Apple looks to reinvigorate its tablet range

By on November 18, 2014 in Blog, Mobile devices, Product releases

In a bid to see off the competition in the ever increasing tablet market, Apple has been looking to reinvigorate its range with the launch of two new models.

Its new iPad Air 2 is the thinnest tablet computer on the market, the manufacturer has claimed. Unveiled officially in October, the device has a thickness of just 6.1mm (0.24 inches), making it 18 per cent thinner than its predecessor.

A number of new features have been added to the updated model, such as a fingerprint sensor and an anti-reflective screen. It also boasts a faster A8X processor – an improved version of the chip found in Apple’s latest smartphones.

Unveiled alongside the new iPad Air 2 was the latest version of Apple’s compact offering, the iPad Mini 3. Whilst this device comes equipped with the same sensor technology as its larger sibling, the Mini 3 runs on the slightly less powerful A7 processor and has a lower-resolution rear camera.

[themecolor]Market grows as iPad sales fall[/themecolor]

These releases mark the latest move in Apple’s drive to boost sales of its tablet range after a slight lull. A recent report showed that 13.3 million iPads were sold in the second quarter of 2014, representing a year-on-year drop of nine per cent. This comes despite increases in the sales of both iPhones and Mac computers.

The global tablet market saw growth of 11 per cent during the same period, further highlighting Apple’s own decline. According to research from IDC, Asus and Lenovo saw some of the biggest improvements.

It has been suggested that the drop could be explained, to some extent, by the release of the iPhone 6 Plus. With a screen measuring 5.5 inches, it’s Apple’s largest smartphone yet.

IDC research analyst Jitesh Ubrani was quoted by iwebstreet.com as saying: “Given that Apple’s launched larger iPhones, it needs to find a market that the iPad Mini fits into.

“It was a response to the market as a whole moving to smaller tablets. And now that ‘phablets’ are growing in not just screen size but also in market size, unless Apple carves out a special place for it, we expect sales of the Mini in particular to be cannibalised quite a bit.”

[themecolor]Device specifications[/themecolor]

For more information regarding the specifications of these new devices, please use the following links.

 

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Microsoft unveils Windows 10

By on October 14, 2014 in Blog, Microsoft, Product releases

Microsoft has given us a sneak preview of its next operating system and amongst the biggest surprises was the name.

So after 8 comes 10. But what happened to Windows 9? Maybe it was just considered too negative for the German-speaking market, although various other reasons have been offered – some more technical then others. One theory is that early tests of Windows 9 uncovered problems with code that some developers had used as a shortcut to detect whether apps were running on Windows 95 and Windows 98.

In any case, what’s in a name? The important questions are ‘what does Windows 10 hold in store for us all?’ and ‘how will it impact your business?’

[themecolor]The best release ever[/themecolor]

Microsoft says the changes it has planned for the next version of Windows are so significant, a jump in version numbers can easily be justified. However, users will be reassured to learn that the beta version of Windows 10, demonstrated to the world’s media this month, did not look like too radical a departure from Windows 8.

This is the careful line Microsoft must tread with this release. The company certainly needs to address the shortcomings of Windows 8 which have resulted in such low adoption rates by businesses (2 years after release, it only accounts for 13.37 per cent of the market – making it less popular even than Vista over the same lifespan*).

But it doesn’t want to scare off users with the prospect of even more change. Its marketing team will also have their work cut out trying to reintroduce some of the more popular features of Windows 7 without making this look like a backward step.

Despite these challenges, Microsoft appears excited. Terry Myerson, executive vice president of the Operating Systems group said: “This will be our most comprehensive operating system and the best release Microsoft has ever done for our business customers, and we look forward to working together with our broader Windows community to bring Windows 10 to life in the months ahead.”

[themecolor]New features and some golden oldies[/themecolor]

So what do we know about the new and renewed features of Windows 10? Here are some key areas that Microsoft has already confirmed will be there.

Expanded Start menu. The familiar Start menu is back, providing quick one-click access to the functions and files that people use most, and it includes a new space to personalise with favourite apps, programs, people and websites.

Apps that run in a window. Apps from the Windows Store will now open in the same format that desktop programs do. They can be resized and moved around, and have title bars at the top allowing users to maximize, minimize and close with a click.

Snap enhancements. Working in multiple apps at once will be easier and more intuitive with snap improvements. A new quadrant layout in Windows 10 allows up to four apps to be snapped on the same screen. Windows will also show other apps and programs running for additional snapping, and it will even make smart suggestions on filling available screen space with other open apps.

New Task View button. The new Task View button on the task bar enables one view for all open apps and files, allowing for quick switching and one-touch access to any desktop created.

Multiple desktops. Instead of too many apps and files overlapping on a single desktop, it will be easier with Windows 10 to create and switch between distinct desktops for different purposes and projects – whether for work or personal use.

Statistics from http://netmarketshare.com

[themecolor]Some Windows 10 Screenshots[/themecolor]

Start Menu

New task view button

Multiple desktops

Snap enhancements

Everything runs in a window

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Disused phone boxes turned into charging stations

By on October 14, 2014 in Blog, Mobile devices, New technology

Smartphone owners in London can now charge their devices on the go, after a pair of entrepreneurs launched a project to install power points in a number of the city’s disused phone boxes.

In total, seven boxes will be converted – the first of which was unveiled on Tottenham Court Road earlier this week. As well as having the necessary charging hardware set up inside, they will all be painted green to help members of the public distinguish them from standard phone boxes.

The scheme is the idea of London School of Economics graduates Harold Craston and Kirsty Kenney, who were victorious at this year’s Low Carbon Entrepreneur competition. They decided on the name ‘Solarbox’, and plan to replace the traditional ‘Telephone’ signage with new branding.

[themecolor]All charging services will be free[/themecolor]

With power generated via roof-mounted solar panels, all charging services will be free, although users will be required to watch adverts while they wait. The facilities will accommodate a wide range of device-types by offering various cables.

While there have been concerns over whether the new hubs would fall victim to vandals, they will be maintained daily and locked overnight. The internal advertising screens will also be made from reinforced glass.

The initiative has already received the backing of London mayor Boris Johnson, who was quoted as saying: “It’s fantastic to see our young entrepreneurs already up and running with this brilliant idea.

“In our modern world, where hardly any Londoner is complete without a raft of personal electronic gizmos in hand, it’s about time our iconic phone boxes were updated for the 21st Century, to be more useful, more sustainable, and just as striking with a marvellous new green makeover.”

While the facilities are only available on Tottenham Court Road at present, plans are in place to continue with six further conversions in 2015.

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Four surprising facts about telecommuting

By on October 14, 2014 in Blog, Internet, Remote working, Telecoms and mobile data

Remote working is an option that has been offered by more and more small businesses in recent years despite bosses harbouring some concerns regarding the productivity of home workers. Well now it seems employees should actually be checking that their telecommuters do not become overloaded.

Advances in remote working technologies, mobile data services and faster broadband connections have all enabled workers to operate successfully from home, remaining in contact with colleagues  via networked computers and video conferencing. The big question has always been how easily employees can motivate themselves outside the work environment.

Microsoft knows that studies have found people who telecommute to be more productive and has produced an infographic to prove it. Click to enlarge the artwork below and discover four surprising facts about telecommuting, which may inspire you to reassess your own remote working policies.

By 2015, 37.2 per cent of the global workforce will be ‘mobile workers’, which equates to 1.3 billion people. This means that between 2010 and 2015, the mobile workers population will have grown by about 300 million.

Currently, telecommuting is a lot more commonplace in the Middle East and Africa rather than Europe and North America. Only nine per cent of Europeans and Americans work remotely, whereas 27 per cent of workers in the Middle East and Africa do the same. Latin America follows, with a quarter of its population classed as mobile workers, and 24 per cent of employees in the Asia-Pacific region work from home also.

Workers with a high level of education are the most likely type of person to telecommute, with a quarter of these people choosing to work from home. Perhaps unsurprisingly, younger employees are more keen on becoming mobile workers, as a fifth of under 35s currently telecommute. Moreover, a fifth of workers with a high household income also choose to stay at home, rather than come into the office every day.

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Conditional Formatting in Excel

By on October 14, 2014 in Blog, Microsoft, Productivity, Tips & tricks

Formatting, such as number type, alignment, and font style, determines how Excel displays the value within a cell. But did you know about ‘conditional formatting’, which is a more dynamic way of applying specified formatting only when certain conditions are met?

Conditional formatting provides a flexible range of rule-based options helping you to simplify many key tasks such as:

  • Locating specific values within a long list of data
  • Highlighting values which fall outside certain norms
  • Identifying duplicate entries

[themecolor]Here’s how it works[/themecolor]

In this first example, we used conditional formatting to highlight rows relating to “ABC Trading Company” with a green background and dark green text.

  1. Select the cells you want to apply conditional formatting to. Click the first cell in the range, and then drag to the last cell.
  2. On the Home tab, click Conditional Formatting > Highlight Cells Rules > Text that Contains.
  3. In the Text that Contains box, on the left, enter the text you want highlighted (“ABC Trading Company”).
  4. On the right, select the colour format for the text, and then click OK.
  5. The selected text is highlighted throughout the worksheet.

[themecolor]Advanced formatting[/themecolor]

Use these steps when you don’t necessarily have easily identifiable text to search for. In this example, we used conditional formatting to transaction values greater than £10,000 with bold red text.

  1. Select the range of cells you want to apply conditional formatting to.
  2. On the Home tab, click Conditional Formatting > Highlight Cells Rules > Greater Than.
  3. In the ‘Format cells that are GREATER THAN’ field, type £10,000.
  4. Specify the formatting you require in the field alongside.
  5. The cells with values greater than £10,000 are highlighted throughout the worksheet

[themecolor]Identify duplicates [/themecolor]

  1. Select the range of cells in which you wish to locate duplicate entries.
  2. On the Home tab, click Conditional Formatting > Highlight Cells Rules > Duplicate Values.
  3. In the ‘Format cells that contain’ field, ensure ‘duplicate’ is selected.
  4. Specify the formatting you require in the field alongside.
  5. Cells containing duplicate values are highlighted throughout the worksheet.

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Businesses to benefit from BT broadband breakthrough

By on October 14, 2014 in Blog, Internet, New technology, Telecoms and mobile data

Broadband users across the UK could soon have access to much faster connections, with telecoms firm BT saying that it has made a major breakthrough in the development of its fibre service.

The company claims to have successfully tested download speeds of 800Mbps and upload speeds of 200Mbps using its G-Fast technology, and that customers may well be able to enjoy similar performance levels from their own connections in the near future.

While it has received criticism for doing so, BT relies on Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) technology, which uses a mix of copper and fibre lines. This makes the breakthrough particularly significant, as the speeds have been achieved using existing hardware.

Traditionally FTTC is much slower than Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) technology, although it is considerably cheaper. Distance is also a problem with FTTC rollouts, with speeds decreasing for homes further away from BT’s own connection centres.

[themecolor]A switch in time[/themecolor]

BT’s move comes as the debate over internet speeds starts to intensify. While the government aims to ensure that nine out of ten homes in the UK have access to broadband speeds of at least 24Mbps in the next three years, its plans have been criticised. The Federation of Small Businesses, for example, recently claimed that the target “lacks ambition” and should be rethought.

Meanwhile, speculation abounds in some areas with a high concentration of businesses, such as London’s Square Mile, that BT has been slow to enable fast fibre services for fear of losing a lucrative revenue stream in expensive Ethernet alternatives.

Dr Tim Whitely, BT’s director of research, thinks the development is crucial to the future of broadband in the UK. He was quoted bytelegraph.co.uk as saying: “We see G-Fast as a very promising technology with significant potential.

Whitely added: “BT has a long history of pushing the boundaries in telecommunications, from the earliest days of the electric telegraph to today’s global fibre networks, and it’s crucial that we stay ahead of the curve for the benefit of our customers and shareholders.”

[themecolor]If you want to discuss the connectivity options available to you via your own local exchange please do not hesitate to call our team on 01293 871971.[/themecolor]

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Come visit us at ‘We Mean Business Expo’ this Thursday

By on October 14, 2014 in Blog, Company news

[themecolor]We will be exhibiting at We Mean Business Expo at Fairfield Halls in Croydon this Thursday 16th October from 10.30am to 5.30pm.[/themecolor]

Local events provide us with a great opportunity to speak to customers and showcase new technologies.

At the end of next week, on Friday 24th October, we will also be at the South East Business Show 2014 at the Copthorne Hotel, Effingham Park, Gatwick from 10am to 3pm.

This year’s Autumn events are expected to attract 1,000 visitors from businesses in the local area, so if you are coming along, please pop by to say “Hello” and have a coffee with us.

 

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Luxury Property Developer Royalton backs up with M2 Cloud

By on October 1, 2014 in Case studies

Royalton are an exclusive luxury residential property developer throughout Surrey and Berkshire. They design and build outstanding houses for high profile clients who expect a premium customer experience. Their team of professionals offer the highest quality service specialising in land acquisition, planning, construction,project management and interior design.The Royalton portfolio of developments for sale, private commissions and joint ventures include projects from £4m to £50m.The IT systems and software at Royalton, are used by the team daily to secure supplies,manage accounts, organise deliveries,project manage builds, schedule contractorsand generate sales.

“M2 Computing are a very professional organisation and offer a great service. I would highly recommend them.” Kevin Holcombe, Accounts Manager

View Royalton Case Study

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Rail travellers to benefit from Wi-Fi investment

By on September 16, 2014 in Blog, Mobile devices, Remote working, Telecoms and mobile data

Rail passengers travelling to London could soon have high-speed internet access after the government revealed plans to invest heavily in Wi-Fi infrastructure on some of the capital’s busiest routes.

Under the new proposals, state-of-the-art wireless equipment will be installed on many of the trains that run into the capital. The initial changes will affect passengers coming to and from major stations in the south, such as Portsmouth, Brighton and Bedford, although travellers bound from northern cities like Leeds and Manchester are also set to benefit.

[themecolor]10 times faster than existing services[/themecolor]

In total, £90 million will be spent on the scheme, telegraph.co.uk reports. The government says it’s aiming to ensure the new connections are at least ten times faster than existing on-board services, the reliability and performance of which have been criticised by users in the past.

According to the ministers behind the project, the free hotspots will give business travellers the chance to continue working during their journeys, while other passengers will benefit from better access to social networking sites and instant messaging services.

[themecolor]Estimated completion date of 2017[/themecolor]

Transport minister Lady Kramer thinks the upgrades will increase passenger numbers. She was quoted by theguardian.com as saying: “Today’s announcement that we are providing free Wi-Fi on trains means people can more easily work and keep up with friends while on journeys.

“As well as steps we have already taken to make train travel as affordable and efficient as possible, we hope free Wi-Fi will encourage even more people to make the greener choice and travel by train.”

Officials have said that work on the new scheme will begin straight away, with an estimated completion date of 2017. What’s more, the hotspots will be free for travellers to access once they become available. While Wi-Fi is available on some lines already, users are required to pay by the hour.

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Are passwords enough to protect your online accounts?

By on September 16, 2014 in Blog, New technology, Security, Web privacy

According to figures published by credit-check specialist Experian, the average UK citizen had 26 different online accounts in 2012. Two years later and an increased reliance on the internet suggests this figure will have grown further, as more people shop, bank and do pretty much everything else online.

This is all very well, but the same study also found that the average user has just five passwords to access all of their accounts, leaving them extremely vulnerable to hackers.

With large-scale cyber-attacks constantly making the headlines these days, many industry commentators feel that conventional password systems are an inadequate means of authenticating users these days – but what else is there?

[themecolor]Keep an eye on biometrics[/themecolor]

One security expert, Gartner Research’s Dr Ant Allan, believes the potential is particularly high in biometrics – utilising the user’s unique body features to prove identity.

One of the simplest options, according to Dr Allan, would be to use facial recognition software. This would give users the chance to access their accounts without having to do anything more than just look at the screen in front of them.

Biometrics is a particularly promising approach as it would allow manufacturers and developers to make use of the technology which already comes with most devices for other reasons – namely forward-facing cameras, microphones and touchscreens. This means that prices would likely remain unaffected for users.

[themecolor]Tracking user behaviour[/themecolor]

Specialists have also suggested the possibility of tracking users’ behaviour over time, meaning the authentication process would no longer be a one-time thing. Instead, the system would initiate challenges, all the while measuring the responses it receives to determine whether the user is who they claim to be. While this does sound a little complex, the fact that we spend so much time glued to our devices these days suggests it could be a viable solution.

Until these innovations hit the market in force, our advice is that you use a different complex password for each of your online accounts. This may be tricky to manage but there are plenty of suggested systems that can be found online for remembering your login details.

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