Techmazine

Before Installing Lion: Check for Application Compatibility

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 05:46:00 +0000

Before you install Mac OS X Lion, take a moment to check if all applications on your computer are compatible with the new OS. The reason why you need to do so is because Lion no longer supports Rosetta. Rosetta is the underlying technology built into Mac OS X that allowed older Mac applications written for the PowerPC platform to run seamlessly on Mac OS X -- in fact Rosetta worked so seamlessly that many of us did not even realize it was running behind the scenes.

With Lion, Apple now no longer supports PowerPC applications -- you must first check if you have any PowerPC applications on your computer -- follow these steps:

Click the Apple icon on the left of your Mac's title bar, and choose the About This Mac option, as shown in Figure 1, below.

Figure 1: About This Mac
This will bring up a window of the same name as shown in Figure 2. Click the More Info... button.

Figure 2: More Info button
You will now see the System Profiler window that provides detailed information about almost everything about your Mac. Scroll down the sidebar on the left until you see the Software category. Once you click the triangle to its left, you will see several other options. Click the Applications option, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: System Profiler
Now the window shows all the applications installed on your computer -- note that there are columns in this window -- click the Kind column header to sort all your installed applications based upon what kind they are, such as PowerPC, Intel, Universal, etc. Scroll down to where you can see a list of all your PowerPC applications, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: PowerPC applications

Note that all the PowerPC apps highlighted in Figure 4 are actually small applets that are part of Microsoft Office for Mac. In my case, these are Query and OpenXML apps that will not hinder the use of Office 2008 and 2011, so I am just going to let them be and wait for Microsoft to provide an upgrade -- fortunately, Microsoft has put up a post to show their commitment in resolving these issues.

If you have older apps that provide no such options, you will no longer be able to use them when you upgrade to Lion. One option for you in that case is to create a dual boot system that lets you decide whether you want to boot to Lion or an older version of OS X - CNET has a great article that discusses this approach.

Note that System Profiler only lets you see which programs are PowerPC specific -- it does not let you uninstall them. You can retain these applications when you upgrade to Lion, but the programs themselves will not be able to run within the Mac OS X Lion environment.

Failed Boot Camp Installation

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 14:53:00 +0000

Once you click the Start Installation button within Boot Camp Assistant, it is assumed that your Windows install disc is in your optical drive -- either a drive on your system or an external drive. Thereafter your Mac will reboot, and start off the Windows install disc to begin installing Microsoft Windows to your newly created Boot Camp partition.

If all goes fine, then that's great. But if you see an error -- maybe there is an error reading your disc or some communication error. First ascertain that you are indeed stuck and cannot proceed -- then hold the Power button on your Mac to shut down the computer. Thereafter, hold the Option (Alt) key while you restart your computer. Most probably you will see a menu with a single option that lets you boot to your Mac OS -- choose this option and boot into your Mac OS X partition.

Make sure you have an alternative installation disc or another optical drive -- maybe you can attach an external optical drive. Then ascertain that the Windows install disc is now accessible.

You can next start Boot Camp Assistant. The first two screens will be similar to what you see when running Boot Camp Assistant for the time -- but the third screen will differ. Since your Boot Camp partition has already been created, you won't be asked to carve a new partition at this point of time. Rather you will be presented with the two options you can see in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Relaunch Boot Camp Assistant

These options are:

Create or remove a Windows partition: You can choose to create a new Boot Camp partition -- or delete any existing Boot Camp partition.
Start the Windows installer: Lets you restart the Windows installer.

To launch the Windows installation again, please choose the second option and click Continue. This will reboot your computer and start the Windows installation again.

Using Boot Camp to Create a New Partition

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 12:56:00 +0000

Once you have launched Boot Camp Assistant and made sure you have the additional software you need (such as Windows drivers for your Mac hardware), you will get to the screen that asks you to partition your Mac hard disk to carve out a Windows partition, as shown in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1: Carve a Windows partition with Boot Camp Assistant

By default, you may be asked to create a partition as small as 20 GB -- that's far too less for any practical use. Use as much space as you can spare -- yet do not get tempted to use the Divide Equally option if you have a very large hard disk. As you can see in Figure 2 below, I decided to carve a 200GB Windows partition. Click the Partition button to proceed.

Figure 2: Carve a Windows partition with Boot Camp Assistant

Boot Camp Assistant will now partition your hard disk, as shown in Figure 3 below.

Figure 3: Partition being created

Once the partitioning is done, note that your Mac OS X desktop will show a new hard disk partition called BOOTCAMP, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: New partition displayed

Boot Camp Assistant will prompt you to insert your Windows installation disc, as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5: Insert your Windows install disc

Insert your Windows install disc, and click the Start Installation button. In the next post in this series, you will learn what happens next.

Launching Boot Camp Assistant

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 04:00:00 +0000

If you have fulfilled all requirements for installing Microsoft Windows 7 on your Mac using Boot Camp, then spare an hour or two and get started:

Close all applications on your Mac so that you can just see your Desktop. Choose the Go | Utilities menu option, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Access the Utlities option
This opens the Utilities folder within your Applications -- here you will find the Boot Camp Assistant application, as shown in Figure 2 -- double-click to launch the Boot Camp Assistant.

Figure 2: Boot Camp Assistant
This summons the Boot Camp Assistant's first screen as shown in Figure 3. As shown in the screen, Apple recommends that you back up your entire disk before proceeding -- assuming you have backed up your important stuff, proceed by clicking the Continue button.

Figure 3: Starting with Boot Camp Assistant
You are now prompted to either download the additional software that you will need after installing Microsoft Windows 7 (see Figure 4) -- this is typically the drivers for your Mac hardware and are included in the original DVD or CD media that was in the box that contained your Mac hardware -- most of the time this is the same media that you use to do a Restore of your Mac software. Even if you don't have this additional software handy, you are allowed to download it now from the Apple site. Most of you who upgraded from Snow Leopard to Lion using the Mac AppStore will have to choose the download option since you probably have no media. If you do have the media, or have already downloaded the software before, you can go ahead and choose the second option. However if you choose the first option to download the additional software now, be prepared for a fairly large download. Make your choice and click the Continue button.

Figure 4: Do you need the additional software?
Assuming you chose the Download option, you might next see a window asking you to input your admin password. Enter your password, and click OK. Boot Camp Assistant will now start downloading the drivers and other software, as shown in Figure 5, below.

Figure 5: Additional software being downloaded

In the next post in this series, I'll show you what you need to do next to get Windows 7 installed on your Mac using Boot Camp.

Requirements for installing Windows 7 using Boot Camp

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 04:00:00 +0000

If you want to install Microsoft Windows 7 on a Mac running Mac OS X Snow Leopard or Lion, using Boot Camp -- you will need to fulfill the following requirements:

An Intel based Mac -- that's almost any Mac sold in the last few years.
An optical drive -- typically at least a DVD drive these days.
Your Mac OS X Snow Leopard or Lion DVD, depending upon which version of OS X you have installed. This contains the drivers you will require to run Microsoft Windows 7. This can either be the DVD media that was included in the box containing your Mac or even an upgrade CD or DVD you bough (in case of Snow Leopard). Since Lion upgrade installations were mostly made available via the Mac AppStore, you will be allowed to download the Windows 7 drivers when you launch the Boot Camp application -- in that case, you will also need blank CD, DVD, or USB media for installation of Windows 7 drivers for your Mac computer.

OK -- you can create a Lion install DVD from your download from the App Store -- but I have not tried it to install Windows 7 drivers for Boot Camp -- if it works for you, do send me a line here.
At least 16 GB of free hard disk space for 32-bit versions of Windows 7, and 20 GB or more space for 64-bit versions of Windows 7.
A full version of Microsoft Windows 7 -- among the separate versions, Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate are supported in both 32-bit and 64-bit editions.

Once you have all these ready, you need to spare around an hour or two of your time -- it actually takes much less time but it is good to not do this task in a hurry.

What is Boot Camp?

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 04:00:00 +0000

Boot Camp is a technology built within Intel chip based Macs that allows you to create a separate partition in your Mac OS hard disk that can run Microsoft Windows. This separate partition is created from within the existing Mac OS hard disk without deleting any of your existing Mac data -- it goes without saying that you need plenty of hard disk space to create a Boot Camp partition.

Boot Camp is probably the only technology that lets you run Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows on the same hardware without any virtual machines -- this means no emulation is required and you are running Windows on a normal computer -- the Apple hardware is functioning like just any hardware from HP, Dell, Lenovo, Sony, or Toshiba -- or any other vendor.

Earlier versions of Boot Camp let you run Windows XP and Windows Vista -- but Mac OS X Lion only lets you run Windows 7. After you install Boot Camp, you can hold the Option (Alt) key on your Mac's keyboard to bring up the screen that you see in the Figure below -- here you can choose to boot into either the Mac OS X or Windows 7.

You can also set either Mac OS X or Windows 7 as the default boot -- you will learn about this process in a future blog post. In future blog posts, you will also learn more about what you need to install Windows using Boot Camp, and how you actually complete the process.

Meanwhile, you can learn more about Boot Camp on the Apple site.

Typically all sites that I end up visiting are created by geeks for geeks -- I tried in this post to make things very simple -- simple enough for a 10 year old to understand and yet relevant to you even if you are a geek -- if you want to share some feedback, do get in touch through this feedback form -- have a great day!

Fun Stuff: Make Einstein Say It

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 06:59:00 +0000

This is a really cool idea -- you can create your own quick picture of Albert Einstein teaching a class and writing something with chalk on a blackboard. You just type in your text, and pronto -- the picture gets created -- and it does look quite authentic -- not authentic enough to stand witness but good enough to bring a few laughs!

To get your own Einstein picture, go to Hetemeel.com -- they have several other image generators including one of George Bush and also Microsoft Clippy!

You can probably use these pictures in your next PowerPoint presentation?

Burn a CD or DVD on Mac OS X

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 12:50:00 +0000

Burning a CD or DVD is very easy on Mac OS X -- first you insert a blank CD or DVD in your Mac. You will see a dialog like the one you see in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1: How do you want to burn your CD or DVD?

Typically, you could choose the Open in Finder action -- unless you want to create a DVD you want to play on your TV, for which you will choose the Open iDVD option. You can also choose the Open iTunes option if you want to create a music CD. If you need to burn an image to a CD or DVD, you can choose the Open Disk Utility option -- we covered this in the earlier Burn Image to CD or DVD with Disk Utility post. You can see all these options in Figure 2, below.

Figure 2: Choose Open Finder to burn a regular data CD or DVD

Tip: Do you want to use a third-party application such as Roxio Toast to burn your disc? If you don't see this application here, choose the Open Other Application option.

If you choose the Open Finder option, you'll see a Finder window with a CD or DVD listed as a folder on the Sidebar, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Untitled DVD is your new DVD (or CD) -- also note that you can see how much space is available in your DVD or CD

You can also right-click (or Ctrl-click) the CD or DVD listed on the Sidebar, and choose some of the options shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Rename your disc, or remove it

The Rename option lets you change the volume name of the disc. The Remove option lets you delete the disc project altogether.

To add files to burn to disc, drag your files to the disc's folder -- you will see how much space is available on your new disc, as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5: How much free space is available on your disc?

At this point of time, no disc has been burned. Once you are ready to burn your disc, just select the File | Burn (Disc Name) menu option as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Get your disc burning

You will see a message box that lets you choose the burn speed, and if you want to save the disc compilation to a folder (useful if you need to burn multiple copies of the disc), a shown in Figure 7, below

Figure 7: Choose the burn speed

Click the Burn button, and OS X starts burning your disc, as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8: Your disc is burning

Backup your OS X Lion Download on DVD or External Drive

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 04:30:00 +0000

You already learned how you can pause and resume your OS X Lion download from the Mac App Store. But as soon as your download is over, you will see the OS X Lion install screen that you see in Figure 1, below. Resist installing this upgrade for now, and choose the Install Mac OS X Lion | Quit Install Mac OS X Lion menu option for now.

Figure 1: Install screen for Mac OS X Lion

Why did I ask you to quit the install? That is because it is best that you first create a backup of the 3.74 GB download! Yes, it is true -- as soon as you finish installing OS X Lion, the downloaded install file will be cleaned up! You might want to install OS X Lion on other computers, or just retain a backup of the install file -- after all, 3.74 GB is not a minuscule size, even by today's standards.

So head to launch Finder, and go to your Applications folder -- it is here that you will find the Install Mac OS X Lion app, as you can see in Figure 2. Note that all applications in this folder, as shown in Figure 2 have the app file extension -- this is because I have globally enabled file extensions on my Mac.

Figure 2: The Install Mac OS X Lion app

Right-click or Ctrl-click this app, and choose the Show Package Contents option in the resultant context menu. Within the Contents | Shared Support folder, you will find the InstallESD.dmg file (see Figure 3)

Figure 3: The InstallESD.dmg file

Select and Alt-drag this file to any location on your computer -- remember Alt-drag will make a copy, just dragging will remove the DMG from the package -- you don't want to do that! Once extracted, you can burn this image to a DVD. You can also make a backup of this image on an external hard disk.

Burn Image to CD or DVD with Disk Utility

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 04:30:00 +0000

You really don't need a separate CD or DVD burning application on your Mac OS X, especially if you want to do something as simple as burning an image to a CD or DVD. Mac OS X's Disk Utility is all you need:

Minimize all your application windows and click an empty area of your desktop. Click the Go | Utilities menu option. In the resultant Finder window, click the Disk Utility icon to launch the program -- you will see the interface shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Disk Utility

Click the Burn button on the toolbar. This will bring up the Select Image to Burn dialog -- navigate and select a DMG or other image format that Disk Utility can work with. Select the Burn button.

Disk Utility will ask you to insert a blank disc (see Figure 2). Insert a disc, and in a while, your image will be burnt to a disc.

Figure 2: Insert a disc

Show or Hide File Extensions on the Mac for one file

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 05:30:00 +0000

You already learned how you can show or hide file extensions for all files on Mac OS X. Now let me show you how you can enable the visibility of the file extension for just one file:

Select the file within Finder or your Mac OS X desktop for which you want the file extension to be visible (or not visible).
Now right-click (or Ctrl-click) the file, and choose the Get Info option from the resultant menu.
This opens the Get Info dialog for that file, as shown in Figure 1, below.

Figure 1: Get Info
You'll see the Name and Extension pane within the Get Info dialog -- here there is an option to check -- it's called "Hide extension" -- if you want to show the file extension, you will uncheck this option -- and keep it checked, if you want to hide the file extension. Checking or unchecking this option overrides the global settings to hide or show file extensions in Mac OS X.

Show File Extensions on the Mac for all Files

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 04:51:00 +0000

One of the biggest pain points for those who get started using Mac OS X after coming from a Windows world is that you cannot really see file extensions in OS X's Finder. Many of these Mac newbies believe that there are no file extensions at all on OS X -- but that is simply not true.

You can enable file extensions to show on Mac OS X on a global scale for all files, or for just a particular file. In this post, you will learn how to enable the visibility of file extensions globally on OS X -- I am using OS X 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) but this process works similarly on other iterations of OS X:

Minimize all open windows so that you can access the desktop. Click on an empty area of the desktop so that no other application window is active.
Select the Finder | Preferences menu option -- this opens the Preferences dialog as shown in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1: Finder Preferences
Then click the Advanced tab so that your Preferences dialog looks like what you see in Figure 2, below -- make sure you check the option that says Show all filename extensions.

Figure 2: Advanced tab of the Preferences dialog
That's all you need to do. Close the Preferences dialog, and all your files will show extensions. In fact, all your applications (in Finder's Application folder) will also now show the .app extension!

Did you want to show or hide a file extension for just one file? Yes, you can do that too.

Mac OS X Lion: Pausing and Resuming the 3.74 GB Download

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 15:56:00 +0000

Is it just me, or did you all find that it was not very intuitive how you could pause the Lion OS download from the App Store, and then resume it again. Even in today's always-connected-with-a-fat-data-pipe days, 3.74 GB is not a very tiny download size!

I found a quick way, and wanted to share it with everyone else -- so this is what you need to do -- I am assuming that you have already purchased Lion on the App Store, and your download is proceeding, as can be seen within the visual indicator you see below the Lion icon on the Dock, as shown in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1: OS X Lion Visual Indicator

OK -- let me assume that I want to pause this download now, and shut down my Mac. Actually pausing is easy right from the icon on the Dock -- I can hold my mouse over the icon, and choose the Pause option from the resultant menu -- unfortunately, thereafter you will find no Resume option in the same menu!

So this is what you do:

Choose the Apple Menu | App Store option to launch the App Store app.
Once App Store launches, click the Purchased icon on the top toolbar as shown in Figure 2 below. You will see the active downloads, including the OS X Lion download -- click the Pause button towards the right of this download. Exit App Store, and shut down your Mac if required.

Figure 2: Pause your OS X Lion Download
When you have started your Mac again, and are ready to resume the OS X Lion download, just access App Store again, and click the Purchased icon. In the resultant window, you will notice a Resume button along with a message next to it that says "0 of 0 bytes", as shown in Figure 3 below. Don't get appalled by the "0 bytes" message -- go ahead and click the Resume button.

Figure 3: Resume the OS X Lion Download
You may be presented a dialog that asks you to sign into your Apple account now, as shown in Figure 4. Enter your username, password, and click the Sign In button.

Figure 4: Sign in to the Apple App Store
The download will resume again, until it completes.

Windows Phone 7 Series

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:21:00 +0000

Microsoft announced and showed the new Windows Phone 7 series at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Tons of new features, and a whole new approach make this a very awaited product to watch out for -- there's a little of Zune, so much of Facebook, and Twitter -- and of course even the XBox. It looks like Microsoft is pulling no stops this time around to make sure that this product has the aesthetics and the functions that users want. It will be interesting to see what impact this has on Apple's future plans -- meanwhile this cool video has a lot going for it.

PicturePaste: Paste Pictures into Gmail, Hotmail, etc.

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 04:08:00 +0000

One of the frustratons of working with web based programs including email apps like Gmail, Hotmail, etc. stems from the fact that you cannot paste pictures from say your Word document or PowerPoint presentation into a Gmail message that you are composing.

With web based applications becoming more common-place, this sort of clipboard access option becomes more of a necessity. That's why I was glad to see this new company called PicturePaste that has developed a product of the same name.

Once I downloaded and installed the program, I was able to launch PicturePaste. This showed up as a small window. I then opened a PowerPoint presentation, and copied a picture from one of the slides -- this automatically showed up in my PicturePaste window as you can see below.

You now click the Convert button within the PicturePaste window -- after a while, you see a box that can be dragged to your Gmail compose window as shown in the figure below.

That's all you need to do!

There are two versions of PicturePaste -- the free version works with 50 pictures, and the Pro version works with more than 50.

Small Simple Windows 7 Stuff 01: QuickTime Playback

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:36:00 +0000

In the past few weeks that I have been playing with Windows 7, I have found many small and simple improvements that no one talks about! I'm guessing they are all talking about the big improvements.

The first of these small things is that Windows Media Player now plays QuickTime MOV files, even if you have no QuickTime Player installed! Wow -- who saw that coming?

Now -- too be not too patronising, Windows Media Player did throw fits while trying to play one of the movie files I asked it to play -- but it did play many of them -- look at the screenshot below!

This should keep people who work with both Windows and Mac machines happy!

Animoto Holiday Cards

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:32:00 +0000

Animoto, an online video editor that I have mentioned in an earlier blog post is coming up with holiday cards that are actually video clips you customize within the Animoto interface.

The folks at Animoto do say that the personalized holiday cards won't be ready until December 1st -- but they wanted to provide a sneak preview of the holiday greeting cards that they will make available later next month.

They also have a cool movie on their site that tells more.

Apple's New Nano Adds Video Recording and FM Radio!

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:57:00 +0000

Apple has done the impossible again! If you thought that the Apple iPod Nano music player was incredibly small, then think again because Apple has now managed to fit in video recording and a FM radio tuner within the new generation of the product without increasing its dimensions.

It also has a larger screen than before, and the video recording part has built in video effects. The FM radio tuner has two killer features called Live Pause and iTunes Tagging -- and to make the product even better, Apple threw in a Pedometer feature so that your new iPod Nano can count every step you take as part of your fitness program.

The new Nano is now priced at $149 and $179 for 8GB and 16GB models respectively, and that is actually $20 less than the last 16GB Nano model.

About Techmazine

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:37:00 +0000

Techmazine has been conceptualized for a long time to fulfill the need for a tech blog site that doesn't assume that a reader knows everything -- so each post in this blog site will contain references and links to explanations of terms you might not understand. Think of this as a blog that everyone can read and understand!

Microsoft Retail Stores -- First Opening at Scottsdale, AZ and Mission Viejo, CA

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:08:00 +0000

Microsoft may be opening their first retail stores, a la Apple Stores as early as this fall in Scottsdale, Arizona and Mission Viejo, California. No word is available yet about any store launches outside the US but according to eWeek, the Mission Viejo store will open at a mall that includes a successful Apple Store. The Shops at Mission Viejo is an upscale mall that I have visited often during my US trips in Orange County, south of Los Angeles.

Focus on OpenDNS

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 06:03:00 +0000

Do you find that some sites don't open for you, or return errors? Move to another system in another location and the same site works flawlessly? Well, that may be happening because you are using the DNS of your ISP (Internet Service Provider) -- and these are set by default to values hidden in your Internet settings or in your router, so you probably did not even know that you could change them!

So what exactly is a DNS? DNS stands for Domain Name Server, a service that translates Internet URLs such as www.microsoft.com, www.google.com, etc. into a set of numbers called IP addresses that read like 72.14.207.99, or 208.77.188.166, or similar sets of numbers. Your web browser understands IP addresses rather than URLs -- so it needs to translate the URL you want to visit to a specific IP address -- for this task, it needs to approach a DNS. Without access to a DNS, your web browser would not be able to get you anywhere online!

This is how it works:

You type in a URL in your web browser ->
Your web browser looks for a DNS service listed in your Internet settings ->
It approaches that DNS service ->
The DNS service translates the given URL to an IP address ->
Your browser uses that IP address to fetch a page from the site you requested via the URL!

The whole thing happens seamlessly, and quick -- unless your DNS service is not performing well enough. Now, coming to the point of this post -- not all DNS services are created equal! Some are well maintained and updated -- and others are not. Most DNS provided by ISPs may fall into the latter category. Thankfully, OpenDNS is there to rectify this situation, and what's more, it is entirely free! OpenDNS is a great alternative to the DNS service that your ISP provides and changing from your existing DNS service to OpenDNS is a cinch if you follow the fool-proof instructions on the OpenDNS site -- it's a good idea to sign up at OpenDNS before you follow these instructions so that you can log-in later and tweak some advanced settings if you need to!

The instructions on OpenDNS work like a wizard and help you step-by-step if you are using a router or just a single computer -- try it out!

Here's a cool video on YouTube that shows how you can get started with OpenDNS:

Animoto: Create Online Videos

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:49:00 +0000

Animoto is a video creation site that makes everything involved in the creation of video clips and montages super-easy. Sign-up is quick and simple, and you can get started working straightaway!

While creating longer video clips requires you to pay either through a credits or subscription model, you can create 30-second short clips (Animoto calls these "shorts") for free.

Click the prominent "Create Video" button, and you can get started:

You first see the "Let's get your images" option that you can see in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1: Animoto - Let's get your images

I chose the Animoto Short option that limits me to 30 seconds of output. This gets me to the options you see in Figure 2, where I can upload video or images from my computer, retrieve it from another site, or just use some sample content from Animoto's collection. I opted to retrieve it from another site.

Figure 2: Animoto - Where are your images?

You then are presented with several online image repository sites where you may have already uploaded your images, as shown in Figure 3. I chose Facebook.

Figure 3: Animoto - Choose your image source

The first time you choose Facebook or another source for your images, you might be asked to authenticate your account. Thereafter, Animoto remembers the permissions. I chose one of my photo albums on Facebook, and soon Animoto imported all images in that album (see Figure 4).

Figure 4: Animoto - All images imported

At this point of time, I can delete, rotate, and spotlight images -- or add text -- or add more images. However, I clicked the Continue button. This gets me to second tab of the Animoto interface where I can add music to my short movie (see Figure 5). This time, I clicked the Select from our collection option.

Figure 5: Animoto - Add music

This brings another screen that lets you choose a music genre -- plenty of genres are represented including pop, indie, hip hop, etc -- and when you choose a genre, you get to preview and choose from individual music clips. A few screens later, I was out of the music tab, and within the Finalize tab as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Animoto - Finalize your video

At this point of time, I could not use many of the options available with a free account -- and I wanted to see quick results using the defaults -- I know many of you don't want to choose from many options too since everybody seems to have less time these days! So with the defaults chosen, I clicked the Continue button. I was presented a screen that asked me to provide a name and description for my Animoto short movie -- and then I clicked the Create Video button. And then Animoto started creating the movie (see Figure 7).

Figure 7: Animoto - Producing video

At this point of time, you can wait for Animoto to render, or create a new movie, or even close the browser window -- Animoto will send you an e-mail when the video is prepared. If you are patient enough, though -- you'll see the "video created" screen that I show you in Figure 8 below.

Figure 8: Animoto - Video created

Click the large Play button to play your video -- you can also share and embed the video online at social sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. Members who have paid subscriptions can also download the video clips to their computers. You can also embed the video in your blog as I have done below.

What's New in Office 2010?

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 05:48:00 +0000

What do you add to a suite of programs that already include everything apart from the kitchen sink? Three years is a long time in computerese -- and that's around the time since the last version of Microsoft Office (Office 2007) showed up. Office 2007's biggest new feature was the Ribbon interface (also called Fluent) -- and this time, Microsoft has had to create more usability features so that users are convinced to upgrade to the upcoming Office 2010 -- and that's a great thing to happen!

Here are some of the new features as mentioned on Microsoft's new Office 2010 mini-site:

All of Office 2010: The Ribbon was limited to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and some parts of Outlook in Office 2007 -- now it has been extended to the rest of the Office site with Office 2010 -- significantly, Outlook 2010 will now be entirely Ribbonized. There are more SmartArt variants! The new Backstage view that puts everything in one view without having to navigate multiple dialog boxes and interfaces. Lots of stuff here including print options, templates, your recent files, file permissions, and more.
Word 2010 has more formatting options for text including 3D effects like reflection and shading. There's a Document Map option that lets you rearrange the content in your Word documents intuitively, and this reminded me of PowerPoint's outline pane. There's also improved sharing and collaboration of documents -- and integration with SharePoint.
Excel 2010 has new options to analyze data -- the new Slicer feature allows you to quickly filter and drill down data. The Sparklines feature creates mini chart-like representations within cells. Workbooks can be published to SharePoint servers, and shared.
PowerPoint 2010 provides cool Artistic Effects for photos with live previews. New transitions have been added, and the Animation Painter option copies animations from one slide object to another, and that's so cool if you have added and fine-tuned your animation sequences and timings for one object and want it repeated on another! There are new video options including reflections for video clips, video trimming capabilities, and new navigation controls. File compression works better and you can save your PowerPoints as video clips. New Slide Sections lets you organize your slides into logical sections. SharePoint integration gets better with the Broadcast feature for slide shows that lets you show your presentations to other in their web browsers!
Outlook 2010 get the Ribbon now so that it looks and feels like the rest of the Office suite. The new Conversations view nests all messages within a conversation together -- and the Clean up Conversation option makes sure that you don't get intimidated by conversations that have tons of e-mails within them. The new Quick Steps options lets you perform common actions with one click, thus saving you time.
OneNote 2010 gets overall improvements including the Ribbon -- there are plenty of interactive sharing and search options available now -- and you can still store all sorts of content: clippings, maps, videos, sounds, URLs, and more. Custom tags allow you to track each sort of information being stored.
Publisher 2010 also gets the Ribbon interface. Backstage view shows templates for flyers, brochures, business cards, calendars, etc. from Office Online, or even templates shared by other users. The new Visual Navigation pane works like PowerPoint's Slides pane and shows thumbnail size representations of all pages in a publication. The new Stylistic Text allows you to add flourishes and other niceties to the font of selected text. There's direct PDF and XPS export available.
Access 2010 acts as a landing path for external data sources. Richer reports and forms can be created with one click, and Access formats better using improved Office Themes support. And you can publish databases online easily using SharePoint integration.

There are more improvements and new features in SharePoint and InfoPath too -- looks like there's so much to look forward too! And Office 2010 will launch with a web apps suite I discussed in an earlier post.

To learn more about Office 2010, and watch some cool videos, visit the new Office 2010 site.

Related Posts:

Microsoft Office Web Apps and Google Docs: The Tale of Curious Comparison

Focus on Microsoft Office 2010 Site

Microsoft Office Web Apps: A New Name

Free Cartoon for the Day from Andertoons

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 11:06:00 +0000

I have worked with Mark Anderson of Andertoons before -- and he provided several free cartoons for the CD of one of my PowerPoint books: Special Edition Using Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007.

Now Mark is providing one of his awesome cartoons absolutely free -- only for today! Participants can use the cartoon in presentations, newsletters, websites, and anything else that could use a good laugh. The free cartoon will be offered for one day only with the only stipulation being that you not resell the image or profit from it.

Andertoons.com is one of the most popular cartoon websites online. Cartoonist Mark Anderson's cartoons have appeared in publications including Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review to name just a few.

Get your free cartoon here...

Focus on Microsoft Office 2010 Site

noreply@blogger.com (Geetesh) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:29:00 +0000

Microsoft's site has an updated Office 2010 section that provides plenty of info on what's coming in the next release of the world's most popular suite of office applications (see figure below).

Click on any of the program links on the left, and most of these lead to product videos about what's new and improved for that particular program. In all, there's plenty of content here for you to spend an hour -- happy visiting!