Of course Google can't stand back and watch Microsoft take the cake for all the publicity on the recent beta of Office 12 and Vista, so Google came out with a whole package of software! The package includes some of Google's very own software like Google Talk and Google Earth, but also includes software from other sources.
Featuring the much anticipated video conferencing ability, Skype 2.0 has been released with a bang. The new version just released earlier today has various new features as well as many bug improvements from the previous betas. This is a big step for Skype as it is making its way to be an everyday utility used by millions of people around the World.
If you are a legal Microsoft Windows Vista 5270 user then you are now able to download the patch that will fix the Media Center capabilities. Even Microsoft was having issues with Vista at CES because of this problem which is probably what pushed for them to get a patch so quickly.
Microsoft is showing off the new Windows Vista Sidebar on their new Vista Site. It definitely has some graphical and usability enhancements from back when we saw it in Windows Longhorn 4074. Hopefully it also won't suck up all of your computers resources and create memory leaks like they had in previous versions of the sidebar. Looks pretty slick though!
Microsoft has redesigned the Microsoft Windows Vista Home Page to make it more graphically enhanced. They also added more screenshots and has plans on going more in depth into the new features that are going to be implemented.
The Windows SuperSite which is ran by Paul Thurrott has screenshots of Microsoft Office 12 Beta 1. It has many different galleries: Installation, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, FrontPage, and OneNote. Microsoft Office 12 is going to be a very powerful application but will have a learning curve to it. I have already given my review on this Beta version of Office and listed the bugs I found.
Paul Thurrott has supplied some nice photos of what we can expect in the future version of Windows. People have said that Windows Vista 5270 has some nice Tablet PC enhancements to it, where one of the really nice features is the ability for the computer to learn how you write. It will be similar to voice training I would presume, but I have not been able to test this feature myself.
This could end up being the ultimate Firefox Extension! Soon you may be able to do all of your file sharing straight from Firefox. That is the concept of Peer Pressure File Sharing.
If you have not heard, WordPress 2.0 has been released and is out of the beta version. My site is run off of this software and it is very well put together. The upgrade for me was seamless, all I had to do was transfer the files over (leaving my wp-config.php and wp-content folder unchanged as stated) and it just worked.
Now, instead of carrying around maps on a piece of paper or trying to view them on your phone, you can store them on your iPod Photo! Yahoo recently released this service to compete with the overwhelming popularity Google has been receiving from their mapping services.Yahoo Maps and the popular iPod Photo portable MP3 player are used together to bring you an exciting online service called iPod-iWay.
A user over at Longhorn Blogs has given us the knowledge needed to try out the IIS 7.0 Web Server in Microsoft Windows Vista 5270: 1. Press WinKey+R on your keyboard, and then type ?cmd.exe? (without the quotes). 2.
A new utility released by Microsoft now allows users to take an ISO image and mount it to a virtual CD-ROM. There are other free utilities that can do the same sort of thing, but it is nice to see that Microsoft has finally stepped up to meet the needs of the users.
TechSpot is back at it with another Windows XP Tweaking guide to help maximize your system's performance. After awhile your computer will feel like it is not as fast as it used to be, but this should help regain some of that loss.
ActiveWin has recently posted some 64-bit images of the new December CTP of Microsoft Windows Vista 5270. The screenshots that they have put up are of the Media Center view as pictured above. The only current torrent that has been released is the 32-bit and can be found here.
AOL has released a beta version of a toolbar for Firefox. I am not a huge fan of AOL and currently only use the Google toolbar (which is beyond useful). However, I do know that there are AOL fans out there so you might want to check out this OFFICIAL AOL Toolbar for Firefox!
Are you wondering how your computer stacks up to others? Well, now Windows Vista 5270 will tell you. With a revamped System Properties it will tell you how each primary component ranks: Processor, RAM, Hard Disk, Graphics, and Gaming Graphics.
It may be Christmas, but that didn't stop Avant Browser from releasing an update. Version 10.1.038 adds some new features that are nice to keep up-to-date. Some of these updated features are in JavaScript handling, the popup blocker, and the RSS Reader. Avant Browser is great if you are looking for an Internet Explorer alternative that includes tabs.
The newest developments for the Firefox web browser has definitely been IE Tab. It allows you to view 'IE Only' pages in a Firefox tab instead of having to open Internet Explorer. This is one of the most useful extensions that I have on my list and I highly recommend that you give it a shot if you haven't already.
Norton Internet Security 2006 Beta 9.1 appears to have gotten a refresh. I don't see a list of changes but I am not a big fan of the Symantec product line. I tend to go to Eset for my security needs and use their antivirus (NOD32).
It looks like Paul Thurrott has gotten around to part 2 and part 3 of his reviews on the 'newly' released Windows Vista. With these two parts he is taking a close look at the new things that can be found in Windows Vista, such as Windows Media Player 11 and Windows Defender (formerly Microsoft AntiSpyware). Part 3 goes into the new power management features and the parental controls.
