Luckily, there’s an easy way to recalibrate the button and restore its factory performance.

Roberto Garza posted a Snapguide detailing the simple procedure, which doesn’t take more than 15 seconds.

It may sound like snake oil, but the comments on the page are almost universally positive, so it’s certainly worth a try if your device suffers from this affliction.

Step 1:

Open a stock application like the Calendar, Weather, or Youtube

Step 2:

With one of these apps opened, hold down the power button until the ’slide to power off’ control appears.

Step 3:

As soon as you see it, press the home button and keep it pressed until the red slider disappears and the app is forced quit to the home menu.

Step 4:

That’s it! Now you should have a much more responsive home button.

See more here:
Recalibrate your iPhone’s Home Button for Snappier Performance [Ios]

View original post here:
Xbox Controller with Bullet Buttons

OS X is full of little design touches that have redefined what people expect from a personal computer, and which complement Apple hardware.

In fact, you can’t (legally) install the operating system on anything but a Mac, so the two are forever entwined – and that gives Apple advantages that other computer manufacturers simply don’t have.

With Apple’s latest MacBook Air, for example, you’ll find special keys on the keyboard that link specifically to new functions in OS X Lion, such as Mission Control. It’s not a case of style over substance, either. OS X – Apple subtly dropped the ‘Mac’ from its name in 2011, indicating that it’s destined for more than just computers – is all about functionality.

“We wanted to make this the dream user interface for somebody who has never touched a computer before, and that’s really hard to do,” said ex-Apple CEO Steve Jobs when he introduced Mac OS X 10.0 to the adoring Apple faithful for the very first time at Macworld Expo in San Francisco, January 2000.

Join us as we explore the world’s most beautiful operating system and find out how Apple created it.

How OS X evolved

From the outset Apple had one goal in mind when OS X was designed, and that was to make the next great personal computer operating system.

The company wanted it to be the kind of operating system with which a beginner could feel intuitively at home, and a pro user could be taken to places they’d never thought they’d be. That’s a tall order, but eight major versions, millions of sales and a decade later, we think Apple did it.

OS X 10 was launched with a new interface called Aqua. It was named after water because one of the original designers said it looked so good that “when you saw it you wanted to lick it!” It was certainly revolutionary compared to what people had seen before.

The ideas behind OS X – in fact, the concept for windows, menus, pointers and so on themselves – go way back to 1979, when Steve Jobs was admitted to the research centre Xerox PARC for a sneak peek at the world’s first ever GUI (Graphical User Interface), in exchange for some Apple stock options.

Bear in mind that at the time all computers used text input – there were no windows, no colours and no mouse to move a cursor around with. What the young Mr Jobs saw, in his own words, was “mind-blowing”; he realised instantly that this was the way that all computers would work one day.

Inspired by that glimpse into the future he launched the Apple Lisa in 1983, which, while not the first commercial computer to feature a GUI, was certainly one of the earliest. In 1984 the Macintosh 128K was unveiled to the public, and the rest, as they say, is history.

OS X itself actually started life outside of Apple, as part of the NeXTSTEP project developed by Steve Jobs during his tenure at NeXT, the company he’d founded after being booted out of Apple in 1985. While still at the company, Jobs had tried to create a next-generation operating system, but had met with little success.

When he was forced out by the Apple board he was free to try again, but this time without being weighed down by all the old problems he’d experienced while at Apple, a company which was suffering from a huge slump in sales at the time.

The next step

While the NeXT Computer was never a success, the operating system showed promise and Jobs was brought back into the Apple fold in 1996 when Apple acquired NeXT for $429 million. NeXTSTEP, now called OpenStep, came with him.

In 2000 Apple, perhaps with nothing left to lose, decided to scrap the existing code base of its operating system, then called OS 9, and introduce a radical new operating system called OS X. OpenStep formed the basis of the OS X operating system we know and love today.

The first version of OS X was codenamed Cheetah, and this tradition of naming each release after a big cat continued with 10.1 Puma, 10.2 Jaguar, 10.3 Panther, 10.4 Tiger, 10.5 Leopard, 10.6 Snow Leopard and now 10.7 Lion.

In the late 80s Microsoft famously aped the look and feel of the Mac with Windows 3.1, and the two companies kept improving their operating systems in an effort to outdo each other. It was a battle that Microsoft was destined to win, but while Windows won the desktop battle largely through sheer force of numbers, it looks like Apple is going to win the tablet war.

After all, OS X forms much of the basis of the iOS touch-screen operating system that runs on the iPhone and iPad, and when the dust finally settles it could well be that Apple will be the dominant force in this area for years and years to come.

Design touches

An operating system is defined by the little things like buttons, radio buttons, tickboxes (or in the American lingo, checkboxes), pop-up lists, sliders, windows, scroll bars and transparency; but it’s not only about how things look, it’s also about how they behave.

The Dock, for example, has been a defining feature of OS X since the beginning, but has improved in usability along the way; Finder became more visual with Cover Flow; Snow Leopard seamlessly integrated Time Machine; and Lion gave us full-screen apps.

The watery feel of the Aqua interface that debuted in OS X 10.0 has certainly been through many changes over the last ten years. Cast your eyes over the screen shots on these pages and you’ll see how a more reserved grey, slate-like colour scheme that reached its peak in Lion has gradually been replacing the colourful look of the original Aqua interface.

This is fitting; when OS X was launched, the iMac range was full of colour and transparency, and the colourful clamshell iBook (a precursor to today’s MacBook) was just around the corner.

As Apple’s Mac design has become more streamlined and professional, so has OS X. Indeed, today’s OS X 10.7 Lion matches the look and feel of the unibody aluminium MacBook Pro down to the colouring – and rarely in the history of computing has there been such a winning combination of hardware and software.

Ten years of OS X

1. Mac OS X 10.0

This was the first version of OS X that the public got their hands on. As you’d expect it was far from perfect; it was often sluggish, it crashed frequently and lacked basic features. Hardware compatibility was also a problem, but nevertheless the seeds of a great operating system were sown.

2. Mac OS X 10.1

Puma was offered as a free update to Cheetah users, and went a long way towards fixing the problems with that release. It was faster, enabled DVD playback and supported 200 printers by default, but the system still felt sluggish to use, so most Mac users continued running OS 9.

3. Mac OS X 10.2

Things started to look up for OS X with Jaguar, and many people considered it to be the first usable release. Mail got a spam filter and the ability to network with Windows computers was improved. This was also the first time the ‘big cat’ codename was used publicly by Apple, rather than as just an internal company name.

4. Mac OS X 10.3

With Panther, Apple started to drop support for its older Macs – beige G3 and ‘Wallstreet’ PowerBook G3s were no longer supported, and iChat required a 333MHz processor to use video chat. OS X now came with its own web browser, Safari, but it was criticised for being too simplistic.

5. Mac OS X 10.4

Tiger introduced many of the OS X features that we know and love today: Spotlight, Dashboard and Smart Folders, for example. In January 2006, when Apple began using Intel chips in its hardware rather than PowerPC, a 4.4 update to Tiger meant the operating system now worked on both platforms.

6. Mac OS X 10.5

The last edition of Mac OS X to support PowerPC chips, this saw the introduction of many key features such as Stacks, a shelf for the Dock, Time Machine for easy backup and Boot Camp for installing Windows on a Mac. The latter caused much grumbling among old-school Mac users, who were aghast at the thought.

7. Mac OS X 10.6

While it introduced few new features, Snow Leopard contained many changes under the skin of OS X, future-proofing the OS and adding support for Exchange. It was also the first 64-bit version of the operating system, which meant developers could make more powerful programs for OS X.

8. OS X 10.7

This was the first download-only version of OS X to be released by Apple. It had many features inspired by the iPad OS – particularly Launchpad, full-screen apps for more focused working and a new array of gestures to use with your trackpad. It also removed a lot of the colour from the interface.

10. OS X 10.8

Building on the base of Lion, Mountain Lion is schedule for release in Summer 2012 and will see several new additions including a unified messaging client for iMessages and iChat conversations called Messages, Notification Centre, Reminders and Notes, which function like their iOS equivalents, and AirPlay.

More:
In Depth: How Apple created OS X

Printing from the cloud is incredibly useful. You could, for example, print a text document while on a train or from a hotel, and have it ready for you as soon as you get home.

You can also use Google Cloud Printing to print a web page directly from the Chrome browser, or save websites and documents as PDFs in Google Docs. You can even share your printer with others on the network, allowing them to print from their own Google accounts.

If you have a printer that’s Google Cloud Print-ready out of the box, such as Kodak’s Hero range, certain Kodak ESP models, HP’s ePrint-capable printers and some recent Epsons, setting up is easy. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for more details.

But it’s perfectly possible to set up and use a printer that isn’t Cloud-ready with Google Cloud Print. It even works with a non-networked printer connected to your Mac through USB. That’s what we’re looking at here.

Following this tutorial installs the Google Cloud Print connector on your Mac, after which your ‘classic’, non-Google-enabled printer can be used for Google Cloud Printing. The initial setup has to be done using Google’s Chrome browser. But after that, you can print from a wide range of web applications, and can manage your cloud printing in Safari or Firefox if you wish.

Printing from the cloud can be slow, so don’t panic if your Google Cloud Print doesn’t instantly appear. And before you start, make sure you have a printer connected to your Mac that’s correctly installed and switched on.

How to set up your printer for cloud printing

1. Your Google Account

If you don’t already have one, create a Google account. Go to www.google.com/accounts and click the Sign up for a new Google Account link in the top-right corner. Follow the instructions to create your Google Account. If you already have one, sign in.

2. Google Cloud Print

For this step, we need to use Google’s Chrome browser. If you don’t have it, download at www.google.com/chrome . Launch Chrome, click on the spanner in the top-right corner and select Preferences. Select the Under the Hood tab, found in the list on the left-hand side.

3. Signing in

Scroll down to the foot of the Under the Hood section, and look for Google Cloud Print – it’s right at the bottom. Press the Sign in to Google Cloud Print button. You’re taken to a screen that invites you to finish registering your printer with Google Cloud Print. Do so.

4. Managing Printers

Your printer is now registered with Google Cloud Print. Click on the Manage your Printers link to be taken to your cloud print page. Here you can see current print jobs, add further cloud printers, share your printers and more. It might be wise to bookmark this page.

5. Print from Chrome

To cloud-print a website from your Chrome browser, select Print from the spanner button, or press Ctrl+P. In the Print column on the left, select Print with Google Cloud Print from the Destination pull-down and press Print. Select the required printer and press Print.

6. Save to Google Docs

To save a Chrome web page to Google Docs as a PDF instead of printing it, follow Step 5, but instead of selecting a printer in the popup window, click on Save to Google Docs before pressing Print. It can then be accessed, printed or downloaded from www.docs.google.com .

7. Upload and Print

To print a document from your hard drive, from the Cloud Print page ( www.google.com/cloudprint ), press the orange Print button in the top-left corner. From the pop-up menu, select Upload File to Print. Navigate to and open the document, select a printer and press Print.

8. Print Queue

If your Mac or Google Cloud printer is switched off, or your Mac is signed into a different account, you can still submit a print job. It’s queued and printed when you next log in. The printer-connected Mac doesn’t have to be logged into your Google Account to print.

Originally posted here:
Tutorial: How to use Google Cloud Print

While simple to set up and use out of the box, it may come as a surprise that the security of VPN anonymity services can be improved. Of course, when things run absolutely to plan there’s little to worry about, but there are occasions where there may be a hiccup or where an extra level of security is needed.

Securing Your Privacy When Your VPN Fails

Ok, so you’ve purchased your VPN subscription, enabled the service, and you’re enjoying your newfound levels of privacy. Then—disaster strikes. While you were away from your machine somehow and for some unknown reason your VPN disconnected and now snoopers have a clear view of your IP address.

Fortunately, there are solutions.

“To protect against the event of VPN failure/disconnection, disable any internet access that does not tunnel through your VPN service provider,” Andrew from PrivateInternetAccess told TorrentFreak. “This can be achieved using specific Firewall rules ( Ubuntu ) or by changing TCP/IP routes .”

But of course, not everyone wants to spend time with these manual configurations that could potentially cause problems if they’re not done properly. So, we spoke with the creators of two free pieces of software that do the job more easily.

VPNetMon

“VPNetMon continuously watches the IP addresses of your PC. If the IP address of your VPN is not detected anymore, VPNetMon closes specified programs instantly. The program reacts so quickly that a new connection through your real IP will not be established by these applications,” creator Felix told TorrentFreak. VPNetMon (Windows) can be downloaded here .

VPNCheck

“VPNCheck helps you to feel safe if your VPN connection breaks, this is done by shutting down your main network connection or programs of your choice and showing a notification box,” Jonathan from Guavi.com told TorrentFreak. “Basically it constantly looks for a change in your VPN network adapter. You can connect to either PPTP or L2TP with VPNCheck.” VPNCheck (Windows/Linux) can be downloaded here .

Stop DNS Leaks

When using a VPN service one might expect that all of the user’s traffic will go through the privacy network, but on rare occasions a phenomenon known as “DNS leakage” might occur. This means that rather than using the DNS servers provided by the VPN operator, it’s possible that the user’s default DNS servers will be used instead or otherwise become visible.

“A DNS leak may happen whenever a DNS query ‘bypasses’ the routing table and gateway pushed by the OpenVPN server. The trigger on Windows systems may be as simple as a slight delay in the answer from the VPN DNS, or the VPN DNS unable to resolve some name,” explains Paolo from AirVPN .

A tool for checking for leaks can be found at DNSLeakTest.com and a solution for fixing any problems can be found here . Alternatively, anyone using the pro version of VPNCheck will have this feature built in.

Double up your security for extra sensitive data transfers

What if you don’t have 100% trust in your VPN provider and worry that even they might snoop on your communications? Admittedly it’s a very unusual hypothetical situation, but one with an interesting solution.

“If you don’t trust your VPN provider 100%, use two VPNs,” explains Felix from VPNetMon. “This way you are tunneling your already encrypted connection through another tunnel.”

In Windows this is easily achieved. First, simply set up at least two VPN accounts as normal (if you’d like an extra one for testing purposes you can get a free limited account from VPNReactor ). Then connect to one VPN, and when complete connect to another without disconnecting the first. Like magic, a tunnel through a tunnel.

Its also possible to VPN over TOR, but please please don’t use TOR for file-sharing traffic, it’s not designed for it.

“VPN over TOR gives several security advantages, for a performance price, above all partition of trust,” explains Paolo from AirVPN. “In case of betrayal of trust by one party, the anonymity layer is not compromised in any way.

A VPN over TOR tutorial can be found here , further discussion here .

Fix the PPTP / IPv6 Security Flaw

As revealed here on TorrentFreak in 2010, people using a PPTP VPN and IPv6 are vulnerable to a nasty security flaw which means that Windows and Ubuntu users could leak their real IP addresses. The following fix comes from Jonathan at VPNCheck.

For Windows Vista and above:

Open cmd prompt and type:

netsh interface teredo set state disabled.

For Ubuntu 10+:

Copy and paste all four lines into a terminal:

echo "#disable ipv6″ | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf

echo "net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6 = 1″ | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf 

echo "net.ipv6.conf.default.disable_ipv6 = 1″ | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf 

echo "net.ipv6.conf.lo.disable_ipv6 = 1″ | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf

Pay for Your VPN with Untrackable Currency

“When anonymity is a factor, pay with an un-trackable currency,” explains Andrew from PrivateInternetAccess .

“For example, signup for an anonymous e-mail account using Tor and use a Bitcoin Mixer to send Bitcoins to a newly generated address in your local wallet. Alternatively, use the Bitcoin-OTC to purchase Bitcoins ‘over the counter’ from a person, rather than an exchange.

“Then, use a patched Bitcoin client, such as coderrr’s anonymity patch to avoid linking the newly generated address to any of your pre-existing Bitcoin addresses.”

Only Use VPN Providers that Take Your Privacy Seriously

We’ve said this before but it’s worth repeating. VPN providers who heavily log are useful if all you’re concerned about is securely communicating with the Internet through an open public WiFi connection, but not beyond that.

Do you have a helpful security tip for VPN users? If so, feel free to add it to the comments below.

Read this article:
How to Make Your VPN Even More Secure [Privacy]

While much of that may be down to the cost, compared with much of its competition, it’s also a well-designed anti-malware tool with both anti-virus and anti-malware capabilities. Available for Windows XP (Service Pack 2 and higher), Windows Vista and Windows 7 , and in both 32- and 64-bit form, Microsoft Security Essentials is part of the Genuine Windows programme, and can only be used on consumer PCs.

Small businesses do have an exemption, and can run it on up to 10 machines; any more than that and you need to use Microsoft’s Forefront Endpoint Protection tools. It’s a small download, the latest beta version is 9MB for 32-bit machines, and 11MB for 64-bit.

Microsoft has done its best to keep MSE unobtrusive. There’s no obvious slowdown when it runs, and all you see is a tiny task bar icon that shows whether your PC is protected or not. Right-click to launch a settings tool and to run scans – with a choice of quick, full or custom.

Installation is quick and easy, with MSE replacing Windows’ built-in anti-spyware Microsoft Windows Defender . Once installed it downloads an updated set of malware definitions from Microsoft’s update servers and scans your PC, before starting up real-time protection.

That first scan is relatively quick, and took less than five minutes on our test laptop. A small icon in the task bar is the only sign that MSE is installed and running, and it changes colour depending on the risk to your PC.

Green is, of course, good and yellow means that it’s time to run a scan.

MSE will automatically run a quick scan once a week, although we’d recommend changing the default 2am on Sunday to a time when your PC is likely to be turned on. You can limit the amount of CPU that MSE will use for a scan (the default is 50%), and you can also make sure it won’t scan if you’re using your PC. We’d recommend leaving real-time protection on – it won’t use too much power or add significant latency to downloads, and will reduce the risk of downloading malware inadvertently.

Other tools built into MSE let you tune it to exclude specific files and locations from scanning, as well as specific file types and even specific processes. You’re better off not changing these settings, since it’s impossible to predict how malware may disguise itself or what zero-day attacks they might use. A custom scan will check specific files, folders, or drives, while a full scan will check everything on your PC. We’d suggest sticking with quick scans for everyday operation, which look for common malware and check system files.

The advanced options in MSE’s Settings tab enable you to include removable drives in scans, to protect flash drives as well as your system disks. You can turn off archive scanning (although we’d recommend leaving it on, since it’s able to detect malware wrapped in several layers of zip compression). Other options enable you to set system restore points automatically before making system changes, including deleting, running or quarantining detected malware.

You’re also able to set how long MSE will keep quarantined files before automatically deleting them. Use the History tab to see and remove quarantined malware, with links to online information about the malware so you can decide whether to delete a file or not.

So how can Microsoft give a tool like this away for free? While it doesn’t advertise it, MSE is part of Microsoft’s Forefront suite of security tools, based on the Forefront Endpoint Protection client used on enterprise desktops. When MSE detects malware it reports back to Microsoft, giving the company a wider view of the security landscape than it would get from just its enterprise security software. With millions of free copies of MSE, Microsoft’s paying customers get a more responsive and more secure set of tools, and we all get better security.

The reporting system Microsoft uses is its Active Protection Service (previously known as SpyNet). You can choose whether to be part of it, but if you don’t, you won’t get full protection from MSE, since it won’t detect and alert you if unknown software has been download or is being run.

Basic membership gives you additional protection in return for sending Microsoft details of downloaded and detected software, while Advanced membership sends more details, including how the software runs, what filenames it uses and where it installs.

The process should be anonymous, but there is a slim possibility that personal information could accidentally be sent back as part of reporting malware behaviour – something to consider when signing up for the Active Protection Service.

Verdict

If you want good, free antivirus software, then Microsoft Security Essentials is the tool for you. It’s small, doesn’t sap system performance and gets regular automatic updates to keep you secure. There’s no obvious downside to using MSE – and because it’s the basis of a revamped Windows Defender that will ship as part of Windows 8 , it could well be a good idea to get used to it now. With Microsoft regularly updating MSE there’s really no excuse to not run anti-malware tools, when they’re as good as this – and especially when they’re free.

We liked

MSE is one of the simplest and easiest to use anti-malware tools around. It’s quick, unobtrusive and works without slowing your PC down.

Malware is caught quickly, and the default actions work well for most users. It’s a small download, and keeps itself up-to-date. And above all, it’s free – with no need to register or re-register.

We disliked

There really isn’t much to dislike here, since MSE provides the service you want, carrying on raising the bar for all the other anti-malware vendors out there. Our one big caveat is the default time for scheduled complete system scans. Once a week, at a time that a PC is likely to be off is not good enough, by a long way.

Final verdict

If you’re not running anti-virus software, you really have no excuse. MSE is free, simple to use and has been tested by independent anti-malware certification bodies. It may not have all the features of other security suites out there, but that’s really not that important – especially when widespread use of MSE should help make it a safer internet for everyone.

Read the rest here:
Review: Microsoft Security Essentials

1. Hit the Preferences

The place you’re going to stop websites from attaching to your person first is the preferences pane in any one of the many web browsers you might be using. If you’re using Google’s Chrome, you’ll want to head to your Preferences menu, then to Under the Hood, then to your Privacy options. These options are as simple as flipping on or off a switch, and they work wonders.

2. Change your Passwords

It’s undeniably simple to do, and you can do it as often as you like. The easiest way a person can track your movements online today is to figure out your email password, for example, and see what’s going on in your life email by email. There’s no mystery about tracking a person when they’ve got the passwords to your bank, Facebook, and smartphone accounts – change them, and change them often. And most important of all, perhaps: make sure they’re different from one another. The first thing a scammer does when they find one of your passwords is check the same password at every other site you use to see if it works there too.

3. Keep your important information to yourself

There are certain sites on the web that you can trust with your vital information, but none of them are going to want you to submit your social security number to win a prize or a cash payout. Play it safe and never enter a contest on the web EVER unless you only need to give out your name – have people contact you through Facebook or Google+. With the advanced level of communication in modern day social networking sites, there’s not even a need to use email anymore for non-business matters.

4. Trust no one

Do not trust a site that offers you protection against tracking. The best tracking protection you can get is your own common sense, and when that fails, the common sense of your niece or nephew or good friend who knows about all this computer stuff, as it were. If you do not trust yourself to not leak your own important information to strangers, you certainly shouldn’t trust a stranger to protect it.

5. Press the Do Not Track button via Google, Microsoft, AOL and the rest

These buttons will be popping up soon on your favorite browsers, but they wont be easy to discover. The “Do Not Track” feature you’re hearing about today is not going to be up front and center of your favorite big companies, and it’s not going to be something that’s automatically flipped on. You’re going to have to hunt for that button, and when you find it, you’re going to have to flip it to “DO NOT.” As these sites reveal said tracking options, we’ll let you know here at SlashGear. Check your web browser’s preferences now for the “Do Not Track” option and flip it on now if you’ve got it!

Meanwhile: be safe and act smart!

Read more from the original source:
Control your web browser privacy in five easy steps

Although there are website monitoring services that do this and also provide more data analysis, many of them charge for the alerts or set limits for the number of alerts they send you.

This website monitoring doc is in your hands and you can set it up very quickly. To do so, make a copy of the Google Docs spreadsheet . Then change the website URL to your website and the email address to your email. That’s the email you’ll be notified for uptime and downtime.

Then in the Google Docs menu, you’ll need to go to Tools –> Script Editor –> Resources –> Current Script’s Triggers. Under the Run drop-down menu, select “isMySiteDown”, under Events, select “Time-driven”, and then select “Minutes timer” and choose if you want to be notified every minute or every 5 minutes—for how often you want the website to be checked.

Save the trigger and authorize Google Docs, then re-save. To get the script to run, hit the run triangle play button in the script editor.

For my test, I put in a dummy URL and was notified right away by email of the DNS failure error. Digital Inspiration says that if you know some programming, you can also set up tweets and SMS alerts too.

Excerpt from:
Use Google Docs to Monitor Your Website’s Uptime [Web Utilities]

Once installed the WCP start screen customizer, you can use a custom image as the background, as well as modify the colors and their opacity.

Note from author : The image size for the background made by Microsoft, the possibilities are limited for best results. I recommend you use a background gray level, with the middle strip black. No malware. Working fine.

Visit link:
Customize Windows 8 Boot Screen with WCP Start Screen Customizer

Microsoft: “We are always thinking about what is next for our platform and how to continue to defy the lifecycle convention.” Extend its lifecycle “Prior to reaching the manufacturing stage, Flextronics created a new testing group separate from the rest of the company,” explained the report on IGN. “This team was solely dedicated to comprehensive marketing, software, and hardware tests of the next Xbox. With that activity concluded, Flextronics started building the hardware.”

Microsoft has responded to the claims that it the Xbox 720 is on the way with the normal “we don’t comment on rumour or speculation” but it also added a little more to its statement. “Xbox 360 has found new ways to extend its lifecycle like introducing the world to controller-free experiences with Kinect and re-inventing the console with a new dashboard and new entertainment content partnerships. “We are always thinking about what is next for our platform and how to continue to defy the lifecycle convention.”

Read more:
Xbox 720 is currently ‘in manufacturing stage’

Become an e-mail and contact management super-user with our top ten Outlook 2010 tips

1/ Using Outlook to access Google Mail

Gmail is used extensively by small businesses, and Outlook allows you to get all the immediate benefits of Gmail and all the email management benefits of Outlook at the same time.

First click File then under the Info category you will be able to see the Account Settings option, click the drop down button and choose Add Account.

In the next step, select Email Account, enter Your Name, Email Address, and Password and click Next. Outlook now does all the work configuring and connecting to Gmail, and will come back to you when it’s complete, now click Finish, and wait while Outlook syncs with your old emails.

2/ Import Gmail contacts into Outlook

This is a two-step process, you will need to first export your contacts in Gmail and then import them into Outlook.

Part 1 – Open your Gmail account, select the contacts view and then click on the More button – it’s above your top contact – then select Export. Next under the Export contacts window, enable the “All Contacts” checkbox and from “Which Export format”, enable Outlook CSV format option. Click Export to save the contacts list on to your computers’ hard drive.

Part 2 – in the Outlook File menu, click Open, and finally click Import. You will see the “Import and Export Wizard” dialog box. Select “Import from another program or file” from the list and click Next. In Under the select file type to import from choose “Comma Separated Values (DOS)” and hit Next.

Now click the Browse button and select the Gmail contacts CSV file you created in Part 1 and click OK.

If you already have contacts in Outlook click on the “Do not import duplicate items” option and click Next to proceed further. For the destination file select the Contacts folder and click Next again and then Click Finish to end the wizard.

3/ Create emails and appointments anywhere

You don’t need to be in Outlook or even have Outlook running to create appointments, messages, or meeting requests if you have Windows 7 running. Outlook tasks can all be created from the Windows 7 taskbar or Start menu using Jump Lists.

Jump Lists give you quick access to creating Microsoft Outlook 2010 items without switching from another program that you are using. And, if Outlook isn’t running, you can still send a message or meeting request, or create contacts, tasks, or add an item to your calendar by using Start menu Jump Lists.

If Outlook is running, use the Jump List on the taskbar to quickly create an Outlook item.

Right-click the Outlook button on the taskbar, and click New E-mail Message, New Appointment, New Meeting, New Contact, or New Task.

If Outlook isn’t running then click Start, point to Microsoft Outlook 2010 and click on the right arrow next to it, and then click New E-mail Message, New Appointment, New Meeting, New Contact, or New Task.

4/ Make things happen in one click

Outlook 2010 provides users with an option to create a feature known as Quick Steps which allow you to apply multiple actions at the same time to email messages. For example, if you frequently move messages to a specific folder, you can use a Quick Step to move the message in one click. Or, if you forward messages to other people in your business, a one-click Quick Step can simplify the task

On the Home tab, in the Quick Steps group, click the More arrow at the side of the Quick Steps box, and then click Manage Quick Steps.

For example if you wanted to build a Quick Step to copy an email to the whole team, click the Quick Step Team E-mail, and then click Edit. Under Actions, select Forward from the drop down box, and then add your team members in the To box – you can either select them of add them as text.

If you click on show options you can also add flags and text If you want you can also add a Shortcut key such as CTRL+SHIFT+1 to the Quick Step. Then click on Save.

From now on when you click on an email and on the Team E-mail Quick Step, the email will automatically be forwarded to everyone.

5/ Adding a signature

You can create personalised signatures for your email messages that include text, images, your electronic business card, a logo, or even an image of your handwritten signature.

First click on File then click on Options, then from the Outlook Options select the Mail tab and click on the Signature button. Next click New, type a name for the signature, and then click OK.

In the Edit signature box, type the text that you want to include in the signature, then to format the text, select the text, and then use the style and formatting buttons to select the options that you want.

To add elements besides text, click where you want the element to appear, and then do any of the following:

Click Business Card, and then click a contact in the Filed As list, then click OK

Click Insert Hyperlink, type in the information or browse to a hyperlink, click to select it, and then click OK C

lick Picture, browse to a picture, click to select it, and then click OK. Common image file formats for pictures include .bmp, .gif, .jpg, and .png.

To finish creating the signature, click OK.

6/ Create a task for others

In addition to tasks that you create for yourself, you can also create and assign tasks to other people. You can review the progress of assigned tasks with the % Complete box which either you or the recipient can update when they send you an assigned task status report.

Create a new task or open an existing task then in the Task tab, in the Manage Task group, click Assign Task. In the To box, enter the name or e-mail address of the person to whom you want to assign the task. In the Subject box, type a name for the task then enter the Start date and Due date.

In the Priority list, you can change “Normal” to “High” or “Low” if you want. Select or clear the “Keep an updated copy of this task on my task list” check box and the “Send me a status report when this task is complete” check box. Then click Send.

7/ Create polls in Outlook

If you want to get a quick idea about what your customers or colleagues think about a subject, then you can add a poll to your email.

Create a new email message, or open a message that you want to reply to or forward. On the Options tab, in the Tracking group, click Use Voting Buttons. Then click one of the following:

Yes;No When you want only a definite yes or a no.

Yes;No;Maybe This voting option offers recipients a third option.

Custom Click this command to create your own custom voting button names

When the Properties dialog box appears, under Voting and Tracking options, select the Use voting buttons check box. Use the default button options, or delete the default options and then type the text that you want, and use semicolons to separate the button names.

To review your answers open the message that you sent which included the voting buttons and on the Message tab, in the Show group, click Tracking and you’ll be able to see the results. Tracking does not appear until at least one recipient of the email message has voted.

8/ Adding a reminder to an email message

If you want to prompt others to act on or respond to an email message, you can send a message that is flagged with start and due dates and more information in the Flag to list.

To send a reminder go to the Message tab, and select the Tags group, click Follow Up, and then select Custom. In the dialog box click Flag for Recipients. Under Flag for Recipients, select the type of reminder that you want in the Flag to list. Select a date and time in the lists next to the Reminder check box.

The reminder type, together with the date and time, will then appear in the InfoBar of the message.

9/ Sorting emails automatically – creating rules

A rule is an action that Microsoft Outlook takes automatically on an arriving message, and you can set your own rules and choose the conditions and actions by using the Rules Wizard.

Rules fall into one of two categories — organisation and notification. A rule can be quickly created from any message. The advantage of creating a rule in this manner is that rules are suggested based on the message sender or recipients. For example, when you start with a message, one rule that is suggested moves all messages from that sender to a folder that you choose.

Click the message for which you want to create a rule, and then on the Home tab, in the Move group, click Rules, then chose Create Rule and the Create Rule dialog box appears.

Under When I get e-mail with all of the selected conditions, select the check boxes for the conditions that you want.

Under Do the following, select the check boxes for the action that you want the rule to take when the specified conditions are met. Select the Move the item to folder check box. Click an existing folder or click New to create a folder to store the messages.

To add more conditions, actions, or exceptions to the rule, click Advanced Options, and then follow the rest of the instructions in the Rules Wizard.

10/ Create a custom search folder

On the Folder tab click New Search Folder. From the Select a Search Folder list, click Create a custom Search Folder. Under Customize Search Folder, click Choose and type a name for your custom Search Folder.

Next, Click Criteria, and then select the options that you want from the following tabs.

The Messages tab contains criteria on the message content or properties, such as sender, keywords, or recipients.

The More Choices tab contains criteria on other message conditions, such as importance, flags, attachments, or categorization.

The Advanced tab enables you to make detailed criteria.

Under Define more criteria, click Field, click the type of criterion that you want, and then click the specific criterion from the list. Then in the Condition box and the Value box, click the options that you want, and then click Add to List. Repeat for each criterion that you want to add to this search folder, and then click OK.

Click Browse, select the folders that you want to be searched and click OK to close each open dialog box

Have you got any hot tips and tricks? We’d love to hear them if you have.

Read the original:
Top ten time-saving tips – Outlook

The traditional 0800 number has been a business staple for many years, and customers and potential customers are happy to ring 0800 numbers because they believe the calls to be free. However the mobile networks don’t work in the same way as landline operators and 0800 numbers are charged at normal call rates, which can be up to 21 pence per minute, and aren’t usually included in the free calls on a mobile contract. The result is any business that just provides 0800 numbers risks losing or alienating mobile customers completely.

Ofcom, the UK regulator for the communications industries, have published new proposals that could make all calls to 0800 telephone numbers free of charge.

Research conducted by Ofcom has shown that many individuals were confused by non-geographic numbers. To be specific – what they are used for and who can use them. Therefore creating a lack of trust that has resulted in consumers less likely to call these numbers over the years.

To help improve consumer trust the new proposals offer simpler numbering for non-geographic calls, that includes 080 and 116 numbers to be free from both telephone and mobile phones. Also, 08, 09 and 118 numbers will have a new standardised structure, that will clearly set out the charges being applied by phone companies.

Ed Richards, chief executive of Ofcom, said: ‘Consumers are often confused about how much they will pay to call these number ranges. ‘Under our proposals, people will have much clearer information and there will be greater competition on prices.

‘By making calls to 0800 numbers free from all phones, we will clear up any uncertainty about making calls, especially from mobiles, to the benefit of consumers and service providers alike

.’ Unfortunately the bad news is that a final decision regarding the new proposed rules won’t be made until 2013

More here:
0800 numbers to be free on mobile

The site, which will be blocked by five of the UK’s top ISPs following last-week’s high court order, says rivals are setting up proxy sites and using its name and index, while also charging users.

The site welcomes some of these proxies, as they will offer access to the site once the blockades are in place, but others are seeking to profit from TPB’s vast archive of music, movies and TV shows.

Not all proxies are nice In a somewhat ironic post on the company blog, TPB says: “A lot of proxies in support of TPB are popping up, which is a good thing. But not all of these proxies are nice! “We’ve noticed at least 3 sites that are tricking users to buying access or similar. We do not condone this behaviour, The Pirate Bay is a free service! “We’d want to encourage you to look for a reliable source on where to find a good proxy that works for you.”

So, the message is clear, beware of those illegal torrent sites, which are illegal copies of other illegal torrent sites.

Go here to see the original:
The Pirate Bay issues warning against copycat pirates

Virgin Media was quick to bring the block in, but the national news coverage has funnelled millions more people than usual to the site.

“Thanks to the High Court and the fact that the news was on the BBC, we had 12 million more visitors yesterday than we had ever had before.

“We should write a thank you note to the BPI [British Phonographic Industry],” a spokesperson told TorrentFreak.

Pirates: 1 West India Trading Company: 0

Aside from the free publicity, circumventing The Pirate Bay block is relatively easy to do – and The Pirate Bay is actively encouraging users to do it by posting instructions (if you’re on a blocked connection, The Pirate Party is mirroring the info here ).

Aside from Virgin, Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk and O2 are all required to stop their customers from being able to access the Pirate Bay because of its use for spreading pirated music.

Link:
Blocking Pirate Bay obviously working as traffic shoots up

According to Anonymous’ UK Twitter feed , its members were responsible for taking Virgin Media’s website offline, explaining that censorship was the reason for its involvement.

Virgin Media is one of five ISPs in the UK to block The Pirate Bay . It is following a High Court ruling that it must stop allowing access to the site, alongside O2, Talk Talk, Sky Broadband and Everything Everywhere.

Virgin Media put on a brave face throughout the hack and stood by its reasons for blocking the site.

“As a responsible ISP, Virgin Media complies with court orders but we strongly believe that tackling the issue of copyright infringement needs compelling legal alternatives, giving consumers access to great content at the right price, to help change consumer behaviour,” a spokesperson explained in a statement.

Honour among thieves

In an interesting twist, though, the Pirate Bay has distanced itself from the hack with a statement on its Facebook page .

“We do NOT encourage these actions. We believe in the open and free internets, where anyone can express their views. Even if we strongly disagree with them and even if they hate us,” said the post.

“So don’t fight them using their ugly methods. DDoS and blocks are both forms of censorship.

“If you want to help; start a tracker, arrange a manifestation, join or start a pirate party, teach your friends the art of bittorrent, set up a proxy, write your political representatives, develop a new p2p protocol, print some pro piracy posters and decorate your town with, support our promo bay artists or just be a nice person and give your mom a call to tell her you love her.”

The Pirate Bay has been on something of a moral crusade of late. Earlier this week it revealed that it doesn’t condone the proxy versions of The Pirate Bay that are popping up, allowing users to access TPB’s content even if the site is blocked for them.

Apparently it’s not the proxies it has a problem with, however, but the fact that some sites are asking for payment in exchange for the proxy, explaining: “We do not condone this behaviour, The Pirate Bay is a free service!”

We wonder if there’s a car park somewhere in the world being readied for an Anonymous / Pirate Bay face-off. Ron Burgundy would surely approve.

Read more here:
Anonymous attacks the Pirate Bay block, downs Virgin Media

Probably something you already knew: Frequent email checkers are stressed out , and removing the constant email-checking from a worker’s habits meant more focus and productivity, less stress.

People who read email changed screens twice as often and were in a steady “high alert” state, with more constant heart rates. Those removed from email for five days experienced more natural, variable heart rates.

“We found that when you remove email from workers’ lives, they multitask less and experience less stress,” said UCI informatics professor Gloria Mark.

The key here is that frequent email checkers experience the most significant problems, with researchers suggesting that “controlling email login times, batching messages or other strategies might be helpful.” It’s an idea we’re familiar with, and it’s why just two months ago I suggested turning off push notifications for all your email , recommending instead that you batch your email .

So… what are you waiting for? Email ‘vacations’ decrease stress, increase concentration

See the article here:

Email Is Like Stress in a Bottle, Study Shows [Email]

The big change is in the interface. With that comes a new single-window mode that consolidates all the floating tools into one window. You can dock and move them around as needed. On top of the completely new interface, a bunch of smaller tweaks are added in as well, including a new way to handle groups of layers, better image exporting, and more.

Read more here:

GIMP Updates with a New Interface, Layer Groups, and More [GIMP]

Previously it was limited to few high profile members and Googlers, but today Google+ team has launched this feature to everyone. This Hangout on Air feature will be very useful for celebrities, governing people to spread an awareness, talk to people worldwide using Google+.

The On Air hangout feature is being slowly rolling out to all the profiles, so wait until you get them. So from now, you can limit your hangouts to selected invited friends or open broadcast to anyone. Now teachers & students will be greatly beneficial through this feature for their online tutoring.

From the Google+ team ” By checking “Enable Hangouts On Air,” you can broadcast your live hangout – from the Google+ stream, your YouTube channel or your website – to the entire world. ”

While hanging out, you can also check how many people are watching it live using the live counter. It also supports recording and resharing. Once you’re off the air, Google+ uploads the public recording to your YouTube channel, and to your original Google+ post. This way it’s easy to share and discuss your broadcast after it’s over.

View post:

Live Broadcast Your Google+ Hangouts on Air

View original post here:
Should I Check Email?

The Startup Toolkit identifies the top tools in seven critical categories: productivity, project management, accounting, file sharing, payments, web content management and support. Some of these tools are consumer-grade. Others are used by the world’s largest corporations. And they’re all just the right size for startups.

1. Productivity Suites

Winners: Google Apps AND Microsoft Office

Pundits have been predicting the death of the office productivity suite for more than 10 years, but it hasn’t happened yet. Instead, they just keep getting new features and new capabilities. And that’s why we have two winners in this category. Turns out you need them both!

Google Apps for Business is a fantastic suite of affordable services that will handle email, calendaring and productivity for the majority of your business the majority of the time. It’s years ahead of Microsoft for multiuser documents.

But MS Office remains the worldwide standard, and when VCs ask for a presentation in Word or PowerPoint format, you want to know exactly what they’re seeing, right down to the pixel. You won’t need a site license to cover your entire team, but plan on supplementing Google Apps with copies of Office for key marketing and executive employees, as well as anyone who spends a lot of time working offline.

2. Project Management/Tracking

Winner: BaseCamp

We have been a big fan of BaseCamp for years, even using it inside our own walls. Our biggest gripe was solved by beefed-up mobile support , and its user interface has actually gotten simpler as the app has gained features. In its most recent incarnation, BaseCamp has replaced drab, visually tiring lists with a simpler, more graphical UI (pictured above) that makes toggling through projects, calendars and reporting almost effortless.

Pricing starts at $20 a month, with a 45-day free trial. You can certainly find open-source alternatives for less, but while other tools can challenge BaseCamp’s functionality, they can’t touch its UI. You’ll cover your monthly costs in support savings in your first week.

It’s worth mentioning that software development firms or other startups with very detailed project milestones and dependencies may find BaseCamp insufficient for some situations. In those cases, you may have to rely on more traditional – and more expensive – project management software, such as Microsoft Project , for the heavy lifting, but you still might find value in BaseCamp as an intranet tool for the rest of your company.

3. Accounting

Winner: QuickBooks

QuickBooks, in its various incarnations (up to a $249.95/year contract that includes mobile app and phone support), handles everything a startup or small business might need, and it integrates seamlessly with Intuit’s other financial products. But QuicBbook’s true strength stems from its ubiquity.

Almost every accountant or auditor who’s worked with a small business is familiar with QuickBooks, dramatically increasing your ability to work with outside contractors, potential investors and business partners. Almost every financial software developer (including some of Intuit’s competitors) have built connectors to QuickBooks, eliminating the need for clunky and error-prone manual exports and imports. When it comes to financial software, it makes sense to follow the leader.

4. File Sharing

Winner: Dropbox

There are plenty of worthwhile business competitors to Dropbox. Box.net has done a great job of outdoing Dropbox in certain respects. And Dropbox isn’t perfect. For example, sharing folders in a large company can still be a bit awkward. But Dropbox’s virtues are undeniable. Its user interface couldn’t be any simpler: It’s a folder. Drop things into it. It works flawlessly via Web, PC, Mac or mobile, which can be a lifesaver if you need to work with an important presentation on the road. If you’re on a budget, you can actually get a lot of use from the free accounts before you have to upgrade, particularly if you work the referral system or participate in beta programs, which can dramatically raise your free storage cap. Make no mistake: You will eventually need to upgrade, but by the time you do, it will be a no-brainer.

5. Payments

Winner: PayPal

If you need to accept credit cards on your Web site and you don’t want any hassle, look at PayPal. It has a simple sign-up process, gives one-stop access to all major credit cards, and lets you accept direct payments from other PayPal accounts, which can be very helpful, depending on your customers. If you need to process recurring (subscription-based) payments, though, look into Recurly . Like BaseCamp, Recurly’s power is in its simplicity. Recurly is a management console that sits on top of a merchant account (which it can also provide), letting you address complex functions with relative ease. Recurly automates complex calculations and adjustments, making it simple to create new products and price points, move users between products and packages, prorate refunds or billing, and modify renewal dates. Its reporting interface is equally simple and powerful.

6. Web Content Management

Winner: Wordpress

Every company needs a Web presence, and it’s tempting to stand out from the pack by building something different. But different takes effort, and distracts from your website’s core mission: providing information about your company to your users, partners and investors. Communication should come first, and you shouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel.

That’s where Wordpress shines. Some developers will complain that it’s not as extensible as other frameworks, and they might be right, but that’s irrelevant. You need to get information to your audience as efficiently as possible, and Wordpress is perfect for that.

Equally important, Wordpress is more popular than all other content-management systems combined , with massive networks of developers, designers and SEO experts ready to help out at a moment’s notice. It’s also incredibly flexible, allowing you to change your entire layout and composition with a single theme file, while still maintaining your site’s integrity and standing with search engines. The content creation and editing interface is simple enough for any worker to use. It’s also free, and offered and supported by almost every hosting company.

For software developers: If your company is developing custom Web applications, Wordpress can still serve as a front-end for your more static, public-facing content, but you’ll obviously need to develop something more involved to showcase your merchandise. Before you consider hosting your own servers, check out Web services like Amazon’s Application Hosting . You’ll save a ton of time and money, and gain a level of redundancy you almost certainly couldn’t otherwise afford. It worked for Instagram, so it will probably work for you.

7. Support

Winner: Zendesk

Once you have customers, you’ll need to support them, and $20 a year isn’t a lot to pay for solid tools. ZenDesk’s Starter plan gives you access to everything you’ll need to get your business through its first year, supporting three agent accounts and an unlimited number of support tickets and end-users. For your 20 bucks, you get a full ticketing system with two-way Web and email channels, mobile applications and customizable forums you can use to build a knowledge base.

You can certainly find cheaper ticketing and forum software, but you’ll sacrifice support and integration and add a burden to your own IT staff.

What are your favorite startup tools? And what additional categories should we include in the Startup Toolkit? Share your suggestions in the comments.

See the original post:
RWW Recommends: The Startup Toolkit

If I’m honest, I’ve known it for a while. But it’s taken some systematic spanking of multiple memory kits to put the notion completely beyond doubt. Admittedly, a little qualification is required. You do need to have enough memory. 8GB is plenty and can be had for as little as £35. And there are still a few dud kits out there. But that’s about it.

The explanation, of course, mostly comes down to the trend towards consolidating more and more features into the CPU die. AMD and particularly Intel are bunging everything into CPUs.

The end game is the so-called SoC or system on a chip where pretty much everything of any significance is packed into a single computer chip. Historically, SoCs have been the weapon of choice for anything that needs to be very cheap or very small. Think set top boxes and mobile phones.

We’re still a few years off achieving SoCs in PCs. But today’s mainstream Intel CPUs, for instance, pack everything from a memory controller to a PCI Express bus and even a slightly shonky graphics core.

When it comes to system memory, the most significant part of that consolidation process is the memory controller. Take it off the motherboard and stick it on the CPU itself and bandwidth gets a big boost.

Even at default memory frequencies – currently 1,333MHz – there’s more than enough bandwidth to feed the latest multi-core processors. That’s true for the latest AMD and Intel processors with dual-channel controllers. They serve up as much as 20GB/s or more of raw bandwidth.

As for Intel’s newish X79 high end platform and its quad-channel architecture, it’s total overkill. In terms of desktop applications, it performs just as well in dual-channel mode as quad-channel mode.

The other change that’s marginalised RAM in the performance-critical stakes is the shift from CPU buses to multipliers for overclocking. Tweaking buses had knock-on effect on memory. Increasing CPU clockspeeds via the multiplier does not. So you don’t need fast memory to hit high clocks any more.

All of which makes memory kits with fancy heat spreaders, fast frequencies and exotic latencies seem rather silly. At this point, somebody will point to a benchmark somewhere on the web showing a 1.2794 per cent performance improvement when you upgrade from standard 1,333MHz RAM to some low latency 1,866MHz clobber.

And it’s true, RAM can improve system performance marginally. But I would absolutely positive defy anyone to take a Pepsi blind challenge and identify which PC was running which memory. It’s just not possible.

However, if all this sounds like the end of days for premium memory makers, there’s hope on the horizon. Funnily enough, it takes the shape of the SoC trend, again. If modern CPUs have all the bandwidth they can eat, graphics cores are another matter. Right now, the integrated 3D cores included in some CPUs are pretty pathetic. But even they can saturate a CPU’s memory bandwidth.

AMD, for instance, claims the graphics performance of its A8-3850 Fusion processor increases by as much as 20 per cent courtesy of the leap from 1,333MHz to 1,600MHz memory. When you think that the cost difference might only be a few quid, it’s a no brainer.

Read the original here:
Opinion: Why PC memory no longer matters

Here’s what’s changed.

MSE veterans won’t notice a lot of huge changes in this version, but certain interface elements have changed slightly—the icons along the top are gone, and certain wordings have changed a bit to make the program easier to use. The “Real-Time Protection” setting is now an all-or-nothing checkbox, and SpyNet has been renamed to the Microsoft Active Protection Service to make a bit clearer what it actually does.

Microsoft has also baked in some performance improvements and better detection powers. Microsoft Security Essentials is a free download for Windows only. You can get the new version through Windows Update, or on its home page.

Read more:
Microsoft Security Essentials Updates with Better Performance, Virus Detection, and Interface Changes [Microsoft Security Essentials]

Google and Microsoft have both made bold moves towards commanding the arena this week, aiming to battle some of the early dominance away from pioneers like Dropbox, which continues to improve its service and lurkers like Apple, Sony and Samsung.

Google’s service comes in the form of Google Drive , finally announced after months of speculation, which offers 5GB of service for free and up to 1TB for a considerable monthly fee, along with a host of neat sharing options.

SkyDrive is Microsoft’s solution . The name has been around for a couple of years now, but Microsoft has significantly enhanced its offering, making SkyDrive an entirely new proposition.

Let’s take a look at which service offers the best option for you.

Google Drive vs Microsoft SkyDrive: Storage and pricing

As we mentioned Google is dangling the carrot by giving all Google account holders a free 5GB of Drive storage for your documents, photos and more. The company claims: “That’s enough to store the high-res photos of your trip to the Mt. Everest, scanned copies of your grandparents’ love letters or a career’s worth of business proposals, and still have space for the novel you’re working on.”

But its also savvy enough to know, that in this age, 5GB isn’t really enough. You can update to 25GB for a mere $2.49 (£1.54) a month and we’d imagine that’ll be the most popular option. Power users can grab 100GB for $4.99 (£3.08) a month, while a 1TB in the cloud will cost $49.99 (£30.80).

Perhaps mindful that Google will only be offering 5GB, Microsoft has cut its free SkyDrive allowance from 25GB right down to 7GB. Existing users will be able to adjust their account settings to hold onto that free storage, but new users will get just 7GB.

Redwood also opts for yearly price plans with 20GB for $10 (£6) a year. 50GB for $25 (£16) a year and 100GB for $50 (£32) a year. Google has the advantage in terms of pure storage stage (it has also upped Gmail free storage from 7GB to 10GB), but Microsoft’s existing option is cheaper and offers more free space. Microsoft has upped its file upload maximum size from 100MB to 300MB, whereas Google makes no mention of a maximum upload size within its launch documents, so that remains to be seen.

Google Drive vs Microsoft SkyDrive: Sharing

Google has attempted live document collaboration before with the failed Wave experiment. That feature lives on in Documents and forms a major part of Google Drive .

You can work with colleagues on a document and all changes will be synced back to Drive, while comments can be left on any files stored using the service. You can also receive notifications when changes are made to documents for which you have permissions.

Naturally, with Google aiming to make Drive fit seamlessly within its entire ecosystem, Google+ is also involved. You can post photos from Drive to the social network and attach them to Gmails.

Microsoft has revealed a simpler approach to sharing with its new and improved SkyDrive service, which by-passes the clunky process of sending large email attachments.

Once you’ve uploaded a file to SkyDrive you can send a simple web link to any recipient through email, instant message or even by posting on social networks like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Your friends won’t even have to sign up for a SkyDrive account to access the service.

Google Drive vs Sky Drive: Desktop Accessibility

Both Google and Microsoft have unveiled Dropbox-like desktop folders for Mac and PC, which allow users to simply drag and drop files to ensure they’re uploaded to the respective accounts.

You’ll need to download the client to start using both services. Google Drive wasn’t yet available to us at the time of writing, while the existing SkyDrive service client was. Once you start using SkyDrive, all photos added to the folder will immediately be synced and available on other devices running SkyDrive.

Perhaps Microsoft’s ace-in-the-hole here is the Fetch functionality , which also allows SkyDrive users to access any files on their PC harddrive and bring them to wherever they’re currently operating. However, the computer has to be on and SkyDrive must be installed.

Google Drive vs Sky Drive: Mobile Apps

Both services now boast a host of mobile apps, but don’t offer the complete set. Naturally, Google Drive has a ready made Android app which will allow you to share directly to your Drive account. The app naturally allows you to view, download and upload files from and to Drive, while documents you create can also be saved to the platform and edits will be synced. It’ll also let you share any file from Drive with your phone contacts. Files from Drive, such as a favourite photo, can be made available offline for when you don’t have an internet connection.

Google says it is working hard on an iOS app. Microsoft, brings you a Windows Phone app, but surprised us all by outing an iOS app, which allows for file sharing and viewing on the iPhone and the iPad. The SkyDrive for iOS application allows you to upload photos directly to the service, manage and share files and also open your SkyDrive files with other third party iOS apps, such as Pages and Keynote.

It’s a masterstroke from Microsoft and Google would be wise to hurry along with their iOS solution. Android users can access SkyDrive files through the web browser at this stage.

Google Drive vs Microsoft SkyDrive: Verdict

Microsoft’s enterprising and innovative SkyDrive revamp has unexpectedly stolen the thunder from Google’s long-awaited cloud storage solution – and deservedly so. Despite cutting its offering, SkyDrive still offers more free storage and cheaper tariffs for those wishing to purchase a little more space.

Both services have followed in Dropbox’s footsteps by launching an easy-to-use desktop client for Mac and PC, with easy syncing and sharing of documents, photos and more across your devices.

Google has made it easier to share documents and collaborate with users over the cloud, through its existing Documents, Google+ and Gmail services, while Microsoft will allow easy web-link sharing, even for non-SkyDrive members. M

icrosoft’s launch of an iOS app before Google Drive may prove decisive unless Google pulls its finger out. While we’re impressed with how Google has seamlessly integrated Drive within its ecosystem, we have to give SkyDrive a narrow points victory at this early stage.

Read this article:
In Depth: Google Drive vs Microsoft SkyDrive: Cloud storage battle detailed

BYOD programs have become increasingly popular in large corporations, allowing employees to bring their own devices to work, which they often use for personal needs at home as well. To make it easier for IT staff to manage a mishmash of devices and keep networks secure, Windows 8 Enterprise offers several exclusive features, including Windows To Go, Direct Access, BranchCache, AppLocker, Upgrade tools, and Enhanced RemoteFX.

Windows To Go lets employees boot Windows 8 via a USB stick, which allows them to access their corporate network on multiple computers while keeping the network secure. It can also be given to contingent staff, such as consultants with pre-configured access restrictions.

Direct Access allows remote users to access a corporate network without the need to setup a VPN and also makes it easier to deploy software updates. Branch Cache lets users cache files, websites, and other content from central servers to optimize bandwidth over WAN connections for better security and scalability.

AppLocker lets IT staff set restrictions on the files and apps that employees are allowed to run. The Upgrade tool automates many of the processes involved in porting desktops and laptops to Windows 8. And the upgraded Enhanced Remote FX feature delivers full Windows GUI on virtual desktops, including the ability to play 3D graphics, use USB peripherals, and touch-enabled devices across the network.

Read more from the original source:
Windows 8 Enterprise’s major exclusive features