Vista Revisited

We first experimented with Vista Business upgrade edition when it was released in 2007 and were not impressed at all. The new OS refused to recognise the DVD/CD-RW, the video and the WiFi card on our machine. Manufacturers of the same did not have compatible drivers as yet. We were forced to reformat the system and install Windows XP back on the machine.

One year on we got our hands on a full version of Vista Business and decided to try it again. This time we experimented with it on a tablet PC (HP tc4400). The tablet PC came installed with XP table pc version and since we were not too keen to loose this we replaced the hard drive, went to HP's web site and downloaded the latest drivers for Vista and installed the Vista Business edition on a brand new hard drive.

Installation took about a hour. What impressed us was that Vista was connecting to the Internet to look for drivers and downloading them for installation. Once this was done we installed the drivers that we had downloaded from HP's web site.

Vista looked very good on this system. It recognised that the system was a tablet PC and installed software to allow input using the pen. The battery life also is better on Vista. We were able to get an extra hour out of it.

The standby and hibernation features also work flawlessly on the tablet pc unlike XP where we always had trouble with these features. Using standby/hibernation we are able to start the pc up in under half a minute which is great when you are moving from one meeting to another.

When we connected the PC to an overhead projector while the pc was on it recognised this and displayed the output without asking which was great as with XP we had to either connect it while it was off or we needed to restart the PC after connecting.

The last thing we tried was sending a fax and this too went without a hitch. The only issue was that we could not head a dial tone so were not sure what was happening but the fax software updated the status once it was done.

Vista is a much better OS than XP and if you are buying a new PC get it with Vista.

Go mobile with Skype, MSN Messenger, ICQ, Google Talk, SIP, Twitter, AIM and Yahoo

A brilliant application for your mobile phone called Fring. I have been looking for an application that would allow me to use Skype and a SIP account on my mobile without having to load too many applications.

Fring is one such application that installs on your mobile and give you access to not only Skype and SIP but also to a hot of other messenger services. Not only can you chat with your contacts but an also talk to your Skype contacts. Sign up for a free SIP account with Draytel or Sipgate and start making SIP or VOIP calls from your mobile using Fringe.

Fringe uses your Internet data plan or Wi-Fi on your mobile. I found the Wi-Fi more effective as the call connection was much better than over the data plan.

This software is available to a whole range of mobile phones and you can do a search to find your model. You can install the software via the website by typing in your mobile number or use the browser on your phone to go to www.fring.com and download the software directly to your mobile. You can get more details about how Fring works on their website.