256GB USB Flash Drive from Kingston

Kingston has introduced new DataTraveler 310 USB Flash Drive with a massive 256GB capacity. This device is better than the 256GB DataTraveler 300, thanks to DataTraveler 310's faster data transfer speeds. This USB Flash Drive is available in India for Rs. 48,380 and is backed by a warranty of five years.
New Kingston DataTraveler 310 can hold up to 54 DVD worth data in its 256GB capacity. It offers read speeds of 25MB/s and write speeds of 12MB/s. While the DT 300 offered read speeds of 20MB/s and write speeds of 10MB/s. Kingston DataTraveler 310's dimensions are - 2.90-inch x 0.87-inch x 0.63-inch (73.70mm x 22.20mm x 16.10mm). This Flash Drive also features Password Traveler software. Using that software, consumers can create and access a password-protected privacy zone.
DataTraveler 310 is compatible with Windows, Mac OS X 10.3 or higher and OSes with Linux Kernel 2.6.1 or above. However, the Password Traveler software works only in Windows platform (Windows 7/Vista/XP/2000).

As mentioned earlier, this new DT 310 also supports Windows ReadyBoost feature. Windows Vista and Windows 7 Essential make use of Flash memory based mass storage system as drive for disk cache and thus can be used as additional memory.
This pricey USB Flash Drive is meant for those who're always on the move and need to take large, critical data on a tiny device. It's a miniature alternative to portable HDD drive in terms of size. (story Link)

Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview

Microsoft today released a "technical preview" release of Microsoft Office 2010, the next version of the world's most widely used application suite. The beta is available to anyone who preregistered with Microsoft for a chance to download and test it. After running it for a few days of intense testing, I'm impatient for the final release.

As far as I can tell, this should be the smoothest upgrade for Office in many years. If you're used to Office 2007, you'll need no help using Office 2010. Old features remain where they were, although some are now displayed on spacious menus with lots of explanatory text instead of the cramped menus of 2007. In fact, the new features are slotted in so smoothly that it may take you a few moments to realize that they're new.

You'll see major changes in the new version if your company also updates to SharePoint Server 2010. Office 2010 is packed with features that let SharePoint users edit and manage each other's files either through an internal connection to a SharePoint server or remotely through a Web browser or smartphone. Microsoft's obvious goal is to persuade corporations to pay for Microsoft's collaboration tools instead of using those from Google or any other cloud-based service. Microsoft's look technically dazzling, but it's an open question whether Microsoft can convince companies to lock themselves into a high-priced proprietary offering in a time of economic uncertainty.

One other innovation is that Office 2010 will be the first version of the suite available in both 32- and 64-bit versions. We haven't received the 64-bit version yet, but we'll report on its performance on a 64-bit version of Windows as soon as we can.

Digging into Office 2010

If you haven't registered for the preview, the suite can be found on software-piracy sites—but Microsoft warns that many of these bootleg copies are infected with malware. If you're curious about the new version, don't risk compromising your Windows system. Just wait for the public beta that's slated for later this year. Otherwise, you can wait until the final code is released. Office 2010 won't ship in final form until sometime in 2010—Microsoft is tight-lipped about the exact date. Meanwhile, here's my initial take on what you can expect.

System requirements for Office 2010 are essentially the same as for Office 2007: Windows XP SP3 (the older SP2 won't cut it), Vista, or Windows 7. Any hardware that can run Office 2007 can also run Office 2010.

The first thing you'll notice is a lack of big, obvious changes to notice. Office 2007 introduced the ribbon interface for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook's message editor. Office 2010 extends the ribbon throughout the suite, adding it to Publisher, OneNote, and Outlook's main menu—and introduces a customization feature that lets you add your own tab and remove some (but not all) items on the default ribbon.

Office 2007 introduced the pearl-like Office Button menu that worked like an enhanced version of the traditional File menu. Office 2010 replaces that button with a small, rectangular icon that opens a spacious "Backstage" page of fully explained options for saving, printing, and managing files, making it easier to plumb the depths of Office's enormous feature set. The Backstage view is essentially a single menu for accessing features that apply to the whole of a document, such as printing, saving, and sharing; the main editing screen is used for accessing all the actual data that's visible in the document. On the ribbon, a tiny up-arrow icon reminds you that you can temporarily turn off the ribbon by clicking that button—and you can, of course, still toggle the ribbon on and off with the little-known Ctrl-F1 keystroke introduced in Office 2007.

A new Print menu is especially impressive, with options like page orientation (portrait or landscape) and one- or two-sided printing instantly accessible instead of buried deep in the Windows Print dialog. PDF output is finally built in from the start, and doesn't require a special download as it does in Office 2007. The suite also includes the open-source Open Document Format as one of its default formats. (story Link)

Key for Switch to Apple – 07

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)

Key for Switch to Apple – 06

MAC APPS

I won't attempt to give you much information here about specific applications that come with your Mac, but there are a few things worth mentioning:

Preview is the application that, by default, will open your PDF files (along with image files). You can generally use it instead of Adobe Reader; you'll find that it opens much faster than Adobe Reader does (what doesn't?). And unlike Adobe Reader, it permits light editing of PDFs—you can delete or resequence pages in the right-hand sidebar. It's also nice for generating a quick slideshow: In the Finder, highlight a bunch of image files, then double-click on any of them. They'll all open simultaneously in Preview, with a sidebar of thumbnails on the right that will let you quickly scroll through them.

Disk Utility (in the folder \Applications\Utilities) is what you'll use to format flash drives and external hard disks. For highest speed and best compatibility with the Mac, choose Erase, and Volume Format, Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If you need the backup device to readable by a Windows PC, choose MS-DOS format (performance won't be as good). By the way, Disk Utility also lets you make your own DMG files—use the menu option File | New | Disk Image from Folder. What's really nice about this is, you can encrypt your .dmg file; this is great for storing sensitive data.

Well, that just about scratches the surface. Mac aficionados will note with displeasure that I haven't said a word about Time Machine, Dashboard widgets, Spaces, Automator, or any of several thousand other things you're probably going to like. Watch this space. (story Link)

Key for Switch to Apple – 05

MISCELLANEOUS WINDOWS-TO-MAC ISSUES

Here are some questions that come up quite a bit, in my experience. They're a bit hodgepodge, but you can't argue with experience.

Command and control. Often enough, if you used a Control-key combo in Windows, Command plus the same other key will work in OS X. For example, Ctrl-x, -c, and -v to cut, copy, and paste a selection becomes Cmd-x, -c, and -v. Cmd-a selects all, whether you're in Finder or an application.

Know what you're closing. Ctrl-w to close a window in Windows is Cmd-w to close a window on the Mac. Quitting an open application requires not just closing its windows but actually telling it to quit—that's Cmd-q from the keyboard, or a right-click-accessible mouse command from the application's Dock icon.

Jump around. Alt-Tab to switch among open windows is Cmd-Tab on the Mac. Actually, Cmd-Tab switches among open applications. Use Cmd-~ to switch among open windows in a particular application. But once you get used to the Exposé feature, you might not care about this anyway.

Erase bidirectionally. Most Mac users seem to use the Delete key exclusively. It's in the same spot on a Mac keyboard that the Backspace occupies on non-Mac keyboards, and it deletes characters backward from the cursor, just like a Backspace key. But Windows users are used to having a Delete key that deletes forward as well. If you miss your Windows-type Delete key, use Fn-Delete on a Mac to delete forward.

All-stop. If you're old enough to remember when the Break key on a PC did something, you'll want to know about Cmd-period on a Mac. In many applications, it cancels whatever is in the midst of happening. Try that or the Escape key before you try what's next.

Quit it. Ctrl-Alt-Delete on a Windows PC (to bring up the Task Manager when something seems to be frozen) is Cmd-Option-Escape on a Mac: It will bring up a list of running applications so that you can force a frozen one to quit. You can also get there by choosing Force Quit from the main Apple menu.

Monitor activity. The full functionality of Task Manager on a Windows PC is found in Activity Monitor on a Mac; that's in the folder \Applications\Utilities. It's worth dragging that one to the Dock for quick access. If your Mac slows down, or if loud fan activity suggest that something is overwhelming its processor, Activity Manager will show you every currently running process and allow you to force-quit the culprit.

Create aliases. What Windows calls a shortcut, Mac calls an alias. You can make one by control-clicking on the icon for a file or folder, then choosing Make Alias—or simply by pressing Cmd-l (that's a lowercase L). Unlike a Windows shortcut, a Mac alias knows the actual identity of the target file, not just its location (the Mac assigns a unique ID number to each file); therefore, you can move the target file around, or even rename it, and the alias will still work.

Grab a screen. There's no Print Screen button for screen captures, but there is this abstruse keyboard shortcut: Cmd-Ctrl-Shift-4 (you'll get used to it). Once you press that, you can trace any area of the screen for capture to the clipboard; then you can paste it into, say, a document or photo-editing software. If you don't bother to press the Control key, the screenshot will be saved to your desktop as a file instead. If you press 3 rather than 4, you'll automatically capture the whole screen. And if you're in no mood for any such finger contortions, you can use the Grab application in your Utilities folder.

Clean up drive-image detritus. Unlike a Windows PC, your Mac won't offer to remove the unused icons on your desktop, so let me tell you about one type of file that might begin to accumulate there needlessly: the DMG file. If you download applications from the Web, a lot of them will download in the form of .dmg files (disk-image files). When you double-click on the DMG icon, it opens in the form of a virtual disk—a temporary folder that your Mac treats like a newly inserted disc or flash drive. If you want to keep the contents of the virtual disk, you have to drag them to another folder (such as your Applications folder or your desktop); doing so will copy them. The virtual disk can then be "ejected"—just drag it to the trash or press the Eject icon that appears next to the drive in a Finder window to do that. But you'll still have the DMG file that spawned the virtual disk. You don't need it anymore—go ahead and drag it to the trash, too.

Get info. On a Windows PC, you can get system information from various selections on the Start menu—information such as how much memory your computer has, or what kinds of hardware are built into it. To get this information on a Mac, select About This Mac from the Apple menu. The window that immediately pops up will tell you which version of OS X you're running, among other things. Then press More Info to open the System Profiler utility, which will glut you with details.

Type worldly. There's a world of hidden characters and symbols behind the Option key. For example, press Option-e and any vowel you type next will have an acute accent. Press Option-u and any vowel you type next will have an umlaut. Press Option-4 (the dollar-sign key) and you'll get ¢. The results for any of these will differ if you also hold down the Shift key. To learn more about keyboard combinations and diacritical marks, see Apple's guide.

For laptops only: Don't be dim. Have you noticed that when you're running on battery power, the display keeps dimming every few minutes? Yeah, that's annoying. Turn it off in Apple | System Preferences | Energy Saver, under Options, where you can uncheck Automatically reduce the brightness....

Come on and zoom. There's a keyboard shortcut for zooming the whole screen. First, press Cmd-Option-8 to toggle it on (you'll never need to do that again). Now press Cmd-Option-= to zoom. Press Cmd-Option-minus to pull back out. (story Link)

Key for Switch to Apple - 04

SAVING, PRINTING, FINDING

Here are some more handy tips for getting around & using Mac OS X and the applications on it.

Uncover options. By default, the Print and Save dialogs for most applications are pretty sparse-looking. That's deceptive. See the downward-pointing triangle in the blue box? Click on it to display a lot of options that are otherwise hidden/

PDF it. While you're in the Print dialog, note the inconspicuous button marked PDF. Clicking on it will give you a drop-down menu that includes Save as PDF. What this means is that anything you can print, you can convert to a PDF instead of printing. No more printing and losing online receipts.

Search with Spotlight. This hard drive search tool needs an article all its own, so I won't try to do more than tell you what it is. Your Mac maintains a Spotlight index that includes not just filenames, but also every word within each file, and Spotlight will fetch results accordingly. Click on the magnifying glass in the top right-hand corner and enter a word to begin. Spotlight is also the engine that drives the little search bar you'll find at the top of any Finder window. When you perform a Spotlight search that way, your results will be displayed with the option of limiting them to the current folder, and with the option of searching file contents or only filenames. We'll go further into depth about Spotlight's capabilities in a future article.

If you're accustomed to using Google Desktop on a Windows PC, you know that it does something Spotlight can't: It displays your results with snippets of the surrounding text, just like a regular Google search does. You can download a Mac version of Google Desktop to gain this feature, but I've found that doing so slows things down a bit, perhaps because Spotlight and Google Desktop are both continuously indexing your files. A nice alternative is to download the freeware application SpotInside, which uses Spotlight's index but displays results in context with snippets of text, Google-style.

Manage windows with Exposé. Exposé is another feature that can save you a lot of time. One key will sweep aside all open windows to reveal your Desktop (until you press the key again); another key will push all your open windows out of each other's way so that you can choose among them by hovering the pointer over them; a third key will do the same, but only for windows in the front-most application. Which key does which function will depend on your Mac, and you can change it under Apple | System Preferences | Exposé and Spaces.

Change every shortcut. Well, that might be going a bit far. But you really can change and create all kinds of keyboard shortcuts. Under Apple | System Preferences | Keyboard, you can create a keyboard shortcut for any preexisting menu item. This can be done system-wide or for individual applications. Users of Microsoft Office for Mac should note that the Office apps have their own applets for accomplishing this. (story Link)

Key for Switch to Apple - 03

ORGANIZATION

To make the most of your Mac, you should know a few things about how its hard disk is organized. Double-click on the drive's icon in the upper right-hand corner of the desktop, and let's look at what's there.

Applications. This folder is equivalent to the Program Files folder on a Windows PC. In the Finder, you can always go straight to your Applications folder by pressing Cmd-A (that's a capital A—Cmd-Shift-a) or by choosing Go | Applications from the menu bar. While we're here, let me tell you something nice about applications on a Mac: They're usually self-contained, meaning that you can simply drag and drop an application to a new location and it will run—there's no Windows-like Registry into which it can spread its tentacles, so you usually don't need a special installer program. Obviously, you will never exploit this knowledge to copy programs illegally. Similarly, simply deleting the application's icon tends to neatly uninstall the program.

Library. This is where the system and various applications store information that they need—things such as fonts and Internet plug-ins (applications that your Web browser runs automatically so that it can play video files and display PDFs). Until you've learned a lot more, keep out!

System. This is, as you'd expect, where the operating system lives. Again, keep out.

Users. Okay, now we're home: Users is the equivalent of the Documents and Settings folder on a Windows XP PC. Each person with an account on your Mac will have a folder under Users; that folder is called your home directory. This is the folder you want to back up; it's what makes your Mac yours. Double-click on it and here are some things you'll see:

Desktop, Documents, and Downloads. No tricks here. The Desktop is your desktop, Documents is the default for saving documents, and Downloads is where Safari will default to saving anything you download.

Likewise, Movies, Music, and Pictures are just what they sound like. The Music folder probably contains your iTunes music files (unless you've told iTunes not to store music there). It also contains a file called "iTunes Library," which doesn't actually contain any music—it's just a database of the songs that your copy of iTunes knows about.

Library. This is your library rather than the system's. One thing you'll find here is your bookmarks: If you use Safari, they're in a folder called Safari under the filename Bookmarks.plist. Firefox users will need to drill down through the Application Support folder (or search for a file called bookmarks). You'll also find a Library folder called Preferences, which is where your applications will generally store any preference settings you make. Peek in the Preferences folder and you'll see that most of the preference files have the extension .plist, which stands for "property list." There are third-party utilities you can use to edit these files directly, but you'll probably never need to.

The important thing is to know where they are so you can copy them to another Mac if you copy one of your applications to another Mac. Also, if one of your applications starts crashing or freezing, try deleting its preference file—it may have become corrupted. The next time you run the application, a new preference file (set back to the application's defaults) will be created automatically. Note the naming scheme for the preference files: For the sake of organization, they're named like Web sites in reverse, so, for example, your preference file for Photoshop (whose vendor is Adobe) is com.adobe.Photoshop.plist.

Public contains a folder called Drop Box, where other users on your Mac can drop files for you without being able to see what else is in the folder.

Sites is where you might want to store local files for any Web sites you create. Up to you.

That's the lay of the land to begin with. Presumably, you'll be creating lots of new folders in your home directory. And the quickest way to do so is by navigating where you want to go, then pressing Cmd-N (that's a capital N) to make a new folder. (story Link)

Key for Switch to Apple - 02

FINDER TIPS AND TRICKS

Here are few more things that should improve your relationship with the Finder:

No regrets. Cmd-z will undo whatever you just did in the Finder.

Move on up. Cmd-UpArrow will go take you to the folder one level up from the one you're currently in—that's called the "enclosing folder" or the "parent directory."

You are here. This one's beautiful: Cmd-clicking directly on the name of the folder (at the top of its window) will give you a navigable drop-down display of its path—meaning that you'll see what folder it's in, and what folder that's in, and so on, and you can click on any of the folder names to navigate directly there.

Better still, this trick also works for most documents: If you're working on a Word document and you have no idea what folder it's actually in, just Cmd-click on the document's name at the top of its window, and you'll be immediately oriented.

If you liked the Windows option of always displaying your path (the Address bar) as you navigated through folders, you can have the Finder do the same: Find the option under View; check Show Path Bar. For me, the most efficient way to use the Finder is to keep everything in List view (so that you can always see dates and file sizes) while keeping the Path Bar displayed at the bottom so that you can, say, move a file up to its enclosing folder.

Universal preview. The Quick Look feature lets you take, well, a quick look at the contents of a large number of files without bothering to open the applications associated with them. Just select the files' icons—as many files as you like—then press the spacebar. There may be a delay of a few seconds, but then you'll see the contents of the first selected file, and you can use the arrow keys to navigate among the rest. The Finder will even invoke little players for audio and video files.

Rename freely. Try renaming a file while it's open. Why? Because you can. The title bar of its window will update accordingly.

THE DOCK

The Dock—that cartoonish thing at the bottom of your display—does several valuable things and is pretty customizable. The Dock functions something like an amalgamation of Windows' Quick Launch bar and the taskbar.

Icons to the left. To the left of its vertical separator bar, the Dock displays icons for any applications you might want to launch quickly (with a single click). Don't settle for what Apple put there. If there's something you don't plan to use on the Dock, pull it up and out; it will vanish in a puff of animated smoke. Populate the Dock by dragging in icons for frequently used applications from the Applications folder. Drag them left or right to arrange them; and note the little marker under each application that's currently open.

Icons to the right. To the right of the vertical separator bar, you'll see icons for any windows you've minimized (as well as the garbage). By the way, you don't have to hit that tiny yellow button to minimize a window. Go to Apple | System Preferences | Appearance, and choose Minimize when double-clicking a window title bar. Now you can be a lot less precise with your pointer when you want to minimize a window. Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut Cmd-m.

Set dock preference. Preferences for the Dock are available on the Apple menu. You can make it stand on its hind legs on the left-hand or right-hand side of your screen rather than lazing along the bottom; you can make it hide itself when you're not using it; you can make it stop animatedly arching its back when you run the pointer over it. There are third-party utilities that will tweak the Dock's appearance further, but such tools can stop working when Apple provides system updates—something that doesn't typically happen with Windows updates, and a good thing to keep in mind.

Find the Dock's special powers. Do a lot of Ctrl-clicking (or right-clicking) in the Dock. You'll get options such as closing an application without bothering to bring its open windows to the front, or aborting the launch of an application that you hadn't meant to open. (story Link)

Key for Switch to Apple - 01

Macs are elegant; Macs are powerful; Macs are, for the time being, remarkably safe from infection. But when people tell you that Macs are "intuitive," you're well within your rights to sneer. In my ten years of using Macs, I've found them no more intuitive than Windows PCs, perhaps even a little less so. If you're a recent or prospective switcher, you might avoid some trial and error by dipping into the following grab bag of factoids and advice.

FILE MANAGEMENT

Just like Windows, Mac OS X organizes information as files within directories. Beyond that, there are differences that may take a few seconds to puzzle out, and some that will be more frustrating—it largely depends on your computing style. If you like to use the keyboard more than the mouse or trackpad, and if you like to customize everything possible, these tips should save you a fair bit of time and annoyance.

Right-click. You probably already know that life with Windows is made easier by right-clicking wherever possible to view the context menu. Contextual options are just the ticket to learning more about what you can do in any particular situation. On a Mac, right-click is Ctrl-click. Depending on which Mac hardware you're using, you can also configure your mouse or trackpad to respond to actual right-clicking (you'll find that option under Apple | System Preferences). Whichever way you do it, do it constantly and you'll never stop learning.

Find the Finder. The Finder—Apple's rough equivalent of Windows Explorer—is what lets you navigate files and folders on your Mac. (People have strong opinions on the relative merits of the two interfaces; I'll keep mine to myself and just mention a few differences.) You'll know you're in the Finder, as opposed to another application, because the word Finder will appear on the top left corner of the screen. After that, pressing Cmd-n (don't press Shift to make it a capital or it'll be a different command) will open a folder-navigation window. If you prefer, you can do this in one step by clicking on the little blue smiley at the far-left side of the Dock. Just like Windows Explorer, Finder is always open, even if there's no Finder window open. As you navigate through the window (say, by double-clicking on a folder to show its contents), you're using the Finder. You're also using the Finder when you perform basic housekeeping functions such as dragging a file from one folder to another.

Open files in various ways. As in Windows, you can double-click on a file or application icon to open it. If you're slow of mouse-thumb, other options are to press Cmd-o or Cmd-DownArrow. Just don't expect to open a file by pressing Enter! In Windows this opens a file; in OS X, it lets you edit the filename.

Customize the Finder view. You can set preferences in the Finder, but—in a prime example of what isn't intuitive about a Mac—most of these preferences are not in the Finder's Preferences menu. Instead, they're hidden under the View | Show View Options menu—and the options here will differ in accordance with how you're currently displaying files (as icons, as a list, or in columns). Take some time to explore the settings here; they can make a big difference in your everyday interactions with the Mac.

Choose your sidebar. One thing I recommend, for convenience, is to customize what appears in the left-hand sidebar of folder-navigation windows. You can do some of this under Finder | Preferences | Sidebar, and you can also drag elements (such as folder icons) directly into the sidebar, or pull them off. This is a good way to make your commonly used folders more quickly available to you.

Display extensions. Another thing I recommend, for the sake of avoiding surprises or confusion, is to go into Finder | Preferences and check Show all file extensions.

Understand a key difference: extensions. Speaking of file extensions, Macs do use them the same way Windows PCs do—to determine which application should open a file—but this is a relatively recent development, and it continues to coexist with the Mac's older way of doing things: Some files are stored with a property called creator, which, if present, can override the effect of the filename extension. You'll probably never need to view or change a file's creator (though there are third-party utilities that let you do so); I mention this mostly so that you'll know why your Mac can sometimes open a file whose name has no extension. The Save dialogs in some Mac applications will give you the choice to use extensions or not. Definitely use extensions if you plan to send files to your Windows-using friends. Your Mac might know that MyWordFile should open in Word, but Windows won't—the file needs to be called MyWordFile.doc.

Customize file associations. And speaking of determining which application opens a file, there are at least two ways you can customize that.

1. To open a file with a particular application just once, Ctrl-click on the file's icon and choose Open with….

2. To make a choice that your Mac will remember, Get Info on the file (select the file, then press Cmd-i), go into the window that will pop up, and set the Open with option. You'll have the option of applying your choice to all such files (for example, you can choose to have every JPEG open with Photoshop instead of Preview).

3. Here's a quick-and-dirty third way that will never occur to the average Windows user: Just change the extension. For example, a plain-text file that ends in .txt will normally open in the Mac's TextEdit utility, but if you change its extension to .doc, it will open in Word.

Change icons. Now that you know how to "get info" on a file or folder (Cmd-i), you also know how to change its icon. Just drag and drop (or paste) an image onto the icon that appears in the upper left-hand corner of its Get Info window. The image should be approximately 128 by 128 pixels. (story Link)

Microsoft's Massive List of Improvements to Windows 7

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)

What's Going On?: A One-Stop Spot for Vital System Stats

Windows comes packaged with many tools to find details about the current state of your system. There's Task Manager for discovering the processes that are using your CPU, Resource Monitor for investigating your disk activity, and Explorer for showing the total usage of all your drives. Wouldn't it be useful to have these stats all together in one handy, attractive application?

What's Going On? is a system utility that gives you a one-stop spot for all your system's vital stats. In one window you can find out:

• Which processes are accessing your hard drive

• Which processes are consuming the most CPU resources

• How full your hard drives are

• The last time your computer was booted and how long it's been running

• The last time your computer was shut down

• Your external IP address

• Total CPU usage and CPU usage per processor

• The percentage or actual amount of physical or virtual memory used

• The state of your Internet connection by pinging a remote server

When you launch the program for the first time you'll see a window like this:

By default the following measures are displayed:

Uptime — how long your system has been running

Boot time — the date and time your system was last started

External IP — the IP address that other computers around the world see you as

CPU Usage — the percentage of CPU usage being used by all your CPUs

CPU Usage Per Processor — the percentage of CPU usage for each processor. For example, a dual-core processor would display two readings

Physical Memory % Usage — the percentage of physical memory currently being used

Virtual Memory % Usage — the percentage of virtual memory currently being used

Top CPU Consuming Processes — displays the two processes that are using the most CPU resources. This can be altered to display up to 10 processes

Drive Usage — shows all of your hard drives and how much space is being used on each one. The bar graph is color coded: Green means plenty of space, yellow means that a drive is filling up, and red means that it's close to capacity.

Top Disk Consuming Processes — displays the top two processes accessing the hard drives the most. This can be altered to display up to 10 processes. (full Story)

How well does Windows 7 handle 512MB?

I’ve been spending most of my time lately conducting in-depth research into how Windows 7 works, in preparation for my next book. In the process, I’m discovering stuff that simply doesn’t become apparent to a casual tester. Case in point: Back in 2007, I looked at Windows Vista Home Basic and determined that it could run well on an older machine with limited resources, including 512MB of RAM. I never tried it with Vista Ultimate, nor would I have bothered. And since I don’t have that 2002-vintage test machine set up, I haven’t repeated those tests with Windows 7.

Earlier this week, I fired up a virtual machine running Windows XP SP3 so I could test upgrade scenarios with Windows 7. I couldn’t do a straight XP-to-Win7 upgrade, so I added a new virtual hard drive and installed Windows 7 in a dual-boot configuration. After making a few notes on how the setup process worked, I put the VM aside and went on to other work.

Windows 7 Ultimate x64 uses less memory than you might think

A few hours later, I went back to that new Windows 7 installation to look at a few details, and that’s when it struck me: This virtual machine was configured with a mere 512MB of RAM, and yet I hadn’t noticed any slowdowns during setup or in operation. Even more startling, I realized that I had inadvertently installed the 64-bit edition of Windows 7 Ultimate in this VM. But the most eye-opening moment came when I looked at Task Manager’s performance tab. I’ve pasted a screen grab of the memory gauge here.

The x64 edition of Windows 7 Ultimate running on just over 200MB of RAM? That was a pleasant surprise. I was also surprised to see that this clean install was using less than 9 GB of disk space in this VM. With my curiosity piqued, I configured a new VM using the same settings and did a clean install of Vista Ultimate, giving me a good baseline for comparing XP to its successors. Here are the stats for all three operating systems, with memory usage measured after all update operations had completed and the system had been idle for at least one hour:

in graphical terms, with the raw numbers normalized so that XP=100:

Windows 7 uses less RAM and disk space than Vista

As you can see, on this low-resource configuration Windows 7 uses dramatically less RAM than Vista, and also has a smaller hard-disk footprint. A few configuration notes can help put these results in perspective:

• For XP, the installation includes Service Pack 3, plus all available updates including Internet Explorer 7, Windows Media Player 11, and Windows Search 4. The only non-Windows application installed on this system is Firefox.
• For Vista, the installation was of Ultimate Edition (x86) with Service Pack 1 and all available Critical and Recommended updates. No third-party software was installed.
• For Windows 7 Beta, I used Ultimate x64 edition. As with the Vista installation, I accepted any Critical or Recommended updates and installed no third-party software.

The numbers and charts don’t really tell the full story, though. With identical configurations, Windows 7 was dramatically faster at starting up and shutting down than Vista, and some routine tasks that would grind the Vista machine to a halt completed without incident on the Windows 7 machine. (story Link)

Opera 10 Alpha

Today Opera Software made available a preview of its next major browser version, Opera 10. The pre-release alpha version showcases a new rendering engine, Presto 2.2, which the company states will improve browsing performance over the previous version by 30 percent. The company also claims that the reengineered browser and rendering engine will lead in standards support, saying that it manages 100 out of 100 on the Web Standards Project's Acid3 browser test. The previous best among major browsers was Google's Chrome, scoring 79 out of 100. In my testing, I confirmed the rare 100 score, as you can see from the accompanying slideshow.

The very lightweight installer is a mere 6MB download. Firefox is just a bit bigger, at 7.2MB. Internet Explorer 7 dwarfs both, at 14MB. Installation itself is straightforward and quick. When you launch the browser, it loads in less than 2 seconds. On the same machine, Firefox 3 and Google Chrome take slightly over 2 seconds. But startup speed for all of the browsers is good on a reasonably up-to-date machine.

For speed, Opera 10 won't set any records, but it's fast—and it's still an alpha. Chrome's performance on the Sunspider JavaScript benchmark, however, vastly exceeded what the new Opera engine managed. The test runs a balanced variety of JavaScript operations—such as string manipulation, graphics operations, and decompressions—multiple times. Opera took 8,088ms (a lower score is better), far faster than Internet Explorer 7's 256,116, and slightly lower than Firefox 3's 6,535, but still substantially trailing Chrome's 2,763 on the same Vista machine.

Of course, according to Microsoft, JavaScript performance accounts for just a small fraction—under 4 percent—of actual Web-page loading time. And anecdotally, a PCMag.com page that took 4 seconds to load in Chrome took only 2 in Opera 10. But in a test called Lots of Text, which evaluates a different aspect of performance, Opera took only 92ms compared with IE's 128ms. Chrome blew both of them away, clocking a mere 12ms Firefox posted a respectable 64ms. I should note, though, that the developers may not have optimized Opera's memory usage yet in this alpha build. I loaded the same ten popular media-rich sites into Opera 10 and Firefox, and Opera required 156MB of RAM, and FireFox only 111.

In real Web site testing, the Opera 10 alpha works well with Facebook, though it didn't seem any faster than Firefox, despite the Opera team's claims. And Yahoo mail (in its newest form) still presents an error page stating that the browser isn't supported. Opera had no trouble with Citibank's site, but the Fidelity Investments financial site claimed that the browser didn't support 128-bit encryption, and it wouldn't display in my account.

The new version keeps all of the former's helpful and unique browsing helpers, such as tab previews, mouse gestures, and its trademark speed-dial page. With speed-dial, whenever you create a new tab, it opens and shows nine favorite sites of your choice, any of which you can visit with a single click. Of course, you still get a predictive address bar, much like what you'll find in Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer 8. And Opera still boasts one of the best implementations of tabs in any browser. The "new tab" button is the clearest of that in any browser, and you can drag tabs out to a new window or to the trash can. This version adds spellchecking and a streamlined feature for updating the browser. (story Link)

Might Just Change Microsoft’s Luck : Windows 7

Let us cut to the chase. Will the next iteration of Microsoft’s dominant operating system be any good? After spending a couple of weeks playing around with the beta version of the software, our verdict is that yes, it will be. But why? Windows Vista was a marketing and public relations disaster.

Vista, which was code-named Longhorn , was delayed by over a year and many people who bought machines with the Vista Capable logo on it were horrified to see that Windows Vista barely managed to work on their hardware when they upgraded from Windows XP.

It must be understood that Vista was the first operating system the Redmond-based behemoth launched after the advent of social media blogs, MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, Digg and the like. Technology blogs and websites took no time in shredding Vista.

But the fact is, if you have a new computer (with dual-core processor and at least two gigabytes of memory), and not a Netbook, Vista works quite well. The integrated search function on Vista is brilliant if you, like most people, have files spread all across your computer.

Windows 7 Versions: The Five Most Interesting Things

Because software analyst Michael Muchmore is on vacation, I volunteered to write the news story covering the new Windows 7 versions, as well as a followup FAQ presenting as many details as possible that should be up later on Wednesday.

I think what we have so far is pretty comprehensive. However, I'm writing this blog post to highlight what I consider to be the newsiest, most interesting, and unexpected tidbits of information I found while researching both stories.

1.) Netbooks will run any flavor of Windows 7. Any flavor, including Ultimate.
Yes, it's hard to conceive of an Atom-based netbook running Windows 7 Ultimate. The key caveat, however, is that Microsoft says that those Windows 7 netbooks need to run on "sufficient hardware". Microsoft doesn't say exactly what that is, unfortunately. However, given that they've thrown that out there, look for this feature to be one of the most closely examined of any Windows 7 offers.

2.) Remember Windows Ultimate Extras? They're gone.
Does anyone actually remember why they paid extra for the Windows Vista Ultimate Extras? Was it DreamScene? Windows Sound Schemes? Tinker? Yeah, me either.

"Our new approach to planning and building Windows doesn't have the capacity to continue to deliver features outside the regular release cycle," a Microsoft document provided to PCMag and AppScout says. "While our core development team is focused on building the next release, our sustained engineering team is focused on updates to existing features. As a result we don't plan to create Ultimate Extras."

Perhaps, although I wonder why Microsoft never thought about creating a Windows 7 (or Vista) apps store?

3.) Windows 7 will run DVDs natively -- but is there Blu-ray support?
Windows 7 won't add the a la carte DVD support Vista included. Instead, "for Windows7, we will now offer DVD playback natively in Home Premium, Pro, and Ultimate, and will no longer offer Home Basic and Starter with the 'with DVD' option," Microsoft says.

But wait -- will Windows 7 support Blu-ray straight out of the box? We don't know that as yet, unfortunately.

4.) Downgrade rights are actually mentioned.
Downgrading Windows wasn't even part of the tech lexicon until Vista, when people suddenly backpedaled and realized that Windows XP might actually do the job better than Microsoft's latest operating system. With Microsoft's Steve Ballmer claiming that Windows 7 is Vista, but better, I'm surprised that the topic was even mentioned in the document I saw.

"Final decisions are still being made on details like End User downgrade rights outlined in the applicable product License Terms," Microsoft says. "We will be in touch when we have more to share."

Incidentally, there will be a Windows XP-to-Windows 7 upgrade available, Microsoft says. (full Story)       

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Hide Start Button in Windows 7 / Vista / XP

Start Killer frees up space in your taskbar by hiding the Start menu button. Given the nature of the new taskbar along with the Windows Key on your keyboard, hiding the Start Button isn’t too bad of an idea.

Be sure to tweak the settings of Start Killer once you have it installed so you can configure it to run on Start Up. There are also a few keyboard shortcuts you should know about so you can access Start Killer even if you hide the icon in the system tray. If all seems impossible, ending the process StartKiller.exe will restore the Start button. Download Start Killer here. (story Link)

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Windows 7,Windows Vista,Windows XP,Useful Tips

Sony’s Lifestyle PC VGN-588EQ

It was more than two years ago that Mike Abary, senior vice president at Sony, reached into his inner suit pocket and pulled out the Sony VAIO VGN-UX180P. At the time, he called this handheld PC, which ran a full-blown version of Windows XP, "an achievement in ingenious design." Little did he know he'd be pulling the same stunt again at a quaint hotel in Manhattan, where I was one of a handful of journalists invited to preview Sony's take on the netbook revolution. He reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a clamshell the length of two UX180Ps, not even an inch thick. This, as he described it, is Sony's answer to the surging netbook market, only it's not being classified as a netbook, it's not an update to the UX180P, and the intended audience, interestingly enough, is women. It's the Sony VAIO VGN-588EQ ($1,199 direct), better known as the Sony Lifestyle PC.

The Lifestyle PC is unlike anything you've seen before, in large part because of the 8-inch LED widescreen, the first of its kind. Even from afar, you may feel a tingling sensation as soon as you lay eyes on it, and your first instinct is to pick it up. Sony handed me a review unit while I was at the CES 2009 show in Las Vegas, allowing me to use it in multiple scenarios. I really don't want to call this a netbook, but there's no other way to classify this gorgeous device. It runs the Intel Atom platform, it's inexpensive for a Sony-branded laptop, and the keyboard is undersized—all netbook symptoms. On the other hand, it's so much more than a netbook. It weighs half as much as one and packs in features like 3G wireless, a pre-boot Linux environment, and a high-resolution screen. Although the Lifestyle PC is now at the pinnacle of design engineering, performance is an issue when Windows Vista is the only operating system offered, and the price is over $1,000 with the solid-state drive option. Based on design alone, though, I think Sony can create a huge following with this pseudo-netbook.

Even though there are no ties between them, the Lifestyle PC conjures up images of Intel's Moorestown concept device. It weighs a mere 1.4 pounds, only 0.2 pound heavier than the original UX180P. And it measures 9.7 by 4.7 by 0.8 inches, which is about the length of the ASUS EeePC 1002HA but only half its depth. It fits nicely in the inner pocket of a suit jacket or a Coach clutch bag, and is thin enough that you can slide two of them into a manila envelope. Its look is unique, and its design intentions are clear: Sony wants to dissociate the Lifestyle PC from the likes of the MSI Wind, the ASUS EeePC, and the Acer Aspire One—some of the more popular netbooks in the market. In my opinion, it has successfully done so. (full Story)

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Microsoft Windows 7 Device Stage

Through hands-on testing with a variety of devices, we'll show you how Windows 7's Device Stage makes interacting with your gear easier—and more fun.

For the upcoming Windows 7 operating system release, Microsoft is polishing more than just the kernel itself. The company aims to ease interaction between you and your cell phone, printer, camera, and more, through a new feature called Device Stage.

Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc describes the technology pretty well on The Windows Experience Blog, calling it a "new visual interface that makes it easy to find the things you want to do with your devices on your Windows 7 PC." With Device Stage, a photo-realistic picture of your gadget can live in your taskbar, providing one-click access to relevant apps, services, and information.

For Device Stage to work, Windows 7 loads a set of custom XML files (and possibly custom drivers) when you first connect a printer, scanner—whatever. And that's not just USB connections either; LeBlanc points out that Device Stage "works not only for devices connected to a Windows 7 PC via USB, but also Bluetooth and Wi-Fi as well. In many cases, software installation isn't required for Device Stage—with any additional drivers that might be needed automatically retrieved from Windows Update." Maybe in the final iteration things will work that smoothly, but it's proved a bit of a challenge for me so far.

The Reasoning Behind Device Stage
So where'd the idea for this come from, anyway? We can find some clues in a WinHEC presentation by Dennis Flanagan, group program manager at Microsoft. In it, Dennis noted the problems with devices in Vista:

• Inconsistent views and entry points
• Views are of functions, not devices
• Limited brand and function extensibility for partners
• Many partners are building similar applications for common tasks
• There's no recommended path to on-board and present services

That's a complicated way of explaining that each device works in its own way in Vista, since Microsoft really hasn't offered guidance to device manufacturers on this front. To check the ink levels in your printer, you probably have to access a custom-written app from Brother, HP, or whichever. Copying music to your phone more than likely involves a custom app from Motorola or Nokia. Flanagan underscores Microsoft's inconsistencies in Vista with a screenshot:

You might not have noticed, having simply adjusted to the way things are, but there are 17 Control Panel applets that all aim to help you "do stuff with your stuff." Want to adjust your modem? We've got a special panel for it. Need to sync your PDA? Go to the Windows Mobile Device Center. Got a tablet PC? You'll appreciate the Pen and Input Devices Control Panel. Ugh. (story Link)

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Windows 7,Windows Vista,OS,Mobile,Wi-Fi

Dell XPS 625 – Phenom II X4

Based on our review of AMD's latest Phenom II processor, we noted that the new processor could make up the core of a fairly low cost gaming system. Dell has stepped up to the plate, adding an all-AMD system based on the "Dragon" platform. The Dell XPS 625 joins the XPS line of gaming rigs, and features an AMD 790GX ATX motherboard, AMD Black Edition CPUs, and Radeon HD 4000 series graphics.

The mix of components is a little odd, however. Since Dell has chosen to go with all Black Edition CPUs, you can find it equipped with the Phenom II X4 940, Phenom X4 9850+, Phenom X3 8750+, or Athlon 64 X2 5600+. You won't be able to get one with a Phenom II X4 920, however.

Equally quirky is the choice of graphics hardware: You can get your choice of a single Radeon HD 4670 or Radeon HD 4850 or dual Radeon HD 4670s or HD 4850s in CrossFire mode. What you can't get is any flavor of the Radeon HD 4870, nor can you get an X2 card (either the 4850 X2 or 4870 X2.)

Most of the other component choices are pretty straightforward, including an array of optical drives, various hard drives, and so on. Memory configurations range from 2GB to 8GB. Also available are various audio options (integrated, X-Fi, etc) as well as the somewhat controversial Killer NIC K1. You only have one choice for the operating system: Windows Vista Home Premium, but it's the 64-bit version, which we applaud. (full Story)

Technorati Tags: Dell,ATI Radeon,Graphics Card,Windows Vista

Grow Your Windows Vista Boot Partition

It's come to this: You fire up Vista's Computer window and see that your boot partition—the hard drive section on which Vista resides—is running out of space. You spend a few hours getting rid of as much fluff as you can, but a week or so later, the free space is disappearing once more and Vista warns you (with a red bar under the drive name) that you have a problem. What to do?

If your hard drive has only one partition—meaning that your entire hard drive really is filled up—there's nothing you can do but buy a new drive and transfer files over to it. Of course, you could just reinstall Vista on the new drive and start all over, but that's a huge job. If you have more than one partition on your boot drive, though, you might be able to salvage the situation. And just for fun, let's say you don't have third-party partition management software available and want to avoid spending money if you can. While Vista doesn't have comprehensive partition management capabilities, it will give you some help.

WARNING:

Modifying the boot partition can render Vista unbootable, although if you follow the instructions here it shouldn't. Still, it's a very good idea to ghost your system in case something goes wrong.

To work with your drives in Vista, open the Disk Management console tool. The easy-to-remember way is to click Start, right-click Computer, and choose Manage, yielding the Microsoft Management Console (MMC). The slightly more direct way is to type diskmgmt.msc in the Search field at the bottom of the Start menu; this time you get only the Disk Management console tool. We'll work with this one here.The full Microsoft Management Console, with the Disk Management section selected.

The Disk Management console tool on its own—opening this saves some screen real estate.

In both these screenshots, the current Vista boot partition—ATA160-Partition2 (C:)—is selected; the diagonal lines highlighting the partition show the selection. As you can see, this 160GB drive (known as Disk 1 to the system) has three partitions, respectively 65.06GB, 68.08GB, and 19.53GB in size. But 68.08GB is proving a bit too cramped for the boot drive, mainly because Vista, like all Windows versions, expands as you use it and add to it; adding some space would be useful. (full Story)