It is time to start thinking about Windows 8. OK that's enough. Windows 8 is primarily aimed at the tablet or touch-based computer market. Yes there is a PC version and yes it has been adjusted for regular mouse and keyboard users but according to organisations such as Gartner it is not all that suitable as a corporate replacement for Windows 7.
Working with Windows 8. - Microsoft
With the previous longevity of Windows XP many organisations are just starting to move over to Windows 7 as a now well-established and stable operating system so Windows 8 is going to have to be very good to tempt all but the most leading edge companies from moving off Windows 7 any time soon.
Office 2013 follows in Windows 8's footsteps by having a Metro-like front-end. In other words, it is touch friendly. Taking no hints from the poor reception of the Visual Studio 12 preview, Microsoft decided to change the interface very little. This will be perfect for the training dollars but not so good for sales and quick adoption. Lines are straight, colours are either flat or bold, main menus are in capitals.
Testers have described the Office 2013 experience as both dull and lifeless. The positive note is that this will be the first version of Office that is synchronised with Visual Studio 12 and SQL Server 2012.
The feature set changes are incremental rather than radical and there is tighter integration with the Office 365 paradigm. SharePoint adds social media features that look and feel more like Facebook than an application development platform.
Be prepared to do lots of logging in while using the full swathe of Office 2013 capabilities and privacy lovers will just hate the persistent reminders to integrate your PC with all those connectivity services. On the flip side those already enamoured with Microsoft's SkyDrive cloud will love it.
It currently looks like everything in Microsoft's future will be Metro-based.
More good news on the Office front this time for resellers, Microsoft is bumping up fees for them. Redmond is also going into the Office store market with a new version of their business productivity suite.
Like all the others the store will be a place for developers, those not busy building for Android, to build and distribute web-based add-ons for Office and SharePoint. The plug-ins will be web-based and not the traditional types you may be familiar with.
Last week I wrote about social media. Since then I read an article that highlighted a number of sources that, in summary, suggest if you are not part of the social media phenomenon then you could be classified as "suspicious". Forbes reported that HR departments in the US were wary of younger job candidates who did not use Facebook. If they don't have such a site some bosses may suspect it had to be deleted because of problems. A Slate.com writer advised young people not to date anyone without a Facebook account. Slash-dot suggested that no Facebook account could be a sign of a mass murderer. It is good to be old.
Privacy is always in issue in the digital age. Google has been caught out collecting all manner of information during their StreetView runs by grabbing all they could from any wi-fi nodes they passed by.
Australia has joined a number of others demanding that any data so collected must be destroyed, with third party confirmation.
Apparently Google has been a bit naughty and did not delete it all back in March last year when they were supposed to. So here is the thing. This data would have been sorted, collated, cross-matched and from this all manner of summaries and demographic information created.
Deleting the raw data at this point would be a bit like the kind of thing we all do every couple of years to make space on our hard drives.
According to Amazon UK, customers there are now buying more e-books than the printed editions. The prediction, except for around Christmas, is that this trend will continue. I have a Kindle but I also like the paper versions of books mostly because they are so easy to flip back and forth through. Until the electronic devices themselves come in a book like format I think that printed versions will be around for a while.
Samsung has a new Galaxy Note coming up and the new one will be twice the size at 10.1 inches (25.7cm). It will not be the Galaxy Tablet but will come with dual-band 2.4/5GHz 802.11n wi-fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC.
Finally, kudos to the boys at Nasa who managed to land a huge rover on Mars without a hitch using a really big parachute and a rocket-powered sky crane.
If you think about it this is a huge success for technology and Curiosity's 200Mhz Power PC that as I write is receiving an OS update. That is one impressive upgrade request. Since most of the bandwidth is currently being taken up by photos the upgrade will be complete about the time you read this.
James Hein is an IT professional of over 30 years. You can contact him at jclhein@gmail.com.