This newsletter has been designed to maintain links with customers and provide an information service for internet users generally.

Please visit us at http://www.engadineweb.com.au and signup for this monthly newsletter.

Review old articles in our Newsletter Archive

In this Issue:

• Featured Site - Aussie offRoad Experience
• Watchdog awaits eBay's response over PayPal deal
• Windows XP SP3 upgrade spells trouble for IE
• More marketing dollars will sell Vista: Ballmer
• Blog: Microsoft: Don't kill our old friend XP
• Quotes of the day

Featured Site  

Aussie offRoad Experience

Australia is a continent of diverse scenery and beautiful landscapes, many of which can only be reached by four wheel drive vehicles. Travelling in the bush and the outback can be exciting and at times dangerous, however with the right training and professional guidance every trip will be safe and enjoyable We design our tours with individuality and we visit many pristine places away from busy tourist routes.

Aussie offRoad Experience Tag Along Tours (travel in convoy) are the ultimate in adventure tours with many inclusions – they are guided and assisted self-drive and self-catered which gives you the thrill and experience of driving and bush/outback camping in the safety of a group.

Your fully qualified and experienced personal tour guides are at your side throughout your entire journey, they will assist you wherever needed. At Aussie Offroad we pay attention to detail and strive to provide personalised service.

You will be thrilled with the adventure, views and the scenery this great country has to offer and our tours will delight even the most discerning adventure tourist.

We also offer Accredited Basic and Advanced Four Wheel Drive Training courses, which are a great weekend away and a unique learning experience.

To make your dreams come true and have a safe, enjoyable & adventurous journey – Please join us on one of our fabulous tours or great training weekends.

We are looking forward to your company. Cheers for now from Gaby & Dave

Visit the Aussie offRoad website...

Watchdog awaits eBay's response over PayPal deal  

The ACCC has given eBay until 23 May to respond to concerns over its proposed exclusivity deal with its online payment arm PayPal.

The online auction site notified the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in April that it intended to enter into an exclusivity deal with PayPal, omitting most other payment methods for customers from 17 June, prompting the regulator to issue a call for submissions from the public and industry on the proposed move.

Although the official deadline for submissions passed last week, the ACCC is still allowing interested parties to lodge statements via its Web site, with the Australian Bankers Association (ABA) becoming the latest in a series of high-profile organisations — including the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) — to register its concern with the regulator after lodging its submission yesterday.

According to the ABA, the move will limit the choice of eBay buyers and sellers alike "without justification for doing so", and goes on to urge the ACCC to revoke eBay's notification and disallow any exclusivity arrangement with PayPal. ZDNetAustralia May 2008. more >>>

Windows XP SP3 upgrade spells trouble for IE  

Windows XP users who install the operating system's third service pack will not be able to roll back their versions of Internet Explorer, Microsoft's deployment manager for Internet Explorer 8 has warned.

Writing on the MSDN website, Jane Maliouta said people who are trying out Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) and want to roll back to IE6 would need to complete that downgrade before installing XP Service Pack 3 (SP3), otherwise that option would be impossible in future. The same applies to those trialling the beta version of IE8 with a view to using IE7 or IE6 in future.

"If you are currently running IE7 on XP SP2, Windows Update will offer you XP SP3 as a high-priority update," wrote Maliouta on Monday. "If you choose to install XP SP3, IE7 will remain on your system after the install is complete. Your preferences will be retained. However, you will no longer be able to uninstall IE7."ZDNetAustralia May 2008. more >>>

More marketing dollars will sell Vista: Ballmer  

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer believes the software giant needs to spend more on marketing in order to sell more copies of Vista and has hinted that a sizable increase in its marketing budget is on the horizon.

It has been estimated that over US$500 million has been spent on marketing Vista since its release.

Speaking at a Microsoft strategic update conference in the US on Monday, Ballmer told attendees that the company will have to begin reengaging consumers in the face of renewed competition.

"We're going to have to invest more than we ever have in consumer excitement," said Ballmer.

The Microsoft CEO told attendees to expect more done to "highlight Windows" and said the task will "require more investment".

According to Ballmer, Windows is the company's biggest growth opportunity, which could, according to an analyst, be because large companies still prefer XP over Vista.

Matthew Oostveen, software analyst at research firm IDC, said that Ballmer's announcement does not come as a great surprise given "the public's reception to Windows Vista was lukewarm at best".

"While the year of Linux on the desktop never eventuated, threats to Microsoft's desktop dominance came from the surge in Apple, which was buoyed by its iPod sales," said Ootsven.

Microsoft's Ballmer also hinted at progress on Vista's successor -- Windows 7 -- but would not discuss any details at the conference, saying: "I'm not really going to talk about that now, but we're very hard at work on the next version and I'm enthused about what we're doing." ZDNet Australia Feb 2008.

Blog: Microsoft: Don't kill our old friend XP   

It's just two months until Microsoft plans to pull the plug on Windows XP — arguably its best operating system to date.

At present, Microsoft finds itself in an unenviable position — its customers want to continue buying and using Windows XP, while its stockholders demand it makes those customers upgrade to Vista.

In an attempt to please both camps, Microsoft has created a licensing loophole — it sells its customers Vista but allows them to continue using XP using so called "downgrade rights".

Because of this, HP and Dell both plan to supply PCs loaded with XP well past the June 2008 deadline set for XP's execution. Essentially, they will be selling XP machines with a prepaid upgrade to Vista included — if and when the customer chooses to do so.

All that pre-release bragging about how well Vista was going to be received didn't convince anyone. Microsoft may even have known Vista was going to be a flop — and a loss in the lawsuit alleging it lied about what constituted Vista-capable hardware could prove it.ZDNetAustralia May 2008. more >>>

Quotes of the Day  

Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.... Carl Zwanzig

Even if you do learn to speak correct English, whom are you going to speak it to? Clarence Darrow (1857 - 1938)

When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading. Henny Youngman (1906 - 1998)

It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it. Arnold Toynbee (1889 - 1975)

Brought to you by The Quotations Page

Have any questions relating to the internet or your computer? Let me know and I will research an answer and use this for future entries in our newsletter. Pass on your questions via the Enquiry Form on our Web-Site or send me an email.

If you have a friend or associate that you feel would benefit from receiving this newsletter please forward it to them for their review...

You have received this newsletter as you are an Engadine Web Services Customer or you have subscribed via our web-site.

To Unsubscribe from this newsletter 'click' the link and send an empty email...