The Blackest mark BlackBerry went down and with it went the hopes and dreams of the company. People across the world lost access to mails, BlackBerry Messenger and confidence in the company. The effect was brutal and the handling of the situation was terrible. This was just one in a long string of problems for the company. From lower phone sales, disappointing OS upgrades and the failure of the PlayBook Tablet, the dark black clouds became thicker over RIM.
Effect: BBX (the new OS) is coming but it may not be enough. Many predict that BlackBerry will eventually have to move to Android with BlackBerry push mail and Messenger intact.
Light my Fire In a one horse race, it’s easy to lose sight of the winning line. But the iPad has been Tunnel Vision in its focus. So focused that it dominated the entire market. iPad-killer after iPad-killer came and went. Till the Amazon Kindle Fire. It’s priced beautifully; it has content and an ecosystem in place and it has Amazon’s magic touch behind it. It also had a large market share within days.
Effect: Amazon, Samsung, Asus and Apple: it’s a four-pronged race now with each throwing in a giant compelling reason to buy their product. 2012 may bring Apple down to about 50 per cent, which in itself is also amazing.
It’s big, it’s there, it’s not, yes it is... no it’s gone! The best OS, the biggest hardware manufacturer, the buzz as big as Apple and a product that looked like a million bucks. The HP TouchPad came, made news and was killed – all in the blink of an eye. Some truly disastrous seat-of-the-pants decisions (a fire sale of the product and conflicting announcements) of the top HP brass led to the CEO getting the boot along with the TouchPad as well.
Effect: It could have been a five horse race but it’s not. HP could have taken Web OS to the top, but it won’t! HP, HP, HP – what have you done?
The World’s biggest and struggling The world’s biggest mobile phone manufacturer gets into bed with the world’s biggest software manufacturer.
At stake: literally the future of both companies. Nokia and Microsoft join hands to come out with the Lumia series. The devices are good, the marketing is top notch and the money being spent is astronomical. Now the future of both lies in your hands.
Effect: If the predictions are true, ‘Micro-kia’ will be number 3 in 2012. If this doesn’t work out, well, it’s Game Over for both.
Tabletting the impossible A Tablet that will cost a student just Rs1,000. The $35 Akash Tablet is the most controversial Tablet in the world. A wonder of out-sourcing, ingenuity, hard-nosed pricing and hype, the first Akash works but is underwhelming. It’s a great idea let down by some poor choices on hardware.
Effect: We are the only nation in the world to dream it and do it. By the time the much-improved Akash 2 hits the market (March 2012?), we may be the only country supplying Tablets to every nation in the world.
The Big G Google dominated world headlines for all things good and bad. Google+ was the only competition to Facebook but seems to be losing momentum. Google bought out Motorola and made all other Android partners nervous. The first big OS threat to Windows was the Chrome OS. But it has petered out to a has-been already.
Effect: Google+ still has a big chance as it is doing most things right. The problem is that there is no real reason to leave Facebook. Motorola-Google will be the most aggressive mobile phone player of 2012. The Chrome OS: can you say dodo?
Microsoft has released all 35 language packs as optional updates via Windows Update for Windows 7 RTM. The following language packs are available for download:
Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Bulgarian, Chinese – Simplified, Chinese – Traditional – Hong Kong, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian Latin, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian. The Windows Blog noted that the “Traditional Chinese – Taiwan” language pack will be released at a later date. (story Link with thanks)
Movie Maker now uses the ribbon UI like Paint in Windows 7 and Office 2007.
Windows Movie Maker 14 is out of beta and officially released. It can be downloaded through Windows Live Essentials Wave 3, Microsoft’s software suite. Many were wondering why Windows 7 was not bundled with applications such as Mail and Messenger that were part of Vista. They are now part of Windows Live Essentials that must be downloaded. Quick Fix Engineering (QFE) patches have also been released for all the Windows Live applications.
I must agree with myself on this that switching to a Mac wasn't the easiest thing to do, I had to learn around new tricks to get my work done and also, for me, the experience was much different to what Windows had to offer, much better and more flexible.
Since the most usual and important task that I perform nearly every 10 minutes or so is taking a screenshot, so with time I managed to learn a couple of techniques to do it through different ways and here I am sharing them all as a future reference to myself and for other Max OS X users.
Command + Shift + 3 Take a screenshot of the screen, and save it as a file on the desktop.
Command + Shift + 4 Take a screenshot of an area and save it as a file on the desktop.
Command + Shift + 4 + Spacebar Take a screenshot of a window and save it as a file on the desktop.
Command + Control + Shift + 3 Take a screenshot of the screen, and save it to the clipboard.
Command + Control + Shift + 4 Take a screenshot of an area and save it to the clipboard.
Command + Control + Shift + 4+ Spacebar Take a screenshot of a window and save it to the clipboard.
Command + Shift + A (in Grab.app) Take a screenshot of an area and save it in a location of your choice.
Command + Shift + W (in Grab.app) Take a screenshot of a window and save it in a location of your choice.
Command + Shift + Z (in Grab.app) Take a screenshot of the screen every 10 seconds, until the timer is canceled.
screencapture This command can be used in Terminal to take screenshots. ””screencapture -iW ~/Desktop/screen.jpg””
if you have more tricks out there to share with us, please post them in the comments. Thanks!
Netbooks have become a hugely popular hardware category. So much so, that netbooks have in some cases started to outsell laptops, considering their low prices, excellent portability and web centric approach.
But these mini machines are a lot different from our usual ultra powered laptops and notebooks. They have different hardware set ups from their laptop congeners and thus have different software needs. Keeping in view their moderately powered processors, these netbooks may not be able to handle the elephant that Vista is, though they can pick the load of his brother that we know as XP. But using an OS that is specifically built for a netbook has its own aura.
We will tell you about these Operating Systems that your netbook will just love to spend its day and night with.
Moblin is short for Mobile Desktop. It’s an open source project which aims to develop software for Mobile Internet Devices or, Netbooks and Nettops. Moblin is the brainchild of the people behind this initiative and Moblin.org. Built on a customized Linux build, it uses a tailor-made Gnome environment. It’s still in development, with V2.0 Beta already in the market. Targeting netbooks, Moblin is specifically designed for Intel Atom processors, that most netbooks are based on. With version 2, Moblin has brought an intuitive and easy to use user interface, built for a better media and social networking experience. It also sports a new graphical shell designed to provide the best experience on netbook devices and the likes. The bar placed on the top of the desktop holds different panels called ‘zones’. Each zone holds applications for different uses. Web surfing is handled by Moblin's self customized browser which is based on Mozilla’s Gecko engine. The media library can be browsed from the top bar from where a user can access music, videos and image gallery.
The connectivity can’t be ignored. With Moblin, you can easily create connections, whether Wifi, 3G, WiMax or a wired one. All of this is handled from the top panel. The home screen, that you see above, shows recent appointments and tasks. It also shows tabs of recently visited websites and messages from social media websites. Last.fm and twitter are supported till now and more should be added as Moblin progresses out of beta. Twitter is also integrated within the panel from where a user can quickly update his status. Moblin can be downloaded from here, although note that it is still in development and may cause some glitches.
Ubuntu Netbook Remix
Ubuntu Netbook Remix is simply a spin-off of the original Ubuntu, customized for Netbooks and similar devices. With Ubuntu at it’s heart, you will get the security, user friendliness and customization options that Ubuntu promises.
Specifically designed for netbooks, the Netbook Remix has an intuitive interface with large icons and buttons, making it easy to ‘tap on’ with fingers when the OS is used with a touchpad friendly monitor. The default install takes up nearly 2GB, clearly disappointing users with 2GB EEE PCs. But considering the netbooks that come these days, with large volume hard drives and SSDs, this won’t be a problem at all. It comes with most of the default Gnome applications. OpenOffice.org, Firefox, Evolution all come bundled and the Gnome Web cam app, Cheese is also packed which works out of the box. The current version is 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope. corresponding to the desktop release. It’s just another Ubuntu release (tuned up a bit though) and you should expect it to work like one. The Ubuntu Netbook Remix supports many popular netbook models like Asus Aspire One, Asus EEE 1000, 1000H, 900a & 901, Dell Mini 9 & 10v and a lot more.
For those of you who have been keeping up with the news and announcements related to Crunchpad, the Tablet PC by TechCrunch, well all we can say for now is that it is real and its coming this November. So what features will the Crunchpad boast of?
For one, its a Tablet PC with a 12-inch screen and will mainly be used for browsing the web and doing web-related tasks. All apps on the Crunchpad will be web-based and we are still unsure if it possesses any media capabilities such as watching movies or listening to music.
It will feature a custom web-kit browser which shall be running over a custom Linux OS. There will be Wi-Fi and 3G access and also one USB port to handle/transfer data to a thumb drive.
Apart from this, there is nothing that the Crunchpad can do so we hardly believe that it will be any match for the supposed Apple Tablet that is to come in September this year. The Crunchpad will be probably priced around $400. Michael Arrington from TechCrunch will be officially introducing the device at an event somewhere in August. (with Thanks)
Microsoft announced the release of Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 Beta, along with news that it will feature Windows 7 support. The update will include several new features that take advantage of features in Windows 7:
Full Image-based Backups of Windows 7 PCs. After the Windows Home Server Connector is installed on your Windows 7 PCs, Action Center should no longer display that your files are not being backed up.
Windows 7 Libraries Support. Music, Photos and Videos shared folders from your Windows Home Server will be added to Windows 7 Libraries. Content saved to these shared folders will be able to be quickly accessed through your Windows 7 Libraries. And any application, like Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center, will be able to access content saved on your Windows Home Server through Libraries as well.
Windows Search 4 is now included. With Windows Search 4, PP3 offers improved query search times, indexing times and reliability. Easy search through a Library in Windows 7 with files stored in multiple locations.
Windows Media Center Enhancements. Archive old recorded TV shows onto your Windows Home Server in a variety of formats. Use Console Quick View to see statistics about your Windows Home Server through Windows Media Center.
Full Image-based Backups of Windows 7 PCs. After the Windows Home Server Connector is installed on your Windows 7 PCs, Action Center should no longer display that your files are not being backed up.
Windows 7 Libraries Support. Music, Photos and Videos shared folders from your Windows Home Server will be added to Windows 7 Libraries. Content saved to these shared folders will be able to be quickly accessed through your Windows 7 Libraries. And any application, like Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center, will be able to access content saved on your Windows Home Server through Libraries as well.
Windows Search 4 is now included. With Windows Search 4, PP3 offers improved query search times, indexing times and reliability. Easy search through a Library in Windows 7 with files stored in multiple locations.
Windows Media Center Enhancements. Archive old recorded TV shows onto your Windows Home Server in a variety of formats. Use Console Quick View to see statistics about your Windows Home Server through Windows Media Center.
There is no set release date for the Power Pack, but Microsoft states that it will be available shortly after the General Availability of Windows 7. If you’re interesting in being involved as a beta tester, you can sign up as a beta participant at Microsoft Connect. Exisiting Windows Home Server customers will receive Power Pack 3 for free via Windows Update.
For more in-depth information regarding the new features in Power Pack 3, head over to the Windows Home Server Team Blog.
SUN VALLEY, Idaho (Reuters) - Google IncChief Executive Eric Schmidt said there may be announcements later this year about netbook PCs running its new Chrome operating system, as the Internet giant makes its deepest push into Microsoft Corp's business.
Schmidt also said on Thursday that while the worst of the economic downturn has passed, there aren't any strong signs of an immediate recovery.
"I think the new normal is now," Schmidt said at a one-hour briefing with reporters, along with Google co-founder Larry Page, at the Allen & Co media and technology conference in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Earlier this week, Google announced it was developing a PC operating system based on its Chrome Web browser, expected in the second half of 2010. The company said computer makers like Hewlett-Packard Co and Acer are working with Google on Chrome devices.
"Everybody we've talked to under nondisclosure is excited about the plan. So hopefully later this year we'll see some announcements," Schmidt said on Thursday.
Schmidt and Page repeatedly steered the conversation away from the rivalry with Microsoft, describing the Chrome OS as a product that would be "additive" to the PC market.
"I don't want to talk about Microsoft," Schmidt said, noting later that Google did not have any particular goals for Chrome to take market share in the PC business.
"We actually don't look at market share at all," said Schmidt. (story Link)
Google’s not-so-surprising announcement that it would launch an operating system, the Google Chrome OS, in 2010 was full of heady promises, but painfully lacking in detail. Naturally, I have some questions for Google.
1. Why Do We Need This? Consumers like variety, but stress levels tend to rise when there are too many technology options. I think this is mostly because each platform has its own metaphors. And while some may tell users that this operating system is better than that one, most users are too scared to switch because they don't know if they can learn to use a new OS. Google, however, is applying the same thinking it used when the search giant launched the Chrome Web browser: We can do it better. They did build a super-fast Web interface, but Chrome still lacks many of the basic features we've come to expect from a good browser. Will a Chrome OS have similar gaping holes?
2. Hardware Support? Google's blog post on the new Chrome OS seems to gloss over hardware support. "[Users] don't want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware." In other words, the Chrome OS should work seamlessly with all of the peripherals you currently use. But why is that? The OS is being built on a Linux kernel, which means that while driver support is decent, it's not foolproof. Will Google work with OEMs to have a rich set of drivers available within the OS? Will you have to download all the drivers you need for your existing hardware? How will they ease the process of installation?
3. Linux? Really? I know I've said this before, but why do people keep going back to Linux as the best alternative to Windows? There are excellent Linux distros out there, such as Ubuntu, but none of them are quite as easy to use as Windows or the Mac OS. More importantly, two years of Vista did not create a new user bonanza for the Linux platform. It didn't even do all that much for the Mac OS. Instead, Windows users suffered but stayed put. Now many feel like they're about to be rewarded for their patience with Windows 7. Look at it this way: When gas prices soared to record highs, people did drive less and they even traded in their Hummers for Hyundais. What they didn't do is rush to hybrid vehicles. I know there are more of them on the road than ever before, but they are far outnumbered by traditional gas-guzzlers. Face it, the tried and trusted (Windows) seems to stick around even when better alternatives are available.
4. What About Android? Android is a decent little mobile operating system, and it may even do a good job of powering a new generation of netbooks—I'm still waiting to see the first one—but it hasn't exactly taken its primary market by storm. In fact, it's taken almost a year for the second Android-based phone to arrive. I don't know what caused the holdup. Perhaps it's the same problem that Linux has: consumers have found the mobile platforms they really prefer and aren't interviewing any others.
5. Which OEMs? Most major PC manufacturers have offered Linux boxes at one time or another, but they don't push them. There are no ad campaigns out there, and they're typically not featured on, say, Dell's homepage. Google certainly has the clout to get into the offices of Acer, Dell, and HP, but how receptive are these companies to Google's platform overtures? Like the rest of us, they've suffered through a bad 2008 and a dismal 2009. Would they really want to risk precious marketing dollars on an untested platform? All are gearing up for Microsoft's Windows 7 push (which kicks off in earnest on October 22). It's the closest thing these manufacturers have to a sure thing. The Chrome OS has risk written all over it.
6. Can We Trust Open Source? The open source community is brilliant at building out new OS features, but it also tends to fracture. Does anyone know how many different Linux distributions exist? Can Google depend on the open source community to put the interests of the lowest common denominator first?
7. Will the OS Be in Beta? Okay, I'm asking this one somewhat facetiously. Google officially grew up this week when it pulled most of its major apps and services out of Beta. I'd say it's no coincidence that it did this right before the Google Chrome OS announcement. The ever-present "beta" tag on many of the company's products made it seem somewhat less than serious about software. The company can't afford that perception now.
8. Is Chrome Chrome? One thing that isn't clear is whether the Chrome OS desktop is actually going to be a brand new interface, with new code, or if the whole thing is simply a rejiggering of the Chrome Web browser with a Linux kernel underneath. Google's blog post makes it sound more like the latter. That could be kind of cool; you get things like tear off tabs and an incredibly lean, speedy interface. On the other hand, how does it handle tasks and applications, navigation, file storage, networking? Does that all get passed off to the Linux platform?
Only 15% of the beta users kept the default theme. 77% of the beta users created a custom theme by changing one or more elements of the inbox themes.
This means that the majority of people want to customize their computers to suite them… (Nothing new!)
This guide shows some ways to customize Windows 7 using the Windows Registry Editor by modifying settings that can’t be changed from the “Personalization” window. Since these tweaks modify the Windows Registry, it is advisable to perform a backup of your registry using ERUNT (or any other means you use).
To open the Windows Registry Editor:
Click on the Start
Type “regedit” in the search bar
Choose “Yes” if a “User Account Controlâ” message appears
To go to a specific key in the windows registry:
Click on the arrow sign next to the key’s name to expand it.
For example if you want to open “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software”: Click on the arrow next to “HKEY_CURRENT_USER” then click on “Software”
To create a new value:
Right-click anywhere on the right side in the Registry Editor
Choose “New”
Click on the type of value that you want to insert
To modify a value:
Right-click the value
Choose “Modify…”
The following tables contain information about the values that need to be added/modified to apply the tweaks:
Windows 7 Task Switcher
The task switcher allows users to switch between open windows using the keyboard shortcut: ALT+Tab
Cool Switch (32-bit)
Go to : HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Value
Type
What it does affects
Data
CoolSwitchColumns
String
Sets the number of columns of the cool switch
NUMBER Default= 7
CoolSwitchRows
String
Sets the maximum number of rows in the cool switch
NUMBER
Default = 3
Windows 7 Desktop Slideshow (64-bit)
The desktop slideshow automatically changes the wallpaper after a set time interval. The user selects the images he/she wants to use in the slide show, the time interval and whether or not to shuffle their order. All this can be modified through the “Desktop Background” window, however the following can’t:
AnimationDuration – In 64-bit versions of Windows 7, there is a ‘fade’ animation that occurs as a transition between the images. This animation takes about 1 second.
Go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Personalization\Desktop Slideshow
Value
Type
What it does affects
Data
AnimationDuration
DWORD (32-bit)
Sets the time taken by the animation in milliseconds
NUMBERRemember: 1000 gives 1 second
There’s another DWORD (32-bit) value called “Interval” that sets the time at which the images change, however it seems to only work when data entered is the same as those available in the “Personalization” window. If a value given is “1000″ for example, which means the desktop background has to change every second (crazy! I know), it still takes 10s to change. I think this is deliberately done by Microsoft, because if people were able to set the time interval to a very short period of time (below 10 seconds), it would overload the computer’s memory. (full Story)
Polish news site CentrumXP posted several Windows 7 box shots on their website. It is not clear yet if these are official box shots or simply photoshopped to look like the real deal. Anyway, you can check them out by following the link above or by taking a look at the images below. They look like they could be legit. Let us hear your opinion in the comments.
Already talk about Windows 7 has moved forward to Windows 8, as Microsoft last month began hiring for posts within that division. With this in mind I thought that, from a usability standpoint, I’d take a good in-depth look at Windows 7 and see what changes could have been implemented already and what we can perhaps look forward to in the future.
I want to start with Windows Explorer because this is essentially the same beast that we saw in Windows 98. Okay, so Microsoft overhauled the main interface with Vista by introducing the breadcrumb bar, but if you open an explorer window today in a basic installation of Windows 7, you’ll be very used to what you’ve seen for over ten years.
Why is this a bad thing? If we take a trip back to the good old-fashioned 20th century then we’ll see a time before the mass adoption of MP3 players, portable video players and digital cameras. The files we stored on our PCs were sparse and usually consisted only of office type documents and PDFs.
Now of course things are very different and we all have a plethora of diverse files on our PCs. For some reason however, and even though you can change the settings, the default explorer view is of mixed file types all sorted alphabetically. The option to change this to, for instance, my personal choice of grouped by file type, isn’t the easiest feature to find.
There are other omissions in the Windows 7 version of explorer too including the fact that we’re still seeing drive letters by default and compressed drives highlighted in blue when we really don’t need to any more.
Don’t get me wrong at this stage. I love Windows 7 and want it to be the best product it can be. It’s just a shame though that while Microsoft overhaul great chunks of the user interface they’re missing certain small usability issues that go along-side these. I’ll write more about this in coming chapters. (story Link)
Today’s the big day. Windows 7 RC will finally be publicly released by Microsoft. Remember, Microsoft has said that it will provide an unlimited number of downloads this time, but they will only be providing it until June 30th. Beta keys will still work with the RC and you can download the RC from microsoft here.
But before you download and install Windows 7 RC, here are 12 very important things you should know beforehand:
12. You’re probably not going to get it on May 5th
As we saw with the public release of Windows 7 Beta, Microsoft’s servers crumbled from the traffic generated to their site. The same happened with the Technet/MSDN subscriber-only release of the RC. They even sent an email out with this phrase bolded:
So you don’t need rush to make sure you get your copy. When you’re ready to download the RC, it’ll be waiting for you.
Still think Microsoft is going to try their best to keep their servers up tomorrow? If you’re fast enough, you might be able to access the download. If not, luckily you have some alternatives:
Wait a day or two until the server errors are over. You have until June 30th to download the RC.
Download the image from P2P networks. Make sure your image contains the right hashes before installing.
11. What the changes are:
Everyone always asks what the changes are. Microsoft has listed 64 changes from the Beta RC here, here, and here. If you want the short version, here’s a quick list of the most significant changes:
Improved Taskbar: Can now fit 24-39% more icons depending on your resolution, opened apps stand out more, smaller jumplists, and items that need your attention now blink faster.
UAC vulnerability fix: Every time the level of UAC is changed, you will be prompted for confirmation.
Stream your music library over the Internet in Windows Media Player: This feature would be great if easier to use. To access it, go to Library in WMP and click on Stream in the breadcrumb. It is a lengthy process but the instructions given should get you where you want.
Turn Windows features on or off: Yes you can finally “uninstall” IE8 or other “unnecessary” Windows features. Read about it here
Improved Driver Support: Didn’t download the beta because of all those hardware incompatibility stories you’ve heard? It’s still not perfect in the RC but a lot has improved since the Beta. It’s worth a try.
Insane wallpapers, new themes and sound schemes: If you love customization, Windows 7 RC will satisfy your tastes. There are a lot more goodies added for you to customize to your liking in the RC.
10. You DON’T have to burn a DVD or create a bootable flash disk to install Windows 7
Most users won’t have to burn a single DVD to install Windows 7 RC. You’d have to burn a DVD if you want to install a 64-bit edition of Windows 7 and you’re running a 32-bit edition of Windows or vice versa
Since Windows Vista, you can now install Windows even after already booting up into your OS. After you have downloaded the .iso image file, instead of burning it, simply download an archiver program such as WinRAR, extract the contents to a folder, and run Setup. And yes, you can install Windows 7 on the same volume as your existing OS.
Bonus Tip: If you want to install now and backup later, choose Custom Installation instead of Upgrade Installation during the setup wizard. Windows will store all the contents of your C Drive in a folder named Windows.old once Windows 7 is installed.
9. Upgrade installs from the Beta won’t work
Microsoft has stated that they’d prefer users to either do a clean install or do an upgrade install from Vista to help them evaluate how they can support the most real world scenarios possible. Unless you’re running Windows Vista or Windows 7 Build 7077, you won’t be able to perform an upgrade install. To help with Microsoft’s testing process, I would recommend testers to help MS out on this one and go for a clean install or Vista upgrade.
8. How to do a build-to-build upgrade installation anyway
Microsoft realized not too many users would be happy if they made everything impossible so they have provided a workaround for users to still perform an upgrade installation for Windows 7 Beta. The workaround is very simple. Simply extract the image, browse to the sources folder, and open cversion.ini. Then edit the MinClient value to 7000.
7. How to create a separate partition for your Windows
7 Beta installation:
Running Windows 7 Setup in Windows XP or Vista will not allow you to access the Disk Management options during the setup wizard. Instead, you would have to do this manually.If you plan to resize partitions, I highly advise you to backup your files.
If you are running Windows Vista or 7, open up your Start Menu, type Disk Management and push Enter. Right click any area of Unallocated Space and create a New Simple Volume. From there, complete the wizard to create your new volume. Once created, make sure that it is a Primary Partition. Now you’re all set and good to go with the installation.
If you are running Windows XP or you’re having problems dealing with parititions in Windows Vista, you can download the EASEUS Partition Manager. EPM is only compatible with Windows XP and Vista. The process for creating a new partition with EPM is the exact same as above, except that you must select to create a Primary partition as shown below:
6. You can run Windows 7 under VMWare or Virtual PC instead of doing a full-fledged install
If you just want to briefly check out the RC, you may want to consider the option. However, you won’t be able to fully take advantage of all the features of a full installation such as the Aero Interface. Also keep in mind that Virtual environments are incapable of running hardware intensive apps such as games.
In Layman’s terms, running Windows 7 under a virtual environment is like running an Operating System (OS) inside an OS, so you don’t have to worry about putting your actual computer at risk. You can start by downloading Virtual PC here for free. For further instructions please check out the tutorial here. (The tutorial is for running XP in Vista, but works for Windows 7 too. Just select Windows Vista at the OS Menu. When your mouse is in the Virtual PC area, press Right-Alt to drag your mouse back onto the screen of your current OS.)
5. How to properly burn an ISO to your DVD
If you still want to burn the image onto a DVD, make sure it is done properly. I know a few people that actually just took the ISO file and burned the exact file directly onto the DVD. That’s not the way to do it. The DVD should show the ISO image’s contents (not just one .ISO file) once you have burned it. I recommend using ImgBurn, which is a free and easy tool for burning ISOs.
Your DVD contents should look this after you've burned it
4. Don’t take out those driver CDs yet…
Windows 7 contains updated hardware drivers so chances are you won’t need to install a single driver if your hardware isn’t as old as Zeus. Once you’ve got Windows 7 installed and running, perform a Windows Update and Windows should download the necessary drivers.
If you run into any incompatibility problems, then you may want to install the Vista driver instead. You can find it on the manufacturer’s website. Once you’ve downloaded the driver, if you run into compatibility problems, you may have to run the setup file in Vista compatibility mode for it to work. Consult this guide for more help if needed. (full Story)
Windows XP Mode (XPM) allows you to run your Windows XP apps in a virtual environment alongside your Windows 7 apps in the same desktop. It was designed by Microsoft to ease the transition from XP to Windows 7, particularly for small businesses that are reliant on their legacy apps.
Here is a quick screenshot tour from getting Windows XP Mode ready to publishing apps directly into Windows 7. You can click on screenshots for full size view.
Here are the files that are part of the package. The KB Update must be first installed, since it installs Virtual PC into Windows 7. After a reboot, running the VirtualWindowsXP Package will automatically install XP onto a VHD and run it in Virtual PC
Running the VirtualWindowsXP package will first prompt you to enter a password. You "must" enter a password now to properly enable integration features, or else you'd have to do it manually from Control Panel later on. It'd also be a good idea to check the "Remember Credentials" box because you get prompted very often later on if you don't.
The EULA you probably won't read
After clicking next a few times, just wait 15 minutes and you're all set. The setup is completely automatic.
Clicking Continue will insert a CD image into XP and allow you to install the tools necessary for the integration features.
It will then install a Driver in your Virtual OS and your Host OS. Setup process doesn't take too long
Let’s take a look at how to publish apps over to Windows 7:
First, you have to create a shortcut of the app you want to transfer over
Right Click the Start menu and select Open All users
Once you're in the All Users folder, open Programs, and drag the corresponding shortcut. Wait for a bit (the screen will flicker), and your app is published!
A new folder is now added into the Start menu under Windows Virtual PC with all your Virtual apps stored inside
When you launch your virtual app, you have to shut down the Virtual PC window. However, the Virtual PC process will still run in the background
Initializing virtual environment again. This usually takes 1-2 minutes. Good thing is after you've initialized the environment, opening apps open just as fast as any other app
Who knew we'd live to see IE6 running right beside IE8 in the same desktop.
How safe is your Mac? Maybe not as safe as you think. Here are some quick ways to beef up its security.
One of the commonly touted advantages to using a Mac is that it's more secure and less prone to malware than a PC running Windows. It's easy to see where this attitude comes from: The prevalence of viruses and network attacks against Windows machines is greater by several orders of magnitude.
In fact, a recent Trojan horse hidden in a pirated copy of iWork '09 that circulated on peer-to-peer file-sharing sites was big news because it was the first Macintosh malware to be widely circulated on the Internet (though there have been a handful of proof-of-concept malware iterations over the past few years). But the much lower rate of malware and network attacks isn't proof that the Mac is immune to such things.
Indeed, there has been an ongoing debate over the years as to whether Mac users truly have more-secure machines or simply enjoy "security through obscurity" because they represent a relatively modest fraction of all computer users. While this debate will continue -- and there are valid arguments on both sides -- this article isn't about that debate; it's about a pair of simple questions: "How safe is your Mac?" and "How can you make it safer?"
The truth is that Apple Inc. does provide a pretty safe platform. The company leverages a number of advanced technologies to keep users and their data safe from harm. For a detailed list, see this Apple white paper (download PDF). But no system is perfect, and there are a number of security holes -- many of them easily closed -- that are common on Mac OS X systems. Here are 15 ways to fix the most frequently exploited security risks and protect your Mac.
Note: Unless we specifically say a tip applies only to Leopard, it should work with most recent versions of OS X, though the actual steps involved might vary somewhat.
Disable automatic opening of "safe" downloads in Safari
Probably one of the biggest Mac holes is in Apple's Safari Web browser, which downloads files that you click on or that are embedded in a Web page. That presents a problem because, by default, Safari is designed to open "safe" files as soon as they've been downloaded. Unfortunately, the definition of "safe" includes package-installer and disk image files, which can contain malware. If the malware files are embedded in a Web site, they could be downloaded and opened automatically.
Apple has done a good job of combating the potential damage in Mac OS X Leopard, which automatically detects disk images and applications that have been downloaded from the Internet via Apple's applications (Safari, Mail and iChat). However, to be truly safe, one of the best and easiest things you can do is disable the automatic opening of such files in the Safari preferences.
From the Safari menu in the menu bar, select Preferences, click the General tab, and uncheck "Open 'safe' files after downloading." From now on, you'll need to manually open downloaded files by double-clicking them in your Downloads folder or in Safari's list of downloaded items.
Make sure not to click the "Do not show" option in the warning dialogs that Leopard displays when you open downloaded files; that way, you'll always be warned the first time each downloaded item is opened. (Note: This tagged file feature was introduced in Leopard and doesn't apply to earlier versions of Mac OS X.)
A similar security feature in Leopard is support for code signing, which places a digital signature in application files; your Mac checks them at launch to be sure that they haven't changed and alerts you if they have. Although many third-party applications don't yet support this, it is a powerful feature, and you should pay attention to any such warning. As with the tagging of downloaded files, do not click the "Do not show option" if you do see one of these alerts. (full Story)
When your Mac is no longer the shiny new kid on the block, there's no shortage of ways to extend its useful life. An old Mac can work as a recipe-storage library, for instance, and that antique iBook can be a backup drive.
But when you've run out of ways to reuse or repurpose your old Mac, what's the best way to recycle it? Here are a variety of solutions--from low-effort to time-intensive--that'll keep your conscience and your closet clear.
Don't Throw It Away
California, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Oregon, Texas, and Washington now have laws regulating where and how you can dispose of unwanted electronics. But in most others, it's still legal to throw your computers in the trash. According to a recent --60 Minutes report, an estimated 130,000 computers end up in the garbage annually.
There are all kinds of good reasons not to make yours one of them: lead, mercury, and hexavalent chromium are three of the best. These substances, which are embedded in our computers' assorted parts, are just a few of the toxins that can be released into the environment if an old computer or iPod is just tossed onto a scrap heap and burned. Once in the groundwater or air supply, heavy metals and PCBs released by improperly disposed-of computers linger as cancer-causing compounds.
Erase Your Hard Drive
Before you dispose of an old computer, make sure you wipe it clean of all your data.
The first step is to back up all the data on the device's hard drives. Either copy it to your new machine or pick up an external hard drive and use that as a repository for all the old files. To duplicate the contents of the old drive, use Time Machine. Or if your old system doesn't have OS X 10.5, try Carbon Copy Cloner (payment requested; Macworld rated 4.5 out of 5 mice ).
Now erase your footsteps. Start by deauthorizing iTunes. You don't want to later realize that you have one less machine you can play your old, pre-iTunes Plus music on. Then deauthorize any third-party programs you'll want to reinstall on your new system.
Next, wipe your hard drive. Track down the installation discs that came with your computer (or use the ones that came with any OS X upgrade you purchased). Insert Disc 1 (CD) or the installer disc (DVD), launch Installer, and reboot the machine using the software on the disc. Go to the Installer menu, choose Open Disk Utility, select the hard-drive icon in the column on the left, click on the Erase tab, and then click on Options. The 8 Way Random Write Format will scramble your data nicely. (story Link)
1. Should I buy a Mac-Intel PC now or wait until the new systems running the new OS X 10.5 (code named Leopard) arrive? There's no particular need to wait because Tiger will work just fine. If you decide you want Leopard later on you have to buy.
2. Can I run Windows and Mac OS simultaneously toggling between the two? The short answer is no. Boot Camp, Apple's downloadable application (in beta now but expected to come standard with Leopard), lets you switch between OSs but you have to reboot with each switch. You can run both OSs simultaneously with a utility, like Parallels Workstation.
3. Can I play my favorite Windows games, like Doom3, on a Mac? What other games can I play? You'll be happy to hear that you can play your favorite Windows games on the new Mac-Intel systems, even against other Windows users. Keep in mind though that the 3D performance is directly affected by which graphics GPU you're using. And in a Mac-Intel, the highest end graphics card is the mid-range ATI Mobility Radeon X1600, which isn't as fast as the nVidia GeForce Go 7900GTX graphics system now available in systems like our Editor's Choice, Dell XPS M1710.
4. At home, I have two Windows PCs networked via WiFi. How difficult will it be to add the Mac-Intel into the mix? Will I be able to share files between my Windows PCs and my Mac-Intel whether it's running Windows OS or Mac OS? Setting up your new Mac-Intel machine onto your PC network is easy. The Mac OS includes built-in support for Windows Sharing, which allows Macs to access files on your other Windows PCs. However, you need to enable this file-sharing option in OS X yourself since it's not a default factory setting. Enable File Sharing in Windows XP to view your Mac files.
Third party solutions are also available, like DAVE by Thursby software, which makes identifying Microsoft networks and sharing hard drives even easier in OS X.
5. Can I still use my old printer/scanner/wireless router or do I need to invest in a device? First, check the Apple site or your peripheral manufacturer's site and see if they have Macintosh support and download the software for that specific model. Your wireless router will work with both Macs and Windows PCs without any additional software installations.
6. I do a great deal of work in Photoshop, and heard it runs slower on a Mac-Intel computer. Is this true? Right now, yes that is true. The Universal Binary version of Adobe Photoshop CS2 is expected to address this disparity but will not be available until sometime in 2007. If you work primarily with OS X and rely heavily on Photoshop, you will notice a slow down. In that case, it might make more sense for you to wait until the next revision comes out. For a list of all the universal binary applications, check out (http://guide.apple.com/universal/).
7. Will I be able to see my IE bookmarks in both Mac OS and Windows OS? Bookmarks are not synchronized between the Mac OS and Windows OS. You will have to import your bookmarks into the Mac OS and update them accordingly.
8. Does it slow the computer down to have both OS's open? Technically, you cannot have both OS's open simultaneously. You can use Virtualization software like Parallels which is a PC emulator program that runs within OS X. Doing this though will place extra strain on your Mac's resources.
9. Is the Mac surround sound interface compatible with consumer electronic devices such as home theater receivers? I have a nice 5.1 living room speaker set up already. The included optical out port on the iMac, Mac mini, and MacBook Pro gives you surround sound capability and easily connects to home theater stereos provided you have an Optical Mini Jack To TosLink Cable.
10. Can I boot Mac OS X on a PC? No. Mac OS X is not available for Windows-based PCs. (story Link)
Windows 7 has come a long way since the Beta 1 bits that were released back in January. Let’s take a look at the latest build to escape into the wild.
The build I’m looking at here is 7048 and this has the build number of 7048.0.090219-1845, and what’s significant here is the build date stamp, 090219-1845, which translates into 19th Feb 2009, 6:45pm. Compare this to the Beta 1 which has a build date from Dec 2008.
Well, first off you’ll notice from the screen captures than the Send feedbacklink on the title bar of the applications is now gone. This is normal as the code heads towards release candidate stage.
We also have a new raft of icons. Sure, these are cosmetic tweaks, but they do help the look and feel of the OS.
Over the past few days it also emerged that it’s possible to remove IE8 from Windows 7.
Here’s an image showing the entire tree of the Turn Windows features on or off screen expanded (warning, image is quite large).
There’s also a revamped Remote Desktop Application, although there’s no difference in how the application works.
The OS also benefits from many other cosmetic tweaks.
Is this the Release Candidate build? No, it’s not, and the way you can tell is because the UAC flaw discovered soon after Beta was released is still present in this build.
My guess is that the RC build will be finalized second or third week this month, and will be released to the public early April. (story Link)
Microsoft will continue to offer Windows XP for netbooks even after it starts selling Windows 7 for the inexpensive subnotebooks, a company executive has revealed.
Neil Holloway, Microsoft International's vice president of business strategy, told ZDNet UK on Thursday that the company expected Windows 7 to be more popular than XP. However, Microsoft will ultimately decide which operating system it will offer for netbooks depending on customer preference, he said.
"Let's see what the market does," Holloway said at Microsoft's Growth and Innovation Day in Brussels. "As we introduce Windows 7 for netbooks, the availability of XP will be less and less. I think, on this one, the market will decide on Windows 7."
The unanticipated success of the netbook market over the past year-and-a-half has forced Microsoft to repeatedly postpone the retirement of Windows XP, mainly because its newer Vista operating system was too processor-hungry to run on the devices.
Holloway's comments suggest that Microsoft will delay the demise of XP even longer. That will effectively bring the ageing operating system into competition with the upcoming Windows 7 Starter Edition, which is aimed explicitly at netbooks and is expected to arrive around the end of 2009 or beginning of 2010.
Although Windows 7 is built on the same underlying architecture as Windows Vista, Microsoft has repeatedly stated that the upcoming operating system is more lightweight than Vista and therefore more suited to netbook use.
Last month, Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer said people who buy a netbook with the Starter Edition of Windows 7 will be offered the opportunity to trade up to a more fully featured version of that operating system. Holloway confirmed that this would happen.
"You could have a low-end [Windows 7] netbook or a high-end netbook," Holloway said. "The question is, do you have reduced Windows 7, or the next level up, with more functionality?"
Holloway compared it to the situation with Vista: people will be able to select the version of Windows 7 that suits them, in the same way they can choose the Home Basic edition of Vista rather than the Ultimate edition, depending on their computing need. He added, however, that the offer of a choice of versions of Windows 7 will depend on the outcome of Microsoft's licensing negotiations with netbook manufacturers. (story Link)
Microsoft on Thursday released a lengthy list of 36 improvements it plans to make to the release candidate (RC) for Windows 7, though the company did not provide any details on when that RC might actually be available.
The Windows team separated the updates into nine categories, including the desktop experience, touch, and Windows Media Player.
"There are many under the hood changes (bug fixes, compatibility fixes, performance improvements, and improvements) across the entire dev team that we just don't have room to discuss here, but we thought you'd enjoy a taste of some changes made by three of our feature teams: Core User Experience, Find & Organize and Devices & Media," Chaitanya Sareen, a Microsoft program manager, wrote in a blog post.
What is on tap for the release candidate?
Desktop Experience
Desktop tweaks received the most attention, with 10 expected changes.
Microsoft has incorporated its "Aero Peek" window transparency tool to the ALT+TAB function to give you a better idea of the items you have open on your desktop.
"One can still quickly flip between and cycle through running windows using the ALT+TAB keys, but when more window information is needed Aero Peek will appear," Sareen wrote. "This is triggered by a time delay as you pause while keyboarding through running windows."
The team has also combined the launch and switch function of the Windows Logo button.
With Vista, you can press the Windows Logo button plus a number that corresponds with applications on your taskbar and that application will launch. Now, pressing those buttons will also enable you to switch between programs. (story Link)
