I have been using Evernote since version 2 something and when I first started to use it I was amazed over the quickness of the very light client. With every new version there have been tons of features added and with every new version, the client has become a bit more bloated. Of course this can also be connected with the amount of information I keep in my account (the number of notes increase in an insane rate) but I do believe that some of the blame actually is the client. In fact, I have thought that it was the client up until today when Evernote 4 was released and by reading the release notes; I was correct. The client has been re-written!

“On our test hardware, Evernote 4 starts five times faster, and uses half the memory of Evernote 3.5.” –blog.evernote.com

Evernote 4 is lightning fast, just as I remembered the old version 2. The new version has all those new features and still is fast though. I once again feel calm that I can keep pushing everything I need to remember into my Evernote account and to be able to get to it fast and easy, just as I wanted to do when I first started to use it.

Apart from the increased speed of the client there is also new features as improved clipping, improved editing of notes, a new UI and more. One feature that do stand out from my point of view is the improved handling of tables in notes which I have requested many times before. Now it is fast and easy to keep even table-data in your notes!

More information

• Evernote can be downloaded and purchased from the Evernote website.
• You can also follow their blog for more information.

All in all Evernote 4 was a great upgrade and I do feel that the new client was exactly what was needed to keep conquering the world. I can only but recommending everyone to get it and try it out to see how it can help you both private and in the workplace.

Evernote is available in both a free version and in a premium version which cost $5/month or $45 for a year. Embedded below is a short movie on what Evernote is all about. Please note that all images and the movie belongs to Evernote Coorporation and I got them from the Evernote website and therefore do not claim any rights to them.

The movie let us follow 9 (voice by Elijah Wood), a torn and rugged doll created out of burlap and with lenses for eyes. 9 enters the world without any understanding for why he is or when. Soon it become obvious for him that he does have a purpose in the time to come, not alone however. Together with the eight other dolls (voices by Martin Landau, Christopher Plummer and Jennifer Connelly to mention a few) the path clears on the task at hand. The movie has a few parts which may be a bit to strong for the younger audience and it seem that it is created more for an mature audience just as the movies of Tim Burton often are.

A post-apocalyptic wonderland

The first thing that did amaze me was the wonderful but eerie environments created in which the world exist. The destruction of the world just occurred and all that remain is scorched homes and wrecked cities, all entangled by sandbag-shelters and dug out trenches. The destruction becomes almost beautiful even though the entire setting is created out of darkness.

All the characters we meet throughout the movie has an arsenal or personality, which make me as a view to completely surrender the thought on small dolls who can speak to be something out of this world. Not many minutes pass until I can enter into the world which I’m seeing.

The only downside of the movie which I did notice would be a somewhat lack of crescendo. The later part of the movie could be even more dramatic to intensify the feelings of the characters. The movie still make sense but a more intense later part of the movie would have raised it even further.

9 gives us a very good start of the new movie-year and I highly recommend it for the more mature audience. Tim Burton has become one of the greater creators of our time in my opinion.

Resources
9 at IMDb

Todd is a call-center manager who quite frankly do not like his job. Nevertheless he get upset when he find out that his company is outsourcing him and his team to an Indian company. He even get the task of learning his own replacement about what to do. All from his first views of the Indian society to the clash of cultures is coated in a warm and fuzzy feeling as it is a romantic comedy.

So how does the movie compare to my own observations then? Well first of all, there is more people – everywhere. In Outsourced all that was shown was these calm suburban streets found in the US, and those was not the case in the India I was located in. What was perfectly shown though was the amazing warmth and kindness of the Indian people. You did see smiles and colors almost where ever you went which was an amazing experience for me, coming from the cold and a bit reserved Scandinavia.

If you are ot for a general feel-good movie with no real surprises this is a movie for you. Eventhough the movie can be a bit predictable in parts it will deliver a couple of smiles.

Resources:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425326/

Knowing is a new movie just out featuring Nicolas Cage. This time Mr. Cage takes on the role of a singe-parent astrophysicist named John Koestler who is struggling to handle his life after he lost his wife. The story evolve surrounding John and his son Caleb (Chandler Canterbury) who attends the William Dawes Elementary School. At the day when the time capsule is opened Caleb receives Lucinda’s sheets of numbers and brings them home because he think that they have a higher purpose. Drunk and broken down by his loneliness after his wife, John find a pattern in the numbers and the plot takes of.

As the first half of the movie goes the tension really builds up and they hold the audience in a great grip, as a viewer one feel that the story can take many different turns. The problem is that this twist never really arrive and when it does, I think almost everyone in the theater has already figured it out. For some this might actually be a good sign but for most people I think it will be more of a turn off.

Also, the special effects of the movie did halter in a few places which made me question the production a bit. Because at the same time there was other pars of the movie which was incredible in both effect and realism. Especially the part which involves a plane crash which was shown during a full continues two-minutes shoot.

Knowing currently hold a score of 6.5/10 at IMDB, and 33% at RottenTomatoes and a user-score of 6.4/10 at MetaCritic which can be seen as “OK” but nothing more. Personally I’d go for a score of 5/10. I feel the story had a great chance of blowing the audience away but did instead settle for the easy way out.

TO START OFF by some numbers and comparisons the iPhone is the expensive one of the two. The HTC is running Android and the iPhone is running the iPhone OS. They have about the same screen, the same size and the same battery-times. But I have to say that the battery in the HTC actually delivers a bit more punch then the one in the iPhone. Battery between the two is quite hard to compare though because I use different things on the two phones. For example I run my Facebook-app on the iPhone which makes me use that phone more then the HTC (yeah I know, I should be ashamed).

SO WHAT ARE the pros and cons after just a weekend with the HTC and about a month with the iPhone? Well first I have to say that the camera on the HTC feels quite a bit better then the iPhone equivalent.

iPhone
+ Design
+ AppStore
+ Simplicity
- Battery-time

HTC Hero
+ Personalization, you can change about everything
+ Camera
- Trackball, no use really with a touchscreen this good
- Android store, hard to find what you’re looking for but good when you find it

I WILL DO MY BEST to revisit this comparison when I’ve been using both phones for a bit longer. Most likely will there be more features or lack thereof I will find until then. But as for now, I have to say that the iPhone still is the champion of smartphones out there, even though it is one of the most expensive ones.

From the first moment I got the movie in my hands I noticed the obvious references between the story in the movie and the documentary I saw a while ago called Ross Kemp on Gangs. A documentary where the actor Ross Kemp travelled the world to understand the gangs around the globe. In one of the episodes he visited Rio de Janeiro and I got a view of the city that have ever since lingered in my mind. I was surprised on how it was possible for a city in such decay just could go on.

The movie is based on the book Elite da Tropa by Luiz Eduardo Soares together with two BOPE-officers (Major André Batista and Capten Rodrigo Pimentel). The story is about the elite police-squads roaming the streets of Rio de Janeiro trying to keep the druglords of the favelas at bay. The toughest of the squads is called BOPE or Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais and it is the people in this squad the movie follows.

The feeling of the entire movie is about more or less meaningless killing and power-struggles between people that have nothing but their own life. The only way of surviving is to get into the buisness of drugs and violence. Young kids beeing used as runners and lookouts and the older people not yet shoot as soldiers and hitmen. The only thing uniting all these people is the hatred against the police who themselfs is extreamly corrupt. And in some way the corruption feels like the main reason for the entire situation because if the people could trust the police the hatred would never grow as fierce. But as the situation is today it seem that all with a gun can be bought.

The movie is increddible violent and graphical and categorized as an action-movie but I would call it and action-drama due to the underlaying story of the movie. For all that have been reading about the gangs of Rio before it is a quite interesting story to get the words of the police instead of the criminals. The disturbing violence can cause quite some people to look the other way but for me the social aspects of the movie really opened my eyes and I hope to be able to learn more about the situation.

Most of the times I watch movis which I have been looking forwad to for a long time the eyes I see it with gets filled with ever more criticism. This makes movies like these sometimes loose a small portion of their glance because of the expectations that is needed to be fullfilled for it just to reach the surface. I was afraid that this would be the case with Districs 9 but I was happily surprised when the movie really did deliver a great show!

When dealing with aliens, try to be polite, but firm. And always remember that a smile is cheaper than a bullet. –MNU

Sharlto Copley (main antagonist) did an awsome interpretation of his character Wikus Van Der Merwe and the downfall of his personality was beautiful. If Van Der Merwe had been casted using a known actor I think that a great portion of the mocumentary-feeling of the movie would have been lost. The raw gruesome feeling was kept intact by disturbing images of war and terror which also did strengthen the feeling of the “mockumentary”.

I can greatly recomend the movie for all into sci-fi with a twist. A word of warning is needed though for the movie do include some really disturbing images and can be seen as upsetting. Already looking forwad of seeing it again as soon as it is released on Bluray!

The story has also been made into a movie and whether you read the book or watch the movie I recommend you to do one of them. The story is sad but interesting and deliver questions for you to answer.

More information
Into the Wild at IMDB
Into the Wild at Amazon

My first thought after the movie was done was that they did in fact show off to much of the movie in the trailers they have been showing both in movie theaters but also online and on TV. There are spoilers within the trailers that would have been better of if the audience were to discover them during the movie itself.

“The world is a bad place and there is really no light at the end of the tunnel…”

This aside though it is a quite good movie. As with most re-visited movies in the action genre now days the story has been darkened down a bit. The world is a bad place and there is really no light at the end of the tunnel, much like the latest Batman movies where they have totally revamped the story to be more raw. In short there are terminators everywhere and the war is raging on for the survival of the human race. Special effects are everywhere but the raw feeling make them blend in just fine. There is a number of flaws in the story itself where one can clearly see that they had to improvise to get the plot going which does lower the overall score of the movie.

Image is from The Internet Movie Database

Christian Bale really do pull of the role of John Connor and his charisma is great for the character and also Sam Worthington is doing a good job being Marcus Wright, not as strong as Bale but still good. Mr Bale was reluctant on taking the role for quite some time before shooting but I am glad that he did do it in the end.

To sum it all up, if you are looking for a good action movie which gives you mini-guns, swollen muscles and big explosions all mixed within a story of annihilation and judgment – this is a movie for you. Of course it makes the best appearance at the movie theater due to powerful sound and graphical effects.

Best part of the movie is the long consistent scene in the beginning of the movie which opens up the story and introduce John Connor. Beautiful piece of art created by a camera and backpack of GFX! The least appealing part of the movie I’d say is the poor way of telling the end of the story, which I am not to tell here, and it feels a bit like they ran out of time and had to wrap it all up in a bit of a hurry.

The flaws in the story is the major problem with the movie and what needed to be fixed for it to become a better movie then it was.

When it comes down to creating vector graphics most people see Adobe Illustrator as the best (and only) tool to use. Often people get their hands on the application in school or at work but almost no one have the money to buy it to use back home. This is where Inkscape steps into the field.

Strengths
The biggest strength of Inkscape is that it is really easy to get started with and the interface works to help the user instead of scaring them. Also, the fact that the application is free to use make me happy.

Weaknesses
Weaknesses exist everywhere and Inkscape just as many other open source suffer from some performance problems. From time to time when I use it to create I all the sudden get into a state of lag. After a bit of consulting using Google I find that my problems seem to have a wider audience and quite a few other have the same issues. But this aside I also have a bit of a problem using layers in Inkscape, more then rarely I find myself adding objects to a layer which I wasn’t supposed to do.

Conclusion
Inkscape is a worthy alternative to Illustrator when one look at the fact that is is an free alternative. There are some issues which makes it hard to use in a commercial product-line but for amateurs and semi-professionals this can make do for most things you need to create vector graphics. I’d say four out of five, I really think that it is a great application. If it had not been a free application it would have received one plus less though due to the performance problems I’ve got.

For more information and download links check out the Inkscape site.