Speaking at the company’s ‘Build’ conference, Steven Sinofsky used the keynote presentation to walk attendees through a live demonstration of the new OS, and expand on some of the details about it, but stopped short of revealing when it plans to launch the next generation of it’s flagship operating system.

The new version borrows some features from the increasingly popular Windows Phone operating system, using tiles and apps on an interface that is designed for both conventional PC’s as well as tablets and other touchscreen devices. The new interface called “Metro” uses a simple approach that is more appropriate for touchscreens, as well as working with a mouse and keyboard. Apps are also set to play a larger role, with whole-screen programmes reminiscent of mobile apps, but able to work together and available from a Windows App Store.

Microsoft is keen to capitalise on the success it had with Windows 7. Sinofsky revealed that more than 450 million copies of Windows 7 have been sold since its launch three years ago and that consumer usage of the OS has now overtaken Windows XP.

As you are aware Microsoft BPOS is a cloud based service offering Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Live Meeting. BPOS is based on Microsoft’s 2007 family of server products, however they have just released a new set of cloud based services called Office 365 which is based on their 2010 family of products.

Office 365 has a number of benefits over Microsoft BPOS:

• Reduced cost of £4 per user, compared to £6.71.
• There are no lower limits on the number of users. Even a one person business can benefit from Office 365.
• Office 365 includes Office Web Apps. An online version of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.
• Outlook Web Access now fully supports Firefox and Chrome.
• If you are using SharePoint you automatically receive 10GB of storage, plus 500GB of personal storage, per user.
• Updated versions of Exchange, SharePoint and Live Meeting, offering more functionality.
• Options to rent the latest Microsoft Office as part of your subscription (fees apply).

Going forward, new customers will only be able to sign up for office 365 and existing customers must migrate their services within the next 12 months ( by September 2012).

At present migrations are not possible, but Microsoft will be contacting customers in September 2011 to arrange a migration period. The migration process itself is relatively painless; most of the tasks will be carried out by Microsoft. There are however some issues that Source Support or LightPath will need to carry out. The key items are listed below:

Users connecting to the service via Outlook will need to be using Outlook 2007 or later. Outlook 2003 is NOT supported and will not connect.

• Mobile devices will need to be reconfigured manually to connect to the new service.
• Internet Explorer 6 is not supported.
• Prior to the change you must ensure your passwords meet the new complexity requirements:
  • Passwords must be between 8 and 16 characters
  • Passwords cannot contain characters from different language sets, e.g. Arabic or Greek or German. Only basic, English-language letters and symbols, called ASCII characters, are allowed. ASCII characters include:
  • A-Z, a-z, 0-9, ! @ # $ % ^ & * – _ + = [ ] { } | \ : ‘ , . ? / ` ~ “ < > ( ) ;
  • Passwords cannot contain the username alias (part before @ symbol.
• When requested by Microsoft, changes must be made to the website’s DNS servers.
• Users will be emailed and prompted to download the replacement to the Sign-In Tool, the Microsoft Online Desktop Setup tool and must do so by the transition date.

If you require more information on the migration or Microsoft’s Office 365 offering, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Apart from the cosmetic changes, we have also gone social. Links to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn can be found at the bottom of the page. Our Twitter feed will be updated regularly with up to the minute technology news, whilst our Facebook page will have company news and offers or promotions. At present our social sites are in their infancy, but we will keep you posted as everything develops further.

If you have any comments or feedback about the site or our service please feel free to send us a message on the Contact Us page.

Dropbox’s security has been questioned for some time now. A particular issue is that Dropbox does not encrypt your files on their system; it only encrypts the files as you transfer them to and from their servers. If their system were to be hacked in a similar way to the recent Playstation Network attack, all files and personal data would be openly available to the hackers. In fact only two weeks ago a programming error on their web site, allowed anyone to log in with any password. All that was needed was the correct email address to gain access to any files stored in or shared with that account. This security hole was left open for some time before the issue was resolved.

Finally, Dropbox have recently updated their terms and conditions. They come into effect on the 15^th July 2011 and must be agreed to if continued access to their service is required. One of the changes that have been made effectively means that any data that is uploaded to their servers is owned by Dropbox and they can pretty much use it however they see fit. The following is an excerpt from their T&C’s:

“We sometimes need your permission to do what you ask us to do with your stuff (for example, hosting, making public, or sharing your files). By submitting your stuff to the Services, you grant us (and those we work with to provide the Services) worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable rights to use, copy, distribute, prepare derivative works (such as translations or format conversions) of, perform, or publicly display that stuff to the extent we think it necessary for the Service. You must ensure you have the rights you need to grant us that permission.”

Although it is unlikely Dropbox would actually act in such a manor, you may find yourself in a situation where you do not have the legal protection or rights that you expect over your own data or imagery.

This email is not trying to scare you or suggest you completely stop using the service. However, due to the severe nature of these issues we would recommend further discussions between the management of your organisation and your user base on how you utilise Dropbox going forward.

As always we are here to help. If you require any more information from us, please contact us on the usual contact information.

Starting in Victoria Park, Team LightPath will cycle the 52 miles through the quiet lanes and villages of south Essex to Priory Park in Southend-on-Sea.

The team is taking part in the event in memory of Derek McKechnie who passed away suddenly last year.

If you would like to sponsor us, please visit the link below.

Donating through Justgiving is quick, easy and totally secure. It’s also the most efficient way to sponsor us: British Heart Foundation gets your money faster and, if you’re a UK taxpayer, Justgiving makes sure 25% in Gift Aid, plus a 3% supplement, are added to your donation.

Thank you for your support, it is greatly appreciated.

We look forward to seeing you at the finishing line.

The new system is incredibly flexible and allows us to enter jobs, close and place jobs on hold, enable follow-ups and quickly search on previous jobs by company or user.

Going forward we plan to enable the email notifications of jobs, by mid-April. This will keep requestors up to date on the status of the job. You will then also be able to log into the system and request new jobs and update existing jobs and apply job codes or PO’s if required. Of course the old method of contacting us by phone or emailing us direct is still available. The method above is simply an alternative option, with additional benefits for both us and the end user.

Other parts of the system also include a knowledge base center, troubleshooting wizard and downloads area, which We plan to turn on gradually over the next 6 months.

The final change to the system is the Timesheet outputs supplied with our invoices every month. These have now been modified to supply more relevant information and display in a much more user friendly view.

If you have any queries about how these changes may affect you, please do not hesitate to contact us.

This increase will take effect from 1^st April 2011. If you have an existing contract, this price increase will not come into effect until your contract renewal date.

Despite initially planning to adjust our prices two years ago, and amid increased costs from our suppliers during an extremely challenging financial period for all, we took the decision to help our customers by maintaining our prices at their existing level.

Indeed LightPath is proud to have been able to maintain our price structure for the past four years. During this time we have invested heavily in phone and helpdesk systems alongside remote control software to allow us to more effectively track and route calls and support clients remotely. We are continuing to invest to ensure we are trained in the latest technologies and are able to support the latest equipment.

These increases ensure that we still remain less expensive than our direct competitors, but will allow us to continue the high levels of service and immediate response you are accustomed to. If you have any queries regarding this notification, please do not hesitate to contact us.

All of our service pricing will stay the same, passing on any savings where applicable.

Because LightPath bill a month in arrears we will be required to charge 17.5% on our invoices issued in January 2011 for work carried out in December 2010.

By Phone
By using the numbers listed below, you are guaranteed to be able to speak to the first available technician in the quickest possible time. All numbers are routed directly to our switchboard which will ensure your issue is immediately dealt with. Our phone numbers can be found here.
By Email
If you prefer to email us about an IT issue, please contact us via one of the alternative methods and we will be happy to provide the helpdesk email address. This is a central mailbox that all IT technicians are able to view, edit and update.

By Website
As part of our helpdesk implementation, you can now submit tickets online. The website for this service is https://helpdesk.lightpathit.com. Our simple ticket creation process will allow you to track your issue from start to resolution. You will also be updated via email when new information is added to your ticket.

By ControlMyPC
On the occasions that we need to take control of your machine remotely we will direct you to the ControlMyPC website. We must stress that this website is not always actively monitored and logging onto this website without contacting us first may result in longer wait times.

As a business we are continually looking for ways to improve our service to you. We believe that our new system will help us serve you even better, without compromising the personal touch that we believe is important to both you and to us.

Please pass this information on to employees who are authorised to contact us for IT support.