New Microsoft Technology Associate Certification Now Available

New Microsoft Technology Associate Certification Now Available

REDMOND, Wash. – July 7, 2010 – Every spring professor Keith Kelly watches students graduate from the Computer Information Technology program at Northwestern Michigan College and make their way into the work force. The college is a participant in the Microsoft IT Academy, a membership-based organization that offers IT training and resources to schools. This year, Kelly is hopeful that even in his state’s depressed economy, his students have a shot at finding employment in IT and software development — two of the few fields that are actually growing. But he fears a college-issued degree alone isn’t necessarily enough to land a job. “I think employers really want to see both degrees and industry certifications,” says Kelly.

Read about it here.

Compliments to SGUK for the find

-Ken

PC Zone magazine is to shut after 17 years

PC Zone magazine is to shut after 17 years

Britain's first ever magazine dedicated to PC gaming is to cease publication after 17 years.

PC Zone magazine, the sometimes anarchic and irreverent monthly journal, is set to close after 225 issues on 2 September 2010.

Future Publishing, which owns the title, said the closure comes in the wake of a strategic review of its PC games portfolio

At its last audit, PC Zone was only selling about 11,000 copies a month.

The magazine started life in a rather dank and dusty basement in Central London.

It rose from the ashes of Zero, a monthly multi-format games magazine that, like PC Zone, was full of off-beat humour, adolescent jokes and, on occasion, courted controversy.


Full story : HERE

Microsoft adds Facebook support to Outlook

Outlook Social Connector integrates social networking site into email program

Microsoft has launched Outlook Social Connector, a tool that allows Facebook users to view the social networking site as they use their emails.

The plug-in allows people to view status updates, wall posts and photos alongside emails, as well as add friends using the Outlook People Pane. Updates are available in real time, but there is no option to update information through Outlook at present.

To read the rest of the article, click here...

Print v iPads: books win!

The speed race, at least. Books are faster and 'more relaxing' to read, but iPads and Kindles are 'more satisfying', finds new study

E-book readers might be heralded as the future of literature but a new report shows that it's still quicker to read the old-fashioned print version of a book.

The study, by Jakob Nielsen from the Nielsen Norman Group, gave 24 people a short story by Ernest Hemingway to read – chosen because "his work is pleasant and engaging to read, and yet not so complicated that it would be above the heads of users".

To read the rest of the article, click here...

Google vanishes Android apps from citizen phones

Google vanishes Android apps from citizen phones

Google has reached out over the airwaves and removed a pair of applications from users' Android phones, saying the two apps violated its terms of service.

Like Apple, Google has a "kill switch" that allows it to remotely remove mobile apps that have already been installed by end users. The tool is mentioned in the terms and conditions for Google's app store, the Android Market, as the press noticed when the store debuted.

Full story: here

Thanks to Josiahb for the link.

Apple's iOS 4 beams into unprepared world

First Look Apple's much-vaunted iOS 4 arrived Monday morning a few minutes after 10am Pacific time, and nearly an hour and a half later, we were finally able to complete downloading and installing Cupertino's latest and greatest mobile OS onto our iPhone 3GS.

Were its marquee features worth the wait — meaning both the 10-plus weeks since it was announced on April 8 (and renamed on June 7) and the painfully long installation time?

Yes and no. We first took a look at multitasking and the new folder interface, and the "no" part of our answer has more to do with third-party developers than it does with Apple.

Remember that multitasking — one of, if not the, most anticipated features of iOS 4 — is app-specific, meaning that developers need to add multitasking capability to their apps before users can take advantage of this new feature.

To read the rest, click here

Nasa warns solar flares from 'huge space storm' will cause devastation

Britain could face widespread power blackouts and be left without critical communication signals for long periods of time, after the earth is hit by a once-in-a-generation “space storm”, Nasa has warned.

National power grids could overheat and air travel severely disrupted while electronic items, navigation devices and major satellites could stop working after the Sun reaches its maximum power in a few years.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Any views on this guys?

Apple passes Microsoft to be biggest tech company

Apple passes Microsoft to be biggest tech company

Apple has pushed past arch-rival Microsoft to become the world's biggest technology company.

Changes in the share price values of the two in Wednesday's choppy trading left the total value of Apple at $222bn (£154bn).

Microsoft is now valued by investors at $219bn.

However, Microsoft still enjoys higher profits than Apple. Its most recent annual net profit was $14.6bn (£10bn), compared with $5.7bn for Apple.

Microsoft also reported bigger full-year revenues of $58.4bn, with Apple on $36.5bn.

Apple's shares closed Wednesday trading down 0.4% at $244.11, while Microsoft fell by 4% to $25.01.

iPhone boost

The value of a listed company, known as market capitalisation, is calculated by multiplying the number of shares in a company by the current share price.

Apple, which makes computers, iPods, iPhones and now iPads, almost went out of business in the 1990s.

Full...

Google launches smart TV service

Google launches smart TV service

Search giant Google has launched a TV service that unites live television with the web.

The "smart TV" service allows people to search both live channels as well as content from websites such as YouTube.

Special TV sets - or normal TVs connected to a Google box - will also allow people to access the web and download applications.

The first TV sets will be produced by Sony and should be available in the Autumn.

"Video should be consumed on the biggest, brightest, best screen in your house - the television," said Rishi Chandra of the firm. "That's not the PC, or mobile."

He said that there were currently 4bn TV users worldwide and that around $70bn (£50bn) was spent annually on adverts in the US alone.

"There is no better medium to reach a wider and broader audience than TV," he said.

Full story : HERE

Registration of engineers and technicians receives government backing

Registration of engineers and technicians receives government backing

The Engineering Council welcomes proposals by Lord Sainsbury's Technician Working Group for the creation of a Technician Council to promote registration of Engineering Technicians (EngTech) and Incorporated Engineers (IEng) - and their equivalents in science, health and ICT.

The proposals were requested by Lord Mandelson in the 'Skills for Growth' White Paper in November 2009. The Government had recognised that intermediate skills were inadequately represented in the working population and insufficient status was awarded to engineering, science and health professionals at this level and above.

Read the article here.

-Ken

If this is made mandatory, do you think that this is a good or bad thing?