Office suites

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Office 15

Microsoft has been previewing a new office suite called Office 15. This is a simple version designed with Tablet use in mind. It will have a totally different interface from the previous offerings from Microsoft. This is an off-line application as opposed to Microsofts Office 365 which must be connected to the Internet for use. Office 10 will still be available for business use on Desktops. 

Windows 8

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Windows 8 is going to be split into two directions. The first will continue to use the Intel chipset with a windows 7 base and a "Tiled Metro' desktop. It will run Windows 7 Applications. The second system will use the 'Arm' chipset (phone chipset) and will have the same desktop but will not run any Windows 7 software. This will make it alot cheaper so to be able to compete with Apple and Android products. New applications will only be able to be loaded from the 'Microsoft Store' similar to Apples iTunes. A new Office suite will be used called Office 15. This will be simpler than Office 10 and will probably not have the ribbon menu's. To be competitive this system has to be easy to use, reliable without the need of virus checking and cheap. The second system is aimed at the domestic market of Tablets, TV's and Media centres. Unlike the Vista and Windows 7 market Microsoft does not have a monopoly so they will have to produce something that actually works and easy to use. They will have to do better than the 'Phone 7' which after a year has only about 1% of the smartphone market.

e-Books and e-Readers

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e-Readers were originally designed to look and feel like a paperback book. A special graphic screen for this was developed and was called called e-Ink. The Kindle among others used this technology, as it gave a high contrast, unpixelated view even in direct sunlight. These devices had a slow refresh rate meaning they could never be used for movies. As Tablets became more common they were being sold as e-Readers combined with web surfing. If used over a period of time, as in reading a novel, it will soon become apparent that sore eyes will be an issue along with poor visibility in bright light reflecting off the screen. (Jack of all trades but master of none.) e-Ink does not suffer from these effects and the readers are under $200 NZ. The battery life of e-Ink systems is measured in months unlike Tablets which are measured in hours.

Images in Tables

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If accurate placing of pictures in a word processor misbehaves by jumping all over the place a solution could be to insert the pictures in the cells of a table. The example shown was done in a simple word processor called 'Abiword' but should work in any modern wordprocessing package. The borders of the cells can be removed after the table is complete. The Pictures were resized in their accompanying cells for correct alignment.

Merry Christmas and a Happy new year

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Netbooks and TV's

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Click to enlarge

A small 7 inch Netbook is connected to a 26 inch TV as shown in the picture. The Netbook has its screen set to external monitor mode and the internet accessed by wireless. The system is controlled by a USB wireless mouse from across the room and makes use of a virtual keyboard as shown in the picture. For most activities the keyboard is hidden and the mouse is the main navigating device. Printing can be achieved through the wireless network to a printer in the house. This method makes use of a cheap computer to view movies, show pictures, and surf the internet to a group of people. The screen resolution is much better on the external monitor than the Netbooks screen. A USB hard drive can be used to store the movies or pictures for showing. Note: Windows 7 starter edition will not allow the external port to be opened. Unfortunately this is what most netbooks come with but an easy solution is to utilise the card reader slot and use a minimal operating system on a SD card.

Chrome Browser Update

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The Google-Chrome browser has been changing dramatically this year. Now boasting a Web Store similar to a phone for adding applications that are installed inside the browser rather than the operating system. All that is needed is a G-Mail account to access these Apps. There is a variety of free, trial and paid Apps which can be installed and uninstalled with the click of a mouse. Googles idea is that the operating system is to become irrelevant and everything can be run inside the browser from games to word processing. Printing can be achieved by simply sending the document to Google telling them what type of printer you are using and they will automatically send a print file directly to your printer.