Continue reading »]]> Apple has today launched a beta of the new iTunes version 10.3 which, above all, includes the new iCloud functionality (or at least some of it).

You can grab your hands on the new version via this link. It’s available for Mac and Windows (32 and 64 bit). The download (at the time of writing) is running horribly slowly (currently getting about 30kb/s on the 77MB download) – but I’m guessing that’s down to demand and should return to normal sometime later this evening.

I’ll post up the good news when I’ve got it going!

Continue reading »]]> I’ve been testing Office 2010 for quite a while now, as I was part of the Technical Preview which Microsoft launched a little while ago. Now they’ve closed up the Technical Preview and replaced it with the Beta, which is now publically available for all to download and try out. I’m not entirely sure if Microsoft are limiting the amount of downloads, but if you want to be safe I suggest you download it now and give it a try.

Anyway, it goes without saying that Office 2010 is a huge improvement on Microsoft’s last attempt on an office suite – Office 2007. I’ve hated 2007 from the start. I thought the interface was clunky, confusing and time consuming. It was difficult to use, and anyone who was used to the simple menus of Office 2003 would have to learn how to use the programs all over again, from scratch. It’s like a car company saying we’ve made a new car, but to use it you’ll have to learn to drive all over again.

However, Microsoft have finally made a practical use of the futuristic design. The new menu bar is still there, but it is now usable. Here’s a little screenie…

Yes, it does take a little getting used to, but the basics are so much easier to access. All your common features are reachable at your fingertips.

I have to say that I like it. However, I don’t think this will be the case for everyone. I think it’s quite comparable to a car. If the car has a dashboard that looks like a small section of mission control, it becomes irritating and pointless. It’s the same for Office in that respect. If you’re typing out a document and you can’t find a feature hidden away in some submenu it is irritating and pointless – it’s exactly the same. I think Microsoft needs to think about this before launching a final version next year. I think they should maybe think about a “classic” mode, where people can use an interface which is comparable to older versions of Office.

Overall, I think it’s good and will prove successful. On the other hand, Microsoft needs to think about older users who are used to Office 2003 or even older versions. I think it’s really important that Microsoft holds on to it’s long term customers – letting them creep away now could be critical.

Continue reading »]]> If you are still running the Windows 7 Beta and haven’t bothered to update to the release candidate, you’re about to hit the bi-hourly shutdowns.

Starting July 1st, Windows 7 Beta users will start getting bi-hourly shutdowns, meaning that your computer will automatically be shut down every 2 hours.

If you want to avoid the Windows 7 Beta bi-hourly shutdowns, you’ll need to upgrade to the Release Candidate for free. You can download it from here for free until August 15th so make sure you upgrade if you want to continue using Windows 7.

Continue reading »]]> WordPress recently released WordPress 2.8 Beta, which has some interesting new features which will come in handy.

As usual I’ve tested it out, and here are the highlights:

New theme installer

This new theme installer now means that WordPress can install themes you find on the WordPress Theme Directory straight to your theme directory without the need of FTP or manual file copying. It’s very similar to the automatic plugin installation system that was implemented in WordPress 2.7. However, it is more advanced and allows the user to select certain filters to make searching easier. This will definitely be a nifty little feature to look forward to.

Widget handling

The widget handling system has been improved, with a much better click and drag interface which is much simpler to use than the previous widget handling system.

Those are the two things I find most useful. Other than that, I can’t find anything else that I would find outstanding.

WordPress has posted a Codex page with information that corresponds to the WordPress 2.8 Beta, so if you’d like a full changelog please click here.

Try it out and see what you think. I haven’t found any major bugs, but I’d recommend you don’t install it on your main blog/site. If you can, create a test blog for WordPress 2.8 beta and wait for the final release before installing it on your main blog/site.

Continue reading »]]> The Firefox 3.1 beta is now out and ready to be downloaded at http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html for anyone who wants it. It’s supposedly the last beta before they change the version number to 3.5, as I mentioned in a previous blog post. 

I personally won’t be downloading it any time soon as I’m going to probably wait either for the 3.5 beta or the final 3.5 release. I think the next Firefox release is definitely something to look forward to with lots of new features, so the news will be here on GEEK! as soon as it comes.

Continue reading »]]> Mozilla has decided to rename the idea of Firefox 3.1 so it becomes Firefox 3.5. Mozilla has decided that a fourth beta will be released on the 14th of April and the release will be named Firefox 3.5. 

Mozilla claims on their developer news site  that the reason for the change is because of the “sheer volume of work” which seems to make it more relevant to make it a bigger release. 

Mozilla confirmed the change in this blog post. They have said they will change the upcoming release to Firefox 3.5 before the next beta is released in April.

We shall have to see what happens when the beta arrives in our download folders, but personally I think that Mozilla just want to make the release stand out more as there is evidently large amounts of work going into it. Hopefully it’ll be something to look forward to, as Firefox is (in my opinion) beginning to fall behind a little as competition from Chrome (and possibly Safari) is falling into place.

Continue reading »]]> It looks like Apple have been working on their next release of the well known Apple web browser which was released for Windows a couple of years back. Safari 4.0 Beta is their latest release, and I took the courage and downloaded the beta.

The first thing you notice when you download it is that it’s quite a big file – for a web browser anyway. Baring in mind that Google Chrome’s installer is about 3 or 4 MB (including the installer downloads), Safari’s installer size of 25.5 MB is a little bit of a shock. Once it has downloaded and you run the install program, you are presented with the usual terms and optional extra installs (which I proudly unticked - I personally think the Bonjour crap is a waste of time), after which it will spend a couple of minutes installing the program.

Once it’s installed you will find the program immediately fires up, and you are presented with a “Welcome to Safari” video, followed by a very snazzy looking frequently used tabs screen.

Safari

As for generally browsing the web, the experience is relatively good. There are a few bugs, but these can be reported with ease via the bug button at the top right. 

The new interface has definitely made an improvement to the general feel of Safari since version 3. I still prefer Chrome – despite what Apple says, Safari is not the fastest web browser. It has to be Chrome – by miles. Don’t you agree?

I recommend you go and try it. I don’t think I’ll keep Safari as it’s just unbeatable to Chrome, but maybe in the future when the final release comes around, maybe I’ll do a full review. Head over to apple.com/safari to try the new beta.

Continue reading »]]> Microsoft has repeatedly said, and reminded us Windows 7 users today, that there will be no Windows 7 Beta 2.

The next release that is due from the Windows 7 team is the Windows 7 Release Candidate (1?). No dates have been confirmed as to when the Release Candidate will be avaialble, and on that note when the final release will ship. But people are still passing round rumours that Microsoft want to release Windows 7 by Christmas – I’ve still got my doubts.

As soon as there is news on the next release of Windows 7, I will let you know. But for the moment, Microsoft says they are evaluating feedback and “making progress”.

Continue reading »]]> The deadline for the Windows 7 Beta download has been confirmed. You have until February 10th to get your hands on a copy, if you haven’t already.

Users who have started but not finished the download will have until February 12th to finish it. And if you are an MSDN or Technet subscriber, you’ll be able to get the Windows 7 Beta download after the deadline.

However, Microsoft has said that product keys for Windows 7 Beta will still be available after the download deadline expires.

No matter what, though, the beta will expire on the 1st of August – even if you are a Technet or MSDN subscriber.

There are even rumours going round that a Windows 7 release may well be available in July – but that is hardly believable since I seem to remember Microsoft saying they would go through a second beta testing stage before a release. I highly doubt we’ll have a release before the fourth quarter of 2009 – at the very earliest.

So there you are – an update on Windows 7 and dates for your calendar.

Continue reading »]]> Well, after several hours last night in line for a download of Windows 7, I finally have it installed on the computer. I’ve had a little play-around with it and seen what the biggest new features are, and also checked to see if there are any common bugs.

Anyway, what do I think? Well generally I think it looks very promising. The speed and performance is relatively good, there aren’t too many bugs despite it being in beta, and overall it looks side of it is relatively good.

There are a few things I don’t like, such as the new “super bar” (new name for the start bar). I don’t think that designed very well at all at the moment – but don’t forget when Vista beta 1 went out the start bar looked nothing like the final release. Personally, I’m not a fan of the “super bar” not showing my window names. I don’t know what other people think, but I much prefer having the names of my windows shown to me all the time, instead of having to hover over the logo.

However, I do like the new feature on the “super bar” that shows on demand information such as recently used items, commonly used features and the likes. That would be very useful to me.

I’m a fan of the new boot screen which looks snazzy while not to over the top. The nice glow of the Windows logo looks good with the simple ‘Starting Windows’ text below it. Boot time isn’t fantastic on a 1GB RAM laptop with a dual core processor (running in Virtual PC over XP), but it’s not worryingly slow and I’m sure if I had just installed it on a proper partition on my computer it would have been much quicker.

Media Center has had a few modifications, but nothing ground-breaking yet. There’s a few new features, but I wouldn’t get too excited about that yet.

So should you go and get a download from Microsoft? Well, if you really want to test it for yourself, go ahead. Beware that Microsoft are limiting download to 2.5 million and the servers have been under extreme pressure since the launch of the download yesterday. You are very unlikely to be able to get in first time (or even second or third) so unless you’ve got a lot of spare time on your hands, just don’t bother. To give you an idea, I waited nearly 6 hours to merely get to the download. The download itself took another hour and a half or so (it’s a 3GB file so don’t download it if you are on strict bandwidth limits) and then you have to worry about the actuall install process, which on a slow computer may take a good hour or two. You could end up spending a whole afternoon and maybe some of your evening on this.

So if you want a simple answer, I recommend you don’t go downloading it unless you really want to see for yourself. But, on the other hand, I do think it is something to look forward to as Microsoft are saying it could be ready in time for Christmas 09.

Next up on the reviews list is the new Windows Live Essentials pack, which will be on review here on GEEK! in the next few days.

Update: Microsoft has postponed the public release of the BETA due to high traffic. They say that especially this morning there was excessive traffic to the beta. They are now “adding infrastructure support” and I hope the beta will be up again for download soon!

Further Update: Just went and tested the beta download, and the news that the beta is no longer available isn’t entirely correct. You can still download the beta. I just went to the Technet page and tried getting to the download, and it worked first time. Go and get it now if you want a download.