Now you're going Places

Places 1.0, by UK-based The Dream Apps is an iPhone/iPod touch-based guide to the world, containing helpful information about some of the worlds most popular destinations. With pictures, quick links to Wikipedia, favourites and maps, Places is claimed to one of the most comprehensive and easiest to use virtual tour guides available. Over time, more features and destinations are planned to be added.
(Source: MacMegaSite) | Cost: US$1.99 | Requires: iPhone or iPod Touch; active Wi-Fi or cellular data internet connection for the ‘Maps’ or ‘Wikipedia’ functionality. | For further info...

Winners of the FT Climate Change Challenge

Other notable finalists of the FT Climate Change Challenge include:

• Deflector hubcaps by US entrepreneur Jon Fleck are fitted to truck wheels to cover the turbulence-generating holes in their wheels, reducing air resistance. These are claimed to cut fuel consumption by 2 per cent, making each $50 cap pay for itself in fuel savings within six months. Because of the long distances travelled by hauliers, even small improvements to truck efficiency can have a large effect.
• 
  Charcoal microwave:The Black Phantom from New Zealand-based Carbonscape is a huge microwave that reduces any biomass to charcoal to be used as a super-efficient fuel or buried to prevent carbon reaching the atmosphere. Resistant to microbial action, the charcoal can securely store carbon for thousands of years, according to the company, who says that although it uses power, the system fixes more carbon than it generates.
• Garlic burp suppressants: Mootral from UK-based Neem Biotech is a food additive containing allicin, an antibacterial compound from garlic that limits the growth of the methane-producing bacterial colonies in a ruminant animal's first stomach. Estimates suggest ruminants are responsible for around one-fifth of global warming, and trials show Mootral can reduce such emissions by 15 per cent by cutting the methane belched out by ruminants such as sheep and cows.

(Source: New Scientist) | For further info...

I taut I taw another tweeting app

If you're into Tweeting and you're on a Mac, you might like to know that Atebits' Tweetie for Mac is a desktop equivalent of its previously-released Tweetie for iPhone. Features include conversation view, independent composition windows, trend searches, threading of Direct Messages, a tear-off search results list, a browser bookmarklet for sending links to Tweetie, and more. Tweetie is for Mac OS X 10.5 (Universal Binary), and in its recent review of all Mac-based tweeting apps, it was the reviewer's preferred choice of the lot.
(Source: Macintouch) | Cost: US$14.95 (until May 4) | Requires: MacOS X 10.5+ | For further info...

Let your camera do the scanning

Prizmo 1.0 from Creaceed is an answer to the idle musing of no doubt many a user – an app that allows you to use your digital camera as a "scanner" for both 2D and 3D objects, including receipts, book and magazine pages, signs and posters, landscapes, and more. Its bundled software allows you to correct the resulting image for contrast, sharpening, and – impressively – for perspective, too. The resulting images can be printed, emailed, or saved to disk. Includes support for JPEG, RAW, and TIFF input images, and more. Any digital camera will do, but it for best results it recommend a 10-megapixel camera or higher. For potentially saving you the cost of a scanner such as the ScanSnap or the newly released NeatDesk for Mac, however, there is a price.
(Source: Macintouch) | Cost: USD $39.95 | Requires: MacOS X 10.5+, digital camera | For further info...

MS Office for Mac: updates

Microsoft has released the latest updates for Office 2008 and Office 2004, to address a critical security issue in Excel and improve performance. The 2008 update requires you to have installed update #12.1.0. If you're using MS Office for Mac 2004, be advised that it will cease to be supported as of as of Oct 13, 2009, and will thus no longer receive any updates.
(Source: TidBits) | Cost: Free (update) | Requires: Mac OS X 10.4+ | For further info...

Manage your projects and your workgroups

Billed as a unique tool for managing both projects and workgroups, Teamwork 4.1 is a very full-featured web-based team work manager, written in Java, with tools for project management, agendas and meetings, work logging, collaboration, and other functions. Project management data may be exported to MS Project. The latest version includes integration with Twitter and Google Calendar, a revamped interface, a business process extension, smart search functions, dynamic web parts that allow in-place and multi-line editing, and more.
A helpful, if Swiss-accented explanatory video online (“manADGEment” = management, “assee-knees” = assignees) gives a good picture of its features and advantages.
(Source: Macintouch) | Cost: €90 per user; €790 for 10-user pack. | Requires: Java 5 & Mac OS X 10.4+, Windows, or Linux | For further info... /