July 1st is the day that the Windows 7 Beta will begin shutting down every two hours. Which is Microsoft's way of telling you to go get the Windows 7 Release Candidate(really, you should have done it quite a while ago).
I admit it. I am an early adopter and I love to get the latest gadget, whether it's a phone or a robot vacuum cleaner. But keeping up with and researching the latest and greatest gadget can be time-consuming, to say the least. Enter GDGT What's this, you ask? Pronounced "gadget" it's gdgt.com a website dedicated to all us techophiles.
A scientist looking around on Google Earth discovered 7000 Hectares of forest that was previously undiscovered, in Mozambique. An expedition was quickly put together. In the first two weeks, they discovered new species of butterflies, and a snake that can kill a man with one bite. I've always known Google Earth was exceptional, but who knew it was capable of this?
For those die-hards that still think the Internet is a passing fad, consider this new report. For the first time, the Internet has passed all other media except TV as a main source for national and international news. All the other media have steadily dropped, while the Internet has, for the most part, continued to climb. This confirms the reports of newspapers continuing to struggle across the country.
We all know devices continue to get smaller. And they continue to do more. I, like millions of others, carry a device that is cell phone, computer, instant messenger, and email reader all rolled up in one small package. One of the issues with these devices however, has been the limited amount of storage capacity. Most of these devices utilize SSD, or solid state drives. This type of storage has typically been expensive, and limited in storage capacity. Until now.
Just a quick note to say Merry Christmas to all the readers. I hope your Christmas finds everyone safe. Please remember the reason for Christmas. We all know it's certainly not presents!
Do you know what Twitter is? If you don't, you may want to google it to find out. Dell announed that Twitter has made it over 1 million dollars in the last year and a half. Sure, that's nothing for Dell, but, every little bit helps, right?
Finally, A Faster USB! For the first time in over 8 years, Universal Serial Bus, or USB for short, is finally getting an upgrade. The non-profit group formed by various manufacturers to set the standard is scheduled to announce the new USB 3.0 standard.
In the spirit of saving your company money, I ran across a blog indicating Hearst Publications is selling some of their magazine subscriptions at greatly reduced rates. Popular Mechanics is available for a one year subscription for 5 dollars. There are others there as well, including O magazine, Smart Money, and many more. To take advantage for yourself, or to give as a gift, follow this link: https://subscribe.hearstmags.com/subscribe/veranda/20180
You have to be careful what you say nowadays. A case in point revolves around a post I recently made on a blog that tracks the industry my company is in. I was commenting on the site about a particular business model we use and how it has simplified our billing, etc. Another poster asked me what software we used to track some specifics. I replied back with the name of the software, but added a caveat that we were in the middle of implementing a different solution.
It looks like WiFi is finally available while you are on your flight. American Airlines has been testing a new WiFi service from GoGoInflight which allows you to get high speed Internet access (for a fee, of course) while you are cruising at 30,000 feet. From most reports I have read, the service works well, and is fairly reliable. So, now you can send and receive those emails, download that important presentation you forgot to bring with you, or just surf the web.
The Energy Star specification for computers is currently under revision for version 5.0. Did you know that the new Energy Star compliant laptops and PCs actually use 15 to 25% less energy on average than the other new computers on the shelf?
Last week in "How About a Phone System for the Little Guy" I talked about Microsoft Responsepoint, the new Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) phone system for small and medium business. It has the blue Responsepoint button that, when pushed, responds to your voice commands. It also has a built-in auto attendant, voicemail capabilities, and even the ability to convert your voicemails automatically to emails to send to your email account.
Since I have strong ties to the airline industry (those who know me know why) I found this little bit of humor all too true. Enjoy!
If you want to upgrade your family computers to Windows 7, it's not going to cost you an arm and a leg. Windows has released the Family Pack pricing. Officially priced at $149, it's actually a pretty good deal, compared to previous Microsoft upgrade pricing. If you are wondering whether you should upgrade or not, I recommend you do. Windows 7 is a good operating system, as evidenced by our experiences of running the Release Candidate of the software.
The Family Pack will let you install 3 copies of Windows 7 Home Premium. There is additional pricing released for individual computer upgrades as well. If you want the details, you can find it here.
To Your Success,
Tim
One of my favorite sites is Giveawayoftheday.com For those who've never heard of it, every day they feature a new software that the vendor has agreed to "give away" for a 24 hour period. This is not shareware or crippled software. It is the full-blown version of whatever product is being given away. Granted you won't find Microsoft Vista Business or anything like that here, but I have downloaded many usefull programs from the site. I've also downloaded some not so good programs. I like to look in mid-afternoon at the site after many have already downloaded whatever is being offered. Users will report back on the site with their findings and a running tally marked in percentages is kept as to whether the software is "good" or "bad" Check it out, you may just find what you're looking for. At least the price is right!
Microsoft released its entry into the smb telephone marketplace about 9 months ago. Responsepoint is the first affordable telephone system that runs on your own computer network, integrates with Microsoft Small Business Server, and has a simplified form of Unified Messaging. It also integrates with your Outlook Contacts, so when one of your contacts calls, it pops up on your screen with the contact's information.
Sometime in 2010 Microsoft is scheduled to release Office 2010 Starter Edition. This will be a free version that only includes Word and Excel. In exchange for receiving and using this edition of Office for free, you will have to put up with ads. Here is the quote from Microsoft: