Recently there has been a lot of rumbling in the tech press about the latest operating system from Microsoft, Windows 8. It was announced and immediately released as a developer preview that anyone can download for free from the Microsoft website.
On the surface Windows 8 looks to be Windows 7 with their new Metro UI pasted on top. The press seem to be reacting to the news in a variety of ways – either total dismay, or a mediocre Luke-warm response to their new ideas.
I decided to download the preview and give it a try, but what is the safest way to test out this very early software on the Mac? By using a Virtual machine of course!
Getting up and running with the Windows 8 Developer Preview couldn’t be easier for Mac users. Here is a quick guide to get you up and running using my software of choice VMWare Fusion 4, the latest release of the excellent Fusion client. Leave a comment at the bottom of the post if you have any questions. Read More
This week I was lucky enough to receive a review handset from Nokia to try out for a few weeks and put through a barrage of tests. After using the phone for only a limited time, my initial impressions are:
- The N8 is well put together, and the design of the phone is rugged and high quality.
- It is a good size, fits well in the hand and all the controls can be easily reached during one handed operation
- The screen is only running at 640 x 360 pixels, however, the OLED display has excellent colour reproduction and the blacks are perfect
- Setting up email and calendar syncing was simple enough, however, not as easy as on the iPhone and with several extra steps required
- Having a physical camera button is a real bonus when it comes to taking better quality photos with the excellent 12MP camera, but only if you are using two hands to frame the shot
- Call quality and battery life are both excellent, turns out I had got used to having a phone that barely lasted a day and was no good for actually talking to people
- I’m not the first person to have this review unit, the back of the camera bump where it touches when you put it on any surface has got a bit battered over time and some of the bare metal has been exposed
- Symbian ^3 is not a modern smart phone OS and is severely lacking in many departments, also – some of the apps crash instantly on opening (the social app for example) and I can’t find any clues online as to why this might be
A more detailed review and some browser functionality and speed tests will be coming over the next 2 weeks.
Some comparison shots with the Apple iPhone4
The Nokia N8 review handset was kindly supplied by WOMWorld. The WOMWorld/Nokia is a Nokia sponsored resource providing latest news, comment and feedback on all things Nokia from the world of social media and beyond. Visit the site here.
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The New Community Rules – Marketing on the Social Web is a book by prolific blogger and all around social media expert Tamar Weinberg. The back of the book claims to help you “understand how social web technologies work, and learn the most practical and effective ways to reach people who frequent these sites.”
When first picking up the book it is a lot thicker than you would normally expect for a non-technical text. Weighing in at a healthy 346 pages, it is a weighty tome – the reason for this seems to be that the book is designed and written to cater for the majority of different potential users. Rather than just devote the text to those already working in the field, looking to brush up on their knowledge – the book assumes that you have no prior knowledge of the social web technologies discussed and holds your hand through the very basic right up to explaining the more detailed reasons why you might engage with users in a particular way, through to methods for quantifying success and setting targets. Although most of this introductory text was not directly applicable to me – I did use some of the information to help me explain the benefits of the various technologies to other people – and this is where the book really comes into its own. If you work within digital marketing already, but sometimes have a hard time explaining the reasons behind your recommendations or persuading clients to commit to digital marketing campaigns then this book will become a very useful part of your arsenal. Read More
Oh dear Adobe, oh dear. Once more you have managed to get your big stirring spoon out and get all the tech media in a rage about Apple, and guess what – this time they didn’t even do anything wrong! Following the recent launch of Mac OSX 10.7 Lion, Adobe claimed that Apple had removed support for hardware acceleration from their operating system – making Flash appear to perform less effectively than it had done under 10.6 Snow Leopard. The media jumped on the accusation, always keen to get an attack going on Apple.
Shortly after, the following post appeared on the Adobe Flash Player Team Blog.
“We saw that there were some questions today related to Flash Player 10.3 support for Mac OS X Lion (10.7) related to hardware video acceleration. To avoid any more confusion, we wanted to clarify:
The final release of Mac OS X Lion (10.7) provides the same support for Flash hardware video acceleration as Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6). The previous “Known Issue” described in a tech note suggesting that video hardware acceleration was disabled in Lion was incorrect and based on tests with a pre-release version of Mac OS X Lion that related to only one particular Mac GPU configuration. We continue to work closely with Apple to provide Flash Player users with a high quality experience on Mac computers.”
Sounds like a lot of fuss about nothing to me, as usual.
Quick tip for the day: “How do I force eject a DVD or CD from a slot loading drive on a MacBook or MacBook Pro?”
This one is really simple once you know it, but not at all obvious if you don’t. If you can’t eject the disc from your drive, don’t panic! Just restart the machine and hold down the trackpad, after a few seconds you should hear the noise that will slow your heart rate and reduce your panic. The disc should eject all by itself without the need for any tools, sweating or swearing.
The official guidelines from Apple are as follows:
- If the drive ejects discs slowly or appears to be struggling, insert and eject a single disc several times.
- If the drive does not eject discs using the F12 or eject key on the keyboard.
- If the disc will not eject try dragging the disc icon to the trash.
- If the disc will still not eject, holding down the trackpad or mouse button after restarting the computer should also eject a disc.
- If the disc continues not to eject, reset the Power Manager (PMU) or System Management Controller (SMC) and try steps 1-4 again.
Enjoy 
