With all the talk of gift-buying, we forget that the holiday season is also a great time to take stock on tech for your business. Getting the right tech as an entrepreneur or small business is tough. Since you can’t take advantage of the bulk discounts that larger companies get, you have to be a little more creative when it comes to getting the right tech for your business. Thankfully, the holiday shopping season is a perfect time to score some great tech at a discount if you know how to find it.
Category: Small Biz Go Mobile
Will you be using the iPhone’s Photo Stream to Share Pictures this Holiday Season?
The latest Apple ad just hit the web, and it shows off one possibly-overlooked feature of the Photos app—shared photo streams that let you quickly and easily share your Holiday photos with friends and family.
It’s a pretty neat idea, but what do you think: Will you be using Photo Stream to share pictures this Holiday season? Or is there another service you prefer?
How my little brother pissed off @deadmau5 & how changes to YouTube and Socialcam affect you
My little brother recently got into a fight with the world-famous electronic musician deadmau5 (pronounced “dead mouse”) in the comment section on a YouTube video. That’s just like little brothers right? Here’s the story. deadmau5 is pretty opinionated when it comes to music, and even has a whole section of his Wikipedia article devoted to disparaging comments he’s made about DJ’s. Basically, his argument is that DJ’s often do little more than get up on stage and hit “play.”
My little brother is a DJ, so needless to say he took offense, and posted a 3-minute rant video directed at Deadmau5 on YouTube. You can watch it yourself, or simply check out their back and forth in the comment section:
That deadmau5 came out to leave a comment is a pretty big deal, but obviously my little brother is still upset. So what’s this fight really about?
Content Creation vs. Curation
Let me define some terms: content creation is when you make an original work. Whether that’s a song, a video, a painting, a blog post, anything that is an original work that you or a team make. Even if you’re not a world famous artist, and even if you don’t have a YouTube channel, you probably still create your own work from time to time. Your tweets, for instance, are your own creations.
But not your retweets. When you share content online, you’re curating it. Finding other great sources of original content online and sharing it. Whether you’re doing it on Tumblr, Facebook or Twitter, today there are tons of great avenues to curate content online and become known for sharing it.
iPad Mini with 4G LTE Available Starting Today
How time flies. It seems like just yesterday all we could talk about was the iPad Mini. What would it look like? How much would it cost? The speculation was fun, and seemingly endless. But now that the device is out, have you forgotten about it? Unlike a lot of Apple product launches, it’s difficult to say what the reaction has been. On one hand, lots of people took to Twitter to express their surprise and disappointment that the iPad Mini didn’t come in at a lower price point. But on the other hand, the flagship Apple store in NYC had enormous lines even though the city was (and is) still reeling from Hurricane Sandy, and Apple has boasted record sales (they they always do though, don’t they?).
Bottom is line is that as polarizing as the new Apple iPad Mini may be, and however many other competitors are out there, lots of people still want it. Given how many people are already using the iOS ecosystem, and the unparalleled user experience provided by iDevices, it’s hard to blame them. If you’re one of those people, you’ll be happy to know that Apple has finally made the iPad Mini with 4G LTE available. Pricing starts at $459 for the 16GB model. 32 GB will set you back $559, and 64GB $659. As usual, Apple is claiming that they don’t have enough devices to keep up with demand, so if you’re committed to the iPad Mini it makes sense to order soon!
Click here to order your iPad Mini with 4G LTE from AT&T.
Don’t Forget: Last Chance to Enter to Win One of 10 Accessories from AT&T!
UPDATE: The contest has ended and winners are being contacted. To see if you won, check the widgets after the jump!
How the New Microsoft Office 365 Can Work for Small Business
The idea behind the new Office 365 is that there are two key needs for small businesses these days: mobile accessibility and streamlined IT. After all, time spent dealing with tech headaches is time you’re not actually working on your business. Office365 seeks to streamline your tech by providing all your productivity apps through one cloud-based service, and can include the Microsoft Office Suite so many of us have come to rely on.
Exchange Online
Exchange email is probably not a new idea for you. The trouble is, running an exchange server for email is complicated and not cheap. Microsoft has figured out how to have exchange email live online, so you can sync and manage email, calendars and contacts across devices. There are even shared calendars, just like the real (now old-fashioned) deal.
What Is Beats Audio Technology? Does It Live Up to the Hype?
One of the big complaints about sound from laptops, smartphones, and even dedicated mp3 players is that the sound quality is pretty awful. And generally that’s a fair complaint; a good pair of headphones will go a long away toward making the sound better, but the actual design of the device is still going to affect how well the headphones can even works. That’s the problem that Beats Audio purports to solve: making better hardware and software that works together so you can enjoy some actual quality in your music.
First Look at the Google Nexus 4
The Nexus 4 is the latest smartphone from Google and LG, and is available to own for the low, contract-free price of $299. Is it a good deal? Check out the video above to find out!
To order a Nexus 4, visit:
How to Use Microsoft Office on Your Tablet or Smartphone
One of the questions we get asked most often is about how to use Microsoft Word and Excel on tablets and smartphones. And while we love using iPads and other tablets to work whenever and wherever, but until now there hasn’t been a great native solution for those devices. Instead we’ve been using Android and iOS apps to try to recreate the laptop or desktop experience.
But starting today, Microsoft has partnered with AT&T to create a cloud-based Office Suite, so you can have Microsoft Office on all your devices. They’re calling it Office365, and the idea is that the cloud can provide everything you need to be productive on any device. Using the cloud actually enables lots of professional-level IT tools beyond just the Office Suite, which we’ll talk about later this week, but for now we’ll just concentrate on getting you up to speed on the Office Web Apps mobile stuff. Read More
Save $100 On Any AT&T Tablet, Including New Galaxy Tab 2 10.1
Thinking about buying a tablet? Make sure you check out AT&T first! They’re offering $100 off any tablet with a 2 year agreement. Yeah you read that right: any tablet. And that includes brand-new devices, like the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 which launched Friday.
The Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 was initially announced a few months ago in NYC, but we had no idea about pricing or release date. Now we know that the contract price is $499.99, minus AT&T’s $100 deal, of course. The Tab 2 is a 10″ device running Android 4 that weighs all of 1.28 pounds, and features 16GB of integrated storage and a 32GB-capable MicroSD card slot. If you’d like to compare that to some of the other tablets out there on the market right now, check out our handy tablet comparison guide.
If you’re looking for your tablet to work seamlessly with your PC, you can also use the $100 off on any of AT&T’s Windows 8 tablets. Both the Asus VivoTab RT and the Samsung ATIV Smart PC are being offered exclusively from AT&T. The Asus VivoTab is a 10.1″ 4G LTE tablet with 32GB of storage. It will also come standard with Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013 RT Preview Edition. But you’ll have to wait: the Asus VivoTab RT won’t be coming till November 16th.
If you’re looking for a Windows 8 tablet now, consider the ATIV. The Samsung ATIV is actually more like a hybrid tablet/computer. The screen is a larger 11.6,” and the device comes with 64GB of storage (unheard of for a tablet) and an Intel Atom Processor. But at 11″ the device is still highly portable, and features a clamshell cover that can be detached if you want to use the machine more like a tablet. It’s a good compromise between portability and productivity that would make a great option for a business traveler, and AT&T’s $100 off deal makes it a good time to buy.
Want to check out the full range of tablets AT&T has on sale? Go to http://www.att.com/100offtablets and take a look: you can get $100 off any tablet AT&T has to offer!