According to the Seattle P-I’s Microsoft blog a new prototype called Canvas for OneNote is now available from Microsoft’s Office Labs.  It is a way to look at more “natural ways” of interacting with software, says Labs General Manager Chris Pratley.

Canvas for OneNote allows users to see thumbnails of all the pages they have created within the organizing and note-taking program on one screen.  You can zoom in to see a close-up of a page, double click to open OneNote and edit.  Those with touch screens can use their fingers instead of a mouse.

You can make a thumbnail bigger so that you remember to come back to it, if you like.  You can also look at all the pages modified within a certain time period.  Move a slider to the left or right and see the pages highlighted.

Currently the application is up for download on the Office Labs Web site.  “We want to see how people really use it,” Pratley said.  Like the other prototypes on the site, Canvas for OneNote is for now “more science experiment than add-on.”  Learn more and watch videos here.  You’ll need Windows Vista and OneNote 2007 to use Canvas.

Other Office Labs prototypes available include an e-mail prioritizer for Outlook that automatically prioritizes e-mail for you based on information about the e-mail, and pptPlex which transforms PowerPoint presentations into a zoomable canvas, somewhat like the new Canvas for OneNote.

Earlier this month, Amazon introduced the Kindle 2 ebook reader (check out the link in the right sidebar), which produced a flurry of reviews.

John Biggs at CrunchGear says the Kindle is the future, but lists 10 reasons to buy and 10 reasons not to buy.  Your own circumstances will dictate which way to go, assuming you have the bucks to make the purchase if that is your choice.

Biggs reasons not to buy focus mainly on his perception that Kindle is not a good research or reference tool, including for students.  But its great for travelers, he notes, especially those who like to take a lot of books along with them.  The new Kindle 2 can hold 1,500 books, but there is no SD slot for added memory.

There is no mention in the post of the new text-to-speech function, which is being loudly complained about by Roy Blount, president of the Authors Guild.  He feels authors are being cheated by Amazon which is not paying for audio rights, unlike the publishing of traditional audio books.

I confess I haven’t heard the Kindle 2 read a book aloud.  I am a big fan of audio books because I like the acting ability of the narrators, not just the capability of having a voice read to me.  I always assumed that the relatively expensive cost (which I lament) of audio books paid for talented professionals who create a different experience for the listener from that of a reader of the printed work.

I haven’t seen my reason listed anywhere for not buying a Kindle ebook reader, tempted as I am because I love tech gadgets.  It has to do with my reluctance to purchase books, including audio books, that I can get at the library.  The kind of book I like to own these days is unlikely to be satisfactory as an ebook because it would have copious illustrations.  I also read, or start to read, hundreds of books a year.  A fair number of them turn out to be books I do not want or need to own.

If you are looking for a job, you have probably tried a number of sources.  Here’s one more — the use of social networking websites.  Dan Schawbel, posting on Mashable, explains why and how to use these ten sites he feels are the best.

Some sites help with crafting your resume, some contain job listings, others connect you with people in your own or related fields.  Having your own website or blog will help you present more of yourself to prospective employers.

Includes:

• LinkedIn
• Plaxo
• Twitter
• Jobster
• Facebook
• Craigslist
• MyWorkster
• VisualCV
• JobFox
• Ecademy

Another reason to use Gmail’s Multiple Inboxes
A couple of weeks ago a new Gmail Lab feature called Multiple Inboxes was launched.  It allows you to customize different “inboxes” in one view.

Now Gmail Blog suggests that if you forward all your work or school email to Gmail, you can use Multiple Inboxes to see your two accounts separately within the same browser window.

First go to the Gmail Labs tab under Settings and enable Multiple Inboxes.  Set up a filter to auto-archive all mail sent to you from your other email address, then customize one of your multiple inboxes to show mail sent to your other address.  To do that, go to the Multiple Inboxes tab under Settings and set up one of the panes to search for mail sent to your other address.  A separate inbox will help you see messages without cluttering your primary inbox.

Global mobile award winners
The World Mobile Congress in Barcelona just concluded.  Winners for 2009 in the “best mobile …” are listed here.

Categories include best mobile handset, game, music or video service, best technology advance, breakthrough, green mobile award, and more.

Bargain Blu-ray players
Haven’t gone for a Blu-ray player yet?  PC Magazine suggests some good, but relatively inexpensive equipment to enhance your HDTV experience.

Some players “upconvert” your regular DVDs’ image quality.

Windows Mobile 6.5, a cosmetic overhaul designed to make touch-screen phones easier to use and improve Windows phones’ Web-browsing skills, was introduced at the Mobile World Congress.

Phones using the OS are going to be called “Windows phones” and an app store, Windows Marketplace for Mobile, is upcoming.

Two new software products for the phones were announced:  My Phone — a phone-to-PC syncing service, and Recite — a service to help you search through voice notes.

Since last year, Windows Mobile has been losing smartphone market share to Apple and RIM, even though sales have been growing.

A number of changes show up in the new OS version, but PC Magazine notes that, “The biggest changes come in the contacts and Web browsing applications.  Of the two, Internet Explorer Mobile has gotten the most welcome upgrade.  Page rendering is much smoother and clearer with the Internet Explorer 6 engine, and there are large, finger-friendly buttons to let you go back, access your Favorites, pan and zoom around Web pages.  A tiny image in the bottom-left hand corner of the screen shows you where you are in a larger page.”

According to Microsoft, Windows Mobile 6.5 will appear on phones by this summer, including phones from both HTC and LG.  For more details, check out the PC Magazine article.

Photo by PowerUpMobile.com.  Creative Commons license.

A colleague (thanks, Jean!) called my attention to Stardock’s Fences, a free desktop icon organizer.  I found it easy to install and customize, and the process of dragging and dropping desktop shortcuts into my selected categories made me feel like I am finally doing it “my way.”

One of the good things about Fences is that you can make them (and your icons) go away with a double-click — or set up the program to make some go and some stay.  It’s a quick way to get a clean slate, especially if you want to do a screencast.

“Fences allows you to create shaded areas on your desktop that you can place icons in. You can label them however you wish, and move/resize them anywhere on the desktop.  Pre-included layouts help speed the process for new users,” promises the website.

I really like the look and feel of my desktop now that I have “corralled” my icons in a way that works for me and have arranged them around the photo I am using as wallpaper.

You might want to check out this demo video about Fences made with Camtasia Studio.

Gmail Labs has a new feature they call “multiple inboxes” which gives users the ability to view up to five different panes in a choice of position on the page — to the right, above or below your regular inbox.

To turn on Multiple Inboxes, go to Gmail “Settings,” then select “Labs.”  Scroll down a bit until you come to Multiple Inboxes, check “enable” and save your new settings.  After you have enabled the feature, you can select it from the settings option to configure what you want to see, as well as set the number of messages displayed and the positioning of your panels from the Multiple Inboxes.

For users who frequently label their messages and have saved searches, this upgrade will make Gmail even more efficient.  Creating a pane seems to be a little counter-intuitive, says TechCrunch.  “You’ll need to manually enter the Gmail ‘code’ of your label (for example, “label:friends” would display a list of messages tagged with the friends label). But the system is also flexible, as it allows you to combine multiple attributes into a single pane (for example, “is:drafts OR is:starred” would show messages that are either drafts or starred).”

And for those who were expecting to actually see the inboxes of multiple email accounts, advises Google Operating System Blog, you can achieve this by using Gmail’s mail fetcher, which automatically labels the messages fetched from other accounts and archives them.  You can then create panes that have the following format: label:myotheraccount@gmail.com or to:myotheraccount.com.

While looking closely at your Gmail, you may also notice a recent button redesign.

Designer Douglas Bowman says, “The buttons are designed to look very similar to basic HTML input buttons.  But they can handle multiple interactions with one basic design.  The buttons we’re using are imageless, and they’re created entirely using HTML and CSS, plus some JavaScript to manage the behavior.  They’re also easily skinnable with a few lines of CSS, which was a key factor now that Gmail has themes.”

Google Earth’s latest update – 5.0 — offers a number of reasons to download it.  Whether you want to explore the oceans, Mars, or 3D views of Vancouver, or New York City, you are in for a treat.

Wired Blog Network says the “most exciting of the new features are the oceanography details. Google Earth has long offered minor, 2D topographical sketches of the Earth’s oceans, but the latest version adds the sort of details that Jacques Cousteau would have flipped for — you can now dive under the ocean and fly over undersea landmarks — mountains, trenches, shipwrecks and more.”  The post shows some impressive screen shots, or you can find your own once you install the GE 5.

On the other hand, Google Earth Blog poster Frank Taylor says that one of his favorite new major features is the new Mars mode. The feature isn’t obvious when you first open Google Earth 5 — after loading look for the little planet icon at the top center of the view. Click on it and you will see a menu.  You now can switch between Earth, Sky, AND Mars.  This is not just an image overlay on top of Earth, he points out, it is a complete simulation of the planet Mars just like Google Earth.  You use the same controls, and there is a set of very useful layers just like in Google Earth

The Google Earth Blog is a good place to find links to all the new features (including new historical imagery) of GE 5 beta.