Do you like the new Microsoft logo?
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- Category: Industry News
- Published on Sunday, 26 August 2012 23:06
- Written by Christian Dunn
Microsoft has released this video showing it's first new logo in 25 years and the updated logos for the next generation of it's office suit, Office 2013.
So what do you think of this ad?
It definitely has the new 'flat' or 2d metro style look to it to suit the Windows 8 and Phone to be released shortly.
Outlook.com - The new hotmail
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- Category: Industry News
- Published on Sunday, 26 August 2012 22:55
- Written by Christian Dunn
Looking for a new email address? In preparation for Windows 8 and Office 2012 Microsoft has launched the new outlook.com email service.
Hotmail users can migrate their email address to the new site or can sign up for a new @outlook.com alias.
If you want a new email address you should get in early to get a good alias as they are going fast.
Notice the new logo and new look and feel? Outlook.com is designed to suit and match the new look Office 2013 coming soon.
Sydney Public Transport now on Google Maps
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- Category: Industry News
- Published on Sunday, 29 July 2012 00:41
- Written by Christian Dunn
Sydney commuters can now use the public transport options on Google Maps thanks to a collaboration between Google and the NSW Government.
Google Maps was actually developed by Sydney engineers in 2005, so it is good to see these features finally arrive.
In addition to choosing to drive, walk or cycle you can now choose public transport as an option, including trains, buses, ferries and light rail.
Naturally, using your GPS to see your location you can see when to get on and off transport and where to walk. Great for those times you are not sure which stop to get off the bus!!
It's not yet perfect as many users have found and interestingly I got very different results performing an identical search on my Android phone and iPhone but this is a fantastic start and I look forward to testing it out thoroughly over the coming months.
Cool new Google Features
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- Category: Industry News
- Published on Saturday, 28 July 2012 23:58
- Written by Christian Dunn
Google has released some cool new features this week that will definitely be noticed by users.
For a long while Android users have had the awesome News & Weather app which provides detailed local weather information. Now that weather component has been integrated directly into Google web search (even on mobile devices).
Apple releases Mountain Lion
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- Category: Industry News
- Published on Wednesday, 25 July 2012 00:00
- Written by Christian Dunn
It's finally here. OS X Mountain Lion has finally been released for the great value of $20.99.
Check out the feature list below to see just much Apple has managed to squeeze into the newest version of OS X.
Find out more including how to upgrade.
Based on feedback from other users who have already made the switch there are a few critical points to consider as to whether you should upgrade. If you are using Lion then almost definitely. Beware some applications may not be compatible but Mountain Lion does everything Lion should have and makes a large number of enhancements and fixes. Snow Leopard users should think carefully as many applications may not work and I have heard reports of existing features now being incompatible or not working altogether. Some features require certain hardware. As an IMPORTANT NOTE, as you will find this widespread on the forums, AirPlay Mirroring will only work on 2011 Macs or later. This is NOT planned obsolescence but this feature takes advantage of some nifty features in the Intel Chipset which are only available on these models.Hopefully in the coming weeks Apple can iron out some of the known issues and application developers will start to update their programs to support the new version.
Features:
- Accessibility
- AirPlay Mirroring
- Auto Save
- Built-in Sharing
- Calendar
- Contacts
- Dashboard
- Dictation
- Dictionary
- Features for China
- Finder
- Game Center
- Gatekeeper
- iCloud
- Launchpad
- Mac App Store
- Messages
- Notes
- Notification Center
- Photo Booth
- Power Nap
- Preview
- QuickTime X
- Reminders
- Safari
- Security
- System
- TextEdit
- Time Machine
Is your Telstra mobile about to become obsolete?
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- Category: Industry News
- Published on Wednesday, 18 July 2012 17:55
- Written by Christian Dunn
Is your Telstra device about to become obsolete?
It appears mine might be. See the image below.
Telstra is phasing out it's old combined 3G 2100MHZ service which was a shared service with Vodafone.
As a result earlier devices may not be compatible or may require an update.
Telstra currently operated 2 networks, the Next G network and the 3G 2100 network shared with Vodafone Australia. Although you may be already using a device that is capable of operating on the Next G network it may still be configured to access the 3G 2100MHZ network which is being phased out.
The 30th August is the drop dead date for the old service.
If you want to check if your old phone or tablet is compatible see the information page which includes a link to the online device identifier tool which can perform this check for you.
To find out more see: http://www.telstra.com.au/mobile-phones/coverage-networks/network-information/earlier3g/
Death of the Windows Gadgets?
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- Category: Industry News
- Published on Tuesday, 17 July 2012 09:00
- Written by Christian Dunn
Who really liked Windows gadgets?
Admittedly I loved the concepts. I even made a few (there should be one somewhere in this site). I did find however they were a pain to use, had little control over functionality and affected performance so I turned them off most of the time. The sidebar actually worked better than floating gadgets but never was essential either and I couldn't really care if it was there.
... Well it sounds like it doesn't matter anymore anyway.
They want developers to build apps in Metro so who needs gadgets anymore anyway?
Story has it that the security researchers were due to present on Gadget vulnerabilities at the annual Black Hat USA 2012 security industry conference beginning July 21 in Las Vegas and are/were planning to demonstrate some dangerous security holes in the gadget functionality. Effectively because gadgets have system permission so they can do cool stuff such as tell the temperature of your CPU and they are also internet enabled so this opens up the potential for a major security flaw. Now back on Microsoft's case apparently they were aware of the problem and had not included gadgets in Windows 8 but it appears they were caught a bit off guard as they have now rolled out a Microsoft 'Fix-It' tool which effectively disables the gadgets and sidebar and they have issued an adviosry to recommend users stop using it in Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7.
Microsoft issued the following security advisory: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/advisory/2719662
Microsoft provide the solution in the following knowledgebase article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2719662
I am a bit suspicious that they have given us the ability to both enable and disable the feature in the knowledgebase article. That says to me that we may get an automatic update apply and turn off gadgets on all our customers. That might come as a shock. Microsoft? At least we have a short term out...
Windows 8 is coming in October (for most of you)
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- Category: Industry News
- Published on Monday, 16 July 2012 23:00
- Written by Christian Dunn
As the day nears closer Microsoft is starting to provide more details.
Latest news it that they are on schedule for an August RTM release which will have the Microsoft support community excited followed by the retail release in October.
Keep your eye out for the upgrade path. News is that users with the Consumer Preview installed and those buying computers in the next few months will be able to upgrade for under $50 to the new release.
Now we just need to see some decent new hardware that is ready to roll by the time this great new OS comes around. I have been crash testing the latest Consumer Preview of Windows 8 on a variety of machines and my latest is about a 5 year old laptop. Goes surprisingly well and no crashes yet!!
Little hint though... if you are planning on to perform an install of Windows 8 onto an old machine, think again. Most of the drivers are missing. My trick? ... install Windows 7 then upgrade. Enjoy.
Leap second causes internet chaos
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- Category: Industry News
- Published on Monday, 02 July 2012 18:43
- Written by Christian Dunn
You may have heard that in the last 24 hours as we brought in the new financial year we also brought in an extra second, and brought down a few websites. Yep, that's correct, 1 more second of our life.
Why did this happen?
To keep the global atomic clocks accurate that are used to centrally control time globally an additional 'leap' second was required to be added at the end of last month. This extra second was added at midnight. Unfortunately in the modern world of the internet our globally interconnected computer systems also use a technology known as NTP (Network Time Protocol) to talk to various servers and ultimately the atomic clocks to identify the accurate time.
Now changing the time *shouldn't* have any effect but the accuracy of many computer systems which rely on time for synchronising transactions means that any change in time can be critical.
In this case the change affected sites and services such as Reddit, Gawker, LinkedIn, FourSquare, Yelp, Mozilla, Java/Cassandra and many others causing them to experience issues for minutes or hours over the weekend.
Well, it is all back in order now, but this isn't a rare occurrence. In fact there have been dozens of leap seconds added since the concept was first started in 1972.
In fact anyone flying Qantas over the weekend who had a delayed flight, apparently the leap second also broke Amadeus which is their global booking system, requiring all flights to be delayed.
Who says clocks are simple?
Microsoft Surface Announced (Windows 8)
- Details
- Category: Industry News
- Published on Thursday, 21 June 2012 19:44
- Written by Christian Dunn
This week Microsoft announced Microsoft Surface!!
Microsoft Surface is a new tablet range to be designed and sold by Microsoft specifically for Windows 8. At last, a real iPad competitor.
This is a very interesting play by microsoft. It now pitches them against their own hardware distributors. Apart from the XBOX, Microsoft has generally worked with vendors to produce hardware for their software, but this time they are doing it themselves.
I am sure there will be a few HP, Lenovo, Dell execs not very happy with this decision as it will now pit their tablets against those from Microsoft.
So what is Surface and is it all it's cracked up to be. Well first impressions look fantastic. This is a tablet, like the Ipad that will be available in two versions RT and PRO both running Windows 8.
So what's the difference? RT runs on an ARM processor, cannot run normal windows applications and is designed to provide a competitor to the Android/eeePC market of netbooks. This is mainly targeted at home users. This model is actually thinner than an iPad. PRO is an intel based version that is slightly thicker than an iPad but is designed to run all your normal windows applications, yes, this is a full blown windows computer, and yes it is targeted at the enterprise.
Business has been Apple's downfall. Their device doesn't run Windows, can't run Office, can't store files etc etc... We have workarounds such as online applications and Citrix but this isn't suitable for all Windows Enterprise users. The PRO tablet is designed to be the iPad for business and I want one. Admittedly I use my Android tablet more than my iPad because it has free Documents To Go so I can create and edit Word, Excel documents when I need, so I can't wait for Surface.
I love the form factor and there is a soft (pictured) and hard keyboard available that can attach to the device with magnets, just like iPad covers.
Microsoft have really thought this through.
There is only one thing they got wrong... Announce then DELIVER. Apple has a great track record of saying, we have a new product, on sale today/tomorrow/next week. Microsoft said, we have a new tablet, on sale when Windows 8 is... hmm. Give us a date and announce it when it is ready to ship. You have just given your competitors a few months to try to catch up before you hit the market. Bad Bulmer!
So if Windows 8 is due in October, then that is when these will hit the market. This is definitely the product to watch for Christmas 2012 and I can't wait to get my hands on the surface.