Getting Started with Windows 8 Series

Within the next few posts, I will show you the brand new Windows 8 from the inside and within these segments you will see what life is really like in Windows 8 RTM. From these articles – all attached to videos – hopefully you will be able to make up your mind on the operating system and formulate your opinions based on what you see and experience rather than what some authors on tech sites decide to say.

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A Quick Look at OS X Mountain Lion

Apple will be releasing Mountain Lion, the successor to Lion this summer and have given developers and people who go to their site a sneak peak. From its pre-beta stage, Mountain Lion inherits many new features – mainly from iOS. Here are some of the highlights.

 

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December 22: Facebook’s Upcoming Major Change

Facebook is set to bring change next Thursday as it rolls out its new Timeline format for Facebook profiles. Whether this be the last straw before deactivating your account or the change that makes you fall back in love with it again is entirely up in mid air.  I have gotten timeline and it will require some getting used to. However, I won’t be surprised when my newsfeed fills with angry voices!

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New Feature Found In iOS 5: Panorama Camera Mode [Update: It's up!]

In the early days of the iOS 5 beta, there were bits of code that showed a panorama feature. Now, Conrad Kramer has found a way to enable this feature.

 Why this wasn't added in the original iOS 5 release? We have no idea. However, Conrad intends to release a tool (jailbreak tweak) that would allow any user to easily enable it:

Here are a few screenshots:

and here's the image taken in panorama mode:

Note: The jailbreak tweak has now been released. It is called firebreak and is available in the BigBoss Cydia repository.

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Google+ Pages Are Finally Out And We Got One Hot Off The Press!

Google finally unveiled their Google+ Pages and they don't look much different from the profiles. We are a bit dissapointed but happy to see them. Hopefully Google unveils more features later on but here you can check out our page!

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Google+ To Support "Branded" Pages

When Google+ was still in it's early stages of beta testing, Google began to tear out all pages that didn't meet the following requirements:

• The profile does not feature a real name
• The profile does not feature a real person
• The name did not infringe copyright in any shape or form

Today, at the Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco, Google announced that it would "imminently" feature brand pages. We are not sure if these pages (or profiles) will be different from any other real person profile but we hope it can have certain different features.

Here's our feature wishlist:

• Post Scheduling
• Verified pages
• Comments on posts that form their own thread (A la ZDNet)
• Multiple Admins
• Poll posts
• Customizable pages (background, links the whole shabang)
• Twitter and YouTube integration
• Mobile App compatibility
• Blogger to Google+ page publication
• Custom URL's

These are just a few extra feature ideas that we've thought up. Leave your suggestions in the comment section below; or on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+!

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iOS 5 is officially out for update and restore! [Update: iOS 5 GM]

iOS 5 Software Update

Update: If you have loaded your iDevice with iOS 5 GM, you will be unable to upgrade to the official release as it will read as the "current version". There are no "feature" changes between the two, but I'm sure performance tweaks and bug fixes were applied.

This update contains over 200 new features, including the following:

Notifications
◦ Swipe from the top of any screen to view notifications in one place with Notification Center
◦ New notifications appear briefly at the top of the screen
◦ View notifications from lock screen
◦ Slide the notification app icon to the right on the lock screen to go directly to the app

iMessage
◦ Send and receive unlimited text, photo, and video messages with other iOS 5 users
◦ Track messages with delivery and read receipts
◦ Group messaging and secure encryption
◦ Works over cellular network and Wi-Fi*

Newsstand
◦ Automatically organizes magazine and newspaper subscriptions on Home Screen
◦ Displays the cover of the latest issue
◦ Background downloads of new issues

Reminders for managing to do lists
◦ Syncs with iCloud, iCal and Outlook
◦ Location-based reminders when you leave or arrive at a location for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4

Built-in support for Twitter
◦ Sign-in once in Settings and tweet directly from Camera, Photos, Maps, Safari and YouTube
◦ Add location to any tweet
◦ View twitter profile pictures and usernames in Contacts

Camera improvements for devices with cameras
◦ Double click the home button when device is asleep to bring up a camera shortcut on iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPod touch (4th generation)
◦ Volume Up button to take a picture
◦ Optional grid lines to line up shots
◦ Pinch to zoom in the preview screen
◦ Swipe to camera roll from preview screen
◦ Tap and hold to lock focus and exposure, iPad 2 and iPod touch (4th generation) only support exposure lock

Photo improvements for devices with cameras
◦ Crop and rotate
◦ Red eye removal
◦ One tap enhance
◦ Organize photos into albums

Mail improvements
◦ Format text using bold, italic, or underlined fonts
◦ Indentation control
◦ Drag to rearrange names in address fields
◦ Flag messages
◦ Mass mark messages as flagged, read or unread
◦ Customize mail alert sounds
◦ S/MIME

Calendar improvements
◦ Year view on iPad and new Week view for iPhone and iPod touch
◦ Tap to create an event
◦ View and add event attachments

Game Center improvements
◦ Use personal photos for your Game Center account
◦ Compare your overall achievement scores with your friends
◦ Find new Game Center friends with friend recommendations and friends of friends
◦ Discover new games with custom game recommendations
• AirPlay Mirroring for iPad 2 and iPhone 4S
• Multitasking Gestures for iPad
◦ Use four or five fingers to pinch to the Home Screen
◦ Swipe up to reveal the multitasking bar
◦ Swipe left or right to switch between apps
• On-device setup, activation and configuration with Setup Assistant
• Software updates available over the air without tethering


iCloud support
◦ iTunes in the Cloud
◦ Photo Stream
◦ Documents in the Cloud
◦ Apps and Books automatic download and purchase history
◦ Backup
◦ Contacts, Calendar, and Mail
◦ Find My iPhone
• Redesigned Music app for iPad
• Hourly weather forecast
• Real-time stock quotes
• Wireless sync to iTunes
Keyboard improvements
◦ Split keyboard for iPad
◦ Improved autocorrection accuracy
◦ Improved Chinese and Japanese input
◦ New Emoji keyboard
◦ Personal dictionary for autocorrection
◦ Optionally create keyboard short cuts for frequently used words

Accessibility improvements
◦ Option to light LED flash on incoming calls and alerts for iPhone 4S and iPhone 4
◦ Custom vibration patterns for incoming calls on iPhone
◦ New interface for using iOS with mobility-impairment input devices
◦ Option to speak a selection of text
◦ Custom element labeling for VoiceOver

Exchange ActiveSync improvements
◦ Wirelessly sync tasks
◦ Mark messages as flagged, read or unread
◦ Improved offline support
◦ Save a new contact from a GAL service
• More than 1,500 new developer APIs
• Bug fixes

Products compatible with this software update:
• iPhone 4S
• iPhone 4
• iPhone 3GS
• iPad 2
• iPad
• iPod touch (4th generation)
• iPod touch (3rd generation)

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iOS 5 Feature that Apple never announced!

There's a few new features that were left out in the announcements, which were smart to be left out considering their lack of importance. That said, there's one feature that shouldn't have been left out.

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My Eulogy for Steve Jobs

R.I.P. Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs was an amazing individual, visionary, and not to mention, the Edison of our times. Apple would have been nothing today if not for the unique and truly imaginative ideas that Steve provided to the technology giant.

If we could take a step back to when Apple almost faced bankruptcy.

Steve Jobs decided to sell all but one of his Apple shares when it's stock market's value plummeted. Steve Jobs was called back, not only to help them advance in their endeavors, but also to have an inspiring person to look up to.

Now, in present and modern times, Steve Jobs still held Apple up and put his best foot forward.

Unfortunately, he has passed away. I hope and pray that Apple's employees, managers, developers, employees and others who are included in the development of Apple's products and software continue to remember Steve and use his inspiration to motivate them in continuing the legacy that is Steve Jobs+Apple.

I may not have known him, but I would have loved to have at least one conversation with him where I could ask him one single question. That question would have to be, if he would have lived his life any differently.

The best of my wishes go to Apple, their eployees, Steve's family and friends, along with all the people who closely followed Steve's endeavors, hoping to follow in his steps.

Yours Truly, Brandon Nolet

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Eight Mac OS X features that Windows Presently Lacks

I have used Windows for a long time. While it has always been my personal favorite platform – and by far one of the platforms that is the most versatile and transformable, there are some things that are lacking.

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