Thursday, August 20, 2009 at 3:58PM It seems that a new tech tool has become an indispensable part of my gear. With all the shiny surfaces, screens and touch screens I find myself constantly cleaning the smudges that occur. Oh for the days of the textured surfaces that didn’t show every single fingerprint and smudge that occurs.
Thursday, August 20, 2009 at 3:38PM We here the question a great deal about how on earth we keep up on all the new products, techniques and other gadget related things that we do on a daily basis. Most of us hear at Computer Connections fill our free time by listening to podcasts that are free to download to your computer or media player, like and iPod, iPhone or Zune. I like the Zune to listen collect and listen to podcasts because of the ease of setting up subscriptions for downloading to the device and the menuing system on it as well. However, I do like the iPhone interface as well.
AppJudgement – A Revision3 property, I just found this podcast this week and I am thoroughly enjoying the comparisons of the different applications available for our smart phones. If you have just acquired a smart phone or you are a long time owner, I think that you will find these shows very informative and help you decide the best applications for your phone for the way that you use it.
Buzz Out Loud – I have been listening to this podcast for years and find it a great way to keep up on daily news. They are part of CNet and CBS News and provide a very good discussion of current technology news topics that are informative and easy to listen to. They have gone to a new format now that has several of their personalities sharing reporting responsibilities on different days of the week.
Diggnation – These guys are real goofs but they can be a lot of fun. If strong language turns you off then don’t watch, it is not kind on your ears. But if you can get past that, then they do present some interesting technical and non-technical news each week.
The Real Deal – This is another CNet property and is a great source for tech products, gadgets and how to’s on fixing and using your machines.
Security Now – Leo Laporte is considered one of the godfathers of podcasting and he hosts quite a few shows that you might be interested in. This one he hosts with Steve Gibson and discusses security issues that could affect your equipment. A good technology filled show not real good for beginners.
Tech Stuff – This is a great show that discusses how things work in the technology world. Titles like How MP3 files work, How Cloud Computer Works are examples of the type of topics that are presented.
Tekzilla – Another Revision3 product another technology show that runs the gamut of How To and What is new in the technology world. They have a long list of subjects that they discuss that I am sure you will find something that will interest you. Hosted by Patrick Norton and Veronica Belmont.
This Week in Google (TWIG) – Leo Laporte, Gina Trapani and Jeff Jarvis. Brand new and only on its third episode as I am writing this, this podcast is again hosted by Leo and has two other hosts on that discuss the things going on in the “Internet Cloud”. Likes and dislikes, news and some hints on how to do things on the internet and with internet applications. If you are into computers you are starting to see the trend towards internet hosted applications and this show tries to makes some sense of it all.
This Week In Tech (TWIT) – Another Leo Laporte/TWITTV broadcast that has Leo hosting with different sub hosts each week. The people that he has on the show with him are all of the different reporters and developers from the technology world. Great info and very enjoyable to listen to.
Windows Weekly – Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott get together weekly to talk about Microsoft related products. Whether it software (operating systems, office applications and programming), web based applications and services (Live, MSDN) or hardware (Zune, Xbox) there is a lot going on here that you can find useful if Microsoft touches your world.
These are just a few of the Programs that I use to keep myself informed. Of course there are so many other media sources that we use as well that are too numerous to talk about here. But if ever gave a thought about wanting to find a source for leaning more about your computers and other things, here is a great place to start.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009 at 6:05PM Acer has come out recently with several smaller notebooks that all fall under their 8 hour battery, Go All Day, model line. These nifty new notebooks come in several screen sizes but the model that I am talking about today has a 14” display, 250gb hard drive, 802.11a/b/g/Draft-N WiFi, 3GB DDR3 Memory, Intel GMA 4500MHD Video, and an Intel Core 2 Solo SU3500 Processor (1.4GHz, 800MHz FSB).
It is part of their Ultra-thin (<1 inch) 8 Hour Green Battery Life Systems. It is very light just a little over 4lbs. Great sound and decent video specifications. Priced at around $849 it comes with XP-Pro and is ready to be part of your Business Network Life!
Some of the key features that caught my eye:
This system is a perfect work companion for the mobile office worker who needs a machine that will do the work and provide all the extras in a small reasonably priced machine. Thumbs up on this sexy new Acer Notebook!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 7:01PM I will need to take a long look at this program and try to see if it has any worth.
I think as a Windows Server/Exchange user, the connection we have with Exchange and our phones is good enough. I think that the problem comes up with some users who don’t have an integrated solution and needs something to pull it all together.
If you are on a MAC this may be just the ticket but for most of us there are so many other ways to integrate and share information that is a lot less expensive then the $90+ that Apple wants for this service. I don’t see anything in the iTunes program to tie anything into this either which probably would make sense if they did to help with the overall syncing.
One of the interesting functions that I saw under Settings was the FIND MY IPHONE menu choice. When you choose this option your phone will be pinpointed on a map and you will have several options available to you. First is to display a message and have a tone sound on the phone. this would help you find you phone if you left it laying around the house and couldn’t find it. Second you have the ability to remotely wipe the phone clean so that if you have sensitive data on the phone you can wipe it out very easily so it’s out of the hands of the thief that has it…
Email: MobileMe sets you up with an email address associated with this account. The address youloginname@me.com is your email and you have the basic email functions and fields, To:, CC:, Subject, large message area (no formatting that I see) and attaching up to a 20MB file to the message. There is spell check and you can hit the contact button to easily insert contacts from your message list. You can setup multiple folders for storing your messages, but I can’t find a way to have this grab mail from multiple accounts. This will still have to be done on your iPhone and those accounts will not roll into the on screen version. you have the typical reply, reply to all recipients, and forwarding a message. Again, nothing spectacular.
Contact: I didn’t want to add my contact list to the service (2200+ entries in mine), so I pulled up the function on the screen. It harps on me as I do this because I didn’t sync my contacts on the phone. It has all the basic fields you would expect and allows you add more fields to the standard format to fill in more info as you need for someone. If you look close to the left you can an idea of the choices that you can add to the list.
Calendar: The application on the iPhone didn’t give me the ability to synch with my Exchange settings even though for no apparent rhyme or reason some of my calendar events were brought over. Don’t have an answer for that one. I would want better control if I were going to use this feature.
Photo Gallery: This would setup a gallery that you could move between you different computer and phone devices. But I don’t see how this is really helpful because you can do the same basic thing with iTunes with your phone. Could be helpful if you didn’t have any other method of moving and sharing photos, I just don’t want to waste my phone memory on too many pictures though.
iDisk: This is a feature to place files on you iPhone for later viewing or being able to reference them. This program allows you to store often used documents that you might want to share with customers. One of the features is being able to email them directly out of the iDisk interface on your phone. If you are carrying around info that is you need to disseminate to customers, like brochures, then if for no other reason this might be an easy way to manage it. the images are coming from you online storage, not your phone so you won’t be taking up much space in you phone. You can setup file sharing with other people as well in a public folder area. Again an interesting way to collaborate with co-workers and customers.
Conclusion: While this program may not benefit me especially, there are those of you out there that may want to try it. Remember that you can try it out for 60 days before the subscription kicks in. So… it doesn’t cost anything but your time to try it out.
Monday, August 17, 2009 at 2:38PM I just got notification that Microsoft will end distribution Windows XP the end of this month. Now we plan on stock piling some but there will be a limit to this pool. So the end is near, or so it appears. We saw the original end data for XP for the end of May and then that was extended. I have a feeling that we won’t see that extension again.
