Here is an interesting item from the BBC.
It is estimated here that there are 17 million people in the UK who are currently not online. So the aim is to have them online by the year 2012 in time for the Olympics.
By this time in the 21st century, if a person is not online, the question I would ask is, do they want to be?
I have put together some of the links I have found interesting this month:
Howsthe.com - website monitoring
New Office on the web
Take a mini break
Five tasks in the morning
Here in the UK, broadband speeds vary widely. According to a recent report, getting every household equipped with a minimum 2Mbps, is going to be an uphill struggle.
The Mobile World Congress has come to an end. There have been the usual flurry of new devices. The questons is, are they groundbreaking enough?
Make your own mind up. Check out these videos at the BBC.
Microsoft have decided to release 6 editions of Windows 7. Click here for a description for each edition.
This is a bit of a shame really. My opinion is that it would be better to have 3 editions
Starter - Aimed at the netbook market and low cost PCs. Would have limited functionality but allow users to use web applications using Internet Explorer
Basic - For home and SME market. Would include basic networking and security features
Ultimate - For volume customers and developers wanting to use every possible feature.
There has been many comments about the recent report on the future of Digital Britain. Only time will tell if the predictions will be correct. For any business, it is worth having read as the future of your business will involve digital communications.
Microsoft has now released the Windows 7 beta to the public. Over the last few days I have read a few articles about what Windows 7 actually means to Microsoft. So I thought I would write down some of my thoughts on Microsoft’s next OS.
To start with, there has always been a lot of speculation before the imminent release of a new version of the Windows OS - Will it perform better than the last version? Will your applications still be compatible? How reliable will it be? Should your business upgrade?
Now though, Microsoft has got itself into a make or break situation. Windows Vista has struggled to gain acceptance, especially in organisations. They have a large well established estate running Windows XP and could not justify the cost, time and effort to upgrade to Vista with all of its problems. This is not really, that unusual. Many companies were reluctant to upgrade from Windows 95/98 to Windows 2000 Professional. Instead they skipped to Windows XP. The problem now is that these organisations have grown their desktop estate. That means more time, more effort, and more money to upgrade. In these difficult economic times, it may become more difficult to justify the upgrade to Windows 7.
According to the early opinions of beta testers, Windows 7 appears to be what Vista should have been and then some. Only time will tell if that will be good enough for organisations to upgrade.
Naturally, there is a ton of stuff online regarding the new releases at CES 2009 in Las Vegas. Below are links to just a few videos showing off some the new gadget and innovations
The BBC website has report on some of the gadgets being unveiled at CES 2009. The big news apparently, is the range of digital televisions being prepared for our future living rooms
The annual Computer Elecronics Show is under way in Las Vegas. This is one of the most influential shows in the industry as manufacturers show off there new products. Although many will not be available to the public for a while, it provides an interesting look at what technology we may be using in the next few years.
Unfortunately, living in the UK, it is not possible for me to attend CES 2009. There are though, many sites out that are producing daily updates. One of the best is Engadget. It is worth a look just to see what new technology trends are coming up.
Looking for some help on how to do a task in Windows? The site lifehacker has some helpful tutorials that might just help you out.
Although there is no official word on how many Windows 7 editions there will be, there is a lot of speculation on what Microsoft may or may not provide.
As always with Microsoft, they made things complicated with Windows Vista. The next version of Windows, would be an opprtunity to simplify things.
One of the big concerns on MS Windows is the amount of disk space taken by the operating system itself. An interesting article on Softpedia has some information on the expected disk space occupied by Windows Vista compared to Windows XP.
Of course, beta versions always occupy more space due to the amount of debug code. However, any moves to reduce the OS footprint has to be a good thing.
A laptop is an essential tool for today's business. Unfortunately, the choice of which laptop gets ever more complicated.
This report from zdnet is a good starting point when you are thinking about buying or replacing a laptop.
When using social networks, you need to create some rules for yourself. You need to set limits on how and when you use them, as well as what you put up there and who you let access this information. For the small business owner, social networks are a great marketing tool. The difficulty comes when the business and personal start to merge together.
This article on social networks your way is a good starting point for anyone wanting to use social networks for marketing their business.
This story is on the bbc website.
Does this mean the end of spam? I doubt it. There will always be someone else to take there place. However, if it gives us a respite from spam for a while, then that has to be a good thing
Microsoft are preparing a release date for Windows 7
Check it out
Microsoft Windows 7 is currently in Beta. I will be occassionally posting links to information on this next version of Windows.
I start with an article on Lifehacker which describes 10 features that you might find interesting
Top 10 things to look forward to in Windows 7