Home & Small Office Computer Guide

Close on the heels of a senior member of the Vista team admitting that there was still a lot of work to be done before Microsoft’s new operating programme was ready for release CNet is reporting that Microsoft’s CEO as saying that Vista is on “on track to ship in the first part of next year January”.

You can read the full story here

If you are in any way involved in placing images on websites then this will be of great interest to you.

Microsoft has announced the release of a new image format that will be supported in its upcoming Vista operating system. It will also be supported in XP.

Windows Media Photo is said to allow great compression of file sizes while maintaining a clear image. Microsoft suggests that their new format will replace the Jpeg - the current Internet standard.

You can read the full story here

Until a few years ago if you wanted improved performance out of your car you did all sorts of things to the motor. These days you do all sorts of things to the computer.

Read the story in ‘Hotting Up Your Car - Geek Style’

I live with my computers anything up to 15 hours a day 7 days a week (I know it’s sad and my kids tell me I need to get a life but …) but somehow I just couldn’t get this passionate about computers

Die-hard Apple fans camp out on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue for two days in anticipation of opening of new flagship store.

You can read the full story here

Nokia has announced the release of the E50 range of business phones - some obviously aimed to compete with the Blackberry.

You can read the full story here

Yahoo! is about to introduce a new look and if you want a preview just hit the sneak preview link that you will see towards the top of the Yahoo! homepage.

Unfortunately not all browsers are supported so if you’re like me and tried to view it in something other than IE6 or Firefox 1.5 you’re politely told to go away.

An interesting way to deal with the people who are important to you.

Skype is perhaps the best known provider of free Internet based phone calls - a service that I use. Skype has also given users the ability to call ordinary landline numbers from the computer but there has always been a charge for the cost of those calls.

However, in challenge to their competitors, Skype has now announced that all US and Canadian based Skype users can now make calls to landline and mobile numbers within North America for free until the end of the year.

Brazil is a country with over 89 million mobile phones in circulation but now some users are taking a second look at that little piece of convenience they hold to the side of their head.

Over the last couple of months there have been a small number - less than 10 - of reports of mobile phones exploding. It seems that Motorola are blaming the problem on people using cheap copies of Motorola batteries.

You can read the full story here

Nokia have announced the release of their new Nokia 5500 Sport phone

The single button in the centre of the phone allows users to choose one of three options:

The phone can be used as a phone

The phone be switched to music mode when you need to unwind - the phone will hold around 750 songs.

The phone can be used in sports mode to keep track of work or your work-out

In sports mode the phone uses an integrated pedometer to montior the distance you have covered or the calories you have burnt during a busy day.

The phone comes in a spash and dust resistant shell to protect it from the rigors of all the hard yards you will want to put in with it strapped to your hip.

Are you challenged by digital cameras and digital photography? You really would like to take great pictures but the only thing you seem to be able to photograph is your feet?

If that’s you then there’s a new website on the Net where you can learn how to use your digital camera. The site is called Digital Photography School and it’s run by Darren Rowse - a well-known amateur digital photographer here in Australia.

You will find his writing style easy to follow and he updates the site just about every day so there is always something new for you to learn.