Brace yourselves - the tablet revolution is coming.

While the hype about Apple’s mysterious tablet has been bubbling under for a good while now it seems as though by this time next year we’ll be more than familiar with it.

Firstly, a couple of weeks back we got a look at an early demo of Wired running on a tablet type device, and its publisher Conde Nast has admitted that its prepping no less than 17 of its publications for the format. (Warning -sound off - music loud and awful).

But while the Wired video was a snatched phone cam video taking at a New York store, Time has gone a step further, with a slickly edited official demo of how the US publications Sports Illustrated will work on a tablet.

I would imagine that the words Coming Soon at the start and 2010 at the end, are fairly clear hints that this tablet thing is really happening.

The videos demonstrate clearly how a digital version of a magazine, add value in terms of interactivity and new features.

TechCrunch also has a video of the demo running here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLc-8gT2eKg&feature=player_embedded.

ITPRO’s publisher, Dennis, has several Digital magazines in the guise of Monkey, iMotor and iGizmo - are these tablets the platforms they’re looking for?

With the Murdoch vs Google storm a clear indication of the clash of old media vs new it seems to me that 2010 is going to be a fascinating year for print media as it transitions from analogue to digital.

Last Thursday Google released details of its upcoming Chrome OS- with the exciting news that it won’t be available for a year.

The tech community is seemingly split into two between those that think that Google vision is pure genius, distilled in a speedy netbook 2.0 form – and those that that it’s all a lot of hot air.

Just to recap briefly – Chrome OS will be coming out next year on specific Google approved hardware and will deliver a device that boots in seven seconds or less and essentially takes you straight to the Chrome OS browser – with a few knobs on to enable it to run an OS - such as battery management and the date and time.

The key issue for many is that it won’t run any standard apps – everything will run in the browser so when your offline the whole usability will be compromised.

It will of course support Google Gears, which already enables you to work offline on your Gmail and Google Docs, and then sync back up when you’re online. Admittedly it’s been months since I actually tried using Google Gears, but when I did I found it to be rather flaky and I didn’t feel comfortable with it – probably time for a revisit.

It seems to me that the divisions over Chrome OS are pretty fundamental – you are either a true web 2.0 always connected kind of guy/girl that already lives in the cloud - or you’re not. I’m pretty sure, based on sticking my finger in the air that if you’re under 25 you’ll have no problem with this but if your over – you will. And if you’re my age or older – ie. soon to be the wrong side of 35, then you’ll be deeply suspicious.

It’s not just the usability issues – or the security, there are privacy issues too. Are you happy to trust Google with everything in your life?

I also just have to ask why no one is talking about the irony of the seemingly entire world being against Microsoft for simply bundling its browser with its OS, only for it to be fine for Google to base an entire OS around its browser. Will you be able to replace Chrome with IE8 in Chrome OS? obviously that would a very stupid thing to do – but it would only be fair, wouldn’t it?

We also have the issue that Google is still offering both Android and Chrome OS, and the lines between them are blurred. We’ve already seen Android on a netbook – although we weren’t particularly impressed - and Google itself has admitted that the two are likely to merge.

It also means though that we’ve got a mobile phone OS that enables you to install apps, and a computer OS that only lets you use web applications – um – is that not the wrong way round? I guess it does mean that the word ‘netbook’ will be accurate in every way.

Some users are also up in arms that you won’t be able to download and install Chrome OS on your current netbook – instead you’ll have to buy a new machine that conforms to Google’s exact stringent hardware requirements – so no regular hard disks and only SSDs – as apparently speed is everything.

Google wants to control the whole experience then - is Google turning into the new Apple?

In the mean time, you can find a pre-compiled version of Chrome OS to download and install from GDGT.com, though you’ll need to muck around with Virtual Box, or VMWare.

I imagine that I’ll have stronger feelings about the issue once I tried it, but in the mean time I have a feeling that it’s worth stepping back and thinking. It’s just another OS, and by only being available on specific Google hardware, and with its specific cloud only use, it’s not going to appeal to all, most or even many people.

Are business users going to be happy with not being able to run their regular apps? I see it as being aimed primarily at those for whom checking Facebook is their main function in life. Will that make a Google Chrome OS devices nothing more than a glorified and slightly techier Sidekicks?

Well at least those users haven’t been bitten already by a major cloud and data loss outage…. oh hold on…

So here I am in Berlin for Microsoft’s Tech Ed event -  a double first for me. Last night was an interesting time to be here for the first time, as it marked the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall - and while we had out dinner together we were treated to viewing the proceedings on large TVs. Interestingly, it was an internet stream we were viewing and not just a TV broadcast. I’m not sure if the hotel dining hall couldn’t get a TV signal but I was quite impressed by the HD stream.

I did inquire if having Tech Ed at the same time as the celebrations was done deliberately by Microsoft, and if there was some significance to it - but it seems the answer was a  straight no. Which is fair enough. At least we were spared some cheesy link between walls coming down, and new Microsoft software.

The big Microsoft cheese that was here was Stephen Elon, head of Microsoft’s business division, but judging from the response to my tweets from the event, there was a mixed reaction to his keynote.

There was good stuff for IT managers and end-users, but it lacked anything of note for developers.

He certainly seemed to have trouble with the reserved European audience, who failed to respond with the whoops of delight he’s likely used to in the US, every time he announced a new feature.  - “Woh, tough audience.” was a line I recall.

He resorted to clapping loudly when he felt applause was due, to which the audience dutifully responded. It’s not as if the demos were poor, or the new features dull - presumably if you’re sitting in the audience at Tech Ed, you’re interested in such things, it’s just that a new Exchange feature isn’t entirely “whoopable”. I mean, it wasn’t a new iPhone he was announcing you know, jeez.

To be honest, the odd video segments they showed to demonstrate some of the benefits of Exchange 2010 were simply odd.  One showed, I think some mouse guy playing video games instead of having to manage Exchange domains - or something. I’m not really sure. I don’t think anyone else was either.

Even Stephen bounded back on stage with the words, “I think I’d rather be managing Exchange”.

Odd.

Ironically, there was one genuine moment of audience applause - when the new Outlook web app was shown - complete with new catch-up features such as thread support - running in Firefox! Previously, unless you used IE, Outook web access looked very poor, but now it works in Firefox and Safari too, which is great news for Mac users.

Woohoo! Yeaharr! That OK for you Stephen?

I’m a big fan of Xobni - the plug in for Outlook that makes Outlook, well, good. If you search for anything, it will bring up everything relevant in a sidebar so you can see it at a glance, show you all files you’ve exchanged, pull out contact details such as phone number from emails. Essentially it’s quite awesome. However, I’ve just discovered that Xobni 1.8 was making my life a misery.

Here at Dennis towers, all emails older than a month on the Exchange server are archived using Symantec Enterprise Vault - which compresses old emails down and opens them on the fly when needed. It’s clearly a major space saver on the servers, and works well and also means we don’t have to bother archiving on the client side, which is handy.

However, recently every time I tried to open an archived mail Outlook would simply disappear in a puff off logic - which really isn’t conducive to effective communications. As all email over a month old is placed into a vault it really was something of a major problem.

Originally I laid the fault firmly at the feet of my recent upgrade to the technical preview of Office 2010 - which was going swimmingly until I realised it wasn’t compatible atall with the Enterprise Vault plug-in. This meant a swift downgrade back to Office 2007 - at which point I encountered the crashing problem.

Huffing, puffing, uninstalling  and reinstalling made no difference so there was only one thing for it - a complete wipe and reinstall of my laptop - which at least gave me a chance to move from Windows 7 RTM to final code. However, after installing Office 2007 and the Enterprise Vault plug I was relieved for it to find it working, but then after installing the latest version fo Xobni, to my horror the crashing had returned.

At this point the penny dropped - clearly it was Xobni, and not Office 2010 and its remnants, that was at fault, and a quick Google revealed this thread on a Xobni forum discussing the very issue. I had clearly been distracted by the Office 2010 installation.

Xobni is very responsive to  its users, but the suggestion in that thread that you ‘don’t use Enterprise Vault’ is pretty poor. Enterprise Vault is not the sort of thing most users will be using at home - it will be the something that companies will have set up, and not a matter of choice for users.

Alternatively, one of its engineers has posted a build of Xobni that he claims to have solved the issue - though it’s older than the current version of the programme.

I can’t tell you if it works though as I haven’t tried it. Instead in the same forum one helpful poster suggested that he has solved the issue - you simply go into options and turn off the Xobni Plus auto correct feature.

And I can confirm that it works fine.  I can’t tell you how great it is to finally have both Xobni working and access to email older than a month.

However,  there’s no follow up on this from Xobni - simply because it won’t want you to turn off the Xobni Plus feature as it want you to upgrade to that paid for version.

This is fine, as Xobni is a great product, and the upgrade adds some good features - but it need to get on top of the Symantec Enterprise Vault issue straight away. Xobni is meant to enhance users productivity, but for those with Enterprise Vault, it’s doing precisely the opposite and that’s a shame.

In what is probably not an amazing coincidence, Asus has launched a flurry of products that are available on just the same day as Windows 7. Funnily enough, pretty much all of them will ship with Windows 7 - funny how these things pan out.

Two products caught our eye. Well, mine anyway.

Firstly was theUL50VS, a notebook that despite its decent 15.6in display, can according to Asus manage up to 12 hours away from the mains - which seems frankly amazing if true.

Key to this is certainly the use of a Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 - a CULV processor- which stands for Consumer Ultra Low Voltage. This runs at a rather lowly 1.3GHz, but still seemed comfortable with Windows 7 Professional 64-bit - which I was told Asus is now going with as standard. The 4GB of DDR3 RAM probably helped here though.

First impressions of the notebook were pretty good and we were surprised to see an RRP of just £1,099 inc VAT, especially as it features a 160GB SSD.

The display is LED backlit and it wasn’t wanting for brightness but it only offers 1,366 x 768 pixels. This isn’t much on a screen of this size and is clearly where a lot of cost has been saved.

The lid was quite thin, and has a brushed aluminium finish but the main body is constructed of glossy black plastic that had already attracted a serious amount of fingerprints.

Elsewhere the spec is good, with switchable graphics a highlight, letting you choose between long-life Intel GMA X4500HD or Nvidia G210M for more video punch.

This is activated on the fly inside Windows 7 by pressing a button at the top left. Press it when the machine is off, and it will boot in about 10 seconds into a basic Linux OS, giving you access to the web, pictures, and Skyp. It works too.

With 802.11n Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet and Blluetooth this is a laptop that will attract both consumer and business interest - the latter helped particularly by the keyboard featuring a dedicated number pad.

The really impressive bit though is that 12 hour battery life - after all, getting half of that from a laptop this size would be impressive so we look forward to getting our hands on a finished sample to test this out.

We also like the look of a new Asus Eee PC videophone, which has been upgraded from the first one released last year with the addition of a touch screen.It looks good but the RRP of £240 seems a bit steep. Luckily it’ll be on offer this Christmas for £199, which could see it reach some, rather large, stockings.

If you’re patiently waiting for Windows 7 to arrive or, as is likely you’ve already got hold of a copy - either via post, or via download then here’s some of my favourite little tips and tricks to get you started.

Windows 7 is full of small and subtle improvements so this is just scratching the surface. If you’ve got any more that aren’t here and think they should be then comment below.

1. Search bar

Remember when the Start menu was everything? Sensibly Vista was the first to remove the actual word Start from there, which was always ironic when you clicked it to shut down. Vista also introduced the ability to use it to launch apps, just by typing in the box, but in Windows 7 it’s taken further, which much greater granularity. You can find, programs, documents and even particular control panel settings, enabling it to rival Mac OS X’s Spotlight.

2. Windows Search Federation

I mentioned how great the new Start search  box is. Well it uses a new feature called Windows Search Federation, meaning it’s possible to link external websites directly into Windows 7, so you can search them right from the search bar. Here’s one for Flickr to get you started.

3. Windows arrow keys

Since moving to Windows 7 I’ve become addicted to the new way of arranging windows on the desktop. Hitting the Windows arrow keys will snap a Windows to the left or right, or Windows Up or down will Maximise or Restore. You can even use it to move windows across multiple displays if you have them them. A top contender for the ‘Why Didn’t Windows Always Have This’ award.

4. Windows P

It’s much easier now to set up multiple displays in a consistent fashion - previously all laptop tended to do it differently. Hit the Windows key and P and you can a pop up that lets you send the desktop to projector or extend across multiple displays

5. Burn ISO images

You can now burn ISOs to CD or DVD directly from within Windows and even verify the burn. It even works reliably. No doubt the next version will offer burning to Blu-ray just in time for the format to become obsolete.

6. Screen resolution

Adjust your desktop resolution always used to be a bit of a pain, but now when you right click on the desktop the context menu has an option called ‘Screen resolution’. ironically, Windows 7 does a great job at setting things up for you, so you’ll have less need to use it than you might previously. Still, about time.

7. Aero Peek/Shake

This is really two but it’s all part of the new and improved Aero goodness. Aero offered Aero Glass, which meant that windows edges were opaque and looked pretty, but it wasn’t that useful. Now you get app thumbnails when you roll over open apps in the task bar, and you can go to them or close them from the taskbar too. You can also get rid of a cluttered desktop by grabbing the Windows you want and shaking it with the mouse - and bring the other apps back when you’re done.

8. Problem Steps Recorder

This is a dream for  troubleshooting someone else’s computer. If you can’t Remote Desktop in, they can launch the Problems Steps Recorder by typing ‘psr’ in the Start box. Hit record and it captures each step into an .mht file, which can easily be emailed. You can view each step as an image, and there’s text beneath it too for additional information.

9. Jump lists

You might be aware of Jump Lists, but if you’re new to Windows 7, then it will take a while for you to get used to using them. Right click on the new large taskbar icons and a list of useful recent documents or files will appear, depending on the application. If you prefer you can drag up holding the left mouse button instead, which brings up the jump list with a cool animation too.

10. UAC

User Account Control was the hook upon which many hung their hatred for Windows Vista. Too intrusive! Too annoying! No surprise then to find that it’s been tweaked for Windows 7. You can do more than just put up with it or turn it off but choose from two intermediate settings that just alert you when other programs make changes and dims the screen, and one that omits the latter. With these present, it’s likely to be left on, protect your PC and not make you want to punch your computer every time you do anything.

In all the years I’ve owned a computer, I’ve always been quietly smug that I’ve never fallen victim to a virus or piece of malware.

Whatever the circumstances, I’ve been able to keep my internet connection alive, while all those around me have been losing theirs. I’m not saying that I’ve never caught anything, but I’ve either had a proper anti-virus program on there to pick it up, or had the common sense not to get caught out.

Up till now.

Damn you  Twitter.

Last week, I got phished, good and proper. One evening last week I checked my feed to find a number of messages from followers telling me that  I’d very kindly informed them that I had made $300 that day and that if they just clicked this link, I would show them how I did it. (I wouldn’t have minded so much had I actually made $300 that day, but I hadn’t).

What was odd was that I couldn’t work out it happened.

Even odder was what happened when I changed my password. It seemed to change back - all by itself.

I logged in, made the change, and then changed it on my iPhone and broweser clients. However, after a few minutes, I received a message that my password was no longer recognised. On a hunch I entered in my original password, and lo and behold, it logged me in. This happened three times, and was quite disconcerting.

My guess is that a wave of phishing attacks caused many to change their passwords all at once, and it confused the Twitter servers. That is a guess mind you. I’ve since changed my password once more, and it seems to have stuck.

Researching for this blog I think I found out what happenened. I was sent a link by someone whose account was clearly already compromised which said, “is this you?” - containing a link, which naturally I clicked. I can only assume it asked for my username and password, and being a prize chump, I entered them.

I blame beer goggles. Yes. Not my fault.

The problem is that thanks to the cleverness of portable identities - Facebook Connect, Google etc, more and more sites are asking for universal login details, which means its easier to let your guard down and not notice when something isn’t right. And scams such as ‘”Is this you” are more likely to work as they tap in to our vanity and ego. If someone asks if that’s you - your going to be clicking first and asking questions later. Though the question is likely to be, “How did my Twitter account get hacked?”

Well at least that’s my excuse.

Luckily almost everyone that follows me on Twitter  is a headless female bot in a Bikini enticing me to ‘”check them out”. If they were topless maybe - but headless? Not so much.

So as Stan would say, “I’ve learnt something today folks.” And I hope you have too.

If for any reason you want to add to this motley collective, such as it is you can find me at http://twitter.co.uk/Blagmeister

Acer held a press conference today at which they announce several new products. The star of the show was the Acer Aspire One featuring Android. If you’re pondering on the wisdom of putting a mobile phone OS on a netbook, the chief advantage is boot time, and the quoted speed by Acer was 18 seconds. As you can see from this video (link only - embedding not working sorry)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXtXTPYkP8E

Once you’re at a usable desktop, it has to be said that it’s a little strange seeing Android, and mostly because you expect to be able to touch the screen, which this netbook isn’t.

The browser itself also look a little basic, but the notebook itself is a reasonably stylish piece of kit. We’ll give it a full work-over once we get one in the lab. On sale day is October 22nd, as Acer has to wait for Windows 7 to launch, because that’s on here too.

Also on show were some 3D notebooks - as in notebooks featuring displays compatible with 3D. There were some demo’s running, though naturally you can’t see how it looks as you need to be wearing polarised glasses as modelled by this gentleman.

The effect actually works very well indeed - I’m a fan. However, to get the effect just right you need to be standing quite a way from the screen, which means that you can’t reach the keyboard, which could be a problem for a notebook. That aside, I’ll be intrigued to see how these are received by the market. By which I mean people.

The intriguingly titled Liquid is also a nice looking handset and it feels quite good in the hand because and not despite the fact that its larger than many handset.  We look forward to giving this one a good play when we get hold of one.

As a journalist we’re not supposed to be easily impressed by swanky offices but when meeting LifeSize, the video conferencing company it was hard not to be a little swayed by the view from the 29th floor of the Gherkin building.

Especially impressive was the view from the bar that sits at the very top. Gazing out at impressive sight of the sun setting over the Thames, and seeing the famous landmarks spread around me, I was filled with Wordsworthian inspiration and declared aloud - “if only I had one of those augmented reality apps on my iPhone”.

The reason for my visit to such a corporate location was to get a demo of the Passport new video conferencing kit from LifeSize. This kit is designed to bring dedicated video conferencing kit down to a price level that makes it viable for smaller businesses. The “democratisation of video conferencing,” was the phrase that LifeSize CEO Craig Molloy used.

The crucial aspect is the price - with it coming in at around £1,800, which if it saves the cost of a couple of business flights, surely pays for itself.

Another key selling point of the Passport kit is that it now works with Skype, not only with LifeSize’s proprietary codec but now also with Skype - but right now only for audio.

I say right now, as  Molloy was dropping strong hints that Skype is soon to move to standards based H.264 for  video calling, and when that happens the LifeSize Passport kit will be ready.

The passport kit offers 720p video at 30fps and LifeSize claims it can deliver that over a connection with a 1MB/sec upload, which is well within the range of many business - yes, even in the UK. If you got the bandwidth you can up the bit-rate to 2MB/s.

The kit consists of a small codec box, and a separate camera, and is easily light enough to carry around with you in a bag. You just hook it up via HMDI, plug in power and Ethernet and away you go. There’s a USB port on the back but at the moment all this does it let you charge anything that you plug in, though I was told additional functions would be added via this next year. I would suggest the support for third party cameras would be likely.

In the demo, the quality was certainly good enough to earn an impressive, with smooth frame rates, no lag, and decent colours. Certainly there was more artefacts in the picture than I recall from the demo of the LifeSize Room 200 kit I saw demoed last year, and there was some picture break-up, but as the Room 200 is a 13 grand system, it would be churlish to gripe.

Molloy was very positive on the growth of video conferencing and suggested that the market for video conferencing was about to go ballistic, with its predictions suggesting it would grow from a $1.7bn business now to a £4.2 billion in the next five years.

As kit like this becomes more prevalent, video conferencing could finally become as common in business as many predicted back in the late 80s.

Data security is, quite sensibly, becoming an ever increasing issue, so the market for this type of device is certainly increasing. Hence also the existence of iStorage, a company that specialises in portable data security.

Just in to the IT PRO labs then is this interesting looking hard disk security system, that uses a combination of a real-time 256-bit encryption system, a smart-card reader and a PIN code to protect your data.

A standard 2.5in hard disk sits inside an enclosure,  on top of which is a large keypad for entering the PIN code. Our model comes with a 160GB hard disk, of which a bare model would cost you £50, so you’re paying quite a premium for your high encryption protected chassis. When it comes to data security it certainly looks the part, and but we’ll be putting it through its paces with a full review to see how effective and easy to use it actually is.