Penn State Great Valley Library Blog

Planning on visiting a museum this summer or would you like to see one virtually? Download a podcast tour to your iPod from home and whet your appetite for the upcoming excursion.

Many museums offer virtual tours - such at the Louvre at http://www.louvre.fr/llv/musee . The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History also offers a vitual tour at http://www.mnh.si.edu/panoramas/ .

However, Apple offers free podcasts of a variety of museums. To view the complete list, click on the link http://www.apple.com/ipod/ipodtours/ and then select The Museum Room.

According to a Pew Internet & American Life Project study from April 2009 56% of adult Americans have accessed the internet by wireless means, such as using a laptop, mobile device, game console, or MP3 player. The most prevalent way people get online using a wireless network is with a laptop computer; 39% of adults have done this. For more information you can find their report at http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/12-Wireless-Internet-Use.aspx

Bing is Microsoft’s new search engine and this one is worth checking out. Specializing in Health, Shopping, Travel, Local Information and Images, it contains many innovations. One outstanding feature is the presentation of the search results. The left column offers related search suggestions as well as search history. The center area is reserved for search results. The innovative feature here is the mouse roll-over for additional information. By rolling the mouse over a search result, an orange dot appears. Roll over this orange dot to view text from the suggested webpage; this provides users more information before having to actually select the page. A tour in the Look Before You Leap section demonstrates how easy Bing makes comparison shopping. The demonstration I viewed focused on cars, listing car facts – price, MPG, reviews, and safety ratings.

Additionally, it is one of the first search engines to index twitter postings. A fun element of the home page is its dazzling image of a location from around the world. The image changes daily and it contains several information points regarding the setting. Simply roll-over one of these points with the mouse to learn more about the displayed location.

To try out Bing, click on the following: www.bing.com or click on the Bing image above.

Google Voice is a free plan (for calls within the US) which offers users one number to replace the collection of home, work, & cell phone numbers. Users simply distribute one number and then define which of the phones ring on their end. For example, an incoming call from family might be set up to ring on all of the user’s phones. Customers might be defined to ring on cell and work. And an annoying gossip might be set to go directly to voicemail. All voicemail is transcribed and sent to user’s email. Google Voice also sends user’s text messages to voicemail. Known unwanted callers can be blocked. This really is a catchall for communication. The drawback is by allowing voicemail to be transcribed, users lose their privacy. Once voicemail becomes email, it has the same amount of privacy as a post card.
For now, users wanting Google Voice need to place their name on a list for an invitation. For more information about Google Voice features or to receive an Invitation, click on the link:
http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html#