By Anne Shenton
Who doesn’t love a nice big flat screen TV? Staples in homes across America, they’re now becoming more and more commonplace in the office. They’re good for more than just watching ESPN in the break room, too. With a little creativity, they can become a valuable business tool.
Here are 3 ways you can put your office’s flat screen to work.
A flat screen TV with web browsing capabilities. Don’t have web browsing on your TV? You can buy an Apple TV for $99 to get all the functionality you’ll need.
Dynamic lobby graphics are sure to impress your visitors as soon as they step in the door. You can create your own images to display or you can hire a professional graphic designer to setup your graphics. . The dimensions for your graphic will need to be 1280 pixels wide … Keep reading
By Anne Shenton
Every year, I pick the brains of our resident fortune tellers to gather their technology predictions for the coming year. So far, their track record has not disappointed!
First, let’s take a look at how well our 2012 predictions held up:
Richard Baker’s (Account Manager) 2012 Predictions:
True. According to CDW’s Small Business Mobility Report, email apps are used most for work-related purposes (80% of mobile users access work email from their devices). However, calendar apps (76%), GPS/navigation apps (69%), document reading apps (56%), social media apps (45%) and file storage apps (40%) have also become widely used for work purposes. It’s clear that users want to use their devices for work, but … Keep reading
By Anne Shenton
This post contains five different scenarios a company might face when it comes to managing technology. In each scenario, we compare the one-man-shop’s reaction to the full-service technology firm’s.
Scenario 1: Break-fix vs. Proactive
An accounting firm’s staff is using old workstations that need to be replaced.
One-Man Shop: Steve, the managing partner for the firm, calls the same computer guy who ordered their existing workstations years ago. He hasn’t heard much from him since then. The computer guy sends over a quote for the new equipment and orders the new workstations. A few days later, he comes in to install them. For a few weeks, everything is working perfectly, but then Steve notices a dramatic increase in the number of viruses the staffers are getting. Steve calls the computer repair guy, who had not installed or recommended antivirus software or a firewall. The computer guy is up to … Keep reading
By Anne Shenton
One of our tech tips readers asks:
“Can you change the color of the cursor in Windows without downloading some suspicious software to handle it?”
The answer: Absolutely!
Windows has an option in the Accessibility menu that allows you to change the color of your cursor. For Windows XP users, follow these instructions from eHow. For Windows 7 and Vista users, follow these instructions:
By Anne Shenton
What’s on the horizon in 2012? I sat down with Richard Baker (Account Manager) and Ryan Williams (Partner & CTO) to get their predictions for the coming year.
Richard’s Predictions:
By Anne Shenton
Last year, several of my coworkers put in their Technology Predictions for 2011. Did they come true? Let’s go back in time and take a look:
Richard Baker: Account Manager
1) The cloud discussions will move from “when” to “how”.
Cloud computing definitely took the spotlight this year and became a practical option for small and mid-sized businesses. Whether you’re talking about private, public or hybrid cloud solutions, the adoption rate for cloud computing skyrocketed this year and will only continue to grow in the years to come.
2) Verizon will launch a 4g iPhone.
The Verizon iPhone 4 launched in February, paving the way for other carriers to offer the popular product later in the year.
3) Cybersecurity concerns will remain a hot topic.
This is definitely true. Small and mid-sized businesses have become especially vulnerable. Hackers often identify SMB’s as easy targets because they have valuable information but … Keep reading
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Last year, I asked several folks here at Nexxtep to tell me about their favorite smartphone apps. It’s that time of year again! Here are some more of our favorite smartphone apps for 2011. Enjoy!
Richard Baker, Account Manager
By Ryan Williams
These extremely flexible … Keep reading
By Anne Shenton
Dropbox is a useful and easy to use tool for sharing information between multiple computers and mobile devices. If you have Dropbox, you probably love using it to collaborate with coworkers and to access information when you’re on the road. Dropbox is a great tool for personal use too! Check out these 4 simple tricks you can use to get even more use from it. If you don’t have Dropbox, these easy tricks might persuade you to sign up, which you can do here.
1.) Share Photos by Using a Shared Folder
Use Dropbox to share family photos with your relatives. It’s easy. Just create a new folder within your Dropbox folder. Then, right click on the folder and select “Share this folder…” in the Dropbox menu as seen below.
Then your web browser will open up and you’ll see this screen.
Enter the email addresses of the family … Keep reading
By Anne Shenton
This week, Spotify, an extremely popular online music service in Europe, made its way to the US for the first time. With over 15 million tracks to choose from, Spotify gives you access to more songs than any other service. And guess what? It’s free.
Unlike Pandora or Last.fm, Spotify allows you to listen to any song at any time. A few months ago, I wrote about a similar service called Grooveshark. Although Grooveshark will allow you to search for and listen to any song of your choosing, the variety of music is not as extensive. Also, Spotify’s interface is much more refined and user-friendly.
With the Premium version ($9.99 per month), you can listen to Spotify on your mobile device, and you can download music directly to your device so that you won’t need a WiFi or 3G connection to access your music.
Spotify is only in … Keep reading
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