Author Archives: Steven

Microsoft plans to roll out browser ballot screen for Europe

Over the next few weeks starting from next week. Microsoft will be offering a web browser choice ballot screen to Internet Explorer users in Europe.

External testing of the choice screen will begin next week in three countries: the United Kingdom, Belgium and France. Anyone in those countries who wishes to test it can download the browser choice screen software update from Windows Update.

The browser choice screen software update will be offered as an automatic download through Windows Update for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. The software update will be installed automatically, or will prompt you to download or install it, depending on which operating system you are running and your settings for Windows Update. If you do not have automatic updating enabled, you can get the choice screen by going to Windows Update and clicking on “Check for Updates.”

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Windows 7 RC expiration coming soon

Just a heads up that Windows 7 RC will start displaying expiration notices in two weeks and users should reinstall with the RTM release or reinstall a previous version of Windows.

Effective February 15, 2010, the expiration notification process begins:

  • Windows 7 RC users receive an expiration notification in the task bar one time per day.
  • Windows 7 RC users are presented with the Notification Wizard one time every four hours and then one time every hour.

Effective March 1, 2010, Windows 7 RC enters the next phase of expiration:

  • Expiration notifications in the task bar continue.
  • Computers that are running Windows 7 RC restart every two hours.
    Important When the computer restarts, your work will not be saved.

Effective June 1, 2010, Windows 7 RC expires:

  • Windows starts to a black desktop.
  • Windows 7 RC users are presented with a Windows Activation screen. The screen states that the Windows that you are running is not genuine.
  • Computers that are running Windows 7 RC restart every two hours.

End of the recession and Upshares Downshares

Today the UK finally came out of it’s recession at long last. The PM programme has been charting the economic crisis daily from November 2008 with a slot named by the listeners as Upshares Downshares.

Out of the blue listeners started sending in their rendition and interpretations of the theme music. So each week listeners were greeted with a different rendition sent in by the listeners.

Listeners have expressed interest in a charity CD with all the versions of the theme music and the BBC are looking into whether that’s possible.

Below is the extended version by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.

Mozilla Firefox 3.6 released

Today as expected Mozilla Firefox 3.6 has been released and is “20% faster”. I’ve ran the Acid 3 test and scores 92/100 so is getting better with every release.

I would expect when version 4 is released it would finally pass the Acid 3 test.

Below are some of the new features.

  • New Personas
  • Outdated Plugin Detection
  • Full Screen Open Video support
  • Web open Font Format
  • CSS Gradients and Backgrounds for Developers
  • File API
  • Drag and Drop
  • Desktop Orientation Sensors
  • Improved Speed

Download your copy today

AT&T stops selling iPhone in New York

AT&T have stopped selling Apple’s iPhone in the New York area.

Customers who enter a New York ZIP codes will be greeted with "Sorry this Package is not available in your area."

AT&T appears to be taking next step in dealing with the high data usage in some US Cities, buy not selling the iPhone online.

An AT&T spokesperson called Fletcher Cook said in a written statement to The Consumerist

"We periodically modify our promotions and distribution channels." It appears that AT&T has temporarily stopped selling the iPhone 3G and 3GS to new customers. Consumers can still purchase the iPhone through the Apple Store with an AT&T contract.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone and hope you enjoy yourselves. If your drinking don’t get too drunk and regret it the Morning after.

There’s no new Christmas video form Weebl and Bob but here is one of the best ones which happens to last year’s 🙂

Outlook 2010 supports 15 Exchange Server e-mail accounts.

Steven Bink over at Bink.nu has found a rather cool feature in the Beta of Outlook 2010, adding multiple Exchange Server accounts from different organisations.

Below is a screenshot of his Outlook accounts.

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When you compose a new e-mai you can specify which Exchange mailbox you can use in the same way as with POP3 and IMAP mailboxes.

Steven  Bink says:
“Before Outlook 2010 you could add extra mailboxes, but only from the same organization and sent items were saved in sent items folder of the main mailbox.

Now in Outlook 2010 by default it will let you connect to 3 Exchange mailboxes maximum, in or outside default Exchange organization.

But Group Policy settings (GPO) for Outlook 2010 can change this maximum behaviour from 1 to 15 (!).”

I personally won’t use this but it’s a rather handy feature for some users with multiple Exchange Mailboxes.

Now have a Blackberry 8520 Smartphone

On Thursday I received a Blackberry 8520 to replace my faulty 8310. The 8520 is a darn lovely phone and an improvement over 8310.

There is no longer the trackball button which is replaced with a trackpad type style of control wish is more responsive and has built in 54g Wi-Fi which one can use to have a wireless broadband connection to your company’s Blackberry Enterprise Server if you use one.

Here is a link to the 8520 specs
http://uk.blackberry.com/devices/blackberrycurve8500/