LANcom Technology Blog

When it comes to internet browsers speed isn’t everything, but it is definitely an important factor. If you are curious to know how your favourite browser stacks up against the competition, Lifehacker recently tested the latest versions of 4 top browsers to see how they compared for speed.

They tested for cold boot-up time, time taken to load nine tabs, JavaScript performance, DOM/CSS performance, and memory use.

Overall they found that Opera 11.51 performed the best, with Firefox 7 in second place, followed by Internet Explorer 9 in third, and finally Chrome coming in last.

This graph shows the nine tab loading time results.

If you would like to read the full Lifehacker report, click here.

Wondering when the next iPhone will be released? Apple has just this week begun sending out invitations to a “Let’s talk iPhone” event on October 4^th, where they are expected to announce the iPhone 5.

The new iPhone is rumoured to include a larger screen, 8 megapixel camera, voice recognition, and 1 GB of RAM.

So how long till it goes on sale? If Apple does announce the next iPhone on October 4^th, it will likely be only a matter of days/weeks before they are available in stores.

To read more about this from Mashable, click here.

 Update: Apple has now announced their new iPhone 4S. You can read more about it here on Apple website.

Want to choose different colours that go well together for your document or presentation? Here’s an excellent video by Bruce Gabrielle, author of Speaking PowerPoint, which shows you how you can take one colour and quickly find other colours that will work with it.

Basically all you need to do is change the hue, while keeping the saturation and luminosity the same.

Here’s the video if you would like to take a look.

This video also does a great job of explaining hue, saturation, and luminosity if you are unsure of what each one means.

Hat tip to Lifehacker for the idea for this post

Want a closer look at what new features are coming in Windows 8? Last week Microsoft live streamed the keynotes from their developer-focused BUILD conference, and Lifehacker has helpfully edited these into 8 minutes of everything you need to know about Windows 8.

A few of the interesting new features seen in this video include:

1. A picture password – Instead of using a password to unlock Windows 8 you are able to touch/swipe different places on a picture.
2. The new start screen - The new start screen uses a tile-based interface similar to what you see in Windows Phone 7. Many of these tiles include live information and notifications like how many new emails you have.
3. Search – Windows 8 lets you search through everything from one place. You are able to search your settings, your files, your applications, and the web.

Here’s the video if you would like to take a look.

If you would like to view the full videos of these keynotes, they can be found here.

We have covered a few of the main new features of Windows 8 previously on this blog, here’s the link if you would like to read this article.

The LANcom button is an exciting new service that will allow our customers to be only three clicks away from knowing everything they could want to know about their IT.

The LANcom button will quite simply be a button that sits on your computer desktop. It will connect you with easy to understand, up to the minute, information on your IT tickets without you needing to log in to anything. It will also provide you with easy access to specially selected training material on the software applications you use.

Here’s a closer look at the features of the LANcom button:

1. See the status of your service tickets – You will be able to quickly see how your open tickets are progressing with easy to understand graphs. You can see when a ticket was created, when it was worked on by an engineer, when we last contacted you, and then when the ticket is closed. You will also be able to fast-track a ticket if the issue has become urgent.
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2. Log new tickets – The LANcom button will provide you with the fastest way to log a new ticket. We will already know who you are and what computer you are using, so all you need to do is tell us about your problem.
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3. Improve your skills with personalised training – The LANcom button includes a learning centre full of easy to follow training material. We have curated this content to ensure it includes the most relevant information for you. You’ll have access to training on commonly used applications like Word and Excel, and will be able to easily filter the courses to find exactly what you are looking for.
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4. No log in –The LANcom button sits on your desktop, and since you are already logged into your network when you use it, you don’t need to login again for the LANcom button to work.

We will begin rolling out the LANcom button to our customer’s computers very soon. If you have any thoughts, suggestions, or questions about the LANcom button, please let us know in the comments.

LANcom is getting a brand new look! We have decided to update our current logo and branding to better match some exciting new services will soon be releasing.

Along with our new logo LANcom will also be releasing a brand new website next week which you will be able to view at www.lancom.co.nz

What do you think of the new logo? Please let us know in the comments.

The iTrarian blog is a brand new blog written by LANcom’s founder, Warwick Eade. The focus of this blog is the IT industry and if you have enjoyed Warwick’s recent posts on the LANcom blog, you should definitely check it out.

Here’s a snippet from the iTrarian About page:

“For 23 years I have met too many people working in IT who don’t know what they are doing and too many people buying IT that no know so little as to be oblivious to this. This is the number one reason for IT failure. The truth is that Information Technology works. But only when correctly implemented and that the success of that implementation depends on the quality of the people involved. Information Technology implemented by Information Technologists = success – obvious but unfortunately rarely implemented. This blog will explore why.”

You can visit the iTrarian blog at www.itrarian.com.

Want to make keeping track of your budget really easy? The Birdy is a free online tool that allows you to record your purchases via a simple daily email.

When you sign up to The Birdy you will receive an email each day asking you to reply with what you have spent. All you need to do is add each item on a new line, add tags next to them like #food or #travel, and then click send.

When you’re ready to analyse your spending, you can log into The Birdy to view easy to understand charts and graphs.

There are lots of great budget tracking tools available, but if you are looking for something super simple The Birdy might be just the one for you.

To learn more about The Birdy, click here to visit the site.

Hat tip to Lifehacker for the idea for this post

Earlier this week, Microsoft revealed that some pretty big changes will be made to Windows Explorer in Windows 8. This new Windows Explorer will have a ribbon based interface just like Office 2007-2010, and will allow users to easily access the most used Explorer commands right from the Home tab.

According to Microsoft, the main benefits of this new layout include: exposing previously hidden features, access to keyboard shortcuts for every command in the ribbon, and the ability to customise Explorer with a Quick Access Toolbar just like in Office.

The Windows Explorer ribbon will have three main tabs: Home, Share, and View. There will also be four contextual tabs for Search Tools, Library Tools, Picture Tools, and Disk Tools. These contextual tabs will appear only when you need them, e.g. the Search Tools tab will appear when you click inside the search box.

If you would like to read more about the new Windows Explorer and its new features, click here to visit the Building Windows 8 blog.

Do your shoulders feel tense or your arms feel tired after a day of working at a computer? Comcare, an Australian government health organization, has just released a handy PDF showing 12 simple exercises you can do to help avoid eye and muscle strain.

This document includes stretches for your neck, shoulders, wrists, back, legs, and eyes. If you would like to check it out, here’s the link.

Hat tip to Lifehacker for the idea for this post.