January, 2009

Just a quick note to highlight a Windows Live site that has just gone live in the UK Explore Windows Live

‘Windows Live offers a complete set of services that lets you integrate, share and use all your digital stuff from any PC, Phone or Web Device. We have created a brand new personalised home page experience that manages all of your internet activity at http://home.live.com. Monitor your favourite social network feeds, view friends’ photo albums and much more! ‘

Learn about all the services and things you can do in Windows Live such as Messenger, Hotmail, Photos, Groups, Skydrive, Mail, Photography, Calendar, Events, Spaces, Writer, Movie Maker and Family Safety.

If you are new to Windows Live or just want to get the latest info and downloads then this is a good place to start.

Also remember if you are using Windows Live and stuck with a problem then the Windows Help and How-to Windows Live help center might be able to sort you out.

Rob

I have been using the Microsoft Arc mouse now for a week and thought I would pop down my thoughts and feedback on it.

Things I like about it

• The overall physical product design is great, and as it is different to most mice. You get a lot of questions about it wherever you use it, even internally at Microsoft.
• It feels great in your hand and the top covering provides just the right amount of feeling back into the hand
• The super tiny usb receiver that also sticks (magnetised) into a little section when not in use.
• The folding leg to reduce size when travelling is very tidy and feels very sturdy
• It glides over every surface I have tried effortlessly, more than previous mice
• The little pouch carry case is a nice little extra to keep it all tidy when dumped into your laptop bag
• It worked with Windows 7 with no problems

Things I think can be improved

• I am sure I am going to break the battery holder after a couple of uses, it looks a little flimsy to me and bends a lot when opening
• The feedback left and right on the scroll wheel isn’t great, certainly not as good as previous scroll wheel mice I have used
• After the first use my wrist was a little sore, which i put down to a slightly different position compared to the previous mouse, however this has gone away as I get used to it and change my arm/hand posture to compensate.
• The packaging could I think be reduced and made easier to get into

Overall it is a pretty good mouse, it ticks all the boxes as well as looking fantastic which counts a lot to me and will probably be on my desk for some time to come.

Rob

Here is a quick tip, if you are running the Windows 7 Beta and are having problem connecting your E650 phone, getting errors such as Device Driver was not successfully installed

then try downloading the Mobile Device Center 6.1, although it claims that

‘The Windows Mobile Device Center 6.1 is only supported on Windows Vista.’

It seems to work, although you may want to make any backups before doing so.

Download the software and then connect the phone through the USB-Mini usb cable, unlock it and follow the screens to set it up.

	1. setup your device
	2. Choose what kinds of items you want to sync - Contacts - Calendar - Email - Tasks - Mobile Favourites - Files - One Note
	3. Enter in your email server and account details if appropriate
	4. Connect to your exchange server
	5. all setup and ready to Sync
	6. and syncing…
	7. Connected and now you can use the device

Hope that helps if you are having problems

Rob

Thanks to Kevin for the tip, here is a simple and neat little tool to create an online mosaic of all the people you are following on who are following you on Twitter

Rob

If you have not yet tried IE8 out then you may want to give the RC1* Windows Internet Explorer 8 a try

• Faster for accomplishing tasks, from mapping a location to checking the status of an auction.  In side-by-side measures of speed, IE8 was as fast or faster than Firefox in opening top websites more than 50% of the time.  The rest of the time you need an ultra-slow motion video camera to catch the difference between IE8, Firefox and Google Chrome.
• Easier to find information, to navigate, to search, to work with tabs.  Accelerators and Web Slices blur the lines between the online services that make each person's browsing unique and the browser itself, making the IE8 experience richer.
• Safer and more reliable with advanced privacy protection that no other browser can match.

So try it out for your non Windows 7 machine at http://www.microsoft.com/ie8

*RC1 = Release candidate software is at a stage in the development process where it is ready to be evaluated by users while it undergoes final testing.

Rob

Just wanted to share this excellent article written by a colleague of mine Chris Moore about how to use Windows Live Writer and Spaces to create a free online travel Blog

The posting Chris.Life : A free travel blog with Windows Live Writer and Spaces covers Chris and his girlfriends trip to Thailand.  Chris covers

• setting up his space at http://chrismdotcom.spaces.live.com/ and blog
• Installing and setting up windows Live writer
• Creating offline blog posts
• Uploading blog postings to spaces

Excellent read :)

Rob

There was a lot of coverage of Twitter traffic overtaking Digg earlier this week well in the UK traffic has grown rapidly according to Hitwise in the last 12 months:

Twitter use in the UK explodes by ten times says Hitwise

I don’t think that me getting into Twitter in October is the main cause of the massive increase seen in the last few months. But rather the celebs that are tweeting…

‘Famous Twitterers are boosting the site. Stephen Fry, has over 50,000 followers, John Cleese can claim more than 30,000, and 2,000 people are following Andy Murray’s progress at the Australian Open. Jonathan Ross (13,000+ followers) is spreading the Twitter religion by verifying if his celeb pals are on it. He calls himself the “Number One Twitter Detective’

I am not a big follower of celebs on Twitter, in fact the only ones I follow are

1. Lance Armstrong http://twitter.com/lancearmstrong
2. Rhodri Marsden http://twitter.com/rhodri

Rob

Just wanted to highlight these 4 new Windows Home Server Videos from Steve Dotto in Canada

Click the image and then select which demo you want to see and the Silverlight player will launch with that one playing, you can choose from

• Windows Home Server and Pictures
• Expanding storage of a Windows Home Server
• Windows Home Server and Music
• Windows Home Server and Windows Media Center

thanks to Steven on the Windows Home Server Team Blog for the link.

Rob

This is pretty cool and nifty and something I didn’t know you could do until recently.

Simply by going to http://profile.live.com/webactivities you can update your Windows Live status with anything from your last tweet, photos on Flickr or a custom RSS feed.

So having become an avid Twitter addict I have added my last tweet to my own windows live profile.

Thanks to Rob on Windows Live Wire for the tip

Rob

Preston Gralla over on Computer World has a great article about the Seven reasons you need Windows 7:

• Its faster
• Nifty New taskbar
• Aero Peek
• Jump lists
• UAC taming
• Backup
• Search & File management

So what are you waiting for, download the beta (before it closes)

Rob