The scheme opens in Europe today apparently.

In order to be eligible for this program, you must have ordered an eligible Windows Vista Capable computer from Dell between October 26th, 2006 and March 15, 2007 with Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition, Genuine Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 or Genuine Windows XP Professional pre-installed. See list of eligible systems. This redemption must be completed by no later than March 31, 2007 in order to take advantage of the promotional upgrade offer.

Link: http://www.dellvistaupgrade.com/

The Dell Optiplex is the most common desktop machine I deploy.

This review is relevant to me and types of clients I deal with.

The Optiplex 745 is very new but I am looking forward to this machine, most likely partnered with Windows Vista early next year.

If you’re a North West based business looking help purchasing Dell equipment or want advice about new technology then get in touch I can help you. Tel: 01606-841587.

Link: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2069347,00.asp

I am experimenting with push e-mail on my Orange SPV M3100

Push e-mail is when you are immediately notified about the delivery of an e-mail to your account.

The traditional method of collecting your e-mail is called Pull when the user chooses to connect and receive the e-mail.

Good news first, Push e-mail works I get instant notification when someone e-mails me.

So far so good however, that’s about as good as it gets.

So why the down side?

Cost: Using Pull My Monthly data costs are £4, using Push they would be between £20 and £50 this is because the device has to have a permanent gprs connection to the mail server. Each hour it’s connected it sends a small packet of information out on the connection basically a heartbeat to tell the mail server it’s still alive. It’s a 19kb data packet per hour. Then when you do receive e-mail more data is used and therefore the costs go up.

Battery Life: Because a constant connection needs to be established this turns a device that will quite happily go 3 or 4 days without recharge now struggles to last a day.

Inconvenience: I spend my life solving problems, talking with people on the phone or doing concentrated work. Typically on a working day I can get 30 to 50 genuine e-mails but with push turned on I get interrupted momentarily 30 to 50 times a day. This is not good when you are knee deep in a business critical situation. You have to turn Push off to get anything done.

Spam and Not so relevant e-mail: Chances are the typical user has a Spam problem so they will routinely receive a percentage of e-mail that is spam these also get Pushed out. To stop that you have to have a pretty smart third party Spam filter and or very smart rules in your e-mail to decide what to push and what not to push.

Summary.

Email on move is a killer application. Pull is great, Push well….

Pro’s
Instant Access to incoming e-mail

Con’s
Cost
Battery Life
Inconvenient Intrusion

There are some line of business applications where this would be suited basically people who need information beamed to them for example their next appointment or service call. In that situation push makes sense but for your typical user (and I class myself as one) It’s not really worth it.

If you’re a North West based business looking help and advice about new technology then get in touch I can help you. Tel: 01606-841587.

Link: N/A

T68i, P900, Orange SPV M2000, O2 XDA Exec, Orange SPV M3100

A Few things are clear, one of which is that I am a hoarder (of old phones)

From Left to right are the phones I have used for their respective years.

2002 = Sony Ericsson T68i
2003 = Sony Ericsson P900
2004 = Orange SPV M2000
2005 = O2 XDA Exec
2006 = Orange SPV M3100

2002 = Sony Ericsson T68i
The T68i was a great small phone with excellent battery life.

2003 = Sony Ericsson P900
I had a Sony Ericsson P800 first, sold that and got the P900. It was another great phone. This was the first usable “email on the move” device I had.

2004 = Orange SPV M2000
The SPV M2000 had one inherent pocket PC flaw, that when the device lost power you lost everything, contacts, e-mails, texts etc. This flaw affects all PocketPC’s/Smartphones running prior to windows mobile 5.0. so as good as this device was this design flaw was the reason I would eventually replace it.

2005 = O2 XDA Exec
This is a great little computer but an awful phone. Its simply too large to be practical. However is suited me at the time. I get 25 e-mails for every telephone call I got on the device. So for me it was the right technology.

2006 = Orange SPV M3100
The M3100 has everything, it has the same feature set of the XDA Exec but none of the issues relating to the size of it (see picture above).

Summary

Over the years I have been happy with all these purchases and all have contributed to making me more productive when I am mobile.

I am wondering what now? I have a great smart phone what do the developers have up their sleeves to keep pushing the envelope.

Link: N/A

The UK Link to download the trial version is here

Link: http://ukireland.trymicrosoftoffice.com/default.aspx?culture=en-GB