Apple Yosemite Spotlight

Currently I have Mavericks installed on my iMac and last weekend considered updating to Yosemite, but thought I might leave it a couple of weeks. While out shopping I was in a shop that sold Apple products so I thought I would have a quick look at Yosemite. My first impression was not good, firstly the close button in the windows did not look central, when clicking on a program sometimes it opened the right click menu and I was not convinced with the flatter look. 

I did not spend much time looking at it, but the main change I did not like was spotlight, I could not move the dialog can could not get rid of the explanation of it. I looked at the possible settings, but could not find anything. 

I have decided to wait until Apple sort these issues out, I did think what would Steve Jobs think about it, especially the off centre icon seeing how much of a perfectionist he was.

Outlook.com Android App Needs Fixing

I've updated my apps on my Nexus 4 phone and it removed the Hotmail app and updated it to the Outlook.com app. This was a big mistake, here are the reasons why this app is so awful.

• The font size from where the email came from is to large, this needs to be a setting.
• The background is white, with Hotmail it was black and looked better, this also needs to be a setting.
• Sent a single email to myself, 1 appear as expected on the web site, but I received 2 on the phone.
• Email from the app does not include the message signature.

Overall this app is very simple and does not feel as if it has been finished, Microsoft really should have done more testing and finished it before sending it out. I think it needs far more settings to enable the user to customise the look and feel. Poor show again Microsoft, please fix this app ASAP.

Excel 2007 problem printing fix

Recently I have had problems printing spreadsheets from MS Excel 2007, the print preview worked fine but when the spreadsheet was printed out parts of the document were missing. After some research I found the problem was due to a Windows update (KB2596596). Removing this update fixed the problem.

Samsung NC10 Battery Problem Fixed

I have owned a Samsung NC10 netbook for the past 2 years, a couple of weeks ago I tried to use it and it was dead, I plug it into the power supply and left it to charge for a couple of hours. I then disconnected it from the mains and tried to switch it on, it tried to start up but after a couple of seconds went dead. I then connected it to the mains power supply again and it worked fine. The battery manager reported 0% charge, and on the front the green light was displayed, so I figured there was a problem with the battery.

The netbook was out of warranty, but I still tried calling Samsung customer support, they were very helpful and we tried a couple of things to fix the problem, but the conclusion was that I needed a new battery. From the link Samsung support gave me to a retail site a new battery would cost about £70 ($100).

I heard somewhere that putting the battery in the freezer might help, I was not sure whether I was getting this confused with rumours that this fixes damaged hard drives, but I thought I would give it a go. I put the battery in newspaper and in a plastic bag and left it in the freezer over night. The next day I took it out of the freezer let it stand for an hour, then tried it. Nothing happened and it did not work, so I thought that's it I need a new battery.

I left the battery on the side for a week, until the following weekend. I was about to look at purchasing a new battery when I thought I would just give it a go again. I started the netbook up without the battery plugged in and with it connected to the mains power supply, I then plugged in the battery and was surprised to see the red light on the front instead of the green, which indicated it was charging. I left it for a couple of hours and when I came back I could unplug the mains power supply and it worked!!!

I still think there is a problem because it seems to report 99% power now, but I can use my netbook without having to plug it into the mains power supply and this also saves me £70 for a new battery.

I cannot say whether putting it into the freezer was part of fixing this problem, or whether just unplugging the battery and leaving it for a week helped, but something weird happened that has fixed the problem.