Google is eating Microsoft’s lunch, one tasty bite at a time.

There is a really interesting article posted today on the “RescueTime Blog.” Rescue Time is a productivity app that tracks the amount of time users spend on their computers. I actually have it on my computer to see how productive I am. Their unique position gives them access to a lot of data about how [...]

5 Ways Google Can Up Its Game Against Office 2010

Another great article about how Google can actually compete with Microsoft. The 5 things that you’ll read in this article are really valid points that I have often looked for. 1. Offline Access – What happened to Gears? 2. Mobile Editing 3. Pricing 4. Collaboration – This is where Google has always had the lead… [...]

Can You Really Replace Microsoft Exchange with Google Apps Premier?

Larry Seltzer wrote a great article this morning on PCWorld where he went through the potential pitfalls to consider in a migration from Exchange to Google Apps. These are his conclusions: 1. Mobile Support is Equivalent 2. Migration Testing is Incomplete, Slow 3. You Have a Choice of Email Clients – Which You’ll Appreciate 4. [...]

How Does Office Web Apps Compare to Google Docs?

Great rundown from Lifehacker about the pros and cons of Microsofts office web apps and Google Docs.
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OneNote and Education : Get connected and collaborate in your Classroom with OneNote

I have been publishing too many shared items and not enough individual posts… so in an efforts to lighten things up, I am going to try posting some short posts so y’all don’t get too bored!

I have long been a HUGE fan of OneNote.  It may be one of the most under utilized tools for educators and students!  Take the chance to see what it is all about with this free webinar next Tuesday 1/20 from 4-5:30pm Eastern Time.

OneNote and Education : Get a Free Copy of OneNote 2007 – Tuesday, 1/20/09 Webinar – “Get connected and collaborate in your Classroom with OneNote”.

If you are an educator and attend the live session you will get a FREE copy of One Note!  That is awesome!  Here is the schedule of what they will be covering!

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Get tips on how OneNote can help you organize class materials and class work, create collaborative work environments, and share workspaces. In this webinar we will cover:

– Getting Started with OneNote

– How to get organized with OneNote

– Organizing class materials & class work

– Creating collaborative work environments

Microsoft to Give Development Software to Students for FREE!

Just read an article this morning that tomorrow Bill Gates is going to annouce that microsoft is going to make their development software free to college and university students!  That is great!

“Covered software includes Visual Studio Professional Edition, XNA Game
Studio, Expression Studio, SQL Server and Windows Server.”

Microsoft Biometrics – Computers Watching You!

I came across an article yesterday that really struck me… apparently Microsoft filed a patent “for a system that can track a workers productivity, physical wellbeing and competence.”  Yeah, this sounds both amazing and scary. 

From the article:

The Microsoft patent details a “unique monitoring system” that includes wireless sensors that read “heart rate, galvanic skin response, EMG, brain signals, respiration rate, body temperature, movement facial movements, facial expressions and blood pressure.” Further, the system would “automatically detect frustration or stress in the user” and “offer and provide assistance accordingly”. If the system picked up an increase in heart rate or facial expressions suggestive of stress or frustration, it would tell management that the employee needed help.

We had a group do some stuff with biometrics in our HCI class this past semester, but this is way out there… what do you think?  Scary or Useful?

Could be useful in education.  Having a system like this would allow a teacher to monitor a class and pinpoint those who need help.

Translate Text in Microsoft Word

Came across this nice how to translate text in microsoft word tutorial (via Lifehacker).  Note:  You do have to have the language pack installed for the language you are trying to translate into…

There are a lot of nice features in the new version of Office.  I had a chance to try out the new reference tool as well.  Although I still prefer Zotero, it is still pretty nice and many people will love it.

What about you?  What do you like/dislike about Office 2007?  Anyone had a chance to try out Mac’s Office 2008 yet?

SharePoint 2007: Wikis, Blogs, and Enhanced Search – EDUCAUSE2007

I heard about SharePoint last year as a way to share content among each other. I know we have a campus agreement with Microsoft right now and as far as I know, all we need to do is enable this option on our servers. I am hoping that if I know more about the abilities of SharePoint I will be better able to persuade the systems guys to enable it for me. :)

Roles:

  • Collaborative Solutions
  • Portal Solutions
  • Content Management Solutions
  • Search
  • Forms Solutions
  • Business Intelligence Solutions

This class was more of a workshop so I didn’t have much time to type out stuff as we went through it. Suffice it to say that there are a LOT of options, including easy creation of Blogs and Wiki’s. This product makes it really easy to create and customize all sorts of information with click and drag, or simple select.

Microsoft is going a long way toward creating easy configurable products with many, many customizations for users. I only wish more Educators could afford products like this…

iPhone – 3 Features That Will Impact Education

The hype building up to the June 29th release of the iPhone is just staggering. Steve Jobs predicted that the iPhone will revolutionize and/or reinvent the phone in his Mac World Expo keynote speech. With educators already using cell phones and iPod’s in the classroom, how will this new device impact education? What new ‘revolutionary’ features does it introduce and how will those be important to students and teachers?

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