Tag: Windows

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Thought of The Day: Windows 7 is a knee-jerk reaction.

Having been using Windows 7 since the early Beta to the RTM and now the retail version, I really think that it is a knee-jerk reaction to consumers’ knee-jerk reactions to Windows Vista. If that’s not a run-on sentence then please pretend that it is not.

Windows 7 is definitely an improvement over Windows Vista. It seems to run snappier than Windows Vista. Under the hood, Windows 7 is not much different than Windows Vista. The UI in Windows 7 resembles of that Windows Vista’s. So what’s new with Windows 7?

The tech community seems to agree that Windows 7 is a polished Windows Vista. It is Windows Vista cleaned-up. I can’t help myself from asking the question why Windows 7 still costs to much for consumer to buy? Are there any significant benefits upgrading to Windows 7 from Windows Vista? Is it wise to upgrade a Windows XP computer  to Windows 7?

Honestly, it’s better to buy a new computer with Windows 7 pre-installed.

Windows 7 now features a less annoying UAC (User Account Control). If you’re running as an administrator, UAC will bug you a lot less to a point it wouldn’t bug you at all. In a way that’s a step back in security from Windows Vista.

I am interested in what Microsoft could come up with the successor to Windows 7. Plase do not call it Windows 8.

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Picasa 3.5.1 for Mac

I don’t really know when the update was actually released, Gogole Software Update just informed me that Picasa 3.5.1 for Mac OS X is now available.

Picasa 3.5.1

Picasa for Windows is still at 3.5.0 at the time of this post.

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Microsoft Security Essentials

I have been using Microsoft Security Essentials Beta on day one. I did have some reservations on this product instead of blindly believing whatever Microsoft P.R. (a.k.a. Paul Thurrott) was saying in Windows Weekly Podcast.

My first impressions on Microsoft Security Essentials were:

  • Small memory footprint.
  • Doing good job at detecting malware on a known infected hard-drive.
  • Excessive use of “At Risk” phrase.

Overall I am impressed with the performance and I have installed it on numbers of computers that I managed. Two things that I stumbled upon are:

  • VNC is flagged as security threat.
  • Explorer.exe uses a lot more memory during the scan. It is unclear if Security Essentials offloads part of the scanning task to Explorer.exe.

In addition to that I have also installed Microsoft Security Essentials for some friends who were having virus troubles repeatedly in the past. This would put Microsoft Security Essentials to the test. Then again, the users often are the weakest links in computer security.

Get Microsoft Security Essentials.

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Apple updates iTunes and Logic.

2009.09.22

software_update iTunes Icon

Apple releases updates to iTunes 9 and Logic Studio ’09.

iTunes 9.0.1 for Windows (64 bit) | 88.80MB
iTunes 9.0.1 provides a number of important bug fixes.

iTunes 9.0.1 for Mac OS X and Windows (32-bit) | 82.95MB
iTunes 9 provides a number of important bug fixes and addresses an issue with verification of Apple devices.

Logic Pro 9.0.1 | 183MB
This update improves overall stability and provides numerous fixes and enhancements.

Logic Express 9.0.1 | 133.74MB
This update improves overall stability and provides numerous fixes and enhancements.

Main Stage 2.0.1 | 206.75MB
This update improves overall performance and provides numerous fixes and enhancements, including the Loopback and Playback plug-ins.

All the updates are available through Software Update and Apple Web-site.

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Google Sync with push Gmail and Picasa 3.5

Google has been busy today with the release of Picasa 3.5 and Google Sync with push Gmail.

Google has just added push support into Google Sync. Google Sync supports BlackBerry, iPhone, Nokia S60, Windows Mobile and other phones. iPhone users now can have push Gmailon their phones.

Google Sync uses Microsoft Exchange Active Sync Protocol. iPhone can only have one Exchange ActiveSync account configured.

iPhone one Exchange ActiveSync

Picasa

Today Google also releases Picassa 3.5 with name tags.

picasa_name_tag

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Apple’s “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it” Aftermath.

09.09.2009

09nano_iris_320

Moments after “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it” a few new things just popping up.

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Apple’s Press Releases: