News on Star Office, Sun Java, Google Talk, BenQ,
Macromedia and more!
IT industry and Personal Computer (PC) news October
2005
Google and Sun Java team up Sun Java and Google have signed a deal to include the Google toolbar
with your next Sun Java Runtime Environment upgrade. When you go online
to download your update, JRE will give you the option of not bundling the
Google toolbar. So if you don't turn it off you'll find the Google toolbar
installed when you reboot. (Not that that's a bad thing!)
StarOffice 8 StarOffice's new migration tool is helping to make this software more
compatible with Microsoft Office users. So if you don't want to use Microsoft
Office, try StarOffice. If you're just wanting to do something basic in
Word or Excel, Star Office is for you. If you're wanting to write extremely
complicated macros and formulas using Microsoft Office 2003 then you may
wish to stick to that.
Google Talk Google has released its new instant messenging service. Called Google
Talk it allows you to talk for free with anyone in the world via their
computer and their copy of Google Talk. Google Talk's sound is fantastic
and just as good as Skype, but it doesn't have the extra features that
Skype, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ and other instant messenger services have, yet.
Macromedia Update 8.5 update to Adobe Macromedia's Flash Player has a faster virtual
machine and better debugging. Expect to see a plethora of online animated
Christmas cards utilising the new player this year.
BenQ Mobile BenQ bought Siemens Mobile this year and has now relaunched in Germany
with plans to release a combined brand name next year. BenQ Siemens is
apparently the 6th largest mobile phone company in the world.
USB keys now 8GB Carte Orange, a new USB key available in 4GB and 8GB, has been released
by LaCie. Not much on their site about it though.
DLink release wireless Gamers router The GamerLounge router has 1000Mb/s Gigabit Ethernet ports and makes
sure online games get priority of bandwidth.