Canonical announces Ubuntu for smartphones, we go hands-on (video)

http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/02/ubuntu-for-smartphones/

This is no ordinary Galaxy Nexus. Instead of Android, it's running a very different Linux-based OS -- the long-awaited mobile version of Ubuntu -- which comes with a new UI adapted for smaller screens. We've played with the phone briefly and we'll have a proper hands-on video for you shortly, but in the meantime there are a few salient features to report. First and foremost, the UI relies heavily on edge swipes instead of buttons -- much like Windows 8 on a tablet or indeed other mobile OS's like MeeGo, although here each swipe has its own Ubuntu-esque functions. Beyond that, the icons along the top have some interesting features, which will be explained after the break. We're also told that voice control is in attendance, and that an app store is in the works, with a mix of both web apps and native apps -- with the latter type being able to make better use of the hardware.

Speaking of hardware, here's where you might get a twinge of disappointment: there are no immediate plans for actual Ubuntu phones, and no carriers have been signed up yet. Any new phone built for Android with at least a dual Cortex-A9 cores, a gig of RAM and 800 x 400 resolution could run this OS, should a manufacturer see merit in installing Ubuntu instead, and high spec 720p, quad-core phones should do wonders with it. Meanwhile, rather like Ubuntu for Android, this is still an idea looking for a device -- but as ideas go, our initial impression is that it looks like a bright one, especially if you dig Linux and open source. We're told the Galaxy Nexus-compatible build will be available for download within the next few weeks, and Mark Shuttleworth is optimistic that actual devices will ship sometime in early 2014 -- which is quite a ways away. For now, check out the press release, gallery and publicity video after the break.

Update: Our hands-on video with the Benevolent Dictator himself is now live!

Gallery: Ubuntu for smartphones

Gallery: Ubuntu for smartphones -- London launch

Continue reading Canonical announces Ubuntu for smartphones, we go hands-on (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile

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via Engadget http://www.engadget.com

Must-have apps for your new Android tablet

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/12/must-have-apps-for-your-new-android-tablet/

There's nothing like a new Android for the holidays.

Image courtesy of Karmela Arocena

Know someone who emerged from this holiday season with a new tablet in hand—and they now want your advice on what to do with it? An Android device is only as good as the apps you install, so we've drawn up a listed of some top Android apps for tablet newbies.

The apps we've chosen below are not necessarily new or edgy, but we've field-tested them all and find them solid choices for a wide variety of users wanting to get started with some basic tablet tasks. (See our iPad version as well.)

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via Ars Technica http://arstechnica.com

Build a DIY home server using FreeNAS

http://www.mswhs.com/2013/01/build-a-diy-home-server-using-freenas/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MSWHS+%28MS+Windows+Home+Server%29

We occasionally mention other "Home Server" projects here at MSWHS and FreeNAS we have mentioned before.

MaximumPC have a 4 page article on using FreeNAS to build a DIY home server. The article includes details on choosing the hardware, installing the OS, setting up the storage and media share, adding users and groups, configuring permissions, mapping the drives and setting up plugins:

FreeNAS’s greatest strength is also its greatest weakness: It’s incredibly complex and granular, with myriad configuration options, plugins, services, and so forth. The average home user may be better off buying an off-the-shelf NAS from Qnap or Synology, which are easier to configure and often include mobile access apps. But if you have the patience and the inclination, there’s nothing like building your own.

A comprehensive read, which you can find here.

Build a DIY home server using FreeNAS is a post from: MS Windows Home Server - Your Personal Guide to Microsoft Windows Home Server!

via MSWHS.com http://www.mswhs.com

A New Way to Backup: File History in Windows 8

http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/extremewindows/archive/2012/12/20/a-new-way-to-backup-file-history-in-windows-8.aspx

Chances are you’ve experienced the sinking feeling when you've lost personal data. It can be the result of user error, mechanical storage failure, or other issues. Regardless of how it happens, data loss is a huge bummer. In most cases data loss is preventable, but many of the “traditional” options for data protection can be costly and/or difficult to setup.

File History in Windows 8

File History is a new feature in Windows 8 that helps to ensure that your personal files are safe. In addition to being a backup solution, File History also provides the capability to restore multiple backup copies (versions) of your files. File history in Windows 8 is easy to setup, powerful, and reliable. This means you can have more confidence when working with files, and also keep less redundant copies around for your own personal “data history”. You can easily configure File History to protect some or all of the files that are in your libraries on Windows 8. You can add folders to your libraries easily in Windows 8, giving you the ability to use File History with any group of folders and files that you choose. File History automatically checks your files at the frequency that you select (the default is every hour), and automatically makes backup copies when file changes are detected. File history works with inexpensive attached or network storage, and requires minimal fuss to get working.

File history also supports many of the advanced storage features that are included in Windows 8. You can protect your backed up files with BitLocker, backup from a Storage Space, backup to a Storage Space, and more. Since Windows 8 supports UAS 3.0 and USB 3.0, you can experience great performance with File History at an economical price. To summarize: File History is easy to work with, flexible, secure, performs well, and cost effective.

File History Setup

Here are two straight-forward ways to launch File History:

1. From Start Screen, type “File History”, click on settings in right pane, click on File History icon
2. Navigate to: “Control Panel\System and Security\File History” in the Desktop Control Panel

Once you have the File History Control Panel page open, configuring File History can be as simple as a one-click operation. In this example I have a single external hard drive, and decide to use the default settings. All I have to do is click “Turn On”:

It doesn’t get much easier than that! After this one-click configuration, the following happened automatically:

• My Toshiba external hard drive was selected as the target storage device
• My libraries, desktop, contacts, and favorites were added to the backup list
• An initial backup was performed

After this setup process File History checks every hour to see if any of the files in these locations have changed, and backs up any files as needed. If I’m using a mobile system like a tablet or laptop, some of the advanced File History features will kick in. This includes “pausing” and “resuming” backups when the system is turned on/off, hibernated/resumed, or when the target storage device is connected/disconnected. I don’t even have to think about it, all of the device management and scheduling is handled by File History in Windows 8.

But what about power users? If you are like me, you have some data that might not be practical or necessary to create history for (such as video file collections and music libraries.) Or, what if you need to have File History store versions of files on a frequent basis? This is where the flexibility of File History shines.

Advanced Settings in File History

File History allows you to fine tune how it works including:

• Which target storage device is used
• How frequently files are checked and backed up
• How much space is used locally to cache backup versions of your files when the target backup device is disconnected
• How long backup files are retained
• Which folders in your libraries are excluded from backup

There are two places to work with the Advanced Settings, the first is the File History Advanced Settings dialog:

To give you an idea of how these settings work, I’ll show each of the options here.

For backup interval, you can pick from the following values:

For offline cache size (local File History cache that’s used when target device is not present), you have the following options:

Finally, you can specify options for file retention that are evaluated if/when your target storage device fills up:

Some notes about File History retention:

• The retention policy is used only when the target storage device is full, and not before that. If your target device fills up, backup versions of your files that are older than the age specified by your retention policy are deleted, but the most recent backup copy of each file is always retained regardless of its age.
• If you have sufficient disk space on the target device, this retention policy will not be evaluated, and your revision history will continue to grow.
• If you are concerned about disk space on the target device, you can clean up your revision history manually.

To clean up your File History files, click on the “Clean up versions” link below the dropdown boxes on the File History Advanced Settings dialog. When this dialog launches, you’ll be presented with the following options for cleaning up your backed-up file revisions:

Once you select an age, clicking on the “Clean Up” button will cause File History to clean up the backup files on the target device.

Exclude Folders from File History

The second place to perform advanced configuration is the File History Exclude Folders dialog, which you can launch from the top-level File History Control Panel page (left-hand side: “Exclude Folders” link).

Here you can see that I chose not to have my video files backed up with File History. Since these are large files (several GB each) I don’t want to keep multiple versions of them.

Now that I have File History setup, I don’t have to keep redundant copies of my files on my local drive. I can roll back to previous versions using File History if I need to. Since I use SkyDrive, I now have multiple redundant forms of backup for the files that I depend on, that’s nice to know!

One of the most frustrating data loss experiences for me has been when I’ve saved a re-sized (smaller) version of a photo. I usually save off photos that are down-scaled as a copy with appended name suffixes. When I don’t remember to “save as” with a different name, it can result in permanent data loss. Now that I’m running File History, I don’t have to worry about this issue. Since my photos are protected and backed up every 10 minutes, the chances of running into this issue on Windows 8 are greatly diminished.

Restoring Files

Here’s how you restore files with File History:

1. Click on “Restore personal files” in the File History Control Panel dialog
2. Browse to the location where your files were backed up to
3. Double click on the file or folder that you wish to restore
4. Select the version to restore
5. Click on the “Restore” button

To illustrate this process, I purposefully over-wrote a photo file with a down-scaled version to show you what it’s like to restore files with Windows 8 file history. Here’s a few screenshots of the process:

Restoring files – Selecting folder to restore from

Restoring files – Selecting file version to restore (browse with left/right buttons)

Restoring files – confirming file restoration details (optional)

It’s that simple. In about a minute you can restore a file and be off and running again. Accidentally delete a folder? It’s just as easy to restore an entire folder!

Quick Tip: You can also click on the File History button in Windows Explorer (on the “Home” tab) when a folder or file is selected:

File History button in Windows Explorer “Home” tab

By clicking on this button, you’ll be taken directly to the “browse File History” dialog for the currently selected file or folder.

Restoring Your System Files

Windows 8 File History is great for backing up personal files, but it is not meant for backing up system and application files.

The best way to recover your system is by means of two new tools in Windows 8:

• Reset your PC: Remove all personal data, apps, and settings from the PC, and reinstall Windows
• Refresh your PC: Keep all personal data, Metro style apps, and important settings from the PC, and reinstall Windows

Windows 8 also includes the legacy “Windows 7 File Recovery” backup tools which you can use if the “Reset your PC” and “Refresh your PC” tools don’t meet your needs for system and application files. These tools work in Windows 8 just like they did in Windows 7.

Want to know more about File History in Windows 8? There’s a great write-up here where you can get more information.

Stay informed, follow me on Twitter!

via The Windows Blog http://blogs.windows.com/b/

The Unsung Hero: Windows 8 Security

http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/business/archive/2012/12/19/the-unsung-hero-windows-8-security.aspx

We’ve shared a lot on this blog about the business features and value of Windows 8, including stories from some of the early adopters who are taking advantage of Windows 8 in a lot of ways, from tablets to apps, to Windows To Go. Security has been mentioned in almost every one of these instances, but we haven’t gone into great detail; so today I’d like to provide you with a deeper dive on the investments we’ve made in Windows 8 security. In the weeks and months to come, I’ll continue to share more information on the features within these investment areas as well, so stay tuned!

For several generations of Windows, we’ve made security a top priority, and while Windows 7 represented our most secure version of Windows at the time, there were still more improvements that could be made. We had to improve on what we’d delivered in the past and we needed to innovate to address new and emerging threats. With Windows 8, security remains a high priority investment area and with it we’ve delivered a broad range of new capabilities that address the top security needs and threats that you’re facing today, including:

• Malware’s ability to compromise core operating system and antimalware components.
• Complexities related to efficiently protecting corporate data with encryption.
• High cost of deploying, using, and managing strong multifactor authentication.
• Challenges of managing access control in dynamic and constantly changing environments.

Malware Resistance

Delivering products that are resistant to malware requires the use of a process such as the Security Development Lifecycle (SDL), which helps ensure that the best security design, development, and testing practices are used. All software that ships from Microsoft uses this process, and we’re proud of the impact that it’s made, which can be seen in Kaspersky Lab’s recent Q3 2012 IT threat report detailing how Microsoft products are not listed amongst the top 10 products with vulnerabilities. We think this is a remarkable achievement given the broad customer base of a product like Windows.

We’ve made significant investments in Windows 8 to make sure that even if a vulnerability is discovered, the likelihood of a successful attack will have been minimized, if not eliminated. Security researchers who evaluated the Windows 8 Release Preview and spoke at Black Hhat in July had some pretty impressive things to say about progress that we’ve made in Windows 8. For instance, one senior researcher stated that the improvements made between Windows 7 and Windows 8 are as significant as those made between Windows XP and Windows 7.

In addition to making the system less vulnerable to exploitation, we’ve also redesigned some aspects of Windows 8 to be completely immune to malware. Bootkits and rootkits, notorious types of malware that have the ability to take over a PC while remaining hidden from the system and the antimalware solution, have literally been designed out of the architecture with Windows 8 features like Secure and Trusted Boot.

While Secure and Trusted Boot eliminate some of the most dangerous types of malware, they aren’t meant to provide comprehensive protection and thus need to be paired with a high quality antimalware software solution. We believe in this so strongly that we’ve included a significantly improved version of Windows Defender in every edition of Windows 8. Windows Defender will help protect you from all types of malware, including viruses, worms, bots and rootkits by using the complete set of malware signatures from the Microsoft Malware Protection Center.

Protecting Corporate Data

Protecting corporate data is a top concern for customers and many of you know that provisioning and managing encryption on devices, regardless of vendor, is a huge challenge. One of the biggest challenges is the sheer amount of time it takes to provision encryption to the device. It can take hours, and in the case of some third party solutions, it can even block end user productivity while the encryption process is taking place.

In Windows 8, we wanted to make sure that our encryption solutions, including BitLocker and BitLocker to Go, are the fastest options to provision and that they never get in the way of the end user. To enable this, Windows 8 includes Data Only Encryption, which allows BitLocker to encrypt just the portions of the disk that contain data. This can reduce encryption times from hours to minutes in many cases. Data Only Encryption is a great enhancement, but wouldn’t it be great if provisioning encryption didn’t take any time? Encrypted Hard Drives, a new type of Self-Encrypting Drive (SED), will do just that. In this case, the drive provides onboard hardware assisted encryption and protecting the drive with BitLocker takes just a few seconds, if that.

Modernizing Authentication and Access Control

Deploying strong multi-factor authentication in organizations is either perpetually on the wish list, or if it’s deployed it’s used in limited scenarios. Customers face many challenges when deploying strong multi-factor authentication today, including the provisioning process, its cost, and support. To address these challenges, we’ve delivered a new authentication form factor that we call the Virtual Smart Card. Virtual Smart Cards literally turn your TPM enabled PC into a smartcard and because it’s all implemented in software it’s easy to deploy and manage. This technology is going make strong multi-factor authentication cheap and mainstream rather than an expensive luxury!

The model for access control has been the same for as long as anyone can remember. You have an object that you want to secure and a list of users that should have access to it. The challenge with this model is that it’s based on static lists that need to be managed, and with dynamic organizations that are constantly changing; keeping up to date with the changes is a near impossible task. With Windows 8 and Server 2012, we wanted to create the condition where access control can automatically stay up to date with organizational changes. To do this, we’ve delivered a new feature called Dynamic Access Control (DAC), which enables access to resources controlled through the use of rules that operate on user and device properties (e.g. department, location, title, access level, etc.). Imagine easily creating a rule that indicates that all users from the United State Finance department who are Directors have access to quarterly progress reports. You can do that with DAC!

I hope that these details on the three key investment areas for Windows 8 security are in alignment with the some of the top security needs that you have within your organization. Stay tuned for more info on the security features within these areas. In the meantime, I recommend you download and begin your evaluation of Windows 8 if you haven’t done so already. I think you’ll enjoy experiencing Windows reimagined and appreciate the great security improvements that we’ve delivered.

via The Windows Blog http://blogs.windows.com/b/

Extreme 4K Multi-Mon Video Editing on Windows 8

http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/extremewindows/archive/2012/12/17/extreme-4k-multi-mon-video-editing-on-windows-8.aspx

I am amazed by the image quality that's possible with today's 4K digital cinema cameras. It's like watching full-res images from a DSLR playing back at 24 fps on the big screen, 4K footage is just stunning. Seeing 4K footage on the big screen got me thinking about 4K displays and 4K video on a PC. With 4K displays just coming to market, I think it's time to examine how this technology will impact our PC experiences in the not-so-distant future.

From the RED 4K Demo Reel projected in 4K – plenty of resolution and detail for a 70' screen as shown here

With this post, I'll provide an introduction to running 4K displays with Windows 8 and demonstrate end-to-end 4K video screening/editing with the HP Z820 RED Edition PC.

After shooting some 4K and 5K footage with the RED EPIC camera, I wanted to evaluate the footage with a 4K projector or display. This started my quest to experiment first-hand with 4K display technology on Windows. With some research and with the help of friends at Toshiba, I was able to borrow a Toshiba Regaza 55X3 55" 3D 4K Ultra-high-definition television. This TV is not available in North America and may not be appropriate for a real post-production environment, but it's great for to use for my needs as a technology demonstration on Windows 8.

When the TV arrived, I had two thoughts:

1. How am I going to connect it to a PC? and
2. How will this 4K display work with a multi-mon setup?

4K resolutions are supported with HDMI 1.4a, but I didn't know what graphics hardware would meet this specification. After some research I found that both the latest round of NVIDIA Kepler-based cards and the latest AMD RADEON series cards (including the RADEON 7970) support 4K output! So, connecting a 4K display to a Windows PC was going to be easier than I had originally thought.

I installed Windows 8 on the Z820 RED Edition PC and decided to use the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti card for display output since it supports HDMI 1.4a. After the graphics card was installed and configured I connected the Toshiba 4K TV using the HDMI port. I also connected two Samsung Series 9 WQHD (2560 x 1440) 27" displays as well, one via a DVI port, and the other via Display Port.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti supports up to four displays simultaneously

TA-DA! It worked. 15.6 million pixels at my disposal! It was such a beautiful sight, I just had to sit down and stare it for a while. I remember reflecting:

"People will debate the need for 4K TVs at normal TV viewing distances, but having a large 4K monitor for photos, video, and app UI is crazy-awesome".

Imagine being able to see images from your DSLR at near 100% magnification and 55" diagonal scale… WOW.

Panoramic picture of Bryce Canyon spanning 3 displays – check out how small the keyboard and mouse look!

Since I was using a low-tech improvised support system for the 27" displays, the result was a staggered setup. I accounted for this by adjusting the stacked positions of these displays in the screen resolution settings dialog:

Adjusting relative monitor positions in the Screen Resolution settings dialog

This fine tuning resulted in cursor and UI continuity from one display to another. I noticed with this setup that the "spanning" feature for multi-monitor wallpaper works well even when running a non-conventional display array like this one.

Now that I had the display situation figured out, it was time to put the Z820 RED Edition through its paces. I started by plugging a REDMAG SSD into the integrated REDMAG drive on the front panel of the PC. I launched REDCINEX PRO, and browsed the content of the SSD. I validated that the footage would playback at 100% magnification and full quality using RED ROCKET acceleration. Excellent.

I then launched Premiere Pro CS6 and created a 4K project. I added a 4K REDCODE RAW file to the timeline, and in the "Source Settings" dialog, I was able to activate the option to use the RED ROCKET card. After a few minutes of UI shop-keeping in Premiere Pro CS6, I had a nice layout with project and settings management dialogs spanning the two WQHD displays, and the "Program Monitor" (preview window) filling up the 4K display. With quality set to 100%, and magnification set to 100%, I started playback on the timeline. After only about one second of queuing time the footage started to play smoothly in 4K. It's hard to describe adequately without being able to see it in person- this capability rocks! The following diagram will give you a high-level overview of what's happening end-to-end to make this demonstration is possible.

Demo setup: Z820 RED Edition end-to-end 4K footage screening

You can see in this diagram how data flows all the way from the REDMAG SSD (which was taken directly from a RED EPIC camera) to the 4K display. I won't go into deep detail here, but under the covers the following is happening:

1. The REDCODE RAW files are made available via eSATA just like an internal storage device (fast!)
2. The REDCODE RAW file is decoded on the RED ROCKET card into a format that can be manipulated in Premiere Pro
3. The NVIDIA graphics card is used for accelerated playback in Premiere Pro CS6
4. The 4K video data (preview) is output via HDMI 1.4a to the 4K display

At the same time, other parts of the Premiere Pro UI are being output to the two WQHD displays. Hard to imagine that all this works so well with a ~$300.00 video card! Of course, I should highlight this is an early adopter geek enthusiast tech demo, not a fully-supported hardware configuration. As of today, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti video card is not on the Premiere Pro CS6 officially supported graphics card list on adobe.com.

Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 running on 3 displays

While this display setup may not be a "turn-key" solution for video professionals, what it does show is that Windows 8 supports 4K displays and 4K multi-mon scenarios well.

I have been using Adobe CS6 on Windows 8 with great results (including Premiere Pro CS6) for a while including on the Z820 RED Edition configuration documented in this post. As an FYI, the Adobe CS6 family of creative apps are officially supported on Windows 8, as you can read about on adobe.com. Once the displays were properly connected and configured, I observed stable and reliable graphics performance with this 3-display setup. Since you can't see this setup in person, I wanted to include a picture that shows just how big the Windows 8 Start Screen is on a 55" display compared to an 11.1" laptop:

Windows 8 Start Screen: 55" side-by-side with 11.1"

This was my first experience with 4K display technology, and I'm really looking forward to exploring other aspects of ultra-high resolution displays with Windows. I'll be sure to share my experiences!

I also shot a quick video that shows the end-to-end 4K screening demonstration and the 3-display setup documented in this post:

Stay informed, follow me on Twitter!

via The Windows Blog http://blogs.windows.com/b/

Update on Windows 8 Pricing

http://blogs.windows.com/windows/b/bloggingwindows/archive/2013/01/18/update-on-windows-8-pricing.aspx

We are seeing good momentum with Windows 8 today. When upgrading from Windows 7, Windows 8 has a lot to offer including a beautiful new Start screen with live tiles, plus the familiar desktop and faster startup and longer battery life. Today I’d like to share the pricing details for the Windows 8 upgrade editions that will begin in February. I’d also remind you to take advantage of the great upgrade offer which lasts until January 31st 2013.

Windows 8 upgrade editions (see which edition is right for you here) will be priced as follows starting in February:

• The Windows 8 Pro upgrade edition will be available online and at retail for $199.99 MSRP (U.S.).
• The Windows 8 upgrade edition will be available online and at retail for $119.99 MSRP (U.S.).
• The Windows 8 Pro Pack will cost $99.99 MSRP (U.S.).
• The Windows 8 Media Center Pack will cost $9.99 MSRP (U.S.).

But we have our promotional offer available until January 31st 2013, you can upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for just $39.99 ERP* (U.S.) via Windows.com using the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant or pick up a DVD copy at a local retailer for just $69.99 ERP* (U.S.). If you bought an eligible Windows 7 PC between June 2nd and January 31st, 2013 – be sure to register for the Windows Upgrade Offer and upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for only $14.99 ERP*** (U.S.). If you upgrade to the Windows 8 edition or buy a PC with the Windows 8 edition pre-installed and want to move to the Windows 8 Pro edition– you can purchase the Windows 8 Pro Pack (previously known as Windows Anytime Upgrade) directly within Windows 8 by going to the Start screen and typing “Add Features to Windows 8” and at participating retailers for $69.99 MSRP (U.S.) until January 31st. If are running Windows 8 Pro and want Windows Media Center and DVD playback, you can add the Windows 8 Media Center Pack for free until January 31st**.

If you are building your own PC from scratch, looking to run Windows 8 in a Virtual Machine (VM), or looking to run Windows 8 on a second hard drive partition – you will want to purchase the Windows 8 edition or Windows 8 Pro edition OEM product known as “System Builder”. You can find these products online at local retailers.

For questions regarding upgrade paths for Windows 8, see this article on TechNet. For more information on upgrading to Windows 8, I suggest checking out this page on Windows.com as it is a great resource for information on upgrading.

And if you have any issues regarding your upgrade experience or technical questions about upgrading then I suggest visiting the Windows 8 Microsoft Community forum and posting your questions there.

*Offers limited to five upgrade licenses per customer. To install the Windows 8 Pro upgrade, customers must be running Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista, or Windows 7. The prices displayed are estimated retail price and the transaction may be completed in a different currency. The actual price of the offer will vary by region since it is dependent on a variety of specific factors including exchange rate, local taxes, duties, fees, local market conditions, other pricing considerations, and may vary by each independent reseller. The actual price you pay may be more than the advertised price due to these additional factors. Shipping and handling charges may apply to packaged DVD product.

**When moving from the Windows 8 edition to Windows 8 Pro via the Windows 8 Pro Pack – you receive the Windows 8 Media Center Pack and won’t need to install it separately.

*** The last day to register for the Windows Upgrade Offer is February 28th, 2013.

via The Windows Blog http://blogs.windows.com/b/

Unto Every Nation LDS Mission Website

http://ldsmediatalk.com/2013/01/18/unto-every-nation-lds-mission-website/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LDSWebGuy+%28LDS+Media+Talk%29

A member has just created the website Unto Every Nation (UntoEveryNation.com) as a place where newly-called missionaries, returned missionaries, missionary moms, or anyone who loves missionary work can read missionary blogs from around the world.

From Argentina to Zimbabwe, missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints all around the world leave their homes and live in a foreign land for 18 months to 2 years.  They do this to invite others to come unto Christ (see Preach My Gospel, page 1).  Every week, these missionaries write their families and friends, telling them about experiences they have had, people they have met, and lives they have touched.  Often times, family members or friends of the missionary maintain a blog where they post letters and pictures.

Unto Every Nation is a place where people can step into the life of a missionary and read their blogs, wherever they may be.

Because it is brand new, there are still lots of missions without blogs. That’s where they need your help! Check out UntoEveryNation.com and if you know of any missionary blogs that aren’t featured, let them know. They want to share as many missionary blogs as possible. The more blogs they can share, the greater the impact of these missionaries will be.

via LDS Media Talk http://ldsmediatalk.com

Directory 2013 Ready for Beta Testing

http://tech.lds.org/blog/554-directory-2013-ready-for-beta-testing

Directory 2013 is ready for beta testing. We need your help to test out all the new and existing features to make sure the Directory functions correctly across all the varieties of browsers, units, locations, languages, and computers.

You can view the Directory 2013 test site at https://lds.org/rcdirectory.

The Directory beta site contains a recent copy of real data. You're encouraged to explore, play around, test, and experiment in the beta site as much as possible. Any changes and photo uploads you make on the beta site will not be permanent and may be reset or removed at any time as new versions are pushed out.

What's New in Directory 2013?

Directory 2013 introduces many new features with photo uploads and your household profile:

Photo Upload

Photo upload has been completely redesigned. Changes include a totally new photo upload interface that gives you the ability to crop and rotate photos prior to saving.

When you drag the crop area, Directory maintains an aspect ratio for the cropping area to ensure all photos have similar sizes.

Photo Watermarks

When members upload a photo, the words "Awaiting Approval" appear over the photo until an administrator approves it. This lets members know that their photo is not yet visible to others in the ward.

When administrators upload a photo, the photo is automatically approved.

Photo Administration

For administrators, the interface and workflow for managing photos has been improved. The New Photos page has been split into two smaller pages: Approve Photos and Assign Photos.

This helps you better see the tasks needing to be done for each photo.

On the Manage Photos page, administrators can crop and rotate photos as needed.

The Upload Photos page also allows you to drag photos directly into the browser, which helps simplify the upload process.

My Household Page

The My Household page has been simplified to clarify which privacy controls correspond to which aspects of your profile.

Additionally, when you sign in to the directory, the default page is now My Household, which appears at the top of the sidebar. Currently the My Household page defaults to the edit view. Prior to the full release of this version, the My Household view will default to a Ready Only view with an "Edit Household" button at the top, more similar to how My Household currently functions.

The gear icon in the upper-left corner of the photo allows you to edit your photos at any time, changing privacy levels, or cropping, rotating, or removing the photo.

Bug Fixes

In addition to these feature improvements, we've fixed many documented bugs (for example, photo directory printing) and worked on the behind-the-scenes code to make the application more robust and speedy.

Providing Feedback

You can provide feedback on the beta site in the Directory Beta forum on LDSTech. The forums provide a freeform way for you to provide feedback, based on whatever tasks, processes, and other ad hoc testing you decide to do.

Directed Testing Feedback

For more directed testing, we have a list of tasks for you to test in a tool called Swarm Tester. To see the tasks in Swarm Tester, you need to first join the Local Unit Directory project (if you're not already a member) and then go to the Swarm instance for Local Unit Directory.

Join the Local Unit Directory project:

1. Go to https://tech.lds.org and sign in with your LDS Account.
2. Click Projects on the top navigation bar.
3. If you’re new to LDSTech, you’ll need to sign the Contributors agreement. Click Profile on the sub-navigation bar, complete the information and sign the agreement, and then click Save.
4. Click Projects on the sub-navigation bar.
5. Click Local Unit Directory.
6. Scroll down to the bottom and click Join.

See the tasks to test in Swarm Tester:

Note: Use either Internet Explorer or Firefox when using Swarm Tester. Chrome currently has an issue that orders the test cases incorrectly.

1. Go to https://tech.lds.org and sign in with your LDS Account.
2. Go to https://tech.lds.org/swarm.
3. Click LUA Directory.
4. Complete the test cases listed.

When you fail a test case, you'll be prompted to describe the bug. After you click submit, the failed test case will automatically create a new issue in our bug tracking system (JIRA). Subsequent fails will be added as comments to the initial fail. This helps centralize the testing feedback.

Callings Needed

We need people with all callings to test the directory. If you're a ward directory administrator because of your calling (website administrator, bishopric, clerk, executive secretary), you will see additional options in the sidebar for approving, uploading, assigning, and managing photos. Stake administrators don't have permissions to manage photos, but they can edit profile information.

Testing Period

The testing period will probably run for one or two weeks, starting January 18 and continuing from there based on the testing feedback.

If you find a lot of bugs, we may release updates to the existing beta release to address them in an ongoing way during the testing period. Once all bugs have been resolved, we will release the beta to production.

As a Directory team, we talk every day about how much help we receive from the LDS Tech community and how invaluable it is to our success. Thank you very, very much for all that you contribute! We couldn't do this without your efforts.

via LDSTech http://tech.lds.org/component/content/frontpage