This month we wrap up Windows 8 Tablets and Mobiles and, introduce some new members of staff.

It’s the season to be tablet-jolly. After all, that’s pretty much all you’re seeing now with the release of the Microsoft RT Operating system; analogous to the Apple iOS. Right now, there are products on the market from Acer and ASUS which look promising, but a new entrant to the tablet hardware space is Microsoft themselves, with the introduction of the new Surface tablet that you’ve probably seen on billboards, TV and Radio recently.

Problem is, and we think this may be a show-stopper for the product, is that it’s only available online from Microsoft directly or from Microsoft Stores, which won’t be built in Australia until mid-late 2013.

Realistically though, the Surface RT is being pitched at the consumer market, whilst its Surface Pro, due in January will tout a fully-fledged Windows 8 Operating system on board.

For a truly supported business product however, we are seeing a slew of new Windows 8 PRO and RT tablets from Acer, ASUS, but the Sony and HP tablets are really getting our eyes and ears pricked up!

The HP Elite pad unfortunately is not due for commercial release until January 2013, but you can take a sneak peek here

http://www8.hp.com/us/en/ad/new-pcs/tablet.html

The Windows Mobile 8 devices start to hit the shelves this month and despite HTC and Samsung with some amazing WM8 products, we think the clear winner will be Nokia in this space. Yes it looks like they may have managed to salvage themselves with the Lumia 820 and 920. Watch this space!

EtherTech would also like to welcome both Travis Gough and Daniel Mangan to our ever expanding team. Welcome aboard guys!

Travis joins us with a wide variety of technical and help desk skills, and his hobbies include ‘quiet walks on the beach….’ Oh sorry wrong profile!

Daniel will be another senior consultant, having come from Telstra and PowerTEL, with a mix of Server, Cisco and Linux skills, and comes action-packed with expert skills in iOS, Mac OS and OSX.

Christmas will be business as usual here at EtherTech, with skeleton staff over the period. All non-public holidays will be manned. If you have an urgent technical issue outside of usual business hours, our 1300-ETHERTECH number offers an option to contact an on-call engineer. We’re still only a phone call away during the silly season.

We hope you have an amazing festive season and from everyone here @EtherTech, we hope you all have a safe and prosperous new year and we look forward to seeing you all in 2013!

Windows 8 is here!

This month we’re proud as punch to discuss the Windows 8 launch and to give you our feedback on one of Microsoft’s most daring operating system launches since Windows 95.

Sample Windows 8 Desktop

On October 26, Microsoft changed the way we will interact with all our devices.  The Windows 8 Operating system aims to bring a consistent, yet unique experience where you, the user, have control over how you access online services, how you interact with your devices, to how you share applications across ALL your devices.

So then, what’s new?

Well the first thing you will notice is that the old start menu has been replaced and a series of ‘live tiles’ are now in place, allowing you to access all your applications.  Live tiles are called that because they can interact with you straight from the menu.  A weather app for example might not require you to run it to find out the forecast.  Instead it might be there right on the icon (tile) itself.

For us, we love the new start menu.  This will be the same experience on any new Windows 8 based device.  For some, this may take some getting used to, but we are confident you will love the new look and feel.

The next major feature is the focus on a new “APPS” ecosystem; much in the same way Apple has, but with a twist.  Today you can find an app for anything.  The problem is, there’s usually a different app for each device.  With Windows 8, it doesn’t matter if your app is a web-based or native app, it will run on all your devices.  Just simply sign-in with your Microsoft ID and all your apps will be synchronized across all your devices.

If you’d like a demo, stop by for a coffee and a lesson on Windows 8.  Stay tuned as we round up the latest mobile and tablet offerings based on Windows 8 for the upcoming silly season

Backups.

Its that word we all cringe about when we hear it.. BUT.. EtherTech has launched a NEW online backup service this month, which is an internet based backup and only backs up the changes to files you have already backed up previously. So less time online doing backups and more time feeling secure that your data is there in case of failure! Pricing starts from $33.00 per month so give us a call to discuss your requirements today!

In other news, Kenny has left EtherTech to pursue a career in their family business, and we wish him all the best with this new endeavor!

See you all next month!

Welcome to September.

Its funny, but we were asked this month for some copies of some back-issues of Boffin, which are available on our website if anyone else requires copies.. Simply point your internet browser to www.ethertech.com.au/category/boffin and you see a pile of back-issues that you can read online..

This month however we’re going to have a look at new range of low cost laser and multifunction printers from OKI, that we’ve been using for a number of clients with great success.

Why Choose OKI ?
For over 130 years OKI has been at the forefront of innovation. OKI invests heavily in world class R&D laboratories in Japan and is the biggest supplier of LED chips in the world.
OKI printers not only use class leading technology but they also feature a straight through printing path, allowing for thicker paper to be used and reducing the chances of a paper jam.

Another nifty thing with these printers is because of the straight through paper path you can even print banners up to 1.2m long through the laser !

LED vs Laser technology.
Laser printers rely on elaborate combinations of rotating mirrors and lenses that must remain in alignment throughout the printing cycle.
With a stationary LED light array OKI printers have no moving parts when writing an image to the printer drum, allowing for fast high dpi printing. As a result LED printers require far less maintenance during their lifetime. For example the drum only has to spin one turn compared with a laser printer that has to turn up to three times.. Much more efficient.
OKI is so confident in their technology that the digital LED printers come standard with a 3 year warranty on all their new range !

But how much are they ?

Well, this is the surprising part !

(all prices quoted are inc GST)

OKI A4 mono 38ppm duplex network LED Printer   – $489.00

OKI A4 colour 30ppm duplex network LED Printer   – $ 675.00

5000pg black toner    – $129.00

OKI A4 mono MFP 33ppm network LED Printer w/Fax,scanning,photocopying and printing !  – $ 595.00

Extra paper trays, drums etc are all also available. Give us a call to discuss your printing needs !

Another month flies by and we’re already into August!.. where is the year going !

It appears the biggest mover and shaker for the month again is Apple, who have had their iPhone 5 release date leaked, and is being reported to be September 21^st this year, as well as a new iPad mini with a 7” screen being touted to be released in November this year just in time for the Christmas rush .. Apple seems to be riding the wave at the moment and their constant product releases is only bolstering their bottom line as every tech savvy consumer wants a piece of the ‘latest’ apple innovation.

Microsoft have also announced the forthcoming release of the Mirosoft ‘Surface’ tablet, which is their direct competitor to the iPad, and touts the Windows8 Operating system as well as a raft of features including much more powerful hardware and connectivity suites and with a purported price of between $600->$1000 is really going to make apple worried.

Microsoft has also announced that the new Windows 8 Operating System will be publically available from October 26^th.

It is a timely reminder for those still running Windows XP on desktops and laptops to upgrade to Windows 7 sooner rather than later.

Not only does extended support for Windows XP run out in 2014 (if you paid for the extended support), but the recently announced Office 2013 product will only run on Windows 7 and Windows 8, ignoring both XP and Vista customers altogether.

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Have you been frustrated with a slow running PC or Notebook?

It might be the time to look at upgrading to the latest in Hard Disc Technology .. the SSD Drive.

SSD (Solid State Drive) technology has been around for quite a long time now, and I’m sure everyone knows of the USB Key Memory stick type device which is based on SSD technology, but did you know you can now purchase SSD Hard Discs for your PCs and Notebooks ?

EtherTech is running a promotion for August 2012 for the 2.5” 240Gb SSD SATA Hard Disc which is a direct replacement part.  To give you an idea on the speed difference, an SSD drive is between 13x -> 40x faster than a conventional Hard Disc !

Plus, with no moving parts, makes Hard Disc head crashes a thing of the past !

This month only $ 234.00 inc GST per drive ! (+add $11 if you need a 3.5” adapter)

Call us today to order yours !

Happy New Financial Year to everyone!

Well… what a busy time it’s been here at EtherTech!

Firstly however, we’d like to introduce Stephen Groundwell who finally joined us last month. Stephen hails from the UK where he has run many sites and is a Certified Microsoft Professional so is very fluent in most things.

Having two Steve’s now at EtherTech could be confusing for some, but you’ll be able to tell them apart pretty easily due to Stephen’s prominent English accent! (Don’t hold that against him though).

So, in the last month the team here at EtherTech have managed to successfully complete a major migration of 125 users from a large ASX listed company over to Hosted Office 2010 and cloud based applications. A BIG thank you has to go out to all the team as everyone put in long hours to ensure a successful transition, and the customer is extremely happy with the outcome! Well done guys.

In other news, we have 12 x $100 adwords vouchers that have landed in our in-tray today that we can giveaway to the first 12 people who want them. This $100 is to be used directly for advertising your business with Google adwords. If you haven’t used adwords yet to promote your business, perhaps now is the time to take advantage of this, dip your toe in the water and give it a go and use the free $100 voucher to see what sort of response you get. There is no ongoing commitment, so once the $100 is used you can stop the ads if you wish. If you need help with adwords though, please give us a call and we can help you get setup.

Remember though, we’ve only got 12 of these, so first in best dressed! To request one, send a quick email to sales@ethertech.com.au with the topic ‘yes please’, along with your information and we’ll email you a copy of the $100 card to use.

With the new financial year upon us, we’ve had a lot of calls from clients wanting us to help them with their MYOB/ Quickbooks compliance upgrades. If you are confused and can’t get through to MYOB or Intuit, please give us a call so we can help you out.

What’s planned for this month? As well as our normal work, the team here at EtherTech are developing a couple of new services as well as improving some of our existing services, such as our fax to mail service. We are in a hardware refresh cycle at the moment, so there s quite a bit of new Cisco equipment being setup and tested and being made ready to replace some of the older Cisco equipment that has served us well. Stay tuned though for some announcements regarding these new improved services in the coming months!

See you all next month!

WOW!  What a month it’s been in the IT world!

Facebook listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange after much fanfare and hype, at $39.00USD a share and closed on June 1 at a mere $27.72USD. Hopefully none of our clients bought too many shares!

Microsoft has released its final pre-release version of Windows 8 to the public for download, quite a bit earlier than everyone expected.

This Pre-Release, contains a number of features and fixes to repair issues that have become apparent in the initial preview version that was launched in March.

If you are interested in downloading and playing with the new Windows 8 you can download it from here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/hh670538.aspx

Samsung have launched their new Android based Galaxy S III Smartphone in Sydney last week.  The white 16GB smartphone will be sold outright for $899, and through all the major carriers on a range of plans.

According to Samsung, the company currently holds 45% of the Australian Smartphone market.

This new smartphone is powered by Samsung’s 1.4GHz quad-core processor with 1GB RAM. It is slimmer than the previous model, the Galaxy S II, and now boasts a 4.8in High Definition Screen.

The 8.6mm thick Galaxy S III weighs just 133 grams, and is available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models, with micro SD support for up to 64GB.

It also has an integrated 8MP camera which is able to shoot 1080p video, with a front-facing 1.9MP camera boasting 720p video capability as well.

Another cool feature is the eye movement recognition software, which ensures the screen stays lit until you’ve finished looking at it.

This new Samsung Phone is definitely a phone worth considering when you are looking to upgrade,  The S III can not only support cloud based email, but has a screen that is good enough to allow you to work virtually anywhere via Remote Desktop.

And finally, a quick NBN update to finish a jam packed May.  NBN Co. started wireless rollouts in Tamworth and Toowoomba last month, and hopes to service up to 500,000 homes with its 12mb download/1mb upload wireless service.  Telstra’s 4G LTE network has a far superior wireless broadband technology so the uptake they’re expecting may actually fall short.

See you all next month…

In this month’s edition, we will discuss the forthcoming Windows 8 operating system, due for release later in the year.  As with most new product releases, Microsoft allow the broader community the ability and chance to test-drive their products as part of the consumer preview.  After having run Windows 8 on a couple of the laptops, we can say that we are impressed.

So what will be the main differences between Windows 8 and Windows 7?  Well most importantly, the Start button and menu has disappeared.  Microsoft have decided to make Windows 8 the next generation operating system for touch screen, tablet, notebook, mobile and PC devices, which means you will get a consistent user experience across all your devices.  The Start menu has been replaced by a tile-based system that works with those of you using a mouse, a touch screen or a multi-touch surface (like a tablet).  Although the change will take a bit of getting used to and some of you may not like it initially, we have actually found that the new tile based system is more intuitive and we think its ok.

Also new is the introduction of an apps store and Windows Live profile that synchronises across devices.  So when you login to your laptop, you are presented with the start menu which contains all your local windows PC apps like office and so on.  The difference now, is that you can download or purchase apps from within the start menu and these applications will immediately synchronise to your other devices.  We have found this feature to be seamless when installing the sample applications and having these available on our mobile devices shortly thereafter.

The traditional desktop is there, but it appears to be a sign of the times as Microsoft start to move us away from that type of interface.  Another cool feature will be gesture control.  Gesture based hand movements will also be supported in Windows 8, so those that have a monitor on their desk that is too far away from touch can still continue to use their mouse or add-on a gesture based control panel.  It seems that the technology we saw in the movie Minority Report is actually starting to make its way in to mainstream products now and this will only change the way we interact with computers and devices.

What does this mean for corporate users?  We hope that these changes will improve productivity but more importantly, we think it will challenge the way you use mobility devices for access to corporate resources.  For example, having your documents available to you no matter where you go regardless of the device, Windows 8 will keep you connected to corporate resources no matter what.  The benefits of application mobility will be a key turning point in ensuring that your line of business applications run on your desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile phone and enable better productivity gains.

If you would like a demo of Windows 8, then give us a call and we will be more than happy to show you the new features of Windows 8 before its release scheduled for July this year.

Welcome to another instalment of Boffin ! We hope you enjoy our monthly newsletters, and please let us know if there’s anything you’d like us to focus on in upcoming editions.

This month we’ll revisit the Ipad3 launch, discuss a virus that is still causing havoc in the wild.

Well, the Apple launch of the new ipad came and went last month with less furore than expected. There were of course the obligatory few queuing outside Telstra shops but overall the launch was to be as expected.

Some interesting by-products though after almost a month since launch date. The 4G LTE network support that Apple was spruiking was a bit of a let down for Australia, as Apple has now admitted it won’t work on the Telstra 4G network, and are offering refunds for customers who purchased the units with this pre-requisite. Another interesting report is the overheating of the new units, with similar issues as those experienced by iPhone4 users, where the lower corner of the ipad gets too hot to touch when used in portrait mode over wifi for long periods.
So really, is the new ipad worth it ? For new ipad users who have never had an ipad before. Yes, by the new version as the improved graphics resolutions alone make it a worthwhile choice, but if you already have an ipad1 or ipad2, then we wouldn’t bother upgrading to the latest incarnation, unless you really need to be on the cutting edge..

Malware Trojan Infection in the Wild.

DNSChanger Trojan was a malicious Trojan written by a group of Estonians who are now in the process of being extradited to the US for prosecution.

According to FBI Statistics, the DNSChanger malware has infected approximately four million computers worldwide in over 100 countries, with over 500,000 in the US alone !

The malware was designed to redirect legitimate search requests to infected DNS Servers which in turn send users to malicious sites which disable anti-virus and software updates. The objective of the malware was to sell advertising ‘space’ to unsuspecting organisations and these unscrupulous individuals “manipulated the multi-billon dollar internet advertising industry” to approxiamately $14million USD, according to the FBI Statement.

The US Officials have gained control of these rogue DNS Servers, but plan to switch them off on July 9 2012, rendering all the people who haven’t removed the malware to basically lose internet connectivity.

The Australian Government has a website you can goto to check whether your machine(s) are infected with this malware.

Simply browse to :

http://dns-ok.gov.au

And at the top of the page it’ll tell you whether you are infected or not. If you are infected, please give us a call on 1300-ETHERTECH so we can arrange to remove the malware for you.

Remember that keeping your antivirus / malware scanning applications up to date is crucial to ensure data security!

See you all next month !