Microsoft Backs Down On Office 2013 Retail Licensing

We are happy that they have decided to listen to their customer’s complaints about its Office 2013 retail licensing agreement. Microsoft has altered the licensing language as follows according to Jevon Fark from the Office Team:

Updated transferability provision to the Retail License Terms of the Software License Agreement for Microsoft Office 2013 Desktop Application Software

Can I transfer the software to another computer or user? You may transfer the software to another computer that belongs to you, but not more than one time every 90 days (except due to hardware failure, in which case you may transfer sooner). If you transfer the software to another computer, that other computer becomes the “licensed computer.” You may also transfer the software (together with the license) to a computer owned by someone else if a) you are the first licensed user of the software and b) the new user agrees to the terms of this agreement before the transfer. Any time you transfer the software to a new computer, you must remove the software from the prior computer and you may not retain any copies.

This change is effective immediately and applies to Office Home and Student 2013, Office Home and Business 2013, Office Professional 2013 and the standalone Office 2013 applications.

Paul Thurrott, editor of the Windows SuperSite, offers his 2 cents on the situation here.

I think this is a real win for the Microsoft Customer base that needs the flexibility of moving their software when the upgrade their machines.

Here is Jevon Fark’s post on the Office News blog.

Choosing the Right Office 365 for SBS Server Customers

With the release of Server 2012 we no longer have a Small Business Server offering. We have sold a lot of this product in the past both in the Standard and Premium versions. This product was a real resource hog though but it gave big server features at a very reasonable price and this made it in many cases very desirable.

Microsoft has launched its new hosted Exchange product called Office 365 to help fill the gap this has left. The cloud suite, which features Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Lync Online, could provide an ideal upgrade path for Windows Small Business Server (SBS) customers. Exchange Server was one of the most often used features of Microsoft SBS product. The Server 2012 Essentials package will give you basic server function but has a few limitations. First there are no virtualization rights and second you are limited to a total of 25 clients. The pros are that it is optimized for cloud connectivity, has a simplified interface, is priced around $500 and comes with licensing for the 25 clients.

This is perfectly paired with one of the following: Hosted Exchange Online ($4/user/mo), Office 365 Small Business ($6/user/mo) or Office 365 Small Business 365 ($15/user/mo). So what are the differences?

	Hosted email (Exchange Online) Step up to enterprise-grade email that’s easy to manage and affordable	Office 365 Small Business Help your business thrive with web-based communication and productivity services	Office 365 Small Business Premium Work better virtually anywhere, at your desktop or on the go
	$4.00 user/ month	$6.00 user/ month	$15.00 user/ month
User maximum:	Unlimited	25 users	25 users
Office applications: Subscription to Office for up to 5 PCs/Macs per user.			Desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access, Publisher, and Lync.
Office Web Apps: Create and edit Office files via a web browser.	(View Attachments Only)	·	·
Office Mobile Apps:  Use Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on select mobile phones and tablets.			·
Hosted email: Get business-class email, shared calendars, 25 GB of storage space per user, and the ability to use your own domain name.	·	·	·
Web conferencing: Conduct meetings over the web with HD video conferencing, screen sharing, and instant messaging.		·	·
Public website: Market your business with a website that is easy to set up, using your own company domain name. No additional hosting fees.		·	·
Spam and malware protection: Premium anti-malware protection and anti-spam filtering.	·	·	·
Community and phone support: IT-level web support and 24/7 phone support for critical issues.	·	·	·
Guaranteed 99.9% uptime: Peace of mind that your services are available with a guaranteed 99.9% uptime, financially backed service level agreement (SLA)	·	·	·

This, of course, are not the only Office 365 choices available but is a great start when thinking about using the Server 2012 Essentials package in an entry level server installation. If you want a full copy of Office and all the functions of an enterprise company the Small Business Premium package would be a great deal for you. It not only includes the hosted Exchange system but also has Lync for system to system communication and last but not least you can install office on up to five of each user’s devices. So if you have some mobile warriors that need to be able to work at the office, home and on the road from all of the devices this might be a really good fit.

Office 365 Home Premium–Subscription for home use

Microsoft’s new subscription model offer provides the home consumer an annual subscription package that will cost you $99 per year and provides you with licensing for using Office on five devices. You will also get 20gb’s of online storage and 60 minutes of Skype calls per month. It includes the following products:

	Word In the new Read Mode, text reflows automatically in columns for easier on-screen reading Fewer menus means more focus on your content—see only the tools you need, when you need them Open a PDF in Word, and edit content just as if you created it in Word Show your style by using Word templates in more than 40 categories
	Excel Each workbook has in its own window, making it easier to work on two workbooks— or two monitors— at once New functions in the math and trig, statistical, engineering, date and time, lookup and reference, logical, and text function categories The new Recommended Charts button lets you pick from a variety of charts that are right for your data
	OneNote Smoothly draw, erase, and edit with your finger, stylus, or mouse on any touch-capable device OneNote automatically converts your handwriting to text, so no worries about your handwriting The new Send to OneNote tool makes it easier to include documents or Web pages in your notebooks
	PowerPoint Presenter View allows you to see your notes on your monitor while the audience only sees the slide Smart Guides automatically appear when your objects are close to even, and tell you when objects are spaced evenly Support for more multimedia formats, such as .mp4 and .mov, more high-definition content, and more built-in codecs
	Outlook The People Card collects key details about a contact all in one place Add your local weather forecast right there in Calendar view, along with current conditions Receive push-based email, appointments, and contacts from Outlook.com, (formerly Hotmail) - right in your Outlook experience
	Access Simply type what you need to track and Access uses table templates to deliver an app that does the job A standardized app framework makes navigating apps familiar and easy Entering data accurately is a breeze with drop-down menus and recommendations that appear when you begin typing
	Publisher Insert and customize prebuilt page part building blocks, including calendars, borders, advertisements, and more Use professional-looking effects including softer shadows, reflections, and OpenType features Search your online albums on Facebook, Flickr and other services and add pictures directly to your document

Office 365 Home Premium

Setting up your account
To set up Office for the first time, visit www.office.com/setup and follow the instructions on the screen. Or, if you purchased online, you can go directly to www.office.com/myaccount to manage your account, because Office was set up automatically.

System requirements
See the system requirements page.

Compatibility with earlier versions
To find out about working with earlier versions of Office, visit the compatibility pack page.

Language options
To find the list of languages that Office is available in, see the FAQ. If you purchase Office 365 Home Premium you can visit www.office.com/myaccount to install Office in other languages.

Office on devices
Office currently supports PCs running Windows 7 or higher, and Macs with Mac OS X 10.6 or higher. Office Mobile supports Windows Phone devices running Windows Phone OS 7.5 and higher.

Skype
To find out about Skype world minutes, see the FAQ.

We are now a Carbonite Partner

I don’t know what took us so long but we are now able to setup and help you manage your cloud backup for home and business. Carbonite has five different plans to choose from. You should be able to find one of them that meets your needs. If you don’t need the more robust Gemini Backup Solution that we offer for your servers, this product should have the right plan at the right price for you to pick from.

The following is an overview of your choices:

Carbonite Home is $59 per year (per computer) with unlimited backup.

Carbonite HomePlus is $99 per year and provides unlimited backup for a single computer and USB attached external hard drive.

Carbonite HomePremier is $149 per year and provides unlimited backup for a single computer, USB attached external hard drive backup and courier recovery. Premium, feature-rich online backup for your computer and external hard drive.

Carbonite Business is $229 per year and comes with a base package of 250 GB of storage. This solution is intended to backup a distributed environment composed of multiple workstations, desktops or laptops. Carbonite Business is priced by the total storage need of the organization not the number of users/machines. Put another way the 250 GB could come from 5 workstations or 50 workstations and the price would not change. Carbonite Business does not support server operating systems.

Carbonite Business Premier is $599 per year for 500 GB of storage and is optimized for server backup. This is the solution you will deploy if you’re installing Carbonite on an actual server operating system. Carbonite Business is priced by the total storage need of the organization not the number of users/machines. Put another way the 500 GB could come from 1 server, 5 servers or 1 server/20 computers and the price would not change.

So there is no excuse now to get yourself setup with the right backup solution now!

Office 365 University

There are several ways for you, as a college student, faculty or staff member you can qualify for one of two offers that Microsoft has for you. This is a very cost effective way for you to have Office for you use while in college. You are licensed for up to two machines/devices that you can put it on and the subscription is for 4 years. The price, just $79.99. You also get 20GB of online storage on SkyDrive and 60 minutes of Skype International calls per month. This is great if you are doing a student exchange in another country or want to keep up with others that are out of country. The four year subscription includes any updates that may come down the line over the subscription period and you as an individual can only purchase one of these per four year period.

The Office 365 University offer provides you with the following Office applications:

	Word In the new Read Mode, text reflows automatically in columns for easier on-screen reading Fewer menus means more focus on your content—see only the tools you need, when you need them Open a PDF in Word, and edit content just as if you created it in Word Show your style by using Word templates in more than 40 categories
	Excel Each workbook has in its own window, making it easier to work on two workbooks— or two monitors— at once New functions in the math and trig, statistical, engineering, date and time, lookup and reference, logical, and text function categories The new Recommended Charts button lets you pick from a variety of charts that are right for your data
	PowerPoint Presenter View allows you to see your notes on your monitor while the audience only sees the slide Smart Guides automatically appear when your objects are close to even, and tell you when objects are spaced evenly Support for more multimedia formats, such as .mp4 and .mov, more high-definition content, and more built-in codecs
	OneNote Smoothly draw, erase, and edit with your finger, stylus, or mouse on any touch-capable device OneNote automatically converts your handwriting to text, so no worries about your handwriting The new Send to OneNote tool makes it easier to include documents or Web pages in your notebooks
	Outlook The People Card collects key details about a contact all in one place Add your local weather forecast right there in Calendar view, along with current conditions Receive push-based email, appointments, and contacts from Outlook.com, (formerly Hotmail) - right in your Outlook experience
	Publisher Insert and customize prebuilt page part building blocks, including calendars, borders, advertisements, and more Use professional-looking effects including softer shadows, reflections, and OpenType features Search your online albums on Facebook, Flickr and other services and add pictures directly to your document
	Access Simply type what you need to track and Access uses table templates to deliver an app that does the job A standardized app framework makes navigating apps familiar and easy Entering data accurately is a breeze with drop-down menus and recommendations that appear when you begin typing

This is a very cost effective way for you to have Office for you use while in college. You are licensed for up to two machines/devices that you can put it on and the subscription is for 4 years. The price, just $79.99. You also get 20GB of online storage on SkyDrive  and 60 minutes of Skype International calls per month. This is great if you are doing a student exchange in another country or want to keep up with others that are out of country. The four year subscription includes any updates that may come down the line over the subscription period and you as an individual can only purchase one of these per four year period.

Do you qualify? Here is Microsoft’s Eligibility Requirements:

PROGRAM ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

This Program is available only to individuals who meet the criteria described below:

1. An “Eligible Student” means an individual who is a student, faculty or staff member at an eligible accredited educational institution geographically located in the United States and must be actively enrolled in at least 0.5 course credit hours at that educational institution and must be able to provide proof of enrollment to Microsoft or its appointed vendor upon request;
2. The Eligible Student must successfully verify their eligibility status through the Offer Site’s online student status verification process; and
3. The Eligible Student must have a Microsoft account or create one at the time of purchase.

If you participate in the Program, Microsoft reserves the right to contact you directly or through an appointed Microsoft vendor to verify that you are an Eligible Student. If you choose not to provide sufficient documentation to Microsoft or its appointed vendor that verifies that you are an Eligible Student, you agree to reimburse Microsoft for the difference between what you paid in connection with a discounted Program offer and the estimated full retail price of the same product(s). Microsoft will have sole discretion to determine the sufficiency of any documentation that you provide to verify you are an Eligible Student. By providing eligibility-related information to Microsoft’s appointed vendor, you agree that the vendor may share such information with Microsoft for Program-related purposes.

Microsoft, in its sole discretion, may accept other forms of validation to determine eligibility in lieu of the online student status verification process.

Microsoft, in its sole discretion, may determine the criteria for eligibility under the Program and may change the eligibility criteria or deny eligibility at any time and for any reason.

To take advantage of this offer go to: click here

Slow Opening Excel files or Word Files over the Network

Jessy just sent this tip over to me this morning:

This is an old issue from about 6 months ago that I encountered this morning. If a user complains about slow opening or Excel or Word files check in Add/Remove Programs (Win7 or XP) for the Office File Validation Add-In update. If its there remove it and reboot. The issue will be resolved. This update causes those files to get stuck over the network when opening.

Jessy Marker

Direct Download Links for MS Office 2007/2010 Suites

Here are some quick links for downloading full setup installer for Microsoft Office 2007  suites and other related applications:

Office 2007 Direct Download Link

• Microsoft Office Professional 2007
• Microsoft Office Small Business 2007
• Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007
• Microsoft Office Standard 2007
• Microsoft Office OneNote 2007
• Microsoft Office Publisher 2007
• Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2007

You will need to provide the installed Office program a genuine and legal product key to successfully activate it.

Microsoft also publishes the trial version of Office 2010 suite products at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/try/, which allows free usage for 60 days. A free product key will be given, and user is required to activate the trial version of Office 2010 within the first 30 days after the installation to utilize the full functionality of the Office 2010. The 60 days trial period will begin only after Office 2010 is activated.

Office 2010 Setup Installer Direct Download Links

Microsoft Office 2010 (Retail Channel) Single Image

• English 32-bit (x86): X16-32007.exe
• English 64-bit (x64):X16-31970.exe.

Microsoft Office Standard 2010

English 32-bit (x86): X16-32324.exe
English 64-bit (x64): X16-32361.exe

Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 (Retail Edition)

English 32-bit (x86): X16-32250.exe
English 64-bit (x64): X16-32213.exe

Is Java really bad for your computer’s health?

I had a couple of clients ask me about whether they should be turning off Java in their computers as has been suggested they do by the Homeland Security announcements this past week. At first the only articles that I saw was the NPR posting and no one else seemed to be talking about it. This weekend shows a torrent of opinions out there suggesting that if you don’t need Java access online business functions you should probably consider turning off Java Scripting in your browsers. If you feel that you could be a target and have critical information that could be compromised then by all means turn this off. Be aware though that this kind of issue is not just associated with Java.

Hackers also use other popular programs for their exploits as well. This is one of the reasons we suggest our CCI Security Suite Software product to insure that your system is always up to date with the latest patches and multiple anti-malware products. The response from Oracle is that the problem only exists with people that have installed the Java Development Kit and that leaves most of us out. But if you are concerned take a look below on how to turn off this feature in your favorite browser.

Chrome

Type "chrome://plugins" into your address bar. This will bring up a new tab. Find the item on the list that reads just plain "Java" and click below it where it says "Disable" in blue. Restart your browser.

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Safari

Choose "Safari" and then "Preferences" on the taskbar or hit control and comma simultaneously (⌘-,). Click "Security" on the top row of the new window. Uncheck the box that reads "Enable Java" if checked. Restart your browser.

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Internet Explorer 8,9, and 10

Go to the "Tools" menu and select "Manage Add-ons." Go to the left of the window that pops up and in the drop-down box below the heading "Show:" select "All Add-ons." Scroll down the list on the right of the window until you find a subheading under the category "Group" that reads "Oracle America, Inc." Select each item and disable it with the "Disable" button in the bottom right-hand corner of the window. Restart your browser.

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Firefox

Go to the "Tools" menu and select "Add-ons" or hit ctrl, shift, and the letter 'a' simultaneously. Select "Plug-ins" on the left-hand side of the new tab that shows up. Scroll the list on the right-hand side of the screen until you find an item that reads "Java (TM) Platform [somethingsomethingsomething]." Click the "Disable" button on the right. Restart your browser.

---

And there you go. If you really, really want to, you can uninstall Java entirely as well, though that's not necessary. You can find the official instructions for how to do so on OS X here, on Windows Vista, 7, and XP here, and on Linux (!) here.

Is A Bookless Library In Your Future?

An article published in GIZMODO brought to my attention that San Antonio is planning a new kind of library for their patrons. While my preference is to read or listen to books electronically I this isn’t what the majority of the people out want to do. Take my daughter Jennifer, every time that I bring up the discussion of how I consume my literature she tells me that she can’t do it that way. She thinks that the best thing to do on a rainy day is to lay on the couch and read a good book. My mother, after my father’s passing, is slowly shedding herself of some of the technology items that he had. One as the Nook that he used to read with. She would rather go to the library to get the book. I believe she uses it as another excuse to get out of the house and to meet and greet people. You know, socialize.

But, I am firmly in the camp of the group of people that if I can get it electronically, that is my preferred method of consumption. I like having my whole library at my fingertips. I purchase all of my technical books that way so that I can have them available on any device that is at hand. I have even convinced my wife to come over to the dark side, we both have our own kindles on the same account so we can easily acquire and share books together. Its great to see or hear about a book and have that instant gratification of downloading to your device the moment that you want it.

With the advent of the library electronic book sharing system, it has gotten even less expensive to grab that new book or old classic and to have it on your device for a couple of weeks to read it leisurely before it terms out and is brought back into the system. You don’t have to actually visit the library to do this, just sign up for a library card. (Don’t forget to send in your donations to support these kinds of services).

San Antonio’s new book-free library comes with a special name called “Biblio Tech” and they intend to open the first one in the fall of 2013. This is all a part of the a Bexar county wide project. They are not forcing you to BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) either. They plan on supplying e-readers (e don’t know which one at this date) to their patrons. This brings up the worry of theft but hopefully they will be able to work that one out as well.  The system puts a time limit of two weeks that you can have the e-reader before it goes dead, and since the library has the patron’s phone number and address in their records this should be enough of an incentive not to be negligent in returning the devices to the library.

This is an interesting new direction for the public library system to take, but there is still something to be said to going into a library to do research using the old tomes that can be found there. In Ligonier where I grew up, the town Public Library is not just a place to get a book. It is also a place to come and socialize. To get away and maybe sit down with the weekly paper or a magazine. We tend to forget in all of our running around and attempts to streamline our lives that there is something to be said in the simple browsing that you do as you walk through the shelves of books in a physical library. So as you may have noticed through this article that I have a slight change of heart from the beginning to this last paragraph on my feelings about a totally digital library, I feel that Library that still has books on its shelves is an important part of our culture but making available the ability to access books electronically is also an important future service that should have available by our libraries.

Office 2013 free Download

If you have purchased Microsoft Office 2010 between the dates of October 19, 2012 and April 30, 2013 you can get the next version of Microsoft Office for free as soon as it is available.

1. All you need to do is buy and activate Office today.
2. Sign up for an email reminder to be notified when you can redeem you offer. Sign up for the offer.
3. Download the new Office when it comes available. After you receive your email notification, return to this website, www.office.com/offer, to download the new Office.

Go to this website for more information on the products that qualify and how to process your offer.

Dragon Naturally Speaking Home Edition 2012

The home addition of Dragon NaturallySpeaking is not only an expensive but is so much more responsive and more accurate than using the built in Windows 7 voice recognition software. It makes voice dictation so much simpler and allows me to quickly and easily dictate my blog posts. I think I will be using this a lot more often both at home and in the office. It will help me and quickly getting email messages sent to allow me to create more descriptive information then I would if I were just typing them out.

The commands are very simple and straightforward and seem to be intuitive to what you are trying to accomplish. The learning curve is very short and training it for your voice which allows you to get up and running very quickly. I have noticed that the command sidebar positions itself on the screen and is best viewed on a widescreen monitor. This is something I don’t have at the office and may have to prompt me into finally replacing the screens as I have been thinking about.

I find the response is much faster than the Windows speech recognition program and I am not constantly slowing down waiting for the program to recognize what I am saying. One downfall that I have seen so far though is that Live Writer doesn’t seem to work with this program directly. So I need to create my document inside Word first and then drop it into live writer program. I am not sure that this is all that bad because I find that Microsoft Word seems to have a better grammar checker then does Live Writer. And Lord knows that I need all the help that I can get!

As a whole I am very happy with the purchase, and I think I will get very good use out of this product. If anyone else is using this program and would like to make comments on their experience with it I would love to hear from you.

Private Apps function now available in the Google Play Store for Android

One of primary focus’s at Computer Connections is with our business customers. We spend a lot of our time supporting their software and hardware integration and maximizing their mobile and desktop productivity. With the emergence of more and more android development applications for us to use the ability to add customized applications to your mobile Android devices (phones and tablets) becomes a big bonus. This makes the Android environment more friendly business environment as well as better environments for government and educational users as well.

To setup this capability all you need to do is enable it in the developer console and then you can upload applications to the Play Store. This new section will allow a user to browse, download and update internal applications without the need to sideload them. To find out more information on this jump to Google Enterprise Blog located here.

• Google Play Private Channel for Google Apps

• Sign in to your control panel
• Google Play Developer Console help center

Windows 8 touch PC demand strong

I am seeing quite a few posts lately stating that they are starting to see a demand trend towards Windows 8 machines with touchscreens. Personally I wouldn’t want a PC running Windows 8 without a touchscreen because the ability to have direct interaction with the screen greatly enhances the Windows 8 experience.

We have recently set up a four screen set up in our showroom (see the picture to the right) and it turned out beautifully. We also have an All-in-One touchscreen and even though I like looking at the four screen setup I find the touchscreen on the All-in-One to be more enjoyable to use. I can only see this as getting more important to a user when the have a laptop, convertible or tablet with Windows 8 on it.

There are some reports of touchscreen shortages that are attributed to this demand. In general a touchscreen device is more expensive than a non-touchscreen one, which tells us that people really want this capability in their new purchases. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues and if the touchscreen products will start to be produced in greater quantity and hopefully the prices will start to come down.

Let me know your thoughts!

Windows 8 Drivers for Xerox Documate Scanners

Press Release: We are seeing drivers become available for Windows 8 very quickly. Xerox sent out this notification today. If you have a Xerox Documate Scanner go to: xerox.com

Dear Xerox Documate Scanner customer,

As a registered user of our Xerox Documate scanners, we are pleased to announce that all drivers for its most popular professional and consumer scanners have been updated and deemed fully compatible with the new Windows 8 operating system. New and updated drivers are now available for immediate download.

“We are committed to giving our customers a favorable scanner experience with full operating system compatibility and our engineering team has worked diligently to ensure that Xerox DocuMate® products are compatible with the new Windows 8 OS,” said Walter Thinfen, chief information officer and vice president of support and services at Visioneer, a Xerox licensing partner.

Availability of Drivers
Windows 8 drivers for Xerox DocuMate scanners are available immediately on the Xerox Scanners.com support page. Driver support for other Microsoft operating systems can also be found at this website.

We appreciate your business and loyalty. If you have any other product inquiries, please call us at 925-251-6399, Monday through Friday 7 am to 4 pm PST.

Thank you,
The Xerox Scanner Support Team
http://www.xeroxscanners.com/en/us/support/

Microsoft Surface Pro–coming in January…

So we finally have some initial specs and pricing for the upcoming release of the Surface Pro tablets. Basic specs include your choice of either a 64 or 128 GB SSD, i5 processor, 4GB RAM, 10.6 inch 1920x1080 10 point touch screen (this is higher resolution than the Surface RT, 1366 x 768), a Digitizer Pen for Pen input, Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n), Bluetooth 4.0, 42E-h battery, (2) 720p front and rear facing cameras, microphone, stereo speakers, full-size USB 3.0 port, microSDXC card slot, Headset Jack, mini DisplayPort (that can output a 2560 x 1440 resolution), and the following sensors: Ambient light sensor, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Compass.

Priced at $899 for the 64GB version and $999 for the 128GB version there are a couple things that concern me about this device. First and foremost is the short battery life. The Surface Team confirmed that it will get half of the 8-10 hour battery life that the Surface RT has. So at 4-5 hours that is really pretty poor for this type of device. Is is a powerful i5 Ivy Bridge processor so we should see good performance and with the unit only weighing in at less than 2 pounds, for many the battery life might not be an issue. However, I would have liked something between 7 or 8 hours to get one through a full day at work.

For a person on the go that wants the lightest computer  possible in a form factor that makes it great for doing intake data collection (medical) or a writer that is on the move this is something that might really work for you. I live with both my iPad and my Nexus 7 at my side pretty much 24x7. My phone is less of concern for me anymore since I have gotten a 7 inch tablet (I just slide the tablet in one of my pockets without a problem). It would have been nice if the keyboard had been included in the price but that will be something that you will need to add to your basket when you purchase this tablet. Also missing in this tablet is Microsoft Office, so you will need to add that back in as well.All in all if you are in need of tablet that will allow you to run your Windows 7 applications and want something that is light and in a tablet format then you may be a candidate for this version of the Surface.

Lenovo ThinkPad Twist

Lenovo has quite a few different offerings available with the new Windows 8 operating system and I agree with most of the reviewers out there that believe that Windows 8 is best when being used in conjunction with touch technology. So if you are looking for a Notebook and want to have the newest a greatest make this one of your must have options on the new notebook. I recently posted information on the Lenovo Yoga that is one interesting design, The ThinkPad Twist is reusing a traditional convertible PC design with the center post allowing the screen to swivel the screen to fold back onto the keyboard to give you a 12 inch fat tablet configuration. Priced from $829 to $1,129 with the primary difference in processors and the amount of RAM.

Weighing in at 3.48 pounds the Twist can easily be cradled in the crook of your arm or handled single handedly. The from factor lends itself well towards presentations which is probably why you would be considering this type of notebook in the first place. However, it is not as easy to handle as a true tablet would be which is characteristic of all 11.6 – 13.6 inch Windows 8 convertibles. The touchscreen is made of Gorilla Glass using HD IPS (in-plane switching) display for wide angle views, again great for presentations. It has a 1,366 x 768 pixel count  which is below the Yoga’s 1,600 x 900 display. I would liked to seen a little better resolution but it isn’t there. The shell construction is of Magnesium Alloy that provides extra durability and keeps it light and thin.

As with most of Lenovo’s laptops this one also has their ThinkVantage Active Protection System (APS) that uses an accelerometer to detect movement and stops the drive when a fall or similar event is detected. Rubber mounts are used for the hard disk drive to provide a little more protection. Other specs include a real Ethernet jack, two USB 3.0 ports, a mini-DisplayPort, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a mini-HDMI connector. There is  a memory card reader that is often left off of the smaller notebook systems.

Save for a few small modifications, this is more or less the same six-row, island-style keyboard Lenovo used on the X230 and some other recent systems. At this point, it's been at least six months since the company unveiled its latest keyboard design. The important thing to know is that the keys have about 30 percent more surface area than they used to. Meanwhile, the page up / down buttons have moved to the lower right area, so that they're clustered in with the arrow keys, arranged side by side instead of stacked on top of one another. It's also spill-resistant, like other ThinkPad keyboards before it. As for ergonomics, Lenovo has maintained that even though it's moved from a traditional spread to a chiclet arrangement, the keys should still offer about the same amount of pitch.

So what's new? Lenovo has added four Windows 8 hotkeys to the Function row up top. These include buttons for searching, settings, the app list and toggling between open apps. With regards to that last one, you'll see a row of thumbnails stretch across the screen, with each one representing an open program. You can click on them with your mouse or finger, of course, but you can also use the left, right and Enter keys to select the one you want. As I earlier suggested I prefer using Windows 8 with some sort of touch input device, but it's still nice to see Lenovo adding an extra option for people who prefer keyboard shortcuts. One missing feature is that the keyboard is not backlit which is something that I would have liked to seen.

Battery life is a little poor as well. Lenovo rates it at 7 hours but in battery tests using WiFi and streaming video only about 4 hours was the mean time of support. I have included a table from engadget showing some comparable system’s battery test times as well to compare their results. Other than this poor result from the battery life, a real road warrior may find this feature one that would prevent them from purchasing it. However, if long battery life is not an issue for you. then the other features add up to a very nice device.

Could the Start Button possibly come back to Windows 8

I am sure this would make a lot of people happy to see happen. Could the fact that Steven Sinofsky is out be enough of a change to make this happen? Since he is attributed to being the driving force for losing the Start Button this could be one of the results of his leaving. There are already patches provided by third party entities that bring the Desktop and Start Button back to the interface and it would be a great thing to have this as an option for corporate users. Big change isn’t good in the Corporate World because of the costs associated with retraining office workers with new programs and interface designs. Something along this line would greatly contribute to the acceptance of Windows 8 more quickly in business environments.

ASG V7 will end-of-life soon

  

Upgrade before end December 2012

Important: Version 7 of the Astaro Security Gateway (ASG) will end-of-life on 31 December 2012. On this date Sophos will stop all security patching, pattern updates, firmware updates and technical support for this version. If you still have an active installation of ASG V7 you should move to a newer version before this date.

Your migration options
You should migrate to the latest stable version of Sophos UTM 9 or ASG V8, both of which continue to receive security fixes and deliver ongoing protection for your company. For a complete list of current options, pricing, and any other questions you have please contact us at Computer Connections.

You can also take advantage of our special, limited-time opportunity to get a new appliance model at a discounted price through our Hardware Refresh Program! Speak to us to learn more.

Hardware
Hardware appliances running V7.510+ can use the option on the Up2Date menu to one-touch-upgrade to ASG V8. This brings you to the V8 platform automatically but requires further Up2Dates after the migration is complete to be on the latest version of V8.

UTM 9 is the successor to ASG V8 and includes a number of new features including the HTML 5 VPN portal and the option to add Endpoint protection. You cannot upgrade directly to this platform from ASG V7 via a one-touch operation. To move from ASG V7 to UTM 9 you will need to install UTM 9 and then restore a backup file. While your legacy configuration should import successfully, for best results you should first restore your backup into ASG V8 and then take a backup from that platform into UTM 9.

Software
Installations running an ASG V7 software appliance on their own hardware need to install an updated version and then restore a backup file of their configuration. This will apply all your settings except for log files and on-box reports. Logs can be exported in bulk from within the WebAdmin beforehand. Reports will begin anew on your updated platform as existing reports will be removed.

For further information or help upgrading please call us at 724-838-7526 and we will get one of our technical support team assigned to assist you.

Explore 100,000 Stars From the Comfort of Your Browser

Okay, if there was a question before this certainly shows how much of a geek I am. Here is a quick Stellar Map of the Milky Way that you can explore from within your browser. I could get lost in this for awhile that’s for sure. Run the site through your Google Chrome Browser for best results. 100,000 stars…

Interesting review on the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 inch

Lenovo is definitely giving us many options with Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro machines and here is one more example. Since CES I have been drooling over this design probably only because it is so much different. Priced in the UltraBook price range it is an interesting the mixed review that I have seen on it so far. The one thing I would hope for with this design is a more substantial hinge. In the early years when I had one of the first Microsoft Tablet/Convertibles.

Most consider the tablet function a little unwieldy which I can understand but I still come from a 15 inch display convertible that weighed in at a hefty 5.5 lbs so using a thin and light 13.3 inch unit is like heaven. If you feel that it might be a little big, think about deciding to downsize to the 11.6 inch version. Though it’s hdd is much smaller 65gb and the big difference is that is running Windows 8 RT. So if you need more power and function you have to stay with the larger unit.

Here are the basic specs:

• 360 degree dual- hinge flip design
• At 0.67" (16.9mm) thin and 3.1 lbs (1.47kg), the Yoga is the industry's thinnest convertible Ultrabook
• Powered by the next generation ("Ivy Bridge") Intel Core processor family and a Windows 8 operating system
• 8 hours of battery life
• Up to 8 GB of RAM
• Up to 128GB SSD storage (optional upgrade to 256GB)
• 13.3" screen with 1600 x 900 resolution and 10-point capacitive touch
• Design: Soft touch rubber paint on the exterior for strong grip, a leather cover on the palm rest, and side buttons designed for easier access for all usage modes
• Starting at 3.4 lbs
• Prices range from $999 to $1,549
• Expected Ship date mid December 2012

Take a look at these articles for more in depth reviews:

• Windows 8: Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga Flip - Jan. 9, 2012 by Paul Thurrott's Supersite for Windows
• Lenovo Yoga Review: This Is How You Build a PC/Tablet Freak Machine by Kyle Wagner Gizmodo
• Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 review by Dana Wollman engadget

All in All I think that it is a buy if your are looking at this market but I have two concerns, the keyboard review and how well it will hold up and the sensitivity of the touchscreen.

Yoga 13 Tech Specs