stock images of people or objects, share your design or take a peek at others in the

SketchUp 3D Warehouse (sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse) and even view your model in Google Earth (earth.google.com).

VIDEO

MediaScrape (www.mediascrape.com) funnels television news clips from around the globe to your PC. For free. The website, which updates its content every 30 minutes, has ambitions to be the CNN of the internet. Its reach is impressive, it surfs news from the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East as well as Europe. Content comes from Reuters, Associated Press, a Turkish news agency and non-state broadcasters from Asia - all of it subtitled in English. Browse the news by region, country or keyword and plunder the archives for news of days gone by. Folks can submit their own video for use on the site and Mac users can tap into the content, too, by downloading a video plug-in.

HANDHELD

Who travels without their iPod these days? No one. So wcities (www.wcities.com) has free downloadable travel guides for iPod (www.podcityguides.com) - or as they so modestly describe it: "the world's 300 greatest cities. On the go." Check the PodCityGuides before you go to size up the club scene, the best hotels and restaurants for you along with the most alluring attractions and events. Use it to customise your itinerary, create a personal event guide and use the wcities website to order the event tickets you need. Check in as your trip progresses to update the events guide. The guides are free but to get them you need to register and trade your email address. Once you have registered, you download the city guide in zip format to your computer then transfer the files to your iPod.

icondownloads@gmail.com

© 2006 Sydney Morning Herald

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