Gerry Blackwell

USB external hard drives are a commodity item, but SimpleTech has managed to smartly differentiate its [re]Drive product as an environmental statement and an all-in-one backup solution. The [re]drive – we’ll use the more conventional Redrive from here on – is built using recycled aluminum and bamboo, a renewable resource. It also boasts a couple […]

Business printing has come a long way since the time, 20 years ago, when I shelled out more than $2,000 for a laser printer that could only print black text and graphics. Laser printers have changed a lot since then, as evidenced by the Samsung’s CLP-315W color model, which sells for a mere $200. This […]

One of the fast-growing trends in small business these days is teleworking ‑ employees working from home or away from the company’s main office. Surging gas prices driving up the already high cost of commuting and growing environmental concerns are just the most recent and headline-grabbing inducements that make telework increasingly attractive to both employers […]

Small business owners like Thanh Hua, owner of Selfish Box, a gourmet lunch caterer in Redmond, Washington, started her business a little more than two years ago with a simple concept: to provide catered lunches, mostly to corporate customers, featuring fresh foods, good nutrition and authentic cuisine from around the world. The lunches would be […]

Digital picture frames—LCD panels that sit upright on a table or shelf, or hang on the wall to display images—are a cool idea, and they’ve suddenly become a hot consumer item. But most are a pain to use. They rarely have enough onboard memory to hold a reasonable selection of photos and the only way […]

In the continuing quest for the perfect small business backup product – one that works simply enough that busy, non-technical workers will actually use it and get the protection they need from it – Storage Appliance Corp. may have struck gold. SAC’s ClickFree portable backup devices, portable USB drives with onboard backup software, do everything […]

Tricorp Federal Credit Union in Westbrook, Maine is a bean counting type of organization—a wholesaler to smaller retail credit unions in New England—and vice president and chief financial officer Fred Johnson is head bean counter. Johnson signed off on the implementation of a hosted IP PBX solution from VoIPnet Technologies last year—after analyzing the numbers […]

More and more big corporations are paying attention to green IT – looking for ways to reduce carbon emissions associated with information technology equipment and operations. Small businesses can and should do their bit, too. One easy way: choose a product such as Hewlett-Packard’s recent OfficeJet J6480 All-in-One Printer the next time you need to […]

A phone system can make or break a small company. Just ask Claire Evans, founder and president of AmaZulu Inc., a Florida-based purveyor of thatch and bamboo architectural products. Evans launched her company in 2002 after emigrating from South Africa. AmaZulu sells tropical-themed construction materials to zoos, restaurants and theme parks – including Disney. Its […]

Is there room in the market for yet another Web-based collaboration service? After all, we already have WebEx and GoToMeeting, among others. Yugma Inc., a Minneapolis company that recently launched version 3 of its collaboration software, thinks the answer is Yes. We tested the service recently and came away frustrated initially, but in the end […]

Most business owners need a safe place to store and easily access vital data, and many also need to share documents ‑ or collaborate on their creations ‑ with remote colleagues, customers or suppliers. If that’s true for you, the solution could be in the cloud. That’s cloud, singular – geek lingo for the part […]

Integrus Brand Solutions Inc., a marketing and promotions firm based near Toronto, Canada, is typical of a lot of small businesses. It lives by the phone. Voice communication is absolutely vital to most of its 50 or so employees. Like a lot of small businesses, Integrus invested some years ago in an expensive PBX (Private […]