A fast take a look at our own latest pc Rankings informs a fascinating account: In spite of the launch of the new House windows 7 Operating-system, a lot of Windows 7 personal computers are nevertheless which is available from a variety of stores, as well as some leading each of our Scores. Should you be looking for a brand new laptop or computer at this time, there are a few top reasons to go for House windows Seven.
Is really a consider the pros and cons of the brand-new main system, and several logic behind why you might want to move old-fashioned.
Whether or not this isn't out of cash. Glass windows 6 normally received advantageous critiques if it was released. A couple of years soon after it's 2009 start, generally there still weren't lots of grievances. You will find many pleased with Windows 6 as well as Microsoft windows had been, there's no engaging reason to switch in order to Windows 8.
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That you do not like change. Windows Eight doesn't have the actual acquainted Start switch pertaining to introducing programs along with closing the device down. Naturally, it's not tough to release your current apps from the beginning display screen with the Windows 7 tile program. But then again, it's also not the same as clicking your current Start button to see a directory of plans. If you decide to like the outdated means, go with Home windows Several.Motorists still need updating. Some Glass windows 7 types are still certainly not undertaking along with predicted, as well as Home windows 7 computers capped many of the new types. The requirement of suppliers to bring up to date their House windows 8 drivers might describe the less-than-optimal performance (the actual Vizio CT15-A4 pictured above has been different, using exceptional overall performance).
You're on the fence. You may be better off getting a House windows Seven pc for the time being, looking forward to the dust to, along with improving to Windows Eight later. Even though we've not but observed costs losing in older House windows Seven versions however, you may still find several Very best Purchases within our Ratings (including the Acer Aim TimelineU M5-481TG-6814, demonstrated towards the top of this informative article). If you opt to up grade on the up coming couple of months, do it yourself merely $15 for this, supplied you purchase a new pc after The month of january along with signup in order to upgrade through Feb . 28, The year 2013.
Then again . . . You can find top reasons to buy House windows 8 pcs, but they're possibly reliant on personal personal preference. Should you be finding a touchscreen technology along with like the thought of employing your computer somewhat which are such as a pill, Windows 7 may be for you personally. If you want the concept associated with "live" tiles that will modify as fresh e-mails as well as social-network updates come in, you'll understand the porcelain tile interface in Home windows Eight. We've a person protected, with more than twelve suggested Glass windows Eight notebooks and four desktops.
2013年1月6日星期日
Samsung to Sell Tizen-Based Handsets After Motorola Deal
Samsung Electronics Co. (005930), the world’s
largest seller of mobile phones, said it will start selling
smartphones this year featuring the Tizen operating system
backed by Intel Corp.
“We plan to release new, competitive Tizen devices within this year and will keep expanding the lineup depending on market conditions,” Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung said in an e- mailed statement today. The company didn’t elaborate on model specifications, prices or timeframe for their debut.
The new handsets will come as Samsung looks to reduce its reliance on Google (GOOG) Inc.’s Android operating system after the Internet search company acquired handset maker Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. for $12.5 billion in May. Executives from Intel, Samsung, NTT DoCoMo Inc. (9437) and Vodafone Group Plc (VOD) formed the Tizen Association last year to support the open-source software.
“The Tizen was born as Samsung hoped to lighten its growing dependence on Google on concerns that its top position in the smartphone market may weaken following the Google- Motorola tie-up,” Byun Han Joon, an analyst at KB Investment & Securities in Seoul, said by phone today. “Intel always wanted to boost its presence in the mobile CPU market.”
Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported Dec. 31 that Samsung will release a Tizen-based smartphone through wireless carrier NTT Docomo later this year. The newspaper cited sources it didn’t identify.
Samsung reported record profit in the three months ended Sept. 30 amid surging sales of its Galaxy smartphone. More than two-thirds of the earnings were generated by the telecommunications business, according to the company.
Samsung shipped 56.9 million smartphones in the third quarter, giving it a record 35 percent market share, compared with 17 percent for Apple, researcher Strategy Analytics said in October. In total handset sales, including basic types, Samsung remained the top seller, researcher IDC said separately.
The LiMo Foundation and Linux Foundation said in September 2011 they would jointly develop Tizen for use in devices including mobile phones and TVs.
Chase Perrin, an official with the San Ramon, California- based Tizen Association, said the group wouldn’t be able to immediately respond to an e-mail sent after regular business hours.
In 2009, Samsung released its Bada platform, which is mainly used in lower-end smartphones sold in Europe and emerging markets.
“We plan to release new, competitive Tizen devices within this year and will keep expanding the lineup depending on market conditions,” Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung said in an e- mailed statement today. The company didn’t elaborate on model specifications, prices or timeframe for their debut.
The new handsets will come as Samsung looks to reduce its reliance on Google (GOOG) Inc.’s Android operating system after the Internet search company acquired handset maker Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. for $12.5 billion in May. Executives from Intel, Samsung, NTT DoCoMo Inc. (9437) and Vodafone Group Plc (VOD) formed the Tizen Association last year to support the open-source software.
“The Tizen was born as Samsung hoped to lighten its growing dependence on Google on concerns that its top position in the smartphone market may weaken following the Google- Motorola tie-up,” Byun Han Joon, an analyst at KB Investment & Securities in Seoul, said by phone today. “Intel always wanted to boost its presence in the mobile CPU market.”
Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported Dec. 31 that Samsung will release a Tizen-based smartphone through wireless carrier NTT Docomo later this year. The newspaper cited sources it didn’t identify.
Google, Apple
Mountain View, California-based Google, operator of the world’s most-popular search engine, plans to devote more attention to mobile devices as its rivalry with Apple Inc. (AAPL) accelerates. Samsung is the biggest seller of devices running Android in the $219 billion global smartphone market.Samsung reported record profit in the three months ended Sept. 30 amid surging sales of its Galaxy smartphone. More than two-thirds of the earnings were generated by the telecommunications business, according to the company.
Samsung shipped 56.9 million smartphones in the third quarter, giving it a record 35 percent market share, compared with 17 percent for Apple, researcher Strategy Analytics said in October. In total handset sales, including basic types, Samsung remained the top seller, researcher IDC said separately.
The LiMo Foundation and Linux Foundation said in September 2011 they would jointly develop Tizen for use in devices including mobile phones and TVs.
Chase Perrin, an official with the San Ramon, California- based Tizen Association, said the group wouldn’t be able to immediately respond to an e-mail sent after regular business hours.
In 2009, Samsung released its Bada platform, which is mainly used in lower-end smartphones sold in Europe and emerging markets.
2013年1月4日星期五
Microsoft's aching Windows 8 hangover
Having spent the holidays in the frigid Midwest, I'm not unfamiliar
with the site of a car spinning its wheels on an icy road. And that's
exactly what Microsoft looks like these days, as sales of Windows 8 PCs and Surface RT tablets slip and slide every way but up.
Yes, it's early days. Windows 8 didn't launch until late October, so there's plenty of time for sales to improve. Still, it's not much of an exaggeration to say that every nearly every week since Thanksgiving has contained a dollop of distressing news for Microsoft.
[ Got a Windows 8 PC and are frustrated by the lack of the Start menu? Here are 9 apps to get it back. | Stay abreast of key Microsoft technologies in our Technology: Microsoft newsletter. ]
Consider these news bytes:
There's no excitement in the PC market
Shortly before Christmas, I stopped at a Best Buy store on the edge of San Francisco's Mission District. The wait to close the deal on a new iPhone or Android smartphone was about 45 minutes, but a few aisles down there was almost no one checking out the variety of Windows 8 PCs and tablets on display. Ordinarily I wouldn't set much store on one experience, but the pattern tracks with the remarks of the Asian PC makers' execs and with NPD's sales statistics.
It also tracks with Amazon.com's list of the top 100 sellers in consumer electronics. There are just two PCs listed in the top 100 devices sold as of yesterday, with the Apple 13-inch MacBook Pro at No. 82 and a Dell Inspiron running Windows 7 at No. 87. If Amazon sold iPads and iPhones, I suspect the PC wouldn't have even made the top 100 best-selling consumer electronics devices.
Brendan Barnicle, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities, told the New York Times that tablets were sapping the growth of laptops, which represent the biggest chunk of computer sales. "Tablets are doing to the laptop market what laptops did to the desktop market," he said. "They're not going away."
Yoshihisa Toyosaki, a Tokyo-based analyst at Architect Grand Design, is even harsher. He told Bloomberg News that "we can't be optimistic about the PC industry. ... PC makers' bet on Windows 8 has failed, as cheaper tablet computers are taking away customers."
In the background, of course, is the continued softness in the global economy, particularly in Europe. Even in the best case, many consumers and businesses would be slow to replace existing PCs. Microsoft has not given individual buyers a reason to spend money on a product that's more expensive, heavier, and a lot less cool than a variety of mobile devices. As to businesses, Microsoft's decision to radically change the Windows UI means that users will have to be trained and will likely need ongoing support -- hardly a selling point.
Surface RT barely on the radar screen for online usage
Measuring the usage of devices is not the same as measuring sales, but it yields some insight into the popularity of different tablets. Judging by a new report from Chitika, Microsoft's Surface RT tablet barely makes an impression.
Chitika compared tablet impressions (that is, requested Web pages) from non-iPad devices against iPad impressions for the second week of December. Chitika's chart shows that Amazon's Kindle Fire did the best of the non-iPad tablets, generating 4.88 impressions per 100 iPad impressions. To be clear, that means that for every 100 pages called by an iPad, 4.88 were called by the Kindle Fire. Samsung's Galaxy tablets came in next with 3.04 impressions, and Google Nexus tablets came in third at 1.22 impressions. The Surface RT scored just 0.22 impression out of every 100 iPad impressions.
The soon-to-be-released Surface Pro, which runs Windows 8, will probably be more popular, but given its relatively high price, it doesn't seem likely to garner huge sales.
The Christmas selling season brought no joy to PC makersI've never seen executives of major PC makers rain on Microsoft's parade the way they have in the last two months. Part of the reason is probably pique. Microsoft irritated its partners no end by taking the unusual step of manufacturing its own tablet and becoming their direct competitor.
If Windows machines were selling well, they'd get over it -- but it appears they are not. I don't know what Steve Ballmer did over the holidays, but it's a cinch it wasn't his best Christmas ever.
Yes, it's early days. Windows 8 didn't launch until late October, so there's plenty of time for sales to improve. Still, it's not much of an exaggeration to say that every nearly every week since Thanksgiving has contained a dollop of distressing news for Microsoft.
[ Got a Windows 8 PC and are frustrated by the lack of the Start menu? Here are 9 apps to get it back. | Stay abreast of key Microsoft technologies in our Technology: Microsoft newsletter. ]
Consider these news bytes:
- Last Friday, an online data and ad company found that Surface RT tablet users accounted for less than 0.25 percent of Web traffic during the weeks before Christmas, while users of Apple's iPad tablets still generate more than 87 percent of U.S. and Canadian tablet Web traffic.
- On Thursday, the CEO of Japan's biggest provider of computer services said Fujitsu will miss its annual shipment target for personal computers amid slow demand for Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system.
- The week before, Acer's America's president Emmanuel Fromont said, "It's a slow start, there's no question." At the end of November, Asus CFO David Chang said, "Demand for Windows 8 is not that good right now."
- In early December, four weeks after its launch, Windows 8 had just a 58 percent share of Windows PCs sold during that period, while Windows 7 took 83 percent of Windows sales in its first four weeks, according to NPD, a research firm whose market share data I find to be accurate. (There's a lot of iffy data repoprted as fact because many companies don't report actual sales to customers, leaving analysts to try to figure it out on their own.) Of course PC sales have declined under Windows 8, so it was a smaller piece of a smaller pie.
There's no excitement in the PC market
Shortly before Christmas, I stopped at a Best Buy store on the edge of San Francisco's Mission District. The wait to close the deal on a new iPhone or Android smartphone was about 45 minutes, but a few aisles down there was almost no one checking out the variety of Windows 8 PCs and tablets on display. Ordinarily I wouldn't set much store on one experience, but the pattern tracks with the remarks of the Asian PC makers' execs and with NPD's sales statistics.
It also tracks with Amazon.com's list of the top 100 sellers in consumer electronics. There are just two PCs listed in the top 100 devices sold as of yesterday, with the Apple 13-inch MacBook Pro at No. 82 and a Dell Inspiron running Windows 7 at No. 87. If Amazon sold iPads and iPhones, I suspect the PC wouldn't have even made the top 100 best-selling consumer electronics devices.
Brendan Barnicle, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities, told the New York Times that tablets were sapping the growth of laptops, which represent the biggest chunk of computer sales. "Tablets are doing to the laptop market what laptops did to the desktop market," he said. "They're not going away."
Yoshihisa Toyosaki, a Tokyo-based analyst at Architect Grand Design, is even harsher. He told Bloomberg News that "we can't be optimistic about the PC industry. ... PC makers' bet on Windows 8 has failed, as cheaper tablet computers are taking away customers."
In the background, of course, is the continued softness in the global economy, particularly in Europe. Even in the best case, many consumers and businesses would be slow to replace existing PCs. Microsoft has not given individual buyers a reason to spend money on a product that's more expensive, heavier, and a lot less cool than a variety of mobile devices. As to businesses, Microsoft's decision to radically change the Windows UI means that users will have to be trained and will likely need ongoing support -- hardly a selling point.
Surface RT barely on the radar screen for online usage
Measuring the usage of devices is not the same as measuring sales, but it yields some insight into the popularity of different tablets. Judging by a new report from Chitika, Microsoft's Surface RT tablet barely makes an impression.
Chitika compared tablet impressions (that is, requested Web pages) from non-iPad devices against iPad impressions for the second week of December. Chitika's chart shows that Amazon's Kindle Fire did the best of the non-iPad tablets, generating 4.88 impressions per 100 iPad impressions. To be clear, that means that for every 100 pages called by an iPad, 4.88 were called by the Kindle Fire. Samsung's Galaxy tablets came in next with 3.04 impressions, and Google Nexus tablets came in third at 1.22 impressions. The Surface RT scored just 0.22 impression out of every 100 iPad impressions.
The soon-to-be-released Surface Pro, which runs Windows 8, will probably be more popular, but given its relatively high price, it doesn't seem likely to garner huge sales.
The Christmas selling season brought no joy to PC makersI've never seen executives of major PC makers rain on Microsoft's parade the way they have in the last two months. Part of the reason is probably pique. Microsoft irritated its partners no end by taking the unusual step of manufacturing its own tablet and becoming their direct competitor.
If Windows machines were selling well, they'd get over it -- but it appears they are not. I don't know what Steve Ballmer did over the holidays, but it's a cinch it wasn't his best Christmas ever.
Windows 8 Market Share Sees Christmas Growth
Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer will be anxiously eyeing up the sales and shipment figures of Windows 8, as Redmond seeks to reaffirm the desktop proposition in the eyes of the consumer, against the tablet pretenders to the throne.
And the latest figures from Net Applications could offer Ballmer some crumb of comfort, but tinged with some unsettling news: although Windows 8 usage is growing, it looks like it is not growing as fast as Microsoft’s disastrous operating system, Vista, did after its launch.
The ancient but very popular Windows XP stubbornly remains around with a 39.08 percent market share, while its less liked successor Windows Vista maintains a 5.67 percent market share.
There is little doubt that Microsoft has been keen to stress the uptake success of Windows 8, and in late November it revealed that one month after the launch of the operating system, it had sold 40 million Windows 8 licences.
But these claims were tempered by some worrying reports. In late November Net Applications revealed that only only 1.19 percent of the computers it tracks for usage statistics were running Windows 8, compared to 45.54 percent running Windows 7 and 39 percent running Windows XP.
But even more concerning for Steve Ballmer is the realisation that Windows 8′s 1.72 percent online usage share is still less than the 2.2 percent that Vista had in the same two months after its release. Microsoft for its part is currently remaining quiet about the actual shipment figures so far of Windows 8.
Matters have not been helped when a survey of 50,000 Windows 8 users by Forumswindows8.com, a Windows 8 help and support site, revealed that more than half still prefer Windows 7 over Windows 8.
Another factor could be that Windows 8 has been designed to make use of touchscreens, and not many users are prepared to invest in the necessary touchscreen monitors for their PCs (or the extra cost of touch-enabled laptops). And the Metro interface (now renamed simply “Windows 8″) is said to take some getting used to.
Late last year the President of Fujitsu Ltd, Japan’s biggest provider of computer services, was quoted by Bloomberg as saying that the company would miss its annual shipment target for personal computers amid slow demand for Windows 8. Initial appetite for the software, introduced in October, was “weak,” Fujitsu President Masami Yamamoto, reportedly said. He blamed slumping demand in Europe amid the ongoing debt crisis.
This stance was backed by a recent report from London-based researcher Context, which found that adoption of Windows 8 has so far been slow across businesses in Western Europe.
Microsoft is trying hard to convince the market to upgrade by offering very reasonable upgrade prices for users upgrading to a newer Microsoft operating system.
Microsoft is also hoping that its Surface tablet offering will convince those thinking of jumping ship into the tablet camp, to remain in the Microsoft fold. But sales of the Surface device remain patchy despite a massive advertising blitz, due to a combination of a modest retail presence for the devices, coupled with what some observers feel is too high a retail price for the machine.
And the latest figures from Net Applications could offer Ballmer some crumb of comfort, but tinged with some unsettling news: although Windows 8 usage is growing, it looks like it is not growing as fast as Microsoft’s disastrous operating system, Vista, did after its launch.
Good and Bad
Net Applications measures the penetration of various operating systems globally by watching 40,000 websites and seeing what OS was used to access them. The good news for Ballmer and Microsoft is that according to the Net Applications’ latest figures, Windows 8 seemed to enjoy a good Christmas after it grew its market share to 1.72 percent as of 31 December. This is still a long way off the 45.11 percent share enjoyed by Windows 7, but it is still relatively early days for Microsoft’s latest operating system.The ancient but very popular Windows XP stubbornly remains around with a 39.08 percent market share, while its less liked successor Windows Vista maintains a 5.67 percent market share.
There is little doubt that Microsoft has been keen to stress the uptake success of Windows 8, and in late November it revealed that one month after the launch of the operating system, it had sold 40 million Windows 8 licences.
But these claims were tempered by some worrying reports. In late November Net Applications revealed that only only 1.19 percent of the computers it tracks for usage statistics were running Windows 8, compared to 45.54 percent running Windows 7 and 39 percent running Windows XP.
But even more concerning for Steve Ballmer is the realisation that Windows 8′s 1.72 percent online usage share is still less than the 2.2 percent that Vista had in the same two months after its release. Microsoft for its part is currently remaining quiet about the actual shipment figures so far of Windows 8.
Matters have not been helped when a survey of 50,000 Windows 8 users by Forumswindows8.com, a Windows 8 help and support site, revealed that more than half still prefer Windows 7 over Windows 8.
Drag Factors?
There have many suggestions as to why Windows 8 is not experiencing a massive uptake at the moment, for example weak economic outlook coupled with corporate indecision over whether to upgrade their ageing Windows XP desktop fleet to Windows 7 or Windows 8.Another factor could be that Windows 8 has been designed to make use of touchscreens, and not many users are prepared to invest in the necessary touchscreen monitors for their PCs (or the extra cost of touch-enabled laptops). And the Metro interface (now renamed simply “Windows 8″) is said to take some getting used to.
Late last year the President of Fujitsu Ltd, Japan’s biggest provider of computer services, was quoted by Bloomberg as saying that the company would miss its annual shipment target for personal computers amid slow demand for Windows 8. Initial appetite for the software, introduced in October, was “weak,” Fujitsu President Masami Yamamoto, reportedly said. He blamed slumping demand in Europe amid the ongoing debt crisis.
This stance was backed by a recent report from London-based researcher Context, which found that adoption of Windows 8 has so far been slow across businesses in Western Europe.
Microsoft is trying hard to convince the market to upgrade by offering very reasonable upgrade prices for users upgrading to a newer Microsoft operating system.
Microsoft is also hoping that its Surface tablet offering will convince those thinking of jumping ship into the tablet camp, to remain in the Microsoft fold. But sales of the Surface device remain patchy despite a massive advertising blitz, due to a combination of a modest retail presence for the devices, coupled with what some observers feel is too high a retail price for the machine.
Where can I get Remote Desktop Protocol 8.0 for Windows 7 SP1?
A: The Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) 8.0 update for
Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 can be downloaded and
installed from the Microsoft download site. Before installing the RDP 8.0 update, install the Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) support update.
After both updates are installed, Windows 7 SP1 will have the new RDP 8.0 and RemoteFX capabilities, both as an RDP client and as an OS connected to via RDP.
See also the FAQ “Q: What versions of the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) client work with Windows Server 2012 Remote Desktop Services?” You might also be interested in the FAQ “Q: How do I enable Remote Desktop connections to Windows 7 using Group Policy on a Windows Server 2008 R2 domain?“
After both updates are installed, Windows 7 SP1 will have the new RDP 8.0 and RemoteFX capabilities, both as an RDP client and as an OS connected to via RDP.
See also the FAQ “Q: What versions of the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) client work with Windows Server 2012 Remote Desktop Services?” You might also be interested in the FAQ “Q: How do I enable Remote Desktop connections to Windows 7 using Group Policy on a Windows Server 2008 R2 domain?“
2013年1月2日星期三
Windows 8, Google+, Bluetooth: My geeky 2013 resolutions
I could have been a better geek in 2012. When it comes down to it,
there just aren't enough hours in a day to do all the gaming, social
networking, rooting, modding, and general geekery we'd like to. When
forced to make the choice between a family vacation
or staying home to indulge in nerdy pleasures like crunching the data
generated by the newly flashed firmware on my Wi-Fi router, that trusty
old Linksys model and my other devices tend to be the ones that get
scorned.
But I resolve that this New Year will be different.
With the advent of some new developments on the home front, like kindergarten for my daughter, I may have a little more time to devote to some nerdier and neglected pursuits. With that in mind, here's my personal list of geeky New Year's resolutions for 2013:
The Windows 8 plunge Because of some international travel and a fairly recent major Windows 7 system purchase, I've yet to take the Windows 8 plunge. Pathetic, I realize. Yes, I know I could easily upgrade my existing system for relatively cheap, and I'm typically an early adopter with these sorts of things, but so far I've been too freaked to try the upgrade while out of the country without sufficient backups or other support. I also justify my waiting with the promise of a possible hardware upgrade in the next month or two. I'm eagerly waiting to see how Microsoft's Surface Pro performs, and I'm also pondering Lenovo's Yoga, as I look for possible ways to dive into Windows 8 headfirst, even if I will be a bit late to get my feet wet.
Go-go Google+ As Google's social network has added cool features and Facebook has grown increasingly creepy and annoying, I've been ever more tempted to move more of my life onto Google's platform, but it's ever so hard to neglect the massive user base on Facebook or the zeitgeist-in-action that is Twitter. But now's the time to give it my best shot. I'm not pulling up stakes on the other major social networks just yet. In fact, I'd also like to spend more time on Reddit, and I continue to pull for App.net, but Google+ to me is clearly the most powerful and versatile platform out there, especially for an Android user such as myself. Please help hold me to my promise by finding my Google+ page and Circling me.
Giving gaming another chance At some point in 2003 I found myself neglecting friends and work commitments to spend afternoons playing hours of Halo with a buddy's 11-year-old son after school. This episode came just five years after spending most of a whole spring break in college playing Quake with four friends in separate rooms in an otherwise empty dorm somewhere in Oregon (that was in '98). In other words, I tend to have problems gaming in moderation, so I quit cold turkey in 2004 and have seldom touched a controller since. But last year I added a few apps to my Nexus 7 and have managed to keep my Hill Climb Racing, Temple Running, and Fruit Ninja-ing under control. With the promise of more next-generation consoles joining the Wii U in 2013, this will be the year that I get reacquainted with that old flame and make another attempt at a healthy relationship. Check back here next year to see if I still have my job (or any remaining friends).
Better Bluetooth My first job in tech journalism went poof with the dot-com crash of 2000 and I fled into the arms of mainstream radio for almost a decade. As such, I still love radio and podcasts just as much as tech, and there's almost always something in my ear as I go through my day. This tends to lead to lots of cords, carrying devices around, and a collection of Bluetooth earpieces that might be good for one situation, but few others. This year I'll be on the lookout for the perfect wireless listening solution that makes it easy to listen seamlessly between home, outside, in the car, at the gym, and everywhere.
Those are the big projects. I'm also hoping to be a better device owner, spending some time actually organizing my apps and home screens and taking advantage of the time that I put into rooting them. I'd also like to actually 3D print something useful and get my hands on some Google Glass or something similar, if only briefly.
But I resolve that this New Year will be different.
With the advent of some new developments on the home front, like kindergarten for my daughter, I may have a little more time to devote to some nerdier and neglected pursuits. With that in mind, here's my personal list of geeky New Year's resolutions for 2013:
The Windows 8 plunge Because of some international travel and a fairly recent major Windows 7 system purchase, I've yet to take the Windows 8 plunge. Pathetic, I realize. Yes, I know I could easily upgrade my existing system for relatively cheap, and I'm typically an early adopter with these sorts of things, but so far I've been too freaked to try the upgrade while out of the country without sufficient backups or other support. I also justify my waiting with the promise of a possible hardware upgrade in the next month or two. I'm eagerly waiting to see how Microsoft's Surface Pro performs, and I'm also pondering Lenovo's Yoga, as I look for possible ways to dive into Windows 8 headfirst, even if I will be a bit late to get my feet wet.
Go-go Google+ As Google's social network has added cool features and Facebook has grown increasingly creepy and annoying, I've been ever more tempted to move more of my life onto Google's platform, but it's ever so hard to neglect the massive user base on Facebook or the zeitgeist-in-action that is Twitter. But now's the time to give it my best shot. I'm not pulling up stakes on the other major social networks just yet. In fact, I'd also like to spend more time on Reddit, and I continue to pull for App.net, but Google+ to me is clearly the most powerful and versatile platform out there, especially for an Android user such as myself. Please help hold me to my promise by finding my Google+ page and Circling me.
Giving gaming another chance At some point in 2003 I found myself neglecting friends and work commitments to spend afternoons playing hours of Halo with a buddy's 11-year-old son after school. This episode came just five years after spending most of a whole spring break in college playing Quake with four friends in separate rooms in an otherwise empty dorm somewhere in Oregon (that was in '98). In other words, I tend to have problems gaming in moderation, so I quit cold turkey in 2004 and have seldom touched a controller since. But last year I added a few apps to my Nexus 7 and have managed to keep my Hill Climb Racing, Temple Running, and Fruit Ninja-ing under control. With the promise of more next-generation consoles joining the Wii U in 2013, this will be the year that I get reacquainted with that old flame and make another attempt at a healthy relationship. Check back here next year to see if I still have my job (or any remaining friends).
Better Bluetooth My first job in tech journalism went poof with the dot-com crash of 2000 and I fled into the arms of mainstream radio for almost a decade. As such, I still love radio and podcasts just as much as tech, and there's almost always something in my ear as I go through my day. This tends to lead to lots of cords, carrying devices around, and a collection of Bluetooth earpieces that might be good for one situation, but few others. This year I'll be on the lookout for the perfect wireless listening solution that makes it easy to listen seamlessly between home, outside, in the car, at the gym, and everywhere.
Those are the big projects. I'm also hoping to be a better device owner, spending some time actually organizing my apps and home screens and taking advantage of the time that I put into rooting them. I'd also like to actually 3D print something useful and get my hands on some Google Glass or something similar, if only briefly.
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