Hot disks

Entrepreneur, July, 2004 by Liane Cassavoy

* Flashier Conference: Macromedia (www. Macromedia.com) has ad Web-conferencing features to its Breeze online presentation tool. The service now offers online meetings, including application sharing and white boarding, and retains its ability to deliver PowerPoint presentations with audio online. Breeze is based on Macromedia's ubiquitous Rash player, so most users won't need to download or install additional software. Pricing for the hosted service starts at $84 per user, per month.

* Gentle Reminder: Your handheld device can certainly be handy. But did you know it could also bug you? Electric Pocket's (www.electricpocket. com) BugMe application allows you to scribble notes and doodles on the screen of a Palm OS or Pocket PC-based device and set the note as an alarm to mind you of an upcoming event. It's priced at $19.95 (street) and also works with select cell phone operating systems.

* Just Compress it: If all you need out of your compression program is basic compression, consider JustZIPit (http://freebackup-software.net). This free utility is a bare-bones alternative to WinZip--so barn-bones, in fact, it lacks a user interface; it has a progress bar only. JustZIPit allows you to zip, unzip and e-mail files directly from Explorers context menus.

* E-Mail on Paper: Take your e-mail on the go with Mail Print. This $99 (street) application from Frogmore (www. frogmorecs.com) automatically prints out your new messages without any user prompting. You can choose to print the body of the message as well as any attachments from POP3 e-marl accounts and can specify acceptable addresses to prevent printing unnecessary spam messages.

LIANE CASSAVOY freelances from her home in Brookline, Massachusetts.