Why is iTunes still around?

Posted: December 21, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Smartphone, Software | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

I remember when I got my very first iPod for my birthday, about five years ago. It was pink and really small. I was so happy. Now it would be easy to take all my favourite music with me on my travels or out jogging. My happiness lasted until I downloaded iTunes onto my computer and tried to download music onto my iPod. I scratched my head and furrowed my brow. I couldn’t see the logic in this program, until I understood that it was all about “synchronisation”. I got so angry, why couldn’t Apple make the iPod work like a regular USB memory device, like other MP3 players? A lot of my friends thought that it did work like a USB device and saved their photos exclusively on their iPod, only to see them suddenly disappear at the next synchronisation, losing their photos forever. They learned the iTunes lesson the hard way.

iTunes has been around for more than ten years now, and it still works in more or less the same way. And now we also have iPhones and iPads, where iTunes also serves as the central tool in using them. Synchronisation is still the logic. Is this really the case in 2011? How can it be that people don’t protest more about this?

In October 2011 Apple released a new version of iTunes, iTunes 10.5. I waited hopefully for an improvement. Surely Apple had got it by now. Quite the opposite, now everything goes through the new iCloud service, which iTunes 10.5 supports. This provides the facility to define settings so that any apps, music or books you download are automatically copied to all your other iOs devices. It means that if you buy an MP3 track via your computer, the track can then be transferred automatically to your iPad or iPhone. Isn’t this once more about synchronisation, but simultaneously on several digital devices?

Below are some information pages and guides for those of you who still can’t do without iTunes.

Download iTunes 10.5   http://www.apple.com/se/itunes/

Read more about iCloudhttp://www.apple.com/se/icloud/

A guide that describes how to use iCloud.

http://www.comaroundfree.com/Smartphones__Tablet_PC/iPhone/How_to_use_iCloud_on_your_iPhone,_iPad_or_iPod_touch-7488

Shouldn’t the age of iTunes have been over long ago? Or at least changed to be more like a USB device to benefit users? I look forward to hearing your comments and views on this.

Don´t forget to check out our guides for iTunes

What is Office 365 ?

Posted: September 30, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: ComAround, Software | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Here at last! Microsoft’s new cloud service for small and medium enterprises. Using Office 365 you can, as the administrator, set up and distribute user accounts across the company to facilitate internal communication. The small package includes ten user licences. If your enterprise grows, you simply buy more at a later date. As administrator, you are the one who creates accounts for your co-workers. So, as administrator you create accounts, reset passwords and issue new ones to your users.

What’s in this cloud service for me?

As a Office 365 user, you have access to Office Web Apps, a light version of the Office package that enables you to collaborate on documents and workbooks right there in your browser. You also get access to the instant messaging service Lync and the internal team site that serves as a bulletin board for your co-workers. Within the organisation, this is where you can upload shared documents and workbooks for editing. For example, you can upload shared photo albums from events or business trips, the year’s reports in Excel workbooks, etc. – it’s a smart way of bringing everything together simply.

whatisOffice365

Suddenly, creating a web page is just as easy as creating a Word document.

As administrator, you can use Office 365 as a simple way of creating a web page for your organisation. Office 365 has a built-in CMS interface where you can edit everything on the web page you create. You also develop the actual appearance, and if have you ready-made style templates (CSS) you can load them here. You will be assigned a web address with the suffix sharepoint.com when your page is finished. Suddenly, creating a web page is just as easy as creating a Word document.

Follow your colleagues

Communicating in Office 365 is really straightforward. On what is called the team site there is a discussion board where you can write about yourself or check the status of other people in the organisation. You can also upload files here, and collaborate on documents and workbooks.

The check-in and check-out function enables you to keep an eye on who is currently editing documents or workbooks. This also enables your work history and follow-up to be seen more easily.  The team site is quite simply an effective way to communicate in the organisation.

Google plus. Copycat or game changer?

Posted: September 23, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: News, Social media | Tags: , , , , , , , | 7 Comments »

Is Google+ yet another social networking service? Well kind of, but it is a lot more than that.

Google+ is primarily an Identity service as Google’s former CEO, Eric Schmidt stated in an interview earlier this year.

There are a lot of similarities between Facebook and the Google+ platform. There are also a lot of people who would compare these two giants against each other. In a way I feel it’s wrong but let’s look at some differences on the core concepts between these two.

The core function regarding the relationships between people are different, in Google+ you circle in people you know or share interests with, while on Facebook you send people a friend request which feels a bit more personal, and most of us would not send friend requests to random people just because we happened to be at the same event or have commented the same thread in a Facebook group for example. So in that regard the way you connect with other people, Google+ and Facebook are quite different.

It’s all about organizing your data in a way that makes sense to you

Google+ allows you to organize your friends in customized circles, like friends, family, co-workers or colleagues. This makes it easy for you to alter the privacy settings for each circle so you can choose who sees what.

Hold on! What about Facebook friends list?

Facebook has had a friends list function for some time now, but it is quite well hidden, little known and not used by the masses. This could be because Facebook does not like people to be private, i really don’t know. Facebook has made a lot of changes (I am reluctant to call these improvements) the last year, one I am really puzzled about is the change to their chat. It used to be an ok function for fast instant messages, and later Facebook changed it to end up as completely useless. Now I see friends that are offline mixed with people that are online and there is this little checkbox hidden under the settings icon that says “available to chat”. Does it filter away my offline friends? No, it sets my own chat to disabled mode. Ever heard of Skype? MSN? The standard options are Away, Online, Do not disturb and show as offline.

The problem with Facebook friends list is that it is not a central component of the service. The feature feels like it was tacked on, hidden behind confusing menus. Facebook has however added some new features to their platform, more on that in the next article.

So, who is winning the war between social platforms?

Google+ is not even in beta yet, you still need an invitation to be able to integrate your Gmail account with Google+ and it is mostly early adopters that have actually shown interest in this new platform. Google has immense amounts of resources at their disposal that they can integrate into the Google+ platform.  For example Google’s advert monetizing is light years ahead of Facebook’s, when it comes to interest based advert targeting.

Just to show an example of how well Google’s advert network actually can target people, here is an example:

Remember the movie Minority report where Tom Cruise’s character walks into a store and sees adverts on monitors that are targeted towards him based on his personality, lifestyle, interests etc. That is not the future, it’s the present! If you’re logged in on your Google account, check out this page to see how Google has “circled” your areas of interest to show you the most relevant ads when you are surfing the web.

To sum it up, I do not think Google+ will kill Facebook nor will it die off like other hyped projects (wave) that this mysterious giant has released. How it will evolve is yet to be seen.

Ready to join Google+?

Google+ is open for everyone to join so enter http://www.comaroundfree.com/Misc._applications/Other_software/Sign_up_for_Google_Plus-7424 to see how its done.

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