Small Business Technology News – Highlights from around the globe

At Computer Troubleshooters, we’ve once again braved the information-overload of the internet to find current trends, important alerts or general hints and tips from other sources. Here’s the best technology information of the month, relevant to small businesses.

Enjoy the articles in bite-sized pieces and click on the Read More links to see the full stories.

Note: Although we take reasonable care in selecting the websites to be linked, these external sites are not under the control of Computer Troubleshooters. As such, we do not endorse, approve, represent, or certify those external sites, nor do we guarantee the accuracy, completeness or quality of the information contained on them.

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Information Overload

Why Small Businesses are Getting So Little Done with So Much

Twenty years ago, experts were predicting that computers would eventually replace many existing jobs in the workforce, as they would eliminate the need for so many workers to process reports, type memos, and travel across the country for meetings that could be handled remotely. Computers have, in fact, provided us access to information that was unimaginable twenty years ago. So why aren’t we more productive?

Skype has made it easy to have meetings without ever leaving our desk. Smart phones allow us to check our e-mail everywhere, ensuring not a second of the day is wasted. We should be getting more done in a day than our 1900s counterparts, yet we aren’t. Experts believe the reason for that is information overload.

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5 Ways to Work Faster in Microsoft Outlook

Improving Productivity in your Emails.

Email is vital to your day-to-day work, but it can also be a sink hole into which precious time simply disappears. Anything you can do to manage your incoming and outgoing emails more quickly will free up time to other tasks. Here are five ways to improve email management in Microsoft Outlook.

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Three Ways to Extend the Battery of Smartphones and Tablets

Here are three tips for keeping your business smartphones and tablets charged through the work day – and beyond

In today’s 24/7 business environment, a dead battery is no longer an excuse for missed phone calls, texts and emails. That makes keeping mobile devices charged on the go a constant challenge

But from effective power management to a growing number of portable power devices, there are numerous ways entrepreneurs can keep their mobile devices running longer and more efficiently.

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Apple set to Announce iPad 3 in Early March

According to sources familiar with the matter, Apple is set to announce the next-generation iPad at an event in March.

Sources close to the company said that while Apple is not planning to hold an event in February, it will in March. Expected at the event is the long awaited arrival of the iPad 3. That is, according to AllThingsD.

It appears to be in line with recent reports that manufacturers were building and increasing production of the device in its factories in China.

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Recently, Google has been very busy implementing various changes to its privacy policy and to its search engine. Let’s look at these changes and how they may impact you.

You may have noticed the banner “We’re changing our privacy policy. This stuff matters.” on some of the Google sites you’ve been visiting. Now that Google is much more than just a search engine, it is consolidating more than 60 individual privacy policies across its products into a single one that promises to be “a lot shorter and easier to read”. Some products (like Wallet and Chrome) will retain their own policy for regulatory purposes and/or to help spell out that product in greater detail. Google believes this will allow them to consolidate your usage across their products, to bring you better integration and more relevant content.

Imagine a scenario where Google notifies you that you may be late for your meeting, because it combines your location, your calendar entry and the local traffic conditions. Sounds helpful, doesn’t it? And if your status on Google+ is often about horse riding, you may start seeing more horse riding videos in the Featured section of YouTube. The other side to this coin is that Google will have a much more detailed picture of you, enabling it to target you with specific advertising, which is a much more valuable commodity to pitch to advertisers. While Google still won’t sell your personal information, access to a tightly defined market will see advertisers running to Google to promote their products, as a targeted audience is much more cost-effective for them than a mass marketing approach

To see your presence across the Google products and to access your personal settings, you can log into the Google Dashboard. To learn more about this topic, view Google’s official policy page, please click here. The change goes into effect on March 1, and if you don’t agree with the change, your only option is to stop using Google’s products (with an account).

The other major changes impact website owners. Google will now lower your search result ranking if your site is packed with advertising ‘above the fold’ (in the top space before a reader needs to scroll down). It will also focus on how relevant your content is to your keywords – do you deliver a helpful website and a great user experience, or are you delivering some slick, copied sales pitch to promote an e-book on a different topic? More than ever, your website needs to focus on being relevant and recently updated. Webmasters also need to be aware the Google search results can now include content from other Google products, so items like your company’s Google+ page updates may also appear. This is good news for businesses who have embraced social media as it will add to their search results presence.

Talk to your local Computer Troubleshooters about your Google presence or any of your technology needs.

Small Business Technology News – Highlights from around the globe

At Computer Troubleshooters, we’ve once again braved the information-overload of the internet to find current trends, important alerts or general hints and tips from other sources. Here’s the best technology information of the month, relevant to small businesses.

Enjoy the articles in bite-sized pieces and click on the Read More links to see the full stories.

Note: Although we take reasonable care in selecting the websites to be linked, these external sites are not under the control of Computer Troubleshooters. As such, we do not endorse, approve, represent, or certify those external sites, nor do we guarantee the accuracy, completeness or quality of the information contained on them.

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10 gadgets we want to steal before leaving CES

Wired’s Gadget Lab shares the best gear at the Consumer Electronics Show

CES is a four-day assault of non-stop sensory overload. Mile-long taxi lines. Ear-splitting Gaga and Beyonce pumping from every booth. Legions of disheveled businessmen thrusting marketing collateral and contagion at anyone naive enough to take the bait.

In other words, it can be a dehumanizing grind. But it’s also our favorite place for window shopping. We descend on demo booths to mentally earmark the gear we’ll be calling in for testing the moment we’re home.

Would we really steal this stuff directly from the show floor? Well, that’s a moral conundrum each of us must resolve. We don’t think even Erik Malinowski, so full of sports-guy brawn, could muscle away the LG fridge you see above. And we’re still trying to figure out how to get the Tesla Model S out of Nvidia’s booth. Nonetheless, “Don’t ask, don’t tell” has been our mantra for CES 2012, so here are some of the things vendors may want to make sure they’ve still got before packing up.

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5 ways to boost productivity with new tech tools

Entrepreneur highlights CES devices that help you to work smarter.

The exhibit halls are crowded and bustling at the annual Consumer Electronics Show, and you can bet the long days and frantic energy have attendees thinking about working smarter — not longer. Thankfully, some of the technology showcased here hits on that nerve, from cutting down on the devices in your shoulder bag to keeping your body running at optimum efficiency.

Here’s a look at devices we found here that can amp up your output in five ways.

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Facebook Timeline: Will it benefit your business?

Social networking site hints that its Timeline feature may soon be available for brands.

Here are some things to consider about Facebook Timeline and the value it could add to your business’ social networking presence.

By now you’ve seen Facebook’s Timeline format. Maybe your own personal Facebook page is in the Timeline format. But what will Timeline mean for brands?

Currently, the Facebook Timeline format–which replaces profile pages and is basically a chronological scrapbook of your life–is available only for personal pages. Facebook has hinted that Timeline will be available for brands at some point in the future, but the company has not announced anything explicitly.

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4 questions SMBs should ask outsourcing vendors

Small and midsize businesses that plan to outsource their IT operations need to ask these four questions before signing the dotted line.

You wouldn’t hire a new employee without asking them a few questions first. The same should hold true for small businesses that outsource most or all of their IT functions to a third party.

In fact, handling managed service providers (MSPs) and other outside IT firms as an extension of your internal staff–rather than “just a vendor”–is an approach that can produce better long-term results from the relationship. That approach starts with a thorough interview.

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Each January, the I.T. industry reveals predictions for the upcoming year, so we’ve scoured the news sources and added our own insights. But first, let’s see how 2011’s predictions manifested.

‘3D without the glasses’ was a great engineering feat but hasn’t hit mainstream manufacturing for your living room just yet. Monetizing social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter etc.) has also not been widely adopted, with many businesses still scratching their heads over how to accomplish this. Facebook advertising, social media competitions and promotional codes all seem to be small steps towards this. Location-based services gained more momentum (especially with the rise of FourSquare) and with Apple re-securing a patent relating to locations, expect to hear more about these services in the future. Tablets did indeed move into the world of business, forcing I.T departments to adopt strategies for securing and supporting these devices. And last but not least, the adoption of cloud computing could not be more varied, with some companies transitioning to it completely while others are still wary of security & availability.

So what’s in store during 2012? Here are the top picks for the year ahead:

Smartphones are normal – We now have a generation of ‘smartphone literate’ kids who would never turn on a computer if they could find what they need from their mobile phone. Though we first mentioned this in 2010, if you still don’t have a mobile version of your website, give that some serious thought in 2012. With the internet in their pocket, people will research, locate and share like never before.

E-commerce here to stay – Sadly, 2011 saw the demise of some well-known American retailers, with the effect spreading to other locations too. Online stores will have to shout out their point of difference or play the pricing game to compete with one another, as shoppers easily compare items between stores. Are traditional retailers going to continue to struggle to keep up or will they adopt new strategies to exploit their ‘buy now, use it now’ capability? eBooks will continue to push through this paradigm in reverse though, as electronic delivery to your device is faster & cheaper than purchasing in store.

Mobile payments – MasterCard and VISA both rolled out ‘contactless’ payment systems last year, opening the doors for this capability on your mobile phone. Google is firmly pursuing this with the Google Wallet smartphone application, creating another advertising revenue stream for itself. Maybe in late 2012 you’ll leave your real wallet at home?

Social Media is normal – The sparkle may wear off social media but it will remain a powerful, uniting communication medium. Businesses will be forced to accept it as part of their marketing strategy or be left behind by competitors that have embraced it.

And though it can’t really be classed as a prediction, Microsoft will launch its Windows 8 operating system in early 2012, replacing the Start Menu with touchable, updating panel icons.

Whatever the I.T. industry delivers in 2012, contact Computer Troubleshooters to discuss how it can benefit your business or for any of your computing needs.

Computer Troubleshooters now offers a variety of VoIP phone services! We have specialists for both hosted (cloud-based, no server needed) systems and more powerful digital PBX systems. Here’s a sales video we put together to talk about some of the benefits VoIP can offer:

Computer Troubleshooters is now sharing its computer expertise in another medium for its customers. Online! Computer Troubleshooters now has its own blog, which we hope will become a valuable resource for you as you navigate the sometimes complicated world of understanding computers.

Looking for networking tips, how to solve connectivity problems? Or even some more basic tips on how to use Excel or Powerpoint? We’ll be posting tips, suggestions and valuable resource material for your convenience.

We might even blog a little about what’s happening inside Computer Troubleshooters, so check back often.

And while you’re at it, feel free to contact us with your own tips and suggestions on what you would like to read on our new Computer Troubleshooters Blog.