Technology Blog

Google have officially started phasing out Windows OS from its corporate environment, employees now have to choose Mac OS X or Linux.

Security concerns have been cited as the reason behind the move-

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fg%2Fa%2F2010%2F05%2F31%2Fbusinessinsider-henry-blodget-google-dumping-microsoft-windows-company-wide-blames-windows-for-china-hacking-attack-2010-5.DTL

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-20006400-265.html

Microsoft have unveiled their Windows 7 phone. They have ditched the previous interface and started from scratch-

http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/15/windows-phone-7-series-hands-on-and-impressions/

Samsung have also released their own smartphone-

http://wave.samsungmobile.com/

For those of you who like to run a dual OS via a virtualisation setup on a Mac, you probably have one of two of the main products available to do this.

VMWare and Parallels desktop have been around for a while and are pretty mature and stable products.

I personally recommend Parallels to achieve dual OS functionality and use it myself for XP/Windows 7 needs.

The guys over at MacTech have written a comprehensive article explaining these two going head to head and their results, read on-

http://www.mactech.com/articles/special/1002-VirtualizationHeadToHead/index-001.html

Basically the short answer is Parallels is overall winner in all categories tested.

For anyone that has moved to Windows 7 or is planning to, you may have some issues regarding those old applications that have not been updated that are still an essential tool for everyday use. Well Microsoft has an answer which will not cost you. You can download a virtual machine and a pre-activated copy of Windows XP SP3 to run within your copy of Windows 7.

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/reviews/2010/01/windows-xp-mode.ars

Here is a tutorial to run IE6, IE7, IE in Windows 7 with the above method-

http://blog.dotsmart.net/2009/06/24/using-windows-7s-xp-mode-to-run-ie-6-and-ie-7-side-by-side/

So this is a useful tool for all you web designers out there, the ability to test on all 3 IE versions in the wild.

For Mac users, this tool will not run under Parallels VM, but reportedly runs under boot camp although some have reported issues after the 3.1 boot camp update.

Kodak is suing Apple and RIM-

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20100114005746&newsLang=en

Nokia suing Apple-

http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/22/nokia-sues-apple-says-iphone-infringes-ten-patents/

Apple strike back-

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/16/apple-retaliates-requests-us-import-ban-on-nokia-phones/

Microsoft infringe xml copyright-

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/13/microsoft_office_2007_yanked/

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2009/12/microsoft-office-word-2007-banned-from-sale-starting-january-11/

MS have announced a free anti virus service for release later in 2009, based on a stripped down version of its One Care product that never got off the ground. More here-

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/06/11/microsoft_announces_free_anti_virus_service_for_windows.html

The OS GUI has come a long way since those first days at PARC-

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/03/operating-system-interface-design-between-1981-2009/

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=Operating+Systems&articleId=9131558&taxonomyId=89&pageNumber=1

A long time PC user and advocate, Preston Gralla, spends a week with Mac, final conclusion-

‘Overall, though, Mac OS X beats Windows. There, I’ve said it. And lightning hasn’t struck me yet.’

Microsoft have been aggresively marketing against Apple recently with a number of ads showing how much more an Apple Mac costs-

http://www.macrumors.com/2009/04/10/microsoft-remains-on-offensive-with-apple-tax-report-and-latest-laptop-ad/

They have even commisioned a document by Roger Kay to show price differences-

http://www.ndpta.com/files/AppleTax.pdf

Ina Fried took issue with some of the points raised in this article here-

http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsexperience/archive/2009/04/09/avoid-the-apple-tax-cash-in-on-the-value-of-windows.aspx

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10216096-56.html