LANcom Technology Blog

Yesterday Microsoft released the second beta (test version) of Internet Explorer 8 for download from their site. This version has a lot of new features which were not available in IE7, so here is a quick list of some of the main ones.

1. SmartScreen Filter – This new filter has improved detection of phishing sites and can even help protect you from malicious software. When the SmartScreen filter is turned on it will warn you when you attempt to visit a site that isn’t considered safe, or when you attempt to download potentially unsafe software.

    

2. InPrivate Browsing – With this feature you can launch a private browsing session were no browsing history, temporary Internet files, form data, cookies, and usernames and passwords will be retained by the browser and it will automatically clear the browser cache at the end of the session. InPrivate Blocking is another feature that goes along with InPrivate Browsing, which can help prevent third parties from gathering information on your browsing habits.

    

3. Accelerators – Accelerators allow you to have fast and easy access to a number of popular web services. When you highlight text with your mouse in IE8 the blue Accelerator button will appear next to the text. This button will lead to a menu with a number of options. You could for example select ‘Translate with Windows Live’ and the text you highlighted will be translated into the language of your choice in a small popup box. You could also highlight an address and see a popup of a map to that location. IE8 comes with a number of Accelerators, but there are also over 30 additional Accelerators you can install from the Accelerator gallery.
   To see a video demonstration of this feature click here.

    

4. Web Slices – Web Slices allow you to subscribe to parts of websites with regularly updated content, similar to the way that RSS allows you to subscribe to the whole site. With Web Slices you could for example subscribe to a single item for sale on Ebay. The Web Slices name will then appear in your Favourites bar at the top of the screen and when it detects an update it will flash and appear in bold type (you can set how often you want IE8 to check for changes). When you click on the Web Slice in your Favourites bar a preview box will open showing you the updated information.
   To see a video demonstration of this feature click here.

The final version of Internet Explorer 8 is expected to be released at the end of this year, but if you would like to try IE 8 Beta 2 or just learn more about IE8 and its other new features click here.

Back in July we posted about Photosynth a new Microsoft technology that can analyse a large number of photos of a single place or object and then display them in a reconstructed three dimensional space (Click here to see July post). Well Photosynth is now available for you to try out with your own photos and the best part is it’s free.

What’s great about Photosynth is it allows you to move through a scene, going where you want to go, and seeing photo’s from each view point as if you where actually there. It also has smooth digital rendering and zoom capabilities, which makes you feel like you’re really there and just moving closer to the object.

Once you have uploaded your photos and created a ’synth’ you can share it with others by sending them the link to it, or by embedding the synth in your own website. Those that want to view synths have to download a browser plug in before it will work.

The Photosynth site is still new and so it still has a few limitations. All synths you create will be public so any one on the net will be able to see them and they will only run well on XP or Vista PC’s.

If you would like to see a synth we created of our reception area click here (note you will have to download the Photosynth browser plug in to see it).

If you would like to learn more about Photosynth and maybe create a synth of you own click here.

We are in the process of deploying a new monitoring and management technology produced by N-Able, which will allow us to provide even greater service to our customers.

With this new technology we will be able to monitor more devices, services and operating systems in more ways.

We will be monitoring desktops, laptops, servers and firewalls and be able to tell not only if a device is working or not but also if it is near failing, misconfigured, disconnected or not reporting data. This means more problems can be avoided because we will know about them ahead of time before they become an issue.

Another great advantage to this new technology is the remote control abilities. In many situations we will be able to take remote control of a machine to work on it without disturbing the user. So users will be able to continue working while we are working on their machines.

This new system will also make installing new applications much faster, and help with keeping machines up to date with the latest Microsoft patches.

Want to know if a site is safe before you enter your credit card details? Symantec makers of Norton AntiVirus have recently created a website, Norton Safe Web, which allows you to enter a websites URL and receive a report on the safety of that site.

The Norton Safe Web site in still in Beta (not finished yet) so when searching for some websites it will come up with an Untested icon, but this does not mean that the site is unsafe only that Norton has no information on that site yet. If the site has been tested it will receive either a Safe, Caution, or Warning icon.

You can also download the Norton Safe Web Beta as a toolbar.

To visit Norton Safe Web site click here

For more online shopping safety tips click here

Google has recently released a new tool called Google Insights for Search, which allows you to analyse what people are searching in a number of ways.

With Google Insights for search you can:

1. Find out what people in your area are searching for most.
2. Choose a search term and see on a graph how many people are searching for that term over a period of time (see the trend). You can also limit this to a particular location like just New Zealand or just Auckland.
3. See on a map of the world or your selected country how search volume for a particular term differs geographically. This allows you to identify areas that are most interested in your search term.
4. Compare the search volume of different terms on a graph.

According to the Google Insights site some of the practical applications of this new tool could include: examining the seasonality of a particular product or service to better anticipate demand, comparing two competing brands to see which is searched most, or identifying new geographic markets.

To try out Google Insights for Search click here

Consumer Reports has suggested that users of Apple’s Safari internet browser switch to using another browser like Firefox, as it released annual internet security survey. The reason behind this is that Safari unlike like other browsers does not contain anti-phishing protection.

Phishing scammers send out electronic messages (usually emails) claiming to be reputable companies. For example, a phishing email may claim to be from your bank and ask you to click on a link and then verify your account information in order to keep your account active. While this website may look just like your banks one it is actually a fake.

Many other browsers like Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 can tell when you’re being directed to what is potentially a fake site and will give you a warning.

Phishing scams are a big problem. According to the Consumer Reports survey 1 in every 13 online American households gave identity thieves personal information at some point in the last two years, and 14% of those people actually lost money through the scams.

If your currently using Safari you may want to consider switching to another browser.

To read more about this from Computer World click here.

Whenever I need a map, I always use Google Maps. Here’s why:

1. The great search abilities – As well as automatically suggesting locations as you type in an address like other map sites, Google Maps also allows you to just type what you are looking for into the search box. For example if I type ‘Skycity’ into the search box Google will bring up addresses for Skycity Grand Hotel and Skycity Cinema locations then I can just click on the one I want. I could also for type in ‘Hairdressers Mt Eden’ and see all the hairdressers in Mt Eden, displayed on a map.
2. The default location feature- Google Maps allows you to set a default location. This means that whenever you go to the Google Maps homepage it will bring up a map of that location. Setting this to your home or work location can save you some time because you will already have your starting point entered in.
3. The directions – Not only does Google show you where to go on a map it gives you great directions as well. These directions include the total distance, as well as distances between points, and the estimated time of the journey for both driving and walking. If you don’t like the route that Google Maps is suggesting (the shortest route by distance) then you can adjust it by clicking on a point in the journey on the map and dragging it to where you would like to go.
4. Multiple destinations – Need go from one point to another but stop at specific places along the way? Google maps allow you to enter multiply destinations to your journey.
5. My Maps – If you have a Google account (you can get one for free here) My Maps allows you to save and personalise maps. You can even share the maps you create with others.

Street view, another great feature of Google maps, is said to be becoming available in New Zealand soon. To learn more click here.

To visit the Google Maps site click here.

We’ve decided to make our monthly email newsletter available online. You can now view any of our 2008 issues from the homepage of our website and sign up to receive it by email there too.

This newsletter includes all the best posts from this blog plus additional articles and profiles of our staff. Click here to visit the LANcom homepage (the newsletters are to the right).

Need to research and gather notes on a particular topic from all over the web? Google Notebook is a free tool which can help you do it. Google Notebook allows you to save and organise clips of information including text, images and links that you find while browsing the web without you having to leave the page you’re on.

Once you have downloaded the Google Notebook browser extension or Google toolbar you can simply highlight content on the web, right click and select Note this (Google Notebook). Then you can organised the clips of information you have saved from either the mini Google Notebook that appears at the bottom right of your screen, or you can go to your Notebook page.

So how does Google Notebook make organising clips easy?

1. First of all, you can have more than one notebook so you can store information on different topics in different places.
2. Secondly, you can create sections within your notebooks. You can call these sections whatever you like and simply drag and drop individual notes into the section you want them to go. Each note and section is collapsible by clicking on a minus sign in the top left corner so rearranging your notebook is easy.
3. Thirdly, you can add labels to individual notes. Adding labels to notes makes finding the notes you want, when you want them, really easy. When I was using Google Notebook to research for this post I labelled notes on all the good things I found out about it as Advantages, then I could just type ‘advantages’ into the Notebooks search box and it would bring up all the notes that I had labelled with that.
4. You can also add thoughts or comments to any of your notes with the Add a comment feature and even create a new blank note and type up a note or cut and paste notes from another document.
5. Finally, every note you add while surfing the web includes a hyperlink to the webpage you originally copied it from, so you’ll never lose track of where you got your information.

What else is great about Google Notebook?

1. You can access Google Notebook from any computer online, so you’ll always have access to your notes.
2. You can share an individual notebooks with others by sending them email invites or you can make a notebook public so that everyone on the web can view it (notebooks are private by default).
3. You can use Google Notebook to keep track of bookmarks too. If you right click on a webpage and select Note this (Google Notebook) without selecting any text then it will just save the link. You can then add labels and comments to the link the same way you would a note.

The only obvious downside to Google Notebook is that the Notebook browser extension can only be used in Internet Explorer 6 and Firefox. If you are using IE7 then when you will need to download and install the whole Google toolbar to be able to use Google Notebook. When you first login to Google notebook, if you see a message near the top of the screen asking you to download the browser extension, click on this and you will be prompted thought the right process.

To learn more about Google Notebook click here to see a video demonstration, or here to see the frequently asked question page.

To start using Google Notebook click here to visit the homepage.

According to Computer World, a new document issued by the US Department of homeland security now officially gives US border agents the authority to seize and retain laptops indefinitely. What’s more the new policies give agents the right to seize and analyse the contents of laptops without any suspicion of wrong doing.

As well as laptops, cell phones, portable music players and portable hard drives can also be inspected.

To read more about this new policy click here.