That was strange! Out of the top 24 results there wasn’t a single Windows phone. What was going on?

Well, looking closely at the article on the WpCentral, a website with a Windows Phone bias, I noticed that the title was misleading. The screenshot, captured by one of it’s users was showing cell phones with service plans. Well, any phone could come on top if bundled with a great service plan! And the screenshot doesn’t show what features and other options the list had been filtered with. It doesn’t even show out of how many results the Windows Phone was top ranked.

Just goes to show, with just a spot of ingenuity, you can make just about anything look real!

You’ll get this, for example, if you upgrade from an older version of Office to a newer one. The newer versions (Office 2007 and Office 2010) change the whole toolbar paradigm to one called a “Ribbon”. Microsoft seems to be 100% behind this change, as they’re planning to use the same concept in the next version of Windows for the main User Interface.

Luckily, if you’re stuck with Office and just can’t handle the “Ribbon”, there is a way around it. You can download Office 2010 menus adjustment software that will replace the new interface with Toolbars that match older versions of Office. This means that you can upgrade to the new version without needing any training or without losing any time in the switch. It means you can adjust to the new system in your own time.

That’s the great thing about software, you can usually find ways around constraints and problems. Give this a try and see how you get on.

Classic Menu for Visio 2010 lets you retain your old menus in the new version of Microsoft Visio. Instead of having to learn where everything is, you can now install it on your computer, and voila you’re back to the interface you know and love. This might also be interesting to you if you’re a new user. You now can learn how to use visio 2010 the old way!

It’s a great testament to the Internet that a company can find enough used to justify creating a product like this. It feels like a shortcoming to let people operating in the old way, but if that’s what you’re used to, that’s really what works best for you. So go ahead, give it a real try!

photo credit: Sebastian Mary

It’s Third Thursday again this week, and as it has become our custom, time for a group of people interested in Social Media to meet for a nice lunch and discuss what’s going on in the Social Media world. Whether you have a passion for blogging, or just a passing interest in Twitter; it’s an opportunity to meet like-minded people to share ideas and learn a thing or two.

So come and join the Social Media Club at Paparazzi on the 21st October at 12:30. It’s a pretty fluid arrangement: people turn up, we order some food and swap stories about the latest news, things we’ve done that month or even things we’ve seen other people do. There’s something for everyone, whether you’re a hardcore Microsoft fan, or whether you’re just starting out in PR; Social Media is impacting both our personal and our professional lives, so come join our little party.

It’s open to anyone with an interest in Social Media and we’re always happy to see new faces. So don’t be shy, just pop in and say “Hi!”. See you on Thursday!

Do you use Skype for video chat? Well, I don’t any more, but I used to in the past and one of the things that was quite annoying was that the video can be a bit flakey at times. It has gotten better with every subsequent release of the software and the great thing is that hardware has also improved. I was reading about the FV touchcam N1 that’s an HD webcam capable of delivering full screen 720p streaming video over the Internet. it uses embedded hardware H.264 encoding, a chip that takes the 720p video and using high-quality encoding technology, squeezes the video into a stream small enough to be sent over a typical Internet connection. It’s also the first webcam ever certified by Skype that can actually work at this resolution.

There are a number of other HD cameras on the market like the Microsoft Cinema and Logitech Pro 9000 but although they capture HD video, they don’t compress it on the fly, so cannot be used for webcam chat.

You can get the faceVsion webcam from the faceVision on line store which has a whole selection of their products from the FV ExpressCombo all the way to the webcam described above.

If you use Skype for video chatting and you use it often, it’s worth looking into these cameras as they can let you have full screen video chats with friends, families and colleagues. Check them out!

Companies that embrace social media give employees the tools they need to collaborate, communicate and innovate across organisational lines, geographic locations and time zones. There are plenty of benefits:

• more productivity
• better collaboration and communication
• innovation boost
• decreased IT costs
• easier knowledge management
• improved product development cycles
• increased profits
• improved efficiencies

Our speaker is Chris Gledhill, managing director of PDMS, the Isle of Man’s largest software developer. As a Microsoft Gold Partner, PDMS has experience in helping organisations implement intranets and portals to aid internal collaboration using SharePoint and other technologies. He will present a case study based on PDMS’s own experiences of using social media and internal collaboration technologies to share information, exchange ideas and improve communication.

In addition, yours truly, Sherrilynne Starkie will give a brief overview on using other social platforms like chat, wikis, blogs, podcasts, and Facebook to fuel internal communications excellence.

The Social Media Club has chapters in more than 170 cities around the world and brings together journalists, publishers, communications professionals, artists, amateur media creators, citizen journalists, teachers, students, tool makers, and other interested collaborators, basically anyone using or impacted by the social internet. Our motto is ‘if you get it; share it’ and our mission is to advance media literacy, promote industry standards, encourage ethical behaviour and share the lessons learned.

It all happens on 24 June, 2010 at 12.30 at The Hilton in Douglas. A finger buffet will be served. Super Third Thursday is sponsored by PDMS and so it’s free to attend, but space is limited so book early by email smc(a)sherrilynnestarkie.com

So, if you’re looking for a unique way to look at your documents, remember that Office Tab brings Tabbed user interface with Microsoft Office 2010

• Innovations in Music Licensing
• Microsoft Windows 7 Launch
• PDMS relocating to Douglas and how the Isle of Man is a great environment for building your company
• Spacecraft unveiling by Excalibur Alamaz

I’ve been thinking about the subject because I came across a hosted Exchange offer by Rackspace which seems to offer all the benefits without the pain. It costs $12.50 per mailbox that they host for you; which really means that if you have a small company you can make use of their service at a low cost, and then scale the capability as your organisation grows. They currently have over 6000 companies that make use of their service and they also add some extra functionality that helps make their offer more compelling. You get free anti-virus and anti-spyware scanning in the offering, a web-based control panel and you don’t have to be tied into a long-term contract. If you’ve never heard of Rackspace before, they’re one of the top hosting companies in the world, so you do know that your data will be secure.

So there you have it, all the benefits, none of the pain.

You can download the themepack by clicking on the icon below:

The theme pack has a total of 15 different backgrounds which makes it a bit larger than other theme packs I’ve seen. I’m looking for feedback as to whether the theme pack is too large and whether I should produce a smaller version. If you’re on Windows 7, give it a try and tell me what you think! In the meantime, if you like Andy’s work, check out his photography website and see some more of his work.