Smartphone Showdown: iPhone 3GS vs Motorola Droid

Smartphone Showdown: iPhone 3GS vs Motorola Droid

Verizon Launches Motorola's Droid Phone

This may be the smartphone i have been waiting for! More to follow I am sure :)

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2354855,00.asp

All excited about Windows 7? Wait a minute!

Windows 7 is, in fact, the spiffiest version of Windows yet.  But besides the catches you've already heard about (like not being able to upgrade XP or 2000 directly to 7), there's a couple more.

First of all, if you were running the betas or the RC, you were likely using Windows 7 in the Ultimate incarnation.  So now you've gone out and gotten your hands on Home Premium or Professional - well, just like with Vista, you can't downgrade once you upgrade.  This was something I bumped into while trying to upgrade to the release version of 7 Professional on my EEE 901 netbook.  An upgrade involving changing editions?  Nuke & pave.

The other scenario is if you want to go from x32 to x64.  In the Apple world, the base OS is capable of both modes of operation (in fact, 64-bit apps run fine even when the kernel is in 32-bit mode) but in Windows 7 you'll need to pick an edition right away.  And the bad news?  You can't upgrade from x32 to x64.  It's a clean installation.  In my case, I wanted to go from Vista Ultimate x32 to 7 Ultimate x64 on a fairly high-spec PC - no such luck.  Another clean install required.  Boo hiss.

All this said, Windows 7 is worth it if you have the hardware, and if you run Vista today.  Compatibility has been good in my experience with the RC version, and most of the things that made Vista infuriating have been cleaned up effectively.  If you use Vista now, upgrade.  Just do it.  You won't regret it.  If you use XP, hold tight for the time being - I expect third parties to quickly make the migration easier for you (since upgrading requires a clean install).  If you can't wait, make sure you have all your software installation discs handy - or think about getting yourself a Mac instead.

Mozilla Raindrop: Is the Intelligent Inbox Coming?

Another interesting project coming from Mozilla:

http://mashable.com/2009/10/22/mozilla-raindrop/

Raindrop UX Design and Demo
http://tinyurl.com/ygkz89s

Upgrade Your New PC to Windows 7 for "Free"

Article on how to qualify for a "free" upgrade to Win 7 if you purchased a PC within the past 6 months.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2354554,00.asp

Free Wallpaper Site - Cool!

http://interfacelift.com/

Audacity - The Free, Cross-Platform Sound Editor

Audacity is a free open-source audio editor. You can record sounds, play sounds, import and export WAV, AIFF, Ogg Vorbis, and MP3 files, and more. Use it to edit your sounds using Cut, Copy and Paste (with unlimited Undo), mix tracks together, or apply effects to your recordings. "

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Online VMX creation tool - VMWare

Do you need a tool to create VMX files for use with VMPlayer?

If so check out:

http://www.easyvmx.com/

Copy full file location into Copy/Paste Buffer - Vista

Did you ever wish you could copy the full file location into the copy/paste buffer?

Well in Vista you can! - Win7(TDB)

Hold the left shift key down while you right click on the file and then select the "copy as path" option. You can then use your applications paste function to retrieve from the buffer the full file location including the name of the file.

Cloud Computing for SMB's

Excerpt from an article I just wrote on the Benefits and Risks of Cloud Computing for Small and Medium Size Businesses:

"At our BNUG meeting last night we had a very interesting mini discussion on Cloud Computing (CC) and below are my thoughts on the Benefits and Risks of using Cloud Computing.

First let me define what I understand the term “Cloud Computing” to mean...

Please click here to continue reading the full article.

Free SFTP and FTP GUI client for Windows - WinSCP

What is WinSCP?

"WinSCP is an open source SFTP client and FTP client for Windows. Its main function is the secure file transfer between a local and a remote computer. Beyond this, WinSCP offers basic file manager functionality. It uses Secure Shell (SSH) and supports, in addition to Secure FTP, also legacy SCP protocol."

http://winscp.net/