Windows 7 Family Pack Available Again - "While Supplies Last"

There has never been a better time to upgrade your PC running either Windows Vista, or heaven forbid, Windows XP. The Windows 7 Home Premium Family Pack Upgrade is again available from Microsoft, but, as was the case last Fall, when the Family Pack was first released - this special is for a limited time only. No end date has been set, so it is best to jump on this deal while you can, as Microsoft ended the promotion in November 2009 with little warning. The Windows 7 Family Pack Upgrade is priced at $149.99.

Why the Windows 7 Family Pack?
Most households now have at least one PC, with many families lucky to have multiple PCs. Lucky, in that most members of the household can access a PC when needed for email, work, homework, or gaming, but not so lucky when it comes time to upgrade the operating system.

The Windows 7 Family Pack provides three (3) Upgrade Licenses, so a family with 3 PCs running, say, Windows Vista, can buy the Family Pack, and upgrade ALL the family PCs in one fell swoop.

Where Is the Best Deal?
The Windows 7 Family Pack at a list price of $149.99 is a good deal. However, one online retailer is actually offering a great deal - Amazon.com - where it's available for only $139.99!

So if you're family computers are still on Windows XP, or Windows Vista, you should make the move to Windows 7. I have used it for over a year now, and it is easily the best version of Windows Operating System released yet. Hit the link below to check out the Windows 7 Home Premium Family Pack Upgrade on Amazon.com.

15 Killer Google Chrome Features You Might Not Know About

15 Killer Google Chrome Features You Might Not Know About

Excellent tips here, and most of them I didn't know about at all. I especially like the Pin Tab tool. Want to keep a tab always open, say in a certain position among your other tabs? Pin it in place!

OffiSync–Synchronize MS Office with Google Apps

Came across a great tool today – you never know what you’ll find on Twitter! – called OffiSync. Expect a more thorough review of it soon, but the short of it is, this handy and FREE tool enables users of Microsoft Office to very quickly save documents to Google Apps, or, as shown in the screen capture above, access the files currently in their Google Apps account from directly within any Microsoft Office application.

This provides not only a very slick tool for collaborating with coworkers, but allows you to quickly access any MS Office-based documents remotely, when you’re away from the office; provided, of course, that you’ve saved to both locations. It is also a handy backup tool for any documents you just don’t want to have to recreate should something happen to your main PC.

Definitely going to play with this a bit. Sounds like an incredibly useful tool – so much so that I’m surprised that Google does not provide something similar. This could hasten the move toward Google Apps in a big way, especially companies that are thinking about making the switch.

Playing On Safari; or, Pretending You Have an iPad or iPhone

Recently I found myself in need of a special screen capture, to use in a blog post for another website. This screen capture needed to show a Google search, on the iPhone. I needed to demonstrate the way a Local Search looked, when searching for "lawyer pittsburgh pa" or something like that.

Well, the main problem I have is that I don't currently have an iPad - although I'm considering the purchase, as I've heard they're pretty cool, and useful - or an iPhone. So, what to do?

I remembered that you can turn on a special Developer menu in Safari, Apple's browser, for those of you in firmly in the Windows world, and set it to view a website as Mobile Safari - the browser built-in to the iPad and iPhone. I'm showing the window borders to demonstrate that while it looks like a search on the iPad or iPhone, it's actually in Safari on the desktop.

I will find this extremely useful, in my Local SEO work, in being able to create screen captures to demonstrate Local Searches on mobile devices, without having to actually own those devices. 

This can also be useful to view Gmail, or another web-based email service, in a smaller browser window. Helpful if you're running out of screen real estate (and who isn't?) these days. Here's Gmail in a smallish window: 

Not many will find this useful, but I could be wrong. It is cool though, you can't deny that.

For instructions on how to change the User Agent settings in Safari (it's easier than that sounds) please visit one my other blog posts, "Tips for Local SEOs (Safari User Agent Switch)" over at LocalSEO4me.com.
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Windows 7 Default Iconic Background, Behind the Scenes at CodenameWindows

 

In-depth interview discussing the origination, planning and design of the default Windows 7 background image. Goes to show these UI folks really think about every detail – as they should.

Windows 7 Default Iconic Background, Behind the Scenes at CodenameWindows

Google Chrome OS Initial Review

 

Good review of one of the development builds of the Chrome OS. I agree with many of his points, and will post a review of my own shortly, meaning sometime over the Christmas break.

Google Chrome OS Initial Review

Office Resource Kit Blog : What’s new for IT professionals in Office 2010

IT professionals, check it out.  Resources for planning, including info on the 64-bit versions.

Office Resource Kit Blog : What’s new for IT professionals in Office 2010