Google is now offering offline browser-based access to Gmail as an experimental feature in Google Labs. With this service even if you are offline you will be able to go to gmail.com and get access to your mail.
So why would you want access to your Gmail offline?
If you are a person who travels a lot and often find yourself offline then you will now be able to access your Gmail emails and write new emails using the Gmail interface no matter where you are. Any messages you send while you are offline will wait in your outbox until you are next connected to the net and then send automatically. Any changes you make while offline e.g. deleting email will be automatically synchronised with your online Gmail account once you reconnect.
This service will not replicate your entire Gmail inbox on your PC as this in many cases would be too much data. Instead Gmail will use algorithms to determine which messages to download to your PC depending on how recent they are if they are likely to be important to you based on how you labelled them etc.
To read more about this from Computer World click here. To read more about this and see a video of how it works from the Gmail blog click here.
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Warwick, Helen, Phill and Imran all had a great time in our courtside box at the ASB classic this year. Thanks to those who attended with us, we look forward to doing it again next year.
Today the Auckland City Council in partnership with Kordia and Tomizone launched an Auckland City Wi-Fi service covering Aotea Square, Karangahape Road, Ponsonby, Remuera, and Parnell as well as the Viaduct Basin and Westhaven.
Anyone within these areas can access this broadband service for $3 an hour, $6.50 a day, or $30 per week by simply turning on the Wi-Fi discovery in their laptop and entering their credit card details into the Tomizone splash page.
Auckland City Council websites will be able to be accessed for free through the Auckland City Council portal.
To read more about this new Wi-fi service click here.
Looking for a really simple way to share files with a group of people online? Or perhaps you have a file that you tried to email but it wouldn’t go through because it was too big. Drop.io makes sharing files online really easy.
All you have to do is make up a drop.io URL for where your files will be stored, upload your files, and click the drop it button. Then you can simply send out the URL to everyone you want to have access to your files.
You can also add additional settings such as a password for you guests to use in order to gain access to your files and an expiry date for your page.
So what else is great about drop.io?
It’s free and no registration is required
It uploads files really quickly
It allows your guests to watch videos, listen to mp3 files, and look at images straight from the site before they download them.
Your guests can leave comments on your drop.io page to let you know what they thought of your files
It gives you the code to embed your files in other sites.
The final version of Windows 7 is scheduled for release next year. Here’s a quick look at some of the new features you can expect to see when it’s released.
The new taskbar – In Windows 7 the taskbar, which is the bar that runs along the bottom of your screen, has had a number of changes. To start with there are new large icons and you can simply drag and drop applications anywhere on the taskbar to have them displayed there permanently. There is also a new preview pane which you can activate by hovering your mouse over an icon. Shown below is the preview displaying three open tabs in Internet Explorer, by clicking on any on the thumbnail images you could go straight to that tab.
Jump lists – A jump list is a list that displays your most recently used content for a particular application. You can access a jump list by simply right clicking on the programs icon in the taskbar or clicking on the small arrow next to it in the start menu. So right-clicking on a Word icon would show you a list of your most recently used Word documents, then you could jump straight to file you wanted.
New ways to work with windows – Windows 7 aims to make working with Windows more intuitive. For example, if you would like to compare two windows side by side you can just grab one window and drag it off the right side of the screen and it will then snap to the right side covering exactly half, then grab and drag the other window off the left side and it will snap to the left side of the screen. A video demonstration of this and other new ways to work with windows in Windows 7 can be found here.
Improved speed and performance– According to the Microsoft site Windows 7 will start up, shut down, resume from standby, and respond faster
More compatibility with devices and better device management – When you plug in a device in Windows 7 an icon will appear on the task bar giving you easy access to a lot of options. To see video demonstration of this feature click here.
Touch functionality – Microsoft also plans to include touch functionality for touch enabled computers in Windows 7. Click here to see a video demonstration of this feature.
The final version of Windows 7 is scheduled for release next year, but is has been suggested that if the beta tests go well it may be released sooner. To find out more about Windows 7 click here, and be sure to check out the videos.
Makeuseof.com has a great article on their site about what you can do to help prevent your PayPal account from being hacked, but these tips could apply to pretty much any online account. Here’s summery of what they suggest:
Don’t click a link inside an email - Phishing scams to gain access to PayPal accounts are very common. If you receive an email that says it’s from PayPal and asks you to click on a link and then enter your login and password, don’t do it. To learn more about phishing scams click here
Create strong passwords for both your PayPal account and your email - Just having a strong password to your PayPal account may not be enough. If a scammer gets into your email they can then go to the website, request a password reset, and then retrieve the new password from your email. To learn more about how to improve your password security click here.
When using a computer you don’t completely trust, keep your personal information safe with portable applications – If you are unsure about a computer you are going to be using, e.g. a public computer, then you can use a portable internet browser such as Firefox portable on a USB stick. This way all your log files, browsing history, and saved passwords will be stored on you USB not on the computer.
If you are worried that the computer you are using may have keylogging software (malware that attempts to record your keystrokes) then you could use a portable on-screen keyboard like this one for entering your passwords. Although if you seriously suspect a computer has any kind of malware you shouldn’t use it for sites like PayPal.
To read more about how to protect your PayPal account from hackers click here.
According to Computer World, the public beta (test) version of Windows 7 is about to be released.
This beta version is feature complete and has very similar system requirements to Vista, so any computer that is able to run Vista is likely to be able to run Windows 7 when it comes out.
Microsoft’s official target for the release of Windows 7 is early next year, but it has been suggested they will release it earlier if the beta tests go very well.
We are happy to announce that we are in the process of implementing a new professional services automation system which will allow us to deliver an even better service to our customers.
This new system will allow us to deliver the fastest possible service, while keeping you better informed, and ensuring that nothing can fall through the cracks.
Delivering the fastest possible service
Included in this system will be new dispatch management software that is able to evaluate the skills, experience, certifications and availability of our engineers in order to find and assign the best person for the job very quickly.
We will also be implementing a new knowledge base that will record and index all work history with detailed searchable data. We will now be able to search through history faster, see more detail, and when facing a current problem be able to quickly search for how we have solved similar problems in the past.
Keeping you informed
We will also now be able to replace our current online console with a new and improved LANcom Web Portal. From this new web portal you will have access to much more information. Not only will you be able to enter and track jobs online, you will also be able to:
See all of your invoices
Check the status of any projects
Search through your project and service history
View any emails that have been sent and received regarding a particular job
View reports on our performance. This new system will be able to generate reports on our performance, e.g. average time taken to complete jobs, so you can see that we are meeting the level of service promised to you.
In addition, you will now be able to choose to receive automatic updates from the system on the progress of any concerns you have logged with us.
Ensuring nothing gets missed
The new Service Management system will automatically escalate and notify us of any jobs that need completing in order to meet the performance level we have promised to you, making in impossible for anything to slip though the cracks.
This system also links to our monitoring and management software, so when it notices a problem it can, rather than just alerting us to it, automatically create a job and assign an engineer.
If you have any questions about our new PSA system please feel free to contact us. We will be implementing this new system throughout January and February, so stay tuned to this blog for updates.
Microsoft has over a hundred printable calendar templates on their Office website. Most of these templates are easily customisable using Word or Excel. To check out what’s available from the Microsoft Office site click here.
HP also has a number of business calendar templates on their site, click here to see these.
