New York Computer Help would like to express a heartfelt Happy New Year to you and your family and friends.  We appreciate your continued patronage and loyalty to our company, blog, and technical support this year and the past years. 

We look forward to providing in-depth tech blogs about the latest news, tech tips, and important topics for the 2009 and beyond.  Our ability to continue writing our views is due to you and your continued interest in reading our content.  We also would like to mention our appreciation of your responses and comments to our informative reviews and tips.  Your input is helpful in shaping future blogs. 

May you have peace, prosperity, and good health in 2009!

Windows 7 has been heavily anticipated ever since Vista was released.  Why?  Because Vista has been a bust.  Most people constantly get run time errors or complain of Vista making their computer too slow.  Or sometimes, the computer is just not fast enough to handle Vista although Microsoft claims otherwise with “Vista ready” stickers.

Windows 7 beta 1 has been reviewed although not officially.  It is expected to be reviewed by Steve Ballmer at his keynote address at the Consumer Electronics show next week.  But, of course, as always, the operating system was leaked earlier for a quick demo.  Apparently, there are subtle differences between Windows 7 and Vista, such as the taskbar being 3D-like and high resolution, enabling easy accessibility to everyday applications.  Other than that, not too much has been done in the way of differentiating itself with Vista. 

Hopefully, overall Microsoft will iron out the Vista kinks and make things more stable with less computer issues for this operating system upgrade.  The Windows 7 operating system is slated for November 2009, but more likely for mid-2010.

One of the great features of the iPhone is being able to take sharp, quality pictures.  But, it’s not fun transferring the pictures to your computer and then printing them.  It is a two-step process that now can be avoided by a free HP printing software. 

iPrint Photo app allows you to wirelessly print your photos from your iPod or iTouch directly to your HP printer, without a Mac or PC.  After installing this app from the Apple app store, then you can print 4 x 6 photos to your wireless HP printer.  Yes, your printer needs to be wirelessly connected to your computer network. 

This technology is another great reason to buy an iPhone. 

It would make sense that computer sales has slowed down during this recession period.  However, initial estimates show that laptop sales have increased by 5% from last year and desktop sales increased by 2% from 2007.  Why would sales go up when computer users should not be pulling out cash from their pockets?

First, computer users are more cautious in their computer investments.  For instance, if a computer crashes, the question is not: “How can I fix my computer?” as much as it’s “Is it worth the money to fix the computer” or “Should I buy a new computer?”  When fixing a computer, it is wise to ask the computer repair technician if it makes sense to fix the computer based on estimated computer years left; cost; and opportunity cost of a new computer.

If your laptop is 4 years old and needs a new motherboard replacement or LCD screen replacement, then you’re better off buying a new computer since your other computer parts might soon fail as well.  For this premise, computer users are getting smarter in biting the bullet faster to purchase new, cheaper computers.

If you’re looking for a thin version of the Macbook, but in a PC, look no further: the future Dell Adamo has stepped up to the plate.  This thin-lined notebook is for the true executive.  It boasts a smooth quiet keyboard, slick black plastic above the keyboard, and a homey leather palm rest under the keyboard.  The body is all black with a silver accent and weighs about 3 pounds overall.

Dell will market this laptop as “the world’s thinnest laptop” which will supposedly debut in February.  The pre-advertising has felt mac-like with leaks of pictures and brief excerpts of eavesdropped Dell conversations.  The rumor-mill has been very productive for spreading the word about Apple’s line, and now Dell has taken the same route with the Adamo.

Those PC users who are looking to upgrade their computer style will surely enjoy this new computer.  The exact specs have not been revealed yet, but rumor has it that the pricing should be much more reasonable than the Macbook Air.

Using archaic fax machines are good if you’re a die-hard paper buff.  If you’re the type who needs to file a hard copy of every correspondence you receive, then you are a true fax machine fan.  But, if you’re more inclined to the electronic, file-in-your-e-mail folder type, then e-faxing is for you. 

With e-faxing, you can receive a fax through your e-mail and also send faxes just like you’d send an e-mail.  The cool factor is that you can file all of your faxes by name, date, or however else you’d like right within your email client.  So, you won’t have to kill trees or build clutter on your desk.  E-fax is a service that is approximately $12/month and allows you to fax while not taking up your phone line.  The computer support line for e-faxing is responsive and you don’t have to be a computer expert to use it.

Steve Jobs has been the highlight at the last 10 Macworld shows.  This year, Jobs will not provide any drama.  He won’t be there.  And this will be Apple’s last appearance at the big show.  NYC mac users speculate that it has something to do with Jobs’ health concerns.  Jobs was able to beat pancreatic cancer just last year.  And folks have noticed his slender build at the last Macworld, thinking that his health is causing him to lose lots of weight.

Apple defends its Mac leader by saying that Apple does not need to showcase its new products at Macworld in the future because it will do so at other venues, such as its own campus and other shows.  However, there was no real defense of Gates’ except for saying other folks, like Philip Schiller, Senior VP of Product Development, will be taking on more shows and interviews.

We know there’s nothing like having Mr. Black shirt and blue jeans up there nonchalantly giving the latest buzz on Powerbooks, iPhones, and other products.  But, isn’t 10 years enough for the Apple leader?  We wish everyone would leave him alone with any health concerns.  He’s probably moving on to bigger and better things within Apple.  That’s all.

The latest update to Leopard provides better security for Safari, better gaming performance, and more overall stability for components.

Here are the major points:

1. Better automated fixes.  Connection Doctor is more accurate, real junk mail is considered spam, high reliability when printing PDFs.
2. More stable Apple File sharing, more reliable att 3G wireless cards, and more stable networking.
3. Chat will allow you to properly paste text and images from Word to a chat window
4. Improved DVD performance, updated time zone, and iCal improvements.

Overall, the mac update is a good mac installation to to take care.  It will ensure your mac is working in a stable and speedy fashion.

This year, how about doing something a little special when sending out holiday cards?  YouTube has a new service where you can record a video of yourself and then e-mail it as a holiday card to your friends and family.  You can design a template, add text, and you’re ready to send your video greeting card.

This service was around last year and was used by over a million users.  For some reason, YouTube got rid of the service and now has brought it back.  They might just be providing this service only for the holiday season, and to probably not inundate its server / storage capacities throughout the year with people e-mailing videos.  Such bandwidth overload could crash the server and prevent users for accessing YouTube. 

You may check out this sample video of a what a small office sent out last year for its holiday greeting.  It is very simple to set up and doesn’t take a tech guru to make one.

Windows Live is the latest of free online sharing sites.  You can save up to 25GB for free online.  The point of offering this free service to get you on the Windows Live site to network with other friends.  Ultimately, Windows Live is looking to compete with LinkedIn and Facebook as a serious networking website.

Here’s the scoop:  You can upload any file - pictures, music, and documents.  The cool aspect is that you can choose which friends can access your files or certain files.  So, you can have different groups of access for different people.  Or you can just keep the files private.  So, this site is really a networking site for sharing files.  Definitely a site to check out if you enjoy sharing pictures and music.  Or if you just want to have a good file backup to prevent data recovery issues.  Also, you can share an online calendar with those you invite.  I just shared out a calendar with my family for birthdays and events!

There is no indication of safety or security of your file storage.  However, this is a Windows service so it should be secure enough to guard your information and not allow intruders to access your files.