Sony has unveiled a motion controller for the Playstation 3, an answer to the Wiimote. The "Move" is a rectangular controller made to be comfortable in the hand with a glowing plastic ball on the top that tracks the player's motion. Sony is promising big things for the new controller, including a whole new gaming experience. Not to be outdone, Microsoft is expected to come out with a motion controller in time for this years holiday shopping season.

Google is the biggest search engine in the world, but offers much more. Want to learn more about Google and how its [generally-free] technologies can increase your productivity, even on the go?

Check out our upcoming program, Google Apps Work for You, on Thursday, March 25, from 7:00-8:30PM. We'll cover search, docs, Gmail, and many lesser-known tools that work well for you or your business.

The presentation isn't complete, but you can get an idea of what we'll be talking about:

CantonWiki is having a meetup at the library on Wednesday, March 10 at 7:00PM. The goal is to meet CantonWiki people and to figure out ways to make the site better. Come to the Purple Room (in the Children's Library). You can see the agenda and RSVP on the wiki.

Photo by katielips used by Creative Commons license.

It looks like all the buzz about the next generation Wii console and new Nintendo hand held systems is just talk at this point. In an interview with Gamespot, Nintendo of America marketing head Cammie Dunaway denies any notion of new console hardware coming in the next year. However, she did say, "Part of Nintendo’s heritage is to always be looking at innovation, and to always start working on the next hardware every time we launch a platform, so we’ll have it ready when the time is right."

On Tuesday, Google announced Buzz, a new product that performs functions similar to twitter, friendfeed, facebook, and foursquare, all rolled into Gmail and integrated into many other Google products. To catch up on the hubbub, check out this video:

And these blog posts:

Learn how technology can save you money by using the Internet, Twitter, Facebook and even your cell phone to find and track online coupons and offers. Registration is open now for the class offered Saturday, January 9 at 9:30AM

Baby Boomers respond differently to new technology according to a recent report from Microsoft/AARP. They believe technology can be used to improve health care and fitness, going to demand simpler devices that are safer and easier to use, and they will be a big factor in the adoption of e-readers, recognizing that electronic devices let you carry a lot more reading material and view it in a way that is comfortable.

A recent study jointly published by Microsoft and AARP, Baby Boomers Are Shaping the Future of Technology, AARP and Microsoft Research Shows discusses the expectations of Baby Boomers and the use of technology.  Research shows Baby Boomers enjoy new technology and are eager to use text-messaging, social-networking, etc.  "Baby boomers want technology that reflects their values and helps them express those values with greater purpose, meaning and impact", Adam Sohn, Director of Integrated Communications for AARP said. “While boomers are heavy users of technology today — for everything from entertainment and news to online banking and social networking — what’s most exciting is the technology-assisted world they are helping to create.”

Due to the retagging project going on in the library, the video games have temporarily been moved. They are now behind the check-out desk, but that doesn't mean you still can't check them out! Feel free to ask any of the librarians to pull titles for you, or you can continue to put holds on games. If you'd like to see what we have, check out the list of all 1002 video games.

foursquare is a web app that lets you keep track of where you go, get restaurant ideas and reviews, keep tabs on your friends, and compete to be 'mayor' of local attractions. It does a lot, yet is very simple to use and available on GPS-enabled smartphones.

CNN recently did a writeup about how foursquare may be the Twitter of 2010; ubiquitous, social, and possibly overblown. However, where many people who visit twitter don't see the point, foursquare has concrete uses on top of being fun. For instance, here's a picture of me taunting my friend who was the 'mayor' of Tony's Coney & Grill at the time:

Now he'll have to go to Tony's to get mayorship back! Want to get started? Try to become mayor of Canton Public Library

Whether you need to learn more about your computer's current operating system or if you are interested in learning about a different one, the library carries a wide variety of books to help you. Materials cover older systems like Windows 98, as well as newer ones like Vista and Snow Leopard. Also covered are open source systems such as Linux.

Brighthub.com has listed their "Must Have Wii Video Game Picks for 2009 Holidays". The first on the list is New Super Mario Bros Wii. This game is not only a pick for the holidays but predicted to be one of the best games of 2009. If you don't get the game this holiday season, or want to try it before you buy it, you can check out one of our copies!

Ever wondered how things like hybrid cars or solar panels actually work? How do they help to save ethe environment? What is ethanol? What is a solar cell? Find out the answer to these questions with a series of books called Science in the Real World. To learn about hybrid vehicles, check out How Do Hybrid Cars Work? For solar panels, check out How Do Solar Panels Work?

Did you see this morning's Today Show feature about using energy meters to suss out the energy vampires lurking in your home?

If those energy meters seem like a pricey investment, consider checking out one of the library's Kill-a-Watt meters free of charge.

You are invited to the first meetup for CantonWiki, which will be on Tuesday, November 10 from 7:00pm-9:00pm at the Canton Public Library in Group Study Room A. Please RSVP on CantonWiki.

CantonWiki is a city wiki for Plymouth and Canton, Michigan, which aims to provide a comprehensive reference for anything and everything in the area.

We offer a number of tools to make it easier to find books, DVDs, and more in the CPL catalog.

Browser Search Provider

If you use Internet Explorer (7+) or Firefox (2+), the search bar in the upper-right-hand corner should glow when you visit any page on this site. Click the downward-pointing arrow and add CPL Catalog to search our catalog from anywhere.

Our search provider also gives you search suggestions as you type. For instance, if you're looking for a "fancy" book, the title, author, and book jacket for the first 8 results will show up below in IE8, or the text of the title in FF2+.

Bookmarklet

No matter which browser you use, you can find books mentioned on a website with just one click. CPL <— Drag this link into your bookmarks toolbar, or just add it as a bookmark. If you click it on any page, a box will pop up, containing a list of all the books mentioned on the page that Canton Public Library has (assuming that item's ISBN is available on the page). To learn more about bookmarklets, check out Wikipedia's entry.

The ISBN 0553109537 should trigger the bookmarklet, so try it on this page!

Widgets & Gadgets

If you want to do a quick search of our catalog from your desktop or personalized homepage, use these live search widgets. Along with the ability to search directly by keyword, each widget also provides the top 7 relevant suggestions for your search term on-the-fly.

• Microsoft Windows (Vista/7) Sidebar Gadget
• Mac OS X Dashboard Widget
• iGoogle Gadget
• Netvibes Widget

IE8 Accelerator

Internet Explorer 8 added a new feature called "accelerators," which allow you to browse faster. When you Add CPL Catalog Accelerator, you can highlight text on any page and quickly send it as a search to our catalog, just by clicking the little blue box. It even previews the first few results in a balloon. If you would like this same functionality in Firefox, you can use the IE8 Activities (Accelerators) for Firefox extension.

Did you know Canton Public Library's three public-use copy machines also double as document scanners? Because the machines have auto sheet feeders, they are great (and fast) for scanning and saving multi-page documents in either pdf or tiff format. You'll need to have an email address, because scanned files are sent electronically to the email address(es) you enter. The Copy Center also offers two letter-size flatbed scanners, which work well for photos and other graphics because you can save your scans in the popular jpeg or a variety of other formats. The flatbed scanners also have OCR (optical character recognition) capabilities, which allow you to scan text pages that convert easily to Word documents so you can edit them. There is no fee to use any of the Copy Center scanners.

The wind turbine pictured here is one of 32 harnessing clean electricity on Harvest Wind Farm in Elkton, MI. (I took this photo during a summer trip to the Thumb Area.) Michigan Wind 1, with 46 turbines, is another wind farm located just north of Elkton in Ubly, MI. Major energy companies like DTE and Consumers Energy are tapping into these and other wind farms in Michigan to supply electric power to their customers. Combined, both wind farms generate about 122 megawatts of electricity — enough to power roughly 35,000 homes.

Wind, solar and geothermal are among the most promising methods to generate clean, renewable energy. You can learn more about a clean energy future by reading Hot, Flat and Crowded, by Thomas Friedman, best-selling author and Pulitzer-prize winning columnist from The New York Times.

TIECon Midwest 2009 will take place Friday, October 23 at the Ritz-Carlton in Dearborn, MI. The conference is designed for entrepreneurs who "think creatively, innovatively and resourcefully to create their own future regardless of economic conditions and uncertainties."TiECon Midwest 2009 will focus on four vertical educational tracks including: Cleantech, IT, Healthcare and Emerging Concepts.

Many parents use web monitoring software to keep track of what their children do online - it's the next best thing to being there, right? Maybe not. The Associated Press reports that several major brands of this type of software offer kids' chat message logs to businesses hoping to tailor their marketing messages to children. There are some software companies that do not sell information to other businesses - you may want to check to see what practices your web monitoring software engages in. CPL also has lots of resources for parents and kids on Internet safety.