Jules Jones

I'd originally intended to install Dragon 10 and wait for one of the frequent cheap upgrade offers for registered customers. I'd never upgraded because the XP box could barely cope with 10, and besides, we're still on 10 at work, but I was quite willing to pay to upgrade to 12 once I had kit that could run it.

Gues what dropped into my inbox two days after I bought the shiny? The pre-release announcement and early bird offer for Dragon 13. :-) I dithered for a few days, because initially it was only the upgrade from an existing 11 or higher, but then found a link to the full version at the offer price. £80 probably sounds extravagent if you don't need it, but for me, it's worth paying to get a current version. That got installed last night. Late last night, so I haven't done anything but run through the basic demo yet. $FANNISH_COLLEAGUE (who is also in "install all the shinies!" mood) has been somewhat cynical about release day bugs and intends to wait before buying hers, but I have a legal copy of 10 to fall back to if necessary.

I've just installed Skype, but I've also set it up with a brand new account rather than desperately try to remember the login details for the old one.

I had to reboot at some point last night, and was provided with evidence that the SmartSuite install had worked, in the form of the SmartCentre toolbar popping up. It has been told to go away again, as there isn't the screen estate on the laptop's own screen.