Welcome to the N-Tech Solutions Customer Newsletter!

Just a quick note that our bank details have changed.  See the new details to the right!  Some people receiving invoices with the new details are using the old account still so must have the old details saved in online banking.  Please update!  :)  

Happy new year to all our clients, may 2010 be prosperous and exciting.  We had a fantastic Christmas break, although it seems a long time ago now.  Spent a week on the Gold Coast with my parents and having  the extra hands for all the boys and no phone ringing was bliss.  We closed over the Christmas week and apart from one emergency job (which David did on Boxing Day much to my relief) it seems most people also had the time off.  We're back in full swing now though, as you'll read... 

Full Steam Ahead!

Our year is off to a hectic start and we're still actively looking for reliable contractors for home and small business jobs. For us the first part of this year is all about streamlining the business and our processes so we spend less time on admin and after hours work and more time focussing on you, our customers. We have a number of changes coming, including taking payment for all home and SOHO jobs onsite at completion of the job via a new mobile payment system that operates through our technicians phones or through a website. You will be able to pay via cash, cheque or credit card and receive an instant tax invoice on the spot either via email or printed right there. Business customers can continue to pay on account but we will be implementing agreed credit limits and a 5% discount for businesses who pay while we are onsite. We will also be changing the pricing structure for  new Home and SOHO customers, implementing a two tier scheme ("standard" and "large" jobs) and quoting for the job up front so you will know exactly how much it will cost before we arrive, enabling easier budgeting, eliminating surprise bills and enabling payment to be ready at completion of the job.  Stay tuned.

New Year Specials

Available until sold out.

Microsoft Office 2007 Home + Student (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote) - $130

AOC 919Sw 19.0" Widescreen LCD Monitor - $165
High Gloss Black, HD+ 1440 x 900p, VGA, 5ms, 8,000:1 Contrast (DCR) 

AOC 2036Va 20.0" Widescreen LCD Monitor - $185
High Gloss Black, HD 1600x900, DVI, 5ms, 60,000:1 Contrast (DCR), Speakers, USB

AOC 2236Vw 21.5" Widescreen LCD Monitor - $210
High Gloss Black, Full HD 1920 x 1080p, DVI, 5ms, 60,000:1 Contrast (DCR), USB

All monitors have 3 year warranty. 

Windows 7 Praise

I’ve mentioned a few times recently about the new Windows 7. It’s been a few weeks now I’ve been using it and I have to say it’s excellent. Clean, fast and simple to use, it’s everything that Vista should have been. It also works very well on hardware that Vista would struggle on, and is particularly suited for laptops. If you have been struggling with the speed of your laptop under Vista but can’t justify buying a whole new laptop, changing over to Windows 7 might be the tonic you need. The same goes for desktop PCs. One of the great features of Windows 7 if you have multiple PCs in your home is the Homegroup feature. This makes sharing files, music, pictures etc between other Windows 7 PCs on the homegroup so very simple, no mucking about with permissions and folders and trying to find the other computers on your network. I heartily recommend it.  Talk to us about a quote to upgrade.

New Apple iPad

Last week the head of Apple, Steve Jobs, announced the upcoming Apple iPad computer. Despite having a name that conjures up some unfortunate imagery for some people, this does look like a revolutionary device. It’s basically a cross between a notebook and an iPod touch, around the size of an A4 sheet of paper and very thin. It is just a flat tablet with no separate keyboard, the entire interface is via the very large touch screen display. As well as running the majority of the existing applications in the App Store, it makes reading web pages, ebooks, viewing pictures and movies easy. The large on-screen keyboard also makes typing emails and other documents easy, and with Apples very well designed touch interface the iPad looks like it comes from the future. Apple is launching its own eBook (iBook?) store and has already struck deals with some major publishers. This means you will be able to cheaply buy and download full books to the iPad and its light, bright design could revolutionise the way we read. Amazon has already released the Kindle book reader which has been well received, but the iPad does so much more. If your main use for a PC is to do some web browsing, emailing, and storing your pictures and music, the iPad may be the only device you need. Hitting stores around March I’m very excited about it and with the base model starting at just $499 USD I’ll definitely be getting my hands on one ASAP and will give you the lowdown. View the promo video on YouTube here or just search YouTube for “ipad promo video”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGiUoXB6IV4

Computer Terms Explained in Easy Analogies

This week we clear up some confusion over storage (your hard drive) and memory (RAM).  Both are measured in gigabytes, so you might have a 250GB hard drive (storage) and 2GB memory (RAM).  So whats the difference?

Think of your computer like your office, with a desk and a filing cabinet.   The filing cabinet is your hard drive space - it stores all of your files.  Think of the size of your desk as the memory or RAM.  So the more RAM you have, the bigger your desk, so the more files you can have on your desk working on them at once.  With a smaller desk, you have to continually put files back into your filing cabinet and take out new ones so you can work on them, slowing you down.  the computer is the same - the less RAM, the more the computer has to put things back onto the hard drive to make room for new things in memory.

We can take this analogy even further.  On your desk you might have a lot of accessories - pictures of the family, stationery holders, post-it notes, a lamp etc.  Each takes up some space and leaves less room for you to work on lots of files as once.  This is just like startup items on your PC - printer update checkers, registry cleaners, Adobe fast launch, Skype etc.  The more streamlined you keep your startup items, the less run in RAM, so the more desk space you have for productivity.