Happy SysAdmin Day !

July 25, 2014 is the 15th Annual System Administrator Appreciation Day and here are some reasons to recognize your system admins.

Windows 8 Consumer Preview

The Operating system giant Microsoft releases their latest creation as Windows 8 Consumer Preview which will allow you to download and try their latest Windows operating system for free. The first different you will noticed after installing it on your computer is the new Metro UI which will replace your standard desktop and start menu. Also multi-touch features on the operating system allows users to interact with it in more interesting way.There are lot of new features in there to keep the user attached to the computer all the time. With all this please keep in your mind that this consumer previews eventually expire and will block all your access to your programs and stored files and folders. The best thing is to do is to have this on your secondary computer or may be in dual boot mode on a other hard disk partition. But according to the digging I have done it will most probably active until next year which is 2013 so, you have plenty of time to check it out.

The New iphone 4G

Thanks to Steve Jobs we'll see a new iphone this July (2010) called iphone 4G. If you don't know who's Steve Jobs is; he is the Chairman and CEO, Apple Inc. So, the big question is, is it worthy to buy an iphone since the iphone is failed to deliver basic features that all other phones has. But yet the stylish new looks and new features will draw the attention of many in to it.

New Facebook Share Button

Sharing stuff on Facebook is nothing new to you. According to Facebook developers blog, Each week users share more than 2 billion pieces of content on Facebook. In order to do this most of the time users click share on Facebook button which found on many of the current websites. One of my old blog post explained why these sharing buttons are important to placed on your blog. Now speaking about share on Facebook buttons Facebook has just released a new Facebook Share Button which includes a live counter that tells you how many times an item has been shared.

Windows 7 Release

Windows 7 Release is an old news now since it happens on 22nd of October 2009. But the excitement to have a newer Microsoft Operating system is always very huge. With the bad feed back which they got for their previous Operating system "Windows Vista" Microsoft promise this will be the replacement for all those problems. But Apple (Other main competitor in Operating system industry) is not sure about this promise and decided to use this for their new commercial. But Windows 7 become the biggest pre-order item in the history of Amazon UK. After 8 long years since Microsoft has released Windows XP now Microsoft users have a solid operating system that can replace their Windows XP computers.

iphone mms update in U.S.

For United States iPhone 3G and iphone 3GS users finally gets the Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) from AT&T. Multimedia Messaging Service(MMS) was a standard feature for most phones and networks for a long time. This feature will be enabled on Friday, September 25 Late morning, Pacific Time and the new carrier settings update enabling MMS should be live and ready to download through iTunes.

Look for newest updates on AT&T Facebook page.

Intel Core i5 Processors and P55 Express Chipset

On this September Intel launched their new "Lynnfield" based Core i5 and i7 800 series processors, and the accompanying P55 Express chipset. The whole idea is to target mainstream computing segment in the market. In United states Core i5-750 processor price is floating around $200 which is more affordable comparing to Corei7. (Click here to shop for Core i5-750 processor) Speaking about the P55 express chipset, because the Core i5 and Core i7 800 series processors feature integrated memory controllers and 16 PCI Express 2.0 lanes, virtually all of the functionality previously integrated into a northbridge is now on the CPU. As such, the P55 Express is essentially a southbridge chip, linked directly to the processor.

Facebook Lite is Launched

Facebook lite is officially launched in US and India for testing. If you don't know what Facebook lite is it's the new simplified Facebook interface. Facebook lite offers you basic functionality such as making comments, accepting friend requests, writing on Walls, and viewing photos. This Lite version of Facebook will be super fast comapring to the current Facebook. (Read my old post about Facebook lite) I have tested it yesterday and I was able to log in using my existing facebook log in information. Click here to log in to Facebook Lite.

Google Wave Arrives This Month

On September 30th Google will start sending 100,000 invites for the early test of Google Wave. So, there is chance for more people to experience this personal communication and collaboration tool which was announced at the Google I/O conference on May 27, 2009. It can import Twitter, provide real-time chat, play back past conversations, and even allows for drag-and-drop file uploads. I'm so excited about Google Wave and hoping to use it soon.




This is how it's explained in Wikipedia.

"It is a web based service, computing platform, and communications protocol designed to merge e-mail, instant messaging, wiki, and social networking. It has a strong collaborative and real-time focus supported by extensions that can provide, for example, robust spelling/grammar checking, automated translation between 40 languages, and numerous other extensions."

In this small Video Google wave is explained very well.

Google Monopoly - City Streets

Google is taking over the whole word. Just to prove that now they are come up with a online version of classic popular board game called Monopoly. Yes that's true. The board game Monopoly is about to launch an online version with Google Maps. The release date set to September 9 (which is today) and still I was not able to view the teaser site.




According to the Monopoly City Streets Blog due to heavy traffic there website is down for the moment. But they are asking from us to be more patient and keep trying to log in to the website.
So, Quit farming on Facebook and try to register on Google Monopoly - City Streets website.

Fujitsu Esprimo Q1500

Fujitsu Esprimo Q1500 is the latest Mini PC from Fujitsu. If you see it from outside you will never belive it is a PC that can play HD video. But Fujitsu was able to fit mobile Core 2 Duo CPU, slot-loading Blu-ray drive, 4GB of memory and a 320GB hard drive in to this tiny PC. It has a HDMI out and it will play 720p video's in your big monitor or TV without any problem.



Starting price for this monster will be $998 (699 Euro) when it will release later this month.

For more Photo's and videos please click this link.

Sony PlayStation 3 Slim

Sony has come back to the gaming console market with Sony PlayStation 3 Slim. Sony was left behind in the gaming console market with competitors like Wii and Xbox. But now Sony has come up with slimmer, lighter and compact newly designed PlayStation 3 which will available on 1 st of September 2009. Best thing is PS3 slim is more affordable than its previous models. The 120GB model is coming with a price tag of $299.



This will allow you to run all games in high definition. It has Blu-ray and DVD player, built in Wi-Fi, 120GB hard drive, HDMI output with 1080p support, no external power supply, built-in Web browser and free online gaming service. So now Sony is giving you the more options for less price. The new PlayStation 3 Slim Lacks backward support for PS2 games. So, you won't be able to play your old PS2 games in here. Other than that you have actual buttons to turn PlayStation 3 Slim on and off and to eject the CD's. Classic PlayStation 3 80GB model price is also cut down to $299 but I don't think any body will bother to buy it. Mean while Microsoft is slashing the price of its Xbox 360 Elite game machine from $399 to $299.

Nokia Booklet 3G

Nokia, the world famous mobile phone manufacturing company announced their first mini laptop called Nokia Booklet 3G. It's a very nice looking 10.1 inch netbook. comparing to the other netbooks Nokia Booklet 3G comes with many connectivity options including integrated 3G, a swappable SIM card, A-GPS, Bluetooth and WiFi. On 2nd of September Nokia will officially announce the price for this netbook but, some websites announcing that it will cost $799



Apart from that Nokia Booklet 3G will run on 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 processor and has a 120GB hard drive. This will have 12 hours of battery life. When considering that this is a netbook, is shocking but if it comes with Windows 7 Home Premium.

Facebook Lite

Facebook Lite is the new simplified Facebook interface that they are testing these days. This lite version offers you only basic functionality such as making comments, accepting friend requests, writing on walls, and viewing photos. This Lite version of Facebook will be super fast comparing to the current Facebook. Because still they are testing it not everybody is allow to use it. Only few of the selected people got the invitation to use it. Now back to our story, This simplified interface will help most users to interact with it more quickly and save some time for their other works. Most of people are addicted to Facebook applications and spend hours of their time on them. This makes current Facebook website to function slower. Because it is slower more people attracted to Twitter. Which gives you similar service. So my guess is Facebook is trying to be simple and faster like twitter. Here is the Facebook Lite interface.
Update : Facebook lite is now available as an app for Android & Apple users officially.

Google Voice

For my point of view Google Voice is great free service that we all should have. It's still on Beta testing and you can only get it by an invitation. Google voice is basically phone redirecting service. You'll have a Google phone number and all your other phone numbers are associated with it. You can decide which phone should ring according to who's calling. It can be your home phone, Office phone or your cell phone. You also get standard features like call forwarding, Voice mail, SMS and call conferencing with Google Voice. Best thing is if you change your cell phone number, Office phone number or may be your home phone number you just have to change it within the program, So you don't have to bother to send the news to everybody that you have changed your number. Your Google number will remain same no matter what.



If you interested on it click here to see how Google Voice works with your phones.

Click here to find out what's new on Google Voice.

If you are lucky enough to have a Google Voice account click here to log in to your account.

Windows 7 Release To Manufacturing

Microsoft announced that you'll be able to get the final shipping product for Microsoft Windows 7 on October 22, 2009. If you need to try it before you buy it, still there is a chance. You can still download the Release Candidate (RC) but you can only download it until August 20, 2009. Like to know more about Windows 7 release candidate ? Click here to go to my older post about Windows 7 Release Candidate. If you have access to MSDN or TechNet Plus subscription Windows 7 RTM is available for you to download. Currently only the English version is available to download.




According to the Windows 7 Team Blog On October 1st, the remaining languages will be released. You can download Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home Basic, Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Enterprise or Windows 7 Ultimate both 64 bit (X64) and 32 bit (X86) editions from there. So, even this time they made 6 editions to make it difficult to choose one as same as they done with Windows Vista release earlier.

For more information,

Visit Microsoft Windows 7 Official website from here

For a cool Tour in Windows 7 click here

Firefox 3.5 and Its Features

Mozilla Firefox, the famous web browser released its latest version on 30th of June 2009. It's the version 3.5 so, they have jumped from 3.0.11 to 3.5 They have made it to work super fast and it has many new features. Lot of older features are also tweaked in the newer version.

The new Java script engine called as TraceMonkey is letting this browser to perform faster. They have added private browsing feature in Firefox 3.5 so you can browse the web without leaving any trace. It supports HTML 5 also. New location awareness feature lets you to get more relevant results in your web search. Everybody love the address bar in Firefox which calls awesome bar now finds site for you much better. With its customizable features, add-ons and productivity features like spell checking (Which I love most), Download manager and session restore this browser will be the ultimate web browser of the future.

If you are a existing Firefox user you can update your browser by going in to Help menu and selecting the option called Check for updates or else you can visit Mozilla Firefox website and download it for free.

iPhone OS 3.0

The newest Apple iPhone OS the version 3.0 is released on 17th of June 2009. Finally long awaited cut, copy and paste functions are now included in to the latest iPhone OS release. Besides that cool function, it now has Landscape keyboard mode, MMS, Spotlight search feature, Voice memos and improved calendar. Also they have added improvements to their safari web browser and now you’ll have stereo Bluetooth, automatic Wi-Fi login, Sync notes, Parental controls, YouTube login, New Languages and another cool feature called shake to shuffle. What this does is you can give a shake to your iPhone and it shuffles to a different song in your music library.

So this is how you can upgrade your existing iPhone OS to the current OS version 3.0 (Click on the picture to make it bigger)



You have to use iTunes 8 to do this update. You can download iTunes 8 from here.



For my point of view Apple iPhone is a remarkable gadget that you should have. With its touch features it will be fun and easy to use in your day to day life. Currently you have two models that you can choose as your iPhone. They are iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS. They have some differences basically from the capacity and the camera.

iPhone 3G comes in 8GB capacity and with a 2 megapixels camera. But the iPhone 3GS comes with 16GB or 32GB in capacity and with a 3 megapixels camera. Click here to get more information about the iPhones models available today.

To get a closer look at the iPhone 3GS click here

Facebook User Names

Facebook is about to allow their users to have their names as a part of the URL which contains their profiles or pages. So it will replace the weird numbers and letters that are on your current facebook profile or facebook page URL. The whole idea of this is to have a easy to remember way to find you on facebook. You will be able to use this facebook usernames even on popular search engines to find your friends easily.




Starting at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Saturday, June 13, you'll be able to choose a username on a first-come, first-serve basis for your profile and the Facebook Pages that you administer. You'll also see a notice on your home page with instructions for obtaining your username at that time.

Your Facebook username must meet these criteria

• You can only choose a single username for your profile and for each of the Pages that you administer.
  
• Your username must be at least five characters in length and only include alphanumeric characters (A-Z, 0-9), or a period or full stop (".")

Once it's been selected, you won't be able to change or transfer it. So be carefull.

Click here to set your Facebook vanity URL (Your new facebook profile URL)

Google Chrome 2

If you are tired with your current web browsers, Try newly released Google Chrome version 2. It's been a beta test for this since March and now they have released the final version of it. It's super fast and stable also they have fixed lot of problems that came with the first release. From the speed it's only one step behind on Apple Safari web browser. That means it has beaten the Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

So, How to install it on your computer ? Probably you are having a older version of Chrome running on your computer. If you have it open the browser and go to tools button on the browser then press About Google Chrome option. It will open up a window and in there down at the bottom you'll find a update now button. If you are new to Google Chrome please go to this website and download it to your computer. Follow this video if you have difficulties following my steps.