Small Business Computing Staff

PCWorld: Antivirus Shootout – Free vs. Fee PC World considers the question of whether it makes sense to pay for antivirus software when many vendors also offer stripped-down free versions. Do you need a paid-for product? Maybe, say the authors. But not necessarily. “Depending on whom you ask, paying for antivirus software is either a […]

Small Business Trends: Optimizing Your Small Business Home Page – 14 Tips Fisher pulls ideas and advice from a variety of presentations. Some of it is familiar enough – use Google Analytics – and some of it is fairly technical, but if you’re looking for quick-hit help to boost website performance, this is a place […]

Engadget: Dell Introduces Ultraportable With New Cooling System The Dell Vostro V130 comes with Intel Core i3 or i5 processors, 4 GB of memory and a 13.3-inch screen. It weighs under 4 lbs. and prices starts at $429. “Back when we reviewed the Dell Vostro V13 we had a few complaints, including the fact that […]

Smallbiztechnology.com: The Next Data Security Panic – Employee Smartphones This post draws attention to the increasingly important issue of employees using their private smartphones for business-related tasks, with the result that sensitive data may be residing on unprotected devices. “Well the ‘cat’s out of the bag’ that business professionals are blending their personal lives and […]

PCWorld: Laptop Brands You Can Trust – Reliability And Service Reports PC World magazine issues its annual report cards on reliability and service levels on tech brands. They’re based on surveys of end users. Other reports, including on smartphones and desktop PCs, are linked from this article. “Overall, laptop reliability is improving gradually: 25.9 percent […]

Entrepreneur: Website Multimedia Made Easy Author Dan Briody’s advice for adding multimedia to a small business website is a good place to start, but mostly broad and conceptual – eg. strike a balance, give users control, keep it short – rather than hands on an nuts and bolts. “The Web has exploded into a spectacle […]

Smallbiztechnology.com: Digital Signage: Onsite Digital Marketing For Retail Retail small businesses looking for a way to boost revenues and customer buy-in should consider digital signage. Research shows that more customers see video on digital signs than see Web video or Facebook. (Link to article from HP.) “These days, it is tough to decide where your […]

PCWorld: Free Photo Editing Tools Suitable For Home And Business PC World magazine comes up with a list of eight image editing tools, all free to download. Some only do simple editing tasks – but may still be adequate for small business Web page chores. Others include more sophisticated features and functions but may take […]

Entrepreneur: Six BlackBerry Rivals Ideal For Business There was a time when shopping for a smartphone for your small business meant shopping for a BlackBerry from Research in Motion (RIM). It was the only rational choice. But that’s not true anymore as this line-up of six business-friendly – if not necessarily business-oriented – smartphones makes […]

Wired: Buyers Guide – Mobile Phones This guide reviews and compares the major national carriers and explains what to look for in a mobile phone – from basic features such as operating system, text entry and multimedia, to extras such as Wi-Fi, 3G/4G and more. “Phone shopping is more complicated than it was in the […]

Wired: Office Plugin Brings Google Apps-style Collaboration To Word Google Cloud Connect, a new Office plugin from Google, should be attractive to small business users, says PC World’s Keir Thomas, but Google makes a mistake by not reassuring them about cloud-related security concerns. “Google has begun testing an intriguing plugin for Microsoft Office. Google Cloud […]

Wired: New Search Engines Eliminate Spam Results DuckDuck and Blekko, two upstart search engine companies, are partnering so that users of their two services will benefit from both technologies – Blekko’s curated search results and DuckDuck’s spam-removing algorithms. “Two search upstarts are partnering and sharing technology to scramble further into the lucrative, but daunting, online […]