Those of you who defy reason and stick with good old BT for your internet and email services will soon witness a massive change to its mail system, thanks to a move to dump Yahoo as its email provider.
Currently, BT’s web email interface is branded as being “Yahoo! Mail” product and comes complete with an entire portal full of news stories to accidentally click on.
The plan is for BT to dump all of this in favour of using its own web mail front end, called BT Mail, which ought to filter out to all users by the end of 2013.
According to the Telegraph, one of the reasons for doing this is due to ongoing “hacking” of email accounts that use the BT Yahoo system, although BT’s announcement sounds more like it’ll be using the move to drive traffic to a redesigned BT.com portal that’ll offer a similar collection of news and features to that currently aggregated by Yahoo. As in, a page loads of people get forwarded to that BT can sell adverts around the edges of.
It’s actually a bit of a shame. Majority of the people who still use BT Internet email addresses are of the "more mature" variety. The young 'uns have their hotmail or gmail accounts (they have problems too). There will be changes required to access your BT emails. Hopefully BT will make it as painless as possible, but I somehow doubt that.
In any case if you are worried or want to discuss alternatives, by all means call Optima Computers on 020 8445 6700. We will have the right solution for you.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/epic/btdota/10089355/BT-dumps-Yahoo-email-after-hacking-claims.html
Optima Computers - T: 020 8445 6700
Friday 31 May 2013
Thursday 23 May 2013
Google makes sending cash to a friend as easy as sending an email
Google is bringing Google Wallet support to Gmail, making it incredibly easy to send friends and family payments by just sending an email.
For now this is US only, but only a matter of time before it is here in the UK with us.
“Google Wallet is now integrated with Gmail, so you can quickly and securely send money to friends and family directly within Gmail — even if they don’t have a Gmail address,” Google writes in a blog post today. “It’s free to send money if your bank account is linked to Google Wallet or using your Google Wallet balance, and low fees apply to send money using your linked credit or debit card.”
To send money using Gmail, you will be able to just hover over the attachment paperclip in the compose view and then click the “$” icon to add money to your email.
The new feature will compete directly with other online payment solutions like PayPal and Dwolla. It will be rolled out to all Gmail users in the U.S. over the age of 18 “over the coming months.”
Check out this video below for more.
For now this is US only, but only a matter of time before it is here in the UK with us.
“Google Wallet is now integrated with Gmail, so you can quickly and securely send money to friends and family directly within Gmail — even if they don’t have a Gmail address,” Google writes in a blog post today. “It’s free to send money if your bank account is linked to Google Wallet or using your Google Wallet balance, and low fees apply to send money using your linked credit or debit card.”
To send money using Gmail, you will be able to just hover over the attachment paperclip in the compose view and then click the “$” icon to add money to your email.
The new feature will compete directly with other online payment solutions like PayPal and Dwolla. It will be rolled out to all Gmail users in the U.S. over the age of 18 “over the coming months.”
Check out this video below for more.
Okay, Google: Voice search goes live with latest version of Chrome
Google is enabling a more naturally spoken question-and-answer interface to its search service for people with a new version of Chrome.
If you are not on the latest version of Chrome (Ver 27), upgrade to it, so you can take advantage of voice search.
Note, Voice search will only work if there is a microphone in or attached to your computer.
Pretty soon you will be able to talk to your browser and it will return back with answers or results.
Google demonstrated conversational search at Google I/O a week ago, a style of search designed to be more like natural human speech than the technically constructed search queries that people often use today to retrieve information from a search engine.
It's all part of the gradual arrival of Google's vision to build a Star Trek-style search engine, in which the computer grasps what people want and answers them. Eventually, expect Google to let people initiate a query by saying, "OK, Google," as with Google Glass voice commands.
It's not clear yet how broadly the service is available. Some reported receiving errors that said "no Internet connection."
Google confirmed the move Wednesday. "Conversational search has started rolling out on Google.com in the latest version of Chrome. You can just click the mic in the search box, ask your question in a natural way, and get spoken answers," the company said in a statement.
Users need to update their Chrome browser to get the new functionality, according to Google.
If you are not on the latest version of Chrome (Ver 27), upgrade to it, so you can take advantage of voice search.
Note, Voice search will only work if there is a microphone in or attached to your computer.
Pretty soon you will be able to talk to your browser and it will return back with answers or results.
Google demonstrated conversational search at Google I/O a week ago, a style of search designed to be more like natural human speech than the technically constructed search queries that people often use today to retrieve information from a search engine.
It's all part of the gradual arrival of Google's vision to build a Star Trek-style search engine, in which the computer grasps what people want and answers them. Eventually, expect Google to let people initiate a query by saying, "OK, Google," as with Google Glass voice commands.
It's not clear yet how broadly the service is available. Some reported receiving errors that said "no Internet connection."
Google confirmed the move Wednesday. "Conversational search has started rolling out on Google.com in the latest version of Chrome. You can just click the mic in the search box, ask your question in a natural way, and get spoken answers," the company said in a statement.
Users need to update their Chrome browser to get the new functionality, according to Google.
Friday 3 May 2013
So long, Hotmail: Remaining users migrated to Outlook.com
End of an era for one of the first free webmail services
Hotmail addresses may live on, but the service we once knew as Hotmail is no more, now that Microsoft has transferred all 300 million active Hotmail accounts to its new, modernized Outlook.com webmail offering.
"We want to give a huge 'Thank you' to all of you who have supported Hotmail over the years, for some of you, that's going back as far as 1996," Microsoft's Dick Craddock eulogized in a blog post on Thursday. "It has been an amazing journey and we've been honored to provide you with a great mail experience for many years."
Microsoft first began signing up new users for Outlook.com in July 2012, while giving them the option to switch back to Hotmail if they didn't like the new service. In February 2013, it announced that it was officially taking Outlook.com out of preview and boasted that it had already signed up 60 million users. But that still left hundreds of millions of users on the old Hotmail system.
Microsoft had always warned Hotmail users that their accounts would be migrated to Outlook.com eventually; it just didn't say when that would happen. As it turns out, there was good reason for that, because moving all of the Hotmail data over to the new system was no trivial matter.
"This meant communicating with hundreds of millions of people, upgrading all their mailboxes – equaling more than 150 million gigabytes of data – and making sure that every person's mail, calendar, contacts, folders, and personal preferences were preserved in the upgrade," Craddock wrote.
Hotmail users had better like the new Outlook.com UI, because it's all they'll get from now on
What it means for Hotmail users is that although they will be able to keep their @hotmail.com addresses, starting on Thursday they will see the Outlook.com UI rather than the familiar Hotmail one, and unlike before, they will no longer be able to revert their accounts to the old style if they don't like the change.
"Our belief is that as people start using the new experience, they will come to love it even more than they loved Hotmail," Craddock writes.
Obviously, not every Hotmail user will agree, but such is the way of things on the wild, wild web.
Hotmail addresses may live on, but the service we once knew as Hotmail is no more, now that Microsoft has transferred all 300 million active Hotmail accounts to its new, modernized Outlook.com webmail offering.
"We want to give a huge 'Thank you' to all of you who have supported Hotmail over the years, for some of you, that's going back as far as 1996," Microsoft's Dick Craddock eulogized in a blog post on Thursday. "It has been an amazing journey and we've been honored to provide you with a great mail experience for many years."
Microsoft first began signing up new users for Outlook.com in July 2012, while giving them the option to switch back to Hotmail if they didn't like the new service. In February 2013, it announced that it was officially taking Outlook.com out of preview and boasted that it had already signed up 60 million users. But that still left hundreds of millions of users on the old Hotmail system.
Microsoft had always warned Hotmail users that their accounts would be migrated to Outlook.com eventually; it just didn't say when that would happen. As it turns out, there was good reason for that, because moving all of the Hotmail data over to the new system was no trivial matter.
"This meant communicating with hundreds of millions of people, upgrading all their mailboxes – equaling more than 150 million gigabytes of data – and making sure that every person's mail, calendar, contacts, folders, and personal preferences were preserved in the upgrade," Craddock wrote.
According to Craddock, once the "go" sign was given, the Outlook.com team was able to complete the full migration in around six weeks.
Mind you, things didn't go quite as smoothly as Craddock suggests. During the upgrade period, both the Hotmail and Outlook.com services were hit with multiple, prolonged outages, and many Hotmail users reported being locked out of their accounts as Microsoft moved them over to Outlook.com. Now that the migration is complete, such headaches will hopefully be things of the past – fingers crossed.
Craddock says that with the Hotmail transition completed, Outlook.com now boasts some 400 million active accounts, including 125 million that are accessing their mail, contacts, and calendars on mobile devices via Exchange ActiveSync.
Hotmail users had better like the new Outlook.com UI, because it's all they'll get from now on
What it means for Hotmail users is that although they will be able to keep their @hotmail.com addresses, starting on Thursday they will see the Outlook.com UI rather than the familiar Hotmail one, and unlike before, they will no longer be able to revert their accounts to the old style if they don't like the change.
"Our belief is that as people start using the new experience, they will come to love it even more than they loved Hotmail," Craddock writes.
Obviously, not every Hotmail user will agree, but such is the way of things on the wild, wild web.
Wednesday 3 April 2013
Still waiting to upgrade to Windows 8?
It has now been four months since Windows 8 was released. It's been a bumpy ride for Microsoft. Despite the bluster and glitz of the Windows 8 launch, it seems consumers have not really taken it to heart.
It seems that people are still buying Windows 7 on new computers as opposed to Windows 8.
Is this because Windows 8 is broken like Vista was? Not really. To be honest, Windows 8 is actually very good. It builds on the strengths of Windows 7 and goes from there. It is a very stable version of Windows.
So what is holding it back?
In short, the Interface (the main screen) is where the problems lie. Windows 8 has no Start Button. For generations of Windows users, we expect a Start Button. But there is no start Button. Instead we get the Start Screen. And it's not very intuitive.
Microsoft decided that the future is not desktop computers, but computers in their various guises - desktops, laptops, tablets and other devices. So Windows 8 was designed to work across all these devices. And Touch was a huge part of the operating system. Whilst the idea is great on paper, it doesn't do well in the real world. Windows 8 on a tablet or touchscreen pc is very intuitive. Flick, touch, press and it works very well. Doing the same with a keyboard and mouse is a very different story.
And consumers are voting with their wallets. But this will not be an option for much longer. Majority of new computers - desktops or laptops - are being sold with Windows 8 pre-installed. So it is inevitable that you will end up with Windows 8 at some point.
What do we recommend? If you have the budget, get your next computer with Touch and Windows 8
If not, get Optima Computers to optimise your new computer. We can tweak your PC so it behaves exactly as you would like it to. Exactly like Windows 7, but better.
I personally, have been using Windows 8 since October last year and have to say it is faster, better and more intuitive than Windows 7.
So there really is no reason not to go with Windows 8.
It seems that people are still buying Windows 7 on new computers as opposed to Windows 8.
Is this because Windows 8 is broken like Vista was? Not really. To be honest, Windows 8 is actually very good. It builds on the strengths of Windows 7 and goes from there. It is a very stable version of Windows.
So what is holding it back?
In short, the Interface (the main screen) is where the problems lie. Windows 8 has no Start Button. For generations of Windows users, we expect a Start Button. But there is no start Button. Instead we get the Start Screen. And it's not very intuitive.
Microsoft decided that the future is not desktop computers, but computers in their various guises - desktops, laptops, tablets and other devices. So Windows 8 was designed to work across all these devices. And Touch was a huge part of the operating system. Whilst the idea is great on paper, it doesn't do well in the real world. Windows 8 on a tablet or touchscreen pc is very intuitive. Flick, touch, press and it works very well. Doing the same with a keyboard and mouse is a very different story.
And consumers are voting with their wallets. But this will not be an option for much longer. Majority of new computers - desktops or laptops - are being sold with Windows 8 pre-installed. So it is inevitable that you will end up with Windows 8 at some point.
What do we recommend? If you have the budget, get your next computer with Touch and Windows 8
If not, get Optima Computers to optimise your new computer. We can tweak your PC so it behaves exactly as you would like it to. Exactly like Windows 7, but better.
I personally, have been using Windows 8 since October last year and have to say it is faster, better and more intuitive than Windows 7.
So there really is no reason not to go with Windows 8.
Best April Fools 2013 pranks
1. Google Nose BETA
True to form, Google has graced us with several April Fool’s Day hoaxes this year. The first we came across, on Google’s homepage, is Google Nose BETA, which Google touts as the new “scentsation in search.” The Google Aromabase has amassed an amazing 15-million-scentibyte data base. Beautiful in its simplicity, users just have to click the “Smell” button in their search result and sniff their computer, tablet or phone. With smells including vampire, gym, frying onions, diapers, new car, ghost, Egyption tomb and victory, Google Nose users have a lot of smelling to do.
LINK: http://www.google.com/landing/nose/
2. YouTube’s ready to select a winner
YouTube revealed today that the entire company's existence was just an eight-year-long contest to find the best video in the world. Tonight at midnight the site is shutting down and a staff of 30,000 technicians will spend the next 10 years in deliberations to determine the winner. YouTube will relaunch in 2023 with the winning video and nothing else. And it’s not a popularity contest; Gangnam Style has as much a chance to win as a video with only 40 views of a man feeding bread to a duck. As promised in 2005, the winner will receive an MP3 player that clips to a shirtsleeve and a $500 stipend for his or her next creative endeavor.
LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H542nLTTbu0
3. Twttr
Twitter announced that it is switching to a two-tiered service: the basic Twttr, for which users can use only consonants, and the $5 a month option which includes vowels. Twitter tells us the new Twttr service will encourage “a more efficient and ‘dense’ form of communication.” “Y” will be free to everyone. Twitter recommends that you practice tweeting without vowels, including the hashtag #nvwls. Early adopters include Joan Rivers.
LINK: http://blog.twitter.com/2013/03/annncng-twttr.html
4. Virgin's glass-bottom plane
Richard Branson and Virgin Atlantic have announced an exciting aviation breakthrough: the ability to book a glass-bottomed plane along its new domestic Scottish route. Little Red passengers will now have a bird's-eye view of Great Britain as they fly. If the flights prove popular, Virgin Atlantic will consider adding glass-bottomed planes to other routes as well. Nervous flyers are encouraged to book on traditional, non-glass-bottomed planes
LINK: http://blog.virgin-atlantic.com/t5/Our-Experience/Virgin-Atlantic-Launches-World-s-First-Ever-Glass-Bottomed-Plane/ba-p/6096
5. The kid president
Even the White House is having a go at April Fool’s Day pranks. “A Special Message From the President” appeared on the White House website at 10 a.m. this morning,. Popping up from behind the podium, a well-dressed young man says, “It looks like you were expecting somebody else. Well, April Fool’s on all y’all!” And then he says some other stuff. An April Fool’s Day must-see. (The video's also available at www.whitehouse.gov.)
LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5byDhm-E-YE
6. Kodak's Wrist Kiosk
Want to print out photos with a minimum of fuss and bother? Kodak's Wrist Kiosk may be just the ticket. It allows users to print photos via a micro SD card, USB or Bluetooth. But the Kodak Wrist Kiosk also supports Wi-Fi so it can access your photos from Facebook, Flickr and Instagram. Kodak’s blog entry declares, “It has never been easier to make your life’s biggest moments into tiny prints and photo gifts.” Each Kodak Wrist Kiosk comes with tweezers and a magnifying glass. The link at the end to “Get on the waiting list” redirects interested parties to Wikipedia’s April Fool’s Day page.
LINK: http://1000words.kodak.com/2013/04/01/presenting-kodak-wrist-kiosk/?utm_source=www.kodak.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=main1-watch_040113&utm_campaign=Corp-Homepage
Wednesday 27 March 2013
Replace your laptop screen without spending a fortune
Unless it was a new laptop and the fall destroyed pretty much everything, you can consider that price a rip-off.
Replacing a laptop screen, including parts and labor, shouldn't cost you more than £200. In fact, it will probably come in closer to £120.
The first question you should ask yourself: Do you want to pay someone to do the repair, or make it a do-it-yourself-project?
Unless you have experience repairing laptops or want to acquire that experience, I strongly recommend taking it to Optima Computers. Yes, it will add about £30 to the price, but if you make a serious mistake, the final repair could cost you a lot more. Climbing inside a laptop is a lot trickier than repairing a desktop computer.
Unless the damage is covered by a warranty (and it almost certainly isn't), I strongly recommend against going to the manufacturer. You could easily end up waiting weeks while boxes are shipped back and forth, only to get low-quality work, have your hard drive reformatted for no reason, or be overcharged for the experience. Or, perhaps, all three.
Optima offer same day repairs on most laptop screens replacements, unless it is a very specific and bespoke screen, in which case they will order it in as it won't be a stock item.
Prices for screen repair start from £99+VAT which will cover most 15 inch laptops. Larger screens and specialised screens will cost a little more, but Optima will confirm all prices with you so there are no nasty surprises.
Optima Computers - your one stop laptop repair centre
Call 020 8445 6700.
Website of the Day
Devour
Most YouTube videos aren't worth watching. And that’s where the curated YouTube site Devour comes in.
The Devour team handpicks the best YouTube videos and posts them to the site daily.
Surf videos randomly or check out popular clips. We can’t wait for our next meal.
Click here to visit: Devour.com
Friday 22 March 2013
Beware free and open wi-fi access points
In this wonderfully connected world, we are all constantly on the internet in one form or another. PC's, Laptops, tablets, mobile phones, and other gizmos, all connected up.
And nowadays we are all using wi-fi as our primary means to connect. At home, office, hotel, out in the city, our devices are constantly searching for a wi-fi signal so we can connect up to the internet.
But what happens when we travel to foreign climes. We switch our 3G or cellular data off so as not to incur astronomical bills on our phones and tablets. So we need wi-fi more than ever to connect. Most hotels now provide wi-fi, free or paid, and we connect to that. But often we are in cafes, in the town square and we need wi-fi. The urge to check into Facebook or send an email is overwhelming.
So what do we do? Search for an open wi-fi signal. If you are lucky, you find a random wifi network which is unsecured. You connect to it, thanking the universe for free wi-fi.
You phone/laptop/tablet goes into internet mode. facebook updates, emails whizzing in and out, application updates etc all happen within seconds.
All great, right? Well in short the answer is NO.
You have no idea who is managing the wi-fi access point you just connected to. This can be a very bad thing. Let me explain:
One of our clients recently came back from a trip to India, and since then has been getting bouncebacks from random email addresses. On checking her laptop, all was OK. Further checking at the email provider showed that a connection from India was using her details to log in and send out spam.
So it seems that she connected to a free wifi hotspot somewhere. All her web traffic got logged by that hotspot provider. They then used her details to hack into her accounts. Luckily in this case it was only emails, but it could have been her banking credentials that were siphoned off.
We changed her password at the email provider and the problem was resolved.
So, a word of warning. Connecting to a free open wi-fi is not as safe as you would think so.
Remember on mobile devices, you have all these applications running in the background and they will connect and send login details without you realising.
Be careful out there.
And nowadays we are all using wi-fi as our primary means to connect. At home, office, hotel, out in the city, our devices are constantly searching for a wi-fi signal so we can connect up to the internet.
But what happens when we travel to foreign climes. We switch our 3G or cellular data off so as not to incur astronomical bills on our phones and tablets. So we need wi-fi more than ever to connect. Most hotels now provide wi-fi, free or paid, and we connect to that. But often we are in cafes, in the town square and we need wi-fi. The urge to check into Facebook or send an email is overwhelming.
So what do we do? Search for an open wi-fi signal. If you are lucky, you find a random wifi network which is unsecured. You connect to it, thanking the universe for free wi-fi.
You phone/laptop/tablet goes into internet mode. facebook updates, emails whizzing in and out, application updates etc all happen within seconds.
All great, right? Well in short the answer is NO.
You have no idea who is managing the wi-fi access point you just connected to. This can be a very bad thing. Let me explain:
One of our clients recently came back from a trip to India, and since then has been getting bouncebacks from random email addresses. On checking her laptop, all was OK. Further checking at the email provider showed that a connection from India was using her details to log in and send out spam.
So it seems that she connected to a free wifi hotspot somewhere. All her web traffic got logged by that hotspot provider. They then used her details to hack into her accounts. Luckily in this case it was only emails, but it could have been her banking credentials that were siphoned off.
We changed her password at the email provider and the problem was resolved.
So, a word of warning. Connecting to a free open wi-fi is not as safe as you would think so.
Remember on mobile devices, you have all these applications running in the background and they will connect and send login details without you realising.
Be careful out there.
Thursday 7 March 2013
Official Guide to Facebook Security
Facebook has released a free handbook – A Guide to Facebook Security – aiming to educate parents, teachers, and young adults on how to keep their Facebook accounts safe.
The 20-page guide was written by former Symantec Internet safety expert Linda McCarthy, Purdue University security researcher Keith Watson, and teacher/editor Denise Weldon-Siviy.
The guide explains how you can:
Protect your Facebook account
Avoid the scammers
Use advanced security settings
Recover a hacked Facebook account
Stop imposters
Sky buys out O2/BE broadband business
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Introducing Microsoft Office 2013
Microsoft Office 2013 is the latest version of the Microsoft Office productivity suite for Microsoft Windows and the successor to Microsoft Office 2010. Office 2013 includes extended file format support, user interface updates, and support for touch.
Office 2013 requires Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 or later version of either. A version of Office 2013 comes included on Windows Surface tablets.
Anyone who purchased Office 2010 between October 19, 2012 to April 30, 2013 is eligible for a free upgrade to Office 2013
A full review of Office 2013 can be found at the ITPro Website:
Anyone who purchased Office 2010 between October 19, 2012 to April 30, 2013 is eligible for a free upgrade to Office 2013
A full review of Office 2013 can be found at the ITPro Website:
Contact Optima Computers on 020 8445 6700 to find out more, order your copy or to find out if you are eligible for a free upgrade to Office 2013.
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