Category: Top Story

The ProBook 5330m: A New Business Laptop from HP Combines Sleek Design with Pro Media Features

by Shy Mukerjee

You’d be forgiven if at first glance you mistook the HP ProBook 5330m, pictured right, for a MacBook Pro.  The brushed aluminum chasis and backlit chiclet keyboard are both plays straight out of Apple’s book. These are a part what HP is calling FORGE, a new design framework that brings a contemporary look to HP’s line of professional laptops.

Less than an inch thick, under four pounds, and sporting a 13.3″ HD screen, the ProBook 5330m is not a typical business offering from the company. HP reps at a recent New York City event told me that they’re starting to broaden their horizons for what can be considered a product for their corporate customers. With features like Beats Audio built-in, the new ProBook brings high-quality media playback capabilities to an attractive and rugged machine. Apparently, business laptops can no longer be sold entirely on the strengths of their corporate-friendly features—employees are increasingly demanding laptops that they want to bring home.

The 5330m is built on top of Intel’s latest notebook technologies, with Sandy Bridge-backed Core i3 and i5 dual-core processors available. It is available today starting at a very reasonable $799.

Small Biz Tips with SmallBizTechnology.com

by Shy Mukerjee

We are pleased to work with Ramon Ray, CEO and editor of SmallBizTechnology.com, journalist, and technology evangelist, to bring you new Small Biz tips. Each week they’ll be sharing videos and articles featuring hot topics, products and trends in small business.

Game Changing Innovation: Insight From Four View Points – Kawasaki, Belsky, Brogan, Ray

Four highly influential voices in the business world—Ramon Ray, Guy Kawasaki, Scott Belsky and Chris Brogan—share their insights from the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show on how to create game-changing innovation. From new ideas to technology , and from mobility to increased productivity,  get advice on how to elevate the customer experience and think proactively about what pieces of information matter most in order to compete and win.

Is Your Payment Processing Service Adequate? A Chocolate Company Switches to Sage Payment Solutions

Hospitality is a passion for John and Sue Elliott, owners of Davidson Chocolate Company.  The couple originally left their corporate jobs intent on becoming bed and breakfast hosts. But a twist of fate led them to a little chocolate shop in the mountains of North Carolina.

“It had been closed for two and half years. The chocolate was still wonderful, and the hundred-year-old recipes were still great. The business itself looked horrible, but we couldn’t see how we could fail,” said Sue. “We had a lot of reputation to repair and rebuild, but in five years it grew dramatically.”

With the store doing well, the couple kept brainstorming on how they could grow their business. The answer came when their son invited them to consider moving the business to Davidson, just outside of Charlotte. The couple agreed, and in 2008 opened their first Davidson Chocolate Company store. Read about this small business’ experience switching to a new payment processing system.

5 Reasons Your Power Point Presentations….Suck. How To Make Your Next One Rock

Power Point is one of the most popular business tools on the market. We all use it when giving presentations. However, just about every Power Point I see used is NOT used effectively. Having said that John “ColderICE” Lawson, Chris McCann (President of 1800-Flowers), Jim Fowler (founder of JigSaw) and other speakers used Power Point to mind blowing effectiveness at the Small Business Summit 2011 (by Dell).

Microsoft’s recent spoof videos highlight the top reasons your presentation can be a disaster.

Android Owners get a Native Google Docs App

by BrothaTech

Nothing speaks to mobile productivity more than the ability to access, edit, and share documents no matter where you are (or what device you are using). The Google Docs online document storage/sharing service has a mobile-friendly site where mobile device users can do most if not all of the above mentioned. But nothing says “You’ve arrived” nowadays more than an actual app, and Android owners now can bask in the glory that is the new Google Docs app.

The short and sweet of the native app versus a mobile-friendly site is that you have greater functionality since a native app takes advantage of the technology built inside your phone versus more “universal” features for multiple devices. The Google Docs app for Android does just that. In addition to being easier to search and filter content, edit documents on the fly and share them with anybody in your phone’s contact list, The Google Docs app adds greater functionality that can’t be done via a web app or mobile-friendly site. Read More

Blackberry PlayBook: A New Kind of Tablet?

by Shy Mukerjee

With Apple holding a near-monopoly of the Tablet market (currently at 73% market share) , and Honeycomb-based Android tablets finally hitting the market, is there room for a brand new platform?  RIM, creators of the BlackBerry series of smartphones, seems to think so, this week releasing their Wi-Fi only PlayBook tablet running a custom-designed operating system and architecture.  With prices starting at $499 for the 16GB model, is the PlayBook a legitimate 3rd option in a market in which Apple had nearly a year head start?  Today, we take a look. Read More

Latest Evernote for Android Update goes BIG

by BrothaTech

Quoted from the Evernote Blog:

This is the first time that we have crammed this many great features into a single release of any Evernote product

In other words, Android folks who swear by Evernote as their go-to “put everything here” service should be in for a nice surprise the next time they check their app update status. Just a few key features include:

  • A progress bar at the top that shows you exactly what is being synced
  • A new ever-so-sexy widget bar that lets you quickly jump into the app to create text, audio and snapshot notes, as well as to perform searches
  • Maps and location. Now in addition to just tagging your notes with location information (if your phone’s GPS in enabled), you can now see all of your notes locations visually on a map.
  • Posting notes directly to your Facebook wall, Gmail, and Twitter accounts in just a couple taps.
  • Browse and edit shared notebooks. If other Evernote users have shared notebooks with you, you can now search for notes within those shared notebooks and edit them if necessary.

Those are just some of the features that come with the free Evernote version. Premium subscribers have the extra functionality of a PIN lock that enables you lock your data with a pin. This comes in handy when you share a mobile device (like a tablet) with multiple users, but still need to keep them away from your data.

The Evernote Blog claims to have even more features in store for Android users. With all the current features and capabilities currently being offered for free, there is no reason why you can’t stay organized on the go. But just in case you don’t believe me, download Evernote for Android and try it for yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usUg-CdJEKo&feature=player_embedded

Square Reader on Sale at Apple

by BrothaTech

This is pretty cool. In an attempt to make even more waves in the mobile credit card processing arena, Square has teamed up with Apple to sell the Square card reader online and in Apple retail stores. Previous to this announcement, the readers were only sent via snail-mail to users who went through the Square sign up and activate process. Now Square has some help from Apple to get the popular readers into small business owner’s hands.

The Readers are $9.95 and are also available in black. If you’re an early adopter like me and signed up as soon as they were being offered, you only had a choice of white. For those with a little more patience, you will be rewarded with your choice of white or black. Those of us who MUST have a black reader to match our Apple gadgets (God only knows when the white iPhone 4 will officially surface), you can still buy it at full price, but Square is offering customers a $10.00 transaction credit when a new Square account is activated. That’s only fair since original customers who signed up were issued a free reader.

All of same features still exist for new Square users who buy the reader at Apple:

  • Quick and easy sign-up
  • No complicated contracts or monthly fees
  • Simple pricing—2.75% per transaction
  • Free Square mobile App for Apple iOS and Android devices

If you’re a small business that won’t swipe enough credit cards to require a full merchant account, but want to offer your customers more ways to pay—march into your local Apple store, pick up a Square reader, sign-up, and get to swiping.

CONTEST: Win a Wireless Powermat charging station (with two receivers!)

by Shy Mukerjee

The response to our last contest was great, so we’re doing it again!  This time, we’re giving away a Wireless Powermat charging station and 2 charging receivers: one for iPhone 3G & one for Blackberry Bold.  Did you read Terrance’s post yesterday about Portable Power for your Mobile Devices? You don’t have to feel anxious about running out of battery power – just make sure you have some kind of system in place! This contest couldn’t be easier to enter.  For a chance to win a Wireless Powermat charging solution, we just need you to do two things:

1. Like our page on Facebook by clicking on the link, making sure you’re signed into Facebook, and then clicking the ‘Like’ button on that page.

2. Share a link to this contest on Facebook.  The easiest way to do this is to use the ‘Like’ button above the picture on this page or to visit this link and hit the ‘Share’ button.

That’s it!  The names of all qualified entrants will be put into a list at noon on Sunday, April 17th and one winner will be chosen by the random number generator over at Random.org. And don’t forget, if you want the latest updates on Small Business tech news, gadgets, and apps to follow us on twitter!

Choose a FREE Mobile Internet Solution on AT&T Premier

by Shy Mukerjee

Sure, Wi-Fi is great, but it isn’t everywhere. What if you need a guarantee that anywhere you go, you can get your computer online? The AT&T USBConnect Shockwave 4G connects to your laptop and allows you to work virtually anywhere.  Or, you can connect up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices with the AT&T Mobile Hotspot MiFi® 2372.

Both are FREE for a limited time:  Check it out!

(2-yr. agreem’t on min. $50/mo. DataConnect plan req’d. 4G in ltd. areas. Add’l restr. apply. This message brought to you by our sponsor, AT&T)

Portable Power for Your Moble Devices

by BrothaTech

I don’t know about you, but I break out in hives and develop a slight twitch when my mobile device’s battery indicator drops below 15%. My symptoms really get bad when I am nowhere near a power outlet and/or don’t have my laptop bag filled to brim with cables ready to power each and every device I own.

For those times when plugging in to charge a mobile device is NOT an option, portable power is the answer. The arena is relatively new, but is a must as more and more people depend on mobile devices to get them through the day. So I am going to feature three different options that will wake you up from a mobile battery drain nightmare.

Read More