ITPlus Magazine Issue One by Kate Enwere

TUTORIALS

•TIPS • DESIGN • BUSINESS • GADGETS• REVIEWS • APPS

ISSUE 01 . JANUARY 2013

BUSINESS PLUS 5 REASONS BAD CLIENTS ARE GOOD FOR BUSINESS

INTERVIEW WITH PEDRO VILAS-BOAS

An interesting interview with portugal based talented graphics designer. PG.50

SOLUTIONS HOW TO SAVE THE BATTERY LIFE OF YOUR LAPTOP

the ultimate guide to windows 8 An in-depth guide to Windows 8, tips tricks,tweaks and secrets unveiled

ITPLUS MAGAZINE EFFECT | JANUARY 1 THIS MONTH WE FEATURE IN-DEPTH TUTORIALS: MONOCHROME

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ITPLUS MAGAZINE DESIGN :: TECHNOLOGY :: BUSINESS

Twitter: @itplusmagazine | Linkedin: in/itplusmag | Facebook: /itplusmag Email: editor@itplusmag.com www.itplusmag.com Location: North Carolina ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

DASHBOARD CONTENT PAGE

Dashboard* Issue #01

• January 2013

SOLUTIONS

Saving the battery life of your laptop Page 31 6 Diiferent ways to open windows task manager Page 35 Trick or Tweak: Windows 7 tips and tricks revealed Page 37

TUTORIALS Creating a monochrome effect using photoshop Page 42 Creation of light beam contour Page 46

BUSINESS PLUS 5 reasons bad clients are good for business Page 90 getting twice the work done-in half the time Page 92

ULTIMATE GUIDE TO WINDOWS 8

Windows 8 is finally here and we’ve put together some tips and tricks to he navigate through the new Windows wiith ease

StartUps:

Your home based business -getting the right tools Page 96 7 Branding Tips for Small Businesses Page 98 79

Contact Us editor@itplusmag.com info@itplusmag.com kate.enwere@itplusmag.com www.itplusmag.com IT Plus Magazine (We apologize, but we do not answer technical questions on these links, send your questions to askkate@itplusmag.com)

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

DASHBOARD CONTENT PAGE

TIPSHEET

5 GIFTS UNDER 50

WEBMAKER

WORK-IN-PROGRESS

73 80

elp you

101

tips on Remote logouts, password protection etc

want to give gifts that wont deplete your pocket, find gifts under $50.

5 resourceful websites you can get news on business/technology.

Find out what some talented designers are working on this month.

INREVIEW

iphone 5, Samsung galaxy note and many more products reviewed.

BEST BUY

We try before you buy, a few products + where you can get them from

LEARNING LAB Coming soon: get to take classes in various topics.

On the cover PAGE 50

We had the opportunity of interviewing a highly talented multidisciplinary designer from portugal, Pedro Vilas-Boas, who studied Graphics Design at the Algarve University. Born into the design industry and has had series of projects with top companies. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a freelancer whose talent has taken him to various countries. He loves colors, no wonder most of his designs are rich in color and creativity.

DEJA VIEW

AROUND THE WEB

This monthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s collection of beautiful designs by talented designers like Yo Az, Alessandro... Pg.18

Check out what we found around the web this month. Pg. 102

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

DASHBOARD INTRODUCTION

_SUPPORTERS* Enyinna Nwigwe Los Angeles Actor|Producer/iLoveDogs/iCook/iPlayTennis/ConstantlyEvolving @A_Yinna

Editor KATE ENWERE editor@itplusmag.com

Creative Director KATEBYDESIGN katebydesign@itplusmag.com

Brand Specialist EMEKA EMEGHI mekistein@yahoo.com

Christian Enelamah

Sales/Ad Manager CHRISTIAN ENELAMAH

Lagos | Nigeria

kunlexy@yahoo.com

Web Editor VICTOR TOLEDO

Avid Blogger by day and workaholic by night. Also has a great listening ear.

ckohner@mag.com

Publisher ITPlusMag Publishing Contributors YO AZ

Victor Toledo North Carolina

LOUIS APPIAH CHRISTIAN ENELAMAH ALESSANDRO PETROCCO FATKUR ROKHIM LANASH LATHEEF MARTIN GROHS ZARKER

Mr anonymous. i enjoy surfing.sea food. computers. 4wheel drives and hacking.

Anita Isedeh Lagos | Nigeria

Radio personality, also known as ‘Omalicha’. Happy go easy, yep dats me, nevr a dull moment.

Questions and feedback:

@omaliicha

Emeka Emeghi Durham | North Carolina Brand Strategist ( Principal Consultant S360Media / Nerdinc.Ent ) New Hustler Code: Build Rome in a day! @mekistein

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

Morrisville, North Carolina Phone: Email: info@itplusmag.com Online: www.itplusmag.com IT Plus Magazine Publication may not be reproduced without our written permission. We therefore assume that all letters sent by fax, email, or post - are for publication unless otherwise stated and we reserve the right to edit all contributions for space and clarity of purpose. All contributions to ITP automatically becomes the organization’s property , unless otherwise stated and agreed upon in writing in advance. All contributions made to ITP are submitted and accepted on the basis of a nonexclusive worldwide licensing to publish or licensing others to do so unless otherwise agreed in advance, in writing and not just verbally. We will not be held accountable for errors or misprints. ITP recognizes all copyrights in this issue, where necessary, if for any reason, we have failed to credit all copyrights, please contact us, and we will correct the oversight.

DASHBOARD EDITORS DESK

FROM THE

EDITOR’S DESK

EDITOR: Kate Enwere EMAIL: editor@itplusmag.com URL: www.itplusmag.com

Yes! Its the dawn of new technology, so many long awaited products were released last year, and we are so hopeful 2013 is definitely going to be a great year, which is why we welcome you all to our very first issue... At long last, we’re here! Welcome to the premiere issue of IT PLUS MAGAZINE. This is your one-stop resource for all things Information, Technology and Business. Every issue features technology news, cutting-edge news, in-depth features, reviews on software, hardware, books etc. As well as expert-led tutorials, tutorials will also be made available for download online and yes...free!.

Special thanks to our supporters, contributors, and also our talented designers who contributed their works to this project.

We here at IT PLUS MAGAZINE will show you how to handle any technical problem, build better websites, also, become qualified IT and business people, with our dedicated sections in the magazine written by the industry’s leading specialists and developers. We are more than just a magazine.

your thoughts, ideas, works, articles, we’d love to hear from you.

We want to specially thank Pedro Vilas-Boas for this lovely cover design. We want to help you get more from the IT and Business industry, and we want to make it enjoyable, But what would you like to see In the magazine? Send

kate editor

K. Enwere

In this issue...

editors top picks from this edition P78

P90

P28

BUYER‘S GUIDE: PRINTER BUYER GUIDE

BUSINESS+: BAD CLIENTS-G0OD BUSINESS

GIFTS UNDER $50: GADGETS FOR CHEAP

Are you a business or an individual and don’t

Who would have thought that those mean and

A collection of gifts you can get for under

know what printer suits your needs?

impatients could actually do your business good

$50.00, loving the CobraTag Bluetooth keyring.

P37

P40

P80

SOLUTION: WINDOWS 7 TRICKS N TIPS

TIPSHEET: HIDE WINDOWS DESKTOP ICONS

BEST BUY: MONSTER BEATS BY DRE

A few simple tips and tricks or our Windows 7

If your windows desktop is as cluttered as mine,

Before you buy that product, just read this, we

owners out there.

we’ll show you a simple trick to hiding your icons

try these products before you buy them.

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

DASHBOARD INBOX

_inbox* Have any questions? want to talk about our magazine? is there anything you’d like to see in our magazine? or what is it you’re trying to fix, we’re here to help you through it. Also send us an email: inbox@itplusmag.com There’s enough to chew from this month’s issue perhaps most importantly the issue of Windows is driving us nutso here, but we’re here to answer your every questions and to know your expectations of us.

GET IN TOUCH

CAN’T COPY DATA

From: Collins J, Virginia Email: Colljayjay@yahoo.com Hi, i have a flip and an 8700g, but the data is stored onto my old 8700g, now i want to copy the information onto my sim car, so i can use it in my Flip. Is there’s also a computer program that i can use to back up data from my address book in the 8700g?

Of recent I switched from Windows XP to Unix, but switched back again (Though my Linux is still installed). Why? Because i couldn’t run games or use my hardware Mp3 player. Don’t get me wrong, Linux is a nice system, lots of alternatives like star office and open office and a good community. The real problem surfaces whenever i want to play games, and I’m a ame freak, so, it then makes

We are always happy to hear from you, here at IT Plus, b e c a u s e w e l o v e y o u (Honestly), there are three ways of contacting us, write in through email or post or call us, s o y o u h a v e n o e x c u s e whatsoever not to write in. We’d love to hear from you.

RESPONSE: All you need to do is to tether your 8700 to your memory using the USB cable that came with the blackberry. Install Submit your site the Blackberry Desktop ManIf you’d like your site to be ager, if you featured on these pages and don’t already online, simply get in touch have it and perform a backup of your with us,: submit@itplusmag. 8700. You can then perform a restore com and tell us onto the new Flip. Or you can choose the name of your site, its url the option in Desktop Manager for and what its all about. Please Switch Device, which will easily aland lease, use the subject low.. ‘Here’s my Site’

CAN’T SEE THROUGH ANOTHER WINDOW From: MJ Garvin mjgamer@yahoo.com

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

the situation horrible for me. Rarely will i see Linux supported on a PC Game box. A real shame I must say. I believe Linux is an excellent vision, but i don’t think it will move into the mainstream until game companies and hardware vendors take it seriously and stop eating off Microsoft pay checks.

DASHBOARD INBOX

www.facebook.com/itplusmag

EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE QUESTIONS... From: MJ Garvin mjgamer@yahoo.com

Hey everyone, I’ve just recently purchased a new 150 gig External Harddrive (the specs of it are in my profile, it’s a generic HD though) from ebay, it works fine and run perfectly. It’s a great piece of machinary, but alas, I have a few questions as I’m somewhat a newbie when it comes to externals in general, so here it goes: - How apt are these externals to failing? My PC is almost 3 years old, should I be more concerned about the internals or this new sucker?

hot at all, but is this dangerous? RESPONSE: Definitely not less likely to fail than an internal, as these are infact internal drives sitting in an external enclosure. The problem is that being external, these drive are more likely to be knocked over, jossled during travel and dropped more than a drive in a PC, so the risk of damage is greater. Tetris? Really this depends on your connection, a drive connect through USB 1.1 is not going to transfer well. If you can connect through USB2.0 or Firewire800 you might stand a chance to play off them. The external hard drive has the same lifetime hour limit as an internal one. Should be fine to leave it on.

- I’m looking to store movies, music, documents, and pictures on it, but I was wondering if I could possibly run games on it as well? I doubt it’s a good idea, but was just curious. - How long should/ can I leave it on? I always have my computer running, the HD itself never really gets

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

DASHBOARD MAGAZINE INTELLIGENCE

_ASKKATE YOUR LETTERS AND YOUR DISPUTES - LETS KNOW WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND THIS MONTH AND WE’LL ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS, JUST ASK. follow @_askkate

SWAPPING DRIVES Currently, I have 2 hard drives: one 80Gb,and the other 120Gb, of the low price I paid for the 1 2 0 G b d r i v e a n d purchased one more 120Gb. B u t I h a v e Windows XP running on the smaller 80Gb drive and just 2 Hard Drive slots, both of which are occupied. Would I be able to just move Windows to the bigger one?, Or would I have to format, reinstall...blah blah blah, yada yada yada??? Collins J, Virginia Colljayjay@yahoo.com Blah, blah, blah and more blah, look here bro, tell you what, lets do this the native way, no more blahs, if you know what I mean. Now, you could use a software such as Norton Ghost to take an image of your 80Gb drive and restore it to the 120Gb but it’s hardly worth it for just one drive. Take the old 120Gb drive out and swap it for the new one. Set the BIOS to boost from this one, format the drive and install a clean copy of Windows XP. Now switch the BIOS back and boot rom the 80Gb drive, and use the file and settings transfer wizard to move all your programs, data and Registry entries over the

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

new drive. Then finally, take the 80Gb drive out, put the old 120Gb drive back in, and set the BIOS to boot from the new one once again.

HARD DISKS

FUNNY FREE SPACE Windows 2000 is screwing up my hard drives. I have two drives in five partitions, and they all report the wrong amount of free space. It’s not the drives because the recovery console and Windows 98 are reporting the correct amount it’s Windows 2000. It comes up with random amounts of free space, but its always less than the real amount [which I’ve

checked by selecting all files and folders-Viewing Properties] Indexing service is disabled, What’s Happening? There is a difference between the total capacity of your drive minus the total size of all your files and the total amount of free space. One is the total theoretical space and the other is the total useable space. The filing system is always allocated omewhat more space than it actually needs because, hard disks are only addressable down to the cluster, not to the individual byte.

DASHBOARD MAGAZINE INTELLIGENCE

@itplusmagazine

Timeline @mentions Retweets Searches

It’s rather like measuring the total area of all the pages in a book and the total amount of ink used, and then ond

CONNECTIONS SLOWWW CONNECTIONS I have a very connected all through the night, by the next morning, it still wouldn’t download anything. Same thing goes for web pages. Sometimes it takes me a few minutes just to open up Google ome page. I use Windows 98 and a Conexant PCI modem with ISP, i don’t know if this is important but my phone cord

is 25metres long. Tina Walker, Cross Creek Twalkingtall@msn.com Twenty five metres of what? For shizzle?, Listen up, line noise will most def keep your connection peed down, because, Google’s home page is only about 3.5kilobytes, so your modem is downloading less than 240bits per second. That speed is the speed of modems from

Let us know what you think about our magazine, and we will help serve you better.

Your Magazine is cool, I must say you did a very nice Job, while I was enjoying all the online tutorials and stuff I was waiting for the real deal, also, if I sent some materials by post, will you get it on time for publication?. . Brian Norfolk | Virginia

Finally, it has arrived, well even though you said you will come out with a sample, please let me know when the real deal is, and can I have a copy of the sample, you said it was free!

I told my friends about your magazine and they’ve been waiting for it, please let us know how to contribute to the magazine, you also mentioned a blackberry app for the magazine coming soon, when please? Tommy | Puerto Rico

Jsnr Lindiwe | Kenya

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

DASHBOARD NEWS BYTES

_NEWSbytes* Whats happening in the global technology market and more.

After 7 Years In Court, Google Settles With Publishers On Book Scanning

Foxconn Invests $200 Million In GoPro

Mark your calendars for Microsoft’s official launch of the Windows Phone 8 smartphone OS. We have. CNET will be there, fingers flexed and laptops raring to go, to cover the San Francisco launch of Microsoft’s latest and most important chance yet to put Windows Phone on the map. For more info visit: www.slashdot.org

UK ‘Virtual ID Card’ Scheme Set For Launch

First time accepted submitter evrybodygonsurfin writes”The UK Government will announce details this month of a controversial na-

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

tional identity scheme which will allow people to use their mobile phones and social media profiles as official identification documents for accessing public services. People wishing to apply for services ranging from tax credits to fishing licences and passports will be asked to choose from a list of familiar online log-ins, including those they already use on social media sites, banks, and large retailers such as supermarkets, to prove their identity.”I can’t wait until carrying a telephone is mandatory. In the U.S. at least, how else will the government send you important messages? For more info visit: www.slashdot.org

“After seven long years of litigation, Google Inc. and the Association of American Publishers have reached an agreement to settle over the search giant’s bookscanning project, which will allow publishers to choose whether or not they want their books, journals and publications digitized by Google and accessed via its Google Library Project. The agreement, according to the two companies, acknowledges the rights and interests of copyright holders, so U.S. publishers can choose to remove their books and journals digitized by Google for its Library Project, or choose to keep their publications available. For those that keep their works online with Google, those publishers will be able to keep a digital copy for their own use and sell their publications via the Google Play marketplace.” For more info visit: www.slashdot.org

Philippines’ Cybercrime Law Makes SOPA Look Reasonable

Silentbrad writes with this report from Forbes:”The dark days of SOPA and PIPA are behind the U.S., at least temporarily, as copyright tycoons reground and

DASHBOARD NEWS BYTES

restrategize, attempting to come up with measures that don’t cause the entire internet to shut down in protest. But one country has already moved ahead with similar legislation. The government of the Philippines has passed the Cybercrime Prevention Act, which on the surface, as usual, sounds perfectly well-intentioned. But when you read the actual contents of what’s been deemed ‘cybercrime,’ SOPA’s proposed censorship sounds downright lax by comparison. Yes, there’s the usual hacking, cracking, identity theft and spamming, which most of us can agree should be illegal. But there’s also cybersex, pornography, filesharing (SOPA’s main target), and the most controversial provision, online libel.” For more info visit: www.slashdot.org

Advertisers Blast Microsoft Over IE Default Privacy Settings

theodp writes”GeekWire reports that Microsoft is sticking to its decision to implement ‘Do-NotTrack’ as the default for IE 10, despite drawing the ire of corporate America, the Apache Software Foundation, and the FTC Chairman. Representatives of a veri-

table Who’s Who of Corporate America — e.g., GM, IBM, BofA, Walmart, Merck, Allstate, AT&T, Motorola — signed off on a letter blasting Microsoft for its choice. ‘By presenting Do Not Track with a default on,’ the alliance argues, ‘Microsoft is making the wrong choice for consumers.’ The group reminds Microsoft that Apache — whose Platinum Sponsors have branded Microsoft’s actions a deliberate abuse of open standards and designed its software to ignore the ‘do-not-track’ setting if the browser reaching it is IE 10. It also claims that the FTC Chairman, formerly supportive of Microsoft’s privacy efforts, now recognizes ‘the harm to consumers that Microsoft’s decision could create.’” For more info visit: www.slashdot.org

ACER RETHINKS THE “TABLET BUBBLE,” LAUNCHING $99 TABLET In August 2011, Acer Chairman JT Wang declared that the consumer affection for tablets had already begun to cool, basically labeling it a fad. What a difference a year (and a half) makes. Acer now plans to introduce a ‘category killer’ $99 tablet. ‘In the past few months, we’ve made project roadmap changes in response to big changes in the tablet market,’ according to a source at the Wall Street Journal. ‘The launch of the Nexus 10 has changed the outlook for what makes competitive pricing.’ Acer is aiming the new tablet at emerging markets, competing with Chinese ‘white box’ tablets (already available in Shenzhen at $45 each).”

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

DASHBOARD NEWS INSIDE

_inside this edition

January 2013 Edition

Google working on “X” Phone Google Inc is working with recently acquired Motorola on a handset codenamed “X-phone”, aimed at grabbing market share from Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, the Wall StreetJournal said, citing people familiar with the matter

Wells Fargo Website trouble persists Wells Fargo & Co customers on Friday had trouble accessing the bank’s Web site for a fourth day, as a federal regulator reiterated the need for banks to have systems in place to ward off cyber attacks.

Adobe Acquires Behance Adobe announced Thursday that it has acquired Behance, the leading online platform for creatives who want to display and showcase their work. The terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

TECH NEWS

MOBILE RASPBERRY PI COMPUTER

An anonymous reader writes “Everyone has seen Raspberry Pi Computer, the credit card sized mini PC circuit board that costs only $35. Now there is a new Mobile Raspberry Pi called Pi-to-Go, with a mini LCD, 10hour battery, and 64GB SSD, all packed together in a 3D printed case. See if you are up to the task to build your own.

Galaxy S3 display outdoes iPhone 5’s CNET

Read more on slashdot.org

RIM PAYS OFF NOKIA

Nokia announced an agreement with Research In Motion to resolve all patent legislation between the two. The companies have been fighting over patents for almost a decade, most recently over devices with wireless LAN capabilities. The terms of today’s agreement were not disclosed but it involved a one-time payment from RIM as well as ongoing payments.... Read more on slashdot.org

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

Galaxy S3 fans have one more thing to lord over iPhone 5 owners: a superior display. That’s according to a study from IHS, which concluded that Samsung’s flagship phone had a screen that was both thinner and had a wider color gamut. The Galaxy S3’s display is just 1.1 millimeters thick and offers the full color gamut of the NTSC standard. In comparison, the iPhone 5’s display is 1.5 millimeters thick and offers 72 percent of the standard color gamut. With consumers increasingly concerned with the minute details and specifications of their mobile devices, the results are a win for Samsung, and further illustrates

the point that Apple no longer leads when it comes to adding the latest and greatest technology. That was already highlighted by the fact the iPhone 5’s two biggest new features -- a bigger display and 4G LTE -- have long been found in Android devices. Still, the specifications that IHS points to may be too deep in the weeds for all but the most hardcore fans, and the firm noted that the iPhone 5’s improvements over the previous iteration are more than enough to satisfy consumers. “Such improvements on the iPhone 5 are consistent with Apple’s philosophy of selecting

DASHBOARD NEWS INSIDE

Instagram retreats on some RIM loses subscribers service terms after backlash BlackBerry-maker Research Instagram, the popular photo-sharing service, has retreated from some but not all of the controversial changes in its terms of service that prompted a fierce backlash from users earlier this week.

In Motion, which is already struggling with plunging sales, has lost subscribers for the first time in the latest quarter, as the global number of BlackBerry users dipped to 79m.

features designed to yield profitable products that deliver a superior customer experience, rather than of providing technology for technology’s sake,” said Vinita Jakhanwal, an analyst at IHS. Another study done by DisplayMate, which conducts testing for manufacturers, found that the iPhone 5’s display was “state-of-the-art accurate,” and only fell short to the new iPad in terms of accuracy and contrast. DisplayMate president Raymond Soneira blasted the study, arguing that the color gamut test IHS conducted was based off of an old standard that has led to incorrect conclusions. Jakhanwah declined to comment on the new standard or Soneira’s comments. While the Galaxy S III has a thinner display, the iPhone 5 as a whole is a thinner device. Jakhanwah noted that the use of an in-cell display by Apple has improved the image quality of the phone. The iPhone 4S, for instance, was only able to display half the color gamut of the NTSC standard. The difference in color gamut between the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S3 doesn’t necessarily mean iPhone users will get a worse experience, IHS said, adding that better calibration, higher brightness, and superior power efficiency of the display may result in more accurate and realistic representation of image color and contrasts. “Some user reviews indicate that colors presented on the Galaxy S3 actually can look oversaturated and unrealistic,” Jakhanwal said. “While it may be interesting to compare the display specifications for the two phones, the actual front-of-screen viewing experience could diverge for different users.”

Ultraslim PC shipments to hit 65 million by 2015, researcher says The ultraslim PC market, which includes ultrabooks and the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with Retina display, is set for explosive growth in the coming years, according to one researcher. Last year, just 3.4 million ultraslim PCs were shipped worldwide. By 2015, that figure will grow to 65 million, according to new data from NPD DisplaySearch. By then, ultraslim PCs will account for a quarter of all mobile PC shipments. As NPD DisplaySearch notes, ultraslim PC adoption has been quite slow. According to the researchers, that has been due to high prices across the line and “a lack of differentiation from standard notebooks.” However, NPD DisplaySearch expects prices to continue to gradually come down, and innovation to rise. So far, ultrabook sales, especially, have been disappointing. Earlier this week, another research firm, IHS iSuppli, revealed thatultrabook shipments are only expected to hit 10.3 million this year, down from a previous forecast of 22 million units.”There once was a time when everyone knew the ‘Dude you’re getting a Dell’ slogan,” IHS analyst Craig

Stice said in a statement. “Nowadays no one can remember a tag line for a new PC product, including for any single ultrabook. So far, the PC industry has failed to create the kind of buzz and excitement among consumers that is required to propel ultrabooks into the mainstream.” Meanwhile, tablets are performing exceedingly well. In fact, NPD DisplaySearch said today that it expects tablet shipments to exceed notebooks by 2016. The company made a similar prediction back in July, when it said that it expects tablet shipments to hit 416 million in 2017, compared to 393 million notebook units shipped. “Tablet PCs have offered consumers what they have been requesting from the notebook market for years, instant-on activation, long battery life, and sleeker designs,” Richard Shim, Senior Analyst with NPD DisplaySearch, said today in a statement. “These attributes are the basis for enabling greater and easier accessibility to content and services. Ultraslim PCs are the notebook market’s response to tablets and aim to balance performance and convenience.”

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

DASHBOARD NEWS INSIDE

Zuckerberg wants everything to connect through Facebook The social network’s CEO, speaking with Bloomberg Businessweek, gives some hints about where the company is going but says Facebook makes more mistakes than other companies because it moves so quickly. By Shara Tibken staff writer -CNET

Mark Zuckerberg has offered some hints about what could be in store for Facebook’s future, saying he sees an opportunity to be the “infrastructure” for various other services now that the site has hit the 1 billion active user mark. Zuckerberg, speaking in a Q&A with Bloomberg Business published today, said Facebook’s user base is now large enough that the majority of customers at other sites -- like Skype or Netflix -- are likely also using Facebook. That means those large-scale services can now rely on Facebook as a “piece of critical infrastructure for registration.” “But the bigger question is, what services can get built now that every company can assume they can get access to knowing who everyone’s friends are,” Zuckerberg said in the interview. “I think that’s going to be really transformative. We’ve already seen some of that in games and

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

Photo Credit: (James Martin/CNET )

media, music, TV, video, that type of stuff. But I think there’s about to be a big push in commerce.” Some other areas that may someday be tied into Facebook include health care, finance, and government. And Zuckerberg again hinted at providing a social search feature, saying that “at some point, that will start to be a better map of how you navigate the Web than the traditional link structure of the Web.” Meanwhile, Zuckerberg wouldn’t predict when Facebook would hit 2 billion users, but said it will largely be tied to mobile. And he expects to make more money per amount of time that people are spending on mobile. He also hopes to enter the Chinese market at some point but said “we need to show we can do it in a way that’s going to make everyone happy, including ourselves.”

“we need to show we can do it in a way that’s going to make everyone happy, including ourselves.” Mark Zuckerburg Facebook Founder

Zuckerberg also called the market’s reaction to Facebook’s IPO “disappointing” but said the company is working to make “the company worth as much as possible over the long term.” He said Facebook is focused on moving quickly, even as the number of engineers rises. But Zuckerberg said that means Facebook makes more mistakes than other companies. “You can’t have everything so you just have to choose what your values are and where you want to be,” Zuckerberg said. “For example, Microsoft has a huge focus on really rigorous, bug-free code. That’s cool. I think that’s the right decision for a lot of the markets they’re in. But for us, this is the right way to go.”

DASHBOARD NEWS INSIDE

ISP Data Caps Just a ‘Cash Cow’

www.slashdot.org

Details for RIM’s Blackberry 10 superphone surface By Brian Bennett Senior editor for mobile phones -CNET

Are these the specs for RIM’s new flagship phone? (Credit: GSM Arena ) RIM needs a halo smartphone desperately to stem the tide of consumers drifting to Android and iOS. Apparently such a handset, the Aristo, is right around the corner. According to GSM Arena, leaked specifications of an Aristo device spell out a mobile product with muscular components and a sleek design. Measuring a mere 8.85 mm (0.35 inch) thick, the thin Aristo will boast significant computing power courtesy of a 1.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. That’s to be matched by a hefty 2GB of RAM and in line with current screen trends, the phone will sport an AMOLED display made by Samsung. Compris-

ing the Aristo’s imaging system is a 2-megapixel front-facing camera that shoots 720p video, perfect for corporate video conferencing, and an 8-megapixel main camera with LED flash on back. The other typical smartphone technologies, at least on Android, are here too, such as NFC, Wi-Fi Direct, Bluetooth 4.0, and microUSB connection. The phone should come with 16GB of internal storage as well plus a microSD card slot to add more capacity. Everything will be powered by a sizable but embedded 2,800 mAh battery. Of course the real draw, hopefully, will be the Aristo’s Blackberry 10 operating system, which RIM is betting on to bring customers back to its ailing

Ars summarizes a new report into the common practice of ISPs implementing data caps, ostensibly to keep their network traffic under control. The report found a much simpler reason: money. Quoting: ‘The truly curious thing about the entire debate has been the way in which caps have mostly remained steady for years, even as the price of delivering data has plunged. For example, paying for transit capacity at a New York Internet exchange costs 50 percent less now than it did just one year ago, and many major ISPs aren’t paying at all to exchange data thanks to peering. So why don’t prices seem to fall? ... The authors of the new paper contend that all explanations are more or less hand-waving designed to disguise the

fact that Internet providers are now raking in huge—in some cases, record—profit margins, without even the expense of building new networks. ...While Internet users have to endure a ceaseless litany of complaints about a “spectrum crunch” and an “exaflood” of data from which ISPs are suffering, most wireline ISPs are actually investing less money in their network as a percentage of revenue, and wireless operators like AT&T and Verizon are seeing huge growth in their average revenue per user numbers after phasing out unlimited data plans— which means money out of your pocket. In the view of the New America authors, this revenue growth is precisely the point of data caps.

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

DESIGN DEJA VIEW

_DEJAVIEW* A collection of beautiful and amazing designs from skilled and talented Graphic designers and illustrators from all over the globe. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like to be featured, please submit your designs to dejaview@itplusmag.com

Yo Az

www.yoaz.over-blog.com/ An illustrator and digital artist from Paris. who uses various geometric shapes/lines with colors for illustrations.

Martin Grohs

www.martin-grohs.com Martin Grohs, a young talented artist and designer based in Germany.

Louis Appiah

www.louicage.com Owner of Louicage graphics is also a young designer based in Ghana.

Zarker Zhirkov

www.behance.net/zarker Is a young 3D graphic designer based in Paris and is passionate about all kinds of art.

Fatkur Rokhim

facebook.com/Svpermachine Muhammad Fatkur Rokhim is a Freelance Graphic Designer based in indonesia.

Lanash Lat

www..dezignstar.com Is a self taught Graphic Designer who is inspired everyday by everything he sees, touches and tastes.

Alesandro Petrocco

www.alessandropetrocco.com A talented graphic designer based in Rome, Italy.

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DESIGN DEJA VIEW

â&#x20AC;&#x153;His designs are just simply exceptional, you just gotta love the style and appreciate the time and effort that has been put into his works.

YoAz LIVES: France, Paris OCCUPATION: illustrator FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/yoaz27 URL:

www.yoaz.over-blog.com/

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

DESIGN DEJA VIEW

POKERFACE HUMAN INERTIA SHADOWNESS

MartinGrohs Martin Grohs is a graphic designer and artist based in Germany. His passion is to create art that inspires the viewer to think about and dealt with the topic. Location: Hamburg, Germany Job graphic designer URL: www.martin-grohs.com www.facebook.com/martingrohs

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DESIGN DEJA VIEW

LouisAppiah LOCATION: Ghana TWITTER: @louicage FACEBOOK:www.facebook.com/Louicage

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

DESIGN DEJA VIEW

ZarkerZhirkov I’m a young 3D graphic designer based in Paris and I’m passionate about all kind of art. Twitter: @zarkerSSK

Location: Paris, France Job: 3D Graphic Designer URL www.behance.net/zarker Contact zarker31@gmail.com

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DESIGN DEJA VIEW

FatkurRokhim Muhammad Fatkur Rokhim. is a Freelance Graphic Designer. He lives in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been doing design for years.

Location: Indonesia Job massive comfy bed fatkur_ganteng2nd@yahoo.com facebook.com/Svpermachine

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

DESIGN DEJA VIEW

Ehenis nobit quas simet, aniti coribus moluptas in corepud vero to ipit, ommoluptur remporum que sum, sus

LanashLat I am a 27 yr old self taught Graphic Designer. I am inspired everyday by everything i see, touch and taste.

Location: Boca Raton, Florida Job Graphic designer URL http://www.Dezignstar.com www.facebook.com/DezignStar

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DESIGN DEJA VIEW

AlesandroPetrocco LOCATION: Roma, Italy job: Graphic Designer URL: www.alessandropetrocco.com

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

CONTRIBUTOR OF THE MONTH

JASON CRAWFORD

Mr Jason Crawford is ITPlus Magazineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Facebook fanpage contributor of the month... Yay! He is a christian, who lives in East Point, Georgia. He studied at The Art Institute of Atlanta, and majored in Fine Arts and Graphic Design, he has several years of experience in the design industry and is currently studying HTML5/CSS3/PHP. His skills include Conceptualization, Drawing/Painting, Graphic/Web Design, Silk Screen Design. He is our contributor of the month because he has always shown support by liking our posts, participating in our topics and has been involved indirectly in the process of ITPlus Magazineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fanpage. This is our way of saying a big thank you to him for showing us love. You can contact Mr Crawford for design services, he is more than qualified for the job.

Connect with Jason Crawford Location: East Point, Georgia Twitter: None Facebook: www.facebook.com/mrjaycrawford LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mrjaycrawford Website: www.jasoncrawford.biz

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

To advertise with us, send us a mail: advertise@itplusmag. com [Its Free!]

MORE WAYS TO CONNECT _TWITTER

www.twitter.com/itplusmagazine

_FACEBOOK

www.facebook.com/itplusmag

_LINKEDIN

www.linkedin.com/in/tplusmag

_EMAIL

editor@itplusmag.com

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

BUYER’S GUIDE 5 GIFTS UNDER 50

gifts under

$50

FANCY THIS MONTH’S 5 GIFTS FOR LESS THAN $50.00

adget is man’s best friend, this first issue brings you 5 unique gadgets you might want to pick up and also we’ve rated them, so you know its been tried and tested and its all true. If you’re looking for that affordable toy for your car then the livio will probably do it all for you. But if

you’re as forgetful as some people i know and you cant remember where you put your keys , we have the right device to help you find your keys or remote or kid.... thats right. Like i said, this issue is packed full with all the gadgets you’d need.

LIVIO KIT FOR IPHONE OR ANDROID

PROS .........................................................Easy installation, works with a livio app on a paired smartphone, having over 45.000 Internet, AM, FM stations. It can also handle hands free calling. CONS: Phone app shuts down with errors when launched automatically. CONCLUSION: Definitely not the #1 Bluetooth Radio with hands free calling, but it works great at a good price too.

Rating: Price:

COBRA TAG BLUETOOTH KEYRING FOR ANDROID PROS ........................................................ Battery life estimated 7days, for me it lasted 4days, easy installation and setup, lightweight and can be put in your pocket even when attached to keys. CONS: Not a GPS tracking device, not available for iphone yet CONCLUSION: Definitely with the money, saves you time when searching for keys or anything you connect it to.

Rating: Price:

$45.99

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$37.99

BUYER’S GUIDE 5 GIFTS UNDER 50

QUIRKY CONVERGE - USB CHARGING HUB

PROS ........................................................ Ability to charge the dock for devices at the same time. Also secures your devices firmly in place CONS: Fitting 4 cables in the back dock was very daunting, and didn’t fit. Undocking is also tasking. CONCLUSION: Undeniably a great concept with poor execution. Looks nice, but feels cheap still helps your table look organised.

Rating: Price:

BLUETOOTH SLIDING KEYBOARD CASE FOR IPHONE PROS ............................................................. Fully functional qwerty keyboard with caps lock, Home and shift key all inclusive. Bluetooth doesn’t drain out the battery of your iphone. CONS:

$49.99

Battery life when keyboard is on is 6-8hrs light weighted keyboard, the iphone weighs down the keyboard when slid open. CONCLUSION: Makes life easier for the text crazy people like us, feels like a part of your iphone overtime.

Rating: Price:

$26.99

Editor’s Top Pick

ROKU LT PROS .............................................................. .... One of the best media to TV streaming device. Easy to use. Over 40 channels. Streams music as well. CONS: Still checking for cons, none for now. CONCLUSION: Cable definitely cost more, absolutely worth every penny, its functionality is astounding and also easy to setup.

Rating: Price:

$49.99

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

SOLUTION • Saving The Battery Life of Your Laptop • 6 Different Ways to Open Windows Task Manager TIPSHEET • HIding desktop icons in windows • Password protect your ms office 2007 files • Make adobe reader download as pdf document faster TUTORIALS • Color Filtration-Monochrome effect • The making of Light Beam Contour Map

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SOLUTIONS HOW TO

SOLUTIONS

HOW TO GUIDES* Just like us humans have our needs, so do computers, only that, with the computer, it is slightly technological rather than emotional. We as humans get tired after a tedious day’s j o b and all we just want to do is REST, REST, and more REST! I believe the machines too deserve some rest after a long day’s job of tapping the keypads of a keyboard, driving the machine’s processor crazy and making it extremely Hot even when it’s the winter period. Over doing everything on any machine shortens the life span of that thing, that is why, this month, we are going to teach you how to take real good care of your laptop, just as you take real good care of yourself (for those who do). Also, we will not be using the door this month, because we have a Window to pass through (hope you know what i mean?). We will be taking a crash course on the Windows vista world, most of us just don’t know how the windows works, what makes it tick, how to make the most of your vista, this month’s crash course is simply going to be VISTA-LICIOUS!

Also we will be doing some graphics, even for those who are graphics dummies, this is your month to become that design guru, you will be learning how to design your very own iPod (Since you can’t afford to buy one), also, on the next issue we will have you send us your very own iPod design, the best man, or designer, wins an iPod, who knows, it could be you! There is a software in town, and I heard that it could help you recover lost or deleted files on your computer, do you know the name of the software? I don’t know too, but i bet the Gimme 5 crew have a clue to the name of the software and they are about to tell you on the next few pages. It’s a packed up, hacked up, backed up issue this month on our solutions section, plus we have answers to your IT needs on our Magazine Intelligence Unit (M.I Unit).Hope you learn something.

This article was written using Windows as example, so if you’re using Macintosh: CONTROL = COMMAND and ALT = OPTION

Worldwide Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts Photoshop is quite an interesting tool to use, and more interesting when you know the shortcuts that saves you time and puts that smile and confidence on your client’s face when they see you navigating the job like it was too easy! There are huge amounts of keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop, but i believe in listing the most important and worthy ones. Notes: We will be using ‘+’ sign to show two or more keyboard combinations. For example: CTRL + ALT + TAB etc.

1. You can check all your preferences pressing CTRL + K and learn more. 2. Press TAB to show/hide tool panels; 3. Press SHIFT + TAB to show/hide only your palette; 4. Press F repeatedly to cycle screen modes; 5. Press CTRL + TAB to switch to your next document; 6. Press CTRL + SHIFT + TAB to switch to your previous document; 7. Press CTRL + T to enter free transform mode; Tip: You can scale proportionally from center. You transform by pressing and holding ALT + SHIFT, when you’re dragging. 8. Press ALT + DEL to fill the layer with foreground colour or SHIFT + DEL to fill with background cololur; Tip: You can also use ALT + BACKSPACE or SHIFT + BACKSPACE to fill non-transparent pixels.

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

SOLTUIONS BATTERY LIFE

saving the battery life of your laptop*

he manufacturer’s specifications for your laptop will often indicate how long your battery should last. While the print may read between two and two and a half hours, the in reality, it could be a great deal less. There’s nothing more frustrating than being part-way through a task when the Battery indicator flashes and there’s no mains electricity connection in sight. If your battery lifetime appears to be significantly less would have your manufacturer believe. It’s due to a number of different factors .Obviously, the more tasks that you’re attempting to carry out on your laptop. The more resources your system is going to use. For example, multi-tasking will place a heavy load on your CPU, memory and hard disk, which in turn will use up valuable battery power. Furthermore, there are several best practice techniques you can employ which will combine to help extend the life span of your battery. For example, multi-tasking will place a heavy load on your CPU, memory and hard disk, which in turn will use up valuable battery power. Furthermore, there are several best practice techniques you can employ which will combine to help extend the life span of your battery.

LONGER LASTING BATTERY When you’re using your laptop from a mains power supply you should always try to remove the laptop battery if you’re not charging constantly which in turn will result in a reduction of its life span. It will be capable of a finite number of charging cycles so only connect it to your laptop when absolutely necessary. In addition, remember that you should run battery

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down as low as you can before charging it up each time. If you ‘re working with a new battery pack then it’ll need to be fully charged and discharged before it works to capacity.

USAGE TIPS When you’re on the road you’re going to be wholly reliant on your battery powering the laptop. You can certainly feel the pressure when you’re attempting to complete a task in the knowledge that all the time your battery power is gradually diminishing. The icon in your system tray serves to reinforce the fact that only a limited amount of time remains. Fortunately, there are techniques that you can use to extend the life of the battery and ensure you make the most of its power. This can be achieved through Power Options in control Panel. Under Power Schemes there will be two different settings, one for when your computer is plugged in and the other or when it’s running on Batteries. There are a number of pre-defined Power schemes that can be used for different situations. Click the drop-down box and you’ll be able to choose from schemes such as Portable Laptop, minimal power management and max battery. Each one enables you to apply a different group of settings to correspond to different situations. Alternatively, you can choose the settings you’d like to use instead. For example, if you’re running on battery power you an make your own charges to the time after which the monitor should be turned off or the hard disks powered down. It’s also possible to preserve the changes you make First and foremost you should optimize the power management features of your laptop. And create your own

SOLUTIONS BATTERY LIFE

power schemes for use in the nearest future. Once you have your preferred settings in place click Save As and give your new power scheme a name.

TOP TIPS 1. Graphic-intensive applications, such as games, or even watching DVD movies on your laptop, will place significant strain on your battery. Avoid these pursuits until you’re able to hook it back up to a mains power supply. 2. Your laptop will sound a warning, when your battery starts running low on power. You can adjust the point at which the alarm sounds using the settings under the Alarms tab in Power Options. There are two settings you can activate. Low battery alarm and critical battery alarm. Once you’ve selected your options you can choose what type of alarm action is used, such as an audible alarm and/or a message. 3. Some laptops come with settings or a built-in utility to change the display brightness. The LCD screen is one of the biggest users of battery power so any reductions you can make here will help extend battery life. 4. You can use Hardware Profiles to disable specific devices that may not be required for a particular session. For example, you may not need your CD/DVD drive, so you can create a profile to exclude it and save power. 5. Another way of ensuring maximum performance from your battery is to disconnect all unnecessary peripherals from your laptop. For example, if there are USB devices that you’re not using then unplug them. 6. Take a look at the Advanced Tab of Power Options and you can choose what action takes place

when you close the lid of your laptop or when you press the power button. 7. If you’re storing your battery and not using it, try and keep at 40% charge rather than running it down. 8. Don’t keep too many program windows open at any one time. Close those that aren’t required and you won’t use as much CPU and memory power. 9. Add more RAM to your system. If possible, because this will reduce the amount of strain that’s placed on the hard disk.

WHAT‘S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STANDBY AND HIBERNATE When you’re not using your laptop and want to power it down without turning it off completely. You have two options at your disposal Standby and Hibernate. Hibernation works by creating an image on your hard drive and memorizing the files, folders and applications that are open at the time you choose to Hibernate. When you switch your PC on again your system will boot upward go back to its original state with those same items on screen. It depends on how much data has been saved by your hard disk, but you generally find that starting your PC from hibernation is much quicker than performing a normal boot. When it comes to choosing between the two main power saving options. Standby is probably better if you’re going to be leaving your PC unattended for a couple of hours or so. This will send your system into a reduced power mode with the benefit of a fast resume time for when you want to start working again. If you wish to put a hold on your work activity for a longer period of time, say overnight for example, then Hibernate is probably going to be your best bet.

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

SOLUTIONS BATTERY LIFE

think outside the box @iamkatebydesign Designs you can trust

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

TASK MANAGER* 6 DIIFERENT WAYS TO OPEN WINDOWS TASK MANAGER

believe a huge percent of windows users all know how to get to the Windows task manager, once that program freezes up on you or that document you’ve been working on for days refuses to respond to any mouse clicks, our 3 fingers get busy and starts stretching to the Ctrl + Alt + Del, which in my opinion i think Microsoft should have its computer engineers bring the DEL button a lot closer to Ctrl+Alt! I must say, I love looking for various ways of achieving the same result, that’s why am sharing the 6 ways you can still get to Windows Task Manager, Ctrl+Alt+TaskMger (Del) inclusive.

STEP 1 CTRL+ALT+DEL The most popular way of getting to the task manager of course, up until the release of Windows Vista, the older versions took you straight to the task manager box, but when Windows Vista was released, Ctrl+Alt+Del takes you to the Windows Security screen, where there are 5 options to choose from, Windows Task Manager being the last option.

STEP 2 WINDOWS+RUN+TASKMGR Another fast way of getting to the TaskManager is by pressing the Windows Key +R on your keyboard and then type “TaskMgr” and press Enter. Also, you have to understand that the Run command is a unique and effective tool to get to any program or file on your computer if you key in the right command. To get to the task manager, click on the Start Button - All Programs - Accessories - Run, then type Task Mgr and hit Enter.

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SOLUTIONS TASK MANAGER

STEP 3 CTRL+SHIFT+ESC Another fast and convenient way to access the Task Manager is the Ctrl+Shift+Esc command. the reason I’d definitely recommend this method is due to the fact that you can actually bypass the Windows Security screen to get to the Task Manager, which takes you back to the Windows XP era.

STEP 4

I shouldn’t be adding this to the list, because, its one of the longest methods so far, the only reason am adding it is, if all else fails and this works...might as well right?. When using this method, you open up Windows Explorer and browse to your C:\ under my computer (i.e. C:\Windows\System32\taskmgr. exe) or you can simply search for taskmgr in the system32 folder, you can also try pressing “T” till you find it, then double-click to open it. Like I said “ If all else fails”.

STEP 6 CREATE TASKMGR.EXE SHORTCUT

RIGHT-CLICK ON TASKBAR Definitely one of the best method around , because it totally and completely relies on the use of your mouse and no keyboard buttons or typing involved. Simply put, it involves 2 clicks on your mouse, first Right-Click on your taskbar - next select “Start Task Manager” option from the pop-up menu, and Windows Task Manager pops up on your screen! You can also create an AutoHotKey Script of course to bring up Windows Task Manager way faster just with a simple button click.

STEP 5 NAVIGATE TO TASKMGR.EXE

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You could say we saved the best for last, and yes you’re right we did. This last method of creating a shortcut on your Windows desktop by simply right-clicking on any space on your desktop, selecting “New” and then selecting “Shortcut”. A “Create Shortcut” pop-up window appears, select browse and navigate to the desired path as before (C:\Windows\System32\ taskmgr.exe) and then select “Next”, on the next window, type in the desired name you’d like to give that Task Manager shortcut, then click on the “Finish” button and we’re done. So, whenever you encounter a frozen screen or “Not responding” program error message, just go to your home screen and locate that shortcut and double-click on it, and walah! there you have it!!

_Trickortweak* Windows 7 Tricks and Tweaks for the month.

1. Taskbar icons have keyboard shortcuts. To open these applications through shortcut keys, simply hold down the Windows key and press the number on the keyboard that corresponds with the icon, working from the Start “orb” button to the right. For example, if Internet Explorer is the first icon, press Windows-1 to open IE.

2. You can move items on the taskbar. I know it feels like this was already possible in Windows XP and Vista, but this actually is a new Windows 7 feature.

3. Paint and WordPad use the new ribbon interface.

In addition, Paint has new brushes, and both applications have new Save As options. However, you still can’t open more than one document or picture at a time.

4. There is a great new tool for supporting family members and friends from afar. Click the Start button and type psr to open the Problem Steps Recorder. This tool can capture step by step (even take screenshots) what a person is doing. When they stop the recording, the session is bundled as an MHTML file and compressed for easy emailing back to support, which in most cases is you. (An MHTML file is an IE-only HTML variant.)

5. You can have more than one clock on your notification area. For those of us who work with people in other time zones, you can display clocks for each of those regions. Click the clock in the notification area and choose Change Date and Time Settings. Select the Additional Clocks tab to display as many as two other clocks and to set their time zones. (This feature actually came with Vista, but few people know about it.) menu. However, you can also simply type the name in the Instant Search bar at the base of the Start menu and press CtrlShift-Enter.

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

SOLUTIONS TRICK OR TWEAK

To turn on and off built-in apps such as Internet Explorer, DVD Maker, and Media Player, type features in the Instant Search bar and select the Turn Windows Features On or Off link under Control Panel; then locate the feature you want to hide or display.

10. You can run a private version of Internet Explorer.

6. There’s a fast way to run a program using administrator privileges. To open an application with administrator permissions, you usually locate it through the Start menu, right-click the application, and choose Run as Administrator from the contextual menu. However, you can also simply type the name in the Instant Search bar at the base of the Start menu and press CtrlShift-Enter.

7. There is a replacement to the Security Center called the Action Center. Located in the Control Panel, it provides both security and maintenance information for your system. It also provides links to many other features such as backup settings.

If you are at a conference or in a public location and want to run a private version of Internet Explorer, you can quickly jump to the InPrivate Browsing mode to do so. There are several methods. You can click and drag the IE icon up or right-click it to get a contextual menu in which you choose Start InPrivate Browsing. Or in IE itself, choose Safety > InPrivate Browsing or press Ctrl-Shift-P to open a new, private IE window. You can also set a desktop shortcut for IE that automatically launches in InPrivate Browsing mode; just append -private after the application path, with a space before the hyphen. No matter how you launch that private session, IE won’t retain any of the information you view or type during that session.

11. You can turn off auodetection of your location and other such browser information.

8. There is a new UAC (User Account Control) slider to set the desired prompt level. You can reach it quickly by typing uac in the Instant Search bar. This slider is set by default to a less annoying setting than what Vista had, but you can bring the settings back to Vista mode, leave it in Windows 7 mode (which prompts you only if an action is attempted beyond your input), or lower the settings to the bottom and turn off the UAC security altogether to what I like to call “Mac mode” (yes, I know the Mac’s UAC equivalent prompts users for the same kinds of actions as UAC’s Windows 7 mode). Note that the slider is also available in the Action Center.

9. You can quickly turn on and off certain Windows apps.

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Sometimes, when you go to a site, it locates your connection point and asks, for example, “Would you like to know the weather in [your location]?” That may freak you out a bit, but you can use a new IE feature called InPrivate Filtering, located in IE’s Safety options, to choose what browser information you want to filter out from sites’ access.

SOLUTIONS TRICK OR TWEAK

12. You can set up a quick home network. Use the new feature called HomeGroups to share documents, pictures, and printers easily with other members of your home network also running Windows 7.

bottom one is for direct command input, the middle one is for output, and the top one is for scripting and saving those scripts as PS1 files. One tremendous benefit of PowerShell v2 is its remoting capability, which lets you perform tasks on other systems through the command line.

13. Find out what’s causing reliability issues.

18. Control application access control via AppLocker.

If your PC has issues every once in a while, such as crashes or application hangs, type reliability in the Instant Search bar to open the Reliability Monitor; it will show your system’s reliability history over a period of time and what seems to hit your reliability the most.

This tool uses rules and file properties to provide access control to applications. Although you’d typically use AppLocker on a domain, you can play with the settings and become more familiar with AppLocker by opening Administrative Tools, opening the Local Security Policy, and expanding the Application Control Policies. There, you can create rules that relate to the publisher, path, and/or file hash, along with a host of other settings.

14. See a system diagnostic of your computer in 60 seconds with minimal effort. Rather than go to Administrative Tools, then to Performance Monitor, and finally to Data Collector Sets just to launch the System Diagnostic DCS, simply open up an administrator command prompt and type perfmon /report.

15. You can enforce time limits and game restrictions on users. Use the Parental Controls in the Control Panel. Yes, they’re great for home control but also for libraries, schools, and kiosk systems not connected to a domain. 16. Find missing tools such as Windows Mail and Photo Gallery. These have been moved to a download site called Live Essentials. 17. Work fast using PowerShell. PowerShell v2 is included with Windows 7, which also offers a new semi-GUI version of the tool called PowerShell ISE. PowerShell ISE has three panes: The

19. Get automatic email alerts for error events. Have an error event in Event Viewer that you want to be emailed about when it happens again? Open Event Viewer, locate the event error through the logs, select the event, and use the Attach Task to This Event wizard in the Actions pane to attach a task to that event, such as displaying a message, running a program, or sending an email.

20. See your Windows Experience Index (WEI) performance score. Type wei in the Instant Search bar and click the Check the Windows Experience Index link to see your system score (aka the Base score) and individual component scores. To see the underlying XML files that are created when this score is calculated, go to c:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT\DataStore and look for the latest (Formal) assessment XML for a full review of the results from the Windows System Assessment Tool (WinSAT). Finally, if you want to have some nerdy fun, you can adjust the permissions settings and give your system a higher WEI score.

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

SOLUTIONS TIPSHEET

_TIPSHEET*

TIPS/TRICKS All the tips and tricks you’ll nneed to know

This month’s top tips and tricks all packed into these pages. Have any tips or tricks? send them submit@itplusmag.com end, so, when that fails you can pull out the big guns, that is, the command prompt option. First, click on the start button, in the search box, type in cmd and in the open cmd window, type tasklist. A slightly long list of the Processes that you have running populates on your cmd screen, the PID (Process ID) is what you should pay attention to. Next type in the cmd taskkill/pid and the process id number you wish to killl. That is, if you’d want to kill Ms Word and its process id is 143, you’d type: taskkill/pid 143. Thats all you have to do.

password protect your ms office 2007 files There are some files you have on your computer that you wished when someone was using your computer, no one stumbles upon it. For ages windows has always made it possible for you to password protect your office files. Here’s a way you can password protect your MS Office files in a few easy steps. To password protect that file you don’t want anyone to see in MS Office 07, open any MS Office program, for instance, MS Word or PowerPoint. Next Click on the office button at the top left corner of the document tab. From the drop down menu, select Prepare in the new window, click on Encrypt Document.

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In the Password section, type in your desired password, another window opens to confirm password, click OK after retyping Password. That’s it! seriously, thats all you have to do. For more info visit: www.itplusmag.com

HOW TO KILL WINDOWS PROCESSES VIA THE COMMAND PROMPT Most Windows users quite often do not know about this option, and that’s because the popular option would be Ctrl+Alt+Del to launch the task manager and then kill the process you want to. But sometimes even the end process doesnt

For more info visit: www.itplusmag.com

HIding desktop icons in windows If your desktop is like mine with several programs and files on it and you’d like to feel a lot more organized, one of the simplest forms of organization is by hiding some things. Today we’ll show you how to hide your desktop icons in windows in just a few simple steps.

SOLUTIONS TIPSHEET

HOTTEST TIP THIS MONTH

Step 1 Right click on your desktop, in the drop down menu box select View Step 2 In the View drop down list, scroll to Show desktop icons. You’ll notice your desktop icons are invisible now, to show your desktop icons, simple use the same method, View-Show desktop icons, and your icons pop back up! For more info visit: www.itplusmag.com

Make adobe reader download as pdf document faster If you’ve been in a situation where you try to open a PDF document on a website and load it on Adobe Reader, you would have noticed that the pages download one after another, which definitely takes time and slows down your work time. A quick tip to speeding up that download process is by configuring your download so that

you can optimize your download speed. 56Kbps is usually the default internet speed in Adobe Reader, you can always select a higher internet download speed based on the connection you have. Step 1 Open Adobe Reader from your computer, from the edit menu, go to “ Preferences” or Ctrl + K Step 2 Under preferences Categories List, select Internet Step 3 From the internet options panel, click on the drop down list box in connection speed, select the speed associated with your Internet connection speed. For more info visit: www.mywebsite.com

LOG OUT OF YOUR GMAIL REMOTELY ON ANOTHER DEVICE. Almost everyone owns a laptop or desktop of some sort and because its your computer, you’re always logged into your email, who wants to keep signing in and out all the time right? For instance, you may be using a friend’s computer and you’re logged into your Gmail account to do a quick email check, you get an emergency call and dash out the door without logging out, and there’s a private email you do not want anyone to see, well Gmail has made it possible for you to log out of your account from anywhere, am talking remote logout. First, log into your Gmail from any device, if you’re using your phone then you’ll have to switch to the desktop view at the bottom of the screen. Next, in your Gmail inbox, scroll to the bottom right corner of the page and click on Details, a new page called “Activity on this account” will pop up, this page shows detailed information on your log in sessions, at the top of the page, click on the “Sign out all other sessions” button, and Google logs you out of any computer you were logged into. So next time you forget to log out of your Gmail account, don’t be afraid, just do the Gmail fix.

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

“I’ve been messing around with the tint effect lately, so i would add a tint effect to the desaturated image...”

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

SOLUTIONS TUTORIALS

tutorials

color filtration* STEP 1

OPEN IMAGE AND DUPLICATE BACKGROUND Now our very first step of course would be to open photoshop, but hey, i choose, opening the image as our first step. Next we duplicate the layer background by either clicking on Layer – New- Layer from Background, or just drag the layer to the new layer icon /wpcontent/pix/tutorials/colorfilter/1.jpg located in the Layers Palette. By the way i got this image from here: http://www.sxc.hu/ browse.phtml?f=download&id=1010825

STEP 2

DESATURATE Now in order to make our image monochrome at least most of it, on the duplicated layer, Hit Ctrl + Shift + U or click on image > Adjustments > Desaturate

STEP 3

HUE AND SATURATION TINT I’ve been messing around with the tint effect lately, so i would add a tint effect to the desaturated image, just to make it look nicer, go to Image > Adjustment > Hue and Saturation. Check the Colorize box, and move the Hue slider to 200, and the Saturation slider to 15

STEP 4

LAYER MASK Here comes the major step that changes the image forever, well… literally..the Layer mask.To add a layer mask to the monochrome layer, click on Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All

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SOLUTIONS TUTORIALS

A very important thing you must do is to make sure that the layer mask thumbnail is highlighted, this will help you know that what you’re working on is the layer mask, not the layer itself.

STEP 5

BRUSH TOOL

Next, you have to set the foreground color to black and select the Brush tool. make sure you selct hard round brush in the Brush Picker Palette. You could simply tap F5 on your computer to display the Brush Options, uncheck the shape dynamics checkbox.

STEP 6

PAINT TIME Time to get dirty!, You need to zoom into the image by using the zoom tool or simply pressing Z when painting. First, paint the parts that have bright colors, this is where the effect starts taking shape. you should adjust the brush size in order to paint accurately You can mask out the areas of this layer that cover the blue and red sections of the little boy’s image, leaving the white and grey areas the way they are. Keep switching the foreground and the background color to add or remove colors.

FINAL IMAGE You should have something like this! But if you don’t and you have something close, then that works just fine.

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

FEATURELAYOUT2

Hub83 Coming soon

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

SOLUTIONS TUTORIALS

_tutorials

creation of light beam contour* STEP 1

CREATING THE CURVES When you draw a line/curve the two endpoints of the curve are called anchor points. The other points, which define the shape of the curve, are called handles, tangent points, or nodes. Attached to each handle are two control points. By moving the handles themselves, or the control points, you can modify the shape of the curve. As the curve is completely contained in the convex hull (analogy for elastic bound) of its control points, the points can be graphically displayed and used to manipulate the curve intuitively.

STEP 2

VECTOR OR VECTORIZE

Tracing is the process of creating drawings from images. By using the pixels of an image as a guide we can trace over the image and create points, lines and areas in a drawing. The tracing process is like laying a sheet of tracing paper onto a photograph and then drawing lines with a pen to outline what is seen in the photo. The photo image is thus converted into a line drawing. This process is very clean and lightweight.

If you wonder why you can just use an automate tracing command you must have in mind that is not so simple anyway. In some condition automate tracing may be the best solution you can consider but if you have a smaller, older or just bad low image you have to accept manual tracing which is the best method for an accurate design.

To trace an image you have to use a image source or a sketch where the drawing layer in which objects are created appears about the image layer. You can then see both the drawing as well as the image being traced.

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SOLUTIONS TUTORIALS

STEP 3

LAYER MASK To start we need a raster image as a base for what we want to draw. In this example I choose a very original and exciting photo made by LIFE Magazine – “Light-beam contour map” which are used by Air Force to design flight helmets in 1954

To start drawing you have to create a new document. File>New… You can set this new document at any size but for starting preferably is the same size as you original image. Import this image in your vector based software. For this you have to go to File>Place… and select you drawing from your hard drive or other source (C, DVD , mass storage etc.). If you use Illustrator to make your first draw you have to now that image imported are automatically centered in page. After you imported lock the layer to prevent accidental moving. Create a new layer for you illustration.

STEP 5

SHAPING Drawing with pen tool is not complicated. In the first faze of drawing you have to determine the base points of shape you want to define. The first tool in your pen palette is your default pen tool. When you select the pen tool (either by clicking it or pressing “P”), and hover over your document area, you’ll notice that the pen tip cursor shows a small “x” next to it. If you click somewhere on your document, you’ll see a new anchor point. Click again somewhere else on your document, and Illustrator draws a line segment

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

SOLUTIONS TUTORIALS

Using the same default pen tool, click and hold somewhere else on your document. While holding the left click, drag your cursor in the direction of your intended curve. For example, if you want your line to come down and curve to the right, you’ll click below your selected point and drag to the right. This click and drag action creates a handle that defines the shape of your curve. If it does not correct what you want to draw, you’ll have to adjust your line to get it just right. For this, you’ll need the “Direct Select” tool (shortcut: “A”). With the direct select tool, you can select individual anchor points on your line and move them around. An anchor point will have a solid fill when it’s selected, when you select a curve anchor point, you’ll see the handles. Using this tool you can adjust the direction of the curve by clicking and dragging the small dot at the end of the handle. You can also shorten or lengthen each side of the handle as you desired

FINAL RESULT

CREDIT Title: Light-beam contour map used by the Air Force to design flight helmets, 1954 Artist: LIFE Magazine Photographers

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Design | Technology | Business more than just a magazine

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

DASHBOARD GLOBAL NEWS

“I HAVE A PIECE OF ART THAT “HAUNTS” ME FROM CHILDHOOD “THE TWITTERING MACHINE” FROM PAUL KLEE, I LIKE TO SEE IT AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK. ” PEDRO VILAS-BOAZ GRAPHIC DESIGNER

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

INTERVIEW PEDRO VILAS-BOAS

COVER STORY INTERVIEW* INTERVIEWER: Kate Enwere

EMAIL: kate.enwere@itplusmag.com

We send our top reporter to do the... Truly an inspiration to the d e s i g n w o r l d , a multidisciplinary designer f r o m P o r t u g a l , s t u d i e s Graphics Design at the Algarve University. Born into the design industry and has had series of projects with top companies. He is a freelancer who has had the opportunity of travelling to various countries for As a child pedro has always loved the feeling of receiving candies, especially the colors of the wrapping paper, the joy and happiness they bring and the way they taste. Lover of attractive colors who loves to seek inspiration in nostalgia. He owns a studio in Portugal known as “The Vilaz”. Lets meet him.

design from inction to completion. We always try to derive new solutions, I see this style as anything chaotic, that in the end seeks for a balance. We also love the 80’s and love the “Neo Futurism”. Its easier for me to see solutions when I have many ideas together. I try to create several easy solutions before starting the project. And then, I pick one and start to work on it. Each project is different, and I try to find a different way to solve e a c h o n e . A l w a y s m a k e maximum use of software and plastic materials, and is a constant struggle to try to innovate because in nowadays there are many good designers and companies. As creative director or art diHi, Welcome to IT Plus Magazine, please tell rector, it is very important to find talented peous about yourself and give us a brief summaple that always have new inputs ry of your background in design. to the project. It is important to maintain the level of Hi, thanks for the invitation, am a detail to treat each multidisciplinary designer from pixel like it were the Portugal, I’ve been studying at most important of Vestibulum elit the Algarve university graphic the project. neque elit, vulputate in design. My first job, was on suscipit eu, et nunc. a print company, my second job in a webdesign company Sed gravida mi ultricies erat and my third on an interacdictum rutrum. tive company called Ydrems J.W. doing at most interactive art for musuems. So I learned a little of everything, that is helping me a lot now. As freelancer I’ve worked in a lot of countries in some great projects. As influence I like to seek inspiration in nostalgia. When I was a child I loved the feeling of receiving candies, like the paper wrapper, the attractive colors, the happiness, more than the way they taste. It is also important to say that “The Vilaz” is noww a studio, and Cátia Oliveira assumed the Creative direction. For some of our readers who are not familiar with your style of design, what is it called and please tell us the processes involved in your

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

PEDRO VILAS-BOAS Nantes, France www.vilaz.tv

“It is very important to get to find a financial equilibrium to have regular clients. ” PEDRO VILAS-BOAS

GRAPHIC DESIGNER

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INTERVIEW PEDRO VILAS-BOAS

Where do you draw your inspiration from? Do you work from a home office or studio office? If either one, tell us its pros and cons? The studio is now based on a normal apartment, we have lots of space there and the environment is great. When you are a freelancer the worst is that it could be boring to be alone several day, but then you have more time to fail and create new stuff. In an agency world there are lots of people you’re never lonely, but you don’t have time to fail, everything needs to be great on the first shot. Am sure people want to know how favorable the market is for you, so how do you manage to make a living from being a designer? It is very important to get to find a financial equilibrium to have regular clients. And they could be for

example giant advertising agencies, and the work could be cool as well. And then try to have my own clients, I’ve been lucky and its been a pleasure to work with clients like Nokia, Nike, NY Times, Air Jordan, Orange, more important than the money are the projects they could offer and the notoriety they could give. So, it is important to find regular clients, and find extra projects that allow for something new. Let’s move on to some beneficial projects you’ve done. That is, what jobs have been the most rewarding and the least rewarding, you don’t have to mention names. We love projects that make us break the routine, we love to travel and be in touch personally with the clients, so there are no particular projects or clients.

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

INTERVIEW PEDRO VILAS-BOAS

There are definitely tools and techniques involved in your production process, give us a visual of your workspace and also tools, software and hardware that you use. All the Adobe software (Illustrator, Photoshop, In design, After effects, Premiere etc) I also like to use 3d Studio Max and Cinema 4d for 3d. Ableton live for sound. And so many little projects that I find “accidentally” on the internet. And as per hardware, I got a PC and a Mac. Hmmm, that’s a lot of software involved. So your design that was on the cover of “ten .pt you should know” is one of my personal favorites, please walk us through the stages involved in the design process of that work, including the tools used. (Ah ah) thanks! It’s a secret. That project was aimed to rediscover some of the biggest Portugese creative in our history. I tried to put a futuristic look and nostalgic at the same time. I pretend that image is the past and could be the past but also could portray the future. I can say that I used Photoshop, 3D Studio Max and a magic ingredient (LOL). What is your favorite piece and why? (it could be anybody’s design). Also, what are your top 5 go-to website (website yo visit almost on a daily basis or ones you draw inspiration from). I don’t have a favorite design piece, (they don’t exist anymore) “The Designers Republic”. And I have a piece of art that “Haunts” me from childhood “The Twittering Machine” from Paul Klee, I like to see it at least once a week. The websites I like would be www.cpluv.com, www.fffound.com, ww.thecoolhunter.com, and ganging around on Flickr and Vimeo. Which basic Photoshop techniques do you find yourself using all the time and why? Hmmm, I don’t have any particular technique. Do you have any designs lined up for the year? And if you weren’t a designer, what would you be doing? We plan the year more for objectives

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than for projects. Because there are always projects coming. Probably a DJ or something about music. Any final words with tips for upcoming designers? Don’t matter if you do copy and paste in school, be yourself in the professional world. If you want to be yourself, be good. If you want to copy and paste, be great at it. (LOL)

INTERVIEW PEDRO VILAS-BOAS

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

WEBMAKER RESOURCEFUL WEBSITES

_webmaker* This month’s roundup of webmaker is interesting because its our editor’s 5 top resourcefuk website for anything business, technology, how-tos etc. Of course we’re not saying there aren’t other resourceful websites out there, but for this month, these are our picks, hope you find them resourceful. You can also send in those sites that make the web an interesting place to be. Email: webmaker@itplusmag.com

Entrepreneur This website is what i’d like to call a go-to place for any one who’s looking to startup a business, or even the established business owners, employers and employees. It also caters to work from home moms and freelancers. There’s loads of tips, how to guides and specialised sections for startup businesses. Also encouraging articles and interview for the younger generation. Definitely a website you’d want to add to your bookmarks if you’re looking for everything i’ve listed here. Visit: www.entrepreneur.com

Cnet Now one of the major reasons why this website made it to this list is because it is one of my go to website for anything download. Also aside from technology and business resources, it also contains reviews of products, softwares, hardwares etc. There’s of course up to the minute news, but the download page is so unique, almost any software you’re looking for out there, you can download either a trial version or a full version of that software with ratings and also simlar software type, so you know if its worth downloading. Visit: www.cnet.com

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

WEBMAKER RESOURCEFUL WEBSITES

Zdnet Zdnet was one of the first websites i got to know when I first started my online research. They have maintained a great standard by delivering up to date news on business, technology and so much more. They also have a reviews section, incase you’re looking at buying a product, just stop by and you’ll see the information about that product before you buy it.

Visit: www.zdnet.com

TheNextWeb Recently changed their website to html 5, the next web definitely has their name in our editor’s books of a go-to web for entrepreneurs, social media networkers, how-to guides and much more.

Visit: www.thenextweb.com

Mashable A highly resourceful website that covers not only business and techmology but other areas too, such as lifestyle. There’s tons of information, news, articles, tips to get from this great site. Also, you may want to follow them on their twitter handle to get even more information once its posted.

Visit: www.mashable.com

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

WORK IN PROGRESS WIP

_WORKIN PROGRESS* What are you working on, let us know and we’ll be happy to publish your work-in-progress here. Here’s what a few of our designer are working hard on.

CELIA

PEZ ARTWORK

Nantes, France www.pez-artwork.com

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WORK IN PROGRESS WIP

Matt Heafy SARA LOURENÇO

Lisbon, Portugal sarickbanana.deviantart.com

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

DASHBOARD MAGAZINE INTELLIGENCE

itplusmag ...more than just a magazine

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

feature

on the cover* W

indows 8 was recently launched in october and the whole web went crazy over its new look and feel, Microsoft outdid themselves on this one, but one little was that, it didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t come with an owners manual or guide to how to get around its new features. That prompted us to write this article on all you need to know about the Windows 8 OS and how to get around it, tips,tricks, even shortcuts on how to do things faster on the Windows platform.

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

FEATURE WINDOWS 8 TIPS

ultimate guide to Windows 8 Windows 8 is here, and the recent Consumer Preview showed it’s very different to what’s gone before. By Kate Enwere

icrosoft recently launched the windows 8 in october and ever since, the internet has known no peace, people who bought desktops and laptops with the windows 7 operating system have since returned them in anticipation of the windows 8 computer, also several upgrades from the windows 7 to the windows 8 platform has since taken place. The windows 8 is defintely quite different from the other windows operating systems, so one would want to know how to get around these things, even the so-called expert PC users would feel a little lost with the new windows 8. which is why we have written this extensive guide to the windows 8 operating system, the important things you need to know, the various programs that come preinstalled and the new looks to these programs. Also, tips, tricks, tweaks to give you control over the windows 8, we’ve uncovered it all. Just take your time and equip yourself with all the information you need on windows 8.

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1. WINDOWS 8 LOCK SCREEN Once you’re in the Windows environment, the lock screen will be the first thing you’ll see, to log in to your Windows 8, on the lock screen, just hit the space bar, or you can swipe upwards if you’re using a touch screen, better yet, spin the mouse wheel to get to the username and password screen you already created. That’s it!

2. NAVIGATING THE METRO INTERFACE For PC Users, you can navigate through the metro UI by spinning your mouse to go back and forth, if you’re using a keyboard, the Home and End button takes you from the start of the screen to its end, and you can also put the Windows key button to get back to the home screen if you’re lost. For touchusers, you simply tap the tiles to move around and slide back and forth.

FEATURE WINDOWS 8 TIPS

3. CUSTOMIZATION OF START SCREEN APPS

wish to pin to the start screen, in the bottom app bar, select “Pin to start” in the pop-up menu.

8. WHERE ARE MY APPS To make your Wndows start screen a bit fun or fancier, you can change the colors of the tiles and also the style of the tiles. To do this, cimply open the Charms bar --> PC settings --> Change PC Settings, a windows setting screen opens

4. REARRANGE START SCREEN TILES Ok, so windows8 is setup in such a way that any program or application you download automatically creates a tile that is added to the home screen, so to rearrange your apps in such a way that your app are easy to find, you can simply assign them into groups, if you want to rearrange, then just drag and drop those tiles to the left or right side of the group. After you have finished grouping, on the bottom right corner of your windows screen, click the semantic zoom icon, next, right click on your grouped tiles and click on NAME GROUP button and rename the tile group. You can zoom back by clicking on blank area on the home screen.

5. WORKING WITH THE OLD START MENU I know for some of us metro VI interface might be a little too much, well you can still get back you regular start menu in windows8 by installing START8 or VISTART. It’s not exactly the same as the normal windows start menu, a great replacement.

6. HOW TO CONTROL LIVE SCREEN TILES The active tiles on your start screen that display the newest information or notification are called the line tiles. For instance, if you have a tile that displays “NEWS”, it will keep on updating you with the latest news in the tile. To gain control of the tiles(i.e. to turn them on/off) you can right click on the active tile you wish to turn off and select “Turn Live Tile off” from the app bar button. You can also turn it back on same way.

7. PIN/UNPIN WEBSITES TO START SCREEN You can pin and unpin apps, folders and even websites to your start screen (i.e. instead of saving to folders like the old windows) by simply right click on the folder you wish to pin the File Explorer Menu and select the “Pin to start” option, for websites its simply different, simply navigate to the website you

Your apps are definitely not missing, to quickly find your apps, just type the name of the app, and on the right pane , a list of apps with name you are typing will pop up on the screen.

9. ACCESS WINDOWS VOLUME CONTROL In windows8 the volume control is a little difficult to locate, when you go on the start screen for the first time, but it really is in the same place it used to be in, at the bottom right corner of the screen. To open, simply open the chains bar click on settings chain.

10. OPENING MORE THAN ONE APP With the windows8, you can open more apps and run them side by side, this can be achieved by swiping from the left side of the screen, thereby forcing that app to become a thumbnail, you drop it and the app will display in the side pane thereby making room for the next app. For PC users, you can use keyboard shortcut WIN+SHIFT to snap to the left side of the screen.

11. CLOSING APPS Another new feature with the windows8 when it comes to closing apps is the traditional “X” is no longer an option for closing a Window the apps are suspended when you choose to switch btw programs, but fear not, it has normal effect while using in the background. But, to close an app, simply move your mouse cursor to the top of the screen until the cursor changes to hand icon hold the left mouse button down and drag it down to the bottom of the screen, it becomes a thumbnail and you can always drag and drop it off the screen out of the sight, or use the common ALT+F4, it still works.

12. LAUNCHING THE TASK MANAGER The task manager launch is still pretty much the same as always, you can hold the CTRL+SHIFT+ESC keys to launch the task manager, then you can right click on the program wish to end the process and click on END TASK.

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

DASHBOARD NEWS FEATUREGLOBAL WINDOWS 8 TIPS

13. WHERE ARE MY ADMIN TOOLS Now of course we are getting frustrated trying to find what and the usual admin tool that you can access from the start menu is no longer there, you can now access the tools by opening the metro start settings or(WIN+I) change the “Show administrative tools” to Yes, to exit just click on any part of the start screen. A tile is automatically added to the start screen.

14. PERSONALIZING YOUR SCREEN If you are bored with your lock screen or start screen images and would like to make change to it, then you can either hit WIN+I, select MORE PC SETTINGS, and select the option “Personalize” to make changes or you can open the chains bar, select SETTINGS, and click on change PC SETTING, the list of options select personalize, then you can click on lock screen option to change the images and more.And when all else fails then press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to launch Task Manager, right-click something in the Apps list and select End Task. Beware, though, close something you shouldn’t and it’s easy to crash or lock up your PC.

15. SHUTTING DOWN WINDOWS8 With everything hidden in windows8, the shut down option is also hidden from plain view, to shut down your windows8 you can achieve this several ways, on the right hand side of your start screen, where you have your account picture, select the sign out or lock , next swipe upwards for touch screen users, for PC users click on the start screen to get to your login screen, next click on the icon at the bottom right corner click on shut down. Another easy way would be from your chains bar, select settings chain, and select power button and click on shutdown.

16. RESTARTING WINDOW8 Restarting your windows can also be achieved in the same way as the shutting down tip above, instead of selecting shutdown, just select RESTART. Also ALT+F4 option is another way to restart or shutdown your desktop, from the drop down menu, click on restart.

17. RUNNING AUTOMATIC UPDATES It’s no news that windows will always keep installing your system. So to run access automatic updates, open your chains bar, select settings, check on

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

change pc settings, next, select windows updates in the open window. Then click on the check updates will populate and you can select and install any update you want.

18. WINDOWS 8 INTERNET EXPLORER 10 Just like every other thing in windows 8 will keep you lost, internet explorer is also not an exception, when launched, menus, toolbars, sidebars are all not visible, but to get around it simply right click on a blank space to see various options to switch between tabs or open new tabs and many more.

19. SETTING UP APPS PRIVACY Available to you on your windows 8 is built in apps, to see more apps you can always visit the windows8 app store. To setup and make changes to an app privacy, simply click on WIN+I click on MORE PC settings, and click on the relevant buttons to disable information you don’t want to share with anyone.

20. EASY PROGRAM UNISTALL We all have few programs on your desktop that are rarely use and would love to uninstall. To uninstall an app, just right click on the screen tile and certain options will appear, locate the uninstall option and remove. You can also unpin the app to hide it for the time being.

21. FAST TOOLBAR ACCESS In Windows 8 explorer accessing the toolbar is pretty much quicker and easier, there is Quick Access Toolbar above the menu just click on it and you can find various undo and minimize options. You can also add any ribbon option by right clicking on it and selecting ADD.

22. CONNECT TO A WIRELESS NETWORK Unlike older windows, connecting to a WI-FI network is much easier on the windows 8 platform. Here is how, go to settings chain from your chain bars, a network icon appears, this icon show “Available” if you are not yet connected to a wireless network, click on it. A list of network would display select the network you wish to connect to. For future easy connect, select the option to remember the connection key in the security key and all other info.

FEATURE WINDOWS 8 TIPS

23. RUNNING AS ADMINISTRATOR Just like the older version of windows where certain programs requires you to run them as administrator for them to work properly same also applies with the windows8. You can right click on my start screen app, if you see the option “Run as administrator” then that app requires active right to work properly.

24. ADDING ICON Once you log into your windows8 for the very first time, you will be starting at a blank screen with Recycle Bin Icon on it. Of course, you are going to be needing the knowledge of what your older windows was like to add certain icons to the windows8. Right click anywhere on the desktop and select personalize from the popup menu. In the open window, select “change desktop icons” Next, in the “Desktop Icons Settings” simply click on all the icons you will like to appear on your start screen and hit ok.

25. AUTOMATIC LOG-IN It does get kind of frustrating to login all the time, even though it for your own security. To login automatically, simply click on WIN+R, type NETPLWIZ and hit enter, the user accounts dialog box pops up. Next, clear the “Users Must enter a username and password to use this computer” box and hit ok. Lastly, type in the username and password of the account that you would want to be logged into automatically and press ok. You would need to restart

your system for you to see your changes.

26. WINDOWS PHOTOVIEWER In previous windows double clicking on an image, it opens in the photo viewer, not anymore, to open any image in photo viewer in windows 8, you would need to go to the control panel programs select default programs and select “Set your Default programs” option scroll down a little bit and select Windows Photo Viewer in the list of programs. Lastly, click “Set this program as default”.

27. ADVANCED MENU OPTIONS Microsoft did bring up a lot of new advanced options that we will all be needing at some point. For instance, opening the command prompt as an administrator from the file menu in explorer, select open command prompt and select the “open command prompts as administrator” option. You could familiarize yourself with the other options.

28. FILE HISTORY I love the windows 8 file history because it backs up almost everything from your contacts to your favorites(to your HD/USB). To set up file history, open up your control panel> system and security >file history.

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FEATURE WINDOWS 8 TIPS

29. ENABLE AND DISABLE LOCK SCREEN Most people do not like the hassle of passing through the lock screen, so to disable “Launch GPEdit msc(Local Group Policy Editor)”. Next> browse to computer configuration > Administrative templates > control panel > Personalization. Lastly, double click on “do not display lock screen” Select Enable/Disable and click ok. Restart computer to see changes.

30. RESETTING YOUR PC When you run into a ditch with windows 8 and all else fails and that including refresh option, you may want to consider resetting your windows that is wiping everything you had on it and restoring it back to its original state. To achieve this, first back up your file then open the chains bar. Next, select settings screen, click on general tab, scroll down and click on Reset your pc. Lastly, click on the “Get started Button” and follow the on- screen instructions.

31. PERSONALIZE YOUR LOCK SCREEN For those who may not know, the screen that shows a big digital clock, email notification, calendar and some other stuff is the lock screen pop a little bit, here’s how. First, open up chains bar > setting chain > change pc settings > Personalize tab > Lock screen(on the right corner). You can upload your own images or choose from the options in the windows 8.

32. ACCESS PRINT SCREEN Getting round to a few functions in windows 8 is really easy because almost everything you need to do (including printing) you go through the charms bar. For some of us who would want to print, simply open up the chains Bar>Devices chain, you will see a list of

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

printers to choose from, select your printer, customize the page you wish to print, next click “PRINT”. NOTE: The CTRL+P still works.

33. SCREEN CAPTURE Now, this is one of the features I like in windows 8, of course previous version of windows had a screen capture feature, unlike previous windows, to capture a screen in windows 8, click on WIN+PRINTSCREEN or just print screen. It copies to clipboard, but wait it doesn’t end there. The screen capture image is automatically stored in your pictures section as “SCREENSHOT” and subsequent captures take on numbers in ascending order.

34. SETTINGS SYNCHRONIZATION I love the convenience of windows 8 synchronization feature. In windows 8 you can sync your emails, contact etc. With other PCs by using your Microsoft account on windows 8. So here’s how, open chains bar> settings chain> change PC settings> sync your setting.

35. PASSWORD CHECK So now, another new feature with the windows 8 is the ability to check your typed password to see if its correct, that’s right!. Once you have typed your password simply hold down the eye looking icon next to your password reveal your typed password. this method applies to any password you want to type in windows8.

36. PIN OR PASSWORD There are 3 ways you can log into your windows 8 computer, password, picture password and lastly PIN. To create a four-digit PIN, open the chains bar> settings chain> change pc settings>select users in

FEATURE WINDOWS 8 TIPS

the pc settings screen, and click on the create pin option, you can also do the same for picture password. NOTE; Password must be set before PIN can be used.

37. STORAGE In windows 8, all your hard drives can be added to a storage pool. And more spaces can be created then this pool, and you can access them as one drive. If you think your storage is filling up, simply connect another drive to the pool and continue with your work.

38. PICTURE PASSWORD Just like the PIN/PASSWORD method we used above, you can set a picture as password and draw a combination of taps, lines and circles on it, simply open Settings> PC settings> users> create a picture password.

39. CHANGE LANGUAGES IN WINDOWS 8 In windows 8, we have the ability to change our menus, displays, tiles or even text into a preferred language. First, you type out the word the word on the start screen, filter your result by settings in the right corner, select language from among the search results on your left hand side. In the languages window, click ‘Add a language” option. Then select your language from the list you can also double click the language to add it to the menu.

40. SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE The windows 8 maintenance is kind of different from subsequent, because when it runs it maintenance it doesn’t ask you what time is convenient for you. Its sets to 3am, so windows wakes your computer up to do its thing. But you can make some adjustments to it by launching control panel> system and security> Action center> maintenance and you can select the “start maintenance” option in order to launch the maintenance task right now. Also by selecting “change maintenance settings” you can set up a better time to run these tasks.

41. CREATING USER ACCOUNT Once again, creating a user account in windows 8 is also not something you will find easily. To find it, open the chains bar> PC settings> change PC settings. In the PC settings select users, at the bottom

right corner of the page and select “Add a user”.

42. MANAGING MUITPLE ACCOUNT After creating a user account, you will still want to manage the accounts you created. To fully manage your accounts, on your start screen, type user accounts, click on settings in the right panel, next select the user Account tile from the list, then select the account you would like to manage.

43. TURNING OFF TOUCH KEYBOARD The touch keyboard is your little helper but sometimes it could do things you don’t want, like character change, or playing keyboard sounds when you type. To turn it off, press the WIN+I> more pc settings> users> General and do the necessary customization.

44. HIDING THE RIBBON You might not want the MS office like ribbon interface and would want to remove it or hide it from view, here’s how, Launch GPEdit.msc, go to computer configuration> administrative templates> windows components> windows explorer next double click the “Start Windows Explorer with ribbon minimized” option and select Enabled and hit ok. Once you restart the computer, the ribbon should be out of view, To see it , click the down arrow on the left hand side of the Help icon.

45. SMART SEARCHES Simply doing thing the smart way is the way to go in the new windows 8, instead of checking tiles here and there, keyboard shortcut is your best bet. Or use the app search to look for keyboards, terms and you will find apps, files, folders even faster.

46. SLEEP MODE/HIBERNATE Just so you know, the sleep and hibernate option do not come up in the windows 8 shutdown dialog box, so in order to fix this, open your control panel power option applet i.e. powercfg.cpl and select “choose what the power buttons do” in the windows. Next, you will see a “Change settings that are currently unavailable” option, click on it, if your system supports sleep and hibernate options they should be shown here, Lastly, click save changes.

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

FEATURE WINDOWS 8 TIPS

47. CONTENT SHARING Sharing your content on the web has never been more convenient, in the new windows 8, you can share your content e.g. website in internet explorer, launch the browser that comes with windows 8 from the start tile. Go to the chains bar, click on share, click on mail if you would like to email the page.

48. MOUNTING ISO FILES

If you would like to look at your ISO file, in explorer, right-click on the ISO file and click mount and you could use it as a virtual drive. You can launch the file it contains or even add more to it if you like.

49. “SNAP” A WINDOWS 8 APP

You know how in window 7 you could drag your windows to the right or left or resize it so you can split your screen, well it’s also possible in windows 8, only thing is it’s a little different, because app ****, you can only view 2 apps side by side. So you can open your notepad, not the windows key to go back to your start screen, open another app, let’s say music, then move your cursor to the upper-left corner of your windows screen till you see a thumbnail, and the popup menu offers you option of closing the app

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

snapping it to the left or right. You can choose the option you want.

50. ADDING FAVOURITES IN IEXPLORER 10 The internet explorer 10 version of windows 8 is different as I have mentioned earlier, because you don’t see your toolbar and menus. Adding favorites in it creates a tile on your desktop unfortunately. With that said here’s how to do it, open your IE10 and go to www.itplusmag.com for instance, next click on the “Pin Site” button and select the option to “Add to Favorites”. You can make changes to the name of the website before clicking in the Pin to start button.

51. ADDING LIVE TILES TO START SCREEN Live tiles are simply information that you structured and organised yourself into thw Windows tile in order to get up to date information. For instance, News, weather etc. you can add a live tile for News, here’s how: first open the news app, hold down the Windows key, then press “A“ to launch the search tool, once launched, select your desired option from the result starting with “A”. Right click on the screen to launch the app bar, and click on “ PIN TO START” button, enter a desired name for your new tile. That’s it!

52. WINDOWS 8 KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS Here are a few keyboard shortcuts to help you get around the Windows 8 platform faster. • Win : switch between the Start screen and the last-running Metro app • Win + C : displays the “Charms”: the Settings, Devices, Share and Search options •

•

Win + U : open the Ease of Access Centre

•

Win + V : cycle through toasts (notifications)

• Win + W : search your system settings (type POWER for links to all power-related options, say) • Win + X : displays a text menu of useful Windows tools and applets

Win + D : launches the desktop

•

Win + E : launches Explorer

• Win + Z : displays the right-click context menu when in a full-screen Metro app

•

Win + F : opens the File Search pane

•

Win + + : launch Magnifier and zoom in

•

Win + H : opens the Share pane

•

Win + - : zoom out

•

Win + I : opens Settings

•

Win + , : Aero peek at the desktop

•

Win + K : opens the Devices pane

•

Win + Enter : launch Narrator

•

Win + L : locks your PC

• Win + PgUp : Move the current Metro screen to the left-hand monitor

• Win + M : minimises the current Explorer or Internet Explorer window (works in the full-screen Metro IE, too)

• Win + PgDn : Move the current Metro screen to the right-hand monitor

• Win + O : toggles device orientation lock on and off

• Win + PrtSc : capture the current screen and save it to your Pictures folder

• Win + P : switch your display to a second display or projector

• apps

•

Win + Q : open the App Search pane

•

Win + R : opens the Run box

Win + Tab : switch between running Metro

NEXT MONTH BROWSER WARS Our web browsers go head to head. learn how to get around each browser, which one’s better, faster and easier to use. Also tips and tricks to effectivitly using these browsers and getting more out of it.

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

FEATURELAYOUT2

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

INREVIEW HOW TO GUIDE

in review

HOW TO GUIDES* S ince this is our first issue, we decided to load it up with nothing but the best, that’s why this month we’ve reviewed a few products for you, so before you go out there to buy it, just flip through these pages to see if they’re really worth owning. The log waited Apple iphone 5 with its sleek design and great functionality makes this phone a must-own, find out if there’s more to this phone than the hype its being given. We hope to better tour review section, so please let us know what you’d love to see.

“we’ve reviewed a few products for you, so before you go out there to buy it, just flip through these pages”

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

PERIPHERALS: More than just a tablet. Extend usability with this

IPHONE 5 .VS. SAMSUNG GALAXY S3

A Head-to-Head In-depthComparison

Check out how Apple’s hot new iPhone 5 compares to its toughest Android rival, Samsung’s Galaxy S3. The iPhone 5 is out, but for the first time, Apple’s once-unstoppable smartphone has some serious competition. Samsung’s Galaxy S3 is the first smartphone outside the iPhone to break the control of wireless carriers and be released simultaneously on all four major U.S. carriers, and U.S. Cellular. It has even sold more than 20 million units in its first 100 days of availability, an unheard of number outside of the iPhone. It’s one of the best examples of what Google’s Android operating system has to offer. So which phone is right for you if you’re struggling to make up your mind? To help you make a decision you’ll live with for the next two years, we’ve distilled our extensive handson time with both devices down into the ultimate iPhone 5 vs. Galaxy S3 comparison. We’ve declared winners and losers in 16 categories that make or break a phone, but don’t think finding the right phone is as easy as keeping score. Which phone belongs in your pocket will ultimately depend on which factors are most important to you. Read on to see how Apple and Samsung’s finest stack up in this battle of the titans. Make sure to check out our full Apple iPhone 5 re-

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

view and Samsung Galaxy S III review for more information on each phone. Note that the review scores do not reflect their positions relative to each other, due to timing. The S3 came out months before the iPhone 5, when its primary competition was more dated Android devices and the iPhone 4S. The iPhone 5 must be compared to legacy iPhones and newer Android phones, like the S3.

Design and construction Crafting a beautiful, pocketable, durable phone isn’t easy, and Apple still knows how to do it better than anyone. The iPhone 5 doesn’t change much from the iPhone 4, but it remains the best-looking phone on the market today, and the best built. Apple has improved the scratch and shatter resistance of its glass, and used more aluminum in the frame, making the iPhone 5 much more durable than its predecessors and Samsung’s polycarbonate (a durable type of plastic) Galaxy S3.

INREVIEW GADGET REVIEW

The iPhone 5 is also suspiciously lightweight for the materials it uses, weighing only 112 grams, less than the S3′s 133 gram weight. This could be due to the thinness of Apple’s phone, which matches the Droid Razr’s impressive 7.6mm depth, but without any camera bump. The S3 is also an impressive 8.6mm thick. For reference, the iPhone 4 and 4S were about 9.3mm thick, which set a benchmark for its time. Drop and shatter tests (like this one) seem to be unanimously coming out in favor of the iPhone 5. Even after painful five- or sixfoot drops, most iPhone 5 units have only minor dings in the aluminum frame. They somehow escape screen shattering far longer than the S3, despite Samsung’s inclusion of Gorilla Glass, which is known for its durability. Winner: iPhone 5

Feel Though it’s difficult to argue that Apple’s phone is built better than Samsung’s, when it comes to comfort, the Galaxy S3 puts up a strong fight. Samsung has been tweaking the size, shape, and button layouts of its phones several times a year for several years now. The Galaxy S3 is a result of consumer migration toward phones with larger screens. Despite being significantly wider and longer than the iPhone 5, the S3 is more comfortable to hold and use due to its button placement. By placing the power and volume buttons on the sides toward the middle of the phone, users can more naturally press both buttons, interact with the screen, and reach the Home, Back, and Menu buttons on the device. The iPhone 5 is still a comfortable device, but Apple has not adjusted the placement of its power button to match the fact

that it is now a longer (not wider) phone. Of course, those with Andre the Giant hands will undoubtedly lean toward the S3 and those with more petite digits will gravitate toward the iPhone 5. Still, we’re going to give this one to Samsung for somehow making a phone with a 4.8-inch screen completely usable and comfortable to hold. Perhaps more comfortable than the world’s leading smartphone when it comes to two-handed typing and other select activities. Winner: Galaxy S3 Screen quality The iPhone 5 and Galaxy S3 light up an age-old (that’s two years in tech time) debate over which screen technologies offer the best picture quality. Since the introduction of the ‘Retina’ (high resolution) display in the iPhone 4, other smartphone manufacturers have been scrambling to create screens that can match Apple’s impressive 326 pixel-per-inch phone screens, which are based on high-end IPS LCD screen technology. To counter Apple, Samsung has gone with AMOLED, a variation on OLED technology. We’ve already compared the difference between LCD and AMOLED screens. The S3 might be the best implementation of AMOLED we’ve seen yet, retaining the deep blacks possible with OLED (each pixel is lit up separately, so black pixels have no backlight behind them at all).Though we really love AMOLED’s strengths, those of you with the sharpest eyes might prefer the iPhone 5. According to in-depth tests performed by DisplayMate, it’s better calibrated and gets brighter. We can’t argue. Though OLED may be the future of displays, Apple’s good old LCD takes the crown today.

Editor’s Top Pick

BlackBerry Bold 9930

Create and connect like never before, swiping, pinching and zooming on the Liquid Graphics™ touch screen. Together with a 1.2 GHz processor, and a 24-bit high-res display, Liquid Graphics gives you fluid animations and instant response times. Fast and powerful Faster loading, faster scrolling, faster zooming. It‘s the fastest BlackBerry experience to date. The premium BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 smartphones feature the most powerful engine ever in a BlackBerry smartphone. Boldly go anywhere Move from home to the coffee shop to the airport and to the office without missing a beat while connecting to WiFi® hotspots wherever they‘re available.

Winner: iPhone 5

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

USER INTERFACE Despite ongoing lawsuits over the similarities between Apple and Samsung products, the differences between the Galaxy S3 and iPhone 5 user interfaces are quite stark.

IOS 6 Visually, it’s hard to argue against Apple. iOS is simple, easy to use, and full of fun animations. No other touch operating system is so pleasant and enthralling (at least, at first) to learn and operate. With the Galaxy S3, Samsung is trying really hard to make Android a more consistent and beautiful experience, but its attempts feel contrived and, at times, misguided. In many ways, the Galaxy S3 might be a better phone if Samsung had left Android alone. Google’s recent Android interfaces may not be as bright as iOS, but they do have some personality. Samsung’s phone does not. Winner: iPhone 5 Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com

OPERATING SYSTEM FEATURES Yes, both have app lists, app stores, unlock screens, and Settings menus, but once you dig in, there are a lot of technical differences between Android and iOS, the two operating systems that run the S3 and iPhone 5. On the whole, iOS is a more airtight and stable OS, but Android offers more features. Because it runs Android, the Galaxy S3 can support NFC and has more robust support for apps and syncing than the iPhone. On the Galaxy, apps can run in the background as you permit. Say you want t o download podcasts or email every three hours without opening up the app again… you can do that, and

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

the phone has a built-in task manager so you can kill running processes that bother you. Basically, the S3 is able to do a lot more things when your screen is off and your phone is idle than the iPhone. This makes the S3 a phone with more real-time qualities to it. Apps can be open without being on the screen. This is a double-edged sword, as it also makes it easier for people to ruin their S3′s battery life by installing and letting too many apps run in the background at once. iOS doesn’t usually have rogue processes and apps running in the background, and does have a rough task manager (double press the Home button). But this is one example where Android allows more control and features. The ability to install apps outside the Google Play store is another benefit of Android. Winner: Galaxy S3

APP STORES There are still differences between the Android and iOS app stores, but both stores are so massive that it almost doesn’t matter. iOS still has more qualitypriced apps and games (especially games), but Android has cheaper apps and more free titles with ad-based revenue models. We do like that Android apps have made big strides in auto updating, but both app stores are guilty of promoting a new dynamic where iPhone and Galaxy S3 owners have to download constant app updates to the point of annoyance. Still, both phones have great app stores. Just don’t buy anything from Samsung’s custom app store on the Galaxy S3. Stick to Google Play. Winner: Tie

PERSONALIZATION There are two levels to personalization: tweaks to the outside like cases and accessories, and options inside of your phone to manipulate the look of what appears on screen. The iPhone 5 makes no significant leaps forward in the area of software. You can change ringtones, your home screen and lockscreen backgrounds, and move your icons around or put them in folders.

That’s about it. However, when it comes to cases and custom stickers and whatnot, the iPhone 5 already outshines the Galaxy S3 and that won’t change anytime soon. If you love quirky cases, you should opt for the iPhone. The Galaxy S3, like other Android phones, does not have a robust case and accessory ecosystem, but it comes with seven blank home screens you can customize with widgets — some already on the phone, some you can download — and app icons. You can also run entirely new skins on Android with tools like the CyanogenMod (“like” being the operative word since CyanogenMod doesn’t work on the GS3). Android also lets you customize ringtones, change backgrounds, add animated backgrounds, and all that jazz. Winner: Tie

MAPS At the moment, this isn’t a contest. With the release of iOS 6, Apple has deleted Google Maps from the iPhone and replaced it with Apple Maps, a new free service that attempts to mimic and outshine Google Maps. The only problem is that it doesn’t, in any way, do that currently, except for its pretty 3D city view mode. There are no transit directions yet and, as we found out, a lot of people are getting bogus directions from Apple Maps. It has placed cities in the ocean and guided people to the middle of nowhere. It’s a buggy, new product. Currently, Android is the best option for those wanting GPS turn-by-turn navigation and a stable mapping solution. Hopefully Google Maps will be on iOS soon, but so far, Google hasn’t yet submitted it to the App Store.

best ecosystem out there. iTunes is the most robust digital music store and comes with PC or Mac software to manage your entire collection, something Android has never had. Through the App Store you can access Pandora, Spotify, and countless other apps. Podcasts are also handled by a first-party app by Apple. The only downside is that if you purchase music or content in apps outside of Apple’s content, you’ll likely have to do it on the Web. Companies like Amazon, which sells, books, video, and music, do not allow you to purchase content on your iPhone or iPad because Apple demands a 30-percent cut of the sale. Still, it may be locked down, but getting content on the iPhone 5 is elegant and it works. The Galaxy S3 is more of a patchwork, and will require some research to find the apps you need. Google has dropped support for Listen, its oncegreat podcasting app, leaving Android users to fend for themselves when it comes to radio. Meanwhile, its Google Play store does support video, but its music service doesn’t have the freedom of Amazon’s MP3 store. Samsung has its own music offering that seems very cool, combining aspects of iTunes, Spotify, and Pandora, but it has made a stupid deal with AT&T and U.S. Cellular that prevents anyone not on these carriers from using it. Dumb. (Small extra note: The iPhone 5 comes with a nicer set of “EarPod” headphones, again making it a good choice for music lovers. The audio jack is also now on the bottom, which improves how easy it is to pull the iPhone 5 in and out of your pocket while listening to audio.)

Winner: Galaxy S3

AUDIO & VIDEO Enjoy music, video, and radio podcasts? The iPhone, which was born of the iPod, is still your best option. Though we don’t like the way Apple locks purchased content into its own device ecosystem, it still has the

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

BUYER’S GUIDE PRINTER GUIDE

_BUYER’S GUIDE* WE TRY BEFORE YOU BUY

HOW TO BUY THE RIGHT PRINTER Trying to get a printer and don’t know which one to get, well here’s a guide to choosing the right printer. Credit: http://dicksmith.com.au

Your options

Laser printers

There are two main types of printer: laser printers and ink jets. Laser printers literally use lasers to fuse text and images on to paper, while inkjets fire tiny jets of ink at the page. Lasers print much faster than inkjets and their text printing tends to look much crisper. However, pictures don’t look nearly as good as proper photographs – they’re all dull and matte.

Many people buy mono laser printers rather than colour as here, the cost difference can be sizeable. Unlike inkjets’ ink cartridges, laser printers’ ‘toner’ cartridges are much bigger. Consequently fitting three extra colour toner cartridges into a laser printer makes it much bigger, which may be an issue. Small mono lasers are a great way to print out lengthy documents though - they’re fast, offer great quality text and cost less per page than they would using an inkjet.

If you want good photos then an inkjet is the way to go. The tiny drops of ink get absorbed into glossy paper leaving you with photos that look, well, just like normal photos. However, text, especially on cheaper models, can look a bit ‘spidery’ and broken with stray ink drops sullying pure white backgrounds. In recent years, though, performance has improved here.

Inkjet printers A few years ago, printer quality was hugely hit and miss: the difference between a good model and a bad model was enormous. Now, however, so long as you’re not buying bargain bucket models, your printer should be able to print good text and great photographs. But there are still several things to watch out for.

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

Tip! Cost per page Compared to laser printers, inkjet replacement cartridges are more affordable, although they do not yield as many printed pages per cartridge. In terms of pages per cartridge, inkjet printer users are looking in the vicinity of hundreds of pages, while laser printer users would expect to yield thousands

Of course, there are some other important factors to take into account before making a decision on which printer technology you’d like to purchase. If you don’t regularly use your printer then an inkjet printer is a fantastic choice. If you’re churning out dozens of pages a day, then a laser printer will get the job done. Also, consider the type of printing you’d like to do. For black and white printing (e.g. documents and spreadsheets) and photo reproduction, an inkjet printer works a treat. For high-volume colour printing, particularly for brochures and newsletters that’s not necessarily on paper stock, laser printers are ideal.

NEXT MONTH Buyer’s Guide: Hard Drives

External

If you’re finding it difficult to choose the right external HD, we’ll show you what to look out for in next month’s issue or visit www.itplusmag.com

BUYER’S GUIDE APPS

_APPS GUIDE* Editor’s Top Pick

coupons for almost every store with new stores added each day. It also

features offers, deals from stores, cinemas,restaurants,rentals etc. You

means blackberry users can interact with iphone or android users (only

can also get deal alerts and expiration alerts of saved coupons. Also,

if you have the other party’s phone number). The app is free for one year,

you can share coupons and hot deals with your friends.

after which you pay $.99 each year. I say its worth every penny.

Available On:

AVAILABLE ON:

AVAILABLE ON:bb.ios.android

URL: www.poynt.com

URL: www.whatsapp.com

PRICE: FREEWARE

PRICE:

WE GIVE IT:

Retailmenot Coupon App

or every shopper out there who knows and apppreciates money saving, this app is for you. I must say the people at retailmenot did a great job by bringing out this app, because one am one of those money saving people. Retailmenot app features tons of

WhatsApp Messengerw App

ery popular and effective cross-platform messaging app. Its a global alternative for text messaging, it asks you for your phone number (regardless of your country) before installation. One of the great things about this app is, its not only avail-

able to IOS and android users, but RIM users were not forgotten. Which

Free trial for 1year ($0.99)

your camera. It gives users the ability to “heart“ (i.e like) pictures and

also leave comments about the photos, also has the stream feature,

the coolest features that Poynt has is showing the cheapest gas prices

kind of like twitter or facebook. This app supports Twitter, facebook and

around. What more can you ask for from a free app that does it all.

Instagram PhotoSharing App

t’s interestingly a photo-sharing, photo-editing app that gives you control over your photos by providing you with 16 highly creative styles, mostly vintage or retro filters to apply to images from your list of images already on your phone or the ones you just took with

Poynt App

must-have app, it’s a location-aware phone that does tons of things from finding the nearest cinemas and movies they’re showing, or businesses and phonebook contact addresses to finding restaurants around you. It also shows you the clos-

est gas stations to you, incase you’re running out of gas, and one of

many other social networks.

Available On:

AVAILABLE ON:

URL: www.poynt.com

PRICE: FREEWARE

WE GIVE IT:

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

BUYER’S GUIDE BEST BUY

_bestbuy*

Our definitive guide to what’s hot and what’s not in the world of Technology, we’ve tested them and yes, we trust them. In-depth review on our website. There isn’t much to say about these laptop computer, you don’t get any products because they pretty much surprises. speak for themselves. technology is So, this month we’ve tested out fast becoming a very huge part of our these products and rated them, also lives which is why our readers have rated you need to know “TECHNOLOGY IS FAST BE- these products, bewhat you’re trying to cause they own one COMING A VERY HUGE PART and can tell from expebuy first. We’vve taken the rience what you would OF OUR LIVES” pain out of product expect. buying by reviewing them for you so when you go out to buy that iPhone or that Windows 8

FEATURED SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 10.1 .................................................................. p78 IPHONE 5 .................................................................. p79 SONY PS3 SUPERSLIM .................................................................. p79 MONSTER BEATS BY DRE ................................................................. p80 MACBOOK AIR 13” ................................................................. p80 SKYDRIVE ................................................................... p81 WD MY PASSPORT EDGE ................................................................... p81

Pro: 4G 4G LTE and quad core processor, also has a micro SD slot.

Samsung Galaxy Note Available from January 2012

PROS Its big (5.3”) HD screen is impressive, it also comes equipped with 4G LTE and quad core processor, also has a micro SD slot.

CONS Screen quality is lower than most samsung devices i’ve come across. Stylus has a delayed response.

CONCLUSION Not your regular tablet, but its a great device that anyone can use with ease andn portable enought to fit in some back pockets.

RATING:

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

BUYER’S GUIDE BEST BUY

iPhone 5 Available from January 2012

PROS

Editor’s

Picture quality is quite impressive, also has a near perfect battery life, with the best screen compared with other iphones.

Top Pick

CONS Major issue will be compatibility of the memory cards, also comes with a fixed battery and closed platform maps in IOS6 are not that impressive.

CONCLUSION Not everything we expected or hoped it would be, but we’ll take anything that’s better than previous iphones.

Pro: Picture Quality Picture quality is quite impressive, also has a near perfect battery life,

PRICE: URL:: RATING:

Sony PS3 Superslim Available from January 2012

Pro: Lighter Weight lighter weight predecessors.

unlike

its

PROS A great gaming machine in a fairly smaller package, lighter weight unlike its predecessors.

CONS

Build quality looks cheap and unfortunately doesnt come with a HDMI cord. Expensive.

CONCLUSION Its an OK gaming system, would have loved to see more, but Sony still delivers in terms of functionality.

RATING:

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

BUYER’S GUIDE BEST BUY

Monster Beats by Dre Available from January 2012

PROS Easy to carry around because it folds up perfectly. Equalized and balanced sound quality. its fitted carrying case has a comfy pad that protects the headphone.

CONS Its bass sounds kind of hollow. Pricey. You have to pck up on AAA batteries. Earcup makes funny noises when you’re in motion.

CONCLUSION Audio quality is great, packaging is A+, if you love big headphones, then this sound beast is your best bet.

Pro: Equalized Sound Equalized and balanced sound quality.

RATING:

Macbook Air 13”

Editor’s Top Pick

Available from January 2012

PROS Astoonishingly light and thin, graphics and speed of course faster than the older macbook. Upgrade to 3.0. battery life is an hour longer.

CONS still doesnt have an SD card reader nor optical drive. Storage capacity is still limited. No ethernet port.

CONCLUSION

Pro: Battery Life battery life is an hour longer.

At a glance, it doesnt seem like apple has done much to its macbook air, but a few upgrades would make anyone wait for this piece of joy. Its faster performance is impressive.

RATING:

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

BUYER’S GUIDE BEST BUY

Skydrive Available from January 2012

PROS Ease of use, simplistic interface, ability to share your files or pictures on other networks.

CONS Lacks built -in interface for editing office files on anroid. Still searching for more cons.

CONCLUSION Its still a great way of storing your data in the cloud, so we’d recommend it anyday. plus its free.

Pro: Simple Interface PRICE:

simplistic interface, ability to share your files or pictures on other networks.

FREE

RATING:

Pro: Thinner thinner and its USB 3.0 offers good speed and performance.

WD My Passport Edge Available from January 2012

PROS Portable, lightweight, thinner and its USB 3.0 offers good speed and performance.

CONS It is a little pricey compared with other portable external drives, and of course for a 500GB.

CONCLUSION It is not a bad portable storage device to choose from amongst others out there

RATING:

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

BUSINESS PLUS CONTENT

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JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

BUSINESS PLUS INTRO

_businessplus*

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

BUSINESS PLUS NEWS

_biznews

SADIPS IPSUMS DOLORES NEMIS OMNIS SITS

Here’s whats happening in the business world.

John McAfee arrives in Miami after deportation The software tycoon John McAfee has arrived in the United States after being deported by Guatemala.

e landed in Miami, after being escorted to the airport in Guatemala City and placed on board an American Airlines flight. Mr McAfee said before leaving he was “perfectly happy with the decision”. He was detained a week ago after fleeing from Belize, where he is wanted for questioning in connection with the murder of a neighbour. The 67-yearold has denied any role in the killing. The authorities in Belize say he is not a suspect in the investigation. He has spent more than a month on the run with his girlfriend, blogging about his exploits. As he left Guatema-

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

la City, Mr McAfee said he was happy to be going home. “I’ve been running through jungles and rivers and oceans and I think I need to rest for a while. And I’ve been in jail for seven days,” he said. He said he had no immediate plans when he reached Florida, only that he was going “to hang in Miami for a while”. Passengers on the same flight as Mr McAfee said that he had been taken off the plane before everyone else. A spokesman for Miami International Airport said he would be escorted by federal authorities after clearing customs. It was not immediately clear where he was heading or what his legal status was. Paranoid In an interview with Bloomberg Television ahead of his departure, Mr McAfee

BUSINESS PLUS NEWS

Indonesia imposes higher capital adequacy for some banks

Dec 5 (Reuters) - Indonesia’s central bank has imposed higher capital adequacy requirements for some commercial banks, in its latest policy effort to increase the stability of the financial system in Southeast Asia’s largest economy.

said he wanted to apologise to the Guatemalan president for putting him in an awkward position during negotiations on a territorial dispute with Belize. His lawyers blocked an extradition request from Belize, where he has been named a “person of interest” in the murder of Florida businessman Gregory Faull. Mr McAfee says he is happy to talk to Belize police but did not want to be remanded in their custody. He claims he is being persecuted by the authorities in Belize, whom he accuses of corruption. Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow had a more prosaic explanation: “I don’t want to be unkind to the gentleman, but I believe he is extremely paranoid, even bonkers.” Belize police spokesman Raphael Martinez said Belize’s extradition treaty with the US extended only to suspected criminals, a designation that did not currently apply to Mr McAfee. “Right now, we don’t have enough information to change his status from person of interest to suspect,” he said. After making his fortune from the anti-virus software which bears his name, Mr McAfee has lived an eccentric life, funding startups, flying small planes low over the desert, and most recently, attempting to synthesise antibiotics from jungle plants in Belize. Daniela Ritorto reports

The new rule, issued on Nov. 28 and coming into force in March 2013, requires banks to maintain a capital adequacy ratio of between 8 and 14 percent depending on their risk profile, from a current flat requirement of 8 percent, Bank Indonesia said in a statement. “Bank Indonesia is authorised to set higher minimum capital from the range set, in circumstances where Bank Indonesia considers the calculation of minimum capital is not adequate to anticipate risk,” Bank Indonesia said. Banks with the highest risk profile will need a capital adequacy ratio of between 11 to 14 percent, while banks with the lowest risk profile will still only need a capital adequacy ratio of 8 percent. Medium risk profiles require 9-11 percent. The central bank said it will review and evaluate the risk profiles based on internal capital adequacy assessment processes. Bank Indonesia on Nov 23 said that foreign banks will need to hold 8 percent of their local third party funds in bonds as a capital buffer

by June 2013. The central bank will also link permits for all banks’ business activities and products to their level of core capital, in a new regulation planned for January, as it steps up efforts to control a fragmented banking sector. Indonesia’s larger banks have maintained high levels of Tier 1 capital and proved resilient to global financial troubles, but there are many small rural lenders across the archipelago. The new requirements are unlikely to deter global banks from expanding in Indonesia, where the economy is growing over 6 percent per year and loan growth stands at over 20 percent. (Reporting by Rieka Rahadiana and Adriana Nina Kusuma; Editing by Neil Chatterjee)

www.bbc.co.uk

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

BUSINESS PLUS NEWS

UK unemployment: Jobs up, pay down

obs prospects for young people are starting to look a bit healthier - though the average pay packet is not. Those are two clear conclusions you can draw from the latest labour market statistics. The other parts of the story, whether it’s joblessness or employment, are a bit murkier. Take the murky stuff first: that 82,000 fall in the broader measure of unemployment certainly sounds good. In fact, it’s the largest quarterly fall in more than a decade. But that headline change comes from comparing joblessness in the three months to October with the same figure for the three months to July. If you compare this latest three-month figure with the one published last month (i.e. the three months to September), the number

out of work has barely changed at all - in fact it has fallen by just 4,000. You can say something similar about employment. It’s impressive, to say the least, that there are now half a million more people in work than a year ago, with the creation of 600,000 jobs in the private sector more than offsetting the jobs lost in government. The trend, though, is a little discouraging: the 40,000 rise in employment in the three months to October is the smallest since the start of the year. However, the good news on youth unemployment seems to be genuinely good. As usual, there is a lot going on behind the 70,000 fall in the number of unemployed 18 to 24-year-olds. For example, I was initially worried to see that eco-

nomic inactivity among that group, overall, had also risen in the three months to October, by 45,000, while employment had only risen by 11,000. But when you dig deeper, you can see that the rise in so-called inactivity is more than accounted for by a rise in inactivity among 18 to 24-year-olds who are in full-time education. (The factor that always makes these numbers such a minefield.)

“It’s impressive, to say the least, that there are now half a million more people in work”

News Timeline WASHINGTON - State and local government spending grew at a 0.3 percent annual rate in the third quarter, after 11 straight quarters of contraction, the U.S. Commerce Department said on Thursday.

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

FRANKFURT - Deutsche Telekom chief executive Rene Obermann has unexpectedly announced he will step down at the end of 2013 and be succeeded by finance director Timotheus Hoettges.

Oracle Corp agreed to buy Eloqua Inc, a maker of web-based marketing automation software that listed in August, for about $810 million as it seeks to expand its cloud-computing services.

BUSINESS PLUS NEWS

Comet set to disappear from high street Comet is set to disappear from the high street next week in the most high-profile collapse since Woolworths in 2008.

Employment among young people not in full-time education went up by 55,000 in those three months, while the number who were technically inactive actually fell slightly. So, things seem to be getting better for young people looking for work who are not fulltime students - or at least they are not getting worse. Alas, the same cannot be said for average earnings, which have actually now fallen even

further behind inflation in October with average annual growth of just 1.3% - less than half the rate of inflation. Real earnings have now been falling since the summer of 2010. This was supposed to be the year when the squeeze would ease. But we’re running out of time for that particular new year prediction to come true.

The administrators to Comet have confirmed on the retailer’s website that all remaining stores will be closed by December 18. This means all of Comet’s 6,600 staff face losing their jobs before Christmas. Deloitte is understood still to be in talks with south-coast tycoon Clive Coombes about a rescue deal for Comet, but an agreement now appears to have been all but ruled out. The administrators said in November that all shops would be closed by December 18 unless a rescue bid emerged. It is now likely that the Comet brand and website will be acquired by a retailer – potentially Appliances Online – and that about 20 Comet stores will be picked up by rivals such as Dixons. Dixons is understood to be interested in about half a dozen shops. It has also hired 1,000 former Comet staff into temporary Christmas roles and 200 for permanent white goods delivery and installation jobs. Comet management called in administrators in November after suppliers tightened their terms just as the retailer was preparing to stock its shops for Christmas. The collapse comes less than a year after OpCapita, the private investment firm, bought Comet for just £2 and was given a £50m dowry by the previous owner Darty. Of the remaining shops, 14 will close on Saturday, 15 on Sunday, one on Monday, and 49 on Tuesday, December 18.

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

BUSINESS PLUS BAD CLIENTS

reasons bad clients are good for business Know what might obviously be going through our heads at the moment but you asked for it, you said you wanted a ‘challenging job’, trust me, your ‘bad’ clients are your challenges and they make you better, you don’t believe me?, I didn’t think you would, here’s how they make or break you, if you let them.

REASON 1 THEY MAKE YOU WORK EXTRA HARD On a wonderful and bright Monday morning, when all seems to be well for the business owner and all of sudden a lousy client walks through the door, with His problem, expecting you to put in much effort into your work in order to get His job done faster, thereby making the both of you have problems, or like i call it, ‘issues’. Having issues with a client makes the day extra hard and prompts you to work harder. Come to think of it, if we all had an easy breezy job most of the time, it wouldn’t make the job an interesting one, and after a while, it becomes boring and we don’t become better.

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

BUSINESS PLUS BAD CLIENTS

REASON 2 THEY MAKE YOUR WORK A LOT MORE INTERESTING FOR OTHER CLIENTS Check this, almost everybody loves gossip, (i know i do, and especially here in Nigeria) - so what better to gossip about than your work ei? Bad clients give you something to talk about, something to tell your friends, partners, about the experience you had previously. By even discussing with people about how demanding and mean your client was, it gives you room to learn from other people, who knows, if they’re nice enough, they might have strategies on how to handle your next client better.

and helps us better ourselves.

REASON 5

REASON 3

THEY CHALLENGE YOU, IN PLACES

YOU LEARN FROM THE EXPERIENCE

YOU DON’T EXPECT TO BE CHALLENGED.

PERSONALLY One of the good things you learn from bad clients and bad experiences, is that in doing their job, you ETIAM FAUCIBUS IPSUM make mistakes, and you learn from them. They make you try out new stuff, they help you think outside the box, also you learn to spot bad clients, things they say, things they do, how they address you, how they criticize your work and their manner of Approach these things we learn from, helps us in life generally

Can you please maintain the font size and draw that list in alphabetical order? ‘Don’t forget to make it zigzagged’? Bad clients can really think of things you never thought of, sometimes there are unknowingly creative, they just cough out ideas you never thought of, thereby helping you learn new stuff and new ways to go about things. They challenge you, and believe me, we all need challenges

REASON 5.5

REASON 4

WITH BAD CLIENTS,

THEY TEST YOUR CHARACTER, AND

WHO NEEDS THE GOOD ONES

TRY YOUR PATIENCE ‘Would you please make that image float round the page, when the page loads?’’ And don’t forget to make the font sizes equal’’What do you mean by my signature is irregular? Are you text blind?’... So what are you going to do after this has gone own for about an hour ei? Are you going to yell at your client just because they’re making you do stuff, you don’t want to do? So how do you handle it? Yeah..you, am asking you? Professionalism. All these and more simply test your character as Professionals in the business and as individuals .How we handle such situations, tell a lot about us

I rephrase that, we all need clients, good bad, ugly, they’re all major contributors to who we are, and what we become in business and as individuals. So if you chose to agree with me, that bad clients are good for us? That they make our life more challenging and interesting, its up to you. My work is finished here. If you have any more reasons, bad clients are good for us, please send us your contribution at editor@itplusmag.com, and don’t forget to write the header ‘BAD CLIENT, GOOD BUSINESS’ and we will publish them in future.

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

BUSINESS PLUS MORE WORK LESS TIME

GETTING TWICE THE WORK DONE-IN HALF THE TIME

Tired of wasteing time at your office or even at home where you work from? not to worry, we’ll help you identify those time wasters so you can do more work in less time.

IDENTIFY TIME WASTERS Simply put, keep a diary at work. Just write down every single thing you do for the whole week, both at work or away from work. And when I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING from online chats, colleague chat, phone chat, lunch time, coffee break, going marketing, indicating your start-up time and your finish time. Now go back to your diary and list out your top five time wasters. It may be replying mails from your gossipy friends or looking at the newly hired dude and day dreaming. A realization of how you spend your time will make you know how you can reclaim valuable time .

PEN IT This is something that I particularly do and it has helped me a great deal, for whatever reason anything I do, be it work or my going out, I write them down, am not saying this may work for everyone, but I find myself being a lot more organized that way and I achieve a great deal faster than when I don’t

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because I get carried away easily and forget what I initially planned to do. So write down the things you plan to do that day and you could achieve your goal faster than you expected.

TREAT TIME AS MONEY Just think of time as money, something you cannot afford to waste on unnecessary expenses. You must be decisive, make sure your goals are on the right track, talk with your boss, come to an agreement with him on your priorities, then set objectives for yourself and make sure they fit the SMART rule (Specific. Measurable. Achievable. Realistic. Time frame) in which it is achieved. Prioritize them, systematically work through each one. Please be strict with yourself. This method will provide you with an effective work pattern, which will help you stay focused.

SAY NO TO... You will not skip out of your office on time stressfree if you don’t learn to say NO. There’s just a limit to what you can squeeze into a day’s work.

BUSINESS PLUS MORE WORK LESS TIME

So, if your boss throws an extra workload at you, just let him know that you can only complete the new workload, if you ignore the one at hand (Welldepending on the boss, you might just get fired for saying that! Just ask your boss which is more important, so you can handle that one, he may not realize how busy you are, this might make him respect you all the more when you renegotiate and still beat the deadlines. Please express yourself in a calm and clear tone and be assertive rather than being negative or aggressive.

NO PROCRASTINATING Often times, not just other people derail our efforts to work smarter, we tend to manage it by ourselves. It could be really depressing when you get to do just one work for hours upon hours, just because, you keep moving it to the next lunch hour, when all you can do to save yourself the time and the stress is just to break down the task you are avoiding into small parts and just do a quick ten-minute run through each one. In doing this, it won’t seem too tasking and your resistance towards the job will be reduced. It will also give you a sense of achievement, even if you can’t seem to get the whole job done at once.

QUICK TIP PASTE AND GO Did you know that when you copy a web address and would like to paste it into the address bar in firefox and google chrome, you could chose the paste and go option when you right click on the webadress bar, and it takes you straight to the website you’d love to visit.

GET TO KNOW YOUR BODY CLOCK I tend to advise people to try to know how their body works, some people tend to ignore their body clocks when it comes to planning and setting their goals for the day. Some people are the early birds, vibrant, full of creativity and energy before lunch breaks, while others wake up after lunch time. If you are a morning person, then plan most of your challenging tasks for the morning. Then when your effectiveness starts dragging towards the ends of the end, just switch to routine jobs, same goes for the afternoon or night owls.

Surely, you can’t ask to reschedule your Barn catchup meeting with your boss for 3pm, simply because your body system hasn’t woken up yet, but, you can plan ahead and prepare for it the afternoon before. It’s just all about knowing your strengths and working them out, once you’ve acclimatize with your body system, you’ll discover that your productivity level will shoot up, while your body remains sound.

ORGANIZE YOUR DESK TOP This is the focal point of your work, and the key to your productivity. The question I ask people is, how does your desk top look (by desk top, I mean work table), is it? A. Neat and organized like mine or B. A chaotic, choke hazard? like somebody’s work table I know Studies reveal that most people whose desks are (B), waste at least 2.5 hours a week just searching for important information. So, by Friday night, when your colleagues are on their third chardonnay, you’re still swimming in an ocean of paperwork. It’s high time you get your act together, by this what am saying is, get organized, get rid of everything you don’t need, buy , borrow or steal a trash can and dispose of any unwanted stuff, transfer some other information to your PC, then get rid of the paper. I have a friend who has a tray for incoming work, another for today’s work, a folder for future tasks and a file for the rest. Another thing is, get into the habit of uniting your contact numbers and important information either, onto your computer file or directly to your address book. You would have saved yourself a lot of time by doing this.

STAY AWAY FROM THE INTERNET As much as possible try and stay away from the internet, unless your job requires you to be on the internet, it’s a huge time waster. You could waste hours upon hours on browsing, emailing, deleting mails and of course, social media. What I do most times before I get on the internet is to write down the tasks I intend using the browser for, so I don’t get distracted or carried away.

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

You could move social emails and junk mails to your lunch time, these days your phone does it all. Use the bench mark of whether you would bother to communicate that information, if you had to fax it or call instead .

REMEMBER YOUR REASON FOR BEING THERE

Some people are quick to forget what they want from their jobs, it is advisable that you remind yourself of what you want from your job and how it suits your life, remember the goals you hope to achieve while working there. For some people, their goals may be to attain greater heights in their career and learn new skills, for others, it might be to make enough money to travel to Hawaii on vacation and wear nice expensive clothes. When you focus on your goals, it leaves you enthusiastic and determined to get what you really want out of work. If you’re wasting half your life on a job that means nothing to you except for the money, you will not be as productive as working in a place you’ve always wanted to be. You need to be motivated to be productive, if you are, your productivity level will increase naturally.

your phone calls for you and head-off interruptions, you should offer them a favor in return, your boss will be impressed with your team-cooperation and your colleagues will appreciate your support. If you can’t get them to help, then politely reply your callers by saying “I’m extremely busy at the moment, can I get back to you in an hour or two?”. You will surprised how much work, you have completed in an hour.

“For some people, their goals may be to attain greater heights in their career and learn new skills, for others, it might be to make enough money to travel to Hawaii on vacation and wear nice expensive clothes.”

CUT SHORT MEETING TIMES

ENJOY YOURSELF

Another obstacle to leaving the office early is “MEETINGS”. We all know how annoying it is when your boss schedules a meeting at 5:30pm, when you close for 6:00pm, that’s how you know you’re in trouble. You ask yourself that age-old question, ‘Don’t these people have lives outside of work?’ Here’s your answer, ‘They Don’t’. But, here’s a solution to that, ensure you don’t attend a meeting that has no strict agenda, a set aim or an agreed deadline or time frame. And if yoyo have to, because you have no say, then device a means of getting out of that meeting early, you could suggest getting together at a later date to discuss fresh ideas, because the mind is somewhat slower by that time.

That’s right, enjoy yourself, none of these tips can actually work if you don’t cut yourself some slack from time to time, go outside and take a breath of fresh air when you’re feeling low, drink a glass of cold water, it’ll do you a lot of good, or better still take time out with family, you will feel refreshed in time for work.

GET A “DO NOT DISTURB SIGN” It is quite obvious that you can’t ignore everything or say no to everything, there are usually some quick stuff you have to deal with like, favors, phone calls, reply text messages that will only take a minute. These itsy bitsy interruptions can waste bulk of your day and slow you down if you’re working on a task that demands all your concentration. The main solution to this problem is ‘Teamwork’. If you can, negotiate certain times with your colleague at work, times like when they will answer

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

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ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

BUSINESS PLUS STARTUPS

_startups*

YOUr home based business -getting the right tools Starting a home based business is most certainly not easy especially if you have a family and you don’t have the right tools to run one, lets show you what tools you would be needing for that home based business of yours.

When I opened my first home-based business, I was on a tight budget. Our home didn’t have a space for a designated office, so I organized a make-shift office in a corner of the family room. I didn’t want to take out a loan, so I made do with an old computer and an even older desk. This arrangement worked for a while, but before long, I began to feel frustrated, irritated, and burntout. The computer was slow and my desk was disorganized. I didn’t have a proper filing system so I was constantly losing papers. I knew that if my business was going to succeed, I had to carve out an efficient work space.

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

Starting a home business can cost thousands of dollars, but if you’re careful, you may be able to get all the tools you need for much less. Take inventory of what you already have. What’s working, what’s not? Define your priorities and decide what items must be purchased first. Then start thinking creatively.

CREATIVE SOLUTIONS Chances are, you won’t find a good computer second-hand, but there are many other pieces of equipment that you can pick up for little or no money. Because I had experience making furniture, I crafted a desk out of wood scraps I had on hand. A friend of

BUSINESS PLUS STARTUPS

mine made a desk by placing an old door on top of two filing cabinets. Visit office supply and computer stores. You may be able to find a scratch and dent desk or last year’s computer model at a fraction of the original price. Buy printers, fax machines and phones using this approach, as well. Online classified ad sites are a great place to find specialized equipment. A friend wanting to launch a photography business haunted Craigslist searching for the perfect lens and equipment. In time, he amassed a collection of high-end photography equipment for very little money. The preschool teacher wanting to start a home-based daycare business can find many materials online, at yard sales or through parents.

In general, technology is usually a good investment. You’ll probably use your computer and printer everyday, so you need equipment that is up-to-date and high quality. A fax machine and phone are standard equipment for most companies. Don’t skimp there either. Ditto for a good office chair. You don’t want to end each day with an aching back. If you’re on a budget, that cherry office credenza is probably an unnecessary expense, especially if clients rarely or never visit your home office. Durable, well-constructed, used furniture is often a very practical solution for the home-based business. You’ll be more efficient and productive if you have the basic tools that you need, and with careful planning, you can stock your office and stay under budget.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER So you’ve shopped the sales and scoured the yard sales for at least the rudimentary tools of your trade. The next step is to organize those tools in an efficient, attractive way. Clean used furniture and equipment and make any necessary repairs. A coat of paint is often all it takes to make an old piece of furniture seem new again. I took an outside storage bench, old, rugged, and somewhat dilapidated, and made it look fresh again with a little sanding and a coat of paint. It now resides in my office, and is the perfect place to hide away all those reams of copy paper. Organize your desk and set up files to store important documents. Corral pens, staples, paper clips and other office supplies in bins or baskets. Keep copy paper, envelopes and file folders close at hand. Once your desk is organized, you’ll be surprised at how much more efficient you can be with the right tools.

EXPAND SLOWLY Once your business starts to grow, you may be faced with the need to buy new tools and equipment. It’s easy to get carried away and think you need high-end office equipment, and hey, if you can afford it, go for it. Most home-based business owners start small and grow the business slowly. Before buying any new equipment, weigh out the potential benefits in income and productivity against the cost of the equipment.

ITPLUS MAGAZINE | JANUARY

BUSINESS PLUS STARTUPS

7 Branding Tips for Small Businesses

Most businesses always start small, but for you to make the most of your small business here’s 7 tips on how by Renée Quinn When people think of a “brand” they often think of the Nike Swoosh or the Classic Coca Cola bottle (pictured left, courtesy of The Coca Cola Company). But it takes time and money to build a brand to that level. Small businesses just getting started do not generally have the means to advertise as a way of building their brand? When the small business first starts out there is usually little to no funds in their “advertising budget.” What’s that right? But you don’t have to have a large budget or even any additional money allocated for advertising and brand building over and above what you already need to be spending for essential supplies. In fact, you can start establishing your brand identity during your business building phase using only the money necessary to get your business up off the ground. What follows are seven rather simple and inexpensive steps to begin establishing your image and building your brand using nothing more than the money you would otherwise spend to get your busi-

JANUARY | ITPLUS MAGAZINE

ness going! And even if you have already been in business for a while, you can still use these steps to incorporate a new brand into your business scheme without costing much more than you are already spending for supplies. Before I begin though, you need to keep in mind that consistency is of the utmost importance when trying to establish your identity and build your brand. One of the most common mistakes made by those that have smaller budgets for starting their businesses, is to change things over and over again or to have their business cards look different than their fax coversheets which is different from their stationary, and so on. You get the picture. By doing so, you are never establishing a solid identity and your identity is your brand. That is why it is so important to take time to develop and create an image you want to portray before bringing your business into the mainstream. Pick the theme, logo and colors you like and stick with them.

BUSINESS PLUS STARTUPS

1. CREATE A LOGO A good first step in establishing your brand is to create a logo. Although this is not necessary early in your business, the sooner you can create a logo, the easier it is to incorporate that logo into your brand. Hiring someone to create a logo for you can get very pricey. However, there are many resources available on the Internet that are either free or require minimal costs. Having a logo is optional, but regardless of when you choose to create one you need to do it right. It’s better to have no logo at all than to have a logo that makes you look like an amateur. When you look for any type of free software downloads, you run the risk of downloading viruses and spyware. A trusted source that helps you avoid this issue is CNet.com’s Download page. Some of the top free downloads for logo creation recommended on CNet.com’s Download page are Xara Xtreme 5.0, and Logosmatrz 5.0.

you in your word documents on your own computer. Remember, consistency is key to branding! Choose a font that you know you like and don’t settle for a font that is just OK when you look at it. Also, don’t get too fancy and stay away from fonts that have a lot of curvature to them or are very small and/or very “thin.”

4. STATIONARY AND LABELS Can you say Consistency? Repetition works! When people see the same thing over and over, it sticks and that is how your brand is born! Whatever design and fonts you choose for your business cards, the same design and fonts and colors should be used on your letterhead, fax cover sheets, labels and even your bank checks. Vistaprint.com is an excellent resource for trying to establish your brand on a smaller budget.

5. CHOOSE YOUR THEME

2. BUSINESS CARDS

You should practice creating your identity through sampling different styles, colors and tastes before Whether you choose to create a logo now or later, spending a lot of money on your business supplies. you need to have business cards as soon as you This is something you can do with or without having already created a logo. The brand you want to get your business started. A serious misbuild will help you establish company credibiltake made by many people just getity and stimulate customer trust. You need ting their business started is to to make emotional connections with the print their own business cards. Repetition works! audience and your brand is your first This says, “I’m New and inexWhen people see the way to attempt to do so. Extremely perienced” and is certainly not same thing over and over important in building your brand, the image you want to portray it sticks and that is how whether you’re an attorney starting when creating your brand; esyour own firm or a handyman starting your brand is born! pecially when there are webyour own construction company is to sites such as Vistaprint.com choose a theme that says “This is who that offers you the ability to creI really am.” You want to choose a theme ate professional looking business that is welcoming and compliments the imcards for very little money. age you are trying to portray. I know I sound When you create your business cards, like a VistaPrint Commercial, but the fact is, it’s an be sure and splurge a little and get your cards with a glossy finish which will give your business cards excellent source for inexpensive (but not cheap) that “professional” look. Remember, both your iden- brand building supplies. tity and the image you portray are your brand.

6. SOCIAL NETWORKING

3. FONT STYLE AND COLOR

Social networking is another way to build your brand and the best part about it is that it’s FREE. As far as social networks goes, I find that Facebook, although better than MySpace, is a lot less business friendly than Twitter and LinkedIn. Both of these networks are widely accepted by the business world, are easy

When you are building your brand, it is imperative that choose the right font style. You want to choose a font that easy to read, not too fancy, fits well with your logo and most importantly, is easy to reproduce. You want to choose a font that is available to

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BUSINESS PLUS STARTUPS

to set up a profile on and are less often used just to â&#x20AC;&#x153;chat with friends.â&#x20AC;? I find that LinkedIn has remained the most profession all of these more common and mainstream social networks. To help build your brand, you should open up a profile and start connecting with colleagues you know from previous work experiences including law school. Get your resume up there and your bio and start to ask previous employers, managers, and fellow professional colleagues to give you a written recommendation. When you create your profile use the same easy to recreate font where you can on these sites as well. If you have options to change font colors use the same colors you use on your business cards and other stationary.

7. BUILD A WEBSITE This is something that is relatively easy to do. There are companies on the Internet that offer you the ability to create your own website as well, such as Go Daddy, where you can register a domain name. And guess what, VistaPrint offers the ability to create your website as well. See, repetition works. On VistaPrint you can use the same theme, fonts and colors to create all of your stationary items, business cards and website for very little money. So the advantage of using Vistaprint, at least to start, is that you can very quickly obtain uniformity

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LEARNING LAB INTRO

learning lab* Coming soon! Learning Lab is a classroom series where you get in-depth tutorial that are over 8pages long, so if you have any articles youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like to submit for our learning lab section, please email: editor@itplusmag.com Subject: Learning Lab Article

In our next issue we would be teaching you how to create wordpress websites Kate Enwere Editor ITPlus Magazine

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CLOSING AROUND THE WEB

_around the web* Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a collection of some of the sites and stuff that caught our attention this month, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re just mostly things I see everyday. There are loads of things we see around the web, things that give us inspiration, also things that just caught our eyes, thats we brought you a few things we saw arond the web this month, you could check them out, we have included links to the sites we found these beautiful sites and designs etc.

1. CODE PRO FONT

Free font download http://www.dafont.com/code.font

2.Industrial Business Card

Download this business card for free http://www.pixeden.com/business-cardstemplates/industrial-business-card-vol-1

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CLOSING AROUND THE WEB

3 3. 500+ VECTOR ICONS PACK freelanceswitch.com

4. FREELANCE SWITCH freelanceswitch.com

5. Responsive Zeni HTML5

http://www.html5xcss3.com/2012/05/ html5-template-responsive-zeni.html

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CLOSING NEXT MONTH

_nextmonth* In our next issue, our browser’s are at war again, which browser is best and for what? Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari. What makes them unique, we’ve reviewed them all. Is Windows 8 giving you problems already, few tips to troubleshooting your windows 8. In BusinessPlus, we’ll show you how to become an On-demand employee. And lots more, so please stay tuned to our February Issue.

InReview

Browser Wars: Firefox,Google Chrome,InternetExplorer

Solution

Windows 8 Troubleshooting Guide

Business

How to be an on-demand employee

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ITPLUS Magazine DE SIGN :: TE CHN O LO G Y :: B U S I N E S S

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