This month we celebrated three years of 7 Tutorials. We organized a few giveaways to celebrate the event and continued to publish useful tutorials. The month is over and, as usual, we will end it with another episode of the "Best of the Web for Windows Users". We have some good reads for you to go through.
The Best Tech Related News
First, we would like to share some interesting news articles and reviews for products made by Microsoft and Apple. They are all worth reading:
Is it time for Microsoft to 'retire' its tarnished brands? - Ed Bott makes an interesting point: "What do Internet Explorer, Hotmail, and Zune have in common? They're all intensely disliked by the elite tech press. So maybe they need to just disappear."
Microsoft unveils the new Office - On July 16, Microsoft launched the Consumer Preview for Microsoft Office 2013. It brings lots of interesting changes and features. You can download it to your computer and give it a test run, from here: Microsoft Office Consumer Preview.
Office 2013: Microsoft's bid to win the future - Ars Technica covers the new Consumer Preview for Microsoft Office 2013, the most important changes coming to this version and shares some thoughts on the future of Microsoft Office. A very good read!
Windows 8 GPU acceleration: good news for Metro - Very few websites have covered this piece of news. I consider it very important for the smoothness of the computing experience in Windows 8.
Mac OS X 10.8: Mountain Lion - Apple just released their latest operating system for Macs - OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. If you are looking for a quick video review, don’t hesitate to watch this recording from CNET.
The Best Tech Tips & Guides
Next, we would like to share a few useful guides, from some of our friends in the tech scene:
The Best Websites for Listening to Internet Radio and Downloading and Streaming Free Music - Until recently I was listening to radio only by chance and not by choice. Lately I discovered some really good radio stations which I listen to on a weekly basis. That’s a huge change for me. Now, if you are interested in discovering some good radio stations, this guide is here to help.
Solutions to Common Android Wi-Fi Problems - A great guide for all Android users. I have used Android phones for a couple of years and I have encountered Wi-Fi problems from time to time. If you also have issues with Wi-Fi, you must read this article.
Windows and OS X Boot Camp: running Redmond at "Retina" resolution - This article shares insights about the troubles you will have with displaying Windows 7 on the new "Retina" displays used by Apple. It also shares recommendations for how to set the display settings, so that Windows 7 looks good.
9 Website URL Scanners and Link Checker addons for your browser - If you are not using a complete security solution such as an Internet Security Suite, you might be interesting in using free tools to scan the websites you are visiting. This roundup will provide a couple of good suggestions.
Why does 64-bit Windows need a separate "Program Files (x86)" folder? - This is a very interesting discussion from which you will learn much about Windows on 64-bit.
The Best Ways to Keep Track of Different Time Zones - This roundup shares many solutions and tools for keeping track of different time zones, from anywhere you would like: the Windows desktop, Microsoft Outlook, your phone, etc.
The Best of 7 Tutorials
Let’s recap the most popular articles we published in the month of July, on 7 Tutorials:
How to Set A Custom Icon & Label For Removable Drives (Memory Sticks, Hard Disks, etc) - A geek trick that allows you to customize the icons used for removable drives like USB memory sticks, external hard disk drives, etc.
The Layman’s Guide to Solving Wireless Network Interference Problems - This is one of the most useful tutorials we published this month. It should help all home users solve their Wi-Fi interference problems.
Which Windows Services Are Safe to Disable & When? - A pretty technical article which aims to help users make safe decisions about what services to disable and when. You should read it prior to optimizing how Windows services are set on your computer.
We would like to share two great tutorials we published a year ago and two years ago, respectively:
Internet Explorer 9 - How to Improve the Load & Navigation Speed - This tutorial is a very useful read for all Internet Explorer users.
How to Manage Your Disks using the Disk Management Utility - Proof that you don’t need third party tools to manage your hard drives and the space available on them.
We hope you have enjoyed this roundup. If you would like to share other interesting tutorials and news articles, use the comments form below.
Related articles:
Best of the Web for Windows Users - August 2012
Best of the Web for Windows Users - June 2012