What happens when an awesome office suite and the cloud get mixed together? Docs.com. Docs.com is a website that has Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint in the form of Web Apps. And It does this without the loss of many features.

In Word, you still have your normal options such as highlighting, headings, spell check, etc. except the only difference is that you can write your documents in your web browser. This can come as a big plus for people with multiple computers or people who don’t have sufficient disc space for a large office suite. The same is with Excel and Powerpoint.

Docs.com also comes packed with some features that interact with your Facebook profile. This includes making resumes using your profile info, putting info from your friends such as age and gender into charts, and a feature called “Photo Show” which lets you take photos and put them in different frames and templates. Also, every time you make a new document using the Facebook features, it posts it on your wall, however you are able to customize the privacy of the document.

Overall, Docs.com is a great alternative to Google Docs for people who love Microsoft or love the atmosphere of Microsoft Office.

David – Senior Editor

Microsoft’s Outlook Social Connector (often referred to as OSC) has been long known to let you connect your Outlook contacts with social networks such as LinkedIn and MySpace. They have just added Windows Live and Facebook support. Just recently, Microsoft teamed up with Facebook to allow people with contacts on Outlook connect them to their Facebook profiles. And it works pretty well. By selecting an email, I was able to click on a contact in Outlook 2010 to connect to a social network. It the only social network available on the wizard should be “My Site” until you download some from here. On the site, you can download social network connectors, which now include Facebook and Windows Live. Then, on the wizard, all you have to do is enter your credentials and look the person up in the social network of your choice. Though I haven’t really played with it much, I did notice that the email you are trying to add has to already have a Facebook account to add them, so if the person has multiple emails, you may have to ask which one they use for their Facebook, which isn’t always the most comfortable thing to do. I know that Outlook itself is a very solid email client, and this just adds to its already socially-connected features.

David – Senior Editor

If you haven’t heard of the amazing HTPC application called Boxee, you really are missing out on a lot. It is an awesome application, that is connected to web services, but still works as expected at accessing your locally stored media. I really recommend this for HTPCs. Boxee features an “App Library” where you can pick from apps you want to use and put them on a screen of your favorite apps. The “App Library” features services such as YouTube, BREAK, Revision3, Netflix (with a subscription), FailBlog, Pandora Radio, and many more. For the most part, these all work as promised, though I have noticed that YouTube is just a blown-up Flash version and BREAK doesn’t show all the videos on the site. The Netflix app is absolutely amazing, it’s better than most of the console versions and other ports because you don’t have to add movies and shows to your Instant Queue to make them show up. You can browse through the whole Netflix Instant Play library and the quality is actually surprisingly good. Some of the other features are the ability to tune into your Facebook and Twitter feeds and see videos that people have linked. I wish that the Facebook and Twitter feeds had more functionality, but I’m sure there are some third-party apps that are capable of doing this. Another thing that I really like about Boxee is that it’s open-source and multi-platform. I have Ubuntu, WIndows 7, and Mac OS X and it works perfectly on all three.
I do feel, however, that for an application which is most likely an application that you always want to keep open on an HTPC, it is missing some functionality. I think that if they want to keep the user from switching to other applications, they should add some more things, such as: e-mail, Google Reader sync (though there is a built-in RSS reader, I like to keep all my devices in sync), ability to actually browse through Facebook and Twitter feeds without third-party plugins, and YouTube via H.264 or other native formats. Otherwise, this application mostly fulfills all my needs for HTPC use.

Click here to get Boxee.

David – Senior Editor

Just a few days back, Google announced Google Buzz. An new competitor in the social networking “game.”

Essentially, Google Buzz is like Twitter and Facebook, combined and, very much like FriendFeed. Like these three sites, it’s meant for anybody interested in the Web 2.0 environment and in social networking.
Like a lot of other networking sites, privacy does become quite a bit of an issue, so Google is letting you choose whether you want to post to thousands of people, across the globe, or just your a couple of your friends. But, even with these 2 choices, I would still not recommend entering private information since the system is probably prone to bugs.
What appears different from Twitter is the ability to post photos, videos and links, directly. The problem with that though, is that Facebook and FriendFeed already have the ability to do so.

The appearence of Google Buzz does vary. After all, it’s tied into your Gmail account. If enabled, Google Buzz will have a navigational button on the left sidebar. The button opens up a Gmail-like window, where you can see updates from the people you follow.

A major problem with Google Buzz is, if somebody comments or likes a status you have posted, you will recieve a notification in your Gmail inbox. As of right now, I’m unable to change whether or not I get notifications.
But, if you can deal with the emails and, you’re a person who likes trying new things, Google Buzz is definatly worth a try.

Lev – Lead Writer

Email Me: lev@techreevu.com

Follow my Buzz: morontown@gmail .com

Most of my friends use Facebook. So, I’ve started to use Facebook too. I’ve found many great things…. and many not so great things. One of those not so great things is the chat. I thought the chat would be a great way to interact with somebody without typing on somebody’s wall like a chat (I would love to have a small chat on Twitter.) But, I’ve found that the layout is pretty bad, as well as the location. So, when I came across Adium, I absolutely knew that I had to have it!