Zune Sector Launched

I finally managed to find sometime to launch my newest blog. Zune Sector it will have the latest information on Zune. Check out Zune Sector.

Reports: Yahoo to Buy Facebook for $1 billion

Looks like Mark Zuckerberg has finally decided to sell Facebook for 1 billion dollars. He refused to sell it last year for 750 million. Similar site, Myspace sold for 580 million just last year. Microsoft and Viacom had expressed interest in the popular website.

Read more at BBC

Online Storage Solutions

There are two new sites I found that offer large amounts of storage online. Mediamax and AOL's XDrive. AOL's purchase of xdrive.com features 5 GB of free online storage space. You can go to their site and log on with your AOL or AOL AIM screen name, or even create a new user name. So how can they give you free storage, well of course advertisements. They also offer a 50GB plan which is $9.95 per month or $99.95 yearly. Also some neat features it has is a built in personally music player, some photo features and allows you to setup automatic backups. XDrive also features a down loadable desktop application which allow your PC to map to it (like a network drive). A question that is posed is, is your data safe with AOL with you files? (referring back to AOL publicizing what users searched on their AOL search engine)

XDrive Online File Manager

Uploading a file

Mediamax also has similar functionality to XDrive but offers a whopping 25 GB's for free. It does have a few constraints, you can only download or share 1 GB/month and send files up to only 25 MB in size. They also have paid services. For 4.99/month (or 44.95 annually) you get 100GB of online storage, download/share 10GB/month and the ability to send files of any size. The Elite Plan gives you 250 GB and download/share 25 GB/month, for 9.95 month (or 89.95 annually). The last play they offer is Professional, which is 29.95 monthly (289.95 annually). This plan gives you 1 Terabyte (1000GB). It also is packaged with video playback, photo viewing, and built in music player.MediaMax File Manager

You can always settle for a personal hard drive and share it on your network and have available remotely, but to avoid that hassle these are free solutions to also consider. XDrive didn't mention any download/sharing restrictions. I liked XDrive's interface better too, but you can't go wrong with MediaMax's 25GB of space.

Zune Coming soon.

Yes Microsoft is working on an Apple IPod rival. It will be called 'Zune.' But will it have the functionality to pull current ipod owners to the microsoft product. There have been many speculations about 'Zune.' Microsoft has published a website pressroom related to 'Zune'. Check out the pictures posted on dedicated blog site to Zune at zunezome.blogspot.com.

Google Writely

Google recently purchased Writely in there continuing efforts to make office type applications available to everyone via the Internet. Writely is like Google Spreadsheets but appears to have progress much further in features. It has all the basic features that anyone would need to word process. I really liked the auto save feature (Office 2003 - sometimes lags when it auto saves) Writely Autosave is quick and doesn't affect the performance. So I actually typed this in writely. I also liked the fact how you could publish to your blog. While I am on blogger and Google own both products I think the post worked well. I didn't have a chance to test with another blog entry on Writely! The spell check is pretty accurate but said 'Writely' and 'Google' were misspelled. Just like MS Word you can use the right click button almost anywhere on the text area. You can save the file in popular formats such as MS Word, Open Office, and even PDF. Visit Writely to test drive the web application for yourself. Writely beta is 62% complete, I will post updates as they become available.

Amazon - Pre order Windows Vista?

It appears that Windows Vista is available to be preordered at Amazon. The online retailer has listed all versions of vista on their site. The Ultimate Vista version is to be 400 bucks!

Microsoft Office 2007 Test Drive

If you don't have the resources to download the beta version of Office 2007, you can run it live on your desktop will Runaware application. It is a simple ActiveX control that install on your computer. It takes only takes about 5 mins to get it started up (broadband connection of course.) You can explore any of the following programs:

• Access 2007
• Excel 2007
• InfoPath 2007
• OneNote 2007
• Outlook 2007
• Outlook web Access
• Powerpoint 2007
• Publisher 2007
• Visio 2007
• Word 2007
• Sharepoint Designer 2007

You will need a Microsoft Live account. Requires a 1 minute registration if you don't have one. And you will need to use Internet Explorer.
For next time: I will get previews and screenshots on all the programs.

New Look to Yahoo Mail

Yahoo Mail just got a little bit better. The new beta version of Yahoo Mail sports a similar layout to Microsoft's Outlook. With a navigation pane on the left, index pane in the middle top and a View of the current message pane on the middle bottom of the page. You will also notice a full advertisement on the right hand side. As you can see in the picture the layout is sleek, eye popping and will be able to compete with Microsoft Hotmail live mail and as well as GMail.
While it is in beta testing you really just can read and compose mails, the options page will shoot you back to the original mail site.

Google Checkout Now out

Google released their own version of PayPal called Google Checkout. It is very similar to PayPal. You can use it at merchants that accept payment through Google Checkout. EBay, owning company of PayPal said they wouldn't accept Google Checkout as a form of payment. The site is similar to another other checkout platform, its easy to use, and for now many merchants are offering $10 dollars off if you use Google Checkout. Unfortunatly no big name merchants are on the list yet. Google continues to take a shot at every internet market. Whats next Google FleaBay? Visit the Tour for more details.

Zone Alarm True Vector Service Issue

ZoneAlarm Internet Security is known to have its issues when it comes to uppdating the program or reinstalling. When installing ZoneAlarm install program gives a prompt that states. "ZoneAlarm can not log into True Vector Service. Please shutdown this service." With extensive playing around I found out that one file had to be deleted or renamed. I overcame the file vsmon.exe. That file is the True Vector service. You need to either delete that file or rename the file. You can do a simple search for the file or find it yourself in the Windows\system32\ZoneLab


* I know this is off topic but this had to be posted. A new site dedicated to fixs and tutorials will soon be up

Picasa Web Album

Now like Yahoo Photo's you can upload your photo's to Google! Right now it is in beta testing. You can either upload through the Google Picasa Web Album or through Picasa 2 beta. The down fall is that they only offer 250 mb of space. Comparing to Yahoo where it is unlimited.
They nice thing is you can upload at the best quality or a smaller sized quality for faster loading. You can sign up for beta testing here. You must have a Gmail account to sign up. I will upload new images as they become available.

Google Spreadsheet Newest of Google Lab Collection

The newest part of Google Labs collection is now offering limited testing. Google Spreadsheet - Will allow users to create spreadsheet online. You can also save your spreadsheets and share spreadsheets with other users. Google is offering a limited testing phase which means you have to sign up and if you lucky you might get a chance to check it out. A online office would be very neat. Never have to worry about transferring files and carrying flash drives around. If this works as well as it sounds, watch out Microsoft. Check out the tour.

Windows Vista Hype

The hype of Windows Vista has been buzzing, but when exactly will it come out. I took the time to have my own first look at it. I didn't install it on its own fresh hard drive. Instead used Virtual PC.
Microsoft Virtual PC 2004, great little tool enabling me to test out the new vista.

Beta versions of Vista can be obtain at http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsvista/

The installation of Vista on Virtual PC wasn't as it easy as I thought it would be.


Currently testing: Windows Vista.
Next post: Screenshots and how to install on virtual PC.