Articleshttp://www.yougetit.net/articles/en-US2010-07-30T01:43:12ZSquarespace Site Server v5.11.5 (http://www.squarespace.com/)How To Use Google Apps To Improve Your Businesshttp://www.yougetit.net/articles/2010/6/20/how-to-use-google-apps-to-improve-your-business.htmledwardko2010-06-20T05:18:31Z

By J.J. McCorvey | Jun 10, 2010 Inc. Magazine

Google has generated plenty of buzz with its cloud-based office suite. Here's the rundown on its features and how you can use them to upgrade your company.

While cloud computing isn't exactly a new concept, Google Apps has certainly refined the technology so that businesses everywhere can take advantage of its speed, accessibility and storage. The Google Apps suite, which includes such popular trademarks such asGmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs, can make the workflow among your employees more fluid, and even provide better methods of interacting with clients and customers. The following guide will highlight the reasons and ways for you to implement Google Apps to improve the operations of your company.

How to Use Google Apps to Improve Your Business: Why Use Google Apps?

One of the immediate benefits that Google Apps for businesses has over traditional desktop software, such as Microsoft Office, is cost-effectiveness. At just $50 per year, the Google Apps suite includes an unlimited number of user accounts, access to all ofGoogle's applications, 25 GB of e-mail storage per employee, 24/7 customer support, and a 99.9 percent network uptime guarantee. (There's also a free version with a limited amount of network security and user accounts, as well as less apps and storage.) Compared to most business and IT software, which often come with a capped number of licenses per purchase (not to mention required external servers to host the system), Google Apps might just be the key to squeezing a couple of extra dimes from your budget.

"If we were buying copies of Microsoft Office for everyone in the company, we're already saving tens of thousands of dollars," says Brian Wyrick, vice president of operations at Raidious, an Indianapolis-based content development company. Along with the cost savings, Wyrick says Raidious adopted the Google Apps suite because of the accessibility it provides to their designers and producers in different parts of the country.

"Utility is good for any start-up company," Wyrick says, "and to be able to talk to a new hire on the phone, and set them up with a Web program without an IT guy having to grant access to them is a great thing."

Another benefit of Google Apps is each application's ability to integrate with one another – a feature that Ken Hayes, owner of a Toluca Lake, California-based Internet advertising company, says he's grateful for. "What's good about Google Apps is the fact that I can set up one main account for my business – and my e-mail, calendar and website are all tied together," he says. "Sure, there's better e-mail out there, but nobody has figured out how to tie it all together like Google."

Dig Deeper: Google Apps in the Game

How to Use Google Apps to Improve Your Business: Streamlining Internal Communication with Gmail

When Gmail first arrived on the scene, the personal e-mail client was lauded for its seemingly bottomless storage capacity and lightning-fast inbox search capabilities. But with the integration of Google Apps, many of Gmail's functions work just as efficiently for businesses. Again, one of the most beneficial characteristics of Gmail is the cloud factor – since there's no cumbersome software to worry about, Gmail is accessible to your employees from anywhere, without having to download contacts or messages into devices.

"One of the great things about Gmail is that it's browser based," says Wyrick. "We connect through our phones and IMAP clients. It's that ability to not have to say, 'here's your installation of Outlook.'"

Gmail's threaded conversations also helps to simplify messages among colleagues. For example, if multiple parties are CC'd in an e-mail, or if multiple e-mails have the same subject line, all of those messages are grouped together with each new e-mail sent, sitting perfectly at the top of your inbox and eliminating the hassle of having to check previous messages.

Also, every office environment should have a method for sending quick, by-the-minute messages, and Gmail's answer is Google Chat, which is built directly into the interface of the inbox. "We've really reduced the need for our internal telephony system," says Wyrick about Raidious' use of the messenger. The chat feature also has a video conferencing component that can be useful when colleagues and employees need to correspond from remote locations.

While Gmail is a great e-mail client, Wyrick recommends assigning multiple account administrators for your shared business account. "Once you're signed up, you never want to have all your eggs in one basket," he says. "Some day you're going to need to do something when that administrator isn't available."

Dig Deeper: Don't Ever Pay for Email Hosting Again

How to Use Google Apps to Improve Your Business: Syncing Meetings and Events through Google Calendar

Depending on your type of business, scheduling appointments can be a real headache. A few employees (or, only one) are usually responsible for tracking and relaying dates and times, a method that is conducive to slip-ups and missed meetings. With Google Calendar, multiple employees can post events on a single calendar that the entire company can access and edit accordingly. Additionally, these calendars can be color-coded so that the viewer is made aware of changes to appointments. Administrators can also set permissions to calendars, so that only certain employees can see or edit items.

Greg Cross, founder of Cross Creative, a Greenfield, Indiana-based digital marketing company, says he recently encouraged one of his major clients to adopt Google Calendar to help sort and protect appointments. "[He] owns a counseling center, and he came to me and said, 'We've got four counselors and we're looking for a way that our clients can schedule appointments online and keep them private,'" says Cross. "You can set it so that it won't show that you're having a counseling session with 'John Doe' on depression."

Another useful feature of Google Calendar is the ability to create events through Gmail. When you add an employee's e-mail address to an event on the calendar, the employee is sent an invitation to confirm his or her attendance. After confirming, each employee can view and add notes to the event.

Dig Deeper: Tech Talk: Ad Agency Migrates to Web App

How to Use Google Apps to Improve Your Business: Improving Collaboration and Project Management with Google Docs

Google Docs is an application that allows multiple users to create and edit documents, presentations and spreadsheets – all on the Web. Usually, coworkers share documents by e-mailing attachments to one another, which often results in incorrect file versions and scattered, misplaced copies. With Google Docs, the file is edited in the cloud, where revisions are saved and recovered automatically.

Like most of the other Google Apps, administrators can set permissions in Google Docs so that only certain workers are allowed to view and share files. Another convenient feature is the ability to export the documents into different types of file extensions, which can be helpful in those times when a client or customer needs a PDF file ASAP.

"I use Google Docs internally," says Cross. "I have a graphic designer that works only part time, so I post estimates and client proposals there." Using Google Docs to edit other common files such as itineraries, newsletters and articles can help resolve common issues that arise among employees when collaborating on projects.

As useful as Google Docs has been to many business owners, Wyrick of Raidious says that one thing to keep in mind is the fact that the people on your staff will have varying degrees of computer skills. So, if and when you do implement Google Docs for creating and editing your most important files, Wyrick says, it maybe helpful to designate a project champion who understands the application.

"There might be some users that will be less excited about the changes," says Wyrick. He also advises newcomers to frequent the help guide on the Google Apps site.

Dig Deeper: 10 Tips for Bootstrapping Your Technology

How to Use Google Apps to Improve Your Business: Sharing Company Knowledge with Google Sites

Google Sites is a basic site-building tool that companies can use to create a private intranet hub of information for employees, or even a public domain that serves as the face of your business. Google Sites allows you to import information from other apps, such as your appointment calendar or standard client forms, and post it to your site for employees or customers to have easy access to.

"Google Sites is like a wiki system," says Hayes, who uses the application so that he and his business partner in Denmark can keep track of company projects, ideas and contractors. "I have sections set up for competitors' ideas we want to improve, and even problems we want to fix within our business."

You can designate only certain employees to have administrative capabilities, i.e. editing and posting site information, or grant access to your entire team (especially if you're operating with a tightly-knit staff).

Dig Deeper: Top 10 Free Apps and Services for Business

How to Use Google Apps to Run Your Business: Finding Additional Resources in the Google Apps Marketplace

If the applications made exclusively by Google don't fulfill all of your needs, don't forget to check out the Google Apps Marketplace, where you can find plenty of third-party apps – some for free – which serve a variety of functions and integrate with the other standard apps. Intuit Online Payroll, for example, enables you to pay employees directly from Google Calendar and provide them online access to paystubs. Zoho CRM is a customer relationship management tool that helps improve client interaction in a number of ways, such as tracking and sorting e-mail conversations.

To augment Google Calendar's capabilities, Greg Cross of Cross Creative usesTungle.me, an app that allows members to publish public schedules, accept appointment requests and reduce double-bookings. "It really helps mainstream my workflow," says Cross. "When the person confirms the appointment, it goes on my [Google] calendar, and I'm alerted on my phone. So between the collaboration of those two features, it works great for me."

According to Cross, Google Apps for businesses is quickly becoming a necessity and less of a neat product to try. The interoperability of the apps, along with the accessibility of the cloud, he says, provide many people the opportunity to leverage office technology efficiently for the first time. "It will be interesting to see how other software companies survive going forward, because Web-based apps are more than just a fad," says Cross. "It's not the 'wave of the future' – it's right now."

]]>Malware - Am I protected?http://www.yougetit.net/articles/2010/5/15/malware-am-i-protected.htmledwardko2010-05-15T19:40:07ZMalware infection rates are on the rise. We would estimate that we currently average 3-4 malware infection removals a week across our users. These systems had antivirus protection including NOD32, AVG, Norton, McAfee and Trend Micro. Traditional antivirus software is admittedly bad at preventing the most typical type of infection these days: drive by downloads. At this time there is no foolproof, real time protection from these types of infections. The code in websites responsible for these drive by downloads is often contained in banners and advertising not under the direct control of the website author -- which explains how even reputable websites have been infected.

There is some hope on the horizon. A tool specifically designed to block drive by downloads is being developed and should be available sometime this year. At this time we have found Malwarebytes to be the most effective removal tool. Their malware definitions are updated on a daily basis and have removed 95% of the infections we've encountered.

Please let us know if we can assist with your download/update/running of MalwareBytes.

]]>Simple Passwords Remain Popular, Despite Risk of Hacking - NYTimes.comhttp://www.yougetit.net/articles/2010/1/22/simple-passwords-remain-popular-despite-risk-of-hacking-nyti.htmledwardko2010-01-22T13:24:51Z

Back at the dawn of the Web, the most popular account password was “12345.”

Today, it’s one digit longer but hardly safer: “123456.”

Despite all the reports of Internet security breaches over the years, including the recent attacks on Google’s e-mail service, many people have reacted to the break-ins with a shrug.

According to a new analysis, one out of five Web users still decides to leave the digital equivalent of a key under the doormat: they choose a simple, easily guessed password like “abc123,” “iloveyou” or even “password” to protect their data.

“I guess it’s just a genetic flaw in humans,” said Amichai Shulman, the chief technology officer at Imperva, which makes software for blocking hackers. “We’ve been following the same patterns since the 1990s.”

Mr. Shulman and his company examined a list of 32 million passwords that an unknown hacker stole last month from RockYou, a company that makes software for users of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. The list was briefly posted on the Web, and hackers and security researchers downloaded it. (RockYou, which had already been widely criticized for lax privacy practices, has advised its customers to change their passwords, as the hacker gained information about their e-mail accounts as well.)

The trove provided an unusually detailed window into computer users’ password habits. Typically, only government agencies like the F.B.I. or the National Security Agency have had access to such a large password list.

“This was the mother lode,” said Matt Weir, a doctoral candidate in the e-crimes and investigation technology lab at Florida State University, where researchers are also examining the data.

Imperva found that nearly 1 percent of the 32 million people it studied had used “123456” as a password. The second-most-popular password was “12345.” Others in the top 20 included “qwerty,” “abc123” and “princess.”

More disturbing, said Mr. Shulman, was that about 20 percent of people on the RockYou list picked from the same, relatively small pool of 5,000 passwords.

That suggests that hackers could easily break into many accounts just by trying the most common passwords. Because of the prevalence of fast computers and speedy networks, hackers can fire off thousands of password guesses per minute.

“We tend to think of password guessing as a very time-consuming attack in which I take each account and try a large number of name-and-password combinations,” Mr. Shulman said. “The reality is that you can be very effective by choosing a small number of common passwords.”

Some Web sites try to thwart the attackers by freezing an account for a certain period of time if too many incorrect passwords are typed. But experts say that the hackers simply learn to trick the system, by making guesses at an acceptable rate, for instance.

To improve security, some Web sites are forcing users to mix letters, numbers and even symbols in their passwords. Others, like Twitter, prevent people from picking common passwords.

Still, researchers say, social networking and entertainment Web sites often try to make life simpler for their users and are reluctant to put too many controls in place.

Even commercial sites like eBay must weigh the consequences of freezing accounts, since a hacker could, say, try to win an auction by freezing the accounts of other bidders.

Overusing simple passwords is not a new phenomenon. A similar survey examined computer passwords used in the mid-1990s and found that the most popular ones at that time were “12345,” “abc123” and “password.”

Why do so many people continue to choose easy-to-guess passwords, despite so many warnings about the risks?

Security experts suggest that we are simply overwhelmed by the sheer number of things we have to remember in this digital age.

“Nowadays, we have to keep probably 10 times as many passwords in our head as we did 10 years ago,” said Jeff Moss, who founded a popular hacking conference and is now on the Homeland Security Advisory Council. “Voice mail passwords, A.T.M. PINs and Internet passwords — it’s so hard to keep track of.”

In the idealized world championed by security specialists, people would have different passwords for every Web site they visit and store them in their head or, if absolutely necessary, on a piece of paper.

But bowing to the reality of our overcrowded brains, the experts suggest that everyone choose at least two different passwords — a complex one for Web sites were security is vital, such as banks and e-mail, and a simpler one for places where the stakes are lower, such as social networking and entertainment sites.

Mr. Moss relies on passwords at least 12 characters long, figuring that those make him a more difficult target than the millions of people who choose five- and six-character passwords.

“It’s like the joke where the hikers run into a bear in the forest, and the hiker that survives is the one who outruns his buddy,” Mr. Moss said. “You just want to run that bit faster.”

]]>Q&A: Which Windows 7: Full or Upgrade?http://www.yougetit.net/articles/2009/10/29/qa-which-windows-7-full-or-upgrade.htmledwardko2009-10-29T05:17:09Z

By J.D. Biersdorfer

How do I know if I can use the cheaper “upgrade” version of Windows 7 or have to pay more for the “full” version?

In addition to having several editions of Windows 7 on the market, Microsoft also has differently priced versions of those editions based on which version of Windows you are currently using.

If you have Windows XP or Windows Vista on your computer, you can buy the upgrade edition of Windows 7. If your operating system is older than Windows XP, you need to purchase the full version of the software. So the price for the upgrade edition of Windows 7 Home Premium for someone using Windows XP is about $120. Someone upgrading from a more ancient version of Windows or a Linux system needs the $200 full version of Windows 7 Home Premium.

Microsoft’s Windows 7 Compatibility Center has a Windows Upgrade Advisor tool that scans your PC to make sure it will work with the new operating system. The site also has information on getting driver software that will let your hardware peripherals work with Windows 7.

Keep in mind that Windows Vista systems can use the comparatively easy “in-place” upgrade option that installs Windows 7 on the computer without disturbing the documents and files that are already on there. Windows XP users, on the other hand, need to perform a clean install by copying all the data off the machine onto an external drive, installing Windows 7 and then transferring the files back onto the computer and reinstalling programs.

Microsoft has its own step-by-step instructions for the Windows 7 upgrade process. If you’d prefer a more automated approach, migration aids like Laplink’s PCmover or iYogi’s Windows 7 service might make it an easier trip to the new system.

]]>Fixing the IE 8 warning - ‘Do you want to view only the webpage content that was delivered securely?’http://www.yougetit.net/articles/2009/7/12/fixing-the-ie-8-warning-do-you-want-to-view-only-the-webpage.htmledwardko2009-07-12T16:00:51Z(from http://blog.httpwatch.com)

To download the content a user would nowhave to click on the No button. As we know, most people using the web only scan text and avoid reading it if at all possible! They will usually go for the Yes button if there isnot an OK button.

Some sites are going to find that their secure pages in IE 8 have the following problems:

Any non-secure HTTP image beacons used for analytics data gathering will often be ignored
The page may not display or even work correctly if it relies on non-secure images, CSS or Javascript

Therefore, avoiding mixed content on HTTPS pages is even more important now that IE 8 has been released. It often becomes an issue when using third party services such as analytics or Content Delivery Networks (CDN). For example, we avoided the use of Google hosted Ajax libraries on our site until Google added HTTPS support.

An IE user you can disable this warning by:

Going to Tools->Internet Options->Security
Select the ‘Security’ tab
Click the ‘Custom Level’ button
In the ‘Miscellaneous’ section change “Display mixed content” to Enable

]]>Configure Firefox to use Gmail or Google Apps for MailTo Linkshttp://www.yougetit.net/articles/2009/7/11/configure-firefox-to-use-gmail-or-google-apps-for-mailto-lin.htmledwardko2009-07-12T03:32:33Z(from Google Operating System Blog 6.16.09)

These instructions will configure Firefox to use Gmail or your Google Apps hosting account to handle mailto links:

First, type about:config in the address bar, search for gecko.handlerService.allowRegisterFromDifferentHost, and double click to set the value to true.
Then, log into GMail or your Google Apps mail URL, paste this line of JavaScript into your address bar, and hit enter:
For Gmail: (compressed for formatting purposes - just copy & paste)
javascript:window.navigator.registerProtocolHandler("mailto","https://mail.google.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s","GMail")
For Google Apps:(compressed for formatting purposes - just copy & paste)
javascript:window.navigator.registerProtocolHandler("mailto","https://mail.google.com/a/example.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s","GApps")
Replace “example.com” with your domain.
Finally, to set the default email client in Firefox without installing extensions:
* go to Tools > Options
* select the Applications tab
* search for mail
* select Use Gmail or GApps from the list of actions associated with the mailto protocol
* click OK to save the settings.

]]>Windows 7 pricing announced: cheaper than Vista (Updated)http://www.yougetit.net/articles/2009/6/27/windows-7-pricing-announced-cheaper-than-vista-updated.htmledwardko2009-06-27T04:54:33ZMicrosoft has revealed almost all the remaining information about Windows 7. The biggest announcement is pricing: Home Premium and Ultimate editions have slightly dropped in cost.

By Emil Protalinski | Last updated June 25, 2009 8:00 AM CT

Microsoft today announced Windows 7 retail pricing, upgrade information, launch details, and a preorder deal. The software giant has reduced the price on its most popular retail Windows product, the Home Premium upgrade version, by approximately 10 percent (this varies based on the market). In the US, this means a drop from $130 to $120, a savings of $10. For the Home Premium full version, the price drops from $240 to $200. Those are the only differences when comparing Windows Vista prices to Windows 7 prices after Microsoft made cuts in in February 2008 (compared to the ones announced in September 2006). The table below summarizes the slow drop in cost for Windows Vista and Windows 7 in the US:

Upgrade retail products

Windows Vista as of 1/2007	Price	Windows Vista as of 2/2008	Price	Windows 7 as of 10/2009	Price
Home Premium	$159.99	Home Premium	$129.99	Home Premium	$119.99
Business	$199.99	Business	$199.99	Professional	$199.99
Ultimate	$259.99	Ultimate	$219.99	Ultimate	$219.99

Full retail products

Windows Vista as of 1/2007	Price	Windows Vista as of 2/2008	price	Windows 7 as of 10/2009	Price
Home Premium	$239.99	Home Premium	$239.99	Home Premium	$199.99
Business	$299.99	Business	$299.99	Professional	$299.99
Ultimate	$399.99	Ultimate	$319.99	Ultimate	$319.99

Comparing the Windows Vista retail pricing at launch to the Windows 7 retail pricing at launch, the differences are much more notable. The Home Premium upgrade version has dropped $40 and the Ultimate upgrade version has dropped $40. The Home Premium full version has dropped $40 and the Ultimate full version has dropped $80. However, Microsoft has not touched the pricing for the Professional edition (previously called the Business edition). This might be attributed to the fact that in Windows 7, every edition is a superset of the previous one. That means that unlike Windows Vista Business, Windows 7 Professional will contain all the features that the Home Premium edition has, and thus Microsoft cannot justify a price drop.

Upgrading from XP or Vista with a retail copy

While these price changes are positive for consumers (none of the products has increased in price), they are rather disappointing for those hoping for much more aggressive price slashes given the current economic climate. Thankfully, retail pricing is typically used as a starting point; most users will not be buying retail versions anyway. Retail sales account for less than 5 percent of Windows sales, the rest of sales are via OEM. Some consumers will either grab an OEM copy via an online or in-store purchase, but most will be getting a copy of Windows 7 with the next purchase of their PC.

Windows XP users need to know that regardless of which edition they currently have installed (Windows XP Home, Windows XP Professional, or Windows XP Media Center Edition) and regardless of which edition of Windows 7 they are moving to (Home Premium, Professional , or Ultimate), they will need to perform a clean install, whether they buy the upgrade or full version. The hassle of backing up applications and user data will fall on the user; a clean install will not back up anything. Using Windows Easy Transfer, users can copy their important files and settings to an external USB stick, external hard drive, or DVD, and then move the data back after the installation.

The installer will verify that XP is genuine and Windows 7 will have to be installed on the same partition as the XP installation. The good news is that Microsoft is allowing XP users to buy the cheaper upgrade version if they want to (Microsoft typically lets owners of the two previous releases of Windows to do this, in this case XP and Vista).

Windows Vista users can follow multiple upgrade paths to Windows 7. As was the case when upgrading from XP to Vista, you will only need to perform a clean install if you are going to a version that is lower on the food chain. For example, if you are going from Windows Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Home Premium, you would do a clean install. If you are going from Windows Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Ultimate, you do not need to do a clean install. When you switch to a higher version, you're adding on the existing functionality, but when you're going to a lesser version, you're taking away functionality, thus the need for a clean install.

Clean installs will also have to be performed when upgrading from a 32-bit version to a 64-bit version, regardless of edition. Unless the user chooses to repartition or format the current partition, Vista's files from C:\WINDOWS will be preserved under C:\WINDOWS.OLD, just as when upgrading from Windows XP to Windows Vista.

As with Vista, each DVD includes the various editions. Unlike Vista, every edition of Windows 7 is a superset of the previous edition, so you will not lose any features when upgrading. Once you have some edition of Windows 7 on your system, whether you purchased it via an OEM or just upgraded from Windows XP or Windows Vista, you will be able to upgrade to a "more premium" version of Windows 7 by purchasing an upgrade key to unlock additional features, just as with Vista. This is called Windows Anytime Upgrade (WAU). For example, you could start off with Windows Vista Home Premium, upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium, and then later choose to upgrade to Windows 7 Professional.

Windows 7 E: no upgrades for the EU

Both Windows XP and Windows Vista come with Internet Explorer, and the upgrade editions of Windows 7 were never tested to handle the installation of Windows 7 without Internet Explorer. Mike Ybarra, general manager of product management of Windows, told Ars that Microsoft had three choices for the release of Windows 7 E: delay the whole release of Windows 7 to make sure everyone gets the release of Windows 7 at the same time and without any upgrade problems, delay the release of Windows 7 just in Europe and have this market wait till Windows 7 E passes all upgrade tests, or don't offer upgrade versions at all.

Microsoft chose the last solution, and it's actually a pretty good one, for both Microsoft and consumers. Windows 7 E editions will be sold only in full versions: there will be no upgrade versions available in the European Union. The good news is that the full versions will be available at the upgrade price, though if history is any indication, they'll likely still be higher than the US upgrade prices shown above. Microsoft announced two weeks ago that it was shipping Windows 7 in Europe without Internet Explorer 8 installed in response to the EU's antitrust investigation of its browser with Windows.

Preorder Windows 7 cheaply

In select markets, Microsoft is offering its customers the ability to preorder Windows 7 upgrade versions at a significantly reduced price. This is easily the most aggressive pricing Microsoft has ever offered for Windows. The low preorder price will vary per country:

US: Windows 7 Home Premium ($49.99) and Windows 7 Professional ($99.99)
Canada: Windows 7 Home Premium ($64.99) and Windows 7 Professional ($124.99)
Japan: Windows 7 Home Premium (¥7,407) and Windows 7 Professional (¥14,073)
UK: Windows 7 Home Premium (£49.99) and Windows 7 Professional (£99.99)
France and Germany: Windows 7 Home Premium (€49.99) and Windows 7 Professional (€109.99)

The deal includes select retail partners, such as Best Buy and Amazon, as well as the online Microsoft Store. This program begins Friday, June 26 in the US, Canada, and Japan. It goes on while supplies last or until July 11 in the US and Canada, and until July 5 in Japan. For the UK, France, and Germany, the preorder starts July 15 and runs while supplies last or until August 14. Microsoft was not willing to discuss the limits of the supplies, but a spokesperson did confirm to Ars that the reduced prices for the European countries will simply apply to the full version (as noted above), as upgrade versions will not exist in Europe. In short, these preorders will allow those in the UK, Germany, and France to purchase full versions of Home Premium or Professional, except without IE8, for a very low price.

Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program

Waiting to buy a PC until Windows 7 is released can be frustrating (especially given the upcoming back-to-school season), so Microsoft is making an upgrade offer similar to what it did for consumers buying XP but who wanted to secure a copy Vista: buy a Windows Vista PC as of June 26 and receive the equivalent edition of Windows 7 when it comes out. If the June 26 date sounds familiar, that's because it was rumored earlier this month via a leaked Best Buy memo (contra the rumor pointing to July 1 being the date). Microsoft will be offering the program globally until January 31, 2010 but OEMs can cut it off early if they choose to.

The offer will be available only from participating OEMs or retailers and encompasses Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Business, and Windows Vista Ultimate. For example, if you purchase a computer with Windows Vista Home Premium on it, once it is available, you will get a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium to upgrade to. Further details will be available soon at windows.com/upgradeoffer and windows7upgradeoption.com.

Ybarra told Ars that Microsoft would not charge consumers for Windows 7 if they purchased a Vista PC between tomorrow and the day of general availability. He did admit, however, that OEMs can choose the price of the upgrade, possibly charging for shipping and handling fees. Furthermore, it will be up to OEMs to decide which computers the upgrade offer will be available on, so it's unlikely that low-end computers like netbooks or PCs on sale will have this offer.

Windows 7 in your language

Microsoft is promising that all major OEMs will have PCs with Windows 7 shipping in all language versions beginning on the day of general availability, October 22, 2009. However, the same cannot be said for the Windows 7 retail versions. On October 22, they will be available in 14 languages: English, Spanish, Japanese, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Chinese (Hong Kong).

On October 31, the remaining 21 languages will become available: Turkish, Czech, Portuguese, Hungarian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Greek, Ukrainian, Romanian, Arabic, Lithuanian, Bulgarian, Estonian, Slovenian, Hebrew, Thai, Croatian, Serbian Latin, and Latvian. This wait of just over one week is a big improvement over Windows Vista's launch: the wait between the initial launch in the US and all the languages becoming available was about three months.

This theme of "better than Vista" that we're seeing with Windows 7 is apparent in today's announcement as well: the release has better pricing and will be more rapidly broadly available. However, whether "better than Vista" will be good enough for consumers to switch away from their current operating system is up to the market to decide. That said, we're optimistic, as Microsoft is quite obviously listening intently this time around.

Update

A few readers have asked in the comments and via e-mail about retail pricing in other countries. While we begged for pricing in every country, a Microsoft spokesperson told Ars that only pricing for the EU and the UK were available:

The EU: Home Premium upgrade (€119.99), Professional upgrade (€285.00), Ultimate upgrade (€299.00), Home Premium full (€199.99), Professional full (€309.00), and Ultimate full (€319.00)
The UK: Home Premium upgrade (£79.99), Professional upgrade (£189.99), Ultimate upgrade (£199.99), Home Premium full (£149.99), Professional full (£219.99), and Ultimate full (£229.99)

]]>Google Grabs 1 Million Phone Numbers for Google Voicehttp://www.yougetit.net/articles/2009/6/21/google-grabs-1-million-phone-numbers-for-google-voice.htmledwardko2009-06-21T17:30:34Z

John Fontana, Network World

Saturday, June 20, 2009 10:24 AM PDT

Googlelast month reserved 1 million phone numbers with Level 3, signaling that it may finally be ready to roll out itslong-anticipated Google Voiceservice.

Thefree service, announced in March, lets users unify their phone numbers, allowing them to have asingle number through Google Voicethat rings a call through to all their phones.

Sources could not say when the 1 million numbers may be assigned. Level 3 has been supplying Google with phone numbers since theintroduction of Google Voice,so the 1 million numbers are an indication Google is close to adding a significant amount of users.

A Google spokesperson would only say "as a matter of policy, we typically do not comment on contracts with third-party technology suppliers."

A public launch has been anticipated since Google said in March the service would be "open to new users soon." There has been speculation that the service would begin today – June 18 – but Google has yet to make an announcement.

"I've only been using Google Voice for a few months, but it's completely changed the way I use voicemail and communicate, just in general," said Kevin Dando, director of digital and education communications for PBS. "When it goes public, I think the rush to grab Google Voice numbers is going to be stunning. I know some of my friends check the Google Voice page almost every day to see when they can grab a number and get started using it."

Google Voice has a number ofunique featuresincluding call transfer between a user's devices, multi-party conferencing, conversion of voice calls to text messages, cut-rate international calling, and call transcription.

Google also has integrated the Voice service with Gmail contact lists.

But the gem is the fact that a user can have one phone number people can dial to reach them regardless of where they are located, either home or mobile. Google Voice uses VoIP to link collections of phone numbers.

Google Voice is a product of Google's March 2007 acquisition of GrandCentral. For the past two years, however, it appeared the GrandCentral technology had been tossed into a black hole.

But on March 11, Google announced Google Voice and opened the service up only to former GrandCentral users.

Last week,TechCrunch reportedthat Google would add number portability later this year to Google Voice, which would let users keep one of their existing phone numbers as their Google Voice number. For example, users could make their cell phone number their Google Voice number.

The feature is significant because switching to a new Google Voice number comes with a cost such as having to distribute the new number to friends and family. In addition, outbound calls and text messages show the phone number you are calling from and not your Google Voice number.

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]]>Adobe makes Acrobat.com a business with paid accountshttp://www.yougetit.net/articles/2009/6/15/adobe-makes-acrobatcom-a-business-with-paid-accounts.htmledwardko2009-06-15T06:06:03ZJune 14, 2009 9:01 PM PDT

by Josh Lowensohn

Adobe is taking Acrobat.com out of beta on Monday, and turning it into a business with paid user accounts. The service, which has more than 5 million registered users will retain its free version, however there are now usage limitations on certain features which can be unlocked by upgrading to one of the two new premium plans. These can be purchased on a monthly or yearly basis and cost $14.99 or $39 a month, or $149 or $390 a year respectively.

The "premium basic" plan allows for 10 PDF conversions per month, as well as up to five meeting participants though Adobe's ConnectNow tool. The "premium plus" plan dials that up to unlimited PDF conversions, and meetings with up to 20 users. Both premium plans also gain phone and Web support. In comparison, free users will only be able to convert five PDFs, and connect with two people at once in ConnectNow, which is just one less connection than users were able to have during Acrobat's beta period.

Along with the move to paid accounts, Acrobat.com is getting a new collaborative app called Tables that handles basic spreadsheets. Just like Buzzword, Adobe's online word processor, this lets multiple users work on a spreadsheet at once, as well as track revisions and roll back to earlier versions.

Tables may not have as many features as some more established online spreadsheet tools, but Adobe is promising to get it there.

(Credit: CNET)

In a call with CNET News last week, Eric Larson, who is Adobe's director of product management and marketing for Acrobat.com, told me that Tables is not quite ready to replace Microsoft's Excel, which is why it's being rolled out in Adobe's Acrobat Labs section first. Larson did stress, however, that it will allow users to do things Excel can't, like see where other people are on the document, and provide a subtle warning when users are making a visual change that will affect others.

Little things that users are used to doing in normal software, like changing column width or sorting order, yields a small warning message that tells them to think twice if there are other people working on it at the same time. It also provides the option to switch to "private view," which lets users make edits without the changes going live to the main document. Adobe is hoping this type of work flow will cut down on the e-mail overload, and versioning problems that typical office software creates.

I gave the tool a spin over the weekend, and for basic spreadsheet tasks it's quite nice. Unlike Google Docs, which opens up to a sea of white cells, Tables opens up to just three columns and five rows which can be expanded one at a time. It's also incredibly responsive, letting you re-organize, and snap around columns and individual cells as if you were using desktop software.

Included are a wide range of formulas, however there is not yet a way to reference individual cells, which may be a show-stopper for some financial applications. You can, however reference entire columns.

Will this be enough to woo users to pay up who were previously getting some of these things for free? Adobe seems to think so, and is still allowing users free and unlimited access to Buzzword, Presentations, and now Tables. The big thing that changes with today's news is an expansion of the the services that let you share what you've created with these free tools, either by converting files, or talking about them in the live meeting solutions.

Adobe is eventually hoping to get Acrobat.com beyond the browser and get its AIR application up to parity, so that users will be able to use these same apps, and access their work off the browser. The company is also trying to get people access to these files and applications on mobile devices, where they'll be able to make edits and even create new documents, although this isn't coming until later this year.

Following that, Adobe is working on an upgrade to its PDF technology that will show others when a change has been made by anyone else who is collaborating on it. When it finds that out, it gives them the option to update to the newer version, similar to what happens when a developer makes a change to a software application.

With Acrobat.com, Adobe is coming a little late to a game that Google, Zoho and ThinkFree have been running for years, and that Microsoft is set to join very soon. What may make the difference is that Adobe can work these products very deeply into other pieces of its software. Whether that ends up being a liability compared to competing solutions that remain Web-only is unclear.

]]>Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlookhttp://www.yougetit.net/articles/2009/6/12/google-apps-sync-for-microsoft-outlook.htmledwardko2009-06-12T13:07:33ZGoogle Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook

Released on 6/09/2009

Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook is a plug in that allows Microsoft Outlook to run on the Google Apps backend rather than Microsoft Exchange Server. End users can continue to use the familiar Microsoft Outlook interface for email, calendar and contacts as they transition to Google Apps.

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