What's Making News at TSG
If you need to find out about new technologies for your business, look no further! We have a lot to say about the latest in technology trends, the virus of the month to look out for, the best software to help your business run smoothly...you name it. Read the tech news and information important to your business. Also, feel free to sign up for newsletter notifications by email. As your technology business partner, we have you covered!
Microsoft Getting Rid of Works
Microsoft is getting rid of its Works application suite and replacing it with an ad-supported, free version of Office 2010, dubbed ‘Starter Edition’.
The company is also planning to allow OEMs to pre-load full versions of the upcoming full version of Office 2010 – due for public beta before the end of the year – which can be unlocked by using a key card to be sold. Depending on how much they pay, the key cards will enable users to switch on the features of Office Home & Student 2010, Office Home & Business 2010, or Office Professional 2010.
Office Starter 2010 will include Office Word Starter 2010 and Office Excel Starter 2010 and offer basic functionality for creating, viewing and editing documents. Office Starter 2010 will replace Microsoft Works, offering a ‘consistent Office user experience’, such as the ribbon, with a simple path to upgrade to a fully-featured version of Office 2010 directly from within the product.
Another New Web Site Launch at TSG
TSG has just launched another new web site with Klatt Law Offices. W. Howard Klatt is a local Wheeling Attorney with over twenty years of legal experience. However, until now, Klatt Law did not have a web site.
Basically Klatt wanted a presence on the web with an informational web site to promote his practice and his services. We blended the new site with the warm, rich themes that Klatt had already with their logo and we made sure to include a touch of the actual wonderful building that houses Klatt Law.
We worked on content to flesh out Klatt's Search Engine Optimization and to make them show up in the Google Map feature listing. Like other local businesses, simplicity for the client was very important with their first online presence. Clean, easy to find information, an easy to use contact form for potential clients, and an up to date bio of the practice are the main features of this new site.
Be sure to check out the new site over at klattlaw.com.
TSG Launches Another New Web Site
It has been a busy few weeks at TSG in launching web sites. TSG has just launched another new web site with Tony Congi. Tony Congi is a musician from upstate NY who has been writing songs for worship and outreach for 35 years.
Tony had an existing site, but had some trouble with his online purchasing system. So we integrated a new, easy to use and easy to maintain shopping cart system for Tony, and we also changed his entire look and feel to not only reflect more of Tony’s personal style, but to take into account his audience as well.
We also gave Tony several social media outlet connections for his fans and to increase his Search Engine Optimization. The link to Facebook Tony Congi fan page we created is prominent on every page as are some other social media outlets. Tony also has an area to show off his photos & videos, and to keep his fans updated on where he is touring next. In the future we may also consider a blog area for Tony, so he can share his news and work from the road, or at his current tour location.
Tony is very pleased with his new site and feels it fits with his message and music. Be sure to check out the new site over at tonycongi.com.
TSG Launches New Web Site
TSG has launched a new web site with Paull Associates, a Professional Real Estate Service that also offers Insurance.
Paull Associates had a long standing web site and web presence, as many people turn to the web to do their searching for real estate. However, their old site lacked many common SEO (search engine optimization) conventions. Also, we wanted to give the homepage more of a presence for potential home buyers.
The new site now showcases a Featured Listing right on the homepage that Paull may choose weekly or change daily. We have also included a New Listings area on the homepage and the site so that frequent visitors to the site may just watch those areas of interest. Also, each property that now has a new Virtual Home Tour is listed right in the property listing. Not only does this lead to more stunning interaction with the properties, but it prevents the potential buyer from having to look the home up in the new Virtual Tour application. Teamed with Google Mapping for each property, the new web site now has more interaction, something home buyers who use the web expect.
We also linked Paull Associates up to Twitter so mobile users can get the latest Tweets, Open House listings and more right to their mobile device. However, the simplicity that their old site had was very important to the client, so we incorporated this into the new site. Clean lines, clean pages and ease of finding information online were the paramount concerns addressed with the new site.
Check out the new features and site today at Paull Associates.
Microsoft Shows off Bing
Microsoft officially has a new name for its new search engine and it is "Bing". This is the latest installment in Microsoft's efforts to beat Google in the search war game.
The new name and the $80 million in the marketing campaign that goes along with it, will most likely attract new visitors to Microsoft's search engine. The most significant change from Live Search (their previous search engine) is that Bing now organizes search results into categories (images, biography, facts, quotes, videos) just to name a few. Not every search will bring up all these categories. Over time, more searches will get categorized.
With the category feature, Bing also introduces "Web Groups" where it will display the categories on the page and the results under each of those listed. ,By the drill downs that result from clicking on these, more results will get displayed than the norm on search engines.
However, Microsoft is taking a chance in thinking that people will be interested in the Web Groups it has selected. And it should be remembered that Google has its own form of Clustering (another term for grouping). Although not as dynamic as what Bing is promising, but if it catches on, Google will be sure to beef up their tool.
It remains to be seen if Microsoft can rival Google with Bing. And, it is probably no coincidence that Google unveiled Google Wave on the same day as this announcement, but that is for another review.
Microsoft Officially Releases IE8
Today Microsoft has released the final version of Internet Explorer 8 (IE8). Designed to counter its declining web usage share with the entire IE brand, IE8 doesn't bring any new features (since it was in beta), but it does put on some speed. The underlying code base which glues everything together has been optimized and tweaked for performance. Can all these upgrades help make IE8 your new browser of choice?
Recently, many have doubted Microsoft's ability to battle Mozilla, Apple and Opera in terms of features. Today's release of IE 8 has more privacy and security features, but it also manages to put it in the battlefield with other browser players. For example, IE8 has a really solid tabbed browser feature, and its search bar is now on par with Firefox and Google's Chrome. It's address bar now doubles as a search box, but it does emit a certain amount of intelligence that Firefox still needs an extra keystroke to emit. However, in terms of speed, IE8 is still lagging seriously behind Apple's Safari, Firefox and Chrome. As more internet applications become more complex, this may make many consider using another browser.
IE has released web slices and accelerators (which work like web widgets in that they automatically grab snippets of information from pages), unfortunately, they both use Microsoft propriety technology - meaning they work only with IE8 optimized sites. This reliance on proprietary technologies will certainly hamper their acceptance among web developers that simply won't be able to spend the money necessary to simply tailor to Microsoft. Chances are that this won't change in the future, meaning these two features probably won't go very far.
With IE8, there are more options for administrators to easily phase out of IE6 and move to upgrade. New Group Policy settings lets your admin configure IE8 to run in IE7 standards mode, but it remains to be seen if this will be enough to convince admins to phase out IE6 from the corporate world in favor of a new browser.
Read more about all of IE8's new features at Microsoft's IE8 homepage.
Apple - Now at Technology Services Group, Inc.
Want in on the big secret? Apple has come to Technology Services Group, Inc. Not only are we an authorized
reseller of Apple computer products, but we also are an authorized repair center for all your Mac computer needs.
Our service technicians have been through extensive training to learn all there is "under the hood" of these fine machines and are ready, willing and able to assist you. Want to upgrade? Not a problem. Something wrong with the hard drive? Bring it on in! For business or personal use, we are your official authorized Apple dealer in the Wheeling, WV area. You no longer have to ship your Mac away or drive long distances just to get Apple Service. Give us a call and let us show you what we know!
Want to Receive our Email Newsletter?
No, we won't spam you. No, we won't email you every week. No, we won't sell your email. It is kept in our secret room and nobody gets in there. But, we do send out periodic emails to our customers with important news and information, so if you want to be in on the "know" sign up below. It's easy.
If you are really hip, you can follow our Tweets on Twitter too.
*All articles referenced and credited to another site are for informational purposes only. TSG takes no responsibility for the legitimacy of the statements made on other web sites. If you ever have a question on any information found here, please let us know.
