Xero reaches 200,000 users in Australia

The user-count is up from 158,000 Australian users in September last year. Xero now counts more than 500,000 users worldwide.

By contrast, MYOB reported it had more over 116,000 cloud subscribers by the end of 2014 and 1.2 million active businesses using its products

Xero has also demoed Apple Watch integration at its Xerocon partner conference in Denver in the USA. Apple Watch owners will be able to see alerts when bank feeds are updated, and notifications regarding “business financial success”.

Xero has also shown off a business dashboard that uses analytics to report business metrics and the integration of email and contacts from Gmail, as well as the ability to create a quote or invoice from within an email.

Microsoft reveals launch date for Windows 10

Windows 10 will be available on 29 July as a free upgrade for Windows 7 and 8.1 users in 190 markets around the world, including Australia

Users get one year after the 29 July launch to secure their free upgrade. Once upgraded, Microsoft will keep the operating system up to date at no cost for the life of the device. The initial launch is only for PCs and tablets, with other devices, such as phones and Xbox, to follow “later this year”.

bevy of new features, including the return of the Start menu and the arrival of the Edge browser, which replaces Internet Explorer and has Microsoft’s Cortana personal assistant baked in.

In addition to the operating system launch, Microsoft will also bring new Office 2016 applications, with Word, Excel and PowerPoint “designed from the ground up to run on Windows 10”, sold separately. OneNote and Outlook are included free with Windows 10.

Microsoft is banking on its Continuum feature to help bridge multiple form factors. Continuum “enables today’s best laptops and 2-in-1 devices to elegantly transform from one form factor to the other, enabling smooth transitions of your tablet into a PC, and back.”

With Continuum, users can connect their Windows phones to a monitor, mouse and physical keyboard to make the device operate like a PC.

Windows 7 Home Basic and Home Premium licence holders, as well as Windows 8 and 8.1 users, will all be upgraded to Windows 10 Home – Microsoft’s basic Windows 10 package. Those using Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate, and those using Windows 8 and 8.1 Pro, will be upgraded to Windows 10 Pro.

No more TechEd Australia as Microsoft launches Ignite

Microsoft Australia has announced that the annual TechEd conference will be replaced with Ignite, a new event aimed at a broader demographic.

The first Microsoft Ignite Australia will be held at the Gold Coast Convention Centre from 17 to 20 November 2015.

It marks the end of TechEd’s two-decade history in Australia, following the first conference in 1994.

“[Ignite] intends to reach IT pros, IT decision makers, and enterprise developers from small to large enterprises and is designed for everyone who has attended TechEd and any other tech conference in the past, as well as those who have never attended a Microsoft event before, Microsoft Australia technology evangelist Vaughan Knight said

The remaining major conferences on the calendar is the Australian Partner Conference on the Gold Coast from 31 August to 3 September.

Mystery woman throws out rare $200,000 Apple computer

CleanBayArea in Milpitas, California, is trying to track down a woman, aged in her sixties, who dropped off some electronic goods in April, when she was cleaning out the garage after her husband died.

In one of the boxes, buried under worthless keyboards, personal computer pieces and wires, was a 1976 Apple 1

The recycling firm sold the Apple for $200,000 in a private auction. Its policy is to split the proceeds 50-50 with the person who donated the equipment.

Victor Gichun, vice president of marketing for CleanBayArea said he will recognise the woman, who he believes is local, when he sees her and will write her out a cheque for US$100,000.

Google Photos app to have free unlimited storage

Google has announced a new Photos app that helps users store and organise their images.

the app will let users back up and store unlimited photos and videos for free

Available on Apple’s iOS system, Google’s Android system and the web, the app automatically organises photos by the people, places and things depicted and also helps users create collages and movies.

NBN hits million premises mark

he national network builder has come in ahead of its self-imposed deadline to enable one million premises to order NBN services by June 30.

The company today announced 1,011,973 premises are now able to order NBN services.

The national network builder last month revealed it had a weekly run rate of 12,300 premises passed – a significant increase on the 7000 premises it was adding weekly in the same period last year.

NBN’s losses jumped as it worked through the investment-intensive phase of the project.

It reported a total loss of $1.4 billion during the past nine months as its capital expenditure reached $2.2 billion, and revealed government investment in the network so far sat at $11.8 billion out of its $29.5 billion commitment.

likely to meet its target of $150 million in telecommunications revenue after posting telco earnings of $106 million – its strongest result so far – in its most recent third-quarter results.