Smartphone Showdown: iPhone 3GS vs Motorola Droid

Interesting article on Mobile Crunch comparing the iPhone with the Droid

http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2009/10/30/smartphone-showdown-iphone-3gs-vs-motorola-droid/

The Conclusion by Greg Kumparak:

There are really many, many, many dozens of categories we could dive in to – hell, I’ve got 10 more scratched out in my head alone. But we’d be avoiding an inevitable truth: apples-to-apples, the Droid tends to beat or meet the iPhone. Remote wipe and GPS location? Droid. On-device search? Droid wins. Voice control, contacts, coverage, and call quality? Droid, droid, droid, droid.

Now, back to the two questions we had at the beginning:

Would I recommend it over the iPhone? Two thousand plus words later, you might be a bit sad to read: Nope. But I wouldn’t recommend the iPhone over the Droid, either – and that’s the Droid’s real win here. This is the very first phone in over two years that I would consider carrying for day-to-day use instead of my iPhone, but that doesn’t mean I would recommend it whole heartedly to everyone.

Each phone platform has such tremendous merits. Androids got better navigation; the iPhone has a better browser. Androids got unbeatable expandability and flexibility; the iPhone OS is mind-numbingly easy to use and the rate of growth and drive behind the App Store is simply explosive.

With Android 2.0, we’ve come to a very difficult crossroad. No longer can we recommend one handset over the other simply by its feature set. At this point, it’s all about the person who will be carrying it. For you, dearest TechCrunch Network reader: Yes, I’d probably recommend the Droid over an iPhone. Would I recommend it for your mother, father, or little sister? Nope. If you want a phone that just works and does damned near everything you could want and don’t mind Apple’s closed garden: by all means, get the iPhone. If you can handle a bit of complexity for the sake of flexibility and don’t mind having to tinker a bit: by all means, get the Droid. At this point, I honestly feel that either choice would make any sane person incredibly happy.

Microsoft Professional Accountants’ Network (MPAN) comes to a close because Office Accounting is being discontinued

Now that Microsoft^® Office Accounting will no longer be distributed by Microsoft after November 16, 2009 the Microsoft Professional Accountants’ Network (MPAN) will be coming to a close based on the letter to MPAN Members and the ‘Important Notice’ on the MPAN web site.

Dear valued MPAN member:

We are writing to let you know that Microsoft^® Office Accounting will no longer be distributed by Microsoft after November 16, 2009. As such, MPAN membership will also be closed to new members effective November 16, 2009 and the complimentary download of Office Accounting Professional 2009 and the Office Accounting Customization will be discontinued November 16, 2009. Some existing MPAN benefits, such as online on demand training, will remain.

We would like to thank the many dedicated users and partners who have been enthusiastic supporters of Microsoft Office Accounting and MPAN over the years.

As a registered Office Accounting user, you may continue to use Office Accounting after November 16, 2009 and Microsoft will continue to offer product support for Office Accounting in accordance with the terms of the support policy. Your current MPAN membership entitles you to unlimited phone support through January 15, 2011.

To learn more about other Microsoft offerings that can be useful to your business, please visit the following:

   -   Microsoft's Small Business site is a great resource for small businesses.

   -   Microsoft Office is a great tool for small businesses, especially when used with our easy-to-use templates.

   -   Microsoft Dynamics products offer adaptable business management solutions, and we invite you to visit the Microsoft Dynamics Community Web site, which offers role-based content, including a Finance sub-community, product forums and networking functionality.

Please refer to MPAN FAQs for more information on MPAN benefits going forward.

If you have further questions about Office Accounting changes, including changes to add-on services, additional information can be found on the Office Accounting FAQ page.

Again, we thank you for your support of MPAN and Office Accounting.

MPAN US Team

 

from the web site https://accountants.microsoft.com/MPAN/US/default.aspx:

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

Effective November 16, 2009, Microsoft will no longer be distributing the Microsoft Office Accounting product. Also effective November 16, 2009, the Microsoft Professional Accountants’ Network (MPAN) will be closed to new members.

To learn more about other Microsoft offerings that can be useful to your business, please visit the following:

The Microsoft Small Business Center is a great resource for small businesses.

Microsoft Office Online is a great tool for small businesses especially when used with our easy-to-use templates.

The Microsoft Dynamics line of products offers adaptable business management solutions, and we invite you to visit the Microsoft Dynamics Community Web site which offers role-based content, including a Finance sub-community, product forums and networking functionality.

If you have further questions about Office Accounting changes, additional information can be found on the Office Accounting FAQ page.

Again, we thank you for your support of MPAN and Office Accounting.

Update on the upcoming software upgrades for MediaSmart Servers

http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2009/10/09/update-on-the-upcoming-software-upgrades-for-mediasmart-servers/

Snippit:

Back in May, we announced a plan to allow current MediaSmart Server customers to upgrade to the most current software version beginning this Fall. Below are additional details on the plans to deliver these upgrades.

HP recently announced the new EX490/495 MediaSmart Servers. These Servers provide our latest software capabilities including an enhanced video converter, greater Mac Support including bare metal recovery, and a simplified user interface. It is this software version (3.0) that will be made available to existing EX470/475/485/487 customers. Note that these software upgrades are optional and will be available as a new installation DVD as opposed to a software download.

We are currently proceeding down the path of a server recovery solution that will not only upgrade your software to the 3.0 version, but also preserve the data in your shared folders. This approach is preferable to a factory reset that would otherwise require customers to manually offload and restore all server files that the customer wants to preserve. However, the server recovery approach requires additional testing cycles to validate the approach and the resulting data integrity. We expect the upgrade DVDs will be available to order through hp.com beginning in December, 2009. Note that if testing shows the server recovery solution to be problematic, our plan is to change the upgrade process to a factory reset.

As previously communicated, there will be certain limitations of this software upgrade depending on your product. For example, customers using the Photo Webshare feature in the EX470/475 products will lose this feature if they choose to upgrade (although we expect existing Webshare album photos will be moved into the Photos shared folder). In addition, customers who have not upgraded their DRAM in the EX470/475 products will likely experience sluggish behavior or limited functionality running certain aspects of the latest 3.0 software. Finally, the 3.0 software will not be made available for the LX195 model.

The final cost of the upgrade DVD is pending, but is expected to be in the US$25 range.

We thank everyone for their continued support of the MediaSmart Server family of products.

Coming Soon: SBS 2008 with Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 included

 

http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2009/10/16/coming-soon-sbs-2008-with-windows-server-2008-service-pack-2-included.aspx

Recorded broadcast of the “Ask the” Computer Expert TV Show

Richard Kenyon and Greg Calahan with host Shelley Irwin appeared on 'Ask the Expert' TV show on WGVU/PBS live last night (10/15/09) as “Computer Experts". For those that missed out, you can catch the recorded broadcast (set your recorder) at 5:30am Sunday 10/18/09

Show is website page:

http://www.wgvu.org/tv/maintv.cfm?content=wgvushows.cfm&navigation=wgvushows/askthe.cfm

New Sysinternals Disk2vhd utility

 

  “Disk2vhd is a utility that creates VHD (Virtual Hard Disk - Microsoft’s Virtual Machine disk format) versions of physical disks for use in Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs).”

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/ee656415.aspx