Archive for November, 2012

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BlackBerry 10 Devices To Be Shipped “Shortly” After January 30th Media Event

Posted in Commentary with tags , on November 13, 2012 by itnerd

I guess that RIM must have gotten feedback similar to what I posted yesterday. Reuters is reporting that RIM COO Kristian Tear said that new BlackBerry devices will be available ”not too long after” their January 30th media event:

“We’re working hard right now to make sure all the bits and pieces and all the details are in place for the date, when the devices will be available for consumers and enterprises,” Tear told Reuters in an interview.

This is a good thing as long as “shortly” truly means “shortly.” If it’s more than a month, maybe two, start writing the obituary for RIM.

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PEER 1 Hosting Expands Strategic Alliance Partnership Program

Posted in Commentary with tags on November 13, 2012 by itnerd

PEER 1 Hosting is making news again. This time they’ve announced the launch of a program to increase its portfolio of strategic alliance partners. Here’s the value proposition from Mike Mayer, Global Channel Director for PEER 1 Hosting:

“The relationships PEER 1 Hosting has formed with partners such as Tier 3 and Magento are delivering significant competitive advantage to end users,” said Mike Mayer, Global Channel Director, PEER 1 Hosting. “Leading edge platforms deserve and demand optimised hosting environments. End users have the peace of mind of knowing that with our Strategic Alliance Partners, the technology and service we provide is completely compatible to deliver the best performance.”

You can check out the program here.

I also found out today how much of a player PEER 1 is when it comes to their infrastructure. They have 19 data centres and 21 Points of Presence across North America and EMEA. They also have their own high performance 10Gbps FastFiber Network, which spans 25k miles and connects its data centres, enabling it to offer a 99.999% uptime guarantee.

Now that’s serious!

 

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LG Optimus G 2600 Now Available Exclusively At Rogers

Posted in Commentary with tags on November 13, 2012 by itnerd

Rogers has an exclusive with the LG Optimus G 2600 being available today. Other carriers may have the Optimus G, but this one is different. In theory, this is the fastest smartphone in Canada, using the 2600 MHz LTE spectrum band to give it speeds up to 100 Mbps. If you want speed, this is your phone. You can get more details on Rogers.com as well as RedBoard. Expect to pay $129.99 if you sign up for a three year plan if you want to be the fastest on your block.

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Sinofsky Leaves Microsoft By Mutual Consent

Posted in Commentary with tags on November 12, 2012 by itnerd

If you’ve never heard of Steven Sinofsky, don’t feel bad. He’s the head of all Windows development at Microsoft. Or I should say was because he left the software firm effective immediately. So why would someone who just recently launched Windows 8 leave? Here’s a good reason:

Sinofsky, a controversial figure at the company, was the subject of a recent CNET profile that explored his polarizing ways. Insiders said he was warring with Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer.

The company said the decision behind Sinofsky’s departure was mutual, thought he abruptness of the announcement might suggest otherwise.

I wonder if Google has him on speed dial? As for his replacement:

Microsoft promoted Sinofsky’s longtime lieutenant Julie Larson-Green to lead all Windows software and hardware engineering. Tami Reller, the chief financial officer and chief marketing officer in the Windows group, will add responsibility for the business of Windows. Both executives will report directly to Ballmer.

At least there will be some continuity. Will this affect Microsoft in the long term? I think not, but you never know.

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BlackBerry 10 Gets A Date…. Sort Of…

Posted in Commentary with tags , on November 12, 2012 by itnerd

For those who were waiting for RIM to put a date to the launch of BlackBerry 10, one now exists. January 30th is the date to “launch” BlackBerry 10 according to a press release that hit the web today:

Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) announced today that it will hold its BlackBerry® 10 launch event on January 30th, 2013. The event will happen simultaneously in multiple countries around the world.  This day will mark the official launch of its new platform – BlackBerry 10, as well as the unveiling of the first two BlackBerry 10 smartphones.  Details on the smartphones and their availability will be announced at the event.

“In building BlackBerry 10, we set out to create a truly unique mobile computing experience that constantly adapts to your needs.  Our team has been working tirelessly to bring our customers innovative features combined with a best in class browser, a rich application ecosystem, and cutting-edge multimedia capabilities.  All of this will be integrated into a user experience – the BlackBerry Flow – that is unlike any smartphone on the market today,” said Thorsten Heins, President and CEO of Research In Motion.  “Thanks to our strong partnerships with global carriers and a growing ecosystem of developers, we believe our customers will have the best experience possible with BlackBerry 10.  We are looking forward to getting BlackBerry 10 in the hands of our customers around the world.”

The thing is, this is simply a launch event. Customers will not be able to get their hands on a BlackBerry 10 on that day. Given the fact that they’re behind Google and Apple, that’s not a good thing. You can be sure that they’ll say that they got BlackBerry 10 to market in Q1 2013, but unless you can actually buy one on that day it doesn’t count in my mind. Why? It could be days, weeks, or months before you could actually buy one. RIM would do themselves a favor by making sure that customers can get new BlackBerry devices as quickly as possible after this launch event. Having said that, Apple has made this formula work. But RIM isn’t Apple.

Still, at least they have something to show and talk about. That’s better than nothing.

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Apple And HTC Stop Suing Each Other…. Sign 10 Year Cross Licensing Deal

Posted in Commentary with tags , , , on November 11, 2012 by itnerd

The rather bitter patent lawsuit between Apple and HTC which is rumored to have cost Apple $100 million appears to be over. A press release popped up on Apple.com last night announcing a ten-year patent licensing agreement between the companies and the dismissal of all current lawsuits:

“HTC is pleased to have resolved its dispute with Apple, so HTC can focus on innovation instead of litigation,” said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC.

“We are glad to have reached a settlement with HTC,” said Tim Cook, CEO of Apple. “We will continue to stay laser focused on product innovation.”

Lovely. Now Apple can focus on Samsung, Motorola, and everyone else they’re suing. Or this could be the start of putting an end to this lawsuit nonsense. Which is it? Time will tell.

 

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Hey IT Nerd! I Want To Buy A MacBook Pro With A Retina Display. Is It True That They Can’t Be Upgraded?

Posted in Tips with tags , on November 10, 2012 by itnerd

Wow! This week is huge week for questions from readers. Thanks for all the e-mails and keep them coming!

Now to this question. If you want to buy a MacBook Pro with a retina display, you must choose wisely. That’s because they are not upgradable… Mostly. To illustrate this, iFixit ripped one apart and here’s what they had to say. First, here’s what they said about the RAM:

As in the MacBook Air, the RAM is soldered to the logic board. Max out at 16GB now, or forever hold your peace—you can’t upgrade.

So you’re best strategy is to buy it with the max amount of RAM whether you need it or not. Now how about the SSD disk? Here’s what they said:

The proprietary SSD isn’t upgradeable either (yet), as it is similar but not identical to the one in the Air. It is a separate daughtercard, and we’re hopeful we can offer an upgrade in the near future.

At least there’s hope in that department. Companies such as Other World Computing sell SSD disk drive upgrades for the MacBook Air, so one hopes that the same will be true for the MacBook Pro with the Retina Display. Until then, you may want to consider how much space you need and pick your SSD drive size accordingly.

 

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Hey IT Nerd! Do I Have To Reinstall Windows To Keep My PC Running Fast?

Posted in Tips with tags , on November 9, 2012 by itnerd

I’m really not sure where this came from, but there’s a bit of computer lore that says that you have to reinstall Windows from time to time to ensure that it runs at maximum speed. In all my years of supporting computer users, I have never seen the value of doing this with one exception that I’ll get to in a second. If you follow the maintenance tips that I posted earlier this week, there’s really no practical need to reinstall Windows. It also helps if you run an anti virus solution that is CPU friendly such as AVG 2013 (which I’ve reviewed before) or Microsoft Security Essentials (which I’ve written about before) which I recommend because they are so CPU friendly.

Now, the one exception is someone like me who tests software and hardware either for customers or for reviews on this blog. That might slow down your PC  because of all the installing an uninstalling. But I have a way around that. I use virtual machines for that purpose. Since I run Parallels Desktop on my Mac, I’ve created three VMs. A Windows XP VM, A Vista VM, and a Windows 7 VM. The great thing about VMs is that I can test something and then easily revert it back to a “virgin” state. You don’t need a Mac to do this as Parallels has a version for PCs called Parallels Workstation. Not to mention solutions from VMWare called VMWare Fusion for Mac and VMWare Workstation for PC.

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Samsung Outsells Apple In Q3…. Enjoy It While It Lasts Samsung

Posted in Commentary with tags , on November 8, 2012 by itnerd

The unthinkable appeared to happen today. According to Research firm Strategy Analytics, the Samsung Galaxy S3 outsold Apple in Q3 2012. Here’s the catch though, the Apple phone that the S3 outsold was the iPhone 4S. Not the iPhone 5 which is so popular, Apple can’t make them fast enough, and was only available at the tail end of that quarter. So you have to believe that nobody at 1 Infinite Loop is going to lose sleep over this.

Check back at the end of Q4 to see if the iPhone 5 helps Apple to take the sales crown back.

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An Unknown Amount Of Twitter Accounts Compromised…. Oh Noes!

Posted in Commentary with tags , on November 8, 2012 by itnerd

If you have a Twitter account, it’s time to change your password. Twitter have sent e-mails to people who they suspect have had their accounts compromised. ZDNet has a lot to say on this:

In the email, the microblogging company noted: “Twitter believes that your account may have been compromised by a website or service not associated with Twitter. We’ve reset your password to prevent others from accessing your account.” 

It remains unclear how many have been affected by the password reset email or what’s caused the mass e-mailing of its users.

A post by TweetSmarter on Wednesday noted that in some cases when “large numbers of Twitter accounts have been hijacked,” the company sends out these emails on mass; even sending messages to accounts that may not have been affected by any hack or hijack to err on the side of caution.

The safe thing to do is to change your password even if you didn’t get an e-mail from Twitter. Also, watch your Twitter account for any unusual activity. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

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