Tag Archives: Apple iPod

About 710 days ago PCs, Laptops, and Notebooks

Inside the Mind of Bill Gates

bill-gates-chair

Despite growing a back-room start-up into a billion-dollar software giant, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is still the socially awkward and publicity-shy man he’s always been. In a rare move, Gates granted an exclusive one-on-one interview with The Daily Mail, revealing secrets and details about his enigmatic personal life to promote the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, an organization co-founded by Gates in 2000, which kicks off a “pledging conference” in London to raise money for vaccinating children in the world’s poorest countries. READ MORE »

About 749 days ago Apps | Internet and Online Business | Location-based services | Smartphones and PDAs | Telecom and Wireless

Apple Is No Longer Tracking You

location-tracking-update

With the media, congress and privacy advocates circling for the kill, Apple has acted quickly to stop uploading location tracking data from mobile devices with the release of iOS 4.3.3. The LocationGate scandal began when a couple of researchers announced they had discovered iOS 4 devices were tracking their users’ locations (or at least, the cell towers and hotspots closest to them), storing that information on Apple mobile devices, and uploading it to iTunes. Lawmakers and disgruntled customers demanded to know what Apple was up to, and what it was planning to do with the data. READ MORE »

About 793 days ago Business Software

Should You Make a Tablet App for Your Business?

Tablets. With about 50 of them launched at this year’s Consumer Electronic Show, some wry observers dubbed it ‘Tablet World 2011.’ Of course, the world’s best selling tablet, the iPad, wasn’t even there.  In case you still have any doubt, tablets are here to stay. “Our forecast for media tablets is over 200 million worldwide by 2014,” reports Carolina Milanesi, research vice president, Consumer Technologies and Markets at Gartner. With so many of your customers using tablets, reading about tablets, or waiting eagerly to get their hands on the newest iPad or Android 3.0 devices, it’s time to ask: Should you make a tablet app for your business? The answer is likely a yes if 1) your product or service is one where having tablet access could benefit customers; and 2) your customers are the type who use tablets.  “The number one reason for having a tablet app is if you have a younger audience,” says Damon Brown, a technology blogger and author of Damon Brown’s Simple Guide to the iPad. “The younger they are, the more likely that they’re going to connect to your services through an app, particularly a tablet app. So if your customer base skews young, you definitely want to have an app presence.” That’s especially true if your customers have lots of disposable cash. “We target guys in their 20s with incomes over $100,000 in the major markets, so iOS powered devices are a big deal for us,” says Chris Steib, director of product development at Thrillist, which provides insider tips on dining, shopping, and events in major cities. “Users of Apple computers and iPhones and the Safari browser access our service at five or six times the market average. So developing for the iPad was a no-brainer.” Thrillist execs first discussed an iPad app last April, two or three months after the device came out, Steib says. Then a major website upgrade and other technology projects occupied the company’s attention through the rest of the year. “We looked up, and it was January, and about 15 million iPads had been sold,” Steib says. “Nothing lights a fire under us like 15 million devices — and it was our demographic that was buying them.” The Thrillist iPad app, its iPhone and Android apps, and its daily emails, are all free to consumers, but Steib predicts the iPad app will increase the company’s advertising revenue. “It’s a monetizable opportunity,” he says. “Ultimately I’d like to see us sell our mobile services as one package to advertisers. We could offer them our 650,000 iPhone users, plus however many iPad users we have. It would make a really attractive package.” iOS v. AndroidThrillist, which released its first Android smartphone app in late December, is waiting to see how users respond before considering an app targeted to Android tablets. In general, though developers complain about Apple’s tight control over its iTunes market, they agree that developing tablet software for the iPad is a much more straightforward proposition than trying to do the same for Android. While Apple’s iOS operating system runs on exactly three types of devices (iPhones, iPods, and iPads), there’s an endless array of Android-powered devices with different screen sizes and variable hardware.  To complicate things even more, there are different versions of Android in the marketplace too, with the first Android 3.0 (or “Honeycomb”) devices now coming out at the same time that companies continue to ship products running Android 2.2 (“Froyo”), Android 2.3 (“Gingerbread”), and even Android 2.0 (“Eclair”). And once you’ve figured out which screen size, hardware, and Android version to target, you’ll also have to put some thought into how to get your app into customers’ devices. With the notable exceptions of the popular Samsung Galaxy Tab and the brand-new Motorola Xoom, most older Android tablets can’t use Google’s Android App Market, at least for the moment, because it only works with the latest Android 3.0 tablet OS.  So, to reach these customers you may need to offer your apps in the various carriers’ and device makers’ marketplaces, and perhaps some of the many third-party Android app stores as well.  “It’s a complex issue,” says Uwe Maurer, director of business development at Ambient Design, which makes a tablet app called ArtRage. ArtRage software allows users to virtually paint using paintbrushes and other tools. It runs on PCs and Macs, but the company began selling an iPad version last September after customers started requesting it. Ambient Design is still pondering whether to release an Android app, Maurer says. ”With different versions of the hardware and the operating system and different stores, it’s much more difficult to monetize.”    Should You Start from Scratch?ArtRage can’t work effectively on a small screen, so there is no smartphone version, but that’s unusual. Most companies contemplating a tablet app already have a smartphone app, and if they don’t they should probably consider taking that step first. “The installed base is much larger, so small businesses can reach more of their customers through a smartphone app,” Milanesi says. “Once you create an app for the smartphone, you have a basic app for tablets [because most Android tablets can run the smartphone version in a small window], and that might be good enough in the short term.” Indeed, if all you need is a larger version of your smartphone app, little effort is required. Android apps adjust for the larger tablet screen size and iPhone apps can run on an iPad, either at the small iPhone screen size or expanded. But, Brown says, “it’s becoming the norm for apps to be written so they’re compatible with both. The software automatically recognizes when you’re on an iPad, and it’ll format correctly and perhaps have a couple of extra features, such as more columns of flight choices in an airline app.” But Steib argues that this is the wrong approach, because what people do with tablets is not the same as what they do with smartphones. “We considered using our iPhone app code, but it’s a completely different user experience,” he says. “To think a user will engage with our content the same way on a tablet as on a website or a smartphone is misleading.” With a smartphone, he explains, people use the Thrillist app on the go, usually to find a good bar, restaurant, or shop near where they happen to be. The entire engagement might take 45 seconds. “People aren’t going to pull out their iPads to find out what the nearest restaurant is,” says Steib. So what will they do with them instead? The device is relatively new and many users are still figuring that out. But for the moment, Steib says, “Apple has dictated the use case of the iPad with its marketing. The ads show people with their shoes off reading the newspaper, or playing games at the kitchen table with their iPad.”  In his view, tablet apps should be primarily for fun. “We’re trying to create an experience that will be more tactile, and have more whimsy,” he says. “That’s really what this device is all about.” Of course, the playing field is wide open. No matter which app you create, even if it is a serious accounting program or one that helps patients at a clinic make a reservation, the idea is to provide a way to generate revenue, increase exposure, and please your customers.  

About 1422 days ago Smartphones and PDAs

Thumbs Down: Mobile Device Hazards

our beautiful site

James Hofheins loves his job as a social media representative for a Utah retailer. All workday long, the veteran customer service representative monitors Facebook and Twitter for people talking about his company. If there’s a problem, he follows up to make sure things get taken care of. Hofheins is so enamored with social media he stays on Twitter long after the work day ends to keep tabs on world news, tweet friends and retweet interesting tidbits that float across his Twitter stream. Away from his desk, a Palm Treo is his keyboard of choice for tuning into Twitter, sending email and texting. But all that connectivity is taking a toll on Hofhein’s thumb, his right one to be exact. The 45-year-old uses it exclusively to type and text and lately he’s been on Twitter so much it hurts. “It throbs from the tip to the bottom joint where it connects to the hand,” he says. “It’s stiff, it’s hard to extend and sometimes the tip is numb,” he says. Ouch. As more people use an iPhone, Palm Treo and other smartphone and PDAs for social networking, e-mailing and texting, they’re developing aches and pains, including a few ergonomics experts haven’t seen before. ‘iPod finger’ and other aches and pains In addition to sore thumbs, Tamara James, ergonomics director at Duke University and Health System in Durham, N.C., has heard people complain of “iPod finger,” overusing their index finger to spin the selector wheel of an iPod player. iPhone users have come to doctors complaining of tennis elbow-like symptoms, what one woman with the problem calls her “iPhone elbow.” The American Physical Therapists Association has discussed how typing on itty-bitty keyboards leads to “BlackBerry thumb” since 2006. While some early research has shown younger people could possibly develop stronger thumb muscles from all the emailing and texting they do, it’s way too soon to tell. “They could be protecting themselves for the future or setting themselves up for problems later on. We don’t know,” James says. James is taking precautions just case. As one of her duties, James manages a group that collects data on Duke employees’ work environments. When a group member complained of hand cramps from using the skinny stylus that came with the PDAs they use in the field, James found a fatter model with a more comfortable rubber grip. “We have to practice what we preach,” she says. For small business owners, it could pay to be diligent. In the 1980s and 1990s, the appearance of office PCs led to a wave of carpal tunnel, RSI, and other musculoskeletal injuries that tapered off once workers, HR and tech support teams figured out the importance of proper wrist support, seating and posture, and federal and state worker safety agencies passed ergonomics guidelines. Remedies for an aching thumb If your thumbs or hands hurt from too much emailing or texting, the first thing t o do is stop. “That’s the most important thing,” James says. “If it hurts, don’t do it.” Other remedies: Maintain a neutral posture. Some thumb and elbow pain is caused by holding the joint in a fixed or awkward position for a long time. “If you’re getting numb, compression of the nerve between the hand and the phone causing it,” James says. Alleviate it by using sitting or standing correctly as you type, she says. Support your arms. If you’re sitting to type emails or text for an extended time, use a pillow or other prop to support your arms and hands while you work. Take frequent breaks. When desktop PCs became ubiquitous,  people had to be taught to take breaks to prevent carpal tunnel syndrome and related maladies. The same holds true for iPhones and PDAs — taking breaks often to give your hands a rest, James says. Switch things up. If you normally use one hand to type or text, give it a break and type with the other one. Do stretching exercises. The American Society of Hand Therapists recommends a variety of stretching exercises in a consumer education bulletin on hand-held electronics and video game injury prevention tips. They include: Opening your hands and spreading your fingers are far as possible, then holding for 10 seconds. Repeat several times. With hands laced together, turn your palms away from your body and extend your arms overhead. Stretch your upper torso through your shoulders to your hands. Hold for 10 seconds. Repeat several times. When the computer mouse came along, work that people did with two hands became concentrated into a few fingers moving the input device around. With the advent of smartphone keypads, that effort is now being directed into one lone digit not designed to do such work. “The thumb is the least dexterous part of the hand. It doesn’t move as well or do as much as other digits,” James says. “So to make it do what an index finger can do, you have to make it work harder.” Hofheins, the Utah social media rep, is coming to terms with his late-night Treo habit – and his sore thumb. He’s started taking ibuprofen, but has yet to a doctor, saying: “I’m afraid they’ll tell me to stop.”

About 1422 days ago Mobility Tips and Tricks

Thumbs Down: Mobile Device Hazards

our beautiful site

James Hofheins loves his job as a social media representative for a Utah retailer. All workday long, the veteran customer service representative monitors Facebook and Twitter for people talking about his company. If there’s a problem, he follows up to make sure things get taken care of. Hofheins is so enamored with social media he stays on Twitter long after the work day ends to keep tabs on world news, tweet friends and retweet interesting tidbits that float across his Twitter stream. Away from his desk, a Palm Treo is his keyboard of choice for tuning into Twitter, sending email and texting. But all that connectivity is taking a toll on Hofhein’s thumb, his right one to be exact. The 45-year-old uses it exclusively to type and text and lately he’s been on Twitter so much it hurts. “It throbs from the tip to the bottom joint where it connects to the hand,” he says. “It’s stiff, it’s hard to extend and sometimes the tip is numb,” he says. Ouch. As more people use an iPhone, Palm Treo and other smartphone and PDAs for social networking, e-mailing and texting, they’re developing aches and pains, including a few ergonomics experts haven’t seen before. ‘iPod finger’ and other aches and pains In addition to sore thumbs, Tamara James, ergonomics director at Duke University and Health System in Durham, N.C., has heard people complain of “iPod finger,” overusing their index finger to spin the selector wheel of an iPod player. iPhone users have come to doctors complaining of tennis elbow-like symptoms, what one woman with the problem calls her “iPhone elbow.” The American Physical Therapists Association has discussed how typing on itty-bitty keyboards leads to “BlackBerry thumb” since 2006. While some early research has shown younger people could possibly develop stronger thumb muscles from all the emailing and texting they do, it’s way too soon to tell. “They could be protecting themselves for the future or setting themselves up for problems later on. We don’t know,” James says. James is taking precautions just case. As one of her duties, James manages a group that collects data on Duke employees’ work environments. When a group member complained of hand cramps from using the skinny stylus that came with the PDAs they use in the field, James found a fatter model with a more comfortable rubber grip. “We have to practice what we preach,” she says. For small business owners, it could pay to be diligent. In the 1980s and 1990s, the appearance of office PCs led to a wave of carpal tunnel, RSI, and other musculoskeletal injuries that tapered off once workers, HR and tech support teams figured out the importance of proper wrist support, seating and posture, and federal and state worker safety agencies passed ergonomics guidelines. Remedies for an aching thumb If your thumbs or hands hurt from too much emailing or texting, the first thing t o do is stop. “That’s the most important thing,” James says. “If it hurts, don’t do it.” Other remedies: Maintain a neutral posture. Some thumb and elbow pain is caused by holding the joint in a fixed or awkward position for a long time. “If you’re getting numb, compression of the nerve between the hand and the phone causing it,” James says. Alleviate it by using sitting or standing correctly as you type, she says. Support your arms. If you’re sitting to type emails or text for an extended time, use a pillow or other prop to support your arms and hands while you work. Take frequent breaks. When desktop PCs became ubiquitous,  people had to be taught to take breaks to prevent carpal tunnel syndrome and related maladies. The same holds true for iPhones and PDAs — taking breaks often to give your hands a rest, James says. Switch things up. If you normally use one hand to type or text, give it a break and type with the other one. Do stretching exercises. The American Society of Hand Therapists recommends a variety of stretching exercises in a consumer education bulletin on hand-held electronics and video game injury prevention tips. They include: Opening your hands and spreading your fingers are far as possible, then holding for 10 seconds. Repeat several times. With hands laced together, turn your palms away from your body and extend your arms overhead. Stretch your upper torso through your shoulders to your hands. Hold for 10 seconds. Repeat several times. When the computer mouse came along, work that people did with two hands became concentrated into a few fingers moving the input device around. With the advent of smartphone keypads, that effort is now being directed into one lone digit not designed to do such work. “The thumb is the least dexterous part of the hand. It doesn’t move as well or do as much as other digits,” James says. “So to make it do what an index finger can do, you have to make it work harder.” Hofheins, the Utah social media rep, is coming to terms with his late-night Treo habit – and his sore thumb. He’s started taking ibuprofen, but has yet to a doctor, saying: “I’m afraid they’ll tell me to stop.”

About 1603 days ago Blogging and Social Media

Social Media’s Good, Bad, Ugly and Unexpected

The year 2008 is in the rearview mirror.  It’s over and done with.  And right beside 2008 in that rearview should be any doubts you may have had about the impact social media and networks can have on our lives — from a business perspective as well as a personal one. Those doubts can firmly be put to rest this week with the inauguration of Barack Obama as president because his campaign’s use of social media played a major role in his historic victory. Now, in 2009, it’s not about if you should embrace social media, it’s about identifying the different ways you should do so. And here are a few things you may want to think about as you “Go Social” in the new year. The good We’re in the middle of the worst recession in decades, with every day beginning with another disastrous economic report.  So it’s critical for us to find ways to keep our cash outlays to a minimum while keeping our customers happy, and while finding more customers like them.  This is precisely why businesses are turning to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social tools and networks, as they are able to meaningfully connect with customers and prospects at a very low price point. This seems to reinforce findings from a recent study conducted by Coleman-Parkes Research that found 84 percent of companies headquartered in North America feel they need to find new ways to communicate with customers.  These “new ways” not only include the social networks your customers frequent, but also the devices they use to access them, like their BlackBerry, iPod or G1 phone.  So using social media to solidify existing relationships, as well as create new ones, can be done.  And it can be done inexpensively, and with relative ease by creating captivating content. The bad Because it has become so easy to create and distribute content, it’s also more difficult to capture people’s attention long enough to really connect with them.  And as creation tools get even easier to use, coupled with more people adding content to the Web, your fight for the hearts and minds of people will become even more difficult.  But the difficulties involved in attracting attention for your blogs, podcasts, and videos should not discourage you from using these valuable communication tools.  It is too important.  In fact the 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study finds that 93 percent of American social media users feel companies should have a social media presence — with 56 percent saying they feel a stronger connection with companies that do.  The good news is top notch content should eventually stand out from the marginal stuff.  And the vast majority of Web content would probably fall into the marginal category, if that.  So it’s important to put some extra time and effort into consistently creating good stuff — the kind of content that will turn heads, lead to conversations, and eventually build long lasting relationships.  And that’s really not so bad after all, now that I think about it. The ugly On the Web, people really appreciate information that provides them with solutions to their challenges.  They also love blogs and videos that make them, think, laugh, cry, and experience all kinds of emotions humans can feel.  And when they do find content that stirs them in these ways, they share it with friends and colleagues.  They leave comments on blogs, “tweet” about it on Twitter and promote on sites like Digg and StumbleUpon.  This is the beautiful thing about the Web — people promoting the good works of others just because they feel the work is worthy of acknowledgement, and the creator deserving of a “shout-out”. While the overwhelming majority of people show their respect for great content by delivering kudos in the ways described about, there are some people who show their appreciation for good content by claiming it as their own.  Unfortunately, this very thing happened to me not too long ago, as a N.Y.-based public relations firm took one of my blog posts and used it virtually word for word in a sales pitch to prospects. They did this with no attribution whatsoever, literally passing off my work as if it came from their own creative staff. The unexpected Now I’d be naïve to think that a little “content re-use” wouldn’t be going on out there on the Wild, Wild Web.  But I was totally caught off guard by this.  How could a public relations firm really expect to get away with something like this?  Within hours of the email blast going out promoting my work as theirs, I had been notified by a friend of mine.  He had been notified by a friend of his who had received the e-mail directly from the firm.  I decided to blog about this experience and share my feelings on it.  I knew my friends would be pretty angry about this, but the most anger and outrage came from complete strangers.  Strangers who left comments on my blog, sending tweets on my behalf, writing their own blog posts and even sending e-mails to the PR firm demanding they apologize to me AND compensate me for using my work. As unexpected as this whole episode was to me, in hindsight it really shouldn’t have been.  Social media and networks are powerful mediums, but only as good as the humans who use them.  Just like telephones, cars and other appliances, they can be used for good purposes — or bad ones.  But it’s important to understand that this “social stuff” is here to stay.  And the Web community rewards people who contribute good works using social media, but will punish those who negatively impact the community with actions similar to those of the firm mentioned above. So if you’re planning on going social this year, keep this in mind in 2009. Brent Leary is a small-business technology analyst, adviser and award-winning blogger. Leary is also host of a weekly radio program heard on Business Technology Radio . His blog can be found at www.brentleary.com.

About 1634 days ago Tools on Managing Technology

Must-Have Tech Tools for 2009

Each year seems to get better with inexpensive, innovative technology for small businesses.  And for 2009 I’ve found some excellent products to recommend for you.    Here is my annual list of 10 tech tools you can’t live without in 2009.  These picks can help you be that well-equipped entrepreneur running a successful and mobile business, being more productive and having more fun — with less drudgery: iPod Touch–  Last year I recommended the iPhone.  But I got a 16 GB iPod Touch for myself. The iTouch is like an iPhone without the phone.  In essence it’s a PDA combined with an iPod for downloading podcasts, music, and video.  I wanted to continue using my existing telephone because it’s comfortable to hold against my ear.  But I couldn’t pass up the iTouch’s ability to sync my Outlook calendar and contacts; get access to Gmail when on the road; and surf the Web.  Many of the iTunes Store apps also are available for the iTouch to expand functionality. Twitter tools– Twitter, the 140-character micro blogging platform, is rapidly evolving as the place where small business contacts are being made and expanded, and conversations are happening.  Here are three must-have Twitter utilities:  TweetBeep, which sends you email alerts when your name or URL has been mentioned on Twitter; Mr.Twitter, which allows you to intelligently expand your Twitter contacts; and the Twitter Tools plugin for WordPress which allows you to pull in tweets to display on your blog and allows you to post blog posts on Twitter from within the WordPress application. Google Apps Premier for Business– Google has created an offering that is hard to turn down for small businesses needing to bring together a distributed workforce or virtual team.  For $50 per user per year, you can get Gmail with a 99.9 percent uptime guarantee using your own domain name for e-mail addresses.  Among other things, you also get use of Google Calendar and Google Sites, which can be used to create a simple company Intranet.  Best of all, you can do it yourself, or find vendors who will set you up on Google Apps inexpensively through the Solutions Marketplace that Google has established. Amazon Web Services– Amazon Web Services, a division of Amazon.com, provides inexpensive cloud computing infrastructure.  Among the services are Amazon S3 storage for backing up company data and websites and Cloudfront, which allows your website content to be distributed from multiple points to enhance speed no matter where users are located. There are no long term contracts required.  You pay as you go, and for only as much as you use.  And it’s pretty cheap. HP Touchsmart PC– This is a visually stunning personal computer that has several aesthetically pleasing, productivity-enhancing features.  It is a CPU and monitor in one.  As the name suggests, you can navigate by touching the screen if you wish.  And it has a unique way of presenting applications, with fanned-out and scrolling displays of its software applications and media.  It’s primarily targeted to consumers.  But some small businesses are seeing the advantages of the large monitor size (from 22” to 25.5”) which lets you have several applications visible at once.  Also, the clarity of the high definition monitor makes it ideal to display a video feed or photo slideshow in a business lobby or at a trade show, for instance. Flip HD Mino Video Camera– Everyone from the New York Times to my video guru friend Jim Kukral is “flipping” over the Flip.  It’s a very small, light, cheap camera that takes good quality video for the price (and can deliver HD output).  It has a USB plug so you can plug directly into a computer to transfer the video.  It even comes in a range of beautiful color combinations like pink, lime green, and black.  Video is increasingly more important to have on your website to get found in search engines, and what easier way to get started creating video for your website.  Mini notebook computer– Entrepreneurs have discovered the joy of not lugging around a laptop that weighs seven pounds.  Instead, the latest thing is the mini notebook:  ultra light, small, pared-down notebooks weighing less than three pounds. They’re now being called “netbooks” because their optimum use is to connect to the Internet and use applications in the cloud, with few apps loaded on the machine. The Asus Eee PC is one of the smallest and cheapest, retailing for a little over $300.  Dell has its Inspiron Mini 9, which comes in stunning colors like cherry red.  Just remember that with most minis you will sacrifice some comfort (keyboards are less than full size), features and computing power, in exchange for easy portability. Business card scanner– If you attend a lot of conferences and networking events, you’re likely to end up with stacks of business cards that go into a drawer.  It took work to make those contacts, so make sure you capitalize on all that work by inputting the information into your contact management system.  A business card scanner will save you considerable time.  I use CardScan and find it to be very accurate — it even seamlessly transfers the scanned information into Outlook. Digital picture frame– HP has a nice line of digital picture frames to display your favorite digital photos.  The smallest is a 3.5” digital picture frame that is no bigger than a coffee cup.  It stores/displays 45 images.  You can download images directly from your digital camera by inserting your camera’s SD memory card into the frame.  It is battery operated, so there are no wires.  It includes an AC adapter.  Best of all, it retails for around $59, making it affordable as a holiday gift to give employees or customers. Backup iPod battery– Although Apple has improved battery life in its second generation products, your battery life could be as little as two or three hours for an iPod, iPod Touch, or iPhone. If you use yours heavily while on business trips, you will eventually run out of juice. That’s where the Richard Solo Backup Battery for iPods and iPhones comes in. The device will recharge your battery either partially or fully.  So the next time you’re trying to watch two movies on a four-hour flight on your iPod Touch, you can get through them both before you have to find an electrical outlet or plug it in to your laptop. Bonus tool:  The Mobigrip– There’s no sadder sight than a Blackberry Curve with a cracked display screen because it fell out of your hand to the pavement. The Mobigrip is an inexpensive little helper that sticks to the back of any mobile device and has a little bungee cord that wraps around your finger.  Voila — your mobile device stays put. At first I was skeptical, but it really works and it’s reasonably comfortable.  It’s inexpensive enough that you could have a supply customized with your logo and give them as trade show swag or customer gifts. And if you are curious about last year’s picks, visit:   Must-Have Tech Tools for 2008.  Anita Campbell is a writer, speaker and radio talk show host who closely follows trends in the small business market at her site, Small Business Trends.

About 1634 days ago PCs, Laptops, and Notebooks

Santa Baby, Slip These Gadgets under the Tree

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Santa baby, slip an iTouch under the tree, for me Been an awful tough year, Santa baby, so hurry down the chimney tonight. This holiday season, the little somethings that small business owners are asking Santa to slip under the tree include lightweight notebook computers, next-generation smart phones, HD cameras, and more. With the economy in the doldrums, there’s not a whole lot to celebrate this year and not a whole lot of IT money left to celebrate with. But small business owners who’ve managed to squirrel away a little of their annual computing budget to spend on themselves or their employees before Dec. 31 have a sleigh full of electronic devices to choose from. According to a very informal poll of several dozen small business owners, here are some of the most popular items on their holiday wish lists: Little laptops Sallie Goetsch, a podcast producer at The Podcast Asylum in California, wants a UMPC — an ultra-mobile PC — the latest in lightweight computing. Also known as a tablet PC, netbook or subnotebook, the devices run 13” or smaller, weigh just a couple pounds, have touch screens and/or QWERTY keyboards and come with built ins like GPS and Wi-Fi and a variety of options. Goetsch wants something to take to conferences and events and prefers a UMPC over a smart phone. “I never did learn how to type with my thumbs,” she says. “I’m trying to decide which one, the new HP? The EEE?” Joe Pulizzi, owner of Z Squared Media, a Cleveland, Ohio, content marketing firm and founder of the Junta42 content marketing blog network, wants a mini laptop too. Pulizzi has a 17” Toshiba laptop in his home office, but it’s too big for the road. “Sometimes small is better,” he says. Pulizzi has his eyeona Toshiba Portege with a 12.1” display, built-in fingerprint reader, webcam, digital card reader, and 4 USB ports. Smartphones Linda Musgrove, owner of an Aventura, Fla., trade show consulting firm called Trade Show Teacher, already has a smartphone. But that hasn’t stopped her from lusting after the HTC Touch Pro, Sprint’s Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone with a slide-out QWERTY keypad, touch screen, expandable memory, 3.2 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth support. The device will do double duty, managing Musgrove’s business and “my crazy family,” she says. Nancy White, owner of Custom Interface, a Bingen, Wash., custom electronics manufacturer, treated herself to an AT&T Tilt smartphone as an early Christmas present. It hasn’t been pure love at first sight — “It takes three screens to get to speed dial” — but she does love the fact that it comes loaded with Microsoft Outlook, “so the interface with my work desktop is fantastic,” she says. Cameras and gadgets When it comes to gadgets, former newspaper photographer Jay Bryant has a soft spot for cameras. This holiday, Bryant, now business development vice president at Live World, a San Jose, Calif., social networking company, has his eye on the Kodak Zi6 Flip Cam in HD. The palm-sized device has a 2.4” screen and weighs 3.8 ounces and has built-in USB port and editing software. “I’m going to try my hand at video blogging,” Bryant says. “And I’m going to start recording some of my presentations to review them afterward to see how I can do better,” Bryant says. Plus, at a suggested retail price of $180, “it’s cheap,” he says. After Andre Preoteasa, IT director at Castle Brands got himself an Apple iPod Touch, he was the most popular guy at the New York City fine spirits distributor. “Everyone in the office is asking to use it. Everybody wants one,” Preoteasa says. “It’s literally a computer in your pocket, and a very posh one.” Reviewers have dubbed the second-generation iPod Touch the iPhone’s baby brother, with many of the same features — music and video player, Safari Web browser, email, iTunes store, etc. — minus the ability to make cell phone calls. Prices run $270 to $400 for models with 8, 16 or 32 GB flash memory. Travis Isaacson, senior director of organizational development at Access Development, a Salt Lake City, affinity marketing business, doesn’t want anything that fancy, just an iPod Classic with 120 GB of memory instead of the old 80 GB model he has now so he can squeeze in more of the business books he downloads from Audible.com. Nov Omana, managing principal at Collective HR Solutions, a San Mateo, Calif. HR industry consultant, doesn’t like it when people sitting next to him at Starbucks or on an airplane peek at his laptop screen. So this holiday his wish list includes a pair of MyVu Shades, eyewear that looks like regular sunglasses but blocks out whatever is showing on a laptop or iPod screen for everyone except the person wearing them. The $199 device, which comes with built-in earbuds, is primarily sold as a way to watch videos in private but Omana thinks it has big potential with business travelers. “The next generation may allow us to just ‘see’ each other in a virtual world or over the net no matter where we are,” he says. John Klebes, business development program manager at Sig Sauer, the Exeter, N.H. gun maker, has his eye on the Livescribe Pulse Smartpen, a $200 digital pen with built in microphone, speaker, display screen and tiny camera. The Smartpen can record notes in written and audio form simultaneously when used with special “digital paper” embedded with microdots. “It sounds like a very useful tool and I wouldn’t turn down one for Christmas,” Klebes says.

About 1787 days ago Computer Security

The Forgotten Security Hole: USB

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The last thing Australian phone company Telstra expected when it presented at computer security conference AusCERT 2008 this past May was to be a source of malware. Attendees at that session were given a USB memory device loaded with promotional information – and, unknown to them, an auto-run, self-installing Trojan horse. “Telstra handed out USB sticks which they didn’t know were infected,” says Claire Groves, the marketing manager of AusCERT.  “As soon as they found out they recalled them.” Luckily for Telstra, the damage was simply to its image. The malware was detected almost immediately, and all the USB devices were returned safely, according to Telstra spokesman John Short. “No one was harmed, we very quickly contained any of the possible damage,” claims Short. “We’re taking steps to ensure this won’t happen again.” Short didn’t comment on just what steps, or how this could have happened in the first place. Passing out free USB memory devices as promotional items, sometimes with information loaded on them, is a common occurrence, and the fact is they have quickly become ubiquitous. Convenience is important when doing business, and the USB ports on computers are as convenient as computer access can get. USB devices make it possible to take your work along anywhere and use any computer to work on it, pass large amounts of information to others in a handy-to-carry format, and then transport it back to your home or work computer. That’s the good news. Watch out for security holes The bad news is it’s potentially one of the worst security holes you have — and chances are you’re not doing anything about it. According to the 2008 Information Security Breaches Survey from PricewaterhouseCoopers, 67 percent of companies surveyed do nothing to prevent the transfer of confidential data on USB plug-ins, including flash memory sticks, iPods and MP3 players, external drives, handhelds, and similar devices. According to a Gartner study, USB and Firewire portable storage devices pose two kinds of threats: They allow users to bypass company network defenses, including firewalls and e-mail server anti-malware, and potentially introduce malware from the inside.  Portable storage devices allow employees and intruders to remove sensitive information from an organization’s otherwise secure premises. Since the malware enters the network from an internal device, it may go undetected until significant damage is caused. Information removed can include health data, embarrassing corporate secrets, intellectual property, employee and customer identities, and pretty much anything that is digitized on your servers. Confidential information compromised by either of these threats can involve privacy laws at the state and federal levels, dictating large fines. An organization’s reputation, and thereby its ability to attract new investors or customers, might be damaged or even destroyed. Frustration to IT managers The problem can be a real frustration to IT departments. There have even been reports IT managers gluing the USB ports shut, most notably at Los Alamos National Labs, where a simple drug raid led to the discovery of a USB stick in the possession of a former lab employee which contained classified nuclear weapons data. Their solution? Glue the ports shut. “I’ve heard some business people say that when it comes to USB security questions, epoxy is awfully cheap,” says Ted Doty, product line manager, for Cisco’sCisco Security Agent (CSA) product. “But while it’s not necessarily the best approach, you may be losing sleep at night over what kind of data is going out through all these media.” Doty describes the situation as “this tension between security and usability. What if your workers need to use USB for legitimate business? At what point do I start turning my users into my worst enemy?” Blocking or disabling the USB ports on each workstation may seem like a quick fix, but the advantages of using USB for legitimate business purposes can quickly outweigh the need to simply eliminate it as an option. Better to deploy a solution that gives you more control of USB and Firewire ports. Options like the Cisco Security Agent, Centennial Software’s DeviceWall or TriGeo’s USB-Defender can watch all ports on all workstations, with the ability to log each device as it’s plugged in, and selectively block any data from entering or leaving, such as credit card or social security numbers, or entire documents. An alternative is something like McAfee’s newly released Encrypted USB  flash and hard drives with special security features like AES 256 security and the capability of two-factor encryption. This encryption can include RSA tokens or biometric security in addition to passwords. But however you address the problem, do make sure you take some kind of measures. The growing risk of portable storage devices as a security hole is simply not something any responsible business can ignore. “You need to see exactly what is entering and leaving via all forms of media, as well as the Internet connections. CD and DVD-RW, Bluetooth, IR, USB, Firewire, all are potential entry ports for malware, and are exit points for sensitive data,” says Doty. “It’s a bad day for any IT department if they end up on the front page with a data breach. To avoid that, visibility into all your IT issues becomes your best friend.”

About 1787 days ago Spyware and Malware

The Forgotten Security Hole: USB

our beautiful site

The last thing Australian phone company Telstra expected when it presented at computer security conference AusCERT 2008 this past May was to be a source of malware. Attendees at that session were given a USB memory device loaded with promotional information – and, unknown to them, an auto-run, self-installing Trojan horse. “Telstra handed out USB sticks which they didn’t know were infected,” says Claire Groves, the marketing manager of AusCERT.  “As soon as they found out they recalled them.” Luckily for Telstra, the damage was simply to its image. The malware was detected almost immediately, and all the USB devices were returned safely, according to Telstra spokesman John Short. “No one was harmed, we very quickly contained any of the possible damage,” claims Short. “We’re taking steps to ensure this won’t happen again.” Short didn’t comment on just what steps, or how this could have happened in the first place. Passing out free USB memory devices as promotional items, sometimes with information loaded on them, is a common occurrence, and the fact is they have quickly become ubiquitous. Convenience is important when doing business, and the USB ports on computers are as convenient as computer access can get. USB devices make it possible to take your work along anywhere and use any computer to work on it, pass large amounts of information to others in a handy-to-carry format, and then transport it back to your home or work computer. That’s the good news. Watch out for security holes The bad news is it’s potentially one of the worst security holes you have — and chances are you’re not doing anything about it. According to the 2008 Information Security Breaches Survey from PricewaterhouseCoopers, 67 percent of companies surveyed do nothing to prevent the transfer of confidential data on USB plug-ins, including flash memory sticks, iPods and MP3 players, external drives, handhelds, and similar devices. According to a Gartner study, USB and Firewire portable storage devices pose two kinds of threats: They allow users to bypass company network defenses, including firewalls and e-mail server anti-malware, and potentially introduce malware from the inside.  Portable storage devices allow employees and intruders to remove sensitive information from an organization’s otherwise secure premises. Since the malware enters the network from an internal device, it may go undetected until significant damage is caused. Information removed can include health data, embarrassing corporate secrets, intellectual property, employee and customer identities, and pretty much anything that is digitized on your servers. Confidential information compromised by either of these threats can involve privacy laws at the state and federal levels, dictating large fines. An organization’s reputation, and thereby its ability to attract new investors or customers, might be damaged or even destroyed. Frustration to IT managers The problem can be a real frustration to IT departments. There have even been reports IT managers gluing the USB ports shut, most notably at Los Alamos National Labs, where a simple drug raid led to the discovery of a USB stick in the possession of a former lab employee which contained classified nuclear weapons data. Their solution? Glue the ports shut. “I’ve heard some business people say that when it comes to USB security questions, epoxy is awfully cheap,” says Ted Doty, product line manager, for Cisco’sCisco Security Agent (CSA) product. “But while it’s not necessarily the best approach, you may be losing sleep at night over what kind of data is going out through all these media.” Doty describes the situation as “this tension between security and usability. What if your workers need to use USB for legitimate business? At what point do I start turning my users into my worst enemy?” Blocking or disabling the USB ports on each workstation may seem like a quick fix, but the advantages of using USB for legitimate business purposes can quickly outweigh the need to simply eliminate it as an option. Better to deploy a solution that gives you more control of USB and Firewire ports. Options like the Cisco Security Agent, Centennial Software’s DeviceWall or TriGeo’s USB-Defender can watch all ports on all workstations, with the ability to log each device as it’s plugged in, and selectively block any data from entering or leaving, such as credit card or social security numbers, or entire documents. An alternative is something like McAfee’s newly released Encrypted USB  flash and hard drives with special security features like AES 256 security and the capability of two-factor encryption. This encryption can include RSA tokens or biometric security in addition to passwords. But however you address the problem, do make sure you take some kind of measures. The growing risk of portable storage devices as a security hole is simply not something any responsible business can ignore. “You need to see exactly what is entering and leaving via all forms of media, as well as the Internet connections. CD and DVD-RW, Bluetooth, IR, USB, Firewire, all are potential entry ports for malware, and are exit points for sensitive data,” says Doty. “It’s a bad day for any IT department if they end up on the front page with a data breach. To avoid that, visibility into all your IT issues becomes your best friend.”