The right headset for business

In a regular office setting, headsets are often the ignored electronic device since everyone could just use the phone or use IM (instant messenger) to get in touch with an individual. But as technology is advancing and communication is getting easier with lesser cost, the use of VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) is gaining in importance. Since communication with the client is vital, a good headset should be in place to ensure client's loyalty as well as ease of acquiring new business partners.

Quality = Pricing

Quality headsets unfortunately, doesn't come cheap. Headsets with noise cancellation ability and better microphones will cost you. But this is just a small investment if you want to ensure that communication with your client is possible without interruption. You don't want your client to ask you to repeat what you said because the headsets are not working properly. You can't just blame technology if you lose your client.

Wireless vs. Wired

Wireless is always a good thing as this will lessen clutter in your workspace. But they are not the ideal headset. Wireless devices may save you from clutter but you become susceptible to other signals which could scramble the voice quality. If everyone is using wireless headsets, the possibility of signal scrambling especially if you are on a limited space is always there.

Single vs. Dual Ear

Although there are single ear headsets, it is highly recommended to have dual ear headsets. Aside from clarity, dual ear headsets will also prevent ear damage since noise and volume will be evenly distributed to both ears.

Bluetooth tips for businesses

Businesses should always find a way of boosting productivity through technology. Although humans can still improve in their productivity, technology will ease some of their tasks which will make them concentrate on more important functions. One of those technologies that should be harnessed by businesses is Bluetooth - a wireless data transfer protocol that will ease communication and other functions.

Most see Bluetooth as a device used mainly for mobile phone headsets. While Bluetooth is undoubtedly popular as a wireless headset device, there are other users for Bluetooth that has been proven efficient for businesses.

Ease in File Transfer

File transfer could always be done online or through LAN (Local Area Network) but when LAN is not available and data transfer online is very expensive. Bluetooth could become the protocol of choice. Bluetooth devices could transfer files without any problem. This is ideal when you are on the road and you need to transfer or receive files from a client or a business partner.

Access to Other Devices

Aside from using Bluetooth for file transfer, the device could also be used to connect to other devices without any cord. For example, you can have wireless keyboards and headsets in your computer for VOIP with the use of Bluetooth.

Security Concerns and Limitations

On the other hand, there are limitations that should be tackled constantly by Bluetooth users. The maximum transfer rate of Bluetooth is only at 1Mbps which is significantly lower. Bluetooth based attacks such as anonymous sending of documents with viruses should also be a point of concern. But these could be addressed as long as the user is conscious of other users and limiting access to recognized devices only.

The importance of web pages in business

Every company should need a good looking website. Your website is your face to the world and anything wrong with it will be criticized.

This is a little bit harsh for small businesses considering they are basically using free services in their websites (such as hosting) to properly inform their customers of what they do. They are practically saving money when they opt to use free tools and services on their websites.

But those who use free website hosting for their company are actually losing a lot more than saving. There are companies that offer web hosting for as little as $10 a month. For that amount, you can develop a good website and earn clients.

When you use paid web hosting, you will also have the advantage of having your domain. Companies or clients that want to work with you could easily remember your website. For example, a client will find it hard to remember a website named ultimatecleaners.multiply.com. But when you’re using only ultimatecleaners.com, your client can just type it in without having to remember the multiply part.

A free website is good for a personal blog or a personal website wherein you can share some pictures or updates. But a company, no matter how small it is, should always consider paid services for its website.

Linux OS: the ups and downs

Because of the disaster of Vista OS and the popularity of UMPC (Ultra Mobile Personal Computers), Linux has been placed in a spotlight like never before. Different versions of Linux are being released and they offer the freedom of selecting the experience that you want for your computers and laptops.

If you are looking to slash costs in your business, you should consider using Linux as your OS in your computers. Linux will provide you Operating System and supporting applications that you need without having to shell out a single cent. Using Windows as an operating system in your computers is great in terms compatibility but every installation in a local gadget will cost you at least $300 for standard configuration and applications (Windows OS and Microsoft Office). A small business could be saving thousands of dollars if they use Linux as an OS.

Security is also optimal in Linux. Most of the viruses and spyware today are OS specific which means attacks are usually geared towards Windows computers. In fact, if you think there are viruses in your flash drives or any removable storage device, you just have to plug it in to a Linux based computer and open it. All the viruses will be gone and your storage device is as good as new.

The downside of Linux is that it will require more than just simple familiarity of computers. You need to have an expert so that your computer will be properly configured according to your need. Networking is also a little bit challenging as you need more than just simple networking configuration.

Linux has its ups and downs. Just make sure you have enough knowledge to handle this particular type of OS to ensure success.

BlackBerry Storm to compete with iPhone 3G

Almost every six months, something new from the mobile world comes out to challenge the powerful iPhone 3G. A few months ago, specs on the upcoming Nokia 5800 XpressMusic were released and different reviews from the actual usage were released in no time. The verdict: it’s good but it’s still not here.

On the other hand, the Blackberry Storm was just released and early reviews have been impressive that most have come to say that it’s a possible iPhone crusher. Available in US through Verizon and Vodafone in Europe, Blackberry Storm has something no other phone has: ClickThrough technology. This technology senses the pressure of the fingers and reacts accordingly – too light and it will just browse through and click is implemented with a little additional pressure. It also has a very impressive multimedia feature which includes 3.2 megapixel camera, support for a slew of video formats (including H.264) and ability to work in both GSM and CDMA.

If there’s one thing lacking in Blackberry Storm, it’s Wifi. This is a little bit unfortunate since Storm has such features that could easily stump the iPhone 3G. Without the Wifi, everything else seemed to be a lot difficult since you are not able to browse through the internet. Aside from the lack of Wifi, the Blackberry Storm is currently priced at $199 after the mail in rebates from Verizon – the same as the 8GB version of the iPhone 3G.

Although it might not knock out iPhone 3G, it still packs a powerful punch with its multimedia features and ability to handle GSM and CDMA (which makes unlocking a great possibility).

Soccer nets on the network

Soccergoalzinc.com is an online store dedicated to goals for soccer and hockey. Different types of goals and soccer nets – from standard to kids’ rebound goal could be purchased from this website. Their prices are competitive and they are also heavy duty because of very sturdy materials included in the frame. They offer flat rate shipping for any type of goals which will give any customer especially those who are ordering the standard-sized goals, great savings.

But aside from goals that offer savings with high quality, the website offers actual pictures of the things they are selling. Most online stores provide processed pictures of their products but Soccergoalzinc.com offers something more. Most of the products on the website are photographed with users. You will see kids and adults playing in front of the soccer goals. These pictures of Soccer Nets give the buyer a good idea of the size and look of the goal.

The layout of the website is very simple that first time users could easily navigate through the pages. The information on each product is also very impressive as the size and as well as features of the goal is included. Check out their resources page as the website provides additional information on the goals and websites where you can find more sports equipment.

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Internet ad business increased despite economy

Internet advertising posted double digit growth for the third quarter this year. A growth of 11% was posted from the reports of Interactive Advertising Bureau. This double digit increase is significantly high given the global economy is fearing for a massive recession. This increase was compared to the third quarter performance last year.

Internet advertising posted total earnings of $5.9 billion this quarter. Not only this increase is significant compared to last year, this growth is also the second highest since the Interactive Advertising Bureau was established in 1996. The total revenue this year until the third quarter was reportedly at $17.3 billion. The figure represent an increase of a whopping 14% when compared to last year's revenues which was only $15.2 billion. Internet advertising has continued to face the challenges of tough economic times. Businesses and large corporations have realized that efficiency of internet advertising as it virtually knows no bounds. Internet advertising is also cost effective as companies could present a lot of data and information online without having to spend too much on production costs.

This data also presents a slow shift from traditional advertising to online advertising. As countries with established economies are quickly adopting digital services, online advertising is seen as a rising business and there are no indicators that it will die down considerably even with the tough economic times. The Internet Advertising Bureau is part of the New Media Group - a company owned by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Their data is considered the most credible for online advertising today.

Time and money in online business world

One of the most fundamental equations in physics relates energy and matter. It was created by Einstein and it basically says that matter and energy are interchangeable. You can have one or the other. If we borrow this equation and use it in the world of online business it still makes sense only matter and energy are replaced by money and time respectively.

This is simply a fancy way of saying that money and time tend to be interchangeable in the world of online business. You can spend time doing a particular task or you can spend money getting someone else to do the same task for you so that you can spend your time on something else. A good example of this is advertising. There are many free methods of advertising such as article and blog marketing that are just as effective over the long term as paid methods of advertising but the catch is that they tend to require a lot of time to pull off. Something like pay per click advertising on the other hand is very effective and takes practically no time at all to set up but at the same time requires a monetary investment.

Whenever you are figuring out tasks for your online business, you should be thinking not only in terms of time and money but also in terms of where the two can be interchanged. You can meet all of your goals for the month in your business even if you are short in one of the two just by increasing the amount of the other you invest into the system. Can't afford all your advertising goals? Spend some time doing free advertising instead.

Bleak future for Windows Vista

As soon as Vista came out as the next big OS of Microsoft Corporation, reviews from tech bloggers and regular users were available online and most of them are never satisfied with the latest offering of Microsoft. Even with the hyped commercials featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld didn’t helped at all. Microsoft even played “dirty” by renaming the OS as “Mojave” but the rose by any name would still smell as sweet. These actions didn’t help to meet the expected sales for the first quarter.

Some would blame the popularity of netbooks – smaller laptops that sacrifice specs and real estate on screen for portability. Since the processors and RAMs are relatively smaller, Vista would have a hard time running in these smaller devices. The increasing popularity of Linux and the chic (with high security) appeal for Mac has also placed a dent on Vista.

But tech bloggers pointed out that the main reason why Vista’s sales didn’t improve as expected is the non-adoption of businesses. XP has been in the market for years now and its relevance to modern computing is still there. Aside from the business perspective, adoption for regular XP users tends to be expensive. Although Vista has come out with SP2 to fix different bugs, it may be too late for Vista to gain momentum in sales.

Seeing the sales of Vista, Microsoft may have raised their white flag on the latest OS. Windows 7 is currently being hyped by Microsoft and early Alpha release will be available for developers soon.

Online business - handle with care

The current economic situation has really created problems for many online businesses. With money being at an all-time low for many of the people in the developed areas of the world, families and individuals are being forced to cut down on many costs. One of the costs is of course supplementary purchases and for the most part if you run an online business then you are in the business of selling supplementary items in one form or another. Therefore the downturn has likely affected you as well but there are steps you can take to make sure your online business is able to weather the downturn with a satisfactory end result.

The first thing you should do is try to cut down on your business expenses as much as possible. This means that you might consider downgrading your hosting plans to more affordable options that still get the job done while at the same time cutting down on advertising methods that cost you money. Instead of PPC advertising maybe you should do extra article marketing as the latter is free. That is just one example of many in ways to reduce your expenses without significantly cutting down on your inflows and it is solutions like that which ultimately help businesses weather tough economic periods.

Expansion into other free areas of marketing is another option you might consider but you need to be very careful about how you go about it in order to ensure that you do not become overextended. Overextension is the enemy of the online business and in the end it is a mistake that could prove fatal.

Online casinos: a safe way to play

I always considered online games safer than real life ones. Maybe because all I ever lost when playing was virtual money or some points. And of course I closed the page before becoming addicted to it. However, I like to live an “adventurous” life every now and then, so gambling web pages with free games are the right place. No need to travel or no need to fight for a machine with another person. Anyway, if you want to play with real money you can also do that online and choose poker, baccarat or any other game you would find in a real casino. There are also guides for beginners which will try to answer all your questions about online casinos, so that you can play safely.

Personally I prefer the free slots because they don’t require any strategy or sunglasses to be cool in front of your opponents. There are also few rules to obey and the machine will do the maths for you. You click the handle, the things start spinning and you see what you’ve got. You might even win and that will top up your balance and allow playing more.
We are living hard times. Maybe your budget is tight or insufficient for entertainment, so why not choose the online free alternative? You will find a slot game you’ll like to play at www.casino.de.

BT: Break Time

In London, if the need to communicate strikes you, better use the traditional ways: smoke signs, mural painting, envelopes sent through pigeons or mounted messengers. Forget about telephone, internet, fax or any other modern means of communication.

Forget about BT, mainly. Because BT forgets about you. Or they don’t even know you exist even if you have called them to ask for someone to come and install the telephone landline.

They say they will come next week, but there are so many future weeks in your life if you have an optimistic approach on it. If you are lucky you get someone coming later than agreed, do half the job then leave you with hope in your heart and a small hole in your wall. And then you have to call again and beg for someone to be sent and finish the work and give you the telephone line you want.

If their excuse is they don’t have enough staff, there are so many Eastern European boys out there looking for jobs and willing to pull some cables to make customers happy.

Unlock your phone, avoid the scams

I recently put my cell phone in the washing machine. I know, not a clever move but it was late, I was tired and I had too many pockets. So when I put my clothes out to dry the next day, I discovered my brand new Sony Ericsson would do nothing but vibrate. Thankfully, my girlfriend at the time had just received a new phone which she didn't need and let me keep hers. But that is only where my troubles started.

I tried using my card in it (which surprisingly still worked) but the phone was from a different provider so it would not read the card. So started my quest to unlock my telephone. I tried various shops around my neighbourhood, but the prices were ridiculously high because the phone was new. I tried at least 5 different places, they all said they could do it. Two of them did not even have the necessary codes and the other three wanted me to pay around a third of the telephone's actual price.

So I turned to the Internet. I tried various websites that gave out free codes, but of course their resources are limited so I could not find what I needed. Then I checked out sites where you pay and they provide you with a code to unlock your phone, but a few minutes of research later I realised the number of scams people are running involving this service. All I wanted was to simply type "unlock cell phone" and get a result, but things are never that simple.

Or are they? I was recently given the above link by a friend to a website that unlocks cell phones. Unlocktotalk.com is a guaranteed service that will unlock your phone and you can be sure you are avoiding scams as it is an established business. They have a very well organised site that is easy to navigate and get you to the code you need for your model telephone. What impressed me the most with them is the fact that if you have fallen victim to a scam and you email them the receipt sent to you by that website, they give you a 25% discount. So you can either wait a few months for the shop round the corner to get the codes and unlock your phone, or you can stay one step ahead of the game.

Tesco goes into banking

You know how on Saturdays you get up slightly earlier than you would on a Sunday to go out and do your weekly shop, buy some things for the house, maybe pop into the bank, perhaps pay in some money or withdraw some for the weekend, check your balance, maybe set up a standing order, get the newspaper, and fill up the car on the way back? Well at least it will be a far shorter journey from one service to the next.

Tesco is poised to buy the 50% stake that the Royal Bank of Scotland holds in Tesco's personal finance branch for £950 million, thus making the business wholly owned by the supermarket mammoth, so that it may develop its existing services, such as insurance (car, home, personal), and add new services, such as current accounts. They will also intensify their marketing campaigns for these services, in order to become a worthwhile competitor to other banks on the high street.

Even though Tesco has had insurance services for while now, it still only holds a small percentage of the market in that service. The supermarket company now hopes to improve their stake in the market by hiring former RBS execs to be on the board. It is strange that the same place where I bought half a kilo of Turkey breast fillet last night, at a reduced price of 90 pence I must add, will now also be able to arrange for my rent payments. Not necessarily a bad thing (although I can't really see an upside either) but definitely strange. Like a huge sort of creature that mutates,engulfs and incorporates what grows around it.

I'm dying to run into someone 15 years from now who runs a finance department but who started off in the frozen food section.

Internet piracy approaching the end?

I hope you are as lucky as I am to have caught the Knock Off Neville advertisement. For those of you who are not lucky enough to have seen it, it's a silly attempt by some ad exec to make downloading uncool, but so enjoyable to watch in its ineffective unrealistic childishness. They might as well go and pull file sharers' hair. Although I find this approach sophomoric to say the least, it does not detract from the fact that illegally downloading film and music is a grave concern to the media industry. But a new approach that I must say may be much more effective has been found.

In a plan agreed between the UK's largest Internet Service Providers and the government, persistent music sharers will start to receive letters warning them to stop illegally downloading and sharing music or face lowered bandwidth. As Internet speeds have increased over the last decade and MP3s are the most popular way of listening to music, the circulation of "ripped" CDs through file sharing networks has increased exponentially.

Virgin, BT, Tiscali, Orange, Carphone Warehouse and BSkyB have all signed up in order to warn their subscribers to desist from sharing music illegally. Initially, the companies will send letters to their users with high records of downloading. If the users continue despite the warnings, their speeds will be limited, thus making it extremely time consuming to do anything on the web while downloading large files.

The reason I find this will be the most effective is because of some of the characteristics of filesharing culture. I have known people in the past that were prolific filesharers. As a teenager I was Internet illiterate, but I had friends that were on the forefront of downloading music, either through networks such as Napster or by person to person filesharing done through chatrooms. It seemed strange to me that they exchanged so much music. Hundreds of records went back and forth. The numbers were so high that it was impossible for them to hear all the music they had received. But in many cases it was not a question of listening to a record from a band they liked, it was just collecting. It was, and probably still is, a fetishistic collection of music, to a certain degree.

This is why I find the "slow down" approach so clever. It may be fun for them to download music and they may ignore the letters sent to them, however when checking their email becomes as time consuming as it did when 56kbps was the fastest you could go, and they have to leave their pc on overnight to load a page with several high quality photos on it, the fetishism will give way to practicality. The plan has also attracted the attention of the Motion Picture Association of America, which has also been losing money through the circulation of their films on line.

So perhaps the end of free circulation of copywrited information on the Internet is approaching. With many companies now seeling filesharing services it is obvious that pressure would be put on those who offer the same services for free. But we will have to wait and see what happens.