Logitech Washable Keyboard K310

This is a new Logitech K310 keyboard that should be hitting distribution shortly. Priced at $39.99 it is  geared towards being able to be cleaned using soap and water. It is great for use in highly dirty situations. It can handle a light dusting or be soaked in up to 12 inches of water. It has drainage holes in the back for faster drying. From Logitech’s Features Page:

More than tough enough

Laser printing and a UV coating ensures this keyboard can take a washing as well as a pounding. The durable keys, robust tilt legs and increased resistance to surface scratches makes the Washable Keyboard one of the toughest on the market.

Functional and good-looking

Comfortable typing is a given, thanks to a familiar layout with F-keys and number pad. And it all comes in a unique, contemporary design that will complement your computer, as well as your work space.

Plug and play simplicity

Thankfully, the Washable Keyboard works right out of the box. There’s no software to install, so you can simply plug it in and start typing. Talk about a clean setup.

Take a shortcut and save time

Gain instant access to popular applications like the Internet, email, volume controls, and more—with 12 hot keys. Hit F1 to go home, F2 to launch your email, F3 to start a search, and F4 to crunch some numbers on the calculator. Want to bring up your media player and play your favorite music? Simply hit F5 to launch, F6 for the previous track, F7 to play or pause the track, and F8 to skip tracks. For volume controls, you can hit F9 to mute, or F10 and F11 to lower or raise the volume (respectively). And when you’re finished using your computer, put your PC to sleep by hitting F12. It’s that easy.

Look at this brief video from Logitech:

Specification Page

Nexus7 Update - Audio Bluetooth Streaming

I just want to make a quick comment on and update that must have happened on my Nexus 7 recently. I decided to try to Bluetooth streaming audio again in my car when wonder of wonders, it worked perfectly.

I no longer have the problem streaming from my audible book collection. What was the issue was that if I paused or stopped the Audible book from playing, when I tried to access it again later it would not connect. In fact, I was denied access to the book until I closed and restarted the Audible application. Now that is no longer in a problem. I'm so glad that finally started working again.

Registration for $15 Windows 8 Upgrade Offer Opens

From Redmond Channel Partner news comes the announcement that the $14.99 Windows 8 upgrade offer became available on Monday.

From Redmond Blog Post:

The upgrade offer provides a discount to buyers of new Windows 7-based PCs who want to upgrade in the future to the Windows 8 Pro edition. The offer applies only to those moving to Windows 8 Pro on x86/x64 machines. Windows RT, the operating system that runs on ARM-based hardware, will only be sold preinstalled on machines; it isn't possible to download it or buy boxed copies.

The offer to upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $14.99 is good only for owners of Windows 7 PCs that were purchased between June 2, 2012 and Jan. 31, 2013, according to Microsoft's announcement. An announcement made last month seemed to suggest that the offer was available with Windows XP and Vista machines too, but that's not exactly correct. The main problem is that people can't buy new PCs running those operating systems, and the offer is only extended to new PC buyers. However, the upgrade offer is still available to those people who bought a new Windows 7 PC who then downgraded that OS to Windows XP or Vista. Such downgrades do not affect the upgrade offer, or even the process of upgrading to Windows 8, according to Microsoft's FAQ.

There are some limitations that you need to know about. If you bought retail outlet or boxed copies of Windows 7 that weren’t installed on PCs or if you purchased a refurbished PC with Windows 7 preinstalled you will not qualify because your system is not new. Also, the offer is just for consumers and not businesses. An individual can only take advantage of the offer on five upgrades. Windows 7 Starter Edition also doesn’t qualify.

Redmond goes on to discuss the process:

The offer is a multistep process. The new Windows 7 PC has to be purchased within the dates of the offer. Next, those wanting to upgrade to Windows 8 have to register, and that's now open via this page. Lastly, the upgrade itself is only available when Windows 8 is released as a final product on October 26, so those signing up can't upgrade right away. Finally, the offer has a time-out clause, even for those who signed up -- that is, the Windows 8 download has to take place before Feb. 28, 2013 or the deal is null.

The upgrade happens over an Internet connection by means of a "Windows upgrade assistant" service. It can take "30 to 90 minutes" to download Windows 8, which is a 2 GB file. Of course it's not possible to upgrade a 32-bit Windows 7 PC with a 64-bit edition of Windows 8. Microsoft will provide Windows 8 on installation media for an additional charge, or upgraders can burn their own installation disks on a DVD disk or a USB drive.

If you don’t qualify for the cheap upgrade, you will be able to upgrade after the Windows 8 release for 39.95. Your requirement is to have either XP, Vista or Windows 7 installed on you machine. You will also get the Media Player as part of the package as well.  I’ll post more info on this as it comes available.

How do you use a tablet?

Many people have different use for tablet technology. Whether you are a professional or you are just using the device in a home environment, your perspective on how you are using a tablet will probably be quite different. From my perspective, most of the people that mix their use of tablet between work and home are using in their business lives to check and send email, do research and review documents that they have created on their PC’s. Some take it a step further and use the tablet as a device to remotely access their notebooks and desktop computers or to help them maintain their servers. I usually have a tablet somewhere near me and I use it at home primarily as an entertainment device, a resource to scan email, RSS Feeds, and other documents, reading text books or novels, listen to audio books, and listen/watch podcasts that are mainly computer industry related. Netflix, Hulu, Xfinity and HBOgo are my favorite video applications, Kindle is my favorite ebook reader, Skype for many of personal calls, Audible for my audiobooks, Amazon MP3 and Spotify for music. I am not storing many pictures anymore on these devices but I have access to SmugMug as my gallery on the internet. I don’t use Facebook or Twitter much directly, however, all my blog posts are automatically posted to both of these to help promote my pages. Data access is a very important requirement to any device that I use. It is important to me that no matter what device I pick up that I can get at the data I need to keep working. Dropbox has been a big part of this for me because of its auto-synchronization between devices and access from any device that has internet access. SkyDrive is starting to become my second choice for document storage and for music I use Amazon. SmugMug is my choice for Photos and YouTube is my choice for my video content that I want to share. With my mobile hotspot and of the devices that I have I have access with every WiFi device I own when I have 3G/4G access. I don’t write much other than email replies on any of the tablets. I find myself needing multiple screens and other software tools that help me to capture images that I use in my posts. I find most of the research I want to do is better served for me by a dual monitor environment which I am not going to get with a tablet. So when it comes to the creative side of using a device I find myself going back to a desktop more than to a notebook or tablet unit. But when I hit the road it is the tablet that I always have with me not the notebook to connect to my world. I wonder when the Microsoft Surface Pro finally makes it to t he real world whether I will be able to use that as my primary mobile creation device or not. The keyboard is going to be a make or break part of the equipment. Being able to run Microsoft applications is going to a big thing as well. It will be interesting to see how it fits into my life.

Knomia-an online video platform directed at education

Knomia allows you to create and share lessons as a teacher, view lessons as a student, and as a parent to choose lessons that you think would be good for your students. They have several tools posted for teachers to create content with more coming. Use the iPad app to create lesson plans or link to video that you have produced on iTunes and Vimeo. Currently advertising over 7,000 video lessons available at this time, all published by teachers. They have 3 different accounts that you can sign up for. You may register as a student, teacher or parent. You will be asked to setup using an email and to put in personal information about yourself. As a teacher you can create video in QuickTime, MPEG4 or H.264 formats or point to YouTube or Vimeo posts in your accounts. Use the iTunes lessons creation tool that is a free lesson planning and recording tool for teachers.

It helps you create short video lessons on any subject and publish them on knowmia.com so your students and the public can find them. Knowmia Teach makes it easy to bring in visual aids from multiple sources, organize them in steps (like slides in a presentation) and use your own voice and fingers to bring your lesson to life. You can design each step in the lesson, record illustrations as you draw them, and create sophisticated animation sequences with a simple stroke of a finger. We give you the ability to describe your lesson with details that make it simple for any student who is interested in the subject to find it.
Main features include:

• Build your lesson out of smaller steps (like slides) so it's easy to manage and organize your lesson
• Create each step of your lesson on a separate whiteboard so you can seamlessly introduce new concepts
• Record everything that you do on the whiteboard as well as your voice to create the lesson step-by-step
• Use the shape tool to quickly draw common shapes
• Type text with any font/size directly on the whiteboard
• Import graphics from the iPad's media library and built-in camera - or paste in any image of your own
• Draw freely with multiple pen widths and a highlighter mode
• Use the pointer tool to attract attention to anything on the whiteboard while recording it
• Publish the complete lesson to Knowmia.com with a touch of a button

It is great to start seeing new products coming out that will enhance the teacher’s lesson plans and parents ability to help direct their children’s education.

Lexmark Printer Tip–Prevent Paper Jams

Here are some techniques on how to help prevent paper jams in you Lexmark printers.

While your competitors are parked on the phone with tech support trying to clear a paper jam, you can zoom right past them on the road to success. To avert paper jams before they happen, try these easy tips:

· Fan the paper like you do with playing cards and then align the edges.
Quickly prepare the paper. Watch video »

· Make sure the paper lies flat in the tray.

· Don't remove trays while the printer is printing.

· Don't load trays or feeders while the printer is printing. Load them prior to printing, or wait for a prompt to load them.

· Don't load too much paper. Make sure the stack height does not exceed the indicated maximum height. Best way to load paper. Watch video »

· Make sure the guides in the paper trays and feeders are properly positioned so they are not pressing too tightly against the paper or envelopes.

· Push all trays in firmly after loading paper.

Paper tray recommendations

• Make sure the paper lies flat in the tray.

• Do not remove trays while the printer is printing.

• Do not load trays, the multipurpose feeder, or the envelope feeder while the printer is printing. Load them prior to printing, or wait for a prompt to load them.

• Do not load too much paper. Make sure the stack height does not exceed the indicated maximum height.

• Make sure the guides in the paper trays, multipurpose feeder, or envelope feeder are properly positioned and are not pressing too tightly against the paper or envelopes.

• Push all trays in firmly after loading paper.

Paper recommendations

• Use only recommended paper or specialty media.

• Do not load wrinkled, creased, damp, bent, or curled paper.

• Flex, fan, and straighten paper before loading it.

• Do not use paper that has been cut or trimmed by hand.

• Do not mix paper sizes, weights, or types in the same stack.

• Make sure all sizes and types are set correctly in the printer control panel menus.

• Store paper per the manufacturer's recommendations.

Envelope recommendations

• To reduce wrinkling, use the Envelope Enhance menu in the Paper menu.

• Do not feed envelopes that:

  • Have excessive curl or twist.

  • Have windows, holes, perforations, cutouts, or embossing.

  • Have metal clasps, string ties, or folding bars.

  • Have an interlocking design.

  • Have postage stamps attached.

  • Have any exposed adhesive when the flap is in the sealed or closed position.

  • Have bent corners.

  • Have rough, wrinkled, or laid finishes.

  • Are stuck together or damaged in any way.

Following all these recommendations and still getting paper jams? If you've been getting a lot of mileage out of your Lexmark printer, it may be time for a new maintenance kit or pick rollers. Contact Lexmark to help with printer troubleshooting before taking any more action.

Amazon launches ‘Send to Kindle’ feature for Google Chrome

Amazon has created an extension for Chrome that allows web content to be sent to any device that has the Kindle App installed. It provides a single click process that will send blog posts, stories and other Google Chrome displayed pages to be sent to your favorite e-reader device. Amazon’s Whispersync technology synchronizes between devices so that you can start reading the content on one reader and seamlessly pick up where you left off on another device.

The extension, "Send to Kindle for Google Chrome," allows users to send the entire webpage or just selected text to the device.

To get the extension for yourself, head on over to Amazon's Send To Kindle download page. Confirm the download on the Google Chrome Web store and sign in with your Amazon account. When you click the button, the content is formatted for the Kindle and then sent to your device a few minutes later. Amazon has said FireFox and Safari will get support "soon" but there was no mention of Internet Explorer.

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 has finally reached distribution and it seems to a very interesting choice of functions. The tablet is available in both 16GB $499 and 32GB $549 versions. It is using Samsung’s S-Pen stylus for input and is available in WiFi only. It is shipping with Android 4.0 (ICS Ice Cream Sandwich) but Samsung is promising an upgrade to Jellybean (4.1) before the end of the year. It is also shipping with Samsung’s Touchwiz interface that allows for easy multitasking and customizable home screens.

It's powered by a 1.4GHz quad-core and 2GB of RAM. The screen seems a bit low-res coming in at only 1280×800 on a TFT display. The rear camera also seems a bit underwhelming, coming in at a mere 5MP with autofocus and a LED flash. It has a regular size SD slot that supports up to 32GB SD cards. There is a a disappointing US 2.0 connection but it is supporting Bluetooth 4.0.

The software apps that are loaded on the system include: Google Play™ Store, Books, Movies, and Music Preloaded: Contacts, Alarm/Clock, S Planner, Camera, Gallery, Google Talk™, Dropbox, Netflix, Gmail™, YouTube™, Web Browser, My Files, Email, Google Search, Latitude, Video Player, Media Hub, Game Hub, Calculator, Music Player, Smart Remote, Settings, ChatON, Samsung Apps, Polaris Office, S Suggest, Google Maps, Google +, Google + Messenger, Music Hub, Navigation, Places, Video Maker, World Clock, Nook, AllShare Play S Pen Optimized Apps: Crayon Physics, S Note™, Adobe® Photoshop® Touch, Kno™

Audio Support
Music: MP3, AAC/AAC+/EAAC+, WMA, OGG (vorbis), FLAC, AC-3 Sound: AMR-NB/WB, WAV, MID, XMF, iMelody, SP-MIDI, RTTTL/RTX, OTA

Video Support
Video: 1080p Playback Full HD in 1280 x 800 screen @ 30 fps Video Codec: Mpeg4, H.264, H.263, VC-1, Divx, VP8, WMV7/8, Sorenson Spark Format: 3gp(mp4), wmv(asf), avi(divx), mkv, flv, webm

Image Support
GIF, AGIF, JPEG, PNG, WBMP, WEBP

Supported Document Types
Word File: .doc .docx .txt .hwp .rtf Excel File: .xls .xlsx .csv PowerPoint: .ppt .pptx .pps PDF: .pdf

Messaging Options
Email (POP3/IMAP/SMTP/SSL/TLS); Exhange ActiveSync Email

Great Windows 8 Review

Windows 8 Review: Incredibly Innovative, Incredibly Important, Not Quite Incredible

Kyle Wagner of Gizmodo wrote a great article providing an interesting look at the pros and cons of Windows 8. While in  most enterprise environments I thing we will see a slow adoption, in the home and mobile environment it will be interesting to see what the adoption rate will be. There is going to be a learning curve no matter what but even with a slow adoption I think we will see come together. Always optimistic I guess.