An important thing missing from the photos of the new device. Tricky marketing isn’t the sole preserve of Microsoft – Google is doing similar things with their new Chromecast device. Check out the official Chromecast page which has plenty of photos of the little dongle including one plugged in the
The next Windows 8 will get a button to take you to new and mostly unloved Start Menu. More details of the Windows 8 update are coming out and it’s much as we suggested a few weeks ago. There will be a Start button on the bottom left of the
Are the upcoming changes to Windows 8 significant or just tweaks that make little difference. It’s been interesting to watch Microsoft trying to trick the media with their orchestrated campaign of ‘leaks’ and announcements about a Windows 8 update. We’re now told that an upcoming Windows 8 Service Pack will
Think you’re a low income earner? Think again …. For a little perspective on what a privileged life most of us have in the Western world … go to globalrichlist.com It will compare your income or wealth against everyone else on the planet Earth. For anyone on a seemingly low
Where are the undersea cables that link the Internet? Most of the trans-continental Internet and phone traffic goes via submarine cables. Here’s a great map of where all those cables are http://submarine-cable-map-2013.telegeography.com/ There’s lots of little details on the map you can zoom in to see more. The red number
Your own Oscar statue for each year. This is clever, each statue represents the Best Picture winner for that year. The designer Olly Moss has a large version on his web site so you can see details of each statue. It’s fun to pick out the ones you know or guess.
Personal Internet radio isn’t just for the young folk. Personal Internet radio services seem great for young people with their rock and roll music so it’s been a pleasant surprise to discover it works for all generations. The idea is simple, you choose an artist or genre and the service
Some photos from the 2012 Total Eclipse as seen from the ship Paul Gauguin Eclipse Circumstances on the Paul Gauguin 14 Nov 2012. Times are ‘ship time’ on the day – ie UTC +10. Details from ships daily info sheet on 19 Nov. Lat: 26° 40′ South Long: 166°
A different view of prime numbers and clever web programming. Jason Davies has created an amazing web page that shows patterns for prime and non-prime numbers. Go to http://www.jasondavies.com/primos/ and move your mouse pointer along the number line to see the periodic curves change for each integer. For the number 56
Screen sharing is still free with Skype, but you’d not know it from Microsoft’s weasel words. One of the best features in Skype is screen sharing – the ability to send some or your entire computer screen to your caller, instead of video from a webcam. This feature is still
Watch a hard drive at work, in slow motion and soaking wet. Here’s a clever video, showing the innards of a hard drive at work in slow motion. Hard drives work at very fast speeds as you’ll see. Also worth mentioning that the hard drive arm is passing over the
Amazon Kindle’s get a software update to support a new file format and other goodies. A few weeks ago we talked about a new file format for Amazon Kindle devices- KF8 . Now the software has arrived to support the new formats on the devices. Go to Amazon and click
How some tablet, phone and reader screens look under the microscope. For some people it’s not enough to just use a new device, they have to check out the details. Lukas Mathis grabbed his USB microscope to check out the details of his new iPad compared to the older iPad
Reading the coverage of Windows 8 Consumer Preview is like deja vu all over again. Reading all the coverage of Windows 8 Consumer Preview is like deja vu all over again … the same headlines with a new date stamp: “New Windows 8 experience is confusing, confusing as hell.” “Fantastic
A lover of the Amazon Kindle dumps the Kindle Touch in favour of a cheaper model. The Kindle Touch sounds like a great idea, getting rid of the buttons and having a touch screen display seems really cool. But then you actually get one and use it. Alas, the processor
A personal selection of favorite Android apps. Everyone has a recommended selection of apps for their smartphone and Office-Watch.com is no different. We’ve been using Android devices for some time and these apps are always loaded. Most of them work both online and offline. It annoys us when developers assume
A clever, compact alternative to regular business cards. We’ve become quite attached to Squiz Cards, a small and clever alternative to standard business cards. Mary-Jane Almer co-author of some Office Watch ebooks put us on to Squiz cards. They are 2 2/8” x 1 2/8” (53mm x 28mm), less than
How to accurately work out the boot time for your computer. The Windows Event Log keeps a track of how long it takes to boot up your computer. There’s an interesting and well explained article here that explains where to look in the Event Viewer. This can be useful information
Three options for tracking the life and times of your laptop battery., Over time, your laptop battery gets tired and less able to keep a charge – but how to know when it’s time to replace it? There are some nifty utilities to track your battery status in great detail
So Microsoft has bought Skype for $8.5 billion, does it mean anything for Office users? Microsoft has bought Skype for $8.5 billion, does it mean anything for Office users? To keep Microsoft Office as the market leader, Redmond’s main aim is to entwine people into not just Windows and Office
How to index the code on ASP and ASP.net web pages with Windows Search A problem with Windows Search is the default treatment of web pages with programming code like PHP, ASP and ASP.net. The Windows Search indexing filter for these types only indexes the visible parts of the web
The new cover for third generation Kindle devices is very clever. I like the look of the new Kindle with WiFi only. Many people have never felt a pressing need to use the 3G service if only because it’s too tempting to make impluse purchases. It also reduces the battery life
Google move into the phone network has now gone public. Google move into the phone network has now gone public. You can join up without needing an invitation from http://google.com/voice Google Voice has some compelling features. It’s not just a phone number and voicemail provided online. You can link multiple
Transport for London (TfL) has released an API which includes live data on where trains are on the Tube network. Add that to some clever coders and a few hours to get this … http://traintimes.org.uk:81/map/tube/ Each yellow flag is the position of a Tube train on the network – click
