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News: 10 June 2013 – Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference 2013

 

Lots of announcements today at Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) 2013, in San Francisco. This included news on the next OSX release, iOS 7, new MacBook Air and a preview of the new Mac Pro.

Next OSX Release 

First up was the next version of OSX – initially they jokingly called it OSX Sea Lion, due to lack of big cats names left – then revealed it will actually be called OSX Mavericks. I think I preferred OSX Sea Lion!

The main news with OSX Mavericks:

Finder tabs
Files tagging
Multi-display functionality upgraded
CPU/Battery Life/Performance improvements
Memory improvements
Cloud Keychain
Notifications improvements
Calendar updated – no skeumorphism anyway
OSX Maps App and SDK
iBooks to Mac

OSX Mavericks preview available for developers today, general release in the autumn.

iOS 7 

One of the main changes for iOS 7 is the flat design of icons and screens. Not sure I like the look of it from the screenshots seen on the TechCrunch coverage.

They also went over Multitasking – now for all apps in iOS 7 – plus a move to more translucent objects, with a translucent keyboard sounding like a good idea, so you can see what’s behind where you’re typing.

iOS 7 will be available to devs today for iPhone, soon to devs on iPad and on general release in the autumn.

iOS 7 will be for iPhone 4 and later, iPad 2 and later, iPad Mini and iPod Touch 5th gen.

TechCrunch’s live coverage – with plenty of screenshots

Apple ‘s official WWDC 2013 page – when its ready

 

 

 

By |June 10th, 2013|Apple, Apps, Featured News, featured-posts, iMac, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Mobile, New Tech, News 2013, OSX|0 Comments
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  • MS Virtuals
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    Useful Test Resources – Windows Virtual Machines from Microsoft

Useful Test Resources – Windows Virtual Machines from Microsoft

MS Virtuals to Download 

Microsoft have recently updated the list of Windows Virtual Machines they’ll let you download and install for testing purposes.  In fact, its now a very useful list, including Windows 8, Windows 7, Vista and XP.

I was looking for a way of being able to test with Windows 7 and IE10, without having to upgrade either my Windows 7 laptop or Windows 7 virtual – thus losing ability to test IE9.

One of the virtuals is Windows 7 and IE10, so that was my first download, obviously took a while to download but its all now setup and running.

Microsoft have also expanded the range and usefulness of these downloads by allowing you select 1) which platform you want to test on – Windows, Mac OSX or Linux – 2) which Virtualization Platform you use – Hyper-V, Virtual PC, VirtualBox and VMWare Player.

The Virtualization Platform I use is VirtualBox, which is also a great free resource.

 

By |June 9th, 2013|Browsers, IE10, Linux, OSX, Website Testing, Windows 8|0 Comments
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WordPress theme demos – Pinboard, AutoFocus and MYgRID2

I recently added some live demos of WordPress themes to my website, so you can see them in action.

Currently, there are demos for the following themes:

Pinboard – ideal theme for presenting graphical content, such as product photos, images, designs etc
AutoFocus – demo of the original, free version of the AutoFocus theme, good for photobloggers
MYgRID2 – another theme great for displaying images, in a minimalist grid style

You can also see screenshots for these demos below and also on the page for my WordPress Website All In One package.

I aim to add some more theme demos to the site, perhaps with themes in differing styles to these first three.

My WordPress Theme Demos

By |April 26th, 2013|Business Websites, WordPress Development, WordPress Themes|0 Comments
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Update on Apple / Mountain Lion wifi issues

One of the Apple Support Communities pages I am subscribed to is all about the ‘wifi dropping’ issue people have had when updating to Mountain Lion. This has now reached its 14th page and new issues are added almost daily.

I found that the wifi dropping/connection issues went away when I followed Apple’s recommended settings for Wifi on iOS and OSX. The main thing to improve the situation was changing the security to WPA2.
Wifi Troubleshooting Software
As wifi constantly seems to be a problem – eg signal strength, interference and dropout – I have been searching for software which allows you to check what wifi traffic there is in your location. Up to now, I haven’t found anything useful, but I then read in an IT World article about software called inSSIDer – which is the exact thing I was looking for.

It’s well worth installing to see what wifi traffic there is in your area and what may be causing wifi issues. You can check each wifi channel to see how many other wifi networks are using it – and probably clogging it up – and then perhaps make changes to your wifi setup to try and fix the issues.  It also shows you its rating of your connection, in terms of a Link Score – the higher the better.

There are versions available for Windows, Mac and Android.

 

 

 

 

By |April 19th, 2013|Apple, iMac, iOS, iPad, iPhone, OSX, Problems|0 Comments
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Top 10 iOS Apps for Business On The Move

Updated 16 June 2013 – I’ve added my quick review of the excellent Citymapper app, which is a great way of getting yourself around London.

This is a personal list of the Top 10 iOS Apps I have found most useful for business, when out and about and on the move, travelling to/from meetings, events, training sessions etc. This includes emails, website stats, travel information, event information, project communications and much more. Every person asked would probably have a different Top 10, but some of these apps would probably feature across most people’s Top 10.

Putting this Top 10 together, I’ve noticed that it’s mainly Apps which allow quick and easy access to information and accounts usually accessed via websites.

 

 

By |April 16th, 2013|Apple, Apps, iOS, iPhone|0 Comments
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News: April 15 2013 – WordPress website botnet attacks reported

According to a news item on the BBC website and as mentioned elsewhere, there’s apparently a series of botnet attacks on WordPress websites.

The botnets are attempting to use the username admin – a default username in WordPress – and a series of password guesses to access sites.
What WordPress websites are at risk of botnet attacks?

Those which have a username of admin with administrator settings AND which have a weak password.

Quick and Dirty Fix to WordPress website botnet attacks

The quick and dirty fix is to change the password of the admin user from a weak password to a strong password – using a mix of letters, numbers and other characters should achieve this.

Full Solution to WordPress website botnet attacks

This involves creating a new user to use as site administrator and then carefully deleting the admin user.
I’d suggest exporting your content before doing this – just to be on the safe side – using Dashboard/Tools/Export.
Create a new user with a strong password – it will tell you the strength as you type the password – and set the role as Administrator.
Make sure you either know the password for this user or make a note of it.
If already logged in as admin, log out and log in with this new user.
CAUTION: Delete the admin user – making sure you ‘Attribute all posts to’ the new user first – otherwise you’ll lose your posts.
The users list will then show the updated list of users, including the new user you created and no admin user.

 

By |April 15th, 2013|Featured News, News 2013, WordPress Development|0 Comments
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News: April 9 2013 – iOS 7 Concept Video

This isn’t so much News as speculation, but there have been a few iOS 7 Concept Videos recently. One of the best ones was created by designer F. Bianco and reported on TUAW.com and also on the Huffington Post website.

 

 

By |April 9th, 2013|Apple, Apps, Featured News, iOS, iPad, iPhone, News 2013|0 Comments
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News: 2 April 2013 – Downloads added to site

I’ve recently added a Downloads section to the site (under Resources menu) from where you can download a selection of documents including Quick Guides and Glossaries. These are downloadable versions (PDF) of content I recently added to the site.

In order to download the PDF docs, you just need to supply your Name and Email Address. You can also decide whether to subscribe to my email list at the same time.
Downloads – Quick Guides

Quick Guide to Web Usability & SEO
Quick Guide to selecting a WordPress theme for your Business Website
Quick Guide to Relaunching your WordPress website

Downloads – Glossary

Web Usability & SEO Glossary

By |April 2nd, 2013|Featured News, News 2013|0 Comments
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Download Quick Guide to selecting a WordPress theme for your Business Website

Please complete the small form below to access the Quick Guide to Selecting a WordPress theme for your Business Website PDF download.

Both the ‘Your Name’ and ‘Your Email’ fields are required inputs.
Select also if you’d like to be added to my email list, to receive the occasional email with news on Site Updates, New Services, News Items and similar updates.
Read the site Privacy Policy here.

By |March 30th, 2013|Downloads|0 Comments
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Download Quick Guide to Web Usability & SEO

Please complete the small form below to access the Quick Guide To: Web Usability & SEO PDF download.

Both the ‘Your Name’ and ‘Your Email’ fields are required inputs.
Select also if you’d like to be added to my email list, to receive the occasional email with news on Site Updates, New Services, News Items and similar updates.
Read the site Privacy Policy here.

By |March 30th, 2013|Downloads|0 Comments
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