Small Business Computing Staff

SMB News From Network World: Nokia To Enter Tablet Computer Fray If you’re trying to figure out what to do about tablet computers, it just got a little more complicated. According to analyst Ashok Kumar, Nokia is working with suppliers to bring a tablet to market this fall. Nokia is working with suppliers and designers […]

Small Business Trends: Social Media Marketing School For SMBs Lisa Barone offers a compendium of sources of information that small business owners can use to learn more about social media marketing, including blogs (she lists several), online communities and webinars. “We joke about how many ‘social media experts’ are out there these days and that […]

The New York Times: The Camera That May Be ‘Just Right’ For SMBs SLRs are too big and clunky, and too expensive. And point and shoot cameras don’t deliver the necessary quality. Compact ‘micro four thirds’ cameras, a new class, may be the perfect compromise. “Any serious photographer can quickly point out the benefit of […]

Entrepreneur: How To Make A Mobile, Distributed Business Work Really Well Entrepreneur magazine profiles HALO Business Advisors, a distributed consulting firm with no headquarters location whose principals spend most of their time on the road. It can be done. “HALO Business Advisors–aka Team HALO–is an organization whose principals travel around the United States teaching hospitality-based […]

The New York Times: Text Message Marketing – It Works While e-mails from direct marketers go unread, people still read text or SMS messages, even when they come from companies trying to sell them something. Could you use this? “Mobile text messaging, the same 160-character dispatches first popularized by nimble-fingered teenagers, may be the closest […]

PCWorld: Review – Lenovo ThinkPad X100e Netbook It offers good performance and a high-resolution screen, but battery life is poor and it’s relatively expensive – $418 to $479. “Is the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e a netbook or an ultraportable? The answer seems to be: a little of both. It’s faster than most netbooks, with a larger, […]

PCWorld: Apple Acknowledges iPad Wi-Fi Issues An Apple Knowledgebase article acknowledges there are issues with Wi-Fi connectivity but confines itself to providing fixes and work-arounds for a few limited situations involving multi-band routers. Customers say the problems are many and varied. “If you feel like your brand-new iPad isn’t working with wireless networks the way […]

Forbes: Protecting And Nurturing Your Online Reputation Online reputation is important whether you’re an invididual or a company, as stories about job candidates being outed as scoundrels by their Facebook pages and companies failing to take corrective action when they’re dissed online make clear. “We’ve all heard the stories of Joe, a job candidate who […]

PCWorld: iWork For iPad – A Basic Business Suite It’s not Microsoft Office, but iWork for iPad does the basics. PCWorld does a first test of the suite, which includes word processor, spreadsheet and presentation creator. “If the iPad wants be taken seriously as a business tool, it’s going to need an office suite. So […]

Small Business Trends: Turning Your Blog Into A Profit Center This blog post from David Garland argues that there are lots of ways that small businesses can make money from blogging. It features a link to a video interview with Chris Brogan who explains how to do it. “This question comes up a lot especially […]

InformationWeek SMB: Drobo FS Launches SMB Backup Solution The Drobo product offers expandability to 10TB, ease of use and advanced RAID technology. “Data Robotics made a play for the small, remote, and home office markets today with the release of Drobo FS. The storage vendor positions the 5-bay network attached storage (NAS) unit as simple, […]

PCWorld: HP Slate – Details About iPad Killer Leaked The new tablet computer from Hewlett-Packard will list for $550 and $600 and features a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 processor and an 8.9-inch 1024 x 600 capacitive multi-touch display. “Hewlett-Packard this week started leaking information about its upcomping tablet computer, apparently hoping to take advantage of […]