How Would You Better Integrate Microsoft’s Products?

With the Windows 8 beta out next week and getting all the attention especially with it’s integration of the company’s Kinect technology, the rest of Microsoft’s product line-up has taken a back seat in the eyes of the public and businesses.  It is a very extensive line-up though including Hotmail, SkyDrive, Office Web Apps, Office 365, Office 2010, Windows Server, Windows Phone, ForeFront, Lync, Xbox 360 and many more.  One of the core benefits of using Microsoft’s products is the way that they integrate with one another, or do they?  The integration between Windows and Windows Server is obvious and long-standing, again it’s obvious to see the links between Microsoft Office and Office 365, but what about the rest of the product line-up?

If we look more at the consumer products, Live Mesh and SkyDrive integrate a little bit, but not enough for most people’s tastes, Windows Phone and Windows 8 are rumoured to integrate much more and the poor Xbox 360 is pretty much left out on its own.  But why is this and why is it something I believe needs to change?

The reason for the continued separation in Microsoft’s products is because of the way the company is structured.  Each department is effectively set against it’s ‘rivals’ in terms of meeting targets and winning plaudits from the bosses higher up in the company.  This tribal approach can, on occasion, make it difficult to get different departments working together because they are competing day to day.  Some of the reason too sits with purely technical challenges, such as the ‘current’ status of the Windows Phone kernel being a unique product outside of Windows 7, 8′s and Windows Server’s MinWin, and some are business decisions.  A good example of this is the decision to limit Windows Live Mesh to 5Gb of synced storage because if the company opened up all of SkyDrive then people would fill it up, never use it again and Microsoft would be obligated to maintain that data in perpetuity.

Not all integration goes well however.  Google have been heavily criticised recently for their new privacy policy where they want to share much more closely the data and information you have in their different products and services.  On the face of it this looks perfectly sensible, but the move is already being investigated by governments around the world after a public-backlash.

So how would you better integrate Microsoft’s products and why?  There can be little doubt that the integration we currently have can really help in day to day life.  For example I store some critical Word and Excel documents in SkyDrive.  I can open these on any PC in Office 2010 from a Windows 7 Jumplist as though they were stored on that computer, and I can also open them on my Windows Phone.  On each device I know that I’m always getting the most up to date version of the file, which makes life much simpler.  On the flip-side my Hotmail is now pretty full of more than ten years worth of emails and, crucially, attachments.  There’s no way to strip these attachments out other than to completely delete the emails, and many of these attachments are either duplicates or in the case of sent email, no longer required most of the time.  SkyDrive would seem like the perfect place for them to be stripped out to and stored, but there’s no way to do this (currently).

So how would you further and better integrate Microsoft’s product line-up?  Would you create closer ties between Windows and the Xbox, so that you can push and pull video and music directly to the console as easily as you can drag and drop files on your own desktop, or would you want better wireless integration between your Windows Phone and the Microsoft designed Ford Sync in your car?  Do you even like the thought of further integrating products or does it leave a Google Privacy-esque bad taste in your mouth?  Why not tell us in the comments.

What do you want to see in my new Windows 8 books?

Next week, when I finally download the Windows 8 Consumer Preview I’ll start writing not just one, but two new Windows 8 books, with a third being written later this year, so I’m going to be stupidly busy until the summer  :}  and I want to make sure that the books I write are what you both need and want to read.  I thought then that I’d introduce these books to you and ask what it is that you would like to see in them.

The Windows 8 Power Users Guide is the first commercial version of my self-published Power Users Guide series.  The book is getting a content makeover this time around and will be for enthusiasts and IT Pros who either want to find out how to use Windows 8 like the pros do, or who already are a pro and want to really unlock the power of the OS.

Windows 8 Out of the Box is a very different book for a very different market.  This book will be for complete computer newbies or non-technical people.  It will focus on the things we all actually do with our computers and work through simple and, crucially, short instructions on how to achieve the most common computing tasks.  This will include things that Windows 8 might not be able to do natively but that we use our computers for day to day.

I thought I’d take this opportunity to ask you all, as you’re all brilliant here at gHacks, what you would like me to include in these books?  Are there any areas you’d particularly like me to focus on, perhaps virtualization or deployment in the Power Users Guide or advanced photo editing or home networking in Out of the Box.  Why not let me know in the comments below and you can help shape these books to become the very best that they can be.  Thank you all  :)

Which Should I Keep, an HP TouchPad or a RIM Playbook?

As a tech author, blogger and reviewer I get technology sent to me periodically or I pick up bits and pieces myself.  This does mean that I can occasionally find something being replaced when its not too old.  This is about to happen with two tablets, an HP TouchPad 32Gb and a RIM Playbook 16Gb.  Now I’ll start by saying that the actual ‘Gb’ storage volume on each tablet is probably irrelevant as I only store files either on my desktop PC, my laptop or in the cloud.  There’s no point in having two tablets though so I need to choose which one to keep.

This isn’t as easy a decision as you might think.  The HP TouchPad has a very useful 10 inch screen, but there’s a weight that comes with this.  The RIM Playbook is much ligahter as it’s smaller, but the 7 inch screen isn’t quite as capacious.  Then there’s the fact that the HP TouchPad has been discontinued (I picked mine up in the fire sale late last year) which does affect both the number and quality of available apps, and updates to the operating system itself.  That said, the RIM Playbook’s future is also in some doubt and the prices of these tablets are now falling too.

There some fundamental differences between the two machines.  Cameras are one good example where the TouchPad has just a 1.3MP webcam on the front while the Playbook sports both front and rear cameras, with the rear one being a healthy 5MP resolution.  The Playbook also has an HDMI output, which the touchpad lacks.  The Touchpad is a far sleeker-looking device however with an operating system that’s simplicity itself not just to use, but to completely master.  The TouchPad also has a slightly faster processor, running at 1.2Ghz when compared to the 1GHz of the Playbook and the GPS and route-planning on the tablet are lightning fast.

In short though, there are huge numbers of reasons why you might want or prefer one type of tablet over another.  For example the iPad 2 is extremely light and has a big 10 inch screen, while some Android tablets are just as light and come in a wide variety of form-factors and weights.

In short then I thought this might be a great opportunity to kick off a discussion over which of these two tablets is better, and which one you think I should keep.  WebOS is a very effective and highly polished operating system.  Currently QNX on the Playbook isn’t quite there if you don’t have a Blackberry smartphone (I use a Windows Phone) and will continue to miss out some critical apps until the next operating system update eventually arrives.  It’s due this month but has been pushed back many times since last fall.

So which tablet do you think I should keep and why?  Which is the better tablet, the best hardware, the most accessible operating system and the most expandable system?  Which works best with cloud services and has the bext software support?  It will be interesting to hear your views on these two machines.

What Technology Will We Expect with Next Year’s PCs and How Will it Affect Prices?

Smartphones and tablets have a lot to answer for, at least when it comes to making technology affordable for the public.  Since the launch of the first iPhone it’s become not only accepted that sensors and other devices such as GPS, multi-touch capacitive screens, NFC, accelerometers, digital compasses and more should be included but we’ve come to expect, if not demand them.

As the next twelve to twenty four months goes on there will come more and they will be even more commonplace in portable computing devices than they are now.  Windows 8 supports more types of sensor than ever before too with technologies such as Kinect, NFC and more being integrated directly into the platform.  But what is this going to do for the prices of the computers that we buy and is it even affordable to do so?

The latest rumour is that ASUS is testing Kinect sensors built into the bezel of laptops.  This type of integration won’t come as a surprise to many people and it’s only to be expected.  This type of technology isn’t cheap however and integrating it into a laptop will come at a cost penalty.  This is also at a time when PC makers are telling us that the profit margins on PCs and laptops are now so tight that they’re beginning to focus on the high-end computing devices such as ultrabooks in order to get us to part with more cash.

My own laptop contains a four-point capacitive touch screen, 3G SIM card slot, drop-sensing accelerometer, fingerprint reader, TPM chip and GPS.  It’s a high-end model yes, but when you think about where consumers are now with technology it’s likely that people will want to get these types of devices, along with Kinect, already integrated with their new computers, monitors and laptops, and that PC makers will capitalise on this fact to hike prices and push people towards buying even more expensive computers that improve their profit margins and balance sheets.

To be honest I firmly believe that some of these sensors are pretty much essential for work in the modern age.  3G/4G is one such example with mobile broadband now so ubiquitous.  GPS is also something that’s extremely useful in a mobile device and security systems such as biometric fingerprint readers and Trusted Platform Module chips are now essential for any business laptop.

Then we have to face the fact that by the time Windows 8 launches or at least early in 2013, over 80% of new laptops will ship with a multi-touch screen.  Next year’s consumer electronics show will be full of such devices and laptops packed with sensors and NFC readers of all description.  Each will have a use, every last one will be justifiable, and all will be more expensive than they are today.

So what is your attitude to sensors and extra tech on PCs?  Do you already have a laptop that includes some of these devices and do you use them?  I might not use my laptop’s GPS a lot but the 3G module is used several times a week.  Are you happy that the prices of laptops seems to be steadily rising, at the same time as many are predicting the death of the traditional desktop PC with a tower that’s easy to upgrade and cheap to build.  Why not let us know in the comments below.

Is it Time to Offer an Alternative to QWERTY?

The QWERTY keyboard layout has been used in most western countries now since the late 1800′s.  Though there are differences in some countries, such as AZERTY in France, this keyboard layout remains with modern computers even though it’s not always the quickest way for people to type.

It was invented by Christopher Latham Sholes who was an American newspaper editor.  Sholes wanted to find a way to stop the hammers in typewriters from getting clogged up all the time.  This happened because the layout that was being used allowed people to type more quickly than the mechanical parts of the typewriter could respond, with the upstroke of one letter completing before the downstroke of the previous one had finished.

And so in October 1867 he patented the QWERTY keyboard layout to solve the problem by moving letters that were commonly used together further apart so that the typewriter hammers wouldn’t need to overlap.  He sold the idea to Remington and in 1878 their Remington No. 2 typewriter popularised the layout.  Since then the uptake for this keyboard layout has been enormous and it remains the most popular keyboard layout around the world today.

Why do we still use QWERTY though with modern computers where mechanical hammers are no longer a problem?  The simple fact remains that we have all grown up using this keyboard layout and, as such, we know our way around it and changing it now would cause all manner of problems, slow everybody down and no doubt cost the worldwide economy billions in lost productivity.

The rise of the touchscreen computing device however does present the next generation at least with a solution.  Software keyboards can be laid out however you want them to be and as these are probably going to be the way that the children of tomorrow will learn to use computers, by using smartphones and tablets primarily, could and should the operating system manufacturers now be offering an alternative keyboard layout for us to use, such as an alphabetic one?

Many people believe that a standard alphabetic keyboard is easier and quicker for people to use, and that it makes it quicker for people to learn.  It would be a simple job to put an alphabetic software keyboard into modern touch-enabled operating systems, and the actual hardware keyboard equivalents wouldn’t need to follow for some years in all probability.

This way we could give children an opportunity to potentially type more quickly on their computers, increasing their own productivity.  Also anyone who prefers using an alphanumeric keyboard already, and they can be found for sale in a few places and I’m certain that some apps already exist for some platforms, will finally have the option to use one on all their devices.

So what do you think?  Could the next generation of computer users benefit from Microsoft, Apple and Google adding alphabetic or other keyboard layouts to their operating systems now?  Do you already use a keyboard layout like this or do you have experience of doing so?  Would you like to try an alphabetic keyboard on your tablet and smartphone and do you think it would be easier to type on and also, do you think that your children would benefit form typing alphabetically, or would it be better for them to learn the traditional QWERTY layout?  Why not let us know in the comments here what you think about the future of typing on computers.

How to Create a Hidden Encrypted Volume With True Crypt

A judge recently ordered a US citizen to decrypt storage space on a computer so that police forces could analyze protected files on the system. In this particular case, the defendant was ordered to decrypt the hard drive of her Toshiba notebook no later than February 21, or face the consequences “including contempt of court”.

The ruling may still get overturned, but at this point in time it is not clear how this will turn out.

Encryption makes sure that only authorized users can enable access to data provided that there is no loophole or backdoor built-into the software itself. People traveling to the US may have their mobile computers analyzed by federal agents even without probable cause.

Users have a number of options at their disposal to protect their data from prying eyes. Encryption for instance requires a pass phrase or key to be entered to decrypt the contents of the storage device. If you forget the password, you cannot open the encrypted contents anymore.

There is however a better option for users who want to make sure that they private files stay personal. True Crypt supports so called hidden volumes. These volumes are encrypted volumes inside an encrypted volume. True Crypt calls the concept plausible deniability. You put your important files into the hidden volume, and other files that you do not mind to share with others in the regular encrypted container. When someone asks you to decrypt your data, you enter the password to decrypt the first volume that you do not mind sharing with anyone.

It may happen that you are forced by somebody to reveal the password to an encrypted volume. There are many situations where you cannot refuse to reveal the password (for example, due to extortion). Using a so-called hidden volume allows you to solve such situations without revealing the password to your volume.

The principle is that a TrueCrypt volume is created within another TrueCrypt volume (within the free space on the volume). Even when the outer volume is mounted, it should be impossible to prove whether there is a hidden volume within it or not*, because free space on any TrueCrypt volume is always filled with random data when the volume is created** and no part of the (dismounted) hidden volume can be distinguished from random data. Note that TrueCrypt does not modify the file system (information about free space, etc.) within the outer volume in any way.

Hidden volumes can be created quite easily in True Crypt. New True Crypt users should read through the tutorial posted on the site first to understand the basics of creating encrypted volumes on the computer.

You have the option to create both volumes in one go though, by following the process outlined below. Click on Tools > Volume Creation Wizard. You have two options now how to proceed:

• Create an encrypted file container: This option can be used to create an encrypted file on one of the computer’s hard drive and add a hidden file container to it, or add a hidden file container to an existing encrypted file.
• Encrypt non-system partition/drive: This is basically the same option as above, only that it works partitions and hard drives, and not with files. Please note that all contents of the selected hard drive/partition will get deleted in the process.

I suggest you start with an encrypted file container to see how the process works.

Select Hidden TrueCrypt volume on the next page

Now you have the option to select normal or direct mode. Normal mode creates both the outer and the hidden volume in the process, while direct mode creates a hidden volume inside an existing True Crypt file container.

Lets pick normal mode to demonstrate how both the standard encrypted container and the hidden container within are created.

You now need to select a file name for the outer container. Pick any directory and file name that you want. You can use the file name to your advantage, for instance by making it a .tmp file or a .avi.

You are then asked to select the encryption algorithm and hash algorithm for the outer volume. Pick one each or keep the default settings.

You are then asked to select a size for the file container. Keep in mind that the hidden volume is added to this container file as well. Select a password on the next screen. This password is used to decrypt the files stored in the outer volume. The volume will be formatted afterwards. Move your mouse around to create random values. Click on Format afterwards to create the file. Depending on the size, you may need to switch the file system from FAT to NTFS.

Now that you have created the outer volume, you move on to the next step, the creation of the hidden volume.

The process is nearly identical. You first select the encryption and hash algorithms, then the file size. True Crypt will display the maximum possible hidden volume file size on that screen. Don’t select the maximum if you plan on adding files to the outer volume as well.

The remaining steps are identical. You now have one outer volume, one hidden volume and two pass phrases to decrypt the volumes on your computer.

Mounting the hidden volume

To mount either the outer or hidden volume do the following:

• Select a free drive letter in the True Crypt interface.
• Click on Select File and browse to the encrypted file that you want to mount.
• click on mount afterwards.
• Enter the pass phrase for the outer volume to mount it, or the password for the hidden volume to mount it instead.

If you mount the outer volume you may want to click on mount options to check the “protect hidden volume against damage caused by writing to outer volume” box to avoid to protect the hidden container from being partially or fully overwritten. You need to supply the hidden volume password though for this option.

The very same principle applies to the creation of a hidden volume inside an encrypted partition or hard drive.

What’s your take on this new ruling?