Windows 7 Installed!

Thanks to a friend who didn't want to mess around installing Windows 7 on her new laptop I now have a copy of Windows 7. Well the upgrade only. The draw back is that I can only install the 32 bit version and not go to the 64 bit version. I love how Microsoft squeeze every last penny out of you! So what's it like? Well for the most part it's pretty much the same as Vista appearance wise. But there are some minor changes which I am sure a thousand bloggers out there have written about in painfully minute detail. So considering that I am tired and need sleep I will just write for now about the installation. It was SO BLOODY LONG! I started this effort around midnight and was watching the screen not change much for three hours before I packed it in and hit the hay! It seemed to not require me at all except at the very start when I first attempted to install it was checking compatibility. It took 10 minutes before it decided that it was gonna need a re-boot before giving installation a crack! But I woke in the morning to find it asking for the Product Key to which I gladly oblidged. Then it awoke... looking pretty much like Vista but instead of a sidebar it simply throws the gadgets you had on the sidebar to the side of the screen as Windows 7 has foregone the sidebar.

 

So what do I think about Windows 7? Too early to tell. It seems lightning quick but I'll write more soon on this once I've done a few laps with it!

Windows 7 Release Cock Up

Microsoft never cease to amaze me. They succeed and progress in so many ways. Yet the more that things move forward the more it remains the same. Microsoft’s recent launch of Windows 7 was almost looking like it was going without a hitch. This was, after all, the OS that was to make or break their reputation if not their bank accounts. The idea to make their Release Candidate openly available to the ever hungry public was a terrific idea. Showing to the world that MS are a much more open company than Apple have been. Cynics may say that this was merely to test out their bugs on the bleeding edge market. They’d probably be right. But at least this gives the product a chance to be ventured out into the limited wild world of the ardent geeks out their who can go through any pains of error messages and failures before MR and MRS “I only check email” get to the OS. But this is another topic for another blog. Also the reviews coming back from the preview of their saviour OS was that this was pretty much Microsoft’s apology for Vista. Runs as simple as XP but with the bells and whistles of Vista. So Microsoft got the product right. All boxes ticked and even the biggest Microsoft haters had to agree that this was a good thing from Redmond’s biggest asset. But on marketing the goods… Microsoft… you’ve really dropped the ball big time! Here’s a snippet from www.cnet.com.au to highlight what I am talking about:

http://apcmag.com/windows-7-family-pack-for-australia-is-a-possibility-concedes-microsoft.htm

During the lead up to launch I kept hunting for someone to be able to give me a straight YES or NO on the question “can you install a single copy of Windows 7 on multiple PC’s?”. I mean it’s not the 80’s anymore. We don’t just have the single PC in the study these days in most homes. You’ve got the study alright but now there’s the laptop, netbook, kitchen PC and soon most folks will just get a PC to handle the main living room’s LCD (or LED) TV. But the answer is a complicated NO… unless you purchase a special pack of Windows 7. What’s so complicated about that? It’s not available OUTSIDE OF THE US. Fer fecks sakes! Windows 7 Family Pack allows the lucky owner to install Windows 7 Home Premium onto three PC’s in the house. Sounds great right? Especially when you see that it’s only US$149 as opposed to the US$129 single pack price. However MS Australia are hinting onto a big surprise to hit during November. Not sure what exactly this may entail but I’m hoping that this will be the Family Pack launch in Australia that is so much needed. Seems silly to me that considering MS are beating their chests about Window 7’s Home Networking capabilities are a major selling point that they wouldn’t have simply released this on day one as a big IN YOUR FACE to Apple. But if you’ve only got enough dosh to splash out on just one copy… WHAT’s THE BLOODY POINT?

LiveJournal Tags: Windows,Windows 7,Microsoft,Australia,Australian Market,OS,product,launch,2009,Windows 7 Home Premium Family Pack,Family Pack

Acer Aspire One (KAV60)

This is a quick run down on not only the Acer Aspire One but also of the newer breed of Netbooks that have appeared and how they can benefit the average user. First of all the Acer was not that expensive. $479 with a $50 cash back. Not too shabby. This baby has an LED (not LCD) screen with a sharp image on a 10.1" screen. Much better than other first generation Netbooks I've seen previously. It's also got it's own 160G hard drive. This is perhaps one of it's biggest draw cards. Other netbooks have a Flash internal drive or no drive at all relying totally on SD cards. Other features are wi-fi (g network not n network) and Bluetooth connectivity. Also it has a half decent webcam inbuilt.

For the most part I was happy with this unit. It's actually for the other half and not so much for me. It's main use will be for typing out essays. We've installed Open Office into it and it handles that with no problems. The Aspire One we purchased came with XP installed. We were warned to wait till Windows 7 comes out but the missus is only interested in writing documents out and not in the complex issues involved in other PC related tasks. So with this as it's main goal the Acer has hit all goals and then some.

Netbooks are the fast food variety of PC's with people lugging Laptops about with CD/DVD drives and 17" screens when all they want is email, Facebook, internet etc. You DON'T need the fastest PC to do all that. But this is where this netbook surprised even me. It takes one minute to go from a cold start to being on the net surfing away. I was so impressed by this speed.

I'm now sold on Netbooks. I wasn't too keen on them leading up to my wife wanting one but now I'm warmed to the idea of a machine that just does the basics well. With Google Chrome OS on the way these Netbooks are going to be more than a challenge for Laptop producers to compete with. Expect to see more mini sized PC's to be dragged out on the trains and bus stops across the city!

Pros:

• Crystal clear LED 10.1" screen
• Webcam inbuilt
• Inbuilt Wi Fi and Bluetooth
• Quick boot up time
• Ridiculously light and thin.

Cons:

• XP not Windows 7 (but that's only as it's still not officially out yet)
• Keyboard is small and takes getting use to
• Mousepad can be somewhat tricky to negotiate (USB mouse can be used though)
• Great battery life with approx 3 hours usage on full charge and possibly longer with Wi-Fi off
• No real software. You'll have to scrounge the net to install the basics.

Acer Aspire One Netbook

I got a new netbook PC. More coming up soon…

Top 5 iPhone Tips

The internet is flooded with tips and guides on most things technology. The iPhone is one that seems to get the most coverage lately. But despite the millions of bloggers out there teaching folks how to get the most out of their gadgets there are still loads of people roaming about with no changes made to their iPhone and they are missing out on quite alot. Personally it shows that Apple have still got to get it right out of the box but till then here is my top 5 tips to getting more from your iPhone:

1) Enable Cap Locks - Amazingly... most people still don't have this changed on their phones. It was driving me nuts when I got my iPhone way back at launch. I wanted to send an SMS but when an acronym came up I'd have to Shift (add letter) Shift (add letter)... etc. So do the following:

Go to Settings> Keyboard> Enable Caps Lock.

Now when you need cap lock you just tap twice on the shift button. It turns blue, you get caps lock! So so simple.

2) Get Gmail - Getting Gmail means you can divert ALL you emails to the one account. Now that Hotmail have enabled POP3 support you can also divert all the hotmail deliveries to your Gmail and then view them in turn on the iPhone. All of the HOW TO's are on the Gmail help pages.

3) Set Up A Google Calendar - One of the biggest discoveries for me in the last couple of months is the ability to sync the iPhone calendar with Google Calendar. I use Google Calendar for setting up Indoor Cricket games. Now with the sync ability I can see on my phone who has clicked in as available and who is out. Now you can finally ditch Outlook as this removes all the shackles of being restricted to your home PC!

4) Get Skype - My wife use to spend LOADS of dosh on the phone calling her relatives overseas. Now enter Skype. Free PC to PC calls and super cheap to home lines as well. But now that the iPhone has a Sype app you can save money on buying a Skype compatible handset. You already have one!

5) Tomtom - Watch out for the new Tomtom app and the Tomtom car kit. This will save you from buying a dedicated GPS device and in turn mean not having to carry multiple devices around. Plus you'll get the most up to date maps and LIVE traffic updates. This will be the BEES KNEES! LOL

Microsoft Gets Rid of Money

This is more of an update than a blog. I just read today that Microsoft are no longer producing MS Money. This was a program I switched to after having used Quicken as it offered easier access to your financial info through your pocket PC or Palm. So to hear that they are chopping it is a bit sad. But understandably so, they are axing it in an effort to narrow down it’s focus as it faces continuing challenges from Apple and Google in ways that have never been so threatening to the monopoly.

MS are also axing Digital Image Suite which should upset a few folks out there but let’s face it, Photoshop is king in that department. But one loss that I think must be hard for MS is to say CAIO to MS Encarta. This was a product of there’s that you could tell Bill Gates himself was really behind since CD-Rom’s first started becoming available to the everyday PC user back in the early 90’s. I remember using MS Encarta to sell some PC’s back at the Gamesmen as there was no real internet to use as a selling point back in 1995! But now with Wikipedia.com being everyone’s first choice for 99% of the info they want you could see Microsoft’s reasoning.

Downloading Hardware

Yes I know. Hardware is the actual device. Hard to stream it down the phone lines to your device. But what if you didn’t have to? What if the functions you needed were able to be just added on via a download? Well it’s already happening. I currently have an iPhone. It, like many other smart phones, does games (fairly well), makes calls, takes photos and has a map app. I also have a Pocket PC for GPS in the car. But I don’t like having to lug the two around. I’d happily give up one to have only one device. Well, TomTom just announced that they’ll be selling an iPhone adaptation of their software and also a stand to mount the iPhone on your windscreen. Big deal you say? Well actually it is. It’s a very important leap in a lot of ways.

GPS in a Smartphone is not new. But what is different about this is that the iPhone was once a GPS enabled phone unable to do turn by turn. Apple addressed this and corrected it with a patch. Yeah I know they don’t like that term but that’s what this is. So what we have is a piece of hardware being changed by a software download.

You all by now probably have a video camera? Also a dedicated digital camera? Home phone? Laptop or PC? But the way things are going these items won’t be needed. You’ll just have the one device that does the lot… well! If the iPhone had a 12MP camera with 10X zoom and the ability to tag every photo with GPS data, face recognition so you know who’s in each shot plus it could get you home thanks to GPS turn by turn directions… you’d want that right? Not to mention be able to watch TV, record shows, get email… you see where this is going right?.

The next 10 years is gonna get very exciting in this way. We’ll be seeing more advances in gadgets and how multitasking they can be. In the meantime the next update for the iPhone (3.0 OS) is to be released next week on the 17th June 2009. It’s biggest update feature is the ability to gain turn by turn directions with the GPS among other things. TomTom haven’t specified when their app gets launched but it’ll be in the US summer which is another way of saying in the next few weeks. Will be interesting to see how other GPS manufacturers (a term that may in itself become outdated) react to this.