Tag Archives: Jupitermedia Corporation

About 1875 days ago Servers and Routers

When to Fix a Server In-House

our beautiful site

If you’re a small or mid-sized business owner, one of the things you quickly come to realize is that support is expensive. Either you pay through the nose for a support contract for your hardware and software, hoping that it’ll come to the rescue when you need it, or you take a chance and go without support, hoping that something doesn’t break that will incur a high one-time cost for time and materials. Hardware and software manufacturers understand this, which is why they’re giving their customers more self-service options than ever before. They’re also making their product more self-serviceable, allowing the customer to make fixes without having to call in a field technician. But, at the same time, environments are getting more complicated, leading customers to go down more blind alleys than ever before. As complicated as all this sounds, however, the decision on whether to call in support comes down to one major factor: how much downtime your company can tolerate. How long you can be down “Many times, it comes down to a cost equation, and that cost includes cost of downtime,” says Flynn Maloy, worldwide marketing manager of HP’s technology services division. Their goal is to provide complete support solutions to customers, whether they’ve bought HP servers or not. “Even with our small customers, we have a conversation: ‘What does it cost you to go down for an hour? What is the uptime you’re looking for?’” Server manufacturers like HP have all made it easier for customers to service their own hardware. Hot-swappable fans, hard drives, and other modules are designed to be easily removed and replaced while the server is still online. Monitoring tools, such as HP’s Insight Manager, and remote operation boards, such as the company’s Lights-Out management package, allow customers to have more control of what they’re seeing. Customers seek self-service options Thanks to the Internet, customers have more self-diagnosis options than they had even a few years ago. In a 2007 study of small businesses, New York City-based Jupiter Research found that, when searching for customer and technical support, FAQs and self-service searches were adopted at nearly the same rate (over 90 percent of those surveyed) as more traditional phone and e-mail support. But satisfaction levels were lower for those methods: 41 percent for FAQ and 45 percent for search versus 58 percent for e-mail and 57 percent for phone. Text chat and community forums were being used less than FAQ and search, but yielded similar satisfaction statistics. “People do like to be in control. They like to go online and figure the problem out before they get on the phone,” says Sonal Gandhi, the main analyst on the Jupiter report. “The only reason people turn to the phone is that they can’t find the answer they’re looking for or it’s more complicated than what they can find online.” Managed solutions for complex environments Indeed, environments have gotten so complicated that customers sometimes go down the wrong path, blaming the hardware when it could be the software or network that’s to blame. Maloy quoted an internal HP survey conducted in 2006 that showed that only 20 percent of total system downtime could be attributed to hardware failures. The other 80 percent were attributable to what he called “people and process” factors such as software failures, human error, network problems, security breaches, and other issues. These wild-goose chases end up taking time, and even in a small business, downtime can potentially cost a business a lot of money. “There are certainly customers out there that roll the dice more,” and go without a support contract, says Maloy. “Once things get a little out of hand to the people who are running it, then they seek coverage.” That’s where companies such as HP step in, offering managed support of entire environments. The service arms of global companies like HP and IBM have groups that are dedicated to providing services for small and mid-sized businesses, with service packages that are scaled and priced to fit the needs of smaller shops. Solutions range from hosting software on shared servers managed by the outsourcing company to having people on-site on a full-time basis. Some companies, says Gandhi, are using a “hybrid” model, where the management of only new applications and environments are outsourced, and the current environment is still taken care of in house. “It really depends on how crucial the application is for running the business,” she says.

About 1966 days ago Printers, Copiers, and Peripherals

Touch Me, Babe: Computing’s Next Trend

our beautiful site

Who could forget the famous scene in the film “Minority Report,” where mid-21st century detective John Anderton – the Tom Cruise character — is using his hands to quickly manipulate data on computer screens? Given the popularity of our modern-day “gesture-based” gadgets, such as the Apple iPhone and HTC Touch, and innovative new computer interfaces, such as HP’s TouchSmart PCs and Microsoft’s “Milan” Surface tabletop, perhaps science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick’s vision of future wasn’t so far off after all. The question, however, remains: Are “touch” applications relevant for the small business market? “Touch screens these days are enjoying the consumer and enterprise spotlight more than ever before, thanks largely to the success of Apple’s iPhone,” says Carmi Levy, senior vice president for strategic consulting at AR Communications, a Toronto-based marketing communications firm. “The device’s innovative multi-touch features have focused new attention on an interface technology that up until this year had been flagging because of flatness in the PDA market.” Now that Apple has seemingly struck gold with its interface, Levy says competitors that weren’t too keen to go touch are suddenly investing in the technology. For example, Research In Motion, the Ontario-based manufacturer of the BlackBerry, which has long insisted it had no plans to integrate touch screen technology into its handheld devices, is reported to have begun work on just such a technology for its next-generation mobile platform after seeing the success of Apple’s iPhone, Levy says. Jupiter Research’s vice president and research director, Michael Gartenberg, mirrors Levy’s admiration for the iPhone. “Touch-screen devices have been around for a long time but Apple went back to the drawing board [and made] touch the primary interface, designed for your fingers to do the walking, instead of trying to add touch to applications designed for keyboard or mouse.” “This is the future — expect a lot more of ‘touch’ in 2008 and beyond, and from many different companies,” adds Gartenberg. Simplicity is ‘name of the game’ Levy says small business is keenly interested in doing more with less because owners don’t have massive IT budgets and they don’t have the time to learn complex new technologies. “Their staff, assuming they even have staff to begin with, is already so multitasked that whatever technology they use just has to work the first time they turn it on,” explains Levy. “Simplicity is the name of the game, and complex interfaces and applications run counter to this need,” continues Levy. “Staff can get up to speed faster on a well-designed touch screen application than they can on a touchless one because features are more easily found and accessed.” Touch is an intuitive human response, Levy says. Software designers who understand this and manage to integrate this thinking into touch-enabled applications will gain advantage. Will Windows offer ‘touch’ A Microsoft engineer recently leaked the new that the next version of the Windows operating system — currently code-named Windows 7 — will also have integrated touch features. Not surprisingly, Microsoft recently showed off a prototype for its Surface tabletop computer, which lets users navigate through data and media using fingertips. “Touch-screen computers can have a productivity advantage but the applications must be optimized for the interface and not trying to fit a square peg in a round hole,” says Gartenberg. “One of the problems with the first Tablet PC applications, for example, is they never felt quite right.” The advantages of touch screens for small businesses tend to fall into two broad categories: employee-enabling and customer-facing, says Levy. “Employee-enabling advantages include more capable mobile applications for in-the-field employees, richer applications in internal-mobile scenarios, such as tablets in warehouses and on medical wards, as well as staff training initiatives,” Levy says. “Customer-facing scenarios include kiosks, retail, and restaurant point-of-sale and customer self-service.” An example of the latter includes self-checkout machines at supermarkets, where consumers use a touch-screen and barcode scanner to pay for products.

About 1966 days ago Wireless Networks

3G Wireless is Here: What it Means for Business

our beautiful site

While Asian and European cell phone users have enjoyed the benefits of third-generation (“3G”) networks for some time — specifically, wireless speeds that rival broadband Internet connections in the home — this mobile technology is now ready for business throughout North America. Your carrier might also refer to this third-generation network as “High-Speed Downlink Packet Access” (HSDPA) or an increasingly popular example of “3G” technology. If you recall, second generation wireless — or “2G” — marked the evolution from analog handsets to digital phones and data services. The consumer benefits of “3G” are clear — downloading songs in mere seconds, surfing the Internet at fast speeds, or streaming live television and satellite radio broadcasts. But how does this next-generation wireless protocol help your small or mid-sized business? Business benefits of 3G This next-generation wireless technology has a host of potential applications for business users, from delivering faster data speeds to allowing road warriors to more easily access the Internet to downloading larger files. “3G is all about speed, speed, and more speed,” says Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director at Jupiter Research, the New York-based IT research firm. “Depending on the business applications, you’ll see a number of benefits, especially for those who spend time away from the office.” For example, Gartenberg says, if you travel frequently with a laptop, you need not try and find a Wi-Fi hotspot, such as a café or airport lounge, in order to access the Internet at high-speeds. “Instead, you can insert a 3G modem card or tether your 3G phone to your laptop and access the Internet from virtually anywhere,” explains Gartenberg. “In other words, a small-to-mid-sized business can get things done that much faster with 3G, such as downloading large files or surfing complex web pages….. It can be an absolute godsend for the business user.” “There’s no doubt that 3G represents the next big thing in mobility” confirms Carmi Levy, senior vice president of strategic consulting at AR Communications, a Toronto-based marketing communications firm. “Just as broadband Internet access took over from conventional dial-up and radically changed the way businesses used the Internet from conventional desktop and laptop computers, 3G holds the same promise for mobile users.” Some key services that will benefit from wider adoption of 3G, believes Levy, include the following: real-time content collaboration video and audio conferencing and mobile applications that focus on CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning). Speaking of video conferencing, Canada’s Roger Wireless network is the first in North America to offer face-to-face video calling between compatible “3G” cell phones. Think of it as a webcam you carry in your pocket. Levy also believes location awareness applications can benefit from “3G” bandwidth. “Retailers, for example, can deploy applications that recognize potential consumers’ presence within a given geographic area – for example, as they walk past a store – and deliver highly personalized multimedia marketing content to entice them into the store,” explains Levy. Disadvantages of 3G Experts caution, however, that “3G” is still in its early days, and much of the story remains to be told. The cost to upgrade your company’s phones and pay for a data plan to take advantage of “3G” services might be a deterrent for some small and mid-sized businesses that are watching the bottom line. “While prices are coming down all the time, the cost to upgrade is an obvious shortcoming,” says Gartenberg. “That said, it’s hard to put a price on receiving a critical e-mail or document on your phone quickly.” Limited bandwidth and high usage costs for data-centric services are also dampening adoption rates, says Levy “And it’s easy to conclude that more businesses would be implementing mobile capability more aggressively if pricing were more competitive and if offerings were more clearly explained and marketed.” Another penalty you pay is in battery life, says Gartenberg, as using these high-speed data services can eat away at a handset’s power fairly quickly.

About 1997 days ago Business Software

Leopard Has Landed: Assessing Mac’s New OS

our beautiful site

While the Windows operating system continues to dominate in the corporate world, small and mid-sized businesses have been slow to adopt Microsoft’s latest operating system, Vista, according to reports. Perhaps companies are waiting for the kinks to be worked out or better compatibility with existing productivity software. Or perhaps the upgrade cost is a big pill to swallow. But now it’s Apple’s turn. After delaying its release, the new Mac OS X version 10.5 — a.k.a. Leopard — has hit the market with much fanfare. With its advertized 300+ new features, Leopard is touted as the most significant upgrade over its predecessors, at a relatively inexpensive price point of $129. Better browsing and file sharing This sixth major release of the Mac OS platform offers many new bells and whistles over its predecessors including: a redesigned Finder to better browse and share files between multiple Macs Time Machine, a simplified way of backing up data a new 3-D Dock with Stacks that lets you better organize and access your files on your desktop Quick Look, an efficient way to instantly see files without having to open an applications Spaces, used to create groups of apps and easily switch between them enhanced mail and chat applications and integrated Boot Camp to run Windows on Intel-based Macs. So what do the experts advise about whether upgrading is in the best interest of small businesses that rely on the Mac platform? Or are there compelling reasons to switch platforms if your business has become a frustrated Windows user environment? Whether to upgrade or not “Right now most of the apps are Windows-based, so I think the new Mac OS is a hard sell to businesses,” says Gary Chen, senior analyst for Small and Medium Enterprise IT Infrastructure and Applications at the Boston, Mass.-based Yankee Group. “This is the biggest hurdle for the Mac — even though the hardware and OS are great — but the apps are really what is most important” to the small and mid-sized business user. Not every analyst agreed. Some advised looking at other compelling features to switch your business to the new Mac OS. “The first thing you need to ask yourself is if a Mac is right for your business, and many will say ‘yes’ because of overall stability and security, not having to deal with viruses and malware,” says Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director at the New York-based Jupiter Research. As for the upgrade to Leopard, it’s a “no brainer,” says Gartenberg: “Basically, for $129 you’re getting a new Mac, which offers many enhancements and new features.” Gartenberg says he likes the simplified back-up utility called Time Machine, better e-mail, and the ability to run Boot Camp natively, giving users “best of both worlds.” Chen concedes Windows might not have much of an edge over Mac for much longer as the world moves to Web-based software applications. “Plus, I have seen Apple pick up ground lately” among small and mid-sized businesses, Chen says. He credits that “mostly due to the halo effect of their other consumer successes,” such as the iPod and iPhone. Regarding Leopard’s adoption, Gartenberg says so far it has been “well received” among its core Apple install base: “Put it this way, you’re not going to see businesses ask to be downgraded to an older operating system as we saw with Vista owners.”

About 1997 days ago PCs, Laptops, and Notebooks

The Case for Tablet PCs

our beautiful site

Thanks to falling prices, increased selection, and many more applications targeted at small and mid-sized businesses, it might seem like the right time to consider picking up a tablet PC — or several for your staff. For the uninitiated, these small and lightweight handheld computers let you comfortably write on the screen using a stylus pen. Bundled optical character recognition (OCR) software can also transcribe your chicken scratch into text, making it easy to search or insert into documents, presentations, or e-mails. With built-in wireless functionality, such as 802.11 (Wi-Fi), tablet PCs are also online-ready. Microsoft has an entire operating system devoted to these computers — Windows XP Tablet PC. The software giant has also spent considerable marketing dollars to promote OneNote, a tablet PC-centric note-taking and information-management program for Microsoft Office. OneNote allows you to effortlessly record, organize, search, and share digital notes. Computer makers offering more tablet PCs Many laptops available today also offer tablet PC functionality. Aptly named “convertibles,” these computers feature LCD screens that can swivel around and lay flat — so the user can hold it like a clipboard and write instead of type. It’s no wonder many computer manufacturers have jumped onboard, including the likes of Acer, HP, Lenovo, Dell, Gateway, Toshiba, and Fujitsu. It might seem as if the tablet computer was the latest rage. But, truth be told, the tablet PCs are hardly flying off the shelves. So, why aren’t they selling? According to a recent IDC report, the market is relatively tiny. Convertible tablet PC shipments, for example, will reach barely one million units this year and more than four million by 2010, IDC estimates. Compare this to approximately 72.6 million laptop PCs sold during the same period. “Tablets are still a pretty niche market and I don’t see that changing anytime soon,” says Gary Chen, senior analyst for Small and Medium Enterprise IT Infrastructure and Applications at the Yankee Group. “They’re good for certain vertical applications, but for the mainstream I don’t see it ever becoming the primary form factor.” Determine whether you need tablet functionality Other analysts are more optimistic about the tablet PC’s potential in the small and mid-sized business market. Michael Gartenberg, Jupiter Research’s vice president and research director, says that businesses need to assess whether they can utilize the additional mobility and functionality that the tablet PC has to offer. “The technology has matured — in both the hardware and software — but the big question is ‘do you need it?’” Gartenberg says. For many businesses, the answer may be, “Yes.” Gartenberg suggests that IT decision makers at small and mid-sized businesses consider whether staff members in their business have certain requirements that may be appropriate for tablet PC usage. Tablet computers can provide benefits when used in the following scenarios: When employees are in meetings and want to use their computer as a white board to best demonstrate a product or concept by using a diagram or pictorial representation. In mobile environments, such as health care, where workers need to record information while standing or in other situations where a keyboard isn’t appropriate. In businesses that can cut out a data entry step by enabling field workers to use a stylus to take notes or record observations, which can then be ported into a text file with a few clicks. Another selling point of the tablet PC is that there is no longer a considerable difference in quality between tablets and other laptops. “A few years ago, there was a clear sacrifice in quality of screen, battery life, and power,” Gartenberg says. “But now you’re not trading any functionality.” Chen concedes the price for tablet PCs isn’t much of a barrier of entry any longer for a small or mid-sized business. “Cost was initially a big factor,” he says, “and they’ve definitely come down in price.” That said, Chen maintains most users are “pretty happy with a standard laptop and don’t really see a need to be able to write on the screen.” “I just haven’t seen large demand from users for tablet PCs,” he adds. Time will tell whether the additional development of tablet PC technology by computer and software makers gives businesses a reason to switch to the tablet computer.

About 2027 days ago Business Software

MS Office 2007: Worth the Investment?

our beautiful site

While Microsoft launched its latest Office suite of productivity programs this year without as much fanfare as its Windows Vista operating system, the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant is touting these new office applications — the latest in Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, Word and others — to be a major step forward in the evolution of business productivity tools. Two major improvements found in Microsoft Office 2007 are the user-interface (including better search) and collaboration software, both of which are designed to keep your growing business organized, productive and competitive. New Office features New interface: The older pull-down menus and toolbars interface have been replaced with a tabbed “Ribbon” that efficiently displays the commands that are most relevant for that section. An example would be the “Page Layout” Ribbon in Microsoft Word 2007, which opens up many aesthetic options to choose from. Another new feature is called Galleries. Rather than seeing a list of complex dialog boxes, users are presented with a visual set of formatting options to choose from when working on a document, spreadsheet, presentation, or database. This proves to be a faster and more efficient way to create professional-looking work. What’s more, before you make any changes, you will see a “Live Preview” of the change in your document simply by hovering your mouse over one of the options. A handy Instant Search window that lets you easily locate keywords throughout any Office application (even attachments). Online Collaboration: While this may appeal more to those in mid-size companies than small office/home office environments, another lauded program found in some versions of Microsoft Office 2007 is known as SharePoint. This tool makes it easier for employees to work together — even if they’re not in the same location as it offers online collaboration, where people can work simultaneously on documents, spreadsheets or calendar appointments over the Internet — and chat via their computer while doing so. Consider the alternative: one employee working on, say, a press release for a new product, who then must e-mail it around to others within the organization for approvals and edits, before it’s ready to be published. Now, the document can be written, edited, and approved simultaneously, even if employees are spread out throughout the world. Deciding whether to upgrade The big question remains: do these new and improved features justify the cost to upgrade for small and mid-size business? “If all you’re doing is run-of-the-mill document creation and editing, then upgrading to Office 2007 would be akin to buying a Porsche to fetch the groceries,” says Carmi Levy, senior vice president for strategic consulting at AR Communications, a Toronto-based marketing communications firm. “Yes, the new version of Office has advanced the state-of-the-art for desktop productivity applications, but why would you spend the money if your reliable old Honda is already doing the job quite nicely?” adds Levy, rhetorically. “Deciding whether or not to upgrade [to Office 2007] is one of those decisions you make after you assess what you’re going to use it for,” agrees Jupiter Research’s vice president and research director, Michael Gartenberg. “There are many new usability features and improvements in functionality, such as collaboration and sharing, but if you’re solid on an older version there’s no immediate reason to upgrade — especially if you’re on a tight budget.” Levy believes the online collaboration tools alone might justify the upgrade cost for some small and mid-size businesses, which are increasingly dealing with remote workers, branch offices, and traveling employees. “Companies that rely heavily on document collaboration — either internally between project teams or externally with customers and suppliers — might really benefit from Office 2007’s richer document sharing capabilities.” On the flipside, however, industry experts warn it might be a case of taking two steps back to move three ahead: “Upgrading to new software could slow you down for a while until you and your employees get used to the changes,” cautions Gartenberg. Small and mid-size businesses “will also have to consider the training costs of moving their employees to the new version of Office,” adds Levy. “That’s because the latest edition of the suite sports a radically new interface that represents a major change from the menu-driven environment that’s dominated Office for the better part of the last 15 years.” Levy’s conclusion: Small and mid-size businesses “without the resources and the time to retrain their users may want to wait.”

About 2058 days ago PCs, Laptops, and Notebooks

Three Hot iPhone Alternatives

our beautiful site

Despite all the hoopla surrounding Apple’s “must-have” iPhone, not everyone is convinced it’s an ideal product for budding entrepreneurs or small-to-mid-sized business owners. In fact, IncTechnology explored the pros and cons of the iPhone for business. Now that the price has dropped, however, you may be tempted. But before you give in, check out these cheaper — and some would argue better suited — smartphones that can help you and your employees stay in touch and keep organized, productive, and entertained while on the go. Here’s a look at three recommended models: BlackBerry 8820 “The first thing any mobile businessperson needs in a phone is push email,” explains Chris Hazelton, senior analyst for mobile device technology and trends at IDC Research, a Framingham, Mass.-based technology research firm. “Push email,” offered in products such as the BlackBerry series of smartphones, pushes email to the device’s inbox as soon as messages arrive, opposed to a user logging onto the Internet to “pull” messages down to the handset. Available through AT&T for $299.99 with a 24-month plan, the BlackBerry 8820 offers a “push mail” solution for mobile businesspersons, who need their messages as soon as their sent. It’s also the first phone from Research in Motion with integrated Wi-Fi for high-speed wireless connectivity. Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director at Jupiter Research, in New York, agrees with Hazelton, but warns that the phone may not let you make voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) calls. “Push email is critical,” he says. “Be aware, however, the BlackBerry 8820 won’t let you make VoIP calls via Wi-Fi.” (Note: A service called T-Mobile@Home allows for chatting via Wi-Fi hotspots and seamless transition back to wireless cell service, or vice-versa, available on select handsets such as the Samsung T409 or Nokia 6086). Other features of the BlackBerry 8820 include a built-in GPS receiver, multimedia player, expandable memory, Bluetooth, and voice-activated dialing. Palm Treo 755p The latest Palm Treo is the 755p, available through Sprint for $199.99 (with 24-month commitment). Along with its intuitive Palm OS and touchscreen or thumb keyboard interface, the Palm Treo 755P smartphone offers wireless email, Web browsing, multimedia playback, and built-in support for Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. The second feature a business smartphone needs, says Hazleton, and one the iPhone lacks, is a comfortable way to input data on the phone. “It’s no secret the iPhone has some issues in the keyboard department since it’s a soft keyboard with no tactical feedback, compared to a QWERTY thumb keyboard with products like the Treo or BlackBerry,” says Hazelton. Gartenberg suggests that you make sure the keyboard is intuitive, since you’re likely using it for email or maybe word processing. “On that note,” he adds, “if opening and editing documents is important to you, make sure the phone can support applications such as Word or Excel.” Gartenberg says he also likes the fact Treo users can download thousands of applications to customize the smartphone’s functions. Unlike a closed architecture with the iPhone, phones that let you install customize applications are great for businesses and consumers alike, he argues. Motorola Q 9h Another recommended iPhone alternative for mobile businesspersons is the upcoming Motorola Q 9h smartphone, expected to ship this fall through Verizon for $199.99 (on a 24-month plan). This super thin QWERTY-based smartphone offers “3G” or high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) connectivity for broadband-like speeds in your pocket. “The iPhone lacks this technology, which could be a handy feature for a small-to-mid-sized business,” explains Gartenberg. Hazelton says the Motorola Q 9h is also ideal for entertainment purposes, including video at 30 frames per second, expandable microSD memory cards and support for a variety of music formats (including Advanced Audio Coding, MP3 and Windows Media Audio. “Personally, I like the fact the Motorola Q offers both a regular-sized [3.5mm] headphone jack so you can use your favorite headphones or you can use wireless headphones with its support for Stereo Bluetooth,” Hazelton says. When asked to give general advice on finding a smartphone for your business, Gartenberg says to figure out what you need it for, and which applications are most important to you and your company. Aside from the iPhone, there are four main platforms to choose from — RIM BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Nokia Series 60 or Palm OS. “So you need to research the strengths for each of these outside of regular phone calls,” he says. If email is important to your business, for example, consider a push mail solution and a larger keyboard. And if you need to open or edit documents, find out which platform is best for the files you work on the most, Gartenberg recommends. There is one drawback to these models, however. “Be aware none of these other platforms will have the coolness, the cache, that comes with pulling out an iPhone in public,” says Gartenberg.

About 2058 days ago Wireless Networks

Can GPS Cell Phones Help Your Business?

our beautiful site

Global positioning system (GPS) technology can be a useful tool for small-to-mid-sized businesses, helping salespeople quickly navigate to appointments, or in some cases, allowing management to monitor a fleet of drivers or their deliveries. But while some companies opt for a standalone GPS system, many are finding additional benefits by pairing the technology with telecommunications. A new genre of cell phones comes with integrated GPS receivers. Should your business opt for an all-in-one solution? It depends upon what your business has to gain, say the industry analysts. GPS provides access to plethora of services – visible and audible directions, maps that you can pan and zoom, points of interest, and time and distance estimates. The question is whether you want these services on a mobile phone. Here’s a quick look at the pros and cons to help you decide: The argument for GPS phones The first advantage to a GPS phone is cost, says Chris Hazelton, senior analyst for mobile device technology and trends at IDC Research, a Framingham, Mass.-based market research firm. “A benefit to a phone with GPS is you don’t have to pay for, support, and carry two separate devices,” says Hazelton. “And updating maps is easier as you can do it wirelessly on the device.” Depending on the mobile needs of the business, monitoring services are also becoming popular in GPS-enabled cell phones, where managers can determine the geographical position of the device and therefore an employee or a company vehicle. “So long as the employees know about it and consent to it,” Hazelton says, “it could be a useful tool.” Some employees balk at using GPS tracking devices on the job, such as New York City taxi drivers, who went on strike for a few days in September to oppose the addition of tracking devices in yellow taxis. Another advantage to your business with GPS-based mobile phone services such as the popular TeleNav, found in many BlackBerrys, is that you or your employees can conduct local searches relevant to your position. Say you want to take a client out for lunch, and she’s in the mood for Italian, with a few button presses you can find the nearest trattoria.  Finally, GPS phones with integrated Bluetooth can be handy for hearing turn-by-turn directions in your wireless headset. They can also allow you to tap on a point of interest icon — such as a restaurant, gas station or hotel — and the number is automatically dialed on your phone. The case against GPS phones While it might be less expensive to purchase one device instead of two, cell phone-based GPS solutions require an ongoing fee, roughly $10 per month per phone. “We’re talking about a service model instead of a product model,” says Hazelton. The good news with having the service on a phone is that “at least you get the regular map updates and you can use the service outside of the vehicle, too.” As far as maps, a standalone GPS device with internal memory can store maps for the entire continent, says Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director at Jupiter Research, a New York-based technology advisory firm. “Unlike phones,” he says, “standalone GPS devices ship with full maps, at least with all of the U.S. and Canada, and with room to spare, which is convenient to have downloaded already.” Another issue, says Hazelton, is that GPS phones often require a cell signal in order to determine the location, compared to standalone GPS devices that communicate with satellites directly. “Therefore if you’re lost in the middle of a forested area and there are no cell towers around,” he says, “your GPS service might not be able to help you.” There are other inherent issues with a converged mobile device: battery life usually suffers (especially with wireless radios turned on), if one feature on the phone requires repair, the user is without the entire device, and a product that attempts to perform multiple functions doesn’t always do as good as a job as standalone devices. Lastly, the small screen size on a cell phone might be a turn-off. “So instead of a 4- or 5-inch screen as with a standalone GPS device, it’s a more like a 1- or 2-inch screen on a phone, therefore it’s more of an audible tool,” Gartenberg says.

About 2088 days ago PCs, Laptops, and Notebooks

Alternative Memory for Laptop Users

our beautiful site

Integrated flash memory has long been found in portable devices, be it cell phones, personal digital assistants, media players and USB thumb-drives. But you just might find flash storing all your programs and files in your next laptop. In fact, computer manufacturers including the likes of Dell, Sony, Fujitsu, Toshiba, and Samsung have already began shipping mobile PCs with up to 32-gigabytes of built-in NAND flash memory. NAND, one of two types of flash memory, refers to higher capacity storage and faster read/write speeds, over the other type of flash memory, the older NOR architecture. Unlike magnetic rotating hard-disk drives used in most laptops today, computers with “solid state drives” (SSDs) such as those with NAND flash memory, use less power and are faster, too. “Because of the lack of moving parts, ostensibly the benefits they offer are long battery life and they operate faster, too,” explains Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director at Jupiter Research, a New York City-based technology advisory firm. “Think of solid state drives as the memory in your iPod nano, but with larger capacity, which is required to run your computer,” adds Gartenberg. Solid state more durable, quicker James Slattery, product marketing manager for the Flash Products Group at Intel Corporation, says solid state drives are also more resistant to damage. “In the mobile-client market, SSDs offer high durability with increased performance,” Slattery says. “That coupled with lower energy consumption makes this a very interesting proposition.” Other benefits of computers with SSDs as opposed to more traditional memory, such as hard disk drives (HDDs) include the following: faster boot-up times, quieter performance, and more light-weight computers.  With all of these advantages over hard disk drives, why aren’t we all using laptops with SSDs? The answer boils down to two “C” words: cost and capacity. Ultra mobile machines still more expensive SSD-based laptops and smaller “ultra-mobile” PCs (UMPCs) are still considerably more expensive than computers with comparable HDDs. While prices are dropping, price for SSDs are roughly $6 to $7 per gigabyte, compared to about $0.20 for traditional HDDs. “Solid state laptops might not be ideal yet for the small-to-midsized space, where companies are sensitive to price,” explains Gartenberg. “There’s also a trade-off with capacity, so most small businesses looking for the most bang for their buck are better off with traditional [hard disk] drives.” After all, many entry-level laptops today include 120GB of hard disk space, while SSDs — commercially — are currently maxed out at 32GB. (Santa Ana, Calif.-based SimpleTech has announced a 64GB SSD and a 256GB enterprise-level drive.) For business users who store large collections of music, photos, and/or videos on their computers, a 30-odd gigabyte drive is simply not enough space, Gartenberg adds. While these SSD machines are a little bit faster than HDDs, the speed difference is not significantly greater. In addition, says Gartenberg, “While they may be more energy efficient, it comes at a steep price.” Intel’s Slattery highlights another potential problem. “A con of SSD in this market is based on the inherent wear-out of the flash in excessive write environments.” Slattery believes SSDs and HDDs will exist together for some time as computer manufacturers wait for prices of SSDs to drop, capacity to improve and kinks to be worked out of the technology.

About 2119 days ago Computer Security

Securing the Perimeter from Threats to Mobile Devices

our beautiful site

BlackBerrys, Sidekicks, cell phones, Palm Treos and now, of course, the iPhone: there are countless mobile devices out there that are relatively cheap and available to employees for logging into work. And every one of those devices is potentially a new security hole in the company network. It’s not just what devices they are using to access the network remotely. It’s also a question of which applications they are using that represent a potential weak link in security. “By far e-mail is the most popular use of the mobile Web at 40 percent,” says Sonal Gandhi, an analyst from Jupiter Research. Gandhi says coming in at second is single message service (SMS) or text messaging representing 29 percent of mobile Web use. Another 20 percent represents actual Web surfing from mobile devices. Each application is a unique pathway into the network presenting its own challenges for the IT department to maintain safely. While staffers may not be accessing the company network directly through text messaging or e-mail, if they use the same device to do both than all it takes is an infected text message to infect the network once the user logs in. Text messaging is getting even riskier with the increasing popularity of multimedia messaging (MMS) or text messaging with multimedia attachments, such as pictures. Wireless network is the greatest vulnerability It wasn’t until recent years that the company network was literally a network of in-house computers and servers linked together by wires and then wired out to the Internet. With the advent of cheap, convenient wireless access, companies are casting a much wider net — one that is virtual and porous. In addition to the myriad of ways users are accessing in, it’s the wireless network itself that is perhaps the greatest vulnerability. “There’s a greater risk someone’s going to figure out how to exploit it, because with wireless you’re broadcasting your network,” says Scott Ellis, a computer forensics specialist with RGL Forensic Accountants & Consultants based in Chicago, Ill. Ellis says setting up a wireless network with off-the-shelf solutions is relatively easy. It’s securing it that is difficult. He offers the following tips to batten down the hatches, as you install and maintain your wireless gear: Change the default passwords that come from the factory. Ellis says you’d be surprised how many companies never think to do this. Those default passwords are typically the same in every unit sold and a good hacker knows them. Choose a “strong key” that has a minimum of 12 characters. The strong key is truly the key to the kingdom; it’s the password for the entire network. Not only should it be at least 12 characters, it should be a random mix of letters and numbers. “War drivers” — hackers who literally drive around business neighborhoods to get in physical range of the network — often use scanners that speed through thousands of combinations. Twelve random characters add up to more than 100 billion possible combinations. That’s a lot of scanning. Get rid of wireless “b.” 802.11 is the industry standard in Wi-Fi protocols. It’s gone through a number of generations. There’s 802.11b (wireless “b”), 802.11g, and now 802.11n. Wireless “n” is available and much faster; however it has not yet been ratified as a standard and probably won’t be until 2008. Wireless “b” is older, slower, and less secure. Ellis recommends taking an inventory of your wireless gear and upgrading to wireless “g,” which is far more secure. Keep your firmware updated. Firmware is the software that runs the hardware (i.e. that is your wireless appliances). If you don’t keep up with upgrades and patches, you’re asking for trouble. As a final piece of advice, any small to mid-size business that offers wireless access and hasn’t already made the investment into a virtual private network (VPN) should do so. There are several different kinds of VPNs. A Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) VPN is likely the best bet for most businesses. It’s Web-based, and therefore requires no installation on the end user’s device. And in case any of those so-called “war drivers” pull into the company parking lot, it’s also encrypted so there won’t be much to hear.