Tech News for Small Businesses and Computer Repair
Apple iPad first hands-on!
January 27th, 2010
http://www.apple.com/ipad/
Here it is folks, the Apple iPad. The screen is gorgeous, tilting is responsive, and the thing is super thin. Still, if you’ve used the iPhone before — and you can see the two devices side-by-side here — there’s not a lot of surprises here so far. Here are some initial thoughts on the iPad:
It’s not light. It feels pretty weighty in your hand.
The screen is stunning, and it’s 1024 x 768. Feels just like a huge iPhone in your hands.
The speed of the CPU is something to be marveled at. It is blazingly fast from what we can tell. Webpages loaded up super fast, and scrolling was without a hiccup. Moving into and out of apps was a breeze. Everything flew.
There’s no multitasking at all. It’s a real disappointment. All this power and very little you can do with it at once. No multitasking means no streaming Pandora when you’re working in Pages… you can figure it out. It’s a real setback for this device.
The ebook implementation is about as close as you can get to reading without a stack of bound paper in your hand. The visual stuff really helps flesh out the experience. It may be just for show, but it counts here.
No camera. None, nada. Zip. No video conferencing here folks. Hell, it doesn’t have an SMS app!
It’s running iPhone OS 3.2.
The keyboard is good, not great. Not quite as responsive as it looked in the demos.
No Flash confirmed. So Hulu is out for you, folks!
http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/27/apple-ipad-first-hands-on/
Google Voice with your existing number
October 27th, 2009
Google Voice is all about enabling choice: which phone you pick up your calls on, where to review your voicemail messages, how to send and reply to text messages, etc. So when it comes to your phone number, it was logical for us to also offer a choice of which number to use with Google Voice.
Previously, when you created a Google Voice account, we asked you to select a new Google phone number. This allowed us to offer features like call forwarding, screening, and recording. But we know not everyone wants to start using a new phone number, so we’ve been working on another option for people who are willing to trade some features for the ability to keep their existing number.
We’re excited to announce that you now can get Google Voice with a Google number OR with your existing mobile phone number. If you choose to use Google Voice with your existing number, you won’t get some features (like call screening and recording), but you’ll still get many others —
including Google voicemail:
More specifically, if you sign up for Google Voice with your existing number, you’ll get:
Online, searchable voicemail
Free automated voicemail transcription
Custom voicemail greetings for different callers
Email and SMS notifications
Low-priced international calling
If you decide to also get a new Google number, you’ll get all of the above PLUS:
One number that reaches you on all your phones
SMS via email
Call screening
Listen In
Call recording
Conference calling
Call blocking
If you already have a Google number, this new feature should also help with the transition to your new number, as you can now forward unanswered calls to your mobile phone to your Google Voice account. This way, people who still call your old number will reach the same voicemail as people who call your Google Voice number.
If you already use Google Voice, you can add Google voicemail to any mobile phone you’ve linked to your account. If you’re not using Google Voice yet, you can request an invitation or ask someone with a Google Voice account to invite you. When you receive the invitation to sign-up, you decide whether you’d like to use Google Voice with your existing number or get a Google number.
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Windows 7 is here
October 22nd, 2009
Windows 7 is now for sale around the world. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is officially kicking off the Windows 7 launch at an event in New York City. Microsoft’s partners will be unveiling new hardware and OEMs are now no longer recommending Vista to consumers and are switching their default choice to Windows 7.
we know you want it for less than retail. The solution, as with previous Windows releases, is buying an OEM version of the OS. OEM copies of Windows are cheaper, mainly because they’re intended for system builders who install them on new custom PCs.
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iPhone & iPod touch firmware 3.1.2 released
October 8th, 2009
Apple has silently released a firmware update for the iPhone, 3G and 3GS. The updated firmware, version 3.1.2, is available now on iTunes 9.0 for download and includes bug fixes, ratherthan the usual security updates and feature additions. The small change log for updated firmware includes the following fixes:
The update will fix some issues with cellular network problems that consumers have reported in the past, but some further issues with AT&T’s network may still persist. An updated firmware for the iPod touch is also available from iTunes.
The iPhone firmware 3.1 brings a lot of new features to the iPhone, despite only being released one month ago, on September 9. The new Genius features added last month to firmware 3.1 included new APIs for developers, Genius mixes and recommendations, security and performance improvements over firmware 3.0 and many more fixes.
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iPhone 3.1: Unresponsive , iPhone coma?
October 6th, 2009
iPhone coma. Two words you never want to see in the same sentence! Yesterday I went to pick up my phone, and it wouldn’t unlock. Weird. I figured maybe the battery had died. That’s a common problem with the 3.1 iPhone software update. After 15 minutes I still had no response. What is even stranger? I went ahead and called it. My iPhone never rang, yet the call didn’t go to voicemail until the fifth ring.
In my particular situation of a locked phone that refuses to wake up or ring is but one of the many manifestations of this bug. Depending on when the iPhone becomes comatose, the screen may be on or it may be off. If the screen is on, the display may continue to update (i.e. the time changes) but the phone can’t receive incoming calls, nor do the physical controls or the touch screen actually respond to user input. If the phone is in locked mode (i.e. screen is off) then a comatose phone will show itself as being unable to be woken up by clicking the physical controls. In other words, it will have a black screen.
Dont go to the Apple Store?
to resolve the problem is to force a hard reboot by holding down the top and home button down for 10 seconds until you see the chrome Apple. This does not erase the data and the iPhone will reboot and be able to receive calls after a couple minutes. Removing the SIM card or restoring the iPhone from backup has no effect. Unfortunately, Apple does not provide any supported way to revert the phone to the coma-free 3.0.1 software, so unfortunately, iPhone users stuck with narcoleptic iPhones will need to wait for the next bug fix from Apple.
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New AVG: Version 9 faster, 2-year free subscription
October 5th, 2009
AVG is making some bold claims for these updates. The company is touting scan times that are “up to 50 percent” faster, based on marking files safe until their file structure changes,and boot times that are “10 to 15 percent” faster. Memory usage is also expected to be “10 to 15 percent” better, as well. The built-in firewall, available only in the Internet Security version, uses a new database for automatically determining if certain programs are safe to access the Internet without user input. This trusted database, called TrustedDB by AVG, should be less intrusive by querying for user input 50 percent less often than in the previous version, says AVG. Also, the installation process has been shortened from 22 screens to 11.
In hands-on testing last week, I found AVG to be relatively easy to navigate around, although the interface could be simpler.
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Microsoft releases Security Essentials today
September 29th, 2009
Microsoft releases Security Essentials
remove all unwanted or potentially harmful items that Microsoft Security Essentials detects quickly and easily, use the Clean computer option.
Download: Windows XP (32 bit)
Download: Windows Vista & Windows 7 (32 bit)
Download: Windows Vista & Windows 7 (64 bit)
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Another Gmail Outage - 09-24-09
September 24th, 2009
Gmail suffered another service hiccup Thursday morning, when the company said “a small subset of users” were unable to access Google Mail.
This was Google’s second outage this month. On Sept. 1, Google said Gmail went down for about an hour and 45 minutes, during which time users could check email through third-party applications that used POP or IMAP, such as Microsoft Outlook, and access old messages via Gmail offline.
After that outage, Google Vice President Ben Traynor apologized in a blog post, writing “today’s outage was a Big Deal, and we’re treating it as such.” He said Google’s servers became overloaded during a routine upgrade and that Google was working to prevent future outages.
http://www.google.com/appsstatus#rm=1&di=1&hl=en
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| 9:35 AM |
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We are continuing to investigate this issue. We will provide an update by September 24, 2009 10:30:00 AM UTC-7 detailing when we expect to resolve the problem.
The Gmail issue should now be resolved for many of our users. Contacts and chat are still not working. For Gmail users, you can use www.google.com/contacts to access your contacts. Google Apps customers can use www.google.com/contacts/a/yourdomain-name.com - Gmail Now Working !!!
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Push Gmail for iPhone
September 23rd, 2009
Google on Tuesday added Gmail support to Google Sync for the iPhone, iPod touch, and Windows Mobile devices.
Google Sync, which launched in February, allows you to sync your Google Contacts and Google Calendar information over the air, using the iPhone’s built-in apps.
However, “an over-the-air, always-on connection to sync mail was noticeably absent,” Marcus Foster, a product manager for Google Mobile, wrote in a blog post. “We heard your requests loud and clear.”
Sync will allow you to pick-and-choose which apps you sync – just Gmail or only Calendar and Gmail, for example.
“Having an over-the-air, always-on connection means that your inbox is up to date, no matter where you are or what you’re doing,” Douglas Gresham, a software engineer with Google Mobile, wrote in a separate blog post.
To enable Sync, go to m.google.com/sync from your computer. Those who already have Sync can just enable push mail. Those with the iPhone will need iPhone OS version 3.0 or above.
“Once you’re set up, new messages are normally pushed to your phone within seconds,” Foster wrote, but he warned about the potential stress on battery life.
“While this type of speed is pretty awesome, push connections tend to use more power than fetching at intervals, so don’t be surprised if your battery life isn’t quite what it used to be,” he said. “We’ve done a lot of work to optimize power usage, but if you prefer to save battery life, you can always turn off push in your phone’s settings and fetch mail every 30 or 60 minutes instead.”
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Google Apps for local government
September 17th, 2009
Everyone benefits from cloud computing, though few stand to benefit more than government.The cloud helps agencies at all levels increase productivity, cut costs, keep pace with technology innovation, and become more open and transparent with their citizens.
That’s why we were pleased to join other industry leaders today at NASA’s Ames Research Center to hear Vivek Kundra, the CIO of the US Federal Government, announce the launch of Apps.gov. Apps.gov is an online storefront that makes it easy for federal agencies to browse and purchase cloud-based IT services from a variety of service providers, including Google. The cloud is coming of age, and we applaud the Obama Administration’s efforts to ensure our government realizes its many advantages.
We also want to do our part to make it easier for government to transition to cloud computing. We recognize that government agencies have unique regulatory and compliance requirements for IT systems, and cloud computing is no exception. So we’ve invested a lot of time in understanding government’s needs and how they relate to cloud computing. To help meet those requirements we’re taking two important steps:
- FISMA certification for Google Apps. In July, we announced our intent to secure certification for Google Apps to demonstrate compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), the law defining security requirements that must be met by all US Federal government information systems. Our FISMA process is nearing completion. We will submit a Certification and Accreditation (C&A) package to the U.S. Government before the end of this year. Upon review and approval of the Google Apps C&A package, agencies will be able to deploy Google Apps knowing that it is authorized to operate under FISMA.
- Dedicated Google cloud for government customers in the US. Today, we’re excited to announce our intent to create a government cloud, which we expect to become operational in 2010. Offering the same services and features as our existing commercial cloud (such as Google Apps), this dedicated environment within existing Google facilities in the US will serve the unique needs of US federal, state, and local governments. It is similar to a “Community Cloud” as defined by the National Institute for Science and Technology. The government cloud will allow Google to manage and meet additional government policy requirements beyond FISMA.
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