Join Us and Say Thanks to Mom

Join Us and Say Thanks to Mom

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Do you live in Washington DC or Minneapolis? Are you a blogger, a mom or a simply interested in how to make a great gift for the Mom or inspiring lady in your life? If so, then join us this coming week for a series of Mother’s Day workshops being held at the Microsoft Store. Windows Champions Michelle McGraw of Scraps of My Geek Life and Melissa Mitchell of Sippy Cup Mom will be in Washington DC and Minneapolis respectively. The events will be a great chance to learn how to make Mother’s Day cards, or family movies while also socializing with area bloggers. Plus, there will be the chance to get a bit of free goodies, and be eligible to win an ASUS ZENBOOK UX21 in Rose Gold – perfect for yourself or the mom in your life!

Minneapolis

• Where: Microsoft Store in the Mall of America
• When: 10:30am

Washington DC

• Where: Microsoft Store in Tyson’s Corner
• When: 10:30am

Hope to see you there and if you have questions, please drop me a tweet @kristinalibby and use #saythankstomom to follow the discussion from wherever you are!

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Pamela Nguyen is an upcoming graduate of New York University and founder of Surviving College, a blog dedicated to helping students navigate the ins and outs of college. She is constantly on the lookout for nifty tools that will make a busy (and poor) college student's life much easier. A self-proclaimed interior design junkie, Pamela also runs the interior design blog, Redesign Revolution.

I can hear a collective groan throughout campus when a professor utters the phrase "group projects." You might recall the graphics and memes depicting the expectations versus reality when faced with a group project that is worth 50 percent of your grade.

Image 1: Snapshot of one of my marketing classes at NYU.

As a business student at New York University, I have had more than my fair share of group projects. Last semester alone, I had three back-to-back group presentations that followed up with group papers all in the span of two weeks. No fun. What I've learned is that doing collaborative projects where formatting is incredibly important - the combined power of Google Docs and Dropbox just wasn't cutting it. Attempting to create Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, budgeting reports, or 50-page-long papers via these avenues always ends up failing for me.

What are the problems I have with Google Docs?

• Formatting is compromised whenever you switch between Google Docs and to the desktop version of Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint.
• Google Docs is essentially a bare bones version of any Microsoft Office app, with little capability to deal with flashy things (sometimes you need flashy things in your PowerPoint presentation!).
• You never knew what was edited when you opened up a collaborative document.

Image 2: One of my PowerPoint slides on the desktop application vs. Google Docs conversion.

What are the problems I have with Dropbox?

• It is so easy to use up the 2GB limit, though I have a 4GB limit from referring my friends.
• The problematic number of conflicting files your group can generate from working on the same document simultaneously.
• You can't collaborate on a project live.

Typically the way my group project collaborations have gone in the past has been like this:

1. Create a barebones PowerPoint presentation on Google Docs.
2. Fill out the basic information on Google Docs.
3. Download the file.
4. Format the file on the desktop version of Microsoft PowerPoint.
5. Share file on Dropbox.
6. Get multiple conflicting files when everyone decides to edit and save at once.
7. Sigh collectively.
8. Resort to editing and emailing back and forth for the subsequent hours right before the PowerPoint presentation is due.

And when you have to resort to emailing back in forth in groups of 4-8, you can't help but wonder if there's another option out there that can override these issues. Lo and behold: this is where Microsoft SkyDrive comes in.

Why I couldn’t resist signing up for SkyDrive:

• With 25GB of free storage space in the SkyDrive, I wouldn't have to be careful about moving around other files to make room for my multiple group projects.
• SkyDrive has Microsoft Office fully integrated online through the Office Web Apps (Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote), so I wouldn't have to worry about formatting issues when switching between the cloud and my desktop.
• People can work on papers simultaneously, no conflicting files involved.
• On the Microsoft PowerPoint Office Web App, there aren’t those annoying formatting errors that you get with Google Docs.
• When someone makes an edit, you are notified of that edit the next time you save/update your document.
• You don’t have to make a new account when signing up for SkyDrive – just register your Gmail or Yahoo account, no problem!
• You don’t have to have the latest version of Microsoft Office, and you won’t have to save your files in other formats for others who have older versions of Microsoft Office - now they can use the Office Web Apps in SkyDrive!

Image 3: My same presentation on Skydrive’s PowerPoint Web App.

Frustrations, be gone! I can only rejoice about the hours saved with my latest PowerPoint presentation, now that I no longer have to format and re-format between Google Docs and Microsoft Office. Now, if only I can get my group project peers to make the switch…

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Crafting with Jamielyn–How to Make Really Cool Laptop Covers At Home

Jamielyn is the founder and managing editor of iheartnaptime.net. She is married to he  best friend and together they have two beautiful children just under two years apart. Her days are filled with lots of snuggles, crafts, e-mails, avoiding the ever-growing pile of laundry, play dough, sneaking bites of chocolate and wondering, “Is it nap time yet?!” I Heart Nap Time is a creative site sharing DIY home projects on a budget, crafts, sewing tutorials, easy recipes, tips and techniques. Connect with Jamielyn on Facebook or Twitter.

Every few years, I find myself wanting a new laptop. There is always something new and better that comes out on the market. With technology, it’s amazing how fast things are changing.

Well, a new PC isn’t always in the budget, so what do I do? I decided to bring some life back into my PC with a little makeover. I love how it turned it. Today I’m going to show you how to turn your PC from drab to fab!

With kids who love to play games on my laptop, the front of my PC gets finger prints and scratches all over it. So, the first step to bring some life back into my computer was to clean it. I cleaned it with a little rubbing alcohol and Q-Tips. You can drag the Q-Tip between the keys and in between the cracks. Once you are done with that, your computer will be sparkling clean.

Then I decided to add some fun patterned tape to the front of my computer. You can find patterned tape (also known as washi tape) at cutetape.com, Target, Michaels, and other craft stores. It comes in all sorts of colors, patterns, and sizes. It costs about $2 a roll.

All I did was roll the tape across the top of my lap top, pushing it down as I went and then cut it off at the edge. I continued my way down with different colors and patterns to give my computer a fun and unique look. This tape will not leave a sticky residue on your computer, which is great for someone like me who changes her mind quite often.

I also added a little piece of tape on my space bar to brighten up the inside. I thought about adding it to every key, but that might have been a little time consuming. I love how it turned out. For less than 10 bucks, I now have a completely customized laptop that gets me lots of compliments at Star bucks.

Here are some other ideas I thought would be fun to dress a lap top:

Add a zebra computer skin from Etsy.

Customize your computer with a picture of your family. Find these at Dino Direct.

I {heart} My PC decal from Dezign.

Jamielyn is a participant in the Windows blogging program, and receives Microsoft software, hardware, and financial compensation as part of her participation in the program.

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Tech Tuesday Live Twitter Chat – Spring Cleaning

Tech Tuesday Live Twitter Chat – Spring Cleaning

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This past weekend, we had spring weather in Seattle. It was 70, the sun was shining and I played tennis every day. I also thought about the dreaded task of spring cleaning. For those of us with small little condos, spring cleaning isn’t that big of a deal but I still think of it with a mix of emotions. On the one hand, I love getting rid of all the things I haven’t used/will never use/wonder why I ever bought and on the other, I’m sentimental of things I haven’t used/will never use/wonder why I ever bought like my grandma’s equestrian dress or the pot holders I bought because they reminded me of a Lilly Allen song. In an effort to make sure you have cleaned up tech this spring, we are devoting our Tech Tuesday Live Twitter Chat to spring cleaning tips and we may even have a celebrity appearance by a certain frequent Oprah quest who knows a lot about a clean home.

Tips on cleaning:

• Technology can get you out of trouble almost as quickly as it gets you into it. So as easy as it is for us accumulate digital clutter, that same technology can get it under control. Windows Live Photo Gallery can help you manage your photos while Hotmail has tools that will automatically sort and file mail you want to keep while filtering out junk mail and spam.
• And Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 9 also have a nifty organizing tool that lets you pin your favorite website or apps to the Windows Taskbar, putting everything just one click away and making you much more efficient.
• If you’ve got an old PC sitting around the house, consider recycling or refurbishing it. Find out about Microsoft Authorized Refurbishers here http://bit.ly/J5Vq70 plus get loads of other content on recycling.

To participate in the Tech Tuesday Live Twitter Chat:

1. Join us from 12-1 PT (3-4 ET) on Twitter
2. Follow the hashtag #winchat
3. Follow @windows, @kristinalibby, @brandonleblanc, @daniellaycock, and @windowsblog to make sure you get the whole picture.

Also, don’t forget to participate in our Mother’s Day Pinterest contest for a chance to win an Acer Aspire S3!

Note we will only be talking about the outlined topic each week and we will not be answering questions outside those topics. Questions for this week may include: How do I get clean for spring? What do I do with all of these cables?

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Tech Tuesday Live Twitter Chat – Gaming PCs #winchat

Tech Tuesday Live Twitter Chat – Gaming PCs #winchat

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Kristina is off on vacation likely scrounging her toes in the sand and watching the sun set over the Pacific. So this week I’m covering our Tech Tuesday Live Twitter Chat! And this week we’ll be talking about gaming PCs! That’s right; the conversation will be on awesome games for your PC, the best PCs for gamers and on cool technology and accessories that improve the gaming experience.

When choosing a gaming PC, it like any PC choice, is a lot about personal preference but there are some awesome options to choose from on the market.

• ASUS G74SX-3DE has a 750 GB hard drive and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M GPU with 3GB GDDR5 VRAM meaning it has a huge amount of money and sick graphics.
• Toshiba Qosmio X775-3DV78 has 6 GB of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce graphics and 4.98 hours of battery life weighing only 6.6 lbs.
• Samsung Series 7 Gamer 700G is an immersive gaming experience with actual portability and the ability to run every game on the market with monster performance. Has 8 GB of RAM, discrete AMD Radeon HD 5970M GPU and 7.7 lbs. of pure gaming beauty.

We’ll also talk about Microsoft Flight, which was released (for free!) on Feb. 29^th and the PC Games Marketplace on Xbox.com!

To participate in the Tech Tuesday Live Twitter Chat:

1. Join us from 12-1 PT (3-4 ET) on Twitter
2. Follow the hashtag #win7tech or #winchat
3. Follow @windows, @kristinalibby, @brandonleblanc, @daniellaycock, and @windowsblog to make sure you get the whole picture.

Note we will only be talking about the outlined topic each week and we will not be answering questions outside those topics. Questions for this week may include: What makes a gaming PC different than a regular PC? Why does one PC have 750 GM of RAM and another just 8? How much do I need?

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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Windows 8 Release Candidate Coming In May or June?

The Windows 8 Consumer Preview was released nearly exactly a month ago to the day and was greeted by over 1 million downloads on the first day alone. Windows 8 has received mixed reviews from people but the reality of it is this – The Windows 8 Consumer Preview is very close to what Microsoft’s next operating system will be.

We’ve seen significant improvements in the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 when compared to the Developer Preview which Microsoft showed off at Build late last year. There was over 100,000 code changes in the Consumer Preview as well as a large number of new features. The next milestone for Microsoft now will be the first release candidate (RC 1).

There’s been rumours floating around the web recently which would suggest that the Windows 8 Release Candidate could arrive as early as late May or early June. Now these dates weren’t just picked at random, there’s actually a little bit of maths involved here, as well as random guessing.

If we look at the Developer Preview, it was build number 8102. The Consumer Preview was compiled at build number 8250. This gives us roughly 150 builds in between the two releases (148 to be exact).

So could Microsoft possibly follow this release pattern?

Going on this, the Release Candidate will be compiled at build 8400, 150 builds after the Consumer Preview. The most recent build produced by Microsoft has been build 8307, it took them just under a month to compile 57 more builds of Windows 8.

If we take it as 1 month = 5o builds

February build 8250 (Consumer Preview)

March 8250 + 50 builds = 8300 (Roughly where we are now)

April 8300 + 50 builds = 8350

May 8350 + 50 builds = 8400 (Thought to be the Release Candidate).

This would mean that at the end of May or early June, Microsoft will have reached build number 8400, which rumours are suggesting could be the first Release Candidate.

Of course this maths of mine could be absolute and complete rubbish, but I think it’s a pretty good rough estimate. Microsoft don’t strictly have to follow any build pattern, and they can skip builds as well just as easily.

But hey, maybe just over 2 months from now I’ll be able to say I was right!

What do you guys think?

Let us know in the comments.

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Windows 8 Beats Windows 7 In Performance Tests

Windows 8 has been greeted with mixed reviews, some users just aren’t happy with the new Metro Start Menu, but one things for sure, they won’t be complaining about the performance increases. PCWorld have been carrying out some benchmark testing of their own and in all but one test, Windows 8 was quicker.

PCWorld Labs loaded up their test machine with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview and put it through a wide range of tests against Windows 7. Windows 8 beat Windows 7 in every test except for an office productivity test. What’s even more impressive is the fact that Windows 8 is still only at the Consumer Preview stage and in theory should become more refined and quicker when it’s released. We’ll also see drivers coming online that are tweaked and optimised for Windows 8 and Windows 7 which will add more performance.

The test machine used by PCWorld was by no means a slow fella. It packs a 3.3GHz Intel Core i5-2500K processor, 8GB of DDR3 RAM clocked at 1333MHz, a 1TB 7200-rpm hard drive, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti graphics card.

When pitted against Windows 7 in the WorldBench 7 tests, Windows 8 was 14 percent faster than Windows 8. They say a difference of more than 5 percent is noticeable in real world situations

Windows 8 was also much quicker when it came to start up times. This is one of the biggest factors for people as it’s something which drives most of us nuts on a daily basis. In PCWorlds tests, Windows 8 started up 35 percent faster than Windows 7.

The  average startup time for Windows 7 was 56.2 seconds, running Windows 8 this dropped to 36.8 seconds. I’d certainly agree with this as I have noticed a massive difference in my startup times since I’ve installed Windows 8. Also, in this test Windows 8 was at a slight disadvantage. For the test, PCWorld require that Windows boots up and opens a text file. With Windows 8, it boots directly into the Metro Start Menu, so it has to then switch to the desktop mode before it can open the text file. Still it managed to do it quicker than Windows 7.

Why?

Well Windows 8 is quite clever in that it used hybrid boot technology. When you should down your PC, everything in the RAM is actually saved to that hard disk. This is then simply loaded back into the RAM when you restart your computer so all the applications, tabs etc.. you had open are back when your restart your computer.

Windows 8 also outmatched Windows 7 when it came to web performance.  Using the WebVizBench benchmark which measures how well the system renders dynamic Web content, including JavaScript and HTML 5, Windows 8 out performed Windows 7 yet again.

It was the office productivity test where Windows 7 won decisively. This test uses the Productivity section of Futuremark’s PCMark benchmark tool, and includes usual office tasks like editing text, launching applications, and scanning for viruses. This time Windows 8 was roughly 8 percent slower than Windows 7.

However it’s important to note that Futuremark is currently in the process of updating it’s benchmarks suits for Windows 8 so these figures will likely change once that’s done.

Regardless, Windows 8 is certainly outperforming Windows 7, and it’s only in its consumer preview stage. I’d imagine once Microsoft have tweaked it some more and we see software and hardware become optimised for it, the performance gap will increase.

Source:

PCWorld

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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

The Zeus Botnet is under Microsoft Attack

Microsoft has been targeting botnets for some time now, and their latest venture is against the Zeus Botnet. If you don’t know what a botnet is, it is a system of computers or servers that deliver malware to the public. The key, however, is that the computers or servers are highjacked and unknowingly distribute spam and malware to other computers via the Internet. In highjacking, the computer continues to operate in its normal mode, but it becomes a distributer of programs or spam. The owner may not even be aware of this occurring.
Operation b71

The Zeus botnet is just another of the botnets that Microsoft has been pursuing, offering assistance to various law enforcement organizations. In operation b71, the focus is on botnets using Zeus, SpyEye and Ice-IX variants of the Zeus family of malware. It is estimated that the Zeus malware is responsible for nearly half a billion dollars in damages. The focus is not to bring down the botnet, instead it is to boomerang the malware back to the cybercrime organization. In effect, the idea is to cause long-term damage to the cybercriminal organization that relies on these botnets for illicit gain.

Zeus Botnet

What the Zeus Botnet Does

At the heart of the Zeus malware a program called keylogging, is instituted. This program records a person’s every computer keystroke to monitor online activity and gain access to usernames and passwords in order to steal victims’ identities, withdraw money from their bank accounts and make online purchases. Once a computer is infected with Zeus, the malware automatically starts the keylogging. So when a person types in the name of a financial or e-commerce institution, that information is forwarded back to the cybercriminal and they use it to gain access to people’s online accounts from that point forward.

Zeus Botnet In Context

To make matters worse, according to a legal complaint filed by Microsoft against the Zeus botnet, this action is more dangerous because the information is sold in the criminal underground as a crime ware kit. This allows criminals to set up their own command and control servers and create their own individual Zeus botnets. These crime ware kits sell for anywhere between $700 to $15,000, depending on the version and features of the kit. The investigation is ongoing with more details to follow.

Source: Microsoft

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Microsoft Connected Home Videos

If you believe companies like Microsoft or Apple, the so called connected home will be the next big thing when it comes to teching-up your living space. Microsoft’s vision puts several Microsoft and Microsoft-partner products on center stage, including the company’s Xbox system with Kinect, Windows Phone and Windows Server.

The first video is a quick walk through Microsoft’s Connected Home in Munich, Germany. This presentation room uses technology that is available today, including Windows 7, Windows Phone or the Xbox 360 with Kinect.

You will see how phone apps control different elements of the room, like the room’s lighting for instance or temperature. There is also a lot of interconnectivity going on, like controlling the Xbox interface with a Windows Phone, or using a Windows 7 Tablet PC to send videos to multiple screens in the home.

Microsoft put a lot of technology into that room to make life easier and more comfortable at the same time. With these technologies becoming more mainstream, prices will go down as well, which will make those solutions more affordable for a larger audience.

The second video looks at the Microsoft Home. This is the vision that Microsoft has of the home of the future. The Home is located on the Redmond campus and only accessible by invitation.

It demonstrates how a home could look like in five, ten or even fifteen years from today on. This for instance includes a watch that is acting has a health reading device that you can place on a specially prepared tablet to transfer the readings to an app that is displaying charts and other information about your health then.

One of the impressive technologies in the house is a program that can detect items and elements on screen when watching videos for instance. This includes shop signs, but also items that people carry around with them like a backpack for instance.

How would you envision the connected home of the future?

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Meet Fu Chunli, The Lucky Winner Of Apple’s 25 Billionth App Download Competition And A $10,000 iTunes Gift Card

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When the iOS App Store was first launched in 2008, not even Apple themselves could have predicted the store’s meteoric rise to become the undisputed heavy-weight champion of the app distribution world. At the beginning of 2011 Apple launched a competition, offering a $10,000 iTunes gift card to the lucky App Store user who downloaded the 10 billionth app from the store. The Cupertino company has since repeated that offering by giving away a gift card of the same value to whoever downloaded the twenty-fifth billionth app.

That competition has been and gone, with the lucky winner being announced as Fu Chunli, a Chinese citizen from the city of Qingdao in the Shandong Province of Eastern China. The contest was open to App Store users from all over the world, but Chunli managed to beat all of the competition by downloading a free copy of the popular Where’s My Water? app. What makes the story even more compelling is that when downloading the app; she actually had no idea about Apple’s competition and was still at the stage of getting used to using the App Store’s interface.

As a competition winner, Apple have presented Fu Chunli with an iTunes gift card worth a whopping $10,000, allowing her to download apps, music, movies and TV programs from across Apple’s range of offered content. To celebrate the victory, Apple invited her to attend a special event at the Beijing Apple Store to collect her prize, view the company’s in-store products and pose for the obligatory press pictures. Apple could have simply posted the gift card to her or credited the amount to her Apple ID but in typical Apple fashion they chose to offer the winner a warm reception and gain some positive exposure in the process which will no doubt put them in good light in one of the world’s emerging markets.

The local media in Qingdao now refer to Fu Chunli as the ‘Apple Girl’, but the story could have been so different considering that she actually believed the original call from Apple was nothing more than a hoax. Even the congratulatory calls from friends and family members wasn’t enough to convince her the competition was genuine, and it wasn’t until she received an email from Apple Inc. then the news eventually began to sink in. The iPhone was responsible for downloading the 25 billionth app is Chunli’s first Apple product, but we are pretty sure it won’t be her last.

(via M.I.C Gadget)

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Get A True And Accurate Visual Representation Of Your iPhone Signal Strength Using Bars For iOS

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The iPhone is a bit of an all rounder, that it handles its core purpose extremely well, while managing to carry out a whole host of other tasks. However, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have its fair share of issues.

In the past we have seen Apple push out point releases of their iOS operating system in order to fix slight issues such as battery life, Wi-Fi connectivity problems and also signal issues. Back in July of 2010, Apple released iOS 4.0.1, with the only change mentioned being an improvement to the algorithm used to display the signal bars on the device which was welcomed with fury over the so-called antennagate scandal.

The company announced that the issues that some users were experiencing with the drop of signals was largely exaggerated due to the fact that the calculations used to display the signal strength in iOS 4.0 was erroneous, leading users to see a larger drop in visual indication than what was actually happening.

The signal bars issue is something that has pretty much been put to bed over the last twelve months, but for those who wish to have an accurate visualization of just what is happening with network strength, then iOS developer Paul Griffin has released a little side project he has had lying around for quite some time called Bars. The purpose of the Bars tweak is to give a better, and more accurate understanding of the iPhone signal strength by using stepped indicators that accurately portray what is happening. Signals are still represented by the familiar five vertical bars in the top left hand corner of the device, but Bars make a slight adjustment by making the last bar full or half depending on the strength. As an example, if a particular iPhone had 3.5 bars of real world signal, the last vertical bar would be displayed as a half bar to reflect that.

Bars is free of charge tweak, available to download from the BigBoss repository and requires iOS 5.0 or higher.

Of course, you will need to jailbreak your device to install this tweak. For jailbreaking the latest iOS 5.1 (tethered), follow the instructions posted here to jailbreak using Redsn0w, or here for Sn0wbreeze. For jailbreaking iPhone 4S and iPad 2, you can simply follow our step by step tutorial posted here to jailbreak iOS 5.0.1 using Absinthe on Windows or Mac. Those of you with an iPhone 4, 3GS, iPad 1, and iPod touches can use Redsn0w or Sn0wbreeze to untether jailbreak on iOS 5.0.1.

Be sure to check out our iPhone Apps Gallery and iPad Apps Gallery to explore more apps for your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

You can follow us on Twitter, add us to your circle on Google+ or like our Facebook page to keep yourself updated on all the latest from Microsoft, Google, Apple and the web.

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HoverBar For iPad [REVIEW]

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If you are the type of person who repeatedly purchase Apple products, specifically the iPad 2 and the new iPad, then the chances are you recognize quality when you see it. Regardless of what public opinion may be about Apple, it is extremely difficult to argue against the quality of their products, with each one offering the build you would expect from a premium priced consumer gadget. Products such as the iPad and iPhone are built to offer extensive functionality, but also stand the test of time which is highly evident when you consider the fact that the iPhone 3GS and original iPad still perform better than a lot of newly released competing devices.

So if you own an iPad 2, or even the new iPad, what is the next step? The iDevice accessory market is a rapidly expanding industry, with peripherals and add-ons being thrown at the consumers left, right and center. Products such as cases, stands, screen protectors, docks and cables are available from a multitude of suppliers; catering to all price bands ranging from the budget-end, all the way up to super-premium, and everything in between. One such provider of accessories are Twelve South, who create unique and innovative accessories exclusively for Apple products. One such accessory that has been gaining serious traction on the world wide web is the HoverBar, designed for the iPad 2 but as my tests show that it does also work on Apple’s latest Retina-toting iPad. The HoverBar is essentially a sturdy, adjustable arm that can pretty much clamp to anything up to one inch in thickness and hold the iPad in place for secure viewing.

One of the major benefits of such a product is that it can make itself perfectly at home clamped to the ‘L’ stand of an iMac, allowing the iPad to be used as a secondary touch-screen whilst working. Perfect for flicking through iBooks with a reference manual, playing a movie or watching some television whilst working. That isn’t the only use, and the fact that the attached clamp can grip pretty much anything that is one inch thick or less means that the HoverBar can provide some iPad viewing goodness in a wide range of situations. The official Twelve South page shows that the HoverBar can be attached to a standard work desk and in the kitchen to flick through your favorite recipes but it could pretty much be used in any situation you can think of as long as it stays within the product’s technical constraints.

Upon delivery, the HoverBar jumps right out at you as a premium product. The product comes delivered in a custom made, sturdy box that is fitted out with shaped black and red foam to protect the device. Each component which makes up the final bar has its own home in the box, just waiting to spring into life. The box itself contains the adjustable arm, the clamp, the actual iPad holder, an Allen key to tighten the clamp as well as four cable clips to attach a USB cable along the arm itself. The packaging is very ‘Apple-esque’ with no space being waste, every inch used for purpose.

So everything sounds great. It looks good, is packaged well and feels like a quality product, but is it? Well the simple answer is yes, yes it is. The attached instructions allow the HoverBar to be setup in less than five minutes, with video tutorials being available if required. I have purchased previous products of similar nature that come with warnings such as "Don’t suspend your device higher than you are willing to keep it from falling" which is something you really don’t want to read on a product whose prime purpose is to suspend your device. Fortunately, Twelve South don’t feel the need to offer such warnings with the HoverBar, and after feeling the metallic quality of the adjustable arm you can see why. The clamp that provides the main support is like something you would find in an engineer’s workshop, but still manages to look elegant and fits in with the design of Apple products.

The one issue that I did have with the HoverBar was actually adjusting the arm to give me the perfect angle when attached to the iMac. Every time I attempted to adjust it, I seemed to only succeed in unscrewing the arm from the clamp. The setup of the product took me less than two minutes, achieving the right angle for my iPad took about ten minutes. I entirely concede however, that the angle issue could be entirely down to my own incompetence, so let’s not dwell too much on that. One thing to note is that the official site just say that the HoverBar is designed for use with the iPad 2. All of my tests of the product, and the images shown, were carried out with the new Retina-ready iPad which seems to fit in the holder without any issue whatsoever.

At $79.99, the HoverBar may seem expensive to some, but when you consider the longevity of the product, how well it is actually manufactured and packaged and the fact that it will more than likely become as important in your gadget loving world as the iPad itself, it doesn’t seem like such a high price to pay. HoverBar is available directly from Twelve South with free shipping to the United States and flat rates to a host of additional countries.

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New iPad ‘Overheating’ Claims Exaggerated, New Tests Proves It To Be On Par With Other Tablets On The Market

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Although the first ten days of the new iPad have been relatively successful – particularly regarding initial sales – it hasn’t passed without its usual dose of hitches and gripes.

Although the weak Wi-Fi situation remains, recent tests by a number of tech outlets appear to confirm that concerns regarding overheating appear somewhat exaggerated. While the new iPad is indeed a little warmer than its predecessor, it doesn’t heat up enough to cause any lasting damage or – more importantly – any risk of injury.

PCWorld magazine tested temperatures of a variety of different tablets, with the results suggesting the hysteria about overheating in the new iPad needn’t be dwelled on. The tests were carried out using infrared thermometers, and the third-generation iPad reached temperatures of between 2 and 7 degrees Fahrenheit (less than 4 degrees Celsius) hotter than the iPad 2.

It does seem as though the tech world has become engrossed in comparing the iPad 2 and the new iPad, and forgotten that there are of course other tablets on the market. It makes sense – since no tablet from competing vendors has come close to Apple’s offering. However, devices such as the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime and Samsung Galaxy 10.1 were found to be of around the same temperature bracket of the new iPad, confirming that there isn’t anything to worry about.

The news will certainly bring a sigh of relief among the millions of early adopters – many of which queued for hours on end to get their hands on the device. The site also noted that although temperatures rose during charging, playing a computationally intensive game for an hour while plugged into a power adapter, the highest reading they could capture was 100 degrees Fahrenheit (about 38 degrees Celsius), within 2 degrees of the Galaxy tablet.

With the overheating fallacy now dealt with, one suspects attentions will turn to the weak Wi-Fi complaints of many users. Again, the concerns are mainly drawn from users comparing the new iPad with the iPad 2, but surely – especially given the fact that the 3rd-gen offering is 4G compliant – users have every right to expect Wi-Fi connectivity to be as efficient as they’re used to – if not better.

We hope – as was the case with similar complaints when the initial iPad released in 2010 – that Apple will rectify the issue with a future software update.

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Facebook Messenger For Windows Released – Download Now!

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Personally speaking, I am not a big Facebook fan, but there are millions upon millions of people all over the globe who can’t go a day without logging into the world’s largest social network and checking out what kind of sandwich their old school friend had for lunch, or poking their best friend in an act of online bullying. Although already wildly popular, the whole Facebook experience may be a distinctly better one for a large portion of users if they didn’t need to be constantly signed into the web service with a browser running all the time.

In a technology driven world that is being overrun by all kinds of apps on various platforms, it seems that the Facebook team has cottoned on to the fact that user engagement might increase if they could use some of the more core Facebook services from within a dedicated desktop client. With that in mind, we are officially seeing the launch of Facebook Messenger for Windows Desktop Chat Client, although a number of you might already be using the client due to its leak back in December. Some of you may remember in December when an Israel-based blogger was given access to the Facebook Chat test group and trusted with an unprotected link to download the software. Rightly or wrongly, he quickly made the link public, given early access to the software to anyone who wanted it.

On the back of the leak, Facebook decided to make the link publicly available via official means through their help center, but didn’t exactly make song and dance about the client’s existence. That is all changing today with the company officially launching the chat client, which features nothing more than bug fixes and some fine-tuning over the leaked version. The client is available now for the Windows 7 operating system, and will be coming soon to Mac OS X, featuring the ability to receive and view notifications, read the news feed and send and receive chat messages without the need for web a browser being open, all the time.

Perhaps a somewhat unknown fact about the company is the existence of their Gatekeeper infrastructure which allows Facebook to test new features and products out on users without their knowledge. It is often the case that engineers behind the scenes can turn functionality on and off at will, granting or denying users access to new features without them actually knowing that they are testing something new. Whether or not this method of using registered members as guinea pigs is the right way to go about gathering usage data is entirely a different story.

TechCrunch have noted a couple of ways that they believe the chat client will help Facebook:

• Persistent access to Chat will increase engagement of the primary user, and also draw their friends to spend more time on Facebook
• Persistent access to notifications, messages, and friend requests that launch Facebook.com may lead to more return visits than users haphazardly stopping by the website to check for these alerts.

With users already spending a record breaking amount of time on Facebook, the creation and release of dedicated chat clients which allow the use of core features will no doubt go some way to increasing that active time.

You can download Facebook Messenger for Windows by heading over to this link.

You may also like to check out:

• It’s Official! Facebook Files For $5 Billion IPO

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