Google-powered laptops to go on sale June 15

AN FRANCISCO: The first laptops running on a Google-designed software system will go on sale in the US and six other countries next month.
The June 15 release date announced Wednesday means the lightweight laptops will hit the market nearly two years after Google Inc. began working on an operating system based on its Chrome Web browser.
Since then, Apple Inc.’s iPad and other tablet computers have become hot sellers. The growing popularity of tablets has raised questions about how interested consumers will be interested in buying Google-powered laptops specifically tailored for Web surfing.
Samsung Electronics Co. and Acer Inc. are making the first Chromebooks. They will sell for $349 to $499 at Best Buy and Amazon.com Inc. in the US. The cheapest IPad sells for $499.
Acer’s Chromebook, at $349, will have an 11.6-inch screen display and up to six hours of battery life. Samsung’s version, selling for $429 to $499, will have a 12.1-inch screen and up to 8.5 hours of battery life. Both models will have keyboards, but no hard drives for storage. The machines will be like computer terminals dependent on a connection to the Internet. The laptops come with 16 gigabytes of flash memory – the kind found in smartphones, tablet computers and some iPods. They have slots to plug in other storage device you buy separately.
The Chromebooks also will be sold in Britain, France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Spain.
Chromebook’s long-awaited debut will intensify Google’s competition with Microsoft Corp., whose Windows operating system remains the foundation of most personal computers.
Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have long felt that Windows computers took too long to power up and were too clunky to operate. They believed that Windows’ drawbacks were discouraging people from spending even more time online, where they could click on ads sold by Google.
To address the perceived problem, Google announced its plans in July 2009 for a Chrome-based operating system that would enable computers to turn on in a matter of seconds and encourage more Web surfing.
”The complexity of managing computers is really frustrating for users out there,” Brin told reporters Wednesday at Google’s conference for software developers. ”It’s a flawed model.”
Besides attacking Microsoft’s Windows franchise, Google’s Chromebook also will represent another challenge to Apple, which makes Mac computers as well as iPads. Google and Apple have been engaged in a fierce competition in the smartphone market for the past two years.

The Difference Between Twitter and Facebook & Why You Should Use Both

Social media is a term that is used in the online marketing world daily. Marketers are telling clients to sign-up for Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. Some businesses will head home and sign-up right away but others are a little hesitant to sign-up for something new. We talk with businesses all of the time who ask us the same question, “what’s the difference between Twitter and Facebook and why should I sign-up?”

While people are a little shy to get started on a social network, many forget to keep in mind how much people around the world have come to rely on the internet and the tools it provides. As more and more businesses are starting to move into the online marketing world, it’s important that they have a presence on both Twitter AND Facebook.

Five Reasons You Should Use Both Twitter and Facebook

There are a variety of reasons why you should create a social media plan that allows you to dedicate a little bit of time each week to both of these social networks. Some people tend to group all social networks together and say it’s all the same thing. They’re wrong. Twitter and Facebook both have their differences and both can benefit your business in the long run.
1. Different audiences – Not everyone who uses Twitter is on Facebook and not everyone who uses Facebook is on Twitter. As of February 2011, more people ages 18-25 were on Facebook, while people ages 26-44 were much more prominent on Twitter. Who is your target audience?
2. Different uses - Twitter allows you to post 140 characters at a time, while Facebook allows you to post 420 characters at a time. This doesn’t mean you should automatically go to Facebook for more space. Twitter is great for posting articles, announcements and short updates (there are apps that will allow you to post longer updates that will open in a webpage). Facebook allows you to get into a little bit more detail, create events, post photos and more.
3. The ability to post updates to both - It will be an annoyance for anyone who follows you on both Twitter and Facebook, but if you have a limited amount of time to dedicate to social media each week, you can hook up Twitter to update when a new post is added on Facebook or vice versa.
4. Search engines like social media – All things in online marketing eventually come back to search engine optimization. Search engines such as Google and Bing do listen to what is going on with both Twitter and Facebook. If your Twitter timeline is public there is a good chance your tweets will get indexed. Recent changes to Facebook are allowing pages to be indexed. This allows  for more keywords and a better chance to draw users into your business.
5. It’s the next generation of marketing – Businesses have found that social media is free and easy to use. Instead of paying thousands of dollars to print post cards and mail them, people are relying on Twitter AND Facebook to get their messages out. As students are graduating college, they are using both to find jobs, learn more about a company and connect with their potential employers. Sorry older generation-the reality is the yellow pages are now hard to find and are more likely to be used as a doorstop than to find new business.

Still Not Convinced?

If you don’t currently have the amount of time needed to get started on Facebook and Twitter, help your business out by at least signing up for accounts. There have been numerous instances of people pretending to be a business on Twitter, when in reality the business isn’t even aware that it’s there. It’s better to have your business name reserved, so when you are ready to start using both social networks, you are all set to go.
You never know what kind of a response you may get. If people are looking for you on a social network, they may follow you so they know when you do updates. It’s worth the 15 minutes to signup. Trust us!

What Else Should You Use?

Of course, social media doesn’t stop at Twitter and Facebook, there are thousands of other networks out there. Not only should you find your niche social network, but there are a few other networks you should consider joining.

1. LinkedIn - While it is considered a “professional” social network, LinkedIn can be a great place to drive new business. You never know who may be looking.
2. Yelp - The best part of Yelp is that it gives customers a place to give an honest opinion of your business. They can check-in, leave reviews and even print coupons if you have a deal running. The more interactive it becomes, the more it becomes a social network people are using.
3. Foursquare – While many consider it a social network for stalkers, Foursquare is a must for your business. You as a person do not need to use it, but there are a number of people who enjoy “checking in” to local businesses, stealing mayorships, finding tips, and getting deals.

What is new in Microsoft Office 2010

The first public beta of Microsoft Office 2010 (v. 14.0.4536.1000) is now available for download on both MSDN and Technet. If you are not a subscriber, don't hit the torrents yet because Microsoft may announce the general availability of Office 2010 beta sometime today itself. Update: You can download Office 2010 now.

Microsoft Office 2010 - What's New

Here's a quick visual guide to some of the new features of Microsoft Office 2010 that you're likely to find useful once you get access to the software.

#1. Save Office Documents to the Cloud

With Microsoft Office 2010, you can directly upload documents to your Windows Live SkyDrive account and access them from any other computer.
SkyDrive provides 25 GB of free online storage and, since the service is integrated with Office Web Apps, you can view and edit these documents anywhere in the web browser without requiring Microsoft Office (even on a Mac).

#2. Embed Web Videos in your Presentations

With Office 2010, you can easily embed video clips from the Internet into your PowerPoint presentations just the way you embed Flash videos in regular web pages. Just copy the embed code from YouTube (or any other video sharing site) and paste it anywhere on the slide.

#3. Quick Steps in Outlook

Gmail includes a useful feature called Send and Archive that performs multiple tasks. When you click this button, it will first send the reply and then archives the thread with one click.
With the new Quick Steps feature in Outlook, you can create a sequence of commands (Send & Archive is just one example) and apply them to any Outlook item with a click. For instance, here's a quick step for "Send and Delete" which would delete the email from your inbox after you've replied.

#4. Built-in PDF Writer

All Office 2010 programs include a built-in PDF writer to help you save documents into the PDF format with a click. Earlier, you had to download an add-on separately but now PDF support is native.

#5. Document printing made simple!

With Office 2010, Microsoft has completely revamped the print dialog and it's a tremendous improvement. For instance, you can tweak printer settings (like page margins, etc.) and preview the changes side-by-side.

#6. Broadcast Slideshows within PowerPoint

This is probably my favorite new feature of PowerPoint 2010. You can deliver live presentations over the web from within PowerPoint and anyone in the world can view your presentation using a web browser. It just works.

#7. Video Editing meets PowerPoint

Do you want to trim some parts of a video clip before using it in your presentation? Or do you want to apply professional styles to a video (like reflection coupled with 3D rotation) so that your audience stay glued longer? Well, that's easy because PowerPoint 2010 now includes some very powerful video editing features.

#8. Distribute your slides as video

PowerPoint 2010 can convert your presentation into a video file that you may upload on to YouTube or distribute on a portable media player like the iPod. The video conversion happens in the background so you can continue using PowerPoint while the video is being created.

#9. Built-in Screen Capture

All Office 2010 programs now include a screen clipping utility to help you quickly capture any area of the desktop screen. The tool will automatically take screenshots of all open applications on your desktop (that are not in minimized state) and you can insert them directly into your document or presentation.

#10. Outlook gets social

When you open an email message inside Outlook 2010, it will show you related information such as email attachments, pictures, meeting requests and all previous email messages that you may have exchanged with that person (something like Xobni).

There's a green add button that lets you "add that person to your online social networks from Outlook" but the service isn't live yet. Until then, you can use these add-ons to make your Outlook more social.
Important: Before installing Office 2010
1. If you are installing Office 2010 beta for the first time, the default settings will upgrade your existing copy of Microsoft Office. You can however customize this setting and install Office 2010 alongside an older version of Office.
2. If you already have Office 2010 Technical Preview on your computer, make sure you completely uninstall this edition before attempting to installing Office 14 beta. In case you still have trouble installing Office, use the cleanup utility to remove all traces of the previous version of Office from your system.