Like many people these days, I work across many machines in a typical workday. While I might have a Windows machine at the office, I have a Mac at home and I backup all the computers to a Windows Home Server in the cupboard.

I have a few “essential” folders that I always want to have access to (things like finances, insurance info, passport copies, contracts etc.), regardless of which computer I am working on, and yes it can become a hassle having to keep them all in sync, especially if you have to walk around with a flash disk to each computer. I found the best way to do it – DropBox.

Multiplatform

Dropbox installs as a simple app on your Windows, Mac or Linux machine and then keeps track of all the folders you drop into it. Now at first you only get 2GB of space for free, if you want more you have to pay for it. But as a method to keep essentials like word, excel and PDF docs, it works great. I installed Dropbox on my Macbook first, and it just creates a simple Dropbox folder into which you throw your documents. Then as soon as you find an internet connection, it simply uploads those files to the Dropbox server, which can then be accessed from any web browser, you just need to log in. (Imagine being in a foreign country and needing some document – you can just pop into a internet café…)

Keeping it all in sync

But the true beauty of Dropbox is the syncing ability. I installed Dropbox on work machine, a Windows 7 workstation. You install dropbox, give it your login details, and just like that it downloads all your documents to that machine as well. It just lays in the system tray and informs you if any files have changed every now and then. But the syncing is where it gets interesting – any change I make to a document gets uploaded to Dropbox, and then gets changed on all my machines that use Dropbox as well. In your window it just marks the updated folders with a small green tick if everything synced. I turn blue while updating.

I also have a Windows Home Server at home, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that Dropbox installs on it without any problems. While it might not give a WHS add in, you can install it using Remote Desktop. So now my documents are backed up instantly on that server as well, because it has an internet connection.

Sharing files:

Sometimes you need to share files to many people, but email is not the best platform. You can use dropbox to enable a “public” folder. You can then enable which people can access it, and then send them a URL directly to a file. This is particularly handy for larger file sizes – like say recordings of a meeting, which might be too big email.

What about bandwidth?

Now you might wonder about bandwidth usage, especially with SA’s current broadband problems. Dropbox is pretty smart in that first looks for another dropbox machine on your local network, and then gets the file locally, without using the internet. And it always just uploads or downloads files that were altered, not your entire dropbox.

Accessing your dropbox from your iPhone

Then the cherry on the cake is that your dropbox can be accessed on your iPhone as well. Just install it from the appstore, and login again. And just like that you have access to your dropbox. Now this was the initial reason I started using Dropbox – I wanted some way to get access to my essential documents from anywhere using my iPhone. And it works a treat. You do however need a internet connection, but you can select favourite files that gets stored locally on your iPhone. Like I mark my insurance papers, passport documents etc as favourites. That way I can access them even away from a 3G connection.

What would I like to change about Dropbox? Nothing really – but I think they will do even better if they make more mobile apps. What about Android, Blackberry and Symbian?

I am very impressed by Dropbox – it covers in the cloud backup of my documents, keeps my documents in sync on a variety of machines, and gives me access to my files from anywhere, be it from my iPhone or even a internet café.

Give it a go here. Dropbox is free up to 2GB of storage, but they sell 50GB for $10 a month as well.


Disclosure: I was in no way, shape or form given anything for this review. I just find it a great product.

Microsoft is one of those companies that always seems to carry the weight of the computing world – and rightly so. If you think of any area within computing, MS somehow has a finger in the pie. In some areas of course, they are the pie.

Credit has to be given to Microsoft’s improvement in the area of operating systems. Operating systems are their core business, but just about every consumer release of Windows has been plagued with problems. And people who are clutching to XP – remember, it too has been full of problems. Think about XP pre-SP2. What a mess. I remember times when my entire campus was taken down in one afternoon by a worm. While this can still happen, Microsoft has clearly made an effort to improve with Windows 7.

Microsoft is not the Microsoft of old – some evil empire that just could not seem to do anything right. There recent products have been absolutely great. Now I am sure just about any tech reporter or blogger out there has sung Windows 7’s praise (even rabid Apple fanboys). I concur completely – even though I do also use Mac OSX, I am very, very impressed by Windows 7. In fact, I think it’s so good that most businesses would not follow the regular “wait for SP1” routine. Its amazing how you install an OS on a five year old laptop with obscure hardware and Windows 7 installs without a single hitch. When has this ever happened before?

Another area where Microsoft has impressed me is in the area of home entertainment and computing. Yes, I am a fan of Xbox. Its powerful, versatile and surprisingly well priced in South Africa (especially versus the Wii). It has had a lot of problems – in fact, I have gone through 3 overheating consoles already, but it seems they have ironed out the problems. You have to respect the company for extending the warranty on Xboxes. Its a great movie player as well – it can play videos from a variety of sources, which brings me to my next point.

My biggest praise however has to go to Windows Home Server – yes, how boring. But really, this is one of the most pleasant surprises I have come across in quite some time. As someone who has a few computers in my home its truly a life saver. No more manual backups to external drives – WHS just backs up all the machines that you tell it too, and as often as you want it to. Its great for pack rats as well – just keep adding hard drives to its pool, and it manages the rest. Yes, many alternatives exist, but none with the elegance of WHS. It streams videos to my Xbox, and with the right add on, even to your iPhone.

Now this piece might sound like songs of praise for Microsoft – true, they have made some great products recently, but I also want to see a few things from them in 2010. Do these few things, and I would be a happy camper:

• I have high expectations for the next release of Windows Home Server. I want built in streaming to multiple video formats and better power management controls (electricity is becoming expensive…). Its expected within this year still, and there is quite a few innovations coming.
• Windows Phone 7 Series. Windows Mobile has been a disaster for the last few years. True, a few companies stuck pretty skins over it, but it was dead in the water. Luckily Microsoft just announced their latest version which looks brilliant. Competition is a great thing, and currently iPhone and Android needs some competition – Palm clearly could not keep up, so maybe Microsoft can keep this exciting field going. Even if there is no victor, all phones will benefit.
• Office 2010 is pretty great – I have been running the Beta for quite a while already. Keep it up – I am looking forward to better social networking integration though. And even though MS could not buy Xobni, they should try again. Its just that good.
• Project Natal looks incredible, despite its lag in current demos. Xbox’s biggest weakness is that it does not attract the casual gamer market. Yes, the Wii market. It’s a very lucrative field, so if Microsoft can approach with a revolutionary control scheme such as Natal, the possibilities are endless. Make it affordable, and I expect it might give the Wii as serious run for its money.
• Then my final pointer is that Microsoft needs to address the SA market better. Xbox Live is still not available for South Africans. Yes, there are work arounds.But its mighty unfair asking me the same price for a game as someone in the US, yet you do not support the online component in SA (officially). Slowly but surely SA consumers are starting to expect more from their technology. But luckily Microsoft does see SA as an important part of its global strategy – if only more companies could do it as well. I am pretty sure a few companies still see Africa as a country.

I came across a great new tool for anyone who has a iPhone and a wireless network at home - Air Video. You download the Air Video app on your iPhone (any version works), and then from there install Air Video server on your Windows or Mac machine.

Air Video converts videos on the fly on your machine of choice, and then plays it back on your iPhone. You tell Air Video server which folders to monitor on your computer, and then it will make the videos available to play on your iPhone. So far I found the file compatibility brilliant, it even transcoded a massive mkv file quickly enough for my iPhone.

I tested it on my relatively new Macbook Pro and it worked very well, and was very brisk. An episode of Modern Family started playing within 5 seconds on my iPhone. I also tested it on my other machines. I tried it out on a relatively weak Atom powered Windows 7 netbook, and it started playing videos within 15 seconds and then from there it played without a hiccup. The only place where processing power gives an advantage is seeking within a transcoded video, like when you want to skip the opening sequence of a show. It was super stable on all the machines I installed it on.

But the place where I appreciated Air Video the most, is on Windows Home Server. It might not have a Home Server plugin, but it works very well. I just pointed it to my videos folders, and just like that I had access to my entire video library… brilliant. It is pretty much what I wish for in the next release of Windows Home Server. HP makes a similiar solution for their own home servers, but it is nowhere near as functional and simple as Air Video.

Now you might argue – why would I want to watch a video on my iPhone instead of on a computer (or whatever streaming device you might have)? True, you do get a better experience on your big screen TV, but it is pretty great to quickly watch the latest The Office right there on your iPhone just before going to bed.

Currently Air Video is $3 in the appstore, and then you download the free Air Video server on the machines you wish to use.

IF you are one of the people who is using Windows Home Server, you might have been wondering what you can do to make the server use less electricity.

While there are many innovations that people want from the next version of Windows Home Server, power consumption is a major concern (especially for South Africans these days). While HP has improved the power consumption of their own Media Smart servers, I do believe Microsoft will introduce smarter ways to conserver power in the next version of WHS, be it more aggressive sleep patterns or maybe even central administration of power devices in the home. I don’t think home automation is to far off, This is after all a Home Server.

While WHS is a very handy solution to backups and filesharing, not all of us needs it to be on 24 / 7.  Luckily there is a few things you can do to make the server use less power without diminishing its utility. What you basically want is a server that uses the minimum amount of power but is readily available the moment you need to access  something from it.

1. First you can do is download the Lights Out add on for WHS. Lights Out is a great little app to choose what times of day your machine should be on. You can set times at which the machine will sleep, hibernate or even shut down. I recommend you set your machine to sleep at certain times that suit you. Like say 12’o clock at night.
2. Set your WHS to wake on network access. This is easy enough to do  – go to Control Panel -> Device Manager and then look for your network adaptor. Open it up and select the Advanced tab. Look for Wake On Lan, and enable it. From there you can set what type of network packet can switch it on. Switch it to Both.
3. Set your machine to do backups (and whatever automated processes you might have set) only during hours the machine will be on. 
4. If you are still insisting to leave your server on for long hours, you might want to set it to sleep hard drives when not in use. This is especially important if you have multiple hard drives. If no machine is accessing the server, the hard drives in the machine does not need to be spinning along. Go into Control Panel -> Power Options. From there, set your hard drives to sleep after 15 minutes.
5. While extra hard drives do add redundancy to the server, evaluate carefully what drives you use in the server. If you just added drives that were laying around like a very old 80 Gig drive, you should realize that the drive is probably not very reliable, and does use extra power to keep spinning in a server. For example, if you have 3TB of storage in your server and also add a 80 Gig drive, its probably not worth it. Also, newer drives are typically more power efficient than older models (especially if you use specific low power drives).

These are just some tips I will give. So far my WHS machine is very stable and sleeps most of the time. Of course you can go to greater lengths, like build a machine with lower power components. You can go for a Intel Atom processor, 2.5 inch hard drives (although you will lose some storage for the same amount of money as a 3.5 inch drive). At the end of the day, the biggest contributor to energy consumption is how you use the server. Make it sleep whenever possible and you will quickly see some results.

At the end of 2009 Apple surprised everyone with the stunning new iMac – bigger display, more horsepower, and perhaps more significantly, a new (good) mouse. Apple has never really been able to make a decent mouse up to now – true, they have always been cool looking but not very functional. Even the most recent Mighty Mouse was not great – despite interesting control schemes like squeezing buttons and a scroll ball (not button), many people still despised it.

With the Magic Mouse Apple is hoping to change this. Typical of Apple, the Magic Mouse looks awesome, and is a stark opposite of the mice that have been on our desks up to now. We all enjoy having multi-button mice, but the Magic Mouse does away with most buttons. In fact, the entire surface of the Mouse is just one button.

Made of a sleek aluminium base with a white/clear plastic top, the Magic Mouse is very slick looking, and needs a second glance to even see that it is mouse. The symetry in its design makes you forget which side is the front of the device if you do not look. However, you will quickly feel the way the button pivot moves when you click. The bottom of the mouse has two large low friction panels to make it easy to move around. This is also a laser mouse – which makes it much more capable to work on a variety of surfaces – wood, cloth etc. It does not work on glass however. It is also a bluetooth mouse, which means there is one less thing to plug in, and no need for a dongle.

What makes the Magic Mouse unique is that the top surface of the mouse is a multi-touch sensitive panel similiar to iPhones and multitouch trackpads. At any moment, the mouse is aware of where your fingers are placed on it. This means that clicking on the right side of the mouse has a different effect than on the left. The same goes for scrolling – the entire top surface functions as a scrolling pad, regardless of directions. It also ignores unintended swipes, something I was weary of when I first saw the mouse.

So how is it to use then? Pretty great. At first I had some trouble getting used to the low profile of the mouse – it is quite a jump from typical mice that fit almost like a ball in your hand. This thing you work with your fingertips. Not just scrolling and clicking, but the actual movement of the mouse. It is so light, it moves effortlessly around on your desk. Now I have to admit this is not everyone’s cup of tea. If you are someone who like big heavy mice, this is not the mouse for you.

Despite the ergonomic issues I had at first, I quickly started the “light – fingered” approach to mousing around. Why? Because once you start using multitouch on a mouse, you wont go back. You start to appreciate simple things – for example, scrolling has a momentum effect (like the iPhone) meaning you can quickly flick your finger to make it scroll all the way to the end of a document. Simple yes, but you miss it once you start playing around with another mouse.

Tracking performance was faultless, and the mouse did not loose connection with my Macbook Pro ever. For kicks I hooked it up to my Lenovo S10 netbook running Windows 7 as well. I found some unofficial drivers, but soon it worked a treat. Talking about laptops, the magic mouse is also a pretty decent travelling mouse, but I do recommend you protect it. I put mine inside a sunglass bag inside my computer bag – the mouse does look susceptible to scratches.

So would I recommend the Magic Mouse? Yes, but not if you have big hands or really prefer big mice. The multitouch feature is just so effective that it is hard to go back to anything else.

The Magic Mouse currently goes for R850 at iStores, and for more at Incredible Connection. If you can have a buddy bring you one form overseas, consider it. It goes for about 55 pounds in the UK, so about R660 at the time of writing. Yes Core, we are watching your prices.

Overall I give it 8 out of 10.

Pros:
Multitouch
Great tracking performance
Good battery life
Looks

Cons:
Very flat profile – try before you buy
Tad expensive
Standard Apple System Prefs on doesn’t give much customization – get MagicPrefs

PS: If you did go and buy the Magic Mouse, you NEED to download MagicPrefs. It goes way beyond the standard swipes, flicks and clicks that Apple enables with the Magic Mouse.

Once in a while a game changing product comes along that makes you rethink conventions which are pretty much hardwired into our routines. This is immediately apparent in the consumption of media – be it music, movies or print. With the dawn of the internet our consumption of these have been altered dramatically.  Take for example music – 20 years ago, music was a much more valued form of media. People purchased albums, with beautiful album artwork, and there was a much more grandiose feeling to buying an album from your favourite band. These days, the feeling is somewhat cheapened, and the average consumer is very much aware they are paying royalties for the music, rather than for the actual physical product which we like to own. After all, many people buy CD’s and almost immediately rip the disc for use on their media player of choice. Movies are going a similar route – with the ease of use iTunes, and the advent of cheap broadband, the idea of having to buy a DVD is also very quickly becoming old news. Its only natural to imagine this mindset changing idea to books and print media.
 About two weeks ago Amazon sent me a review unit of the Kindle International Edition and I have to agree it is definitely a game changing device. Instead of rambling on about the bigger picture – I will stick to explain the hardware, and also how it fits in with everyday life of someone who does read enough to warrant the purchase of a

The Kindle arrives in cardboard box, but still manages to exude some class. Amazon packages the Kindle in packaging that in no way looks cheap (its almost like they want to remind you where books come from). There is quite a good unboxing experience. Inside the box you will find the Kindle, its short introductory manual, and its USB cable with a US plug on one end. Why Amazon chose to ship the international edition with the US plug is beyond me. This is the first of many reminders that the International Kindle is primarily focused on the US market, despite what the name might tell you.

Another side effect of the e-ink screen is the great battery life. Despite its sleek body, the Kindle lasts for a long time between charges. In the past three weeks I charged the device twice. And that is after a lot of use, including browsing Wikipedia and trawling the Kindle store wirelessly for books. Wish cellphones could have this kind of battery life.

So you are new to a mac, but you still need to cling to Windows every now and then. Then I can recommend you get hold of VMWare Fusion. If you want to build a Windows virtual machine, it is easy enough. However, if you want to make the machine run well, there is a few things you can do.

1. If you are running Windows 7 and a older version of VMWare Fusion, consider upgrading to Fusion 3. It really does improve performance a lot.
2. Get more RAM. If you have less than 4GB memory, you should really get more. It is the most bang for the buck upgrade you can do for your machine.
3. First up, switch off visual effects. Open up Control Panel -> System. From there select Advanced System Settings. Under performance, select Settings. Then choose “Adjust for best performance”. True, you lose some of Windows 7’s eye candy, but it becomes a lot speedier. If you cannot live without Aero Peek (which is great), you can at least switch off unnecessary animations.
4. If you are using Windows on your Mac just for productivity software, you might want to consider switching off the sound. Easy enough – at the bottom of the VM window, right click the speaker icon and select “Disconnect Sound Card”. Its easy to enable again as well.
5. If you are installing Windows 7, try going for the 64 bit version. The 64 bit version of Windows 7 will enable the use of Intel’s VT instruction sets which will make the VM run faster.
6. If you are running Windows Vista inside a VM, you should upgrade to Windows 7. Vista is terrible inside a VM.
7. You do not typically have to give Windows more than one processor. Also, it does not need more than 1 gig RAM, or 2 gig if you do more heavy duty stuff.
8. If you have the option, run the virtual machine from a second disk. All the better if that disk is Firewire instead of USB. This will make everything more responsive.
9. Defragment your virtual machine. Using a tool like Defraggler, defragment your VM. Then, shut down the virtual machine and clean up your VM disk. In VMWare, go to settings -> Disk and then choose “Clean Up”. Do this every few weeks if possible. 

I have always been a big fan of Outlook. Why? Because I liked the idea that it was a integrated app for running all my PIM data – email, notes, calendar and contacts. Also, when I switched to another computer, it was as easy as simply moving over a single PST file and all my important information will be ready to use.

In the last year I have switched over to the world of Mac – not that I believe Windows is not worth using. I have used a Thinkpad for Windows 7 (which is a great OS), and of course a Mac for the OS X duties. Steadily over time I have switched more and more of my day to day use to the Mac, but my email archive stayed with Outlook. Why? Because the Macbook is such a great machine to carry around. Unfortunately Outlook is not available for Mac (yet).

Now some of you might tell me to stop and just use Entourage. I am sorry, but Office for Mac is one sorry excuse for an Office suite. It lacks most of the cool features of Office 2007 on PC, and to boot, Microsoft has the balls to go and ask a similar price for it. Why Microsoft would not make the functionality of a import tool from Outlook to Entourage is beyond me. Don’t worry the next version looks a lot better, for one it will have the ribbon interface. The next version of Office for Mac will also bring back Outlook to the Mac.

But enough with the rant – you want to know how to switch Outlook to Apple Mail. It is not super easy, but if you know what to use, it is quite straightforward. Most of the tips I give are based on the idea that you have a lot of email to transfer, I had a 2 gigabyte PST file with a few years of email in there.

1) Clean up your Outlook mailboxes. Why? Because the more mail you have, the longer it will take to transfer. Do you really need to keep that kitten video that is 9 megs? Also, remember to empty your recycle bin / deleted items folder.

2) In Outlook, go to File -> Data File Management. From there, go to each PST file and do the following. Click on the PST file, click settings, and then select Compact Now.

3) Next up you have to go and download Mozillla Thunderbird, and install it on your PC. Yes, I know it’s a pain, but unless you want to spend money on silly little utilities, Thunderbird is your only choice. (You might even find that you like it). I used Thunderbird version 3.

4) Once Thunderbird is installed, fire it up. At first it will ask you to define email login settings, cancel this. Go to the Tools -> and select Import. From here select what you want to transfer. For the purposes of this guide I simply used Mail. It will then ask you which client to import form, select Outlook.

5) If you have a lot of email to transfer, this might take some time. It took me about 15 minutes. Be patient.

6) Once this is complete, you need to transfer all the email over to your other machine. In Thunderbird, go to Tools -> Account Settings. Go to Local folder on the left directory, and then under Message Storage look where your “profile” is being stored. Using Explorer, go find that file. You might find that you need to switch off Hide Files and Folders to get to it. Mine was stored at: C:\Users\Minnaar Pieters\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\y9e76tao.default

7) Once you find the folder (it typically has a cryptic name and ends with a “default” extension), copy it to some external storage that you can open on your mac. A network folder will do as well. (Its even easier if you are running Windows inside a VM, just share to your host Mac’s drive).

Once you have stored the profile folder (that one ending in “default) on your Mac somewhere, its time to fire up Mail. In Mail, go to File -> Import Mailboxes. This will bring up a box where you must select “Thunderbird”.  Click Next, and then it will ask you to feed it that “default” file you saved somewhere on your Mac. Using the finder window that pops up, go and select that folder.

9) Now the Import will start. Again, be prepared to wait a while, especially if it is a lot of email.

10) Once imported, go to the “On My Mac” folder in Mail. A import folder will appear there. Every PST file you had in Outlook will be neatly put there. Once you branch down you will see that Mail thinks you have a lot of unread Mail. Simply right click on each folder and select Mark All Messages as Read. This might take a while to process as well, so be patient. I would recommend you close and reopen Mail every now and then during this step, because it can slow down your machine tremendously (even on my new Macbook Pro).

And there you have it. Now you can enjoy all your heaps of emails on your Mac. If you want to import your email on Entourage, it is quite easy from here as well. Here are the steps:

If you are really someone who enjoys Entourage, go ahead and use it. If however, you have issues with it, you might be happy to know that Snow Leopard has Exchange support built in. So if you have been using Entourage only for the Exchange support, you might want to try to use the built in tools in Mail.

Happy emailing.