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Google Buys Motorola: What Does It Mean?

Google Buys Motorola: What Does It Mean?

Google Inc. has secured a deal to buy Motorola’s mobile business. The acquisition is worth an estimated $12.5 billion and is the biggest purchase yet for the search giant. The move will not only secure Google’s place as a mobile superpower, but also help it fight the never ending war against the likes of Apple and Microsoft for patent supremacy.

The internet company will now be able to make its own smartphones, tablets and even cable set-top boxes. Not only this, but Google’s workforce will be inflated by almost 100%. The deal will give the Big G 17,000 additional patents to play around with, after all Motorola did practically invent the mobile phone as we know it today. These will no doubt be used to defend itself in lawsuits against its Android software, which is used in about 150 million handsets worldwide.

But there is however one not so minor obstacle to pass before the deal can be completed. The Justice Department’s antitrust division must review the proposed purchase before it is allowed. The news will no doubt raise some eyebrows in the industry as Google will not only control the fastest growing operating system used in mobile devices, but will also become a major manufacturer giving it a potentially unfair advantage in some people’s eyes.

But Google co-founder Larry Page was quick to point out that Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. would still operate separately from Google and would receive no advantages over other handset makers.

In some respects Google has come to the rescue of Motorola. Between 2007 and 2009 the 82 year old former radio maker lost an incredible $4 billion due to its ailing mobile business. Although they have made some headway since that time it is now evident they probably welcomed the buyout. In January 2011 they split the company into two. Motorola Inc. which specialises in wireless communications for governments and companies was separated from Motorola Mobility Inc. which focuses mainly on handsets and other mobile devices.

If the deal goes through Google will become a patent superpower. Patents can be used by companies to protect the use of certain technology or inventions by competitors and effectively retain market share. Android is currently apparently experiencing problems in this area as it is on the receiving end of a rash of law suits from competitors such as Apple.

One interesting consequence of the purchase of Motorola Mobility is that it will put Google in the middle of some big lawsuits against Apple and Microsoft. For example, Microsoft is currently suing Motorola which could result in the newly acquired handset maker being banned from importing phones into the U.S. Motorola has retaliated with a lawsuit of its own which could result in an import ban of Xbox gaming systems.

The news of the acquisition has certainly not done any harm to Motorola Mobility’s share price, which jumped 56% to just under $40 on the 15th of August.

This deal really does symbolise a changing of the guard on some level. The old technology giants are being over taken by newer, nimbler companies that were born during internet boom.…

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Technology News Articles 

Internet Marketing – Finding Balance Between the Old and the New

Ever since Henry Ford invented the assembly line, there has been a battle between those who embrace innovation and those who prefer the status quo – sometimes referred to as the good old-fashioned way of doing things.
I contend that the best of both worlds lies somewhere in the middle of the two and embraces technology and automation without forgetting that behind every machine is a warm-blooded operator and an end user with a beating heart.
Using technological tools to enhance connection and communication with other people is a great application.  Using them to replace human interaction – not so good.
Let me give you a couple of examples:
Email Marketing
Good: Sending a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly newsletter packed with useful information and a small amount of promotional stuff.
Not so good: Sending lots of “buy this from me” promotional messages with no attempt to provide information that the reader finds useful.
Good: Asking for permission to send email by using an opt-in process.
Not so good:  SPAM-ing people by buying a list or adding them to your database without their permission.
Twitter
Good: Scheduling 10-15% of your tweets to go out automatically but tweeting “in person” the rest of the time.
Not so good: Scheduling most or all of your tweets and almost never showing up “in person” to interact with your Tweeple.                 
The question I get asked most often about technology tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, email marketing or blogging is, “Can these things help me grow my business and should I bother with them?”
My answer to both is twofold: Yes and No. 
Yes, if you are planning to use these and other tools like them to build and strengthen your relationships with the people that you are doing business with already – or the ones you hope to do business with in the future.
No, if you plan to try and cut corners on the relationship-building part.
When I saw the most recent Star Trek movie it gave me hope because if even young Spock with his whiz-bang, off-the-charts technological thought process can come to realize that the humanity factor is significant, then there’s hope for the rest of us to get it right as we muddle our way through the Jetson-like changes going on all around us.…

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General Article

5 Mouseless Menu Shortcuts

5 Mouseless Menu Shortcuts

Do you find it easier to sometimes use your keyboard instead of your mouse? Most actions in Windows, Microsoft Office, and other desktop programs can be performed with different combinations of the mouse or keyboard shortcuts. Pick the approach that works best for you.

Keep your hands on the keyboard and see how you like these mouseless shortcuts to work with software menus and dialog boxes:

Windows Start Menu

Quick Shortcut Menus

Mouseless Main Menu

Dialog Boxes

Drop-Down Menus

Windows Start Menu (Windows 7 & Windows XP)

[Ctrl] + [Esc] to display the Windows Start Menu

[Esc] to cancel

Easy Shortcut Menus

Many Microsoft Office and Windows commands are quickly found in shortcut menus. Right-click on highlighted text in Microsoft Word, for instance, and a shortcut menu pops up with actions such as Cut, Copy, Format, etc. As an alternative or if you lack the right-clicker gene, you can instead press a key for the shortcut menu.

Look on the bottom row of the keyboard to the right of the spacebar between the [Alt] and [Ctrl] keys–do you see a key with a vertical rectangle menu and horizontal lines? This is officially called the Application key–you can call it the Shortcut Menu key. To use the keyboard to display a shortcut menu for the selected item/text/data:

Press the Application (Shortcut Menu) key, then use arrow keys to move to menu choice and press [Enter]

Alternate: [Shift] + [F10] activates the shortcut menu

Press [Esc] to cancel the menu

Mouseless Main Menu

To select a primary command from most program main menus: Press [Alt] + underlined letter (such as [Alt] + F for the File tab or menu; this also works with the Microsoft Office Button in Office 2007).

To select a primary tab from the Microsoft Office 2010 or Office 2007 Ribbon: Press [Alt] to activate the Key Tip Badges (shortcuts). For instance, press [Alt] then the letter H for the Home tab.

Dialog Box Options

From an open dialog box, to bring focus to options: Press [Alt] + underlined letter (such as [Alt] + S for Size from the Font dialog box).

Drop-Down Menus

To display choices from an active drop-down menu: [Alt] + [Down].

Change choices with increments (such as inches for Margins): [Up Arrow] or [Down Arrow]

Mouse? Keyboard? There isn’t a right or wrong choice. Just pick the combination or shortcut that makes it easier for you to get the results you want.…

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General Article

Microsoft Will Put the Apple in a Crate With This

Microsoft Will Put the Apple in a Crate With This

Companies worldwide are trying to lessen the gap between reading and portable devices. With the company’s main focus being reading, they’ve come up with a new device called the e-reader. E-books are just as common, now, as e-mail. The first e-reader was introduced in 2006 and the world wasn’t quite ready for it. Eventually, over the past few years, it became more and more popular with today’s technology. Something everyone has been trying to conquer. E-readers have evolved over the years. With products like the Microsoft Courier, you’ll get privacy and luxury in the palm of your hands.

This latest invention, which is still in the making, gives the user the choice of reading, writing, listening to music, watching movies, or browsing the web. Share your newest ideas with your friends or get a quick map of where you’re heading. You won’t have to worry about very much when it comes to this product. This booklet, not a tablet, brings reading and technology together like never before. The camera on the back will help with creating special blogs. The stylus lets you actually write your thoughts, rather than typing. This is a must have for all new writers in the world, making it easier to get your thoughts from ink to paper to computer. All you have to do is save it and transfer it.

The Microsoft Courier will take all the e-readers out of the market. Apple’s product, the Apple Tablet, which may not ever come out, is going to be more of a player than a reader. It will be able to lots of things, but won’t be able to do nearly as much as the courier. You’ll be able to flip through the pages of the book you’re on, like a book, and flick away images you want to forget. Box in special notes to save for later or to pop up when it’s time to do them.…

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General Article

What Is Exchange Migration?

What Is Exchange Migration?

If you’ve come across this term and wondered what exactly it meant, you’re not the only one. “Migration” is defined easily enough as “movement from one locality to another” whether it be people, wildebeests or lemming. “Exchange,” on the other hand, is neither a verb here, nor a noun meaning a place like stock exchange. Instead “exchange” refers to a popular Microsoft product, Microsoft Exchange Server.

It is, as you will see, a very apt term.

Microsoft’s Exchange Server has been used my companies big and small to handle their email, calendaring, and other data intensive tasks since 1996. Over the years Microsoft has put out several new editions of the program, including the most recent as of this article in 2010. For those companies that wanted to stay up to date with the most recent edition of Exchange Server this required that they take the data from the old edition and add it to the new. Just as with the people and animals mentioned above, this requires the movement of a great many individuals. Hence, the term Exchange migration.

As with all migrations, people, wildebeests or lemming, some of the individuals involved in the movement are lost in transit. Wildebeests are eaten by crocodiles as shown on Animal Planet and Lemming disappear by the thousands into the sea. “Individuals,” in the case of Exchange migration, being bits of data like critical emails and lists of various important entities such as customers and suppliers. A whole industry now exists around trying to stem and replace those losses.

Exchange migration is one of those terms that one sees all over the Internet. Many want to know, “What is Exchange migration?” It is simply the movement of data from one version of Microsoft Exchange Server to another.…

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Latest Technology Updates

Spy Technology: How To Be A Spy

One may wonder what problems there are that could be solved by using surveillance equipment. Some think that these things can be used inappropriately or unethically. But if used legally and in good conscience, you can gather solid legal evidence for yourself, easily. For instance, you can use spying tech to hide cameras around your home for protection. If you live in an area with any crime, you can use information you have gathered to catch a criminal. Or, have slightly smaller issues around the house? Using hidden video surveillance can help you uncover who has been eating all the cookies, leaving the lights on, or anything you can imagine!
Another technology you can use to spy on others is audio technology. This can be very useful to monitor what goes in and out of your house. There have been cases where a hidden recorder has been placed in the phone of another spouses, leading to catching adultery in the act. Having this kind of evidence would continue its legal use, as it may help your case in a divorce battle. Monitoring one’s kids may also be something for a home spy to consider. If you are finding it difficult to find out where your child is going or what they may be doing, information gathered from a phone conversation will be able to provide you with the peace of mind that you know what they are getting into.
With the Internet so easily accessible, along with its plethora of adult related content and other things one may not want their kids to see, monitoring the home computer is very important. This is an example of how spy technology can be used in a very productive way to ensure your family’s safe usage of the Internet. If you have physical access to the computer, you may plant a key-logger between the keyboard and the computer itself. This will tell you everything that is typed into the computer. Other, more sophisticated computer spy-ware is available, but it may take an expert user or technician to run properly.
One last readily useful surveillance device one can use is a GPS tracker. Parents may find these useful to be able to check on the location of their kids at anytime. The most basic of these devices are small, looking like a thumb drive. Once placed, or hidden, in a car, they can then be removed and hooked up to a computer. Then, the device will provide a map and route of everywhere that car went that day. Smaller things include that which you can hide within a mobile device. The latter being useful to know exactly where the person was that day.
The uses for home spying equipment are almost endless. But, one must always make sure not to break privacy laws or invade privacy. These things must be used only for personal use and very ethically. Once you are assured that you are within the law and are acting legally, it is time become a real spy!…

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General Article

MS Excel – 3 Top Tips for Instant Productivity!

MS Excel – 3 Top Tips for Instant Productivity!

These are my top three tips for getting immediate results with Microsoft Excel. By using these tips you could save dozens of hours, working in creative tasks rather than repetitive ones.

1. Create a graphic in a second!

The fastest way to create a graphic is just to select the list of values you want to include…

… and press the F11 key! That will instantly create a new graphic, which can be enhanced afterwards.

2. Adjust the way you print your spreadsheet!

If you want to control how and in how many pages your spreadsheet will print, just select in the menu “File” option “Page setup”. In the Page Setup window look for the “Scaling” options, and in “Fit to” you can tell Excel how many pages to use for the width and height of your document.

For example you have a 10 row list that has 10 columns. When you print it you get the first 8 columns in a page and the other 2 in another, you can make Excel fit all the 10 columns in a single page by entering the value “1″ in the width textbox. You have just adjusted the width of your table, without having to test and test adjusting the width of your columns or the size of the font.

3. Freeze the column headers

When you have a list with a lot of rows you will most probably lose sight of the column headers as you go down the list. To keep them in sight just use the “Freeze Panes” option in menu “Window”.

Imagine your column headers are in row 4, and your list items begin on row 5. Select row 5 (you can just click on the left gray row number), then open menu “Window” and click option “Freeze Panes”. Now you don’t need to keep remembering which column means what, or have to keep going up and down the list to find out.

As you have seen these simple tips can give you a control of what you see and print in Excel, and will save you a lot of time and effort… if you put them to work.

Of course, these tips are just the beginning. There are hundreds of shortcuts and tricks that can boost your productivity with Microsoft Excel, which are so easy to learn and practice.…