Small Business Computing Staff

PCWorld: Microsoft Office 365 – Everything You Need From MS, Online The new cloud-based offering comes in multiple versions, including one targeted at companies with fewer than 25 users, priced at $6 per user per month. “Microsoft made its long-awaited move to package the hosted version of Office with the hosted versions of Lync, SharePoint […]

Small Business Trends: Online Project Management Apps That Boost Productivity This roundup includes short reviews of 20 project management programs, including Microsoft Project, Huddle, Zoho Project and Central Desktop. “Taking a vacation is often a catalytic event. It jump-starts your work processes so you get more done in less time–all so you can get out […]

New York Times: Managing Your Online Reputation – 7 Crucial Steps Henry Posner of B&H Photo offers seven tips for ensuring you get good reviews from customers at your e-commerce site. They include admitting you’re wrong when you are and apologizing, defending yourself calmly when you’re right and keeping in mind that customers don’t always […]

PCWorld: Windows Phone 7 – A Viable Alternative To iPhone And Android? PCWorld’s Ginny Mies argues that, while it has several attractive features, Windows Phone 7’s success will depend on whether Microsoft can foster an eco system of developers to produce apps to extend its new mobile operating system’s functionality. “Windows Phone 7’s splashy launch […]

PCWorld: Roundup – Best Cloud-based Password Managers Reviewer Robert L. Mitchell looked at Agile Web Solutions’ 1Password, Clipperz from Clipperz SRL, LastPass from the company of the same name and RoboForm from Siber Systems Inc., testing them with four different platforms: Windows 7, Windows XP, Mac OS and iPad. “What good is a secure password […]

Small Business Trends: How To Create Stunning Business Videos For Your Website Suggestions for winning website videos include making the video personal, including tutorials, adding tunes and posting to YouTube. “Video content is in – it has been proven that websites yield better responses when a video is featured. It’s no surprise; the average Web […]

PCWorld: Save Your Cloud Mail Locally With Gmail Keeper Gmail Keeper downloads your messages – or whichever subset of them you specify – and stores them on your computer in compressed format. “Even the biggest companies can suffer outages, and Internet access is not always available. These factors cast a dark shadow of doubt over […]

New York Times: Preview – Mobile Solid State USB 3.0 Drive From Iomega New USB 3.0 drives transfer data much quicker than older USB 2.0 drives, Williams points out, but not many computers have USB 3.0 connections yet and a competing standard may supplant it. “Combine the advances in capacity for solid-state drives with the […]

Social Media Today: How To Use LinkedIn To Manage Relationships Author Bryan Howland walks through the basic benefits of LinkedIn and offers a primer on setting up and leveraging your LinkedIn account to manage business relationships. “Business is a contact sport – because human contact, connections, and cooperation form the cornerstones of business. Establishing, building, […]

PCWorld: Microsoft Report Says Botnets A Huge Problem The report explains that bots, rogue programs planted on computers and used to steal data or remote control the computer, are the basis for much online criminal activity. “Microsoft this week unveiled the ninth volume of its Security Intelligence Report (SIR). The semi-annual assessment of the state […]

AllBusiness: 11 Tools For Measuring Website Effectiveness TJ McCue talks about the importance of measuring and evaluating how well your small business website is working and links to tools such as Feedback Army and User Voice. “Each of these 11 tools or services offers a very affordable way to test your website or even your […]

ITBusinessEdge: Review – Peplink 380 Multi-WAN Router Using multiple Internet service providers can deliver better speed and reliability of service, but you need a multi-WAN (wide area network) router such as the Peplink model Paul Mah reviews here. “I first covered the topic of load-balancing your SMB’s Internet access for greater speed and reliability earlier […]