BlackBerry OS 7.1!

For you all Bold users running OS 7.0, OS 7.1 is ready for release. Blackberry will be pushing the official OS out over all carriers through out the week. Here are a couple of the new features.

Mobile Hotspot:Turn your BlackBerry 7.1 OS device into a Wi-Fi® router anywhere, anytime! The new OS seamlessly provides Internet access for up to five Wi-Fi devices, including laptops and tablets.

Wi-Fi® Calling (where available):With BlackBerry 7.1 OS, you’ll be able to make Wi-Fi calls using your carrier’s Wi-Fi calling service (aka UMA-lite or GAN-lite). Wi-Fi calling allows you to save your talk time minutes and make phone calls over any Wi-Fi network. Not all carriers offer such a service so check with your carrier for availability.

Check out this site for more features and download links!

PlayBook Tips and Tricks

Looking for more tips and tricks for that new PlayBook you bought over the holidays? Well look no further! Below is a quick insert on a couple things that you might not know about your PlayBook.

Just in case you didn’t know, you can connect a micro-HDMI cable to your PlayBook and present what is on your screen in full HD! Sweet! Once more tip that isn’t on this list is the ability to take screenshots from anything on your screen. For this to work you cannot be in bridged mode with your phone, for some reason it doesn’t work, and I am not sure why…

Go here to read the full story.

Veeam Backup and Replication 6 Patch 2

Veeam Backup and Replication 6 Patch 2 has recently been released.

Veeam Backup & Replication 6.0 Patch 2 is now available through our support. Please, refer to the Known Issues topic for the full list of issues it addresses, and consider installing the patch if you are affected by some of these issues. Note that I keep updating this topic continuously, including all common issues we are seeing from the support perspective.

Go here to find out more.

Blackberry Playbook OS 2.0

So the PlayBook is still on sale, should I buy one? I am not too sure. I have all but given up on the Asus Transformer Prime(word on the street is that they removed GPS support from their spec sheet because of its poor signal strength). I for one think there is a future for the BBX(or should I say BB10) OS. With the release of OS 2, new features like Android Player(download and install Android Apps), and native BBM and Enterprise Email support(no more Bridge needed!) should uplift the platform. The PlayBook is already pretty slick, OS2 is supposed to make it run even better…

PlayBook OS 2 brings loads more changes to the platform, and they’re squarely aimed at making the BlackBerry slate an easier target for developers. Adobe Air 3 and Flash 11 are supported, Open GL ES 2.0 and Open AL are baked in, and RIM’s Native SDK –which brings support for C/C++ apps — has been certified for release as well. RIM is also snuggling up to standards-based apps built using web code like HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and even WebGL with the introduction of WebWorks and a much-improved browser. Check out the video.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/42ZTO5uynnI" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

This link has instructions on how to download PlayBook OS 2.0 Beta. This site also has a little bit more info!

Also note that all PlayBooks are $299.00 CDN, that includes the 64GB version, until January 9th 2012.

*If you enabled Developer mode on your PlayBook and downloaded OS2, you do not need to side-load the Android Player on your device, its built into OS2.*

New HP Ultrabook “Spectre”

So the hunt may be on for the Ultimate Ultrabook. After trying so hard to get my hands on an Asus Transformer Prime tablet, and failing, I almost don’t want one anymore. I have my HP Touchpad which does most things fine. Who needs a tablet anyways, forget about Android OS or Apple iOS and all the stupid apps you have to pay for an download. You can have a sleek and slim Ultrabook with Windows 7 running off ultrafast SSD drives. I want to speculate that this Ultrabook will have a touchscreen and will be ready for Windows 8 Metro UI, but that’s just a rumor I would like to start!  There are NO details, just a movie and some pictures. Check it them out here. I will be sure to follow up at a later date when I have more information.

BlackBerry Playbook still on sale…

I would like to start of my first post of the New Year with saying just that, HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! Thanks for reading.

So you are still looking for a PlayBook, well guess what? RIM is still pumping them out and hoping you will buy them, and if you are interested, the 16GB is going for $199, 32GB is $249, and the 64GB version is $399. I do believe that the US is selling all Playbooks for $299, so technically, I would attempt to order from a US company that ships to Canada to get the 64GB PlayBook for a paltry $299.00.

I got my hands on one for my father and he loves it. The video playback is amazingly clear, and the stereo speakers are pretty good. The user interface is much smoother and responsive then I thought, which is a good thing. Anyways, if you are looking to pick one up either check your local retailers or order from Shop.BlackBerry.com, I’ve included the link direct to the PlayBook page.

Have fun with your new PlayBook if you happen to order one. And have a safe and Happy New Year.

Check out these links for more info! GizmoCanada(new) and a bounce back to another blog on here.

Cheers to 2012!

-NS

HP P4000 LeftHand SAN Best Practices for vSphere 5

Do you have a HP P4000 SAN and would you like to configure it based on tried and true best practices? Well look no further as VMware and HP worked together to release a whitepaper that runs you through it all!

This white paper provides detailed information on how to integrate VMware vSphere® 5.0 with HP P4000 LeftHand SAN Solutions. VMware vSphere is an industry leading virtualization platform and software cloud infrastructure enabling critical business applications to run with assurance and agility by virtualizing server resources. Complementing this technology, the HP P4000 LeftHand SANs address the storage demands and cost pressures associated with server virtualization, data growth, and business continuity.

P4000 SANs scale capacity and performance linearly without incurring downtime, enabling it to meet the requirements of small pay-as-you-grow customers to the mission-critical applications of an enterprise.

I wouldn’t say that if you didn’t have a P4000 SAN that you shouldn’t read this, it still contains an innumerous amount of cool information about vSphere 5 and its storage capabilities. Download the PDF here.

As this is my last post for December, I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! For all my fellow Winnipeg people, Jets vs. Penguins tonight! Enjoy the weather as well… and the fact that there is very little snow. I love it!

-NS

VMware Storage and Network I/O Control for NFS

Were you wondering if these two beautiful technologies when used with NFS would collide? Well look no further as this vSphere Blog explains that they in fact compliment eachother! The below insert was borrowed from blogs.vmware.com.

Intro to Storage I/O Control

SIOC was covered in a previous blog post. Details can be found here – http://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2011/09/storage-io-control-enhancements.html. In a nutshell, if SIOC detects that a pre-defined latency threshold for a particular datastore has been exceeded, it will throttle the amount of I/O a VM can queue to that datastore based on a ‘shares’ mechanism. When the contention is alleviated, SIOC will stop and VMs can then begin to use the datastore without any throttling. This avoids the ‘noisy neighbor’ problems when one VM can hog all the bandwidth to a shared datastore. The point to note here is that SIOC is working on a per VM basis, and deals with datastore objects.

SIOC was first introduced in vSphere 4.1, but only for block storage devices (FC, iSCSI, FCoE) only. In vSphere 5.0, we introduced SIOC support for NFS datastores.

Intro to Network I/O Control (NIOC)

There is a nice overview of NIOC on the networking blog here – http://blogs.vmware.com/networking/2010/07/got-network-io-control.html. Again, in a nutshell, NetIOC allows you to define a guaranteed bandwidth for different vSphere network traffic types.

NIOC uses a software approach to partitioning physical network bandwidth among the different types of network traffic flows. For example, you can guarantee a minimum NFS bandwidth/latency when a vMotion operation is initiated on the same network & prevent the vMotion operation from having an impact on the NFS traffic flow. The point to note here is that NIOC is working on a network traffic stream, e.g. NFS, and deals with NIC ports.

Go hereto read all about how these technologies compliment eachother.

-NS

VMware View Updated and Available from Amazon Appstore

Now you can access your Windows Desktop right from your Android Kindle Fire, this is good news for Kindle Fire owners, the View Client for other Android platforms has been out for months.

Work the Way You Want To on your Kindle Fire
Work on your Windows-based VMware View virtual desktop right from your Android, which gives you on-the-go access from any location. Support for the PCoIP display protocol means your desktop is fast and responsive regardless of where you are. VMware View features support for native Android gestures, so you can use your device as you normally would for quick and easy desktop navigation. Need to do something more complex? Call up the trackpad for better mouse targeting or the keyboard for efficient text input. VMware View also supports these languages: English, German, French, Korean, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese.

How many people jumped on the Kindle Fire bandwagon? I am waiting for the Transformer Prime myself! Go here to read the full story.

Also to add to this, VMware View Clients have been updated for Mac, Linux, iPad, and Android. Go here to check that out.

-NS

Asus Transformer Prime (Last Update)

I say the last update because I am tired of posting falsely, well I can only post what I find on the net so maybe its not false, just the worst launch of a product ever, and the most sought after Android Tablet to date… My update is this. The Transformer Prime has shipped to some customers, I am not one of them, if you pre-ordered around the end of November, do not expect to see it till January, most likely mid-January. For the time being you can browse the download page for the Transformer Prime, Asus finally launched it. There are some firmware updates, USB Drivers for Windows, Utilities to pair and sync contacts, (if you aren’t using Active Sync), also the source code for the Eee Pad Kernel, and  finally, Eee Pad PC Suite. Go here for the downloads.

So go ahead, pre-download the software, then wait patiently for Asus to start shipping you your Asus Transformer Prime(if that is what it will be called, Hasbro is demanding that Asus drop the name Transformer Prime, why didn’t they act earlier?)

If you did get your Asus Transformer Prime, congratulations to the rest, its worth the wait!

-NS