LetsBuyIt Blog

Today sees the launch of the new Microsoft Office 2010. At home, in the office, at school or on the go Microsoft Office 2010 gives you smart, simple, timesaving tools to help you keep up with life that never stops moving.

There are 3 main packs to choose from, varying in price, to correspond with different user needs, but which one is best for you? We have taken a look at what the three packs have to offer.

Office Home and Student 2010

The cheapest of all the packs is Office Home and Student 2010. This contains easy to use tools to help you express your ideas, solve problems, and simplify everyday projects—from creating schoolwork that stands out to managing home finances—with convenient ways to post and then access documents from virtually any PC. The pack includes fewer programs than the other packs but enough for home use.

Prices start on LetsBuyIt.co.uk from £81.

Office Home and Business 2010

This is the pack which is the next level up. It contains more programs than Office Home and Student 2010 to help small businesses and home users achieve outstanding results.

It has everything from e-mail and scheduling to reports and presentations plus convenient ways to post and then access documents from virtually any PC. Prices start on LetsBuyIt.co.uk from £171

Office Proffesional 2010

This pack contains all the tools available to grow your business. This is for businesses and individuals who demand the best as Office Professional 2010 has what you need to communicate, create, and share documents from virtually anywhere. You get top-of-the-line tools and premium customer support for one year so that you can run your business and any project efficiently. This is the most expensive of all the packs but also contains the most tools.

Prices start on LetsBuyIt.co.uk from £320

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The Apple Magic Mouse is a revolutionary new addition to the mouse family and is the world’s first multi-touch mouse. It has a delicate yet sturdy bridge-shaped slim line design, a bit like a bar of soap! There are no buttons but one piece of clear plastic on the top which is touch sensitive enabling a new level of scrolling and clicking using the whole surface of the mouse.

Apple Magic Mouse

You can use both right and left clicks and the ambidextrous construction allows you to inverse the function to make it great for both righties or lefties. But on top of that, the construction of the Magic Mouse allows you to scroll through pages and use any amount of fingers at one time. By using two fingers you can flick through photos or web pages and scroll 360 degrees around the page by making a circle on the mouse. You can also click with one finger and scroll with another, letting you highlight blocks of text like you would on a normal mouse.

The mouse is easy to install and carry with you which makes it great to use with laptop computers as well as desktops. It connects using Bluetooth so you no need for any extra wires and is also powered by 2 AA batteries with up to four months use per charge.

It uses standard laser technology for tracking, which means, although it works on most surfaces, including jeans and chairs, it will not track on more glossy surfaces like glass. However it does glide well along the table top thanks to the two plastic bars on the mouse’s underside that minimize contact with whatever surface it is on.

Watch this video to see it in action.

Microsoft has also recently brought out a new product to the mouse market which, differing slightly to the Magic Mouse, it concentrates on lightness and ergonomics. The Microsoft ARC benefits from a unique appearance and collapsible design which works very well with laptop computers. You can also use this mouse with your left or right hand and is designed to make it comfortable either way. An extra benefit with this mouse is that it can be used with either Macs or PCs.

Microsoft ARC

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Microsoft just launched Windows 7, the new operating system following the unfortunate Windows Vista.

In an effort to get it right this time around Microsoft tested approximately 15 million people to analyze their computing sessions in an attempt to find out what users actually do with their computers.

Source: maximumpc.com

Windows 7 is similar in appearance to Vista although it performs much better! Microsoft removed Vista’s bugs and incorporated some handy new features into their new operating system.

Some practical new features new to Windows 7 include:

Jump Lists: With Jump Lists you can create faster shortcuts to the files, programmes and web pages that you visit most frequently.

Improved Windows Search: Windows 7 features a new and improved built-in search function. As soon as you start to type in the search box you will see a list of relevant documents, files and web pages. This improved search function will also search networked PCs, external hard drives and document libraries.

1GB Memory: Unlike Vista which needs 2GB of memory the new Windows 7 only needs 1GB taking up less of your space.

HomeGroup: The HomeGroup function makes it easy to set up a home network and share files, documents, etc…

There are too many new features to list!! This is just a taste of what Windows 7 has to offer.

It looks like Microsoft finally got it right this time!

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I am an avid notebook user, but I almost never use the integrated mouse. Instead, I plug in an extra one because I find it much more comfortable to work with. When I first saw the Microsoft Arc Mouse in 2008, I thought to myself, maybe it’s time for me to update… Now the mouse is available in 4 new colours and I am finally convinced (I just love colourful gadgets)!

Source: Microsoft.com

With its innovative design, the Arc Mouse combines the comfort of a desktop mouse and the portability of a notebook mouse (it folds to 60% of its fully expanded size). Features include a battery status indicator, a range of 10m, a snap-in transceiver and one-touch access to Windows Flip 3D.

I don’t know about you, but I am getting one right now. Just have to choose a colour…

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The Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has finally decided that “Open XML” will be the international standard for information storage. The Microsoft Code “Open XML” as you can read on CNet has won the battle against the “Open Document Format” (ODF) and is now considered the file storage system for the future. This a step forward because all the different systems now will need to comply with the standard and it should make the decision easier on how we safe our Letsbuyit.com data to preserve it for the generations to come!

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A while ago we wrote an article about the API project called OpenSocial, which can be eventually plugged into many portals and systems. When Google, MySpace and consorts launch an initiative such as OpenSocial, then it means serious business.

What happens when the giant Microsoft opens up their ports for outside developers? You should read this article “Microsoft to Share More Technical Secrets” published by NYTimes. This inevitably implies some sort of revolution!

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After reading RSS-news nowadays my tag-cloud-looking mind, trained to memorize only important facts (My studying attitude– if I don’t remember something it was not important, which even worked somehow…) looks a little bit like this:

Bubble 2.0, 1998, expectations, overvalued, undervalued, Facebook value $10billion maybe even $100billion (expected 2007 sales $150 million), TechCrunch worth $100 million, RockYou value $500 million, Ebay write off 1.4 billion Skype, Microsoft $6 billion acquisition aQuantive, et cetera.

You can most definitely sympathize and we discussed this topic here for about 1min and we came up with the following scientific conclusion: “I don’t know, let the analysts do these interpretations. Let’s get back to work!”

1. These numbers are so big that nobody can actually relate to them or imagine them anyway. Just let the analysts talk about the money that others make! That’s their job!

2. Each mentioned company is based on a brilliant idea, brilliant team to realize them and luck. However each project is also based on bloody, hard work. So just work!

3. Get the basics right because now there are laws, rules and regulations that go with a website and e-commerce company!

4. Think before you click to send an email.

5. Facebook is great fun, an incredible market intelligence machine but an even greater waste of time during the day.

6. Going offline to work sometimes is very productive.

Good luck with all your projects because good ideas deserve success! Just dare to express and realize them.

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Microsoft is currently working on a brand new tool, PopFly, which will provide you with the ability to easily build a mashup in a few clicks:

PopFly relies on new SilverLight technology and will much certainly enhance usability on the web.

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Microsoft Surface, the first commercially available surface computer, turns an ordinary tabletop into a vibrant, interactive surface. It provides interaction with digital content through natural gestures, touch and physical objects.

Surface is a 30-inch display in a table-like form factor that’s easy for individuals or small groups to interact with in a way that feels familiar, just like in the real world. In essence, it’s a surface that comes to life for exploring, learning, sharing, creating, buying and much more.

Availability: winter 2007
Price: around US $ 10,000

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Microsoft is currently working on a new Internet browser for Windows Mobile devices, called Deepfish, which will provide users with an enhanced browsing user experience.

While Deepfish is still under development and only available by invite only (a demo is available here), we really hope this kind of technology will increase the usability of mobile devices to browse Internet websites and contribute to the development of m-Commerce (e-Commerce on mobile).

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