There have been many many companies that have seen that Google did not have a realtime analytics service, and they have been doing really well. I looked at them and because you have to pay, I thought “do I really need this?”. And for the most part, I thought that I didn’t.

So when I got this email this morning,

I got quite excited. But then thought, “do I really need this?”

Well to answer the question, YES. This is so amazing, I had no idea how cool this could be to check what Tweets you have posted and in realtime to see where people are coming from and what they are looking at.

How to get your realtime analytics

Do you have access to it? To check do this:

If at the top of your analytics page it says this, click on the “New Version”

Then click on the website that you want to look at.

Then you should be on the Standard Reporting page.

Then click on the Home Link.

Then click on the Real-time (Beta) link.

Then click on the Overview link and this is what you will see.

This is the overview Screen.

This is the locations screen for Google Analytics Real-time.

This is the Traffic sources Page.

This will show you what content is being viewed right now on your site.

I cannot find any info about how this is being rolled out, but if you don’t have it yet, I’m sure that it will come soon.

This could be the most addictive things that Google has ever rolled out. Once this post is posted, I will then watch how the figures increase.

Please share your thoughts below.

Mark Zuckerberg said last year that the iPad was not mobile and that there would not be a iPad app for Facebook.

So how does it look? Well actually very normal!

If you look at the Friendly iPad app, in comparison to the iPad app by Facebook, I prefer the Friendly app.

Ok, so let’s see the Facebook for iPad app.

So you want to try it obviously? Get the Facebook app for iPad here.

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Well here is a very simple way to increase the buffer.

1. Open Winamp.

2. Open the options then open preferences.

3. Go to Plugins and then input.

4. Go to Nullsoft MPEG Audio Decoder.

5. Click Configure.

6. Go to Streaming.

7. Change the streaming data buffer from the default 64kb to whatever works for you.

Hope that helps. Please post comments below.

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I am not saying this as a good thing, but it seems that Apple has decided to “pull a Porsche” (I made this up), with the latest iPhone design of the iPhone 4S. If you look at the designs that Porsche have been doing for the last couple of years, they release a new Porsche and and call it amazing, but it looks exactly like the previous Porsche, but just with new insides.

If you look at all the hype over the past couple of months about a new iPhone 5 and a cheaper iPhone that will run exclusively on the cloud. Now that we know the truth, it seems like the whole Technology sector is disappointed.

They have made the iPhone exactly the same, but with new inside bits. See this article: http://mashable.com/2011/10/04/apple-iphone-4s/

So here are the new inside bits.

Cellular Connectivity: GSM + CDMA
Operating System: iOS 5
Processor: 1ghz Dual Core
Camera: 8MP

It might be much better than the original iPhone 4, but it seems disappointing when a company like Apple creates amazing products that then get emulated by other companies and that breeds competition and innovation to beat each other. This might just be a “safe” launch for the new CEO Tim Cook. But a safe launch means that my HTC Sensation, I feel, is streaks ahead of the iPhone.

The biggest thing in the new launch is that the iPhone runs part of the phone as a feature an “app” called Siri. Now the thing that might really irratate people is that this was an app that you could download on your iPhone, but now you can only run it on the iPhone 4s. How can incorporating an app into the main os be a huge selling point? NO Matter how good it is. Come on Apple!

Also with a company like Apple that has brought beauty to the IT world (read Macbook Air), that they couldn’t pull out the stops for this. It just seems very anticlimactic.

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Windows 8 is the new thing. It has been released as a developer preview. So this is not even Beta yet. We have loaded it and are using it as the main software on our development and admin computers. Brave? Nope, well yes, but it is quite stable.

So this is the spec of my computer that I am currently writing this article on.

This is reduced by my hard drive, which only scored a 5.9.

Now the first things that I noticed is that to Install Windows 7 takes about 25 mins from a DVD. While Windows 8 took just 15 minutes from a USB memory stick.

I then logged in via my Live Account and then I was in, in about 2 minutes. We were concerned that certain of our weirder programs would not work. But the only program that I have found that worked in Windows 7 and didn’t in Windows 8 is the PDF preview in Outlook 2010.

So getting back to first impressions, when we got to the lock screen it looked like all the other articles that I have read. So of course I needed to unique, so I changed it once I had logged in.

Change lock Screen in Windows 8.

Firstly on the Metro Screen click on the control Panel.

Then click on Personalize.

So now, my lock screen looks like this.

If anyone has an idea on how to Screen Capture the lock screen, please comment below, as I can’t figure it out.

Ok, so then I started and downloaded some of my normal programs, I did find that to download was slightly slower than Windows 7, if you have found that too, what are the parts that slow you down?

So firstly I like Google Chrome much more than the other browsers, so I downloaded that with IE, MY GOODNESS! that took a while. Anyway it finally downloaded and then I set it as default. So then I wanted to sync Google Chrome so I entered all my details and said sync please. That took about 30 minutes then, I gave up. So restarted the computer (very fast) and then tried again. It then went through perfectly.

I then installed Office 2010. The full install completed in about 6 minutes. Very impressive.

So then because our company uses Google Apps, I was concerned about using Google Apps Sync on Windows 8, but that downloaded with out a problem and logged into my Google Account and synced my email, calendar and contacts without problems.

Then, I clicked a link in my Outlook 2010, and Windows freaked me out, it opened the link in the Metro version of IE. So, I Googled, to find out why and there was no info. And then I decided to push random buttons until I could fix it.

Change default browser in Windows 8

Google Chrome is apparently the default browser in Windows 8,  but if you click the link in Outlook or I suppose any other link, then it opens in the Metro version of Internet Explorer 10.

So this is how you change it, this is very stange, but it might be changed when the real version of Windows 8 comes out. Open the IE 10 on the desktop Interface.

Then press the cog and then Internet Options.

Then, choose the programs tab, and then “Set Programs”.

Then, click “Set your default Programs”.

Then this screen pops up.

Click on the browser that you want to be the default, and then click the “Choose defaults for this program” button.

Then click the select all tick box and accept, this should solve your problems.

Ok, so that solved a bit of a frustration for me. Then I installed Dreamweaver and Photoshop, very fast, and runs beautifully.

Now, when my computer starts, I want to have certain programs start when I start my computer, in Windows 7 that was easy, just drag a shortcut into the startup folder. This is how you do that in Windows 8.

Startup Folder in Windows 8

Firstly you need to open the run command or Windows Explorer, and paste this into the run or Explorer: shell:startup

This should bring you to this place.

Now, just place your shortcut into this folder, just like Windows 7.

So now I wanted to open some of these programs that I have installed, now there is now real way to click on the start menu as the button just takes you to the Metro screen. So on the Metro screen you can see all the programs that you have installed at the very right hand side.

Does this make sense? Well not really, but maybe Microsoft has a good idea why this is cool, but I don’t understand, you can obviuously pin the apps to the taskbar, but this is not my favourite thing to do.

If you want you can drag the icon to the left, so that it in the main part of the Metro Screen, what I would like is that you can have folders in the metro screen, so that you can arrange say all the  Office Programs into an Office Folder, or a Social Folder, or a Games Folder. This needs to be in Beta version of Windows 8.

How to find things in Windows 8 that were easy to find in Windows 7.

I hope that that heading makes sense, here are some very important things that maybe you can’t find in Windows 8.

Control Panel

Open up Explorer using WIN+E and you will see Control Panel at the top.

Uninstall a Program

You can get into the control panel as above, and then you can remove the program like Windows 7.

Or, the simpler way is to open explorer and Click on the link at the top of windows explorer.

System Properties in Windows 8

There is no start menu and therefore no My Computer on that start menu. So how do you right click to get system properties? I have found 2 simple ways.

1. Right click on computer in explorer.

2. Or in Explorer at the top you will see this.

Do you do searches on computers and you don’t want a history of that?

So, you want to delete the searches that you do on Windows 8? Well very easy, under the search tab, just click the “Clear search history” link.

Conclusion

I have been using Windows 8 as my primary computer for 1 week. So far it has been perfect, not one freezing, no restarting, no blue screen of death. I am not going to suggest just anyone uses this version of Windows just yet, but if you are feeling brave, or maybe just very curious, I would suggest it.

I hope that this helps you. If you have any questions, please pop a comment below.

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I found these videos on YouTube about what the internet does for people. There is a playlist called “The web is what you make of it“. I would like to share some of these videos with you. Please enjoy.

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Want to see some videos? Here are some videos from the build conference.

I am glad that this competition between the two social networks is promoting innovation. What are your thoughts?

For more info go here : http://www.facebook.com/about/sharing/

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Ever since Social Media started gaining traction, there have been people looking to use it for different purposes, from telling you about their favourite restaurant to something more important like the Egyptian protests.

There was a story about how Twitter was used to track down a woman to prevent her suicide, there were stories about how people used Twitter and Facebook  to get the word out about what was happening in January 2011 in Egypt.

Now not all of you will know but I was a Maths and Computer teacher at King Edward VII School a couple of years ago. And it turns out that Duncan Craig Allan, an old boy from King Edward VII School, has gone missing on the 18 July 2011. Now I have seen a huge response to this on Facebook and Twitter.

People have been changing their avatars to Duncan’s Missing Person’s poster. People have been looking for information and liking lots of posts. I have seen a fair amount of offline social media as posters have been put up around shopping centres in and around Joburg, and I have also seen lots of posters in Durban and down the South Coast.

There has been lots of media coverage on this and here a couple of mentions.

http://www.turnitaround.co.za/news/news_article/322

http://www.myjozi.co.za/help-find-duncan-allan-please-take-5-minutes-to-view-this-post/

If you have any news on Duncan Allan, please get in touch on the Facebook group. http://www.facebook.com/groups/207571865960970/ or contact the investigating officer Wattrant Officer Denny Phatshwane on 082 319 9647.

Update: If you would like the poster to print and put up, you can get it here : Duncan Allan Poster or from here http://www.scribd.com/doc/60946494/Duncan This was done by http://twitter.com/#!/jamescaw

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DSTV BoxOffice is very new, so there might be things planned that they will change, but maybe someone from DSTV might read this and maybe they could use some of these suggestions. Check out how I think that it will affect the South African Economy here.

1. DSTV BoxOffice is expensive. You firstly have to pay for a DSTV premium subscription.  You have to buy and have the PVR installed. Then once all that happens, you have to pay R25 per movie. Now my DVD store, charges me R18 per DVD on contract and every fifth movie is free. So that works out to R14,40 per movie. That means DSTV is more than R10 more per movie.

2. DSTV gives no choice. Every time you go to the DVD store do you just get the latest movies? No? I want a menu that allows me to choose from older movies that I can request. This, depending on the age of the movie, could be R5 or R10 and allow you to watch it for a week rather than 48 hours.

3. TV Series are not being released on BoxOffice. If there is a new TV Series in the USA that I want to watch now, give me the option. It might be really expensive, but that is a choice that I can make.

4. When you want to watch a movie then this is the process from the BoxOffice Website.

Select your favourite movie.
Accept the terms and conditions.
Choose your payment option.
SMS the Rental code.

Sounds simple? Well it takes time. So this is my suggestion. Register a main cellphone with DSTV BoxOffice. If you select a movie, then DSTV will sms the main cellphone and ask if you approve or deny. There might be a need for this complicated steps for people who have children, but don’t make that our problem.

What do you think? Do you have any other suggestions?

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DTSV has released a product called BoxOffice. This might be a little early, but I want to look at how the game changing product will change the current landscape of South Africa’s economy.

Who is DSTV competing against?

There are a couple of ramifications that I can see immediately.

Franchise DVD Stores and Mom and Pop DVD stores. Most of the DVD stores that I used to go to were mom and pop owned DVD stores, where the service was great and the advice on movies was a personal recommendation. Those have all but closed, due in part to Blockbusters. At the franchise DVD stores you are just a number and the service is not great. So now, will box office, the people have been removed all together. So, I was upset by the mom and pop stores closing, but at least I had an alternative, but those will (in my opinion) be gone too, unless they can make it worth while.

Take out / Fast food Stores. Now this might be quite apparent, but when you get a DVD what do you also do? Well normally if I am going to get a DVD, then I might get take out too. Now in South Africa, if you go to Blockbusters DVD, then next door there is a Steers (Hamburgers) or a Debonnairs (Pizza). So if I now rent a movie from DSTV’s Box Office, the question is will I still get take out? Probably not.

Musica /and other DVD retailers. I haven’t bought a physical DVD in years, unless it is for someone’s birthday, or they have a new animated movie that I want to buy for friends who have kids. So I might not be the target market that is going to affected by this. But people are buying DVDs. Will this be affected? I am not sure.

Movie Theatres. I hate movie theatres. I am 6″6′ and the movie theatres don’t make seats big enough for me. So I bought a projector and all my DVDs and DSTV go through the projector. This means my TV is 2.5m wide. I don’t need to go to a cinema, unless I really want to. I can pause and talk if needed. I can go to the bathroom if needed. Cinemas are old, and they rip you off with the food. I am not very sad about this.

How will this change the economy?

Well if the large retailers, like Musica, and Blockbusters go out of business or even have to down size, this will affect a lot of people and their jobs.

Obviously this will also affect the bottom line of DSTV, which will go up. That is at least good. So they will pay more tax to the South African government, so will that improve the lives of people? But there is the loss of the tax from the stores that will close or down size. Closing down an entire industry for one company to get wealthy is wrong in my opinion.

I am not sure how this got through without the competition commision getting involved. Shutting down an entire industry for the benefit of one company must be against some rule.

Does this mean that I won’t use the service? Nope, but I will feel guilty about it.

What do you think about this new service? Will you use it?

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Google Plus is still in the invite stage. However with all the new pretty versions of the Google Products, the mobile interface of Google Plus on Opera Mini looks terrible.

The images and interface is all over the place. It is difficult to select anything. and some of the pages don’t work.

 The desktop version is beautiful and works. They need to focus on the mobile version, as not everybody has an android phone that will allow the app to be installed.

Here are some more examples of the look on the Opera Mini Browser.

Hopefully by the time Google Plus is ready for everyone this will be fixed.

Facebook on the other hand looks great on Opera Mini.

Update 23 July 2011 : Well it seems like Google has been listening to the complaints about their mobile website for Google Plus. They have introduced a basic mobile interface for Opera Mini. Thanks for that. Could we have some of the functionality back though?

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There are still people looking for Google + Invites. Are you one of them? If so, please use the comments below and give me your gmail address and I will invite you asap.

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Google Plus vs Facebook, I love it… I love the way they make fun of Myspace at the same time.

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Google Plus has been out for a while now and there have been some complaints. One of which is that you couldn’t hide your gender. This doesn’t feature for me as my name is pretty much male, but if you need to hide your gender, this is how you do it.

Click on your profile button.

Then click on the Edit post button.

Then click on your Gender, and change the drop down to “only you”

And now Google Plus will use non gender specific language. So instead of His and Her circles, it will be their circles. Hope that helps. By the way you can find me on Google Plus here : https://plus.google.com/110815050215230803346/posts

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So in the trend of making Google Prettier, YouTube has announced a new theme for YouTube. It is called Cosmic Panda. And this is what it looks like.

So you want it? Of course you do. Go here: http://www.youtube.com/cosmicpanda

And then click on the Try it Out button.

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Firstly go here : https://www.facebook.com/videocalling

You will then get to this page. Click the get started button. In Google Chrome it just works. In Internet Explorer and Firefox you need to download a little file.

Then if you want to call someone, click on their name and then click on this button that looks like a camera.

Hope that helps you.

Are you feeling left out yet, not having a Google Plus account? Well firstly I read an article that says that Google Plus will be available for everybody on or before July 31. But until then you can only read about the cool things that everyone else has.

Google has released it’s project without Vanity Urls. Now Facebook did that too, but we all now expect Vanity Urls. Look at this url for an example https://plus.google.com/104560124403688998123/posts, this is Mark Zuckerberg’s Google Plus Address. Now that would be difficult to remember if you were to quote it to someone or if you wanted it on your business card.

So a clever person has released Google Plus Nick.

It is basically a Url Shortner that points a url to your Google Plus account. There is no intelligence here and I think that maybe they released the product too quickly. You can register your ID with them but you cannot change your Nick Name and if someone else registered your ID, then you can’t use this.

But anyway, very cool little thing. It always amazes me that people can come up with something like this so quickly.

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So, you are feeling left behind because you don’t have a Google + account? Well we can show you another thing that you are missing out on, this list is the Top 100 most popular Google Plus Users.

Check out the list for yourselves here : http://socialstatistics.com/ Mark Zuckerberg has the highest number of followers with 21213 (5 July 2011), with Larry Page coming 2nd at 14798.

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http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/health-check/

Here are some notes from the WordPress guys

WordPress 3.2 is going to be released very soon, and we want you to be ready! Take note: the minimum requirements are changing.

PHP and MySQL

As of 3.2, you’ll need to be running PHP 5.2.4 and MySQL 5.0. As we mentioned almost a year ago when we announced that this change was coming, the percentage of people running older versions of PHP and MySQL is relatively low. With more than 45 million people using WordPress, though, even a small percentage can mean a lot of people! Don’t caught with your pants dashboard down — make sure you’re running compatible versions of PHP and MySQL before you update tomorrow when WordPress 3.2 is released.

Log in to your hosting account, and check to make sure you have at least  PHP 5.2.4 and MySQL 5.0. Most of the major hosts already default to these or newer versions, but there are some exceptions. Check to see which versions you are running, and if you’re still on an older version, it should be as simple as changing a dropdown menu and clicking Save to get up to date.

If you don’t know how to find this information in your hosting account or you don’t even know how to access your hosting control panel because someone else manages that for you, don’t fret. You can find out if you’re ready for 3.2 with the Health Check plugin. In your dashboard, go to Plugins → Add New and search for “health check” (it should be the first result). Install it, activate it, and it will tell you if you need to update anything.

If you need more help, contact your host’s customer service and use this email template to ask them to help you.

Hi there. I host my domain [example.com] with you, and I run WordPress on my site. The minimum requirements are changing to PHP 5.2.4 and MySQL 5.0, and I would appreciate your help in confirming that my site’s setup meets these requirements. If I’m currently running an older version of PHP or MySQL, could you update it for me, or tell me how to do it? Thanks so much!

IE6 and Outdated Browsers

With 3.2, we’re also dropping support for Internet Explorer 6, a 10-years-old outdated browser that evenMicrosoft is ready to leave behind. From now on, if you access your WordPress dashboard from an outdated browser, we’ll let you know. Why? Because as web technology improves, so does WordPress, as we build features to take advantage of these improvements. If you’re using an out-of-date browser, chances are you’re missing out.

If your browser is out of date, you’ll see a friendly orangey-yellow box in your dashboard letting you know you a newer version is available (which you can dismiss, of course). If you’re using IE6, though, the box will be red, and your dashboard will not function properly. If you’re stuck on IE6 because the computer you use is maintained by a business, library, school, or the like, and you are not able to download a newer browser, here’s a sample email you can use to ask your boss/administrator/IT guys to update the browser.

Hi there. The computer I use at [where you use the computer] is equipped with an out-of-date web browser. Internet Explorer 6 was created 10 years ago, before modern web standards, and does not support modern web applications. More and more sites and applications are dropping support for IE6, including the new version of WordPress. Even Microsoft, the makers of IE6, are counting down until IE6 goes the way of the dinosaur (see http://www.ie6countdown.com/ for more information). Can you please install an updated version of IE or any modern browser (see http://browsehappy.com for more information) on the available computers? Thank you very much.

Welcome to the future!

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It almost feels like they release products without testing them before it goes out. I have quite a few clients that have Blackberrys, and they have had weird experiences, the phone resets itself back to factory settings, wipes out their contact details and many other very exciting things.

Yesterday BGR released an open letter from one of Blackberry’s employees. This is below. And then RIM responded below that.

To the RIM Senior Management Team:

I have lost confidence.

While I hide it at work, my passion has been sapped. I know I am not alone — the sentiment is widespread and it includes people within your own teams.

Mike and Jim, please take the time to really absorb and digest the content of this letter because it reflects the feeling across a huge percentage of your employee base. You have many smart employees, many that have great ideas for the future, but unfortunately the culture at RIM does not allow us to speak openly without having to worry about the career-limiting effects.

Before I get into the meat of the matter, I will say I am not part of a large group of bitter employees wishing to embarrass us. Rather, I believe these points need to be heard and I desperately want RIM to regain its position as a successful industry leader. Our carriers, distributors, alliance partners, enterprise customers, and our loyal end users all want the same thing… for BlackBerry to once again be leading the pack.

We are in the middle of major “transition” and things have never been more chaotic. Almost every project is falling further and further behind schedule at a time when we absolutely must deliver great, solid products on time. We urge you to make bold decisions about our organisational structure, about our culture and most importantly our products.

While we anxiously wait to see the details of the streamlining plan, here are some suggestions:

1) Focus on the End User experience

Let’s obsess about what is best for the end user. We often make product decisions based on strategic alignment, partner requests or even legal advice — the end user doesn’t care. We simply have to admit that Apple is nailing this and it is one of the reasons they have people lining up overnight at stores around the world, and products sold out for months. These people aren’t hypnotized zombies, they simply love beautifully designed products that are user centric and work how they are supposed to work. Android has a major weakness — it will always lack the simplicity and elegance that comes with end-to-end device software, middleware and hardware control. We really have a great opportunity to build something new and “uniquely BlackBerry” with the QNX platform.

Let’s start an internal innovation revival with teams focused on what users will love instead of chasing “feature parity” and feature differentiation for no good reason (Adobe Flash being a major example). When was the last time we pushed out a significant new experience or feature that wasn’t already on other platforms?

Rather than constantly mocking iPhone and Android, we should encourage key decision makers across the board to use these products as their primary device for a week or so at a time — yes, on Exchange! This way we can understand why our users are switching and get inspiration as to how we can build our next-gen products even better! It’s incomprehensible that our top software engineers and executives aren’t using or deeply familiar with our competitor’s products.

2) Recruit Senior SW Leaders & enable decision-making

I’m going to say what everyone is thinking… We need some heavy hitters at RIM when it comes to software management. Teams still aren’t talking together properly, no one is making or can make critical decisions, all the while everyone is working crazy hours and still far behind. We are demotivated. Just look at who our major competitors are: Apple, Google & Microsoft. These are three of the biggest and most talented software companies on the planet. Then take a look at our software leadership teams in terms of what they have delivered and their past experience prior to RIM… It says everything.

3) Cut projects to the bone.

There is a serious need to consolidate our focus to just a handful of projects. Period.

We need to be disciplined here. We can’t afford any more initiatives based on carrier requests to squeeze out slightly more volume. Again, back to point #1, focus on the end users. They are the ones making both consumer & enterprise purchase decisions.

Strategy is often in the things you decide not to do.

On that note, we simply must stop shipping incomplete products that aren’t ready for the end user. It is hurting our brand tremendously. It takes guts to not allow a product to launch that may be 90% ready with a quarter end in sight, but it will pay off in the long term.

Look at Apple in 1997 for tips here. I really want you to watch this video because it has never been more relevant. It is our friend Steve Jobs in 97 and it may as well be you speaking to RIM employees and partners today.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LEXae1j6EY

4) Developers, not Carriers can now make or break us

We urgently need to invest like we never have before in becoming developer friendly. The return will be worth every cent. There is no polite way to say this, but it’s true — BlackBerry smartphone apps suck. Even PlayBook, with all its glorious power, looks like a Fisher Price toy with its Adobe AIR/Flash apps.

Developing for BlackBerry is painful, and despite what you’ve been told, things haven’t really changed that much since Jamie Murai’s letter. Our SDK / development platform is like a rundown 1990′s Ford Explorer. Then there’s Apple, which has a shiny new BMW M3… just such a pleasure to drive. Developers want and need quality tools.

If we create great tools, we will see great work. Offer shit tools and we shouldn’t be surprised when we see shit apps.

The truth is, no one in RIM dares to tell management how bad our tools still are. Even our closest dev partners do their best to say it politely, but they will never bite the hand that feeds them. The solution? Recruit serious talent, buy SDK/API specialist companies, throw a truckload of money at it… Let’s do whatever it takes, and quickly!

5) Need for serious marketing punch to create end user desire

25 million iPad users don’t care that it doesn’t have Flash or true multitasking, so why make that a focus in our campaigns? I’ll answer that for you: it’s because that’s all that differentiates our products and its lazy marketing. I’ve never seen someone buy product B because it has something product A doesn’t have. People buy product B because they want and lust after product B.

Also an important note regarding our marketing: a product’s technical superiority does not equal desire, and therefore sales… How many Linux laptops are getting sold? How did Betamax go? My mother wants an iPad and iPhone because it is simple and appeals to her. Powerful multitasking doesn’t.

BlackBerry Messenger has been our standout, yet we wasted our marketing on strange stories from a barber shop to a horse wrangler. I promise you, this did nothing to help us in the mind of the average consumer.

We need an inventive and engaging campaign that focuses on what we are about. People buy into a brand / product not just because of features, but because of what it stands for and what it delivers to them. People don’t buy “what you do,” people buy “why you do it.” Take 3 minutes to watch the this video starting from the 2min mark: http://youtu.be/qp0HIF3SfI4

6) No Accountability – Canadians are too nice

RIM has a lot of people who underperform but still stay in their roles. No one is accountable. Where is the guy responsible for the 9530 software? Still with us, still running some important software initiative. We will never achieve excellence with this culture. Just because someone may have been a loyal RIM employee for 7 years, it doesn’t mean they are the best Manager / Director / VP for that role. It’s time to change the culture to deliver or move on and get out. We have far too many people in critical roles that fit this description. I can hear the cheers of my fellow employees now.

7) The press and analysts are pissing you off. Don’t snap. Now is the time for humility with a dash of paranoia.

The public’s questions about dual-CEOs are warranted. The partnership is not broken, but on the ground level, it is not efficient. Maybe we need our Eric Schmidt reign period.

Yes, four years ago we beat Microsoft when everyone said Windows Mobile with Direct Push in Exchange would kill us. It didn’t… in fact we grew stronger.

However, overconfidence clouds good decision-making. We missed not boldly reacting to the threat of iPhone when we saw it in January over four years ago. We laughed and said they are trying to put a computer on a phone, that it won’t work. We should have made the QNX-like transition then. We are now 3-4 years too late. That is the painful truth… it was a major strategic oversight and we know who is responsible.

Jim, in referring to our current transition recently said: “No other technology company other than Apple has successfully transitioned their platform. It’s almost never done, and it’s way harder than you realize. This transition is where tech companies go to die.”

To avoid this death, perhaps it is time to seriously consider a new, fresh thinking, experienced CEO. There is no shame in no longer being a CEO. Mike, you could focus on innovation. Jim, you could focus on our carriers/customers… They are our lifeblood.

Democratise. Engage and interact with your employees — please!

Reach out to all employees asking them on how we can make RIM better. Encourage input from ground-level teams—without repercussions—to seek out honest feedback and really absorb it.

Lastly, we’re all reading the news and many are extremely nervous, especially when we see people get fired. We need an injection of confidence: share your strategy and ask us for support. The headhunters have already started circling and we are at risk of losing our best people.

Now would be a great time to internally re-brand and re-energize the workplace. For example, rename the company to just “BlackBerry” to signify our new focus on one QNX product line. We should also address issues surrounding making RIM an enjoyable workplace. Some of our offices feel like Soviet-era government workplaces.

The timing is perfect to seriously evaluate at our position and make these major changes. We can do it!

Sincerely,

A RIM Employee

This is the response from RIM.

An “Open Letter” to RIM’s senior management was published anonymously on the web today and it was attributed to an unnamed person described as a ‘high level employee”. It is obviously difficult to address anonymous commentary and it is particularly difficult to believe that a “high level employee” in good standing with the company would choose to anonymously publish a letter on the web rather than engage their fellow executives in a constructive manner, but regardless of whether the letter is real, fake, exaggerated or written with ulterior motivations, it is fair to say that the senior management team at RIM is nonetheless fully aware of and aggressively addressing both the company’s challenges and its opportunities.

RIM recently confirmed that it is nearing the end of a major business and technology transition. Although this transition has taken longer than anticipated, there is much excitement and optimism within the company about the new products that are lined up for the coming months. There is a fundamental business reality however that following an extended period of hyper growth (during which RIM nearly quadrupled in size over the past 5 years alone), it has become necessary for the company to streamline its operations in order to allow it to grow its business profitably while pursuing newer strategic opportunities. Again, RIM’s management team takes these challenges seriously and is actively addressing the situation. The company is thankfully in a solid business and financial position to tackle the opportunities ahead with a solid balance sheet (nearly $3 billion in cash and no debt), strong profitability (RIM’s net income last quarter was $695 million) and substantial international growth (international revenue in Q1 grew 67% over the same quarter last year). In fact, while growth has slowed in the US, RIM still shipped 13.2 million BlackBerry smartphones last quarter (which is about 100 smartphones per minute, 24 hours per day) and RIM is more committed than ever to serving its loyal customers and partners around the world.

What do you think of Blackberrys? Do you think that they are good or bad?

So you want an invite for the new Google Plus Project? Well You can get one right now.



Well get one here from Ebay.

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This article first published as Google + The Ins and Outs on Technorati, where Paul Ogier is a writer.

Google wants to compete with Facebook and Skype with it’s new service Google Plus. Will it work? Not sure but it looks like the best version of social that they have ever done. They have put together a core group of social products and a new navigation bar that integrates sharing and conversations into every single Google Product.

The design and UI is much better than normal Google products, but it still retains the “normal” Google look with plenty of white space.

The usability of the interface looks easy enough and it seems like they sat down and made it as good as possible. They have also rethought simple things like adding people to your Circle of friends, this makes the whole experience much more streamlined.

They are calling it a Project rather then a Product to allow for movement and changes rather than saying this is the final product. This will allow them to add new features and combine features if needed.

These are a couple of the elements that Google has put forward in this Project.

Google + Stream

This is the main section of Google Plus. It doesn’t bring anything that we haven’t seen to the table, it is rather like the Facebook or Twitter stream, but it is well done and doesn’t feel as crowded as my Facebook stream.

Google + Circles

Circles are cool. Just select the friends or colleagues and drag them to an existing circle or a new circle and you are done. This is much easier than using the lists and groups features on Twitter and Facebook.

Google + Profiles

Google profiles used to be quite boring and I hope that this makes it better. It looks like it will and you can port your existing profile over into the new profile.

Google + Hangouts

This is one of the coolest things. Google plus Hangouts are where you can hangouts when you have 2 minutes free and you want to talk to your friends. Any friends that hangout with you you can see on a group chat. If Google plus gets going this might be the best feature. I am sure that they will have a notification system at some point that will allow you to see on your navigation bar if someone is hanging out. This I would say is a direct shot across the bow of Skype and of course now Microsoft.

Google + Sparks

In the past if we want to follow topics we might have used Google Alerts or a streaming rss feed from our favourite websites. Google plus sparks tries to make this easier. Enter the topic you are interested in and it will come straight into your profile so that you can read it from there.

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I’m CEO, Bitch.

But I thought that it was rude that he was the only one who had a card that was that cool. So I made a couple more.

And this is my personal Favourite. Not sure if the cleaning lady has a business card, but what the hell…

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http://xkcd.com/910/

Buy from Amazon here for $447.44:  http://www.amazon.com/Acer-A500-10S16u-10-1-Inch-Computer-Aluminum/dp/tech-data/B004XZL980/ref=de_a_smtd

Product Features and Technical Details

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Dell Streak 7 Wi-Fi Tablet (Foggy Night)

Product Features and Technical Details

The Nivo Slider is a great and powerful jQuery slider. It is very simple and can be used just about anywhere including on WordPress sites. So when I heard that the guys @ DMXzone had released an extension for Dreamweaver that made it simple to add photos from a static or dynamic source, I had to look at it. As with all the extensions from DMXzone, there are many options for you to choose and this extension makes no apologies for the incredible amount of customisation. You can edit the Title, Link, Description and target of the link. You can attach this to the DMXzone lightbox extension, it will also, if you want, automatically create the image titles for you, from the photos. So you want more customisation? Of course you do. The Advanced settings for the Nivo Slider allows you to choose a theme for your slider. You can also select how you want hings to change like show the next and previous buttons and allow the Keyboard navigation to work. You can also choose how you long each transition must take and how transparent (opacity) you want it to be.

This is a very simple but very powerful extension. I would definitely recommend this for any one using Dreamweaver that needs a slider. Get it here: http://www.dmxzone.com/go?18780 If you would like me to review a product or software, please get in contact with our reviews department on reviews@outsourcehouse.co.za.

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When you are developing or designing a website or making a magazine design, there are times when you need to see what the layouts will look like with filler text in. We normally use a generator that puts as many paragraphs in as we need and it is based on Lorem Ipsum. But that is so boring. So here you can find the Bacon Ipsum Generator.

Want to see what is produced?

Bacon Ipsum

Bacon ipsum dolor sit amet salami pork belly tail tongue pancetta, pork loin tri-tip drumstick bresaola shankle. Bacon ham hock pork belly, sausage tri-tip tongue strip steak fatback. Tail t-bone salami bacon. Bresaola turkey ribeye hamburger meatball t-bone. Turkey pancetta ground round, pig sirloin tenderloin corned beef meatloaf venison sausage jerky pork loin shank bacon tail. Pancetta beef ham hock, jowl pork chop pork belly bacon venison rump shoulder shankle cow pastrami sausage. Beef ribs drumstick meatball, pancetta biltong swine bresaola ribeye jerky spare ribs ham chuck corned beef pork chop.

Lorem Ipsum

Not feeling the meat? Well here you can get the Lorem Ipsum generator.

In publishing and graphic design, lorem ipsum is placeholder text (filler text) commonly used to demonstrate the graphics elements of a document or visual presentation, such as font, typography, and layout. The lorem ipsum text is typically a section of a Latin text by Cicero with words altered, added and removed that make it nonsensical in meaning and not proper Latin. A close English translation of the words lorem ipsum might be “pain itself” (dolorem = pain, grief, misery, suffering; ipsum = itself). From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorem_ipsum

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Check out what Microsoft had to say about this:

Today, at the D9 Conference, we demonstrated the next generation of Windows, internally code-named “Windows 8,” for the first time. Windows 8 is a reimagining of Windows, from the chip to the interface. A Windows 8-based PC is really a new kind of device, one that scales from touch-only small screens through to large screens, with or without a keyboard and mouse.

The demo showed some of the ways we’ve reimagined the interface for a new generation of touch-centric hardware. Fast, fluid and dynamic, the experience has been transformed while keeping the power, flexibility and connectivity of Windows intact.

Here are a few aspects of the new interface we showed today:

•Fast launching of apps from a tile-based Start screen, which replaces the Windows Start menu with a customizable, scalable full-screen view of apps.

•Live tiles with notifications, showing always up-to-date information from your apps.

•Fluid, natural switching between running apps.

•Convenient ability to snap and resize an app to the side of the screen, so you can really multitask using the capabilities of Windows.

•Web-connected and Web-powered apps built using HTML5 and JavaScript that have access to the full power of the PC.

•Fully touch-optimized browsing, with all the power of hardware-accelerated Internet Explorer 10.

We also showed effortless movement between existing Windows programs and new Windows 8 apps. The full capabilities of Windows continue to be available to you, including the Windows Explorer and Desktop, as does compatibility with all Windows 7 logo PCs, software and peripherals.

Julie Larson-Green, Corporate Vice President, Windows Experience

Click for high-res version.

Although the new user interface is designed and optimized for touch, it works equally well with a mouse and keyboard. Our approach means no compromises — you get to use whatever kind of device you prefer, with peripherals you choose, to run the apps you love. This is sure to inspire a new generation of hardware and software development, improving the experience for PC users around the world.

Today, we also talked a bit about how developers will build apps for the new system. Windows 8 apps use the power of HTML5, tapping into the native capabilities of Windows using standard JavaScript and HTML to deliver new kinds of experiences. These new Windows 8 apps are full-screen and touch-optimized, and they easily integrate with the capabilities of the new Windows user interface. There’s much more to the platform, capabilities and tools than we showed today.

We are excited to bring an innovative new platform and tools to developers and see how their creativity jumpstarts a new generation of apps. Windows 8 apps can use a broad set of new libraries and controls, designed for fluid interaction and seamless connectivity. Apps can add new capabilities to Windows and to other apps, connecting with one another through the new interface. For example, we showed today how a developer can extend the file picker control to enable picking from their own app content or from within another Windows 8 app, in addition to the local file system and the network. We’re just getting started.

And this isn’t just about touch PCs. The new Windows experience will ultimately be powered by application and device developers around the world — one experience across a tremendous variety of PCs. The user interface and new apps will work with or without a keyboard and mouse on a broad range of screen sizes and pixel densities, from small slates to laptops, desktops, all-in-ones, and even classroom-sized displays. Hundreds of millions of PCs will run the new Windows 8 user interface. This breadth of hardware choice is unique to Windows and central to how we see Windows evolving.

 

 

They needed a simple way to add and edit articles, and they wanted the pupil’s at a later stage to to be able to Add and Edit Photos and Articles to create an excitement about the website. So we made them a WordPress website. They have full control over all aspects of the website and can add and edit everything.

We are also testing out getting their PageRank higher with this experiment. Please check them out here : http://vories.co.za/

Now how do you install the +1 button it to your WordPress site?

Step 1: Edit the footer.php file.

Well you need to start by adding some JavaScript to your theme files. Go into your Theme editor and open up your Footer.php file.

Then find the ending </body> tag. Then go here http://www.google.com/webmasters/+1/button/index.html. Then choose the type of +1 button you want.

I am choosing the standard +1 button.

Which means that my code looks like this:

<script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js”></script>

Then update your footer.php file.

Step 2: Add the code to the widget sidebar

Now you can add the code to your loop.php file, but right now we are just adding it to the Widget sidebar.

The code you need to add is this.

<g:plusone></g:plusone>

So drag a text widget onto the sidebar. You can put a heading in if you want, and then the code below.

And this is what it will look like below the new Twitter follow button.

Hope that helps you.

So what we are doing here is we will update this page when anything new happens and when the page rank changes.

Vories.co.za

This is the website that we will be looking at for this experiment. It was developed by another company in 2006 and the PageRank is still sitting on 0/10. So there goes the theory that if you have an older website then it automatically has higher PageRank. This was done with Pageranker.co.za

We have developed the new Website for Vorentoe High School using WordPress. It has customised urls and the ability to like it on Facebook. We have also set up a page for it on Facebook and Twitter to encourage people to come from those services.

It also has permalinks and clean code. We have also included tags and categories to allow inpage linking.

This is just a start and will allow us to track how the PageRank and visitors increase over a period of time.

We have are also linking to the website from our website. We are doing this without a nofollow tag. http://vories.co.za/

Over the period of the next couple of months we will adding things to the website and to our linking that will allow us to see whether or not this is working.

In the end we are just trying to increase the reach of a school website, the PageRank is just a side experiment. Please note that this website is very new and we are still getting information loaded onto it.

If you have an idea of what to do to increase the PageRank, please comment below. This is even if you would like to just try something. If enough people like your comment then we will try it.

Javascript Code for the Twitter Follow Button

You just add a little code to your website and then you are up and running. Here is a screen s

hot.

If you are logged into your Twitter account then you can just click the Follow button and you are automatically added as a follower of that account, without leaving the website. Do you want the follow button? Of course you do. Here is the code. https://twitter.com/about/resources/followbutton. And here is the info about it. http://blog.twitter.com/2011/05/introducing-follow-button.html

Here is info from Twitter.

When you follow interesting accounts on Twitter, it’s easy to stay connected wi

th what’s most meaningful to you. Today we’re excited to launch the Follow Button, a new way to discover and instantly follow Twitter accounts directly from the websites you visit everyday. 
More than 50 sites have added the Follow Button today, making it easy for you to discover the Twitter accounts of your favourite reporters, athletes, celebrities, and other personalities. Using the Follow Button is as simple as a single click. You can also see the profile and latest Tweets of the account you want to follow by clicking the username next to the Button.
For publishers and brands, adding the Follow Button to your website and using Twitter to stay connected with your audience is a powerful combination. People who follow your account are much more likely to retweet and engage with your Tweets, and to repeatedly visit your website. Adding the Follow Button to your website is quick and easy, and you can configure yours right now at twitter.com/followbutton.

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Amazon.com Product Description of the Dell Streak

The Android-based Dell Streak 7 is the ultimate entertainment hub for those craving a rich multimedia and web experience. It features a brilliant 7-inch WVGA multi-touch display made of damage-resistant Gorilla Glass that’s ideal for Web browsing, streaming video, watching TV and movies, reading books and magazines, or playing games wherever you roam.

The Dell Streak 7 offers a vibrant 7-inch, multi-touch display.

Powered by a screaming fast, dual-core 1 GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, the Streak 7 is loaded full of entertainment and family-friendly apps–from Kindle for Android and Zinio magazines to BrainPOP and Slacker Radio.  The Streak 7 also helps you capture and shares favorite moments with the rear-facing 5 megapixel camera for high-definition stills and video recording and a front-facing 1.3 megapixel camera for video-calling using the preloaded Qik Video Chat application.

Other features include a 16 GB internal memory that can be expanded via optional microSD memory cards (up to 32 GB in size), Swype virtual keyboard technology, full support for Adobe Flash Player, up to 4 hours of continuous video playback time, and up to 3 days of standby time.

Enjoy a rich web and multimedia experience at home or on the go.

Android 2.2 OS and Dell Stage User Interface

The Streak 7 runs the latest Android operating system–OS 2.2 (aka, Froyo)–which provides a faster overall Android experience as well as greater multitasking capabilities. You’ll be able to receive notifications, listen to music, and even record GPS data without keeping the application open. And it features a plethora of new enhancements, including an improved QWERTY keyboard, full push corporate e-mail, and Adobe Flash Player 10.1 for access to the full Web.

It also provides easy access to both personal and corporate e-mail, calendars, and contacts supported by Exchange Server and Gmail. And through Android Market, you’ll get access to thousands of useful applications, widgets, and fun games to download and install on your phone, with many more apps being added every day.

The Streak 7 also features Dell’s innovative Stage user interface, which provides a seamless and unified experience for accessing all your favourite content. Later this year, Dell will add syncing to Stage so you can keep your photos, contacts, calendars, and other personal content synchronized across your Dell Stage-equipped devices–from tablets to PCs–connected through your home network.

Streak 7 Entertainment and Content

The Dell Streak 7 comes preloaded with unique content and applications to entertain the whole family, including:

Includes a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video chats on popular services such as Qik or Skype.

Qik Video Chat. With the Streak 7′s front-facing camera paired with Video Chat through Qik, you can hold video conversations with those who have a Streak 7–or other compatible mobile device–and even broadcast your view through the rear-facing camera.
BrainPOP: Animated educational content embraced by students and trusted by teachers and parents around the globe. BrainPOP brings learning to your fingertips.

Zinio. The largest online newsstand, enabling customers to shop for, search inside, read, share and save digital content in new ways with more than 75,000 digital magazines from 26 countries.
Kindle for Android. Lets you shop for hundreds of thousands of books in the Kindle Store, including New York Times Best Sellers and new releases from $9.99. Use Amazon’s Whispersync technology to automatically synchronize your last page read, bookmarks, annotations, and more across your various devices–including Kindle, Kindle DX, PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, BlackBerry and Android phones.
BLOCKBUSTER On Demand Enables you to discover and download the latest movie rentals.  Blockbuster’s first-ever video download application on a smartphone allows you to buy a movie on one device and watch on another connected device through Blockbuster’s library.

Let’s Golf (Gameloft). Discover a fun atmosphere making golf accessible to anyone with 63 holes in 4 environments in 3D and 4 characters to customize. 63 holes in 4 distinct locations remodeled in 3D: Fiji Beach, the American Mountains, the English Countryside, and Scottish Lochs.
Slacker Radio. With millions of songs from thousands of artists, Slacker is the best way to discover new artists and hear your favourite music. Listening to Slacker is as easy as selecting one of over 120 DJ-programmed genre stations or searching for your favourite artist or song.

So go and check it out. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004QZASJ8/ref=pe_17040_19975540_as_img_3/

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But this makes really no sense to an international visitor. Something that does make sense to them is 5 minutes ago or even 1 month ago. There is a very plugin that does this for you. Check it out here : http://wpsplash.com/wordpress-timeago-fuzzy-dates-plugin/ and get it from WordPress here : http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/timeago/

It changes your dates from whatever you have decided on to this. And if you hover over the date, it actually tells you the date and time that it was added and what time zone you are using.

Very cool WordPress Plugin. Hope that helps you.

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What is better than the Kindle?

Well there are a couple of things that the Nook does that the Kindle does not. Does that make it better? I actually don’t think so, it almost looks like they are taking on the Kindle and the iPad. Maybe not wise to try and attack two markets with one product.

Reading is more amazing than ever on our stunning 7-inch VividView™ Color Touchscreen. NOOK Color uses best-in-class technology to display more than 16 million colors and an extra wide viewing angle for personal or shared reading.

Do you really need a colour touch screen? Will this not impact on the reading experience having finger marks on the screen?

Get all your newsstand favorites in rich, full color. From Us Weekly and Elle to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal – NOOK Newsstand delivers your morning paper and latest magazines right to your NOOK Color, ready to read in an amazing new way.

Well to answer my question about the colour screen. Yes in some cases it would be better than the Kindle. Reading magazines in Grey Scale is not cool, but in colour the Nook is much better. But here I feel that this would be better on the iPad.

Apps on the Nook

What are you looking to do on your ebook reader? Is it reading books or playing games? If you want to read then I would say choose a Kindle. If you are easily distracted and need to play games and read the internet and check your email. Then maybe the Nook is better.

NOOK Color brings you even more of the web with an enhanced mobile experience. Watch videos on many of your favorite websites like YouTube® and enjoy some of the most interactive and animated content that the Internet has to offer now with the newly integrated Adobe® Flash® Player.

Popular apps keep the whole family entertained and engaged. Play games like Angry Birds and Uno, stay up-to-date with Pulse News, learn a language with Lonely Planet, try recipes with Epicurious. Plus lots of fun apps just for kids, including Drawing Pad and ‘Cat In the Hat.’

Get your email on the go! Check and send email anytime you’re connected with built-in Wi-Fi ®. Use the free full-featured email app to get all your POP and IMAP webmail (i.e., Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, AOL) in one in-box. You can also get corporate email from any Microsoft Exchange Server®, find out how at www.nookcolor.com/email

Battery Life of the Kindle and the Nook?

The Nook has come out and said that their battery life vs the Kindle is amazing.

With up to two months on a single charge, the All-New NOOK has the longest-battery life in the industry and superior battery performance to Kindle 3. In our side-by-side tests, under the exact same conditions, continuous use of the device resulted in more than two times Kindle’s battery life. While reading at one page a minute, the All-New NOOK battery lasts for 150 hours where the Kindle battery, using the same page-turn rate, lasts for only 56 hours (both with Wi-Fi off). We’ve also done a continuous page turn test and at one page turn per second, the All-New NOOK offers more than 25,000 continuous page turns on a single charge.

And then Amazon has come out and defended their battery life.

A single charge lasts up to two months with wireless off based upon a half-hour of daily reading time. If you read for one hour a day, you will get battery life of up to one month. Keep wireless always on and it lasts for up to 10 days. Battery life will vary based on wireless usage, such as shopping the Kindle Store, Web browsing, and downloading content. In low-coverage areas or in EDGE/GPRS-only coverage, wireless usage will consume battery power more quickly.”

Read more: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-18438_7-20066005-82.html#ixzz1NXEy9jdn

So Nook or Kindle?

Now this doesn’t mean that Amazon won’t try and compete with the Nook and add this kind of thing to the Kindle, but if anyone from Amazon is reading this, I love my Kindle, I love the fact that reading on it is a pleasure and I don’t want apps and colour for my Kindle like the Nook has.

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So you have heard of Windows Phone 7. Now you might not have heard of the new update called Mango. This is also called Windows Phone 7.5. Here are some videos to get you excited.

Now when the Nokia and Microsoft deal finally produces a Nokia phone. Then this might be something really powerful.

Well watch this movie and decide for yourself. Warning… this is for serious geeks only.

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My first with touch-screen technology & tablet/slate hardware format! I’m no IT fundi, but rather my observations from whether its user friendly in terms of a disabled user, especially with limited upper-limb ability & diminished motor skills. I battle in terms of both,  I only have 30% use of my arms & 10% of my hands, thus my arms get tired quickly & then the minor-motor skills become increasingly difficult as my arms become shaky & difficult to place short, thick  sausage-like fingers on a very sensitive screen. Having said that I was really impressed, as stated I have nothing to compare with. The touch screen capabilities are fun & very easy in terms of transition, it’s a slate so on-board hard-drive not adequate but with the compact external hard drives you can plug into this, why complain.

I use a virtual keyboard “ Click-N-Type” – the touch screen now offers the same but its too sensitive (never happy!) – I did search the control panel to see if the technology is of such that you can adjust the sensitivity or even a delay setting on the key strokes, thinking here of no need to lift my hand but slide over keyboard, hovering over desired key, fraction of a second before next key. To an able-bodied user this might sound like asking for a down scale but it will help those with diminished motor skills. I’ll search the web and might find a downloadable touch screen keyboard application that will assist here.

There is a stylus, that is a thumbs up as most people with limited or no hand-use, “MacGyver” (make something-from-nothing) a form of hand/finger strapping to hold eating utensils, pens etc. I know a quadriplegic who has limited arm usage but no hand usage, he straps two chopsticks to his hands to type. I even strap a table tennis paddle to my hand & give it a go. I can imagine a stylus/pen making it a lot easier & with practise a bit faster even for a quadriplegic.

Previously on-board voice recognition software was unreliable & cumbersome, only large, expensive software packages really work, but trial and error finding the right one makes its undesirable & unaffordable to pursue! But the Windows 7 Speech recognition is great for my use, even in Excel, as I predominantly “live” there.

I must say that overall it is definitely worthwhile looking at & because of size, applications i.e. communication and leisure/entertainment – all it can offer in one it has to be said that PC users with disabilities in their upper extremities will find this format more “disabled user-friendly” or rather user friendly for disabled.

Much appreciated

Regards

Robert Dale

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I don’t want those. I want a Windows 7 Tablet that I can connect with 3g or with Wireless. I want to be able to sync the documents that I work on in Microsoft Office and I want to be able to edit them in a familiar environment. I want extra slots to plug in a keyboard and mouse if needed or even a USB memory stick. I want my HD TV to be able to show them movies that I have on my tablet. I want to be able to load full versions of the programs that I use on my desktop, like Dreamweaver and Outlook.

The iPad doesn’t work for me. The millions of Android tablets don’t work for me.

So what is left? Well I want a Windows 7 Tablet.

Windows 7 Tablet

Mecer in South Africa now supplies a very nice Windows 7 Tablet.

Windows 7 Tablet Specs

The tablet is solid and runs Windows 7 and has the following specs:

Size : 295mm x 195mm x 14mm
Weight: 990g
Processor Speed 1.66GHz, 667MHz, 512K of L2 (200MHz)
Discrete Graphics Discrete 1080p HD Video Accelerator
Memory 2GB DDR2-667, 1 SO-DIMM slot
Display LCD TFT 11.6” HD Glare (1366*768)
Touch Panel Capacitive Multi-Touch (Real two points)
Battery Embedded Lithium-ion Polymer 2-cell (7.4V, 4800mAh, 2S1P)
Camera 1.3M pixel (fix focus) 640 x 480 webcam (30fps)
Support OS Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium or above

Interface 1x DC-in, 2x USB port, 1x OMTP Jack, 2-in-1 card reader (SD/MMC),
1x SIM Card Slot, 1 x Mini-HDMI (upscaling 1080p from 720p source), 1x Hotkey,
26pins connector for Docking

G-Sensor Display orientation (3-axis sensing)
Audio 2 x Built-in Speakers (1.5W), 1x Mic

It includes the following programs as standard:

Microsoft Security Essentials (Anti-Virus Software)
Office 2010 Starter (Basic Word & Excel)
Windows Live Essentials
This includes Windows Live Mesh which allows 5gb of storage.

The Tablet is finger ready but if you need more precision then it also comes with a Stylus.

Windows 7 Tablet programs

So let’s see what it looks like with the programs running.

It runs the full version of Windows 7 and comes with the Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7. This includes some very cool programs like Surface Collage and Surface Globe.

This is Microsoft Office Basic that comes for free. You can uninstall this and run a full version of Microsoft Office. You see, try that on an iPad.

I love Google Chrome. So when I install it on the Tablet, it syncs with the applications that i use on my desktop. It will also sync your passwords and bookmarks.

Ok, this is all business stuff. What happens when you want to have a bit of off time.

Well it comes with apps. Including Pictures and videos.

There are also music apps.

Yes, but what about the cool things like Facebook and Twitter. Well there’s an app for that.

Well I want to be left alone and I want to read in bed. Can this thing do that? Well of course. Download the Kindle app for Windows PC and you can then sync your kindle or your books with your tablet. The touch works beautifully. You can either just touch either side of the book to go backwards and forwards or you can swipe your finger and it turns the page.

But now I want to talk to my friends on Skype. Ok, well just download the normal version of Skype and you can do that. You can either talk over WiFi or 3g. The tablet comes with a Microphone, Speaker and webcam, so you are completely set.

Ok ok. But what about the Hard drive size, I read that it was only 32gb. What am I going to do with that? Well that one is a small problem. You can connect an external HDD or USB memory stick via the usb or you could work with Google Docs on the internet. This is not going to replace your desktop. You will still need to have your music and video files on your main machine and sync across what you need. I have 60gb of music on my desktop so I haven’t synced that across.

Ok, I am almost convinced. I don’t want to hold the tablet at my desk. Is there a docking station?

Well of course. This is a very one. It charges your tablet and allows connection of keyboards and mice and has audio in and out. It also has an Ethernet connection.

Pricing of Windows 7 Tablet

I want one! Of course you do. Would you like to know how much?

For the standard tablet you will be paying about R6100 incl VAT

Here are the prices of the other components that you might like. These would be added to the tablet’s base price.

Docking station : R530 incl VAT
3g module for 3g Access : R530 incl VAT
Microsoft Arc Keyboard : R 450 Incl VAT

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Google Chrome Canary

Download Google Chrome Canary, and install it.

Then open it up and type in about:flags into the url bar.

You will then get to this page.

Then scroll down to the part that says “Compact Navigation” and click enable.

Then scroll right to the bottom and click relaunch now.

Once your browser has been relaunched, do this. Right click on the new tab and choose Hide the Toolbar.

This is what it will look like when you are typing in a url.

And this is what it will look like when you are browsing.

So how do you get the url bar back? Well that is easy. If you need to go to another url, just push “ctrl+L” and it will reappear.

Hope that helps you.

Google Chrome Score.

Firefox Beta 4.01 Score. Check out some cool things in the new Beta here. http://outsourcehouse.co.za/2010/07/12/new-firefox-4-beta-new-things/

Safari Score.

Internet Explorer Score.

Do you have a blog? Do you write articles that might need a bit of a boost in terms of people being able to find them? Well we have a solution.

OSH.co.za

Osh.co.za is a new service where you can add articles and links. 

Sign up for an account on osh.co.za and we will approve it if you are going to post quality content. Please note not all accounts will be approved.

You can write articles that you would not be posting anywhere else, you could also link to your new article or your new blog. We have a high page rank and therefore your website will be ranked better. You will also get more traffic.

SEO

So you want to improve your SEO? Well post links or articles on OSH and it will improve your results.

In the last 2 weeks religious extremists have been trying to get a bill passed in Uganda, that basically makes acts of homosexuality punishable by the death penalty.

There was a huge outcry from international and local human rights, and this led to pressure being put on the Ugandan government.

The social media also got behind this and emails and Facebook and Twitter messages were posted and many people encouraged their friends to sign the petition. This petition, which had 1.6 million signatures, was then handed to the Ugandan Parliament.

Avaaz

Here is a letter from Avaaz.org when the bill was shelved.

Dear friends,

Frank Mugisha and other brave human rights defenders delivering our petition to the Ugandan Parliament just before leaders dropped the gay death penalty law.
Uganda’s anti-gay law has failed! It looked sure to pass last week, but after 1.6 million petition signatures delivered to Parliament, tens of thousands of phone calls to our own governments, hundreds of media stories about our campaign and a massive global outcry, Ugandan politicians dropped the bill!

It was down to the wire – religious extremists tried to push the bill through on Wednesday, and then convened an unprecedented emergency session of Parliament on Friday. But each time, within hours, we reacted. A huge congratulations to everyone who signed, called, forwarded and donated to this campaign – with our help, thousands of innocent people in Uganda’s gay community do not wake up this morning facing execution for whom they chose to love.

Frank Mugisha, a courageous leader of the gay community in Uganda sent us this message:

“Brave Ugandan LGBT activists and millions of people around the world have stood together and faced down this horrendous anti-homosexuality bill.The support from the Avaaz global community has tipped the scales to prevent this Bill going forward. Global solidarity has made a huge difference.”

The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs’ Office also wrote to Avaaz:

“Many thanks. As you know, thanks to a very large extent to the intensive lobbying and combined effort of you, other civil society representatives, EU and other governments, plus our delegation and embassies on the ground the Bill was not presented to the Parliament this morning.”

This fight is not over. The extremists behind this bill could try again within just 18 months. But this is the second time we’ve helped defeat this bill, and we’ll keep going until the hate-mongers give up.

Transforming the deeper causes of ignorance and hatred behind homophobia is an historic, long term struggle, one of the great causes of our generation. But Uganda has become a front line in that struggle, and a powerful symbol. The victory there echoes across many other places where hope is desperately needed, showing that kindness, love, tolerance and respect can defeat hatred and ignorance. Again, a huge thanks to all who made it happen.

 

Most of us use social networking for fun. It is good to know that Facebook and Twitter can be used for good like it was in Egypt and other countries that are fighting against oppression. Well done let’s keep fighting for Uganda.

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So, you don’t have an iPhone and you don’t have an android phone and you are wondering what everyone is talking about when they say that Angry birds is one of the most addictive games to play.

Angry Birds on your desktop for Free

Well now you can play it, and you can play it for free. There are only 2 levels right now, but apparently there are more levels on the way.

Now the interesting thing is that I assume that this was released for the new Chromebooks that were announced at Google I/O conference, so you can install it in Google Chrome here. But the really interesting thing is that this works in all the newest browsers, including IE9. So far (May 16th), 162 000 have installed it. This seems like it might the biggest installed app very shortly.

From the Google App Store.

**** Surprise! New web-exclusive Chrome-inspired levels ****

The survival of the Angry Birds is at stake. Dish out revenge on the green pigs who stole the Birds’ eggs. Use the unique destructive powers of the Angry Birds to lay waste to the pigs’ fortified castles. Angry Birds features hours of gameplay, challenging physics-based castle demolition, and lots of replay value. Each of the 70 levels requires logic, skill, and brute force to crush the enemy.

“Lemme tell ya, these ain’t no ordinary finches we’re talkin’ about. These here are the Angry Birds, the ones that’s gonna kick you in the ‘nads. And they’re the ones on your side. They must be from Galapadapados, or sumptin’.” – Col. Angus, Bird Expert.

Protect wildlife or play Angry Birds!

UPDATE: (version 1.0.1) Pigs in Level 1-20 will not cause you any more problems! More content updates and bug fixes will come soon. Stay tuned!

Try out Angry Birds

You want to try it? Well check it out Angry Birds here : http://chrome.angrybirds.com/

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Looking at Google Adwords first.

Google sends advertising to the viewer when they search for a particular search word. For example I am in South Africa and when I search for “website designers” I get adverts above my search results.

And results on the right of my search results.

Now in a very competitive market like Website Designers, you pay a lot for this keyword combination. You can choose a location for your ads to be displayed, right down to a suburb.

You can choose where you your advert to be displayed, and on what devices to be displayed.

You can also set your budget per day and whether or not you want the adverts to displayed as quickly as possible or if you want it spread evenly over time.

You then create your advert in 4 lines

This simple advert will cost me R15.50 per click.

There are lots of reasons why Google is good. However, this is ridiculously expensive for South Africans to Advertise.

Now looking at Facebook Ads.

Look at the bottom of your page when you are logged into Facebook and you will see this. Or click here : http://www.facebook.com/advertising/

You can then create an advert by doing this:

You can design your own advert with an image. Now I understand that with Google Adwords you can create an image ad, but I prefer this.

Then you can target where you want the ad displayed. What age group you want to display the ads to, what sex they must be and you can even go down to what the have in their likes and interests.

Not enough?? Under the advanced section you can choose sexual preference, relationship status and education.

You can then choose the amount spent per day and the period you want it to run from and to.

Then under advanced pricing, you have an option of either CPM (Cost per Thousand) or CPC (Cost per Click)

On the cost per click side they are suggesting that my bid is $1.01 to $1.41 per click. That works out in Rands to R8 – R10 per click.

You can also choose to have the CPM rate where they are suggesting my bid is $0.43 to $0.61, that works out to R3 – R7 per 1000 people seeing my ad.

And with the fact that I can choose exactly who I want to see my ad, for my money, I would say that Facebook is better.

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Update : 26 Jan 2011 So, Google has now released an Education category on the Google Marketplace. It contains Haiku LMS, also a free gradebook and lesson plan software from Learnboost, and many many others. I definitely think that maybe the Google Chrome OS is the best things for schools.

Ok, so Google Chrome is currently is testing phase and some information has been released.

What we know so far

• It is a cloud based operating system, rather then having everything locally on your computer it is all saved to the cloud.
• Every application on Chrome OS is a web application
• The web applications will run offline
• It is device independent
• It is not backward compatible. Therefore it might not work on machines, laptops and desktops that were not designed for Chrome OS.
• The Google Chrome OS is designed to be secure. Google says it’s the most secure desktop operating system ever shipped.
• There is no CAPS lock key, it has been replaced by a search key. This can be remapped if you really need to have a shouting sentence. Or you could just use the Shift key.
• There are no F1, F2 … keys.
• Battery life should be around 8 hours.
• Connectivity comes in 2 flavours, 3g and wireless N
• It is a free Operating System (OS)

Ok, so if nothing is actually on the computer, what web applications can I use? Well there is the new Google Chrome Web Store. It has many many things in there. And it is only just getting started. People are developing their bums off. Quite a lot of the apps are also free, which is cool.

Ok, now actually down to the point of this article. I think that the Google Chrome Notebook and OS are a great idea. However they are a great thing for certain people. I assume that it will get better and it might replace all other OS’, but I am not sure.

I think that the perfect place for the Google Chrome OS to start is actually at schools. In South Africa for the last couple of years, Microsoft has been giving government schools free software and private schools, software that is much cheaper. The reason I feel that they have done that is to get pupils into the habit of using Microsoft software. They would then buy it for themselves when they leave school and encourage others to use it too. I am not saying that this is bad, but it is not out of the goodness of their hearts that they are doing this.

So it is now the turn of Google. Subsidise the laptops because you know that people will be tied into using Google and they will therefore use and see Google Ads. Because they also come with 3g from local network providers, they could also subsidise that. You obviously want the people to use the internet as much as possible. So the more they subsidise, the more the people will search and the more they will click on advertising, which means that Google will get more money.

So, based on my thought that this is great for schools, what do kids or teachers need?

• They need access to the internet for research
• They need email
• They need to be able to do projects in a Word, Excel and PowerPoint equivalent.

So let’s see what can be done. Well firstly Google Apps is free to all schools and this includes; Gmail (25gb), Google talk, Google Calendar, Google docs (which includes documents, presentation, spreadsheet, and drawing), Google Reader, Google sites, blogger, Picasa (for Photos), YouTube.

So that covers pretty much all their needs. The only thing that that they might need is the ability to play music, and while you can do that in Google Chrome OS, it would use quite a lot of bandwidth, but they can always use their mp3 player.

So how much might this cost?

Now with the new Google Chrome OS and laptops, there are rumours of them being sold to developing countries at around $100 per laptop. Now if you look at a typical South African School. Let’s say that each of those kids had a Google Chrome OS laptop for $100, that, in South Africa at the time of writing is about R695. That is about the cost of a decent blazer. Would the parents pay or would the school have to subsidise? I am not sure, but I do know that if they didn’t have to buy text books and stationary as all their stuff was on their laptop, that would possibly be about the same amount. Due to the fact that it would have a battery that would last 8 hours, they could charge it over night and use it for the whole day without needing to charge it.

All the kids would have a Google Apps loaded on their laptops, and this means that all their emails would be there, including all their docs.

The school might not have internet access, but each of the kids would, so that would save the school money.

The school would not have to worry about Microsoft Exchange, backups and file servers, as all the info is in the cloud.

All the kids can be put into groups under Google Apps groups. So they can be put into classes, subjects and sport groups. So if a teacher needs to email the u16a cricket team, he would just email u16acricket@example.com and the same for each class that could be emailed on grade8a@example.com.

So what would we need to make this work?

Well the first thing is for Google to release the laptops and release them at a reasonable price.

Secondly, we would need a good service provider to provide internet access for the laptops. Now in South Africa, we have 5 cellphone providers; Vodacom, MTN, Cell C, Virgin and 8ta.

Now I am not a fan of Vodacom, so I suggest that Cell C gets involved with Google. Cell C is doing a promotion right now of R149 per month for 2gb. Now I know that this is a introductory offer, so let’s say they can do 1gb of data for R100 per month. That should be fine for most usage.

Then all the parents would need to do is pay for the laptop and then R100 per month for access.

What do you think? Have I missed anything important? I do know that some parents won’t be able to afford this, but the government of South Africa is already buying desktops for schools. So they could subsidise or even provide these computers for free.

Below is a little more info in videos about Google Chrome OS.

Google’s social plans are not good. In terms of most of their other products they are streaks ahead of the others in the market. If I look at their analytics, email, and search products, there is no-one who even comes close to them.

However there is one aspect that they are constantly falling down with; the Social Aspect.

We know that they have the ability to code the best products, so why are they so bad at Social products?

In this article about the new Google +1, I look at how they can make the +1 button better. I understand that they haven’t really launched it yet and that is why I did it now. The possibility that someone who works at Google seeing this article is quite good and maybe they might look at their ideas and tweak them.

We really don’t need another Google Wave

I was, ashamed to admit it, one of the early adopters of Google Wave. It seems like such a good idea. Instant communication with your friends. It could have been like a Skype or MSN messenger on steroids. Google has a very successful product called Google Talk, but the problem for me is that Google talk and Skype and MSN are all installed on my computer and I flip between them. Yes I understand that there are programs that allow you to use all of these at the same time, but I would like the programs to be better.

I saw this article the other day on Mashable, and thought about that this was a great idea for Google. Buy Skype for $3-4 billion and you get around 700 million user accounts. On $4 billion that works out to about $5 per user. Then what they should do, is allow users to integrate their Skype and Google accounts, if they don’t have a Google account, they would then have one because they have a Skype account.

This means that would have more users than Facebook. Now that is a good platform to start pushing their Social plans.

How to make their social better

So once they have 700 million new users, then they need to look at what the users need and want.

Ok, let’s start with their checkin service Hotpot. I suggest that they make a combined checkin service so that you don’t have to pick either Foursquare, Facebook Places, Hotpot or any of the others that are being developed.

Take Google Maps Navigation and develop it for all types of phones. This would increase their reach. They could then have the checkin directly from your mobile. This would then feed Foursquare and Facebook places and whatever other service that you have enabled.

You could then have your current location as a Mood Message in Skype.

Final Thoughts

Google stop fighting the other social networks. Embrace them. Allow people to create a Google profile with a Facebook and Twitter login. Buy Skype for whatever they are asking and make a massive IM and Chat application that people can use to talk to other people, close the gap that is being created by all these different accounts. This will allow you to have the social applications and networks you want.