mip's scan

Google Office Suite Complete. Now What?

Google added to their online office suite that capability to create presentations.  Previously they had the online word processor and spreadsheet.  Now they've launched a competitor to Microsoft's Powerpoint.  I've been using the presentation tool in the last 2 days to create a presentation I'm giving this afternoon.  Yes, that is brave thing to do, but I wanted to stress test the tool in a real world setting.  If you are asking yourself the question "what advantage does this online suite of tools bring?" watch the video below, then join me after the jump for a little discussion on this.

Storage Service from Google

As my gmail inbox ballooned to close to 2.5GB I wondered if they'd come out some paid option. Indeed, today I see that Google has done just that. The cost seems to be fair and should draw customers I believe. Here are the details:

The prices range from $20 per year for 6 gigabytes of online storage; $75 per year for 25 gigabytes of storage; $250 per year for 100 gigabytes of storage; and $500 per year for 250 gigabytes of storage.

so what do you think dear reader? Is this something you would utilize? i'm on vacation, so will dig deeper upon my return. if this can be used for pure online storage (ie. backup) I can see going for the larger size personally. If it is only for gmail, then i'll go with the 6GB option.

Moving to Vista?

I was recently asked "When are we moving to Vista?" 
My response: "I'm not sure yet."

Seems, I'm not alone.

I was reading an article that provided details regarding companies upgrading to Vista, and 87% of CIOs/CTOs said that they wouldn't be moving anytime soon, but rather, they would stay with their current versions of Windows.  This is bad news for Microsoft, and potentially good news for other alternate OS's, like Apple's OSX.  In the same survey, interest in Apple's OSX in the enterprise went from 0% to 4%.  That is quite a jump in just a year's time.  Perhaps Microsoft's release of Vista has given Apple some time to make further in-roads into the enterprise.  Improvements in Apple's upcoming Leopard should include more enterprise-ready features if they are to increase their penetration into the corporate world.

As for Vista, I think that the 87% of people unwilling or not planning to move is very telling with regards to the OS's success (or lack thereof).  There is already talk that Microsoft's next OS will be targeted for 2010. As a Director of IT, if I don't move to Vista now, will I a year from now knowing that a new version of the OS is coming out?  I think by and large, many companies will skip Vista and see what comes from Microsoft next.  There will be no mass rollouts of Vista. 

Vista will make its way into the enterprise through attrition.  As old PCs and laptops are replaced, and sellers like Dell, IBM and others push Vista, there will be some penetration, but not a lot.  Already, companies who order machines that come preloaded with Vista, simply reformat the machine and then install XP.  That will continue for a while and manufactures will need to continue to offer XP loaded machines because that is what their customers will be asking for.  In my opinion, there just wasn't enough new in Vista to warrant making a switch to it.  Yes, it's just my opinion, but it seems that perhaps 87% of people agree with me.

Windows Remote Desktop for the Mac

If you are like me and you use your Mac in a corporate setting, chances are that you might have to remote desktop to a Windows computer or server.  From Mac I have been doing this via Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection, which has worked well.  I wanted to post that they now have an upgrade, that is free.  It is in beta but works quite well.

The improvements to this version include:

• Universal Binary - finally!
• Works with Vista, and uses the new Remote Desktop protocol
• Multiple session support (which is really important for me...it was frustrating before to only be able to open one session at a time when you needed to be working on two servers)
• Better printer support
• Improved User Interface

If this is something that you have been using, or need to use, you can grab it here.

The Prada Smartphone

The question of the day is: what makes a great Smartphone?  Many people are waiting for the highly anticipated iPhone, myself included.  But what else is out there?  Many options.  Today I'm pleased to talk to you, via the video posting below, about the Prada Smartphone. 

A colleague of mine picked this up for himself and was nice enough to let me try it out overnight.  You can get my take on this phone by watching the video, but I go back to my initial question...what makes a great Smartphone?  The short answer I think is: Whichever phone best helps you do what YOU want to do.  As much as I really liked a lot of the features of the Prada, its lack of a QWERTY keyboard holds this beauty back.  With a soft-interface (meaning an interface that is create by software rather than hardware), I'm not sure why LG didn't build in a QWERTY keyboard.  Without it, sending emails would be way to cumbersome for me. 

So I'm holding out for the iPhone.  What about you?

The Power of Wikis

I recently read a good book on Wikis called Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott.  It is an excellent read.  I had a colleague at work who "just gets this stuff" read it as well and he found it interesting and thought provoking.  The thing is, most people don't seem to understand Wikis and that prevents them from delving into the topic with a book such as the one from Tapscott.  I tried to explain it to a few other people I know but they weren't interested.  It is kind of like blogging before it became mainstream...most people just didn't grasp it and couldn't seem to get into it.  Then it became mainstream and unsurprisingly, a lot of people now blog.  I think the same will be true about Wikis.  They are the next big thing in and around collaboration.
I was recently preparing to introduce this topic to a group I was making a presentation to and wanted to find something I could show them that would help illustrate what a Wiki is and why it is better for collaboration than just emailing, for example.

Well the video below does that..perfectly.  If you are interested in Wikis but haven't really been able to get your head around them, watch the video.  Then go out and get Tapscott's book.  Then...go out and build a Wiki for your next collaborative project!

Virtualization Goodness for the Mac

All those great beta versions of Parallels were finally released as a final candidate earlier this week.  I've installed it and it is all good.  If you have been using the beta version of Parallels, you can now go and update to the full release by clicking here.

Now, not be left behind, VMWare has just released a new version of their Windows-on-a-Mac virtualization software called Fusion.  We've been using Fusion on a Mac Pro here at work because Parallels was giving us trouble (although we use Parallels on all our Macbook Pros) and I've just started testing the new release.  Some of the new features that they list on their website are:

• Experimental 3-D graphics support — Play a selection of DirectX 8.1 games in Windows XP Service Pack 2 virtual machines.
• Snapshot feature — Roll back your virtual machine to a known good state when something goes wrong in your virtual machine—for example, when your virtual machine picks up a virus, or when a software upgrade causes problems.
• Improved networking — Automatically bridge to the computer’s primary network interface.
• Full support for Airport wireless networking, including virtual machines behind a NAT firewall and bridged to the local Airport network.
• Support for up to ten virtual network interfaces
• Improved Microsoft Vista support — Support for Microsoft Vista Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions.
• Complete VMware Tools support for Microsoft Vista including copy/paste, dragging and dropping files, shared folders, and screen resizing.
• Improved hardware editor — Add additional virtual hard drives to a virtual machine for needed capacity.
• View the physical computer's battery status in the virtual machine.
• Improved full screen mode — Support for plugging and unplugging displays while virtual machines are in full screen mode.
• Improved usability: an on-screen tip shows how to enter and exit full screen mode easily.
• Experimental support for Mac OS X Leopard — You can now install and run VMware Fusion on Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). Support is experimental because Mac OS X 10.5 is not yet released. Fusion will support the release version of OS X 10.5 in the final VMware Fusion release.

You can obtain the latest VMWare Fusion by clicking here.

Sync Your Blackberry With Your Mac

Many people I know who move from the PC to a Mac and carry a Blackberry are always distressed that they won't be able to sync the two.  Of course if you run Windows in Parallels you can. But what if you don't?

Up until now I'd been using PocketMac with mixed results.  It works but it wasn't overly refined. Enter The Missing Sync for Blackberry, a fantastic application that you must get it you want to sync your Mac with your Blackberry.  It is a robust application, well integrated with Mac OSX and the various items you want to sync with.  I have used it for contacts, calendar and to do's, but if you own a Perl, then you can also sync pictures from iPhoto and music from iTunes.  Nice.  As you can see from the screenshot to the right, it has a nice user interface and is easy to configure and use.  It also places a nice quick access icon in the top right portion of your screen. 

You can get all the details and download from here.

Social Networking & Exploring Facebook

What is it about social networking that is so intriguing?  Why does it work?  Why are we drawn to it?  Why do young people seem to "get it" more so than older people? 

Those are question I've asked myself again and again at various times like when exploring other social networking phenomenons like mySpace or YouTube, Wallop from Microsoft or even blogging.  Why is it that it has such mass appeal?  Is it because we live in such a fast paced, spread-out society that we yearn to connect and do so online? Social networking has become such an important social trend that even consumer products like the Zune mp3 player from Microsoft have started to build it into the product and give it the tag line: Welcome to the Social. 

Again this question of the "why" came to me as I began to explore a new tool / site / social network that was suggested to me called Facebook.  That little badge you see at the top of this post is from Facebook - it updates my status for example dynamically as I change it.  The question is, why change it?  Why put anything into something like Facebook?  Let me tell you what I've experienced in the past few days.

Vista Being Overshadowed By Apple OSX?

I know.  You think my title is crazy.  I mean how many millions upon millions of dollars is Microsoft spending to promote Vista.  It is everywhere I look: the web, radio, TV.  Everything seems to be "powered by Vista" these days, if you believe the marketing spin. 

But what is telling, and oh so delicious, is that people have finally come to an important realization.  That Vista is a copycat, a "me-too", a runner-up wanna-be operating system that has liberally borrowed concepts from Apple's OSX.    You might dispute that and that is fine.  But take this recent bit of analysis that finds that 75% of the articles/reviews that take about Vista go on to reference OSX.  If that isn't overshadowing than what is?

For your added enjoyment, I've embedded this interview from CNN where Bill Gates gets called on Vista's similarities to OSX.  I always say that when this kind of thing moves from tech news to mainstream, it has become popular thought.  I for one am glad people are starting to realize it for themselves.