Many compueter users may say windows is better because of it's experience and oldage. But remember old is not always better, would you rather have an old phone or a new one, an old car or a new one ect. And as with life newer is usually more beautiful. Macs not only are the masters of power but of beauty, they are shiny with vibrant colors, they have asthetic desktops that have great form and function like all great things. When mac was first made they didn't have a only programer make their windows and toolbars, but a porfesional artist!
Many windows users argue how Mac is lacking in programs but they are simply undfounded, not only can mac run Microsoft Office but it also has it's own version iWork to help you do tasks. You can use i Movie to do way more intricate mpovies than with Windows movie maker. It has safari a more asthetic and fast browser than Internet Explorer.
Mac are awsome with costomer service my brother sent in his laptop and it was back fixed in 4 days! My friend sent in his xbox to microsoft and with all the misships returns and holds it took him almost a YEAR to get it back!
27 January 2010
19 January 2010
More windows 7 probs!
1. Vista upgrade hangs at 62%
Windows 7 can start causing problems before it's even installed, as many people report their upgrade hangs forever at 62%. Which is annoying.
Reboot, and your PC should roll back to Windows Vista. You can then open the setup log file \$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\Panther\setupact.log to view what happened. Microsoft say this is usually caused because the Iphlpsvc service has stopped responding, and just adding an environment variable to ignore it will fix the problem. Point your browser at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/975253 for the fix.
If this doesn't help (or your upgrade hangs at something other than 62%) then browse the setup log for other clues. And you might also try to boot and install from the Windows 7 disc, if possible, as that reduces the chance of any conflict with your existing Vista (or XP) setup.
INSTALL WINDOWS 7: Windows 7 upgrades are usually quick, but sometimes it doesn't install at all
2. DVD drive not found
In some cases your DVD drive may not be found by Windows 7, even if it's visible in the BIOS and using the standard driver.
The standard solution here is to run REGEDIT, browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\, then delete both UpperFilters and LowerFilters in the right-hand pane (UpperFilters.bak and LowerFilters.bak entries can be ignored).
No change? Resetting the drive letter has worked for some. Click Start, type Disk Management and choose the "Create and format hard disk partitions" link. If your optical drive is visible here then right-click it, select Change Drive Letter and Paths, click Change and choose a new letter. If the drive is now visible in Explorer, then repeat the process to change the drive letter back; if it's still not visible, reboot and it should appear.
3. Aero isn't running
If Windows 7 isn't looking its best - transparency has been turned off, say - then the Aero theme may not have been fully enabled on your system. Click Start, type Aero, choose the "Find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects" link, and click Next to launch the Aero troubleshooting wizard. It'll try to identify and resolve and problems. And if it doesn't, then install the latest driver for your graphics hardware. That could be all your system needs.
Some Aero features may be disabled in the Registry, though. For example, if Aero Peek (the ability to make open windows transparent to display your desktop underneath) doesn't work for you, then launch REGEDIT, browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM and make sure EnableAeroPeek is set to 1, rather than 0.
NO AERO: Windows 7's troubleshooting wizards will fix many display problems while you watch
4. Aero Snap irritations
Windows 7's new ability to move and resize windows, all in one movement, can be a genuine productivity boost. But if you find windows moving around when you don't expect it then Aero Snap is more of an annoyance than anything else, though at least it's one you can disable in just a few seconds.
Launch Control Panel, click Ease of Access, and select either "Change how your mouse works" or "Change how your keyboard works". Then browse down to the "Make it easier to manage windows" section, check "Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen", click OK, and program windows now won't go anywhere unless you specifically command it.
5. iPhone won't sync in Windows 7
Irritated iPhone users are beginning to report major difficulties in getting their iPhone to sync with Windows 7 systems. Particularly 64-bit Windows 7 systems, based around the P55 chipset. The iPhone is usually (though not always) recognised, but iTunes then complains that it can't connect to the unit because of an "unknown error", usually (though again, not always) 0xE8000065.
Disabling USB power management appears to be one solution. Click Start, type DEVMGMT.MSC and press [Enter] to launch Device Manager, then click View > Devices By Type. Expand the Universal Serial Bus controllers section of the tree, right-click each USB Root Hub entry in turn, select Properties > Power Management, and clear "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power".
Reboot your PC after this tweak and try again. This works for some, but if you're out of luck then check the Apple Discussions thread for other ideas.
SYNCING FEELING: iTunes on Windows 7 won't always see, or sync with, your iPod
6. Windows 7 themes change your custom icons
Windows 7 has some spectacular new themes - there's a great selection at the Microsoft site - but installing them can have one annoying side-effect. If you've previously changed a system icon like Computer or the Recycle Bin then that could disappear, replaced by the equivalent icon from the theme pack.
To prevent this, right-click an empty part of the desktop, select Personalize > Change Desktop Icons, clear the "Allow themes to change desktop icons" box and click OK. Your icons will now be preserved, and the only way to change them will be manually, from the same Desktop Icons dialogue.
Credits: techradar.com Mike Williams
Call it the legacy of Microsoft's Vista operating system. PC users upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7 have run into a variety of hair pulling problems since last Thursday when Windows 7 launched. Complaints range from endless reboots to refusals by Windows to accept Microsoft's assigned product keys.
As of Monday morning, Microsoft had answered about 2600 questions that poured into support forum regarding upgrades. At last count, around 1400 questions remained unanswered.
Unable to Unpack
On Microsoft's support forum, users are complaining of receiving "unspecified errors" when unpacking Windows 7 Home Premium from the student download, and about getting the error message "We are unable to create or save new files in the folder in which this application was downloaded."
The problem was traced back to the third-party software distributor who was offering the upgrade download for Windows 7. It has to do with the way the files were downloaded to users' PCs. Microsoft has acknowledged the problem and suggests this work-around.
Endless Reboots
Users began to complain about endless reboots on Friday, posting messages to the Microsoft support forums stating that the Windows 7 upgrade would hang two-thirds of the way through the upgrade. Microsoft says it is investigating user problems regarding "endless reboots," but downplayed them as "isolated issues," according to reports.
Here is a sample complaint from the forums:
"On the last step of the upgrade (transferring files/programs/etc.), my laptop rebooted and came to a screen telling me the upgrade was unsuccessful and my previous [Vista] OS files would now be restored. My laptop is now in what seems to be a loop of restarting and trying to restore the files," wrote one user, JSchneider21.
Did Microsoft know about the reboot problems? In July Microsoft posted a document on its Web site outlining the problem and suggesting steps that users can take to address it.
Product Key Problems
Other angry users are saying that Windows won't accept product keys supplied with Windows 7 upgrade disks. "The product key is not valid. Please retype the product key," Windows 7 tells them.
Meanwhile, many users seem quite dissatisfied with Microsoft's responses to other Win 7 upgrade issues. As of this morning, Microsoft support reps were still replying to users' questions about product keys with a canned response citing "several reasons why a product key might not be accepted."
Essentially, either, "You mistyped it. The product key you typed doesn't match the key assigned to Windows on your computer. Microsoft has identified the product key you entered as counterfeit," or "the product key has already been used on another computer," according to Microsoft.
One person griped: "I Have been on the phone since 4 pm EST and I still don't have a valid product code. Thank you Microsoft! Thank you for wasting my valuable time! Time is money and this had been a flagrant waste of it," wrote thatguy38.
Users helping out other users on the Microsoft support forums are suggesting a common mistake is leading to upgrade product key problems. Forum users suggest product key rejections stem from users mistakenly wiping their system clean and trying to use an upgrade Windows 7 disk for a full installation. It is unclear whether this is indeed the source to user aggravation.
Users have been posting their own, rather convoluted workarounds to the product key conundrum on the Microsoft forum. But wouldn't it be great if Microsoft would give them a simpler answer?
Credits: pcworld.com Jacqueline Emigh
Microsoft yesterday blamed user confusion for the problems many have encountered trying to move from Vista to Windows 7 after buying a discounted upgrade offered to college students.
"Digital River and Microsoft are aware that some customers from the Windows 7 Academic Store had difficulties completing the download or installation of the product," said a Microsoft support engineer identified as "Michael" in a message posted Sunday to the company's support forum.
Digital River fulfills download orders for Microsoft's Windows 7 upgrade offer to students. Several hundred users have said that they were unable to upgrade from Windows Vista to the new operating system after purchasing, then downloading, a Windows 7 upgrade, from Digital River.
"We are aware that consumers are encountering difficulties installing Windows 7 where the customer is currently running a 32-bit version of Windows such as Windows Vista, but purchased the 64-bit version of Windows 7," Michael said.
Last week, users reported that an error message prevented them from unpacking files downloaded from Digital River. The message read: "We are unable to create or save new files in the folder in which this application was downloaded."
"This error occurs when you are in the unloading phase of the 64-bit Windows 7 download process and are running a 32-bit version of Windows such as Windows XP or Windows Vista 32-bit," Michael added. "This is by design, as you cannot launch setup for the 64-bit version of Widows 7 while running a 32-bit operating system."
According to Microsoft, users can conduct "in place" upgrades that retain all data, settings and applications only from Vista 32-bit to Windows 7 32-bit, or from Vista 64-bit to Windows 7 64-bit. The company had spelled out the in place upgrade paths last summer, before it released Windows 7.
"If you want to move from Windows Vista 32-bit to Windows 7 64-bit, or if you are running Windows XP, you have to do a "Custom" or clean installation that must be started by booting off the Windows 7 64-bit DVD," Michael stressed.
A Windows 7 custom upgrade, called a "clean" install by some, requires users to back up data and settings from Windows XP or Vista, install Windows 7, then restore the data and settings before finally reinstalling all applications.
Students who mistakenly downloaded the 64-bit edition of Windows 7 from Digital River should request a refund, Microsoft's Michael continued, then pay for and download the 32-bit version instead. He pointed customers to a page on Digital River's site where they could request a refund. "In the web form, select the Order question option in the drop down menu and include 'Refund and Request 32-bit' in the first line of the problem description," Michael recommended.
His advice runs counter to the policy listed on the Digital River support site, which says that there are no refunds for the student discount Windows 7 upgrade.
Michael claimed that Digital River has identified and contacted customers who have been affected by the download error. "Digital River has been making every effort to make it right for these customers," he said. The Microsoft engineer also said Microsoft would not handle support questions about Windows 7 unless customers were able to reach the initial installation screen. All issues prior to that step were to be directed to Digital River.
On Saturday, users blamed both companies for their problems, and were irked that neither had stepped up to accept responsibility or provide answers. "This problem is not being resolved by anyone," complained a user tagged as "tatguy6" on the same support thread Saturday. "Someone is to blame. I guess we are just gonna have to wait for someone to pull their heads out of their butts and do something for us to resolve this."
"I [have] had enough," added "arkavat."
Tatguy6, arkavat and several others said that they were, or had, filed complaints against Digital River with the Better Business Bureau.
Digital River has yet not responded to a request for comment made last Friday.
Credits: Gregg Keizer | Computerworld US
Microsoft hopes that the release of Windows 7 will solve problems ranging from desktop clutter to what Vista did to Microsoft's public reputation. But the toughest challenge may be to win over the group of people that arguably represent the software giant's biggest obstacle to success: Windows XP users.
The Windows 7 pitch, to date, takes direct aim at Vista's reputation as a bloated resource hog. As developers and members of the general public begin to tinker with the Windows 7 public beta, Microsoft is framing it as a lean and lithe OS, with the flexibility to run on all types of computers, from netbooks to high-end gaming laptops.
The new and streamlined user interface features of Windows 7 are well-documented at this point. A cleaned-up taskbar, the sleek Aero Peek GUI, mouse-hover Jump Lists and multi-touch capability have generated interest from users whose Windows desktops have been cluttered for too long.
Quicker, easier, more organized. Those were the buzzwords about Windows 7 features that Parri Munsell, Microsoft's Director of Consumer Product Management for Windows, used repeatedly in a recent interview from CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas.
"Our goal was to make the UI in Windows 7 much easier to navigate. We'll let the beta speak for itself but we have a high degree of optimism in it," Munsell says.
As for fastest growing segment of the PC market, netbooks, Munsell says that Microsoft has made it a priority to run Windows 7 on small form-factor notebooks.
"Windows 7 has been optimized and engineered to work with anything: from the smallest netbook to the most loaded laptop or desktop," he says.
A lot is expected of Windows 7, but can it do what at times has seemed impossible-win back the trust of XP users who have shunned Vista?
The software giant has stated outright that Windows 7 will not make significant architectural changes from Vista and will run most if not all the applications that run on Vista.
Yet just 21 percent of Windows users currently run Vista, according to Web metrics company Net Applications. Most Windows users (65 percent) still run XP; they like it and they are wary of the compatibility issues that have plagued Vista.
Credits: Shane O'Neill | CIO.com
Users have been complaining on internet forums about the "black screen of death", which causes the screen of their Windows 7 machine to turn black and the computer to crash when a user logs on.
Microsoft confirmed that it was investigating the possibility that a security update, released on Thursday, could be the root of the problem but later said that it was not the cause.
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"Microsoft has investigated reports that its November security updates made changes to permissions in the registry that that are resulting in system issues for some customers," a statement read.
"The company has found those reports to be inaccurate and our comprehensive investigation has shown that none of the recently released updates are related to the behavior described in the reports."
It added: "Our support organization is also not seeing this as an issue."
The "black screen of death" also appears to affect other Windows operating systems, including Windows 7's predecessor, Windows Vista, as well as Windows XP. When users log on, they see a completely black screen instead of the usual start menu, desktop icons and system tray.
According to the software firm Prevx, which has issued a patch to resolve the problem, millions of computer users could be affected by the "debilitating" glitch.
"Users have resorted to reloading Windows as a last-ditch effort to fix the problem," said the company in a blog post.
"The cause appears to be a change in the Windows operating system lockdown of registry keys," said Dave Kennerley, a support engineer with Prevx. "This change has the effect of invalidating several key registry entries if they are updated without consideration of the new ACL (access control list) rules being applied."
Microsoft advised those affected by the problem to contact its customer service line. A spokesman said the problems didn't match any existing known issues. Microsoft is yet to release a patch to resolve the problem.
Credits: Claudine Beaumont, Technology Editor telegraph.co.uk
I leapt to the Mac OS.
Could Windows 7 lure me back?
Windows 7 was built to fix the problems that plagued Vista, and it unquestionably succeeds in doing that. It's a bit less bloated, and it runs a bit faster. The annoying security alerts from User Account Control have been quieted. And the compatibility issues with third party software and hardware device drivers have largely been ironed away; after all, it's been two and a half years since Vista debuted. Windows 7 even includes a virtual "XP mode" for running legacy programs.
Apple launches server diagnostic tool for Snow Leopard | Apple Snow Leopard eats user data | Apple's motion to include Snow Leopard in Psystar case dismissed | Microsoft blames users for Windows 7 problems
Windows 7 goes a few steps beyond merely repairing Vista. It borrows, and improves on, tricks from the Mac's playbook to make it easier and faster to organise files and launch programs. Like Apple's operating system, Windows 7 not only looks good, but it has tools and shortcuts that help you work more efficiently. If there were ever a Windows that could challenge Mac OS X, Windows 7 is it.
Still, once you've had Mac, can you ever go back?
Mac OS X Leopard received rave reviews for good reason, and Snow Leopard further improved OS X. Although the changes to the GUI are minimal (why mess with success?), there are important improvements under the hood, including a recoded, 64-bit Finder that takes better advantage of multicore processors. Snow Leopard also makes the Mac a better fit with PC oriented businesses with integrated Mail, Address Book, and iCal support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.
After spending a few weeks with both new operating systems and exposing each to my geek's gauntlet of everyday tasks, email, instant messaging, web surfing, blogging, creating and editing Office documents, web page creation, and audio, video, and photo editing, I have to call Snow Leopard the winner. All considered, from starting up to backing up, Mac OS X still offers the best overall user experience. The competition was close, though, far closer than it's been in quite a while.
Credit: Curtis Franklin Jr. | InfoWorld
Windows 7 can start causing problems before it's even installed, as many people report their upgrade hangs forever at 62%. Which is annoying.
Reboot, and your PC should roll back to Windows Vista. You can then open the setup log file \$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\Panther\setupact.log to view what happened. Microsoft say this is usually caused because the Iphlpsvc service has stopped responding, and just adding an environment variable to ignore it will fix the problem. Point your browser at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/975253 for the fix.
If this doesn't help (or your upgrade hangs at something other than 62%) then browse the setup log for other clues. And you might also try to boot and install from the Windows 7 disc, if possible, as that reduces the chance of any conflict with your existing Vista (or XP) setup.
INSTALL WINDOWS 7: Windows 7 upgrades are usually quick, but sometimes it doesn't install at all
2. DVD drive not found
In some cases your DVD drive may not be found by Windows 7, even if it's visible in the BIOS and using the standard driver.
The standard solution here is to run REGEDIT, browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\, then delete both UpperFilters and LowerFilters in the right-hand pane (UpperFilters.bak and LowerFilters.bak entries can be ignored).
No change? Resetting the drive letter has worked for some. Click Start, type Disk Management and choose the "Create and format hard disk partitions" link. If your optical drive is visible here then right-click it, select Change Drive Letter and Paths, click Change and choose a new letter. If the drive is now visible in Explorer, then repeat the process to change the drive letter back; if it's still not visible, reboot and it should appear.
3. Aero isn't running
If Windows 7 isn't looking its best - transparency has been turned off, say - then the Aero theme may not have been fully enabled on your system. Click Start, type Aero, choose the "Find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects" link, and click Next to launch the Aero troubleshooting wizard. It'll try to identify and resolve and problems. And if it doesn't, then install the latest driver for your graphics hardware. That could be all your system needs.
Some Aero features may be disabled in the Registry, though. For example, if Aero Peek (the ability to make open windows transparent to display your desktop underneath) doesn't work for you, then launch REGEDIT, browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM and make sure EnableAeroPeek is set to 1, rather than 0.
NO AERO: Windows 7's troubleshooting wizards will fix many display problems while you watch
4. Aero Snap irritations
Windows 7's new ability to move and resize windows, all in one movement, can be a genuine productivity boost. But if you find windows moving around when you don't expect it then Aero Snap is more of an annoyance than anything else, though at least it's one you can disable in just a few seconds.
Launch Control Panel, click Ease of Access, and select either "Change how your mouse works" or "Change how your keyboard works". Then browse down to the "Make it easier to manage windows" section, check "Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen", click OK, and program windows now won't go anywhere unless you specifically command it.
5. iPhone won't sync in Windows 7
Irritated iPhone users are beginning to report major difficulties in getting their iPhone to sync with Windows 7 systems. Particularly 64-bit Windows 7 systems, based around the P55 chipset. The iPhone is usually (though not always) recognised, but iTunes then complains that it can't connect to the unit because of an "unknown error", usually (though again, not always) 0xE8000065.
Disabling USB power management appears to be one solution. Click Start, type DEVMGMT.MSC and press [Enter] to launch Device Manager, then click View > Devices By Type. Expand the Universal Serial Bus controllers section of the tree, right-click each USB Root Hub entry in turn, select Properties > Power Management, and clear "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power".
Reboot your PC after this tweak and try again. This works for some, but if you're out of luck then check the Apple Discussions thread for other ideas.
SYNCING FEELING: iTunes on Windows 7 won't always see, or sync with, your iPod
6. Windows 7 themes change your custom icons
Windows 7 has some spectacular new themes - there's a great selection at the Microsoft site - but installing them can have one annoying side-effect. If you've previously changed a system icon like Computer or the Recycle Bin then that could disappear, replaced by the equivalent icon from the theme pack.
To prevent this, right-click an empty part of the desktop, select Personalize > Change Desktop Icons, clear the "Allow themes to change desktop icons" box and click OK. Your icons will now be preserved, and the only way to change them will be manually, from the same Desktop Icons dialogue.
Credits: techradar.com Mike Williams
Call it the legacy of Microsoft's Vista operating system. PC users upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7 have run into a variety of hair pulling problems since last Thursday when Windows 7 launched. Complaints range from endless reboots to refusals by Windows to accept Microsoft's assigned product keys.
As of Monday morning, Microsoft had answered about 2600 questions that poured into support forum regarding upgrades. At last count, around 1400 questions remained unanswered.
Unable to Unpack
On Microsoft's support forum, users are complaining of receiving "unspecified errors" when unpacking Windows 7 Home Premium from the student download, and about getting the error message "We are unable to create or save new files in the folder in which this application was downloaded."
The problem was traced back to the third-party software distributor who was offering the upgrade download for Windows 7. It has to do with the way the files were downloaded to users' PCs. Microsoft has acknowledged the problem and suggests this work-around.
Endless Reboots
Users began to complain about endless reboots on Friday, posting messages to the Microsoft support forums stating that the Windows 7 upgrade would hang two-thirds of the way through the upgrade. Microsoft says it is investigating user problems regarding "endless reboots," but downplayed them as "isolated issues," according to reports.
Here is a sample complaint from the forums:
"On the last step of the upgrade (transferring files/programs/etc.), my laptop rebooted and came to a screen telling me the upgrade was unsuccessful and my previous [Vista] OS files would now be restored. My laptop is now in what seems to be a loop of restarting and trying to restore the files," wrote one user, JSchneider21.
Did Microsoft know about the reboot problems? In July Microsoft posted a document on its Web site outlining the problem and suggesting steps that users can take to address it.
Product Key Problems
Other angry users are saying that Windows won't accept product keys supplied with Windows 7 upgrade disks. "The product key is not valid. Please retype the product key," Windows 7 tells them.
Meanwhile, many users seem quite dissatisfied with Microsoft's responses to other Win 7 upgrade issues. As of this morning, Microsoft support reps were still replying to users' questions about product keys with a canned response citing "several reasons why a product key might not be accepted."
Essentially, either, "You mistyped it. The product key you typed doesn't match the key assigned to Windows on your computer. Microsoft has identified the product key you entered as counterfeit," or "the product key has already been used on another computer," according to Microsoft.
One person griped: "I Have been on the phone since 4 pm EST and I still don't have a valid product code. Thank you Microsoft! Thank you for wasting my valuable time! Time is money and this had been a flagrant waste of it," wrote thatguy38.
Users helping out other users on the Microsoft support forums are suggesting a common mistake is leading to upgrade product key problems. Forum users suggest product key rejections stem from users mistakenly wiping their system clean and trying to use an upgrade Windows 7 disk for a full installation. It is unclear whether this is indeed the source to user aggravation.
Users have been posting their own, rather convoluted workarounds to the product key conundrum on the Microsoft forum. But wouldn't it be great if Microsoft would give them a simpler answer?
Credits: pcworld.com Jacqueline Emigh
Microsoft yesterday blamed user confusion for the problems many have encountered trying to move from Vista to Windows 7 after buying a discounted upgrade offered to college students.
"Digital River and Microsoft are aware that some customers from the Windows 7 Academic Store had difficulties completing the download or installation of the product," said a Microsoft support engineer identified as "Michael" in a message posted Sunday to the company's support forum.
Digital River fulfills download orders for Microsoft's Windows 7 upgrade offer to students. Several hundred users have said that they were unable to upgrade from Windows Vista to the new operating system after purchasing, then downloading, a Windows 7 upgrade, from Digital River.
"We are aware that consumers are encountering difficulties installing Windows 7 where the customer is currently running a 32-bit version of Windows such as Windows Vista, but purchased the 64-bit version of Windows 7," Michael said.
Last week, users reported that an error message prevented them from unpacking files downloaded from Digital River. The message read: "We are unable to create or save new files in the folder in which this application was downloaded."
"This error occurs when you are in the unloading phase of the 64-bit Windows 7 download process and are running a 32-bit version of Windows such as Windows XP or Windows Vista 32-bit," Michael added. "This is by design, as you cannot launch setup for the 64-bit version of Widows 7 while running a 32-bit operating system."
According to Microsoft, users can conduct "in place" upgrades that retain all data, settings and applications only from Vista 32-bit to Windows 7 32-bit, or from Vista 64-bit to Windows 7 64-bit. The company had spelled out the in place upgrade paths last summer, before it released Windows 7.
"If you want to move from Windows Vista 32-bit to Windows 7 64-bit, or if you are running Windows XP, you have to do a "Custom" or clean installation that must be started by booting off the Windows 7 64-bit DVD," Michael stressed.
A Windows 7 custom upgrade, called a "clean" install by some, requires users to back up data and settings from Windows XP or Vista, install Windows 7, then restore the data and settings before finally reinstalling all applications.
Students who mistakenly downloaded the 64-bit edition of Windows 7 from Digital River should request a refund, Microsoft's Michael continued, then pay for and download the 32-bit version instead. He pointed customers to a page on Digital River's site where they could request a refund. "In the web form, select the Order question option in the drop down menu and include 'Refund and Request 32-bit' in the first line of the problem description," Michael recommended.
His advice runs counter to the policy listed on the Digital River support site, which says that there are no refunds for the student discount Windows 7 upgrade.
Michael claimed that Digital River has identified and contacted customers who have been affected by the download error. "Digital River has been making every effort to make it right for these customers," he said. The Microsoft engineer also said Microsoft would not handle support questions about Windows 7 unless customers were able to reach the initial installation screen. All issues prior to that step were to be directed to Digital River.
On Saturday, users blamed both companies for their problems, and were irked that neither had stepped up to accept responsibility or provide answers. "This problem is not being resolved by anyone," complained a user tagged as "tatguy6" on the same support thread Saturday. "Someone is to blame. I guess we are just gonna have to wait for someone to pull their heads out of their butts and do something for us to resolve this."
"I [have] had enough," added "arkavat."
Tatguy6, arkavat and several others said that they were, or had, filed complaints against Digital River with the Better Business Bureau.
Digital River has yet not responded to a request for comment made last Friday.
Credits: Gregg Keizer | Computerworld US
Microsoft hopes that the release of Windows 7 will solve problems ranging from desktop clutter to what Vista did to Microsoft's public reputation. But the toughest challenge may be to win over the group of people that arguably represent the software giant's biggest obstacle to success: Windows XP users.
The Windows 7 pitch, to date, takes direct aim at Vista's reputation as a bloated resource hog. As developers and members of the general public begin to tinker with the Windows 7 public beta, Microsoft is framing it as a lean and lithe OS, with the flexibility to run on all types of computers, from netbooks to high-end gaming laptops.
The new and streamlined user interface features of Windows 7 are well-documented at this point. A cleaned-up taskbar, the sleek Aero Peek GUI, mouse-hover Jump Lists and multi-touch capability have generated interest from users whose Windows desktops have been cluttered for too long.
Quicker, easier, more organized. Those were the buzzwords about Windows 7 features that Parri Munsell, Microsoft's Director of Consumer Product Management for Windows, used repeatedly in a recent interview from CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas.
"Our goal was to make the UI in Windows 7 much easier to navigate. We'll let the beta speak for itself but we have a high degree of optimism in it," Munsell says.
As for fastest growing segment of the PC market, netbooks, Munsell says that Microsoft has made it a priority to run Windows 7 on small form-factor notebooks.
"Windows 7 has been optimized and engineered to work with anything: from the smallest netbook to the most loaded laptop or desktop," he says.
A lot is expected of Windows 7, but can it do what at times has seemed impossible-win back the trust of XP users who have shunned Vista?
The software giant has stated outright that Windows 7 will not make significant architectural changes from Vista and will run most if not all the applications that run on Vista.
Yet just 21 percent of Windows users currently run Vista, according to Web metrics company Net Applications. Most Windows users (65 percent) still run XP; they like it and they are wary of the compatibility issues that have plagued Vista.
Credits: Shane O'Neill | CIO.com
Users have been complaining on internet forums about the "black screen of death", which causes the screen of their Windows 7 machine to turn black and the computer to crash when a user logs on.
Microsoft confirmed that it was investigating the possibility that a security update, released on Thursday, could be the root of the problem but later said that it was not the cause.
Related Articles
Xbox 360 iPlayer launch delayed indefinitely
Microsoft unveils a new outlook
Microsoft Office 2010: the facts
Microsoft to pay websites to remove content from Google
China bans Microsoft from selling operating systems
Microsoft creates Christmas payroll 'nightmare'
"Microsoft has investigated reports that its November security updates made changes to permissions in the registry that that are resulting in system issues for some customers," a statement read.
"The company has found those reports to be inaccurate and our comprehensive investigation has shown that none of the recently released updates are related to the behavior described in the reports."
It added: "Our support organization is also not seeing this as an issue."
The "black screen of death" also appears to affect other Windows operating systems, including Windows 7's predecessor, Windows Vista, as well as Windows XP. When users log on, they see a completely black screen instead of the usual start menu, desktop icons and system tray.
According to the software firm Prevx, which has issued a patch to resolve the problem, millions of computer users could be affected by the "debilitating" glitch.
"Users have resorted to reloading Windows as a last-ditch effort to fix the problem," said the company in a blog post.
"The cause appears to be a change in the Windows operating system lockdown of registry keys," said Dave Kennerley, a support engineer with Prevx. "This change has the effect of invalidating several key registry entries if they are updated without consideration of the new ACL (access control list) rules being applied."
Microsoft advised those affected by the problem to contact its customer service line. A spokesman said the problems didn't match any existing known issues. Microsoft is yet to release a patch to resolve the problem.
Credits: Claudine Beaumont, Technology Editor telegraph.co.uk
I leapt to the Mac OS.
Could Windows 7 lure me back?
Windows 7 was built to fix the problems that plagued Vista, and it unquestionably succeeds in doing that. It's a bit less bloated, and it runs a bit faster. The annoying security alerts from User Account Control have been quieted. And the compatibility issues with third party software and hardware device drivers have largely been ironed away; after all, it's been two and a half years since Vista debuted. Windows 7 even includes a virtual "XP mode" for running legacy programs.
Apple launches server diagnostic tool for Snow Leopard | Apple Snow Leopard eats user data | Apple's motion to include Snow Leopard in Psystar case dismissed | Microsoft blames users for Windows 7 problems
Windows 7 goes a few steps beyond merely repairing Vista. It borrows, and improves on, tricks from the Mac's playbook to make it easier and faster to organise files and launch programs. Like Apple's operating system, Windows 7 not only looks good, but it has tools and shortcuts that help you work more efficiently. If there were ever a Windows that could challenge Mac OS X, Windows 7 is it.
Still, once you've had Mac, can you ever go back?
Mac OS X Leopard received rave reviews for good reason, and Snow Leopard further improved OS X. Although the changes to the GUI are minimal (why mess with success?), there are important improvements under the hood, including a recoded, 64-bit Finder that takes better advantage of multicore processors. Snow Leopard also makes the Mac a better fit with PC oriented businesses with integrated Mail, Address Book, and iCal support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007.
After spending a few weeks with both new operating systems and exposing each to my geek's gauntlet of everyday tasks, email, instant messaging, web surfing, blogging, creating and editing Office documents, web page creation, and audio, video, and photo editing, I have to call Snow Leopard the winner. All considered, from starting up to backing up, Mac OS X still offers the best overall user experience. The competition was close, though, far closer than it's been in quite a while.
Credit: Curtis Franklin Jr. | InfoWorld
18 January 2010
Mac OSX Snow Leopard Vs. Windows 7
As someone who uses both platforms for work and personal entertainment, I've been wanting to do a performance comparison between Windows 7 and Mac OS X since I first got my hands on the Windows 7 RTM (the final build of the OS) more than two months ago, but decided to wait until I could compare the two apples to apples. (No pun intended.)
The right time seems to be now, as Snow Leopard has been out for a while and has even been updated to 10.6.1, and Windows 7 has been at the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) vendors for almost three months and has also had a few updates. Furthermore, Boot Camp 3.0 seemed to make Windows run better than ever on a Mac.
Just to clarify, Boot Camp is not a virtual environment but simply a bundle of native Windows drivers--software that makes the OS work properly with hardware components. These drivers include chipset, video, networking, and so on. As a matter of fact, you can get most of these drivers from the components' manufacturers (or via Windows update). However, Boot Camp also contains drivers for Apple's proprietary hardware including the iSight Webcam, keyboard backlight, and multitouch mouse pad, and therefore it's best to get this bundle instead of looking for drivers individually.
For the sake of transparency (I know a lot of you feel passionately about one operating system or the other), I will disclose how I conducted my testing so you can duplicate it if you want. There's no rocket science involved here; all you need is a good stopwatch, a MacBook Pro, and a lot of time.
It's important, however, to note two things. First, the testing described in this article is somewhat anecdotal as it was performed on only one computer and, to some extent, was conducted differently from how we generally test computers for CNET reviews. (Read CNET's official reviews of Windows 7 and Snow Leopard.) Second, by talking about all this in such detail, I will seem much nerdier than I actually am. (Editors' note: This jury is still out on this one.)First off, the test machine is a 15-inch unibody MacBook Pro with a 2.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB of RAM, and a 512MB Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT video card. This is the 2008 model of the computer that comes with a removable battery and doesn't have the SD card slot. (This is not the latest 2009 model that comes with a nonremovable battery, which packs a lot more juice.)
Mac OS X Snow Leopard is installed on the stock 320GB hard drive (a Hitachi model HTS543232L9SA0). Windows 7 64-bit is installed on a 320GB Western Digital Scorpio Blue (model WD3200BEVT). I chose Windows 7 64-bit as Apple claims Snow Leopard is now a pure 64-bit OS with most of its built-in applications being constructed with 64-bit code.
These two hard drives have virtually the same specs, supporting a SATA 3Gbps interface, having 8MB of cache memory, and spinning at 5,400rpm. I got a new hard drive so each operating system would have a hard drive of its own, with only one partition. The computer can be transformed from a Mac to a PC and the other way around just by swapping out the hard drives. Alternately, in real life, you can have both operating systems on one hard drive by running Boot Camp Assistant from within Snow Leopard to create a new partition for Windows.
(By the way, thanks to the laptop's nice design, it was very easy to swap out the hard drives with the help of a small Phillips-head screwdriver and a tiny torx wrench. The installation of Windows 7 64-bit was then done just like with any PC: I booted the computer with the installer DVD and followed the onscreen installation instructions. I was able to get the Windows OS up and running with Boot Camp 3.0 installed after less than an hour without any hiccups. Boot Camp 3.0 provided all the latest drivers for Windows 7 and no driver update was necessary.)
For each OS, during the tests, the computer had the following software installed: iTunes 9, QuickTime, Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare, and Cinebench R10. All are 64-bit except Call of Duty and QuickTime. Windows 7 was tested with QuickTime 7 (version 7.6.4), which is 32-bit, and Snow Leopard was tested with QuickTime X, which comes with the OS. The reason is that QuickTime X is not currently available for Windows and you can't install QuickTime 7 on Snow Leopard.
Both computers were set up for high performance in power management. No other settings were changed. Windows 7's Visual Effects was left at "Let Windows choose what's best for my computer," which, in this case, equaled all items being checked except "Save taskbar thumbnail previews." Snow Leopard's graphic setting was set to "Hi-performance mode."
Except for Cinebench and Call of Duty 4, which have a scoring system of their own, all other tests are time-based. I personally performed all the time-based tests and the Cinebench test, while my colleague Joseph Kaminiski, who has tested hundreds of computers for CNET reviews, took care of benchmarking the operating systems using Call of Duty 4. Nonetheless, we cross-checked our results.
The last time-based test was the multimedia multitasking test, where I measured how long it took QuickTime to convert a movie file from the MP4 format into the iPod format, while having iTunes converting songs in the background. This is sort of an unfair test as I had to use QuickTime 7 for Windows 7 and QuickTime X (which Apple claims to have much improved performance over the previous version) for Snow Leopard. The result: Snow Leopard beat Windows big time, taking just 444.3 seconds to do the job while Windows 7 dragged with 723 seconds.
So Snow Leopard took the lead in booting up, shutting down, and running Apple's software.
The last test--which took the most time and probably will prove the most controversial--measured battery life. In ablog a while ago, I said that Windows 7 offered about the same battery life on the MacBook Pro as Snow Leopard. Well, I was wrong. While it was indeed better compared with what it was with Boot Camp 2.1, Windows 7 on the MacBook Pro still has a significantly shorter battery life than Snow Leopard.
As I needed to fully charge the battery before each test to make the tests go faster, I decided to test the battery life with the same settings as the performance tests, which drain the battery much more quickly than in normal usage. These settings include the computer's screen, as well as the keyboard illumination, being set at their brightest; the speakers being turned all the way up; and the Wi-Fi connection being turned on. After that, I made the computer play a high-def movie clip on loop and in full-screen mode until the computer died.
The results? Windows 7 lasted 78 minutes, while Snow Leopard managed to stay on for 111 minutes. These numbers are, of course, the worst case scenario--in real life, you'll get much longer battery life for each OS with regular usage. Personally, I could easily get about 3 hours with Windows 7 when running the MacBook Pro using the operating system's recommended "Balanced" power management scheme. Nonetheless, it's obvious that Windows 7's battery life is just about two-thirds of Snow Leopard's on the MacBook Pro.
cnet.com
Operating system name
OK, let's get this issue out of the way quickly. Which operating system would you rather run: one with the cool name Snow Leopard, or one with the unimaginative moniker Windows 7?
Enough said.
The Winner: Snow Leopard. Wild animals are inherently more exciting than panes of glass.
Price
For anyone buying a new computer, a price comparison between the two operating systems is meaningless, because the operating system will come pre-installed on whatever hardware they buy. But for upgraders, it can be a very big deal.
Apple upgraders will certainly be happier than those who make the move to Windows 7 from earlier versions. Snow Leopard is a $29 upgrade (unless you're still using Tiger, in which case you have to buy the Mac Box Set -- which includes iLife '09 and iWork '09 -- for $169). The Windows 7 Ultimate upgrade costs a whopping $220 on Amazon, Windows 7 Professional goes for $200, and Windows 7 Home Premium weighs in at $120.
Windows users also have to face the confusing decision about which of the versions of Windows 7 to purchase -- given the price points, are you better off with Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows 7 Professional or Windows 7 Home Premium? With Snow Leopard, there's no confusion; there's only one version of the operating system.
The Winner: Snow Leopard. At $29, it's practically an impulse buy.
Installation
Here's what you need to do in order to install Snow Leopard: Insert the installation disc and then go through a simple setup routine. You won't have to decide between a clean install and an upgrade. You won't have to mull over which version of Snow Leopard is best for you. You won't have to type in a lengthy registration code.
In Windows, you'll have to choose between a clean install and an upgrade. In addition, depending on your hardware configuration and version of Windows, it may take you some time to figure out which version of Windows 7 you can upgrade to.
Once you do all that, though, there are no real major differences between installing the operating systems. Snow Leopard took a little less time to install on my system, but apart from that, the installation process itself was quite similar.
Snow Leopard did do a better job of recognizing the hardware -- it did it without a hitch. Windows 7 at first didn't recognize my video card and so I had problems with screen resolution. However, Windows 7 quickly resolved the problem without any intervention on my part via Windows Update.
The Winner: Snow Leopard. It wins by a hair because of Windows 7's slight glitch with my hardware and the configuration choices you need to make. Aside from that, though, installation wasn't significantly different.
Launching applications
What do you do all day with an operating system? You primarily launch programs, and then switch among running programs and windows. To a certain extent, everything else is just window dressing.
So it's probably no surprise that some of the biggest changes to both Snow Leopard and Windows 7 have to do with the way you launch applications and switch among them. Snow Leopard's Dock was tweaked by integrating it with Exposé (a window-management feature); while Windows 7's taskbar was significantly reworked.
The Dock and the taskbar both do double-duty as application launchers and task switchers. The Dock is more aesthetically pleasing, with its application icons cut out in profile and highlighted against the Mac desktop, while the taskbar runs like a flat ribbon across the bottom of the Windows 7 screen.
Both added a nearly identical feature -- the ability to see thumbnails of all the windows open in an application. In Windows 7, when an application has multiple windows open, you'll see a stack of icons in the taskbar that match the number of windows open. Hover your mouse over the application's icon, and you'll see thumbnails of them all, spread out across the bottom of the screen. Similarly, in Snow Leopard, when you click on an application's icon in the Dock and hold it, you see thumbnails as well.
ease of use and elegance
Windows has come a long way since its humble -- and let's face it, just plain ugly -- beginnings. With each iteration of the operating system, it gets a little slicker, a little smoother, a little easier to use. Windows 7 continues this tradition, particularly with the new taskbar.
All that being said, Snow Leopard, like earlier versions of Mac OS X, is just plain beautiful. The word "seamless" is overused when describing an elegant, simple-to-use product, but in the case of Snow Leopard it's absolutely true. It's as intuitive and as aesthetically pleasing an operating system as you can find.
In addition, because Apple controls the hardware as well as the software, the integration between machine and software is unparalleled. Windows users have become used to strange behavior and odd error messages that appear from time to time -- it's the background radiation of Windows. To a certain extent, there's no way around it. Windows has to work with countless different combinations of CPUs, RAM, hard disks, video cards and other main system hardware. Because of that, these kinds of problems are almost inevitable with Windows-based hardware. They don't happen on Macs.
The Winner: Snow Leopard. No one beats Apple when it comes to design. As with previous versions of Mac OS X, Snow Leopard is flat-out beautiful. Windows may be improving, but it still has a way to go if it wants to catch the Mac.
Extras
Snow Leopard is more than just an operating system -- it comes with a full suite of applications, notably iLife with iMovie for making movies, GarageBand for recording and editing music, iWeb for making Web pages and more. There's also the excellent Time Machine backup and restore utility, QuickTime X for capturing movies, and the PDF reader and utility Preview.
Snow Leopard includes the excellent Time Machine backup and restore utility.
Click to view larger image
Click to view larger image
Windows 7 has omitted many built-in apps; this backup utility is one that remains.
Click to view larger image
Click to view larger image
By way of contrast, Microsoft has made the decision in Windows 7 to strip out many of the extras in Windows. For example, Windows Movie Maker and Windows Mail -- both very good programs -- shipped with Windows Vista, but will not ship with Windows 7. Windows 7 does include a usable backup program -- finally -- but it's not up to the standards of Time Machine.
The Winner: Snow Leopard. There's no real competition here; it wins hands down.
OS X 10.6 includes Boot Camp 3.0, a new collection of software drivers that make Windows run much better on Mac hardware.
(Credit: Screenshot by Dong Ngo/CNET)Every time I see the "I'm a Mac/I'm a PC" ads on TV, I can't help but wonder, "Why not both?" And it has never been a better time for that.
Overall, personally, I found that while the new Mac OS doesn't warrant a "wow," it's still definitely worth the $29 upgrade price. Snow Leopard offers an even more streamlined Mac experience than Leopard and noticeably faster interface responsiveness. The application performance, however, is slightly slower than it is with Leopard, at least on the MacBook Pro we used as our test machine. As the OS is now a pure 64-bit operating system, expect the application performance to improve over Leopard as you add RAM or use it with a high-end desktop.
Mac users can read more about Snow Leopard in my colleague Jason Parker's full review. On the other hand, for Windows users, especially Windows 7, the release of Snow Leopard is straight-on great news.
Boot Camp 3.0 enables Windows to read files from OS X's partition.
(Credit: Screenshot by Dong Ngo/CNET)I recently blogged about running Windows 7 on a 15-inch Unibody Macbook Pro, which required some tweaking with Boot Camp 2.1. Snow Leopard comes with Boot Camp 3.0, which makes installing and running Windows on a laptop a much more pleasant experience.
First of all, the new Boot Camp includes all the drivers necessary to run both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 smoothly on the Mac hardware.
(Note that you only need to run the Boot Camp Assistant, BCA, if you want to dual-boot OS X and Windows on the same machine. The utility will then create a new partition for the installation of Windows. In this case, make sure you run the BCA first when the computer boots up to avoid file errors. If you want to run just Windows and skip OS X altogether, you can boot from the Windows 7 install DVD and start the installation the way you would install the OS on any PC from scratch.)
After the installation is done, Boot Camp 3.0 can be installed from the Snow Leopard DVD. Then, without further ado, you got yourself a great Windows computer.
The second really nice thing about Boot Camp 3.0 is the fact that it includes a software driver to make Windows able to read the Mac partition (somewhat like MacDrive minus the ability to write). This means that when you dual-boot OS X and Windows, Windows now can browse and read files that reside on OS X's partition without any extra software install.
The last major improvement of Boot Camp 3.0 that I am very happy about is the battery life. Windows 7 now has much improved battery life compared with what it had with Boot Camp 2.1. I haven't tried Windows Vista or Windows XP, but Windows 7 now has about the same battery life as Snow Leopard.
Other little things have also been improved. The double-tab right-click works right away and the multitouch pad is now less sensitive (though still a little too sensitive). With Boot Camp 2.1, it was so sensitive you just couldn't use the "tab to click" feature because of the extremely high risk of making accidental clicks. The sound and video chat are also much more stable now than before.
Apart from Boot Camp 3.0, Snow Leopard comes with tools that make a PC become part of a MacBook Air.
(Credit: Screenshot by Dong Ngo/CNET)If you want to nitpick, there are two little odd things Windows users will find on Mac hardware. First, the MacBook's keyboard doesn't have two separate "Backspace" and "Delete" keys, which come in handy when you want to remove text. Second, the Boot Camp control panel doesn't include an option to change the sensitivity of the multitouch pad and there's no separate "tab to click" options for the right and left clicks, either.
Other than Boot Camp 3.0, Snow Leopard comes with two other tools that make a Windows computer work better with a MacBook Air. The first is called Remote Install Mac OS X and it allows for installing the new OS remotely onto a MacBook Air. The other is the DVD or CD sharing that allows the MacBook Air, which doesn't come with an optical drive, to use the PC's DVD or CD drive as one of its own.
Overall, I have to say Boot Camp 3.0 takes the Windows experience to a new high on Mac hardware. To me, this is about as exciting as the release of Windows 7 itself.
So there you go, Windows fanboys, don't say Apple never does anything for you. And Apple fanboys: the truth is that inside every new Mac there's a PC just waiting to jump out.
15 January 2010
iPhone vs. others
Iphone vs Nexus
A side-by-side comparison of the iPhone, Droid, and Nexus One in a recent touchscreen test revealed that the iPhone, hands down, has the most accurate and responsive touchscreen of the three phones. (see Moto's touchscreen test for yourself.) Daily Mail also notes that dozens of users have "reported glitches with the hi-tech touchscreen where touching one button on the screen would activate a totally unrelated function." The iPhone also boasts multi-touch, which allows users to zoom in and out by 'pinching' the screen. For the time being, the iPhone offers greater storage capacity for apps. Depending on the model, the iPhone comes with 16GB or 32GB of memory. The Nexus One comes with a 4GB memory card, and while users can shell out for a larger memory card (up to 32GB), even then, the Nexus One allots only 190MB of memory to store apps.Nexus One users have lambasted Google for what they view as inadequate customer support. Google does not provide phone-based assistance, and instead users experiencing difficulty with the phone must email Google with questions--and oftentimes wait up to three days to hear a reply. By contrast, iPhone users are able to take advantage of Apple's ace help centers--online, over the phone, or in-person at the Genius Bar at Apple stores. Consumer Reports rated Apple's help the "best technical support in the PC industry." Nexus One users who finally got around to reading the fine print were dismayed to discover not one, but two Early Termination Fees. Customers who buy a subsidized Nexus One through their carriers, then subsequently cancel their accounts, have to pay an ETF to the carrier, and an ETF to Google that "automatically charges your credit card the remainder of full price of the phone," writes Phandroid. Google's ETF costs around $350 for users who cancel within the first 120 days. iPhone users are tethered to AT&T, but they don't owe Apple money if they quit their plans early. Apple's iTunes store offers iPhone users about 127,600 different. Although it's growing, the Nexus One's app store, the Android Market, only offers about 16,000 apps. Google Apps, such as Gmail, tend to work better on Nexus One than on the iPhone, but TechCrunch notes in a review of the Google Phone that "iPhone apps, as a whole, are much, much better than Android apps."
credits to www.huffingtonpost.com
iPhone vs. Droid
AT&T’s GSM/HSPA network is the same standard used in almost all of the rest of the world. This means that you can use your iPhone when you travel (though you’ll pay a premium for the privilege) on carriers from the US to Canada to Europe to Australia to… you get the idea. Verizon’s CDMA/EVDO network, on the other hand, might roam in Canada, but that’s it. If you go DROID, you’re not taking it with you.Lastly, AT&T’s GSM/HSPA can handle simultaneous voice and data, so you can talk on the phone while surfing the web, emailing, or using apps over 3G. Verizon’s CDMA/EVDO can’t do that. If you’re on the phone, you’re off the 3G internet. Wi-Fi can make up for this if available, but if you’re on the road you’re out of luck — and yes, that includes Google Maps Navigation for anything but cached data. (That is, if you have an AT&T 3G connection to work with, remember our first point above).The iPhone 3GS is all about the singular slab, black and silver and glass, with rounded corners and ultra-slim profile, and only the Apple logo by way of branding. The DROID is in two “licorice and brown-sugar” parts, screen and sliding keyboard, with sharper angles, and Verizon, Motorola, and Google proudly etched all over it. Both are solid; both are well built.The iPhone is 3.5-inch (320×480) capacitive touchscreen with an undisclosed but snappy processor (600MHz Cortex A8 when investigated), no removable storage but 16GB or 32GB of internal memory, built-in battery with 5-hours of talk time, a 3 megapixel camera with auto-focus, and no physical keyboard.Though capacitive and touchscreen, the Verizon DROID doesn’t support multi-touch gestures. Yes, Android 2.0 supports them, yes the DROID’s Euro-counterpart, the Milestone, includes them, yes developers can make apps that implement them, but for some reason, the DROID’s built-in apps don’t let you do things like pinch-to-zoom or multi-touch typing. The iPhone, on the other hand, is a multitouch monster. It’s fully and uniformly supported on every iPhone, in every app.Though it can use up to a 32GB microUSB card, unless you “root” (hack) the DROID, you can’t store apps on that card. Supposedly due to piracy concerns, Android 2.0 only allows you to install apps on 256MB of internal memory (some developers work around this by installing a small host app, then downloading extra data to the card). Depending on your usage pattern, that may not affect you, of course. But for gamers who want lengthy adventures with tons of textures, or offline navigation with all the localized maps, it could be an annoyance. The iPhone, by contrast, lets you use almost all available space for apps — up to just shy of 32GB on the high-end model.
While the DROID has a 5 megapixel camera, we’ve learned via the megapixel wars on point-and-shoots that size doesn’t matter. Quite often small sensors are cut up far to much, sacrificing quality for quantity. When it comes to the DROID camera, while it’s far from terrible, it’s pictures aren’t as pretty as the iPhone 3GS’. At least not yet. iPhone 3GS is currently auto-focusing better and its software is processing better looking stills. The iPhone has tons of Apple’s very best software, and Android/DROID has absolutely none of that. For prime example, no awesome iPod app and everything that goes with it. The iPhone also supports MobileMe, which might be meaningless unless you’re a multiple Mac user who lives on iDisk, Mac Sync, and Back-to-my-Mac.Android offers the potential for more kinds of apps and more ways to get them, but the iPhone’s controlled environment currently offers a greater quantity of apps, and among them many higher quality, highly polished 3rd party apps.The iPhone is, according to Apple, the best iPod they’ve ever made, and if you’re interested in a media-equipped phone, that’s hard to ignore. As we just discussed, the iPhone enjoys incredibly easy and increasingly robust sync with iTunes, and the massive music, movie, TV, podcast, and other content the iTunes store provides. And that’s not even counting your existing iTunes content, if you’ve already ripped your CDs, DVDs, and other media into iTunes-supported format.
credits to theiphoneblog.com
Iphone vs. palm pre
The guessing game is over: Apple's iPhone 3G S has arrived. Don't let appearances fool you. On the outside nothing looks much different with the 3G S. The real difference is what's inside. So how will Apple's iPhone 3G s compare to the Palm Pre? I've put together a chart for a quick glance at how they stack up (see below). For a more in-depth analysis, read on.
The main difference is quite obvious -- for the same price as a 16GB iPhone3G S you only get a 8GB Palm Pre. In comparison, the current generation 8GB iPhone 3G dropped in price to $99, going after Pre's lower capacity storage
For just $100 more than the Palm Pre (that is if you get your $100 mail-in rebate) you can get a top-notch iPhone 3G S with a whopping 32GB of storage (four times more than the Pre). Both the Pre and iPhone 3Gs have a 3-megapixel cameras; however, there are some major differences in features. The Pre's camera has an LED flash, but no autofocus, video recording or editing capabilities. You also cannot adjust white balance or exposure.
Apple did not throw in a flash for this generation, but the iPhone 3Gs brand-new camera gets some pretty nifty features nonetheless. You can now control focus either by tapping on the screen or using the autofocus feature.
But perhaps the biggest edge the iPhone 3G S's camera has over the Pre is its video recording capability. You can record 30fps VGA video with audio by simply going into the camera app and switching from still to movie. Autofocus, auto white balance and auto exposure features apply to video, as well.
Video recording was long overdue for the iPhone, especially since it is a feature that most low- to mid-range phones carry. Even better: You can edit your videos with a tap of the finger by picking an in-point and end-point and hitting "trim." Then, you can tap the share button to send over e-mail, MMS, MobileMe gallery, or YouTube-pretty cool.
But the new iPhone 3G S also matches in features some of software advantages the Pre had over the 3G model. The 3G S has now copy and paste, MMS, tethering (coming later this year), A2DP Bluetooth capability, geotagging (photo and video) and turn-by-turn navigations.
While none of the two phones features a FM receiver/transmitter, the iPhone 3G S has a built-in digital compass and voice controls over the Palm Pre. On the downside, the new iPhone still doesn't feature a removable battery or a hardware keyboard (but nobody was expecting the 3G S to have one, anyway).
There is also an essential advantage the iPhone 3G S has over the Palm Pre -- it's the App Store. Apple packs over 50,000 apps in its store while Palm's App Catalog is still at the beginning of the road, with 12 apps available and a store in beta stage.
Apple claims a muchly-improved battery life on the 3G S, which would be a welcome addition to the not-so-acclaimed 3G's lifespan between charges. But then again, the Palm Pre didn't score too well either. Meanwhile, iPhone 3G S's battery shall withstand the usage test when it comes out in just under two weeks.
Credits to www.pcworld.com
A side-by-side comparison of the iPhone, Droid, and Nexus One in a recent touchscreen test revealed that the iPhone, hands down, has the most accurate and responsive touchscreen of the three phones. (see Moto's touchscreen test for yourself.) Daily Mail also notes that dozens of users have "reported glitches with the hi-tech touchscreen where touching one button on the screen would activate a totally unrelated function." The iPhone also boasts multi-touch, which allows users to zoom in and out by 'pinching' the screen. For the time being, the iPhone offers greater storage capacity for apps. Depending on the model, the iPhone comes with 16GB or 32GB of memory. The Nexus One comes with a 4GB memory card, and while users can shell out for a larger memory card (up to 32GB), even then, the Nexus One allots only 190MB of memory to store apps.Nexus One users have lambasted Google for what they view as inadequate customer support. Google does not provide phone-based assistance, and instead users experiencing difficulty with the phone must email Google with questions--and oftentimes wait up to three days to hear a reply. By contrast, iPhone users are able to take advantage of Apple's ace help centers--online, over the phone, or in-person at the Genius Bar at Apple stores. Consumer Reports rated Apple's help the "best technical support in the PC industry." Nexus One users who finally got around to reading the fine print were dismayed to discover not one, but two Early Termination Fees. Customers who buy a subsidized Nexus One through their carriers, then subsequently cancel their accounts, have to pay an ETF to the carrier, and an ETF to Google that "automatically charges your credit card the remainder of full price of the phone," writes Phandroid. Google's ETF costs around $350 for users who cancel within the first 120 days. iPhone users are tethered to AT&T, but they don't owe Apple money if they quit their plans early. Apple's iTunes store offers iPhone users about 127,600 different. Although it's growing, the Nexus One's app store, the Android Market, only offers about 16,000 apps. Google Apps, such as Gmail, tend to work better on Nexus One than on the iPhone, but TechCrunch notes in a review of the Google Phone that "iPhone apps, as a whole, are much, much better than Android apps."
credits to www.huffingtonpost.com
iPhone vs. Droid
AT&T’s GSM/HSPA network is the same standard used in almost all of the rest of the world. This means that you can use your iPhone when you travel (though you’ll pay a premium for the privilege) on carriers from the US to Canada to Europe to Australia to… you get the idea. Verizon’s CDMA/EVDO network, on the other hand, might roam in Canada, but that’s it. If you go DROID, you’re not taking it with you.Lastly, AT&T’s GSM/HSPA can handle simultaneous voice and data, so you can talk on the phone while surfing the web, emailing, or using apps over 3G. Verizon’s CDMA/EVDO can’t do that. If you’re on the phone, you’re off the 3G internet. Wi-Fi can make up for this if available, but if you’re on the road you’re out of luck — and yes, that includes Google Maps Navigation for anything but cached data. (That is, if you have an AT&T 3G connection to work with, remember our first point above).The iPhone 3GS is all about the singular slab, black and silver and glass, with rounded corners and ultra-slim profile, and only the Apple logo by way of branding. The DROID is in two “licorice and brown-sugar” parts, screen and sliding keyboard, with sharper angles, and Verizon, Motorola, and Google proudly etched all over it. Both are solid; both are well built.The iPhone is 3.5-inch (320×480) capacitive touchscreen with an undisclosed but snappy processor (600MHz Cortex A8 when investigated), no removable storage but 16GB or 32GB of internal memory, built-in battery with 5-hours of talk time, a 3 megapixel camera with auto-focus, and no physical keyboard.Though capacitive and touchscreen, the Verizon DROID doesn’t support multi-touch gestures. Yes, Android 2.0 supports them, yes the DROID’s Euro-counterpart, the Milestone, includes them, yes developers can make apps that implement them, but for some reason, the DROID’s built-in apps don’t let you do things like pinch-to-zoom or multi-touch typing. The iPhone, on the other hand, is a multitouch monster. It’s fully and uniformly supported on every iPhone, in every app.Though it can use up to a 32GB microUSB card, unless you “root” (hack) the DROID, you can’t store apps on that card. Supposedly due to piracy concerns, Android 2.0 only allows you to install apps on 256MB of internal memory (some developers work around this by installing a small host app, then downloading extra data to the card). Depending on your usage pattern, that may not affect you, of course. But for gamers who want lengthy adventures with tons of textures, or offline navigation with all the localized maps, it could be an annoyance. The iPhone, by contrast, lets you use almost all available space for apps — up to just shy of 32GB on the high-end model.
While the DROID has a 5 megapixel camera, we’ve learned via the megapixel wars on point-and-shoots that size doesn’t matter. Quite often small sensors are cut up far to much, sacrificing quality for quantity. When it comes to the DROID camera, while it’s far from terrible, it’s pictures aren’t as pretty as the iPhone 3GS’. At least not yet. iPhone 3GS is currently auto-focusing better and its software is processing better looking stills. The iPhone has tons of Apple’s very best software, and Android/DROID has absolutely none of that. For prime example, no awesome iPod app and everything that goes with it. The iPhone also supports MobileMe, which might be meaningless unless you’re a multiple Mac user who lives on iDisk, Mac Sync, and Back-to-my-Mac.Android offers the potential for more kinds of apps and more ways to get them, but the iPhone’s controlled environment currently offers a greater quantity of apps, and among them many higher quality, highly polished 3rd party apps.The iPhone is, according to Apple, the best iPod they’ve ever made, and if you’re interested in a media-equipped phone, that’s hard to ignore. As we just discussed, the iPhone enjoys incredibly easy and increasingly robust sync with iTunes, and the massive music, movie, TV, podcast, and other content the iTunes store provides. And that’s not even counting your existing iTunes content, if you’ve already ripped your CDs, DVDs, and other media into iTunes-supported format.
credits to theiphoneblog.com
Iphone vs. palm pre
The guessing game is over: Apple's iPhone 3G S has arrived. Don't let appearances fool you. On the outside nothing looks much different with the 3G S. The real difference is what's inside. So how will Apple's iPhone 3G s compare to the Palm Pre? I've put together a chart for a quick glance at how they stack up (see below). For a more in-depth analysis, read on.
The main difference is quite obvious -- for the same price as a 16GB iPhone3G S you only get a 8GB Palm Pre. In comparison, the current generation 8GB iPhone 3G dropped in price to $99, going after Pre's lower capacity storage
For just $100 more than the Palm Pre (that is if you get your $100 mail-in rebate) you can get a top-notch iPhone 3G S with a whopping 32GB of storage (four times more than the Pre). Both the Pre and iPhone 3Gs have a 3-megapixel cameras; however, there are some major differences in features. The Pre's camera has an LED flash, but no autofocus, video recording or editing capabilities. You also cannot adjust white balance or exposure.
Apple did not throw in a flash for this generation, but the iPhone 3Gs brand-new camera gets some pretty nifty features nonetheless. You can now control focus either by tapping on the screen or using the autofocus feature.
But perhaps the biggest edge the iPhone 3G S's camera has over the Pre is its video recording capability. You can record 30fps VGA video with audio by simply going into the camera app and switching from still to movie. Autofocus, auto white balance and auto exposure features apply to video, as well.
Video recording was long overdue for the iPhone, especially since it is a feature that most low- to mid-range phones carry. Even better: You can edit your videos with a tap of the finger by picking an in-point and end-point and hitting "trim." Then, you can tap the share button to send over e-mail, MMS, MobileMe gallery, or YouTube-pretty cool.
But the new iPhone 3G S also matches in features some of software advantages the Pre had over the 3G model. The 3G S has now copy and paste, MMS, tethering (coming later this year), A2DP Bluetooth capability, geotagging (photo and video) and turn-by-turn navigations.
While none of the two phones features a FM receiver/transmitter, the iPhone 3G S has a built-in digital compass and voice controls over the Palm Pre. On the downside, the new iPhone still doesn't feature a removable battery or a hardware keyboard (but nobody was expecting the 3G S to have one, anyway).
There is also an essential advantage the iPhone 3G S has over the Palm Pre -- it's the App Store. Apple packs over 50,000 apps in its store while Palm's App Catalog is still at the beginning of the road, with 12 apps available and a store in beta stage.
Apple claims a muchly-improved battery life on the 3G S, which would be a welcome addition to the not-so-acclaimed 3G's lifespan between charges. But then again, the Palm Pre didn't score too well either. Meanwhile, iPhone 3G S's battery shall withstand the usage test when it comes out in just under two weeks.
Credits to www.pcworld.com
27 December 2009
Weird mac song
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16 December 2009
First Sweepstake
Coment on this post why the mac was unique to all other computers before it excluding the apple Lisa. You could win an cold mocha or late. (WES or Adrian friends only)
This wil go on until 7 users have voted!
This wil go on until 7 users have voted!
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