The New HP TouchPad

I have been waiting. I need a new laptop, but I want the convenience of a tablet, the capabilities of a business class laptop, and yes even the cool factor of the iPad- all at a price I can afford.

Enter the HP Touchpad. Here is a machine that has me drooling like a dog over a meat bone in the butcher shop window. 

·         With the ability to stack my “stuff” in layers while I am working on it, and still get right back to what I was working on with a flick of a finger,  this is one user friendly device. (See, I need one for work.)

·         Wireless printing to HP e-capable printers? Are you kidding? That is totally amazing!

·         Only about a bazillion apps!

·         Beat Audio, so I can listen to my favorite band with awesome quality! I mean, watch that edge of your seat training webinar.

·         This thing even has quick Office so I can read work docs on the go. And in 30 days the create and edit feature will be out. Smooth.

·         Kindle Reader & Store. Sweet! I was about to go purchase a Kindle, so now I can just apply those dollars to the TouchPad. My husband will be so excited I am saving him money!

·         Gorilla Glass, developed by Corning to be sturdier than the standard. Believe me, I need that.

·         Available Touchstone charger. You just lay the HP TouchPad on the easel and voila’, it charges!  You can even setup the charger so that when the TouchPad is charging it functions as say- an alarm clock. Hey, I can have a new alarm clock too. See I am saving money again!  (Ok, so I don’t need a new alarm clock, but don’t tell my hubby. Remember, I am saving money.)

·         Free Butler Service for 90 days. This is a help desk on steroids.  They can help you get your TouchPad setup, helping with things like transferring contacts, calendars and tasks. Setup email and IM, Transfer music, movies, and pics, learn more about backup and other features, plus answer any questions you might have.   I know I work for an IT firm, but I like to look stupid as little as possible. This way I can get help without the techs knowing I ever needed it. J

·         50GB of free online storage to view and share- from Office documents to audio and video files.  I can organize my content into folders, view it on my TouchPad, and share it with links!  

·         Of course Blue Tooth Wireless and a virtual keyboard.

·         And a 1.3 megapixel webcam. Much better picture than you-know-who.

·         One of my favorite features though is that this baby supports Flash! Now we are entering a new dimension!

It comes in 16GB for about $500, but for $100 more I can get the 32GB. Is that a real choice? 32GB here I come! Well, as soon as I wipe all the drool from my face.

IT Wizardry

As Information Technology becomes more convenient, enables productivity, and increasingly critical; it is also becoming more complex, faster paced, and more challenging for the average user to understand.  We all believe our computers should “just work.”  We see “Suzy SitsNextToUs” doing some amazing thing with her computer, so we should be able to that also, right?   Computers are not magic though and pixie dust does not flow through the cables at the back. 

When we don’t understand something, we tend to shy away from it.  The problem is that technology is only going to expand and continue to change. If we aren’t learning as much as we can and incorporating useful tools, we will be left behind.  In our personal lives we can sometimes afford to be behind the tech times, but in business it can spell disaster.  Take my parents for instance, granted they are older and their generation was not the PC generation, however I can remember as a kid my mother having one of the first home computers.  Just to be clear, at that time home computer was a relative term.  It took up a 6-foot spot in their bedroom, but we were “high-tech!”  You would think ground breaking techies that they were; my parents would have transitioned nicely into the tech age.  Not so!  The Internet was uncharted territory for them, and fear of the unknown kept them from enjoying the many amazing things it has to offer.  My mom was an officer for a non-profit and eventually had to turn over the reins to someone younger and yes, more technically savvy.  The days of waiting on standard mail to communicate with other people in the organization was long gone.  Accessing critical data from the web was a must and she just couldn’t keep up.  My mother, who in her younger days had been a pioneer, had become a technology dinosaur. 

Fast forward 10 years and today people are using technology in even more advanced ways.  Social Networking sites like FaceBook, MySpace, Google+, and Twitter, not to mention industry specific networks like Ozmosis or LinkedIn, are becoming more critical not just in the private sector; but in business as well.  The Healthcare Industry is facing serious IT upgrades as President Obama pushes for electronic health records.  Research shows that only 20% of physicians are effectively using this time and error saving technology.  Voice over IP Phone Systems are no longer only for the big corporations. People at all levels are discovering how truly effective a phone system can be.  Unless you want to be a Walmart greeter, you are required to use technology (even then you will use a computer to clock in).  A good IT firm managing your technology is a critical business decision to ensure you are using current technologies effectively and productively. 

Technology is here to stay whether you like it or not, so why not embrace it?  You might need assistance, but it is OK to ask for help.  I was with a non-profit organization years ago and we were given a $10,000 business class computer by a computer vendor.  We were so excited!  We were going to do the books on it, desktop publishing, and maintain employee files. Three months later it had never been turned on.   Everyone was scared to death of the thing.  I called the vendor rep and explained our situation and he asked me to stop by his office.  He had the same system in his office and went through the steps to turn the computer on; this was before the days of one simple power button.  He then told me something that has stuck with me for years.  “Diana, just do it.  Play around with it. Try different things.  The computer does not hate you and it will not do anything you do not tell it to do. Just remember to save often.”  I went back to the office and mastered the beast, discovering that it was not going to eat me alive.  Now I don’t know EXACTLY how the Internet works, and I am still learning new programs all the time.  When my computer locks up and a simple restart doesn’t work, I am just like you.  I am lost. I do know what to do though.

STEP 1:  Do not just aimlessly click. Resist the urge. I must resist the urge.

STEP 2: Stare blankly at the screen for 2 minutes to make sure I didn’t miss something (also known as the deer in the headlights look).

STEP 3: Pick up my handy dandy VoIP phone and call someone who knows more than I do!

Technology can make your life easier and more productive, but don’t mistake easier for the EASY BUTTON.  It is something you have to constantly learn and you must have the proper software and tools installed.  It’s not magic and it doesn’t take a wizard to operate it, just someone willing to stretch and keep on learning- and a good IT company on speed dial doesn’t hurt either!

Give the technology experts at Wood Networks a call- 903-581-0922. You can also change that to #1 on speed dial.

Security Warning!

Make sure the voicemail on your mobile phone is password protected.  As people in Britian found out, if your mobile phone is not password protected, anyone can hack into your VM. It is called ID spoofing, and it allows a hacker the ability to to call a cell phone and use spoof software to fool the system into thinking it is you calling from your phone. End result- they get your messages! So check right now. For many of us it is so automatic to check our voicemail that we don't even think about whether we are entering a password. If not, change your settings on your VM so you are password protected. You don't know how valuable your VM is until someone else has that information.

HP TouchPads

Did you know that the HP TouchPads are shipped with a 90 day from purchase free trail of  “WebOs Butler Service”?  This service provides customers with a WebOs expert on the phone or live chat. The service can help with the following:

·         Transfer contacts, calendar, and tasks

·         Set up email and IM (messaging)

·         Transfer music, movies, and photos

·         Use gestures to move around your device

·         Learn more about backup, Just Type and other features

Microsoft Announcement

Microsoft announced that it is now 1000 days until the end of life for Windows XP. Time for all those XP users to start the move to Windows 7. A few holdouts are due to programs that still have not become compatible to Windows 7, others because they are not in a place financially to make the change, and a few because XP is like an old comfortable shoe. I encourage you to look at Windows 7, great features and improvements over XP.

Do you really need the Internet?

How important has the Internet become to your business?  For most of us that answer is simple (VERY) and complex (What do you mean important?) at the same time.  The Internet is used every day at probably 80% of companies in East Texas. No, I don’t have any fancy polls or research data to support that. I am just going off good ole fashioned conversations I have had with people and claiming broad generalities.  That’s right I am in Marketing!  We use the Internet to send business communications via email, to keep in touch with business colleagues on LinkedIn, to reach prospects with email, blogs and Facebook.  We send backups into “the Cloud” and use hosted software products.  We manage employees and grant access for remote workers.  If you aren’t sure how important the Internet is to your company, try having your entire company stay off of it for one day. Just one.

Frantic will be the watch word of the day. Or maybe it will be frustrated-or both.

Internet usage is high up there these days in the rankings of business tools. That is why you need to do these five things:

1.       Choose your Internet Provider wisely.

2.       Know what up and down speeds to expect. Pay for a faster connection, if you even think you will need it.  Well worth the money.

3.       Install a good quality firewall. We suggest SonicWall products.

4.       Make sure you have the permissions on the firewall set correctly.  This will help you to secure the network, ensuring fewer viruses and better bandwidth speed.

5.       Hire a good IT Management Team. Of course we suggest Wood Networks- that would be us!  An IT Management Team can help you manage the network in such a way you will have fewer problems and more uptime. Not that they can keep your ISP from having an outage, but they can work on the other issues that sometimes interfere with the Internet and ensure your emails are not getting lost in cyberspace when there is an outage.

 Cut down on those frantic and frustrating days and give us a call! 903-581-0922

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