The Airs Pro 3rd Gen Bluetooth Earbuds & Charging Case come in a wide variety of colours, including white, pink, blue, yellow, black, and green and are currently discounted to £9.99

The colours are very bright and vibrant, and, of course, both the case and earbuds will be in your chosen colour. This newest generation of Airs Pro earbuds will provide you with a superior listening experience whether you’re a casual listener or a music junkie.

A single charge of the earbuds can provide you with up to 4 hours of listening or talk time before they need to be replaced into their case for charging. In just one hour, the earbuds will be fully charged and ready to go once more.

Does this deal sound good to you? Get these Airs Pro 3rd Gen Bluetooth Earbuds & Charging Case from only £9.99 – https://www.gogroopie.com/all/hmmgnz3zny/_ggbusm_4203C_050523_airs

When the case and earbuds are fully charged they will retain battery for up to 120 hours on standby. If you hold the charging case open near your devices, a window will pop up with an accurate display of your battery percentage. So you can always be in the know about how much charge your earbuds and their case have.

No longer will you need to untangle earphone wires or be tied to your device. These earphones will stay connected to your chosen device for up to 10m! So you can leave your device in one place whilst you move about freely. The Airs Pro 3rd Gen Earbuds use Bluetooth V5 and EDR technology to create a smooth and seamless listening experience. Your calls and music will sound clear as can be with these earbuds. The earbuds use a 2.4GHZ wireless frequency, which creates high-quality audio and helps the battery of the headphones to last longer.

These earbuds will keep working in temperatures ranging from -10°c through to 50°c, so no matter the weather you can listen to your tunes. To make these earbuds even more convenient, you can control your music by giving the sides of the earbuds a tap or two. You can skip songs, control the volume, pause & play music, and answer calls without ever having to look at your device.

This makes these earbuds great for wearing during work or when exercising. In addition to all this, these earbuds also have noise-cancelling technology, so nothing can disturb you from listening to your tunes or a podcast.

When you want to hear the surrounding noise, you can turn the noise cancellation off. These earbuds will sit snugly in your ears, so you can walk, run, or even jump without them falling out. The earbuds have a built-in microphone with a sensitivity of -42Db. This means that your voice will sound clear and crisp on your phone calls no matter the noise going on around you.

Thanks to the earbud’s 13mm driver, they create a deep and powerful baseline for your music which makes for a more immersive listening experience. With the 13 ohm listening impedance, your music will sound just how the producer intended it to sound. For a superior listening experience choose the Airs Pro 3rd Gen Bluetooth Earbuds & Charging Case.

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Airs Pro 3rd Gen Bluetooth Earbuds & Charging Case

With more and more businesses choosing to adopt hybrid working styles, it’s likely that the commute into the office five days a week, may never return.

We’ve all had an opportunity to experience first-hand the positives associated with flexible working; the extra time in the morning to work-out, the gap between meetings to put on a load of washing, and of course, the extra time spent with loved ones. Now, as the country begins to open up a little, we’re at a stage where we have to weigh up the pros and cons of our new normal and the traditional office environment.

No matter where they choose to work, employees should be armed with the ultimate office experience. According to a recent HP survey, 68% of office workers now rely on their PC more than they ever did pre-pandemic, unsurprisingly. Therefore, functions that were once a ‘nice to have’ such as screen size and camera quality, are now absolute must haves so we can stay connected, collaborative and secure. Here are five features that have become essential from your PC, regardless of where you choose to work according to Nick Ryley from thepcgeekz.com.

Flexibility is king

Many of us have been spoiled with flexibility in the way we work over the past year, as we’re able to work from home, or anywhere in the country. But are our computers able to offer the same flexibility? PCs today should offer seamless adaptability whether you want to take your 3pm meeting in your garden during the fleeting window of sunshine or turn your laptop in to a tablet to sketch out your brainwave.

Since we’re no longer bound to a desk, our devices should be agile and respond to our needs on-demand, wherever we’re working. Features like HP’s Fast Charge battery which provides up to 50% battery after just 30 minutes of charging, allows you to work away from your desk without the fear of running out of charge. The HP Elite Book x2 G8 is one of HP’s smallest and lightest laptops, meaning it won’t weigh down your lap if you shamelessly decide to migrate from your desk to the sofa.

The HP EliteBook x360 1030/1040 G8s are also two of HP’s most flexible devices and can transform to the workstyle of choice. Offering both the power of a PC and agility of a tablet, they can be used both as a traditional laptop with a keyboard or, once the screen is folded back, as a tablet, giving users the chance to hotdesk or present work to clients from wherever they please (and is great to keep your kids entertained after a long day of zoom meetings).

Avoiding ‘oh I think we’ve lost you’

We’ve all been on a zoom call when someone has dodgy internet, awkwardly waiting until they unfreeze whilst assuring everyone your internet is fine. With video conferencing here to stay, we need our PCs to have strong connections that will link up to WiFi anywhere. WiFi 6, the new age of wireless connectivity hopes to say goodbye to awkward latency, promises faster upload and download speeds and the ability to share a single connection with an increasing number of devices.

We are also seeing the infamous rise of 5G, which allows PCs with built-in cellular modems the ability to remain connected whilst on the move, a very futuristic thought. Having the ability to seamlessly switch between WiFi and 5G will benefit those micro-movements around the house and what’s more, enhance your ability to multitask whilst on calls. Whether it’s getting your steps up or making a cup of tea, you’ll have the freedom to enter the dodgy-wifi zone that is your kitchen, knowing your device will switch to cellular mode to avoid the dreaded ‘I think we’ve lost you’ ringing through your ears.

When looking for PCs for your business, fast and reliable connectivity that supports WiFi 6 and 5G wireless broadband technology, like those in the HP EliteBook x360 1030 and 1040 are a must. So, no more having to turn your camera off improve audio quality. What’s more, with HP Quick Drop, you can wirelessly transfer files, photos and links between devices, meaning you can stay connected to your tasks, wherever you choose to work.

Keeping your info under lock and key

Previously, a PC’s security was often built on the assumption that businesses operate from an office. We know that’s no longer the case, as employees increasingly have the option to work wherever they like. As workforces are managed remotely, the majority of security tools designed for on-premise usage are no longer making the cut.

Home and public networks can increase a PC’s vulnerability to attacks, not to mention the personal gaming, shopping and streaming use. Therefore, upping a PC’s security features has never been more important. Screen-lock timers, complex passwords, facial recognition and multifactor authentication are all added security tools and layers of encryption that SMBs can implement to protect their devices.

HP EliteBooks are engineered with hardened security features to protect, detect and recover from attacks. They include hardware-enforced security features, in and above the OS to proactively prevent threats and quickly recover stolen files. So, you can rest easy at night, even if your son has been trying to ‘stream Harry Potter for free’ online.

Say goodbye to background chatter

Just because you’re working from home, doesn’t mean that your environment is quiet. Something we know all too well to be true with home schooling madness and coordinated housemate breaks in your ‘office’ area (see: the kitchen table). In fact, according to HP’s research, only 29% have a home office where they can shut the door and not be disturbed.

It’s therefore a very welcome innovation that PCs are beginning to address this ambient noise and come equipped with algorithms that can continuously filter out disturbances, wherever one chooses to work.

For example, HP has equipped its latest business PCs with built-in noise reduction, meaning external noises are filtered out, allowing videoconferences to feel more like face-to-face meetings. HP Dynamic Audio is an AI-based audio experience that tunes output to speech and music, all whilst suppressing background noises.

In the not-too-distant future, we may see PCs create sound ‘bubbles’ around the user’s head, meaning speakers would only radiate sound that is around a user’s ears, whilst blocking out any noise that’s further away in the background.

Lights, camera, action!

A year ago, when we were first told to all work from home, webcams went from being a mundane computer add-on to a gold dust accessory that would transform your bedroom into a boardroom. We soon learnt however that some built-in PC webcams were not doing our bad hair days any justice, and staring at our colleagues’ over-exposed, grainy faces made our phone cameras seem like a DLSR.

As we’re going to be embracing videoconferencing for a little while longer, PC webcams should be of high-resolution and have features such as autofocus and a high frame rate, so to mimic face-to-face interactions and enhance the experience of connecting with colleagues. All HP EliteBooks are integrated with a Full-HD camera that provides excellent image clarity, allowing you to truly engage with those all-important facial expressions as you present a new business pitch or understand how well your joke went down…

Although some of these features seem futuristic, they’re what businesses should be thinking about as we adapt to this ‘new normal’ way of working.

Read more:
Five features you never knew you needed from your PC

When comparing budgeted mobile phones available in the market, you cannot skip the exotic looks and features of TCL 10 Pro and TCL 10. Although the names of these phones are similar, they are way different in terms of features.

What you need to know at first is that both the models address different categories of audience. Despite including the same headphone jacks, similar pixel resolutions, and Micro SD card slots. However, the rest of the specifications, such as the camera and screen of both models differ.

Getting started with TCL 10 Pro TCL 10 L

From the verdicts obtained until now, the TCL 10 Pro is a better version of the two models with a faster Snapdragon 675 chip, a 6.47-inch OLED screen, which enhances the visibility even when it is bright and sunny in the outdoors. Besides, the 4500 mAh battery is powerful enough to last for the entire day. Of the two models, the TCL 10 Pro is more charismatic due to the matte glass on the backside. Moreover, the curved edges on the front and the robust metal frame make it more viable than its counterpart. The 128 GB storage makes it a winner.

When it comes to TCL 10 L, it is a budget buy but the Snapdragon 665 processor makes it pretty fast. With four cameras in this mobile, you can take the nicest snaps with it during the day. However, the 6.53-inch screen is not bright when you take the phone outdoors, but the battery backup of 4K mAh can make the charge last for a couple of days.  It cannot compete with TCL 10 Pro L in appearance due to the plastic case on the back and a mere storage capacity of 64 GB in the base model.

Hardware of TCL 10 Pro and TCL 10 L

As far as the hardware of TCL 10 Pro, the aluminium body and the glass sandwich makes it interesting. Moreover, you cannot miss the teardrop notch and the in-display fingerprint scanner. Overall, it is hard to rate the speed and accuracy of the device. What makes the set unique is its back, wherein the gradient has a matte gray shade. Besides the set up of dual flash and quad-camera makes the appearance of this model distinct if you consider the existing lineup of TCL models. On the inside of the model, the specs and features, such as the Snapdragon processor, 128 GB of UFS 2.1 storage, LPDDR4X RAM, and 4500 mAh battery seem to be right considering the price, but a higher speed of the processor could have made this Android phone better with software updates.

The TCL 10 L is a vibrant device but it cannot match the aggressiveness of TCL 10 Pro. For instance, it does not have the in-display fingerprint scanner and it comes with an LCD display. However, when you consider the price of this model, the features inside, such as Snapdragon 665, 64GB eMMC storage, 6GB LPDDR4x RAM, 4K mAh battery makes it a good deal and provides value for money for the budget buyers. Moreover, the battery of this model is excellent and outsmarts TCL 10 Pro.

Camera

The TCL 10 L camera is good enough considering the price, but the camera of TCL 10 Pro leaves you asking for more. While the cameras of both devices take good shots when you zoom in the clicks and provide ample scope for editing. Generally speaking, the camera features of TCL 10 L are good within the price they are asking, but TCL 10 Pro might have to compete vigorously with other models, including iPhone SE.

Display and software

The LCD display of TCL 10 L is extravagant with a hole-punch camera, which is large and a mix of colours that are appealing. On the whole, the vowing experience of this model is impeccable. However, the display of TCL 10 Pro is better due to the combination of AMOLED and FHD panel from the other models in the same price category. However, a common issue between the devices is the fluctuating auto brightness. The software TCL UI based on Android 10 provides a moderate experience to users.

The final word

When you compare TCL 10 L and TCL 10 Pro the former model is worth buying for customers looking for decent models within a suitable budget. The TCL 10 Pro needs to confront competitors, such as Samsung Galaxy A 51 and iPhone SE, and may not be an accomplished model in the real sense.

Read more:
Review: TCL 10 Pro & TCL 10L

It’s not often something comes along to genuinely change the game, but the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip does just that, bringing foldable displays closer to the mainstream and reinventing the flip phone for 2020 in the process.

Screens that fold in half finally arrived last year with the Galaxy Fold, which was originally plagued by durability issues causing a delay and a reworking of the device.

The £1,300 Galaxy Z Flip is therefore Samsung’s crucial second bite at the cherry. And it’s a very impressive one at that.

Performance all-round was good. Snappy, fast and smooth, similar to the Galaxy Note 10+, but not as rapid as the best, the OnePlus 7T Pro despite having the same chipset. If you’re into hardcore mobile gaming this isn’t the phone for you.

Battery life was solid but not quite up to the standards set by the very best last year. The Galaxy Z Flip lasted about 27 hours between charges of medium to heavy usage.

That was while using the phone as my primary device, lots of email, messages and push notifications, a couple of hours browsing, five hours of Spotify via Bluetooth headphones, 45 minutes of Netflix and about 10 photos.

The Galaxy Z Flip has relatively slow 15W charging, taking close to two hours for a full charge, but has wireless charging and wireless powersharing to wirelessly charge something else from the phone’s back, such as a set of earbuds or a smartwatch.
Instead of a tall smartphone opening out into a square tablet, the Galaxy Z Flip is a tall smartphone that folds in half like mid-2000s flip-phones. I won’t beat about the bush: folding and unfolding the Galaxy Z Flip is a tremendous experience.

The hinge opens and will hold the screen at any angle, similar to a laptop. It’s smooth and reassuringly solid. What you can’t easily do is flip it open with one finger, but you probably shouldn’t even if you could because the screen is fairly fragile – more on that later.

Closed, the phone is a compact wedge shape with little rubber feet and magnets holding the two ends together. You’ll be able to fit it in most pockets, including the often useless-for-phones tiny pockets women are burdened with.

There’s a small 1.1in oblong screen on the lid of the device adjacent to the main camera. It shows the time, the battery charge and a little notification dot if there’s something waiting for you. Double tap to light it up, swipe left for music controls and right for notification icons, which you can tap and see a little bit with scrolling text. It’s useful when you want it, but also easy to ignore, freeing you somewhat from the burden of notifications.

Open it out and the 6.7in screen is remarkable. It looks and feels just like one of Samsung’s regular super-sized smartphones, which is a very good thing, apart from one caveat: there’s a crease in the middle. You can feel it, and get a reflection on the screen and you can see it.

What feels weird at first under your thumb immediately becomes normal. It’s more visible when the screen is black, which makes the Galaxy Z Flip the first phone that looks worse in dark mode. You can’t see it while browsing a white web page or similar.

The crease is one of the compromises of having a massive screen that rivals the very biggest smartphones available today, but that folds down into a small, pocketable package. I think it’s a worthy trade-off for now.

The power button doubles as a fast and accurate fingerprint scanner, mounted below the volume buttons on the upper half of the phone.

The screen works, looks great and the hinge feels sturdy. It’s rated for more than 200,000 folds, which is 100 openings a day for 5.5 years. It has nylon fibres in the hinge to literally sweep dust and dirt away as you open and close it, while the edges of the folding part have plastic T-shaped caps to try to block dirt from getting in that way.

But there’s a massive question mark over the screen’s durability. It comes with care instructions wrapped around it in the box, including advice not to press hard on the screen with hard objects, such as your fingernail; don’t fold something else in when closing the phone; the phone isn’t dust or water resistant; don’t put stickers or screen protectors on it; and keep the phone away from credit cards as it has magnets in it. You can’t say you haven’t been warned.

I was only given three working days to test the device and in that time it worked perfectly. Others haven’t been so lucky. Realistically you need at least several months of daily use to truly know if it will stand the test of time.

Then there’s the scratch resistance of the glass screen: basically there isn’t any. It uses ultra-thin glass that can fold, which is remarkable, but it’s covered in a plastic layer and is so thin it’s easy to poke holes in. The screen is fairly well protected when closed, but it’s possible to get grit in between the two halves, while pushing hard with your fingernail could damage it.

Samsung is offering a one-time £99/$119 display repair service, but after that you’re looking at a hefty cost in the region of £400.

All in you have to treat it with the respect deserving of a £1,300 device, and even then you might run into trouble. If you’re at all blasé with the way you treat your smartphone, this isn’t for you.

Specifications
Main screen: 6.7in FHD+ AMOLED Infinity Flex Display (425ppi)
Cover screen: 1.1in AMOLED (303ppi)
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+
RAM: 8GB of RAM
Storage: 256GB (UFS 3.0)
Operating system: One UI 2.1 based on Android 10
Camera: dual rear camera: 12MP wide angle, 12MP ultra-wide angle, 10MP front-facing camera
Connectivity: 4G, nano sim + esim, Wi-Fiac, NFC, Bluetooth 5 and GPS
Folded dimensions: 87.4 x 73.6 x 17.3-15.4mm
Unfolded dimensions: 167.3 x 73.6 x 7.2-6.9mm
Weight: 183g

Image credit: Future

Read more:
Reviewed: Samsung Galaxy Z Flip – The folding flip phone of the future

As many of us rely on our computers, it’s important to always keep them fighting fit and in good working order.

To this end, software optimizers exist to remedy common issues that plague most machines, from the annoying slowdowns to more severe problems like crashes and errors. At best, these cases are bearable issues to deal with but at worst they can render the system completely nonfunctional and unusable.

Acquiring a good optimization software can prove to be quite tricky, however, and it isn’t uncommon for anyone to be even just a little overwhelmed in their search. But even with the multitude of these applications available online, it isn’t that difficult to find a reliable one either. Here are some top tips to keep in mind when choosing an optimizer for your PC by OneClickHere.com.

Always check the system requirements

As obvious as this might be, many still often make the mistake of neglecting to check the system requirements of the software optimizer before its acquisition. This is an easy way not just to waste both money and time, but it can also create more issues on top of pre-existing problems within the operating system. By checking the system requirements beforehand, you’ll be able to narrow down your search and find a reliable one faster than you would otherwise.

Don’t overlook reviews and testimonials

Since software developers can generally be a little economical with the truth, it pays to turn towards customer reviews and testimonials. You’ll be surprised at how much information they give on the optimization software. More importantly, you can find out whether they truly are effective and can deliver on all their claims. At the very least, you’ll be able to know if the application is safe and reliable enough to try.

Be thorough when researching their features

While research is a task that many find tedious, this small investment of time in this area can save you a lot of money on making a purchase of an optimization software that lacks the features that you need. Even more annoying would be finding another kind that boasts of more functionalities at less than half the price that you’ve already spent. Avoid this scenario by being thorough when browsing through the product details of the developer’s website.

Technical problems can often be unavoidable issues and can present themselves more to those who may not be tech-savvy and lack significant understanding of the computer and its operating system. In fact, it isn’t uncommon for even those familiar with its ins-and-outs to encounter the occasional problem. Having an optimization software basically makes these issues nonexistent provided that the right one is chosen and keeping the abovementioned tips in mind you should be able to acquire one in no time.

Read more:
Essential tips to keep in mind when choosing an optimiser for your PC

Are you trying to increase the productivity of your small employee team to help build a relationship with your clients and help your company grow? Learn which cloud servers can help you achieve this goal in today’s guide.

The cloud server for small business is a tool that’s supposed to be convenient. And if you’re looking for a tool that can store data or access files, it might cause problems. For a fast copying speed, some of the most valuable backup options are unable to outpace a high-quality local backup solution

For businesses, this gives them the advantage of quicker disaster recovery, fewer problems, and quicker collaborations. You have to use single-disk external drives. The local storage options that are available are inexpensive and powerful; this means that you can create an advanced data backup strategy to help your business.

In this quick overview, we’ll discuss the best serves for small businesses who need an affordable service.

What Server is the Best for My Business?

Getting an inexpensive server isn’t hard these days. Finding one that’s great for long-term business plans is a bit more complicated. The market is always volatile, change, and the opinions can change wildly, but here are the (number) best server options that you can use to improve your company or small business’s backup plan.

Top Cloud Servers

When looking for a server, most businesses want one that’s inexpensive and can be good for helping them manage all of their files in one centralized and safe location. But, they also want one that’s affordable so that they’re not using too much company expenses.

This table compares the top cloud servers that you can use for your business.

Which One Should I Choose?

When looking at the table, you can see which cloud server is great according to its pricing plan and the amount of memory it will hold. If you’re trying to go for a cloud server that has a simple interface and designs, you should try Bluehost or Host Gator. They allow you to drag your files into one space, making it easier to upload and use on your company’s network. Also, they have some of the cheapest pricing options and is easier for you to get started quickly.

For larger businesses, who need over 230+ GB of data for their servers, In Motion has some of the most expansive data storage plans available. However, it might be expensive once you get to the 20TB-30TB range, so make sure that you adjust your budget according to how much storage you need.

If you need a server that can also be used offline, you should look into Liquid Web. Most of these servers are very versatile as they’ll allow you to view data from your laptop or on your mobile phone. You’ll be able to have enough storage space so you can store not only websites but applications, documents, and other important project materials.

No matter which one you choose, you’ll find that a cloud server for small business is a quick and inexpensive option in order to manage your network further. We suggest that you try them all to see which one suits your needs the most. To conclude,

Read more:
Improving your business with cloud servers

They say that small is beautiful, and if today’s businesses are anything to go by, they must be the most attractive ever.

This is, without doubt, the age of the small business, and new startups are joining the party every day.

A small business needs small business supplies, a fact which HP seems to have taken to extremes with the release of its new HP LaserJet Pro M15 and M28 series. Heralded as a micro printer for micro businesses, the new printer is aimed squarely at the short term contract and freelance sectors – or the gig economy as it is becoming increasingly known.

Print’s not dead

It seems that people have been talking about paper-free homes and offices forever, but the truth is that there is still a need for printed media in the modern age. Nevertheless, printer technology has changed little over the past few years, save for the fact that printers have become steadily cheaper, and even genuine HP ink cartridges can be bought for a reasonable price if you just shop around a little.

It is refreshing, then, to see HP acknowledging that printers are not some vestige of a bygone age, like the VCR or the floppy disk, by coming up with something truly innovative and appropriate for 2018.

Having split from parent company Hewlett-Packard back in November of 2015, HP has clearly been looking at ways to revitalise the printing sector. It started by acquiring Samsung Electronics’ printer business, and using the business’s intellectual property to expand its reach by adding more than 6,500 new printing patents.

As well as the new micro printer, HP has been investing heavily in its 3D printing capabilities, focussing predominantly on the industrial markets.

Specifications

So how small is the new printer? We will have to wait a few weeks before it officially appears on the shelves, but according to HP, the new generation printers are about as tall as the average smartphone. However, despite their diminutive size, they can print at a rate of around 18 pages per minute, putting many of the most popular inkjets to shame.

The world has managed to do away with cables far more effectively than it has paper, and as you would expect, the M15 and M20 have full wireless capability, and users can send print jobs directly from their smartphones, laptops or tablets using the HP Smart App. Those who cannot face installing yet another app need not despair – the printers can also be operated using Google Cloud Print, Apple AirPrint and other similar apps.

The future of printing?

The much talked-about paperless world has not transpired in quite the way that some people expected, but what has become clear is that while we will always need to print things from time to time, those printing needs are different to those of 15 or 20 years ago.

Today’s small businesses still need to print, but they can manage without the huge and expensive laser printers of yesteryear. HP’s innovative new design could be exactly what is needed.

Read more:
HP unveils the world’s smallest printer

With the rise and commoditization of mobile internet and mobile Wi-fi options through wireless providers, users have become trained that they will have access to information at lightening fast speeds no matter where they are on the globe. But not all business takes place where there’s a reliable, fast connection.

An answer to this common problem is a satellite internet provider. With satellite internet, users bypass the shared infrastructure provided by common wire-line and wireless providers and get a dedicated connection. This means that customers can connect to the resources they need, reliably, even in places where there is no connection.

Companies that work on projects in remote areas of the country still depend on connectivity to information to do their work. For example, during construction of a hydroelectric power plant in a remote part of Scotland, Neaty Hydro required communications access to both their own network as well as a communications platform for contractors working with them on the construction. Laying fiber or traditional copper telecommunications infrastructure was prohibitively expensive and disturbing to the environment, So Neaty Hydro turned to satellite internet from Eutelsat Broadband. Eutelsat has satellite internet solutions for both businesses and home users, and can be deployed as a permanent satellite fixture or as a mobile unit, depending on the requirements of customers.

As a permanent installation, users no longer need to depend on wireless connectivity or working with wire-line telecommunications companies to get internet where they need it. Dedicated satellite internet connections mean reliable and consistent service without the need to break ground.

Businesses can deploy satellite internet as a mobile option to guarantee a connection in areas with no connection, or heavy traffic or unreliable mobile Wi-fi options. Mobile deployments are be incredibly beneficial for breaking news broadcasters, busy trade shows, large events, or remote construction projects like that of Neaty Hydro. Satellite internet provides all of the same capabilities of regular wire-line or wireless internet providers, allowing users services like VOIP calling, remote monitoring and control, and always-on connectivity.

Satellite internet provides tremendous advantage over traditional internet connectivity when considering options, and Eutelsat Broadband is the reliable choice to provide that advantage. To learn more about satellite internet and Neaty Hydro’s deployment of Eutelsat Broadband, visit their website at www.eutelsatbroadband.com

Image: Shutterstock

Read more:
Still gambling with mobile Wi-fi? Satellite internet could be reliable answer

Printing costs are still out of control in the majority of businesses according to a new survey commissioned by Oki Systems UK. Its survey of decision-makers, including finance managers and directors, office managers, CIOs and IT managers reveals that 52 per cent don’t know how much they are spending on printing – and this figure rises to 66 per cent for businesses at the larger end of the SME spectrum.

Forward looking predictions of paperless offices are wide of the mark as well, with the poll revealing that the 44 per cent of SMEs who are aware of their printing overheads spend over £10,000 a year, with 47 per cent of them printing more than a standard size box of paper per week. Equally startling is that those SMEs who understand their costs and acknowledge their print volumes also believe that much of their printing is superfluous and that it contributes to a lack of cost control – 39 per cent say that their company is overspending because of unnecessary printing by employees.

At the same time, there is also evidence that workflows are becoming increasingly electronic; 85 per cent of those polled are using multifunction devices (MFDs) with 65 per cent of the total sample using them to manage documents. But even here, inefficiencies creep into the day-to-day running of the business, with some 30 per cent of companies with 500-1,000 employees claiming the devices actually hinder the workflow.

“If a growing number of companies are deploying MFDs with functions such as scan-to-email which cut down the number of times a document needs to be printed, yet they still believe that much of the printing that goes on is unnecessary, they need to examine their processes and audit their print fleet carefully,” says Andrew Hall, marketing manager, OKI.

“It’s a worrying finding that even after the economic climate of the past few years, when businesses have been forced to tightly control their costs, so many companies are still unaware of how much they spend on print, or even how much they print.

“Evidence shows that working with a managed print services provider can help small to medium sized businesses take charge of their print costs, removing it as an unknown expense and enable a more efficient workflow at the same time.”

Opportunities to save
Despite their worries about unnecessary printing the survey also highlights how many businesses are missing out on ways to use the latest print technology to save money. Some 41 per cent (rising to 61 per cent among 100 – 249 employee sized companies) outsource the printing of simple items like business cards and/or other stationery, despite the fact that this is now simple to do in-house using graphic arts printers alongside downloadable templates.

“Print technology has rapidly developed,” continues Hall. “Printing high quality documents and marketing collateral in-house has never been more straightforward and with the right printers in place, will drive down outsourcing costs and increase flexibility for businesses.

“Particularly in dynamic industries like retail or travel, where fast-moving promotions might need to be implemented, the ability to create quality collateral in-house could be pivotal to business success.”

However, OKI’s latest survey does show that progress is being made in mobile and remote printing. Overall, 39 per cent of respondents said that they were able to print from mobile devices and there was evidence to suggest that smaller and mid-range businesses have been faster to adopt these devices; 44 per cent of organisations in the 100 – 249 category and 47 per cent in the 250 – 499 could print this way. Larger organisations, with bigger, remote workforces, recognise the value of being able to capitalise on such technology, with 86 per cent of respondents to the poll in businesses sized 500-1,000 suggesting mobile printing would make an impact on their company.

Image: Shutterstock

Read more:
Survey reveals UK businesses do not have control of print costs

Bundling the new PayPal Here card reader with Bouncepad’s PayPal tablet enclosure and custom card reader cradle gives businesses a sleek POS solution at a lower price point that’s user-friendly. Once a business is registered with PayPal Here, they can be up and running right away with their POS solution.

“We’re excited to extend our long-standing relationship with PayPal to continue helping small businesses innovate their POS systems,” said Tobi Schneidler, CEO of Bouncepad. “Working together, we’re able to offer a sophisticated tablet POS solution that helps small business owners across industries like hospitality and retail make it simple and affordable to join the contactless payment revolution.”

Businesses have been at a disadvantage as the costs of traditional POS hardware, software licenses, long-term contracts and card payment processing fees make it difficult to adopt contactless payment solutions.

Paired with Bouncepad’s enclosure and custom card reader cradle, the PayPal Here app and card reader gives businesses a simple and affordable option that blends into any service environment.

Accepting contactless payments makes it more convenient for customers to make purchases and enables frontline employees to provide more personal, face-to-face service where they are in-store.

Read more:
PayPal & Bouncepad help small businesses accept contactless payments

Other hardware features include a USB 3.0 port, built-in 3000mAh battery, 10/100 Mbps Ethernet LAN port, SD card support and OLED display.

QGenie shares Internet access wirelessly through wired connection which is the devices biggest failing. The ability to slot a SIM in and have this as a true dongle would make this a real asset for the mobile traveller.

QGenie runs QNAP’s QGenie OS that supports SMB/CIFS file sharing, WebDAV and both UPnP and Bonjour discovery. Files can be accessed via the built-in myQNAPcloud service and Qfile mobile iOS and Android apps.

The built-in 3000mAh battery provides up to 10 hours of operation and charges devices with fast USB charging from your smartphone to your laptop.

The QGenie also can be used as a USB-connected portable SSD when connected to a Windows or MacOS system via its USB 3.0 port.

The device also supports file copies to and from its SD slot and is a very good device for just the battery recharging and portable storage options, but could have been great with a SIM slot.

The QNAP QGenie Pocket NAS is available at EBuyer.com

Read more:
Review: QNAP QGenie Pocket NAS

The actual webcam is a plastic ball, which you attach to the heavy weighted base either directly or via the tall plastic stem. With the stem attached, the BCC950 ConferenceCam and it has a 78-degree field of view, plus 180-degree video pan, tilt, and zoom, so you can gather a small group around a table.

The small, black remote features a glossy plastic front panel, and a rubberized rear panel that wraps over to the bottom front edge. The remote lets you control pan, tilt, and zoom, as well as adjust volume, mute, and answer or end phone calls. The rubber buttons are large and easy to find, even with the lights dimmed, although there’s no backlight.

The base is particularly well designed. It’s angled upward at approximately 40 degrees, which makes it easy to access the controls, and lets the speaker project properly into the room. On the left is a six-way control pad, with direction and zoom keys. Call Answer and End buttons sit in the center, while the right side features a mute button and volume rocker switch. All of the buttons are rubber, and click silently when you press them, which means you can make adjustments without alerting the other party.

According to Logitech, the BCC950 is compatible with Adobe Connect, Avaya, Cisco WebEex, Citrix GoToMeeting, FaceTime, Google Hangouts, Office365, Vidyo, and Skype; we tested with Skype HD.

Logitech webcams typically perform very well, and the BCC950 is no exception. The Carl Zeiss lens features continuous autofocus and handles various lighting conditions well, and live video looks surprisingly balanced and sharp in Skype HD. Caller voices are quite loud through the base speaker as well.

Touch the movement keys, and the BCC950 cam will move in short steps in the indicated direction, either left or right, or up and down. Press and hold a direction button, and after half a second, the cam will move smoothly and quickly to the end of its travel. Since the remote and the base contain an identical set of controls, you don’t have to reach for the base when the remote is nearby. And if someone else wants to adjust the webcam, they can do so without figuring out who has the remote. It’s a really flexible setup.

Overall the Logitech BCC950 ConferenceCam is a perfect webcam for both small business and corporate and enterprise use and really gives a professional image when embracing technology to stay at your desk but be virtually 500 miles away.

Read more:
Review: Logitech BCC950 ConferenceCam

Everyone expects a good internet connection everywhere these days, so weak Wi-Fi signals, dead spots and slow connections must be banished.

If you have a large office or one that has dead spots a Wi-Fi extender like a TP-Link TL-WA860RE could be what you need.

Before we start this review it is important to note that this isn’t a powerline networking plug: the TL-WA860RE simply takes the Wi-Fi signal from your router and re-broadcasts it. It uses the mains only for it’s own power – not a network connection.

We were amazed at how easy it was to install this device as all you do is plug it in somewhere near your router where the signal is strong. Then it’s a simple process of pressing your router’s WPS button and the corresponding button on the TL-WA860RE. Less than 30 seconds later the two devices had paired and the router’s signal was being repeated.

Thanks to a mains pass-through socket, you can plug the adaptor in anywhere, even if the mains socket is already in use. Just as useful is the wired Ethernet port on the bottom which you can use to provide an internet connection to a printer, a hardwired computer, or other networking device that lacks Wi-Fi. If you have more than one such device, you can buy an Ethernet hub and attach that to the TL-WA860RE instead to multiply the number of ports.

Two external, rotating antennae mean the TL-WA860RE isn’t the sleekest or most compact extender. However, you’ll soon forgive this when it delivers a Wi-Fi signal to areas that were previously bereft of wireless internet.

As the TL-WA860RE mirrors the current wi-fi connections you do not need to keep re-entering credentials or switching networks if you move around your office from desk to meeting room and back again.

There is very little to really say about this device as it simply does what it says on the box. It opens up your wifi connection painlessly to areas where it didn’t previously reach in a painless and cost effective manor.

The handy pass-through socket also means that it disappears and after a day you will forget it is even there apart from the fact you are connected to your network in places where you weren’t able to previously.

Read more:
Review: TP-Link Wi-Fi TL-WA860RE which will double your Wi-Fi signal

If you looked at pages printed by an HP Officejet Pro X576dw Multifunction Printer you would be adamant that it was a laser and not an inkjet device.

As a laser-class printer, the X576dw is a strong contender for light to moderate-duty use in the average SME office and at 42 page per minute you can focus on work and not on standing by the printer waiting for it to spit out your work.

The X576dw is also one of the new PageWide printers which mean that if you only need to use letterheads on occasions you can embed your design as a template and print directly onto plain paper.

As you might expect for a top-of-the-line model, the X576dw offers just about every office-oriented function you can think of. You can print and fax from, as well as scan to, a PC, including over a network; work as a standalone copier, fax machine, and email sender; and both scan to and print from a USB memory key.

The printer also offers ample paper handling, with a 500-sheet drawer, 50-sheet multipurpose tray, and duplexer (for two-sided printing) as standard.

For scanning, the X576dw offers both a flatbed and a 50-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF). Even better, the ADF can copy, scan, or fax two-sided pages by turning the page over to scan the second side. In combination with the print duplexer, it lets you copy both single-and double-sided originals to your choice of single-or double-sided copies. There is also a touch-screen control panel which offers well-designed menus that make it easy to change settings and give commands.

What is also very impressive is for internal printing if you switch the drive to General Office mode the speed jumps to 66 ppm which is outstanding and so reduces the tea drinking waiting for the printer to spit out your work time.

Output quality in the default Professional mode counts as another strong point. Black text and black fills in graphics are just a touch grayish, and colors are a little dulled down on plain paper, but the output is otherwise excellent, giving the X576dw above-par text and photo quality and par-quality graphics overall.

Text quality is one step below the top tier for color laser MFPs, which makes it easily good enough for virtually any business use. Graphics quality, similarly, is good enough for any use up to and including output going to clients or customers who you want to impress with a sense of your professionalism. Also important is that, at least on the ColorLok plain paper we use for testing, the output resists smearing if you get it wet. Depending on how critical an eye you have, you may well consider text, graphics, and photos suitable for marketing materials like trifold brochures or one-page handouts.

Photo quality is the one area where the X576dw behaves more like an inkjet than a laser, which means higher quality than you’ll get with a laser. I saw some banding on a black and white photo, but color photos qualified as true photo quality, at the low end of what you might expect from drugstore prints.

To say that the HP Officejet Pro X576dw Multifunction Printer is highly capable is an understatement. Its combination of fast speed, high-quality output, and excellent paper handling, plus the conveniences of a 4.3-inch touch screen and the long list of MFP features, put it way out in front of the pack, even without considering its low cost per page.

The HP Officejet Pro X576dw really is the all things to all people device your office could very quickly not live without.

The HP Officejet Pro X576dw is available at EBuyer.com

Read more:
Review: HP Officejet Pro X576dw Multifunction printer

The Dell XPS 10 Windows RT-equipped convertible tablet will truly last all day and most of the night (and certainly cover the longest flight in the world).

It has a very small-capacity hard drive, but if your digital life is truly in the cloud, the XPS 10 can totally be the everyday computer that you carry everywhere.

If you think you need to carry all of your digital files (especially videos and multimedia) with you at all times, stop reading this and go read a review for a more power user-oriented system. Still here? Okay, the Dell XPS 10 has one of the longest battery life test results we’ve seen.

You can use this convertible tablet on the longest flight in the world, and still have battery power left over to check your email when you land. An even better use would be for a busy student or business centre dweller who rarely has a chance to plug in: 20+ hours of battery life means that you can stay connected all day and well into the night. If “Office and the Internet” are your primary needs on a computer, then this Windows RT tablets is the everyday computer you really can carry everywhere.

The XPS 10 follows the now familiar hybrid tablet format. Primarily, it’s a slate tablet, measuring a slim 0.36 by 11 by 7 inches. Connected to its keyboard dock, the system grows to just under an 2 cms thick while keeping its other dimensions, and the combined weigh is .76kg.

Like other tablets, the XPS 10 is constructed from magnesium alloy and has a soft touch finish. The tablet latches to the keyboard dock easily, and can be removed just as easily by pushing a sliding tab on the keyboard dock hinge. When the two are connected, the XPS 10 looks and acts like a small laptop, with a comfortable keyboard and one-piece multitouch trackpad.

Around the edges of the XPS 10 are the tablet’s docking/charging connector, a micro-USB port (with included full sized USB port dongle), volume control, micro-SD card slot, and headset jack. The keyboard dock has a pair of USB 2.0 ports, a mini-HDMI port (with included mini-HDMI to full HDMI dongle), and charging port.

You can plug the AC adapter into the dock or the tablet’s docking connector for charging, one AC adapter is included with the tablet, and one with the keyboard dock. Since you have both chargers, you can leave one at home and carry the other with you in your travel bag. If you’re in a pinch, you can use a standard micro-USB cable and USB charger to recharge or power the XPS 10, albeit at a slow trickle rate.

One nicety we found during testing are the keyboard dock’s built-in speakers. When the tablet is used alone, the sound is fine for Web surfing and alert sounds. When you connect the keyboard dock, the speakers in the dock work in concert with the speakers in the tablet to give you a louder, richer audio experience.

The XPS 10’s screen measures 10.1 inches and is easily viewable from many angles, and its resolution supports 720p HD video. Any 1080p HD video can be downscaled for viewing on the system’s screen, but it’s a better viewing experience to watch 720p videos natively instead.

There are two major drawbacks with Windows RT: compatibility and the closed ecosystem. Since the XPS 10 and other RT-based systems run a version of Windows over an ARM processor (the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4), older programs are not compatible with RT.

The only source for programs is the Windows Store in the system’s Start screen. You can’t download and install your favorite browser, you can’t buy programs from a third party site  and you can’t install many browser plug-ins either. The one plus on the program side is that the system comes with Microsoft Office 2013 RT pre-loaded, and that the system is somewhat protected from viruses.

The system is bloatware free, since the only pre-loaded programs are Office, Skype, Dell Shop (physical products from Dell), Getting Started with Windows RT and Dell dock settings.

Getting Started with Windows RT is a good set of videos and documentation to help new users learn how to use Windows RT and the new user interface. The local storage of 23GB can be augmented by popping a microSD card into the XPS 10 or you can also use Microsoft’s SkyDrive for cloud storage.

When connected to the Web, the XPS 10 is an excellent tool. Internet Explorer starts up quickly, and websites load quickly as well. Programs like Netflix and Salesforce work as you’d expect. However, as stated above, the number of Windows RT compatible apps is still severely limited compared with those for Android Tablets and iPads.

The thing that RT tablets have over the other mobile platforms are the fully compatible copy of Office and the fact that the OS on RT tablets acts like a typical Windows OS. The XPS 10 comes with a one-year warranty standard with options for extending that warranty through Dell’s ProSupport service.

The XPS 10 lasts a staggering 11 hours and 34 minutes alone, and tops in at over 20 hours when connected to its fully charged keyboard dock. This is a phenomenal amount of battery life. However whilst all of the RT tablets outlast laptops and tablets with ultrabook-class processors like the Microsoft Surface Pro (4:58), Atom-powered tablets can give you full Windows 8 compatibility and long battery life like the Dell Latitude 10 (19:38 with extended battery).

Essentially, it comes down to what you need out of your tablet. If you need the ultimate in portability and don’t care at all about compatibility with Windows, then grab an iPad or Google Nexus 7.

If you absolutely, positively need legacy program support or Windows 8 Pro compatibility, then a full-blown Windows 8 tablet like the Editors’ Choice Dell Latitude 10 or Microsoft Surface Pro is worth the added expense.

However, if you need insanely long battery life and your critical “Windows compatibility” needs are limited to Office documents, then you can get a Windows RT tablet like this Dell XPS 10. It’s one of the best RT tablets we’ve seen so far and given that we are far more used to Apple products and iPads are daily use items for us this Dell XPS 10 amazed us.

Read more:
Reviewed: Dell XPS 10

Companies that use free calls with SIP state that it’s possible to save up to 60 per cent compared to ISDN communications. It’s important to know that cost efficiency is not the only benefit SIP trunking services provide.  Here are five ways SIP solutions can help in business.

1. Updating your current telephony solutions
State-of-the-art SIP trunking services bring advanced functionality to your conventional PBX solutions. These include automated call transfer between several locations, greater flexibility for users, improved voicemail and call centre functionality. Free SIP calls are also great options for mobile and home-working specialists.

2. The global reach
With free SIP calls, the boundaries of free telephony are not just limited to a company’s offices. Skype for SIP solutions allow businesses to make calls to landlines and mobile phones throughout the world. By getting Skype online numbers, it’s possible to receive mobile and landline calls to corporate PBXs.

3. Business rationalisation
Business SIP trunking services deliver new site rationalisation options, especially useful for multi-site businesses. You can reduce the number of PBXs without losing the numbers associated with your company. It’s easy to combine several offices into a single location, or even support distant employees.

4. Extending the range of services
Once you have an effective business SIP based communication system working seamlessly, it’s imperative to analyse employee occupancy. Free SIP calls and advanced SIP functionality allow attending a greater number of calls, which boosts productivity. It’s a great opportunity to extend the range of services your company offers.

5.  Seasonal requirements
If your business has seasonal voice capacity requirements, SIP trunking services are the answer to the question how to add more lines quickly, without long-term commitments. Reputable SIP providers deliver highly flexible systems able to manage significant seasonal growth in traffic. It becomes much easier to handle seasonal sales campaigns, for example.

High quality business communications go a long way. SIP trunking is a must for modern organisations looking to increase productivity and revenue without spending much on communications.

Read more:
5 Ways To Use Free SIP Calls In Business

The Smart Tab 2 has a less impressive specification sheet than the original Smart Tab it replaces, but with prices starting at £149 on PAYG or £29 up front on a £20-a-month contract, the Smart Tab 2 hopes to offer a compromise between price and performance.

Made in partnership with laptop maker Lenovo, the Vodafone Smart Tab 2 is fronted by a glass-covered 7in screen, with an off-centre front-facing camera at the top for video calls.

The left edge is completely blank, the right side has a volume rocker, and the top houses a headphone jack, power button and microUSB port for charging and transferring files.

Compared to the 8GB or 16GB of its rivals, the Smart Tab 2 is let down by its lack of storage, but with 32GB microSD cards costing less than £15 online, it’s an easy and cheap fix to give the device more storage than a £350 iPad mini.

At 400g, the Smart Tab is almost 100g heavier than the iPad mini, 60g more than the Google Nexus 7 and just 5g heavier than the Amazon Kindle Fire HD.

Moving from my iPad mini to the Smart Tab was a very noticeable difference, but it’s surprising how quickly you get used to the extra weight, and the 122mm width and 11mm thickness make it easy enough to hold in one hand.

The Smart Tab is the cheapest tablet on the market with a 3G connection, but for the £20 contract you only get access to 2GB of data each month, so watching iPlayer on your daily commute isn’t possible without incurring a huge bill.

General web browsing, email and social networking are all fine though, and on my commute the Smart Tab performed well, staying connected almost throughout and returning useable speeds.

Problem is, 2GB isn’t enough for you to use the tablet on 3G all the time, so why not tether to your smartphone’s 3G connection with a Wi-Fi tablet instead? Most iOS, Android and Windows Phone devices let you do this and, while the phone’s battery takes a kicking, it’s an easy way to get a tablet online for short periods.

Read more:
Reviewed: Vodafone Smart Tab 2

The 12.85-inch Chromebook Pixel, unveiled at an event in London boasts an impressive 2560 x 1700 screen resolution with a pixel density of 239 PPI, which equates to 4.3 million pixels in total.

That pixel density is better than the 227 PPI on the 13.3 inch Apple MacBook Air with Retina Display and any other laptop for that matter, according to Google.

The multi-touch display, which brings touch access to Google’s cloud-centric Chrome OS for the first time, is provided by Corning’s Gorilla Glass and will enable users to tap, pinch and swipe objects on the somewhat unorthodox 3:2 ratio display.

The US version of the device is also 4G LTE ready (UK users will have to settle for Wi-Fi only at present), while it also boasts an Intel Core i5 (dual-core 1.8GHz) processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM and 32GB of solid stage storage, underneath a stylish anodized aluminum chassis.

Users will be able to boost that 32GB of storage with 1TB of free Google Drive storage for a full-three years after purchase, leaving plenty of room for photos, documents, videos and makes them available to download from the cloud on any of your other devices.

Whilst we were unable to test the Chromebook Pixel, we were very taken with its little cousin the original Chromebook when we reviewed it. The Pixel has powerful, full range speakers, a 720p webcam and three microphones positioned around the device in order to cancel out background noise.

The Google-made device (no third parties are involved, unlike with other Chromebook models), also features an etched glass touchpad, a backlit Chrome keyboard, 2 USB ports, a mini-display port and a two-way card reader. In terms of connectivity it has 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0

However, as you’d expect with this gigantic spec leap for the Chromebook series, those extra pixels come at a premium cost. The Chromebook Pixel will cost a considerable £1,049 when it goes on sale in the UK on April 1st. The laptop is available to pre-order now.

Read more:
Google unveils its first touchscreen Chromebook Pixel

From the outside the silver casing is a little light and flexible for my liking, but having a light and portable laptop is of course one of the Chromebook’s charm.

Like other Chromebooks, the Samsung machine makes a great first impression. About 10 seconds after pressing the “on” button, we were presented with a log-in screen. A few seconds later, after entering Google account credentials, I was on the Web. I tried closing and reopening the laptop, and it woke up in less than five seconds. This is the kind of instant ‘0n’ that as a Mac user I am used to.

The keyboard is not unlike one you’d find on a MacBook, but with a few key differences. Instead of function keys, the top row has a set of keys specifically designed for web browsing. To the right of the Esc key are Forward, Back, Refresh, Full screen, and Window swap buttons, as well as display brightness and volume controls. To further enhance the web surfing experience, Samsung has eliminated Caps Lock and replaced it with a web search key.

The clickpad is big and perfect for multitouch gestures. Two-finger scrolling and drag and drop were fast and responsive, However, we had to swipe repeatedly to move the cursor where we wanted it.

Display & Audio
The 12.1-inch, 1280 x 800 matte display is good and clear and prefect for text and web use. It was also more than adequate for streaming NetFlix or BBC iPlayer, especially given it’s price point.

Listening to music via Spotify was also ok, and once again you need to remember the price point as the bass is not as good as many laptops on the market at present, however they are twice the price and also heavier.

Ports & Webcam
Keeping with the less-is-more agenda, the Chromebook is light on peripheral support. On the right side are one USB 2.0 port and a SIM card slot. The left side houses an additional USB 2.0 port, a mini VGA port, a combination microphone/headphone jack, and the power jack, while the front features a 4-in-1 card reader.

The 1-megapixel HD webcam gave us rather grainy picture quality in both an office setting and in our home, but is more than adequate for occasional use.

Setup
Getting started takes a quick and painless 2 to 3 minutes. When we first turned on the notebook, it prompted us to connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot. Then, we entered our Google account info.

The laptop also gives users the option to log in under a guest account, but a note in the browser informed us that our browsing and search history would not be saved. Any downloads or bookmarks we created would also be erased after we logged out. The first Google account entered into the Chromebook automatically becomes the sole administrator and owner; unfortunately, you can’t change this in the settings.

User Interface
The Chrome OS interface takes some getting used to. The first thing we noticed was the total lack of a desktop. The browser window takes up the entire screen, and we had to fight the urge to try and minimize it. When we first logged in, Chrome OS presented us with a blank white browser with a list of pre-installed web apps (Entanglement, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Talk, Poppit, Scratchpad, Web Store, and YouTube) and two menus for the most visited and recently closed links. The system clock, battery indicator, and wireless bars live in the top right corner atop the gray wrench representing the Settings menu.

Web Apps
Instead of standalone apps, Chromebook owners need to use web apps. Since the software can’t be downloaded, the “web apps” are more like bookmarks that show up as icons when you “install” them. Google’s Chrome Web Store has thousands of apps that cover a wide range of categories including Education, Games, Productivity, and Utilities. Many are free, but a few apps do carry a charge. In addition to apps, we were able to install extensions and themes.

While the device is designed to be used with an Internet connection, some of the apps can work offline. When offline, we were able to use Scratchpad, which later synchronized all our notes to Google Docs once an Internet connection was reestablished. However there doesn’t appear to be any offline email management facility which is a little frustrating.

Files & File Manager
While we could view JPEGs and PDFs just by clicking on the file it also appeared to offer a native image editor, but no matter how hard we tried we couldn’t get the app to load when selecting an image.

Performance
The Chromebook is powered by a 1.66-GHz dual-core Intel Atom N570 CPU, 2GB of RAM, a 16GB SSD hard drive, and integrated graphics. As a result, the notebook boots up in a zippy 14 seconds and is more than capable for all of the tasks that we through at it.

Cloud Print
Similar to AirPrint for iOS devices, Cloud Print lets you send documents via the Internet to connected printers. You can print directly to cloud-ready printers such as HP’s ePrint line as well as older printers, provided the latter are connected to a notebook running Google Chrome. Setting up a printer to work with the laptop took about 10 minutes–we had to install Chrome on a Windows host computer, then enable cloud printing in Chrome’s control panel–but after that, it worked well, albeit slowly. It took a minute or two for the document (a one-page e-mail) to travel over the Internet to the printer.

Battery Life
According to Samsung, the ChromeBook has a battery life of 8.5 hours and from our testing there is little to suggest that this is incorrect. We took this to an all day conference and for email, social media and accessing our cloud CMS system we did not need to feed the battery at all.

Conclusion
Does the world need a computer with a web-only OS? Google seems to think so, and, in a connected world, the Samsung Chromebook would seem to be the answer. It’s an attractive and highly portable notebook that gives you near-instant access to the Internet and given its seamless integration to traditional browser based VPN or cloud based systems is a very strong contender if you are looking at an iPad for business use.

Read more:
Reviewed: Google Chromebook

Apple has unveiled the iPhone 5, describing it as the thinnest, lightest and fastest handset yet as the brand behind today’s personal computing revolution sets out to prove that it still has the creative edge to dazzle consumers without Steve Jobs at its helm.

Promising a camera that makes “the ocean look bluer” and “kids look happier”, Apple showed off a gadget with a taller 4-inch screen and thinner body, capable of running on 4G mobile networks, including in the UK.

In what has now become an international event, the online audience following this year’s showcase was the largest since the first groundbreaking Apple handset arrived in 2007, but commentators have already described it as the last great iPhone launch.

British shoppers will be able to buy the new handset from 21 September, with the unsubsidised price starting from £529 and depending on memory size.

Apple unveiled a new version of its iTunes music, film and TV series store. The updated software, available from October, uses cloud computing so that viewing paused on one device can be resumed at the same point on another. The UK’s largest mobile network, EE, will have an effective monopoly on sales, given that it will be the only network with 4G service before Christmas and rivals could take up to a year before they are ready to launch one.

With a feature set widely leaked before the launch – and described by one tech blogger as “evolutionary rather than revolutionary” – sales of the latest version of Apple’s “Jesus Phone” will be watched closely by those who wonder whether the world’s largest company has what it takes under new chief executive Tim Cook to retain its creative momentum.

From the launch event in San Francisco, Cook said: “Only Apple could create such amazing hardware, software and services and bring them together. Apple has never been stronger.”

Apple is expected to shift significantly more phones in the runup to Christmas than the 37m it sold last year, with research firm IDC predicting sales of 51m units. Nonetheless, it now has a fierce competitor in Samsung, which has already shipped 20m of its best selling Galaxy SIII handsets and is expected to slash its price over the coming weeks.

“The company has changed,” said IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo. “It is a lot more focused on profits and management rather than product. Hopefully that won’t bring Apple back to where it was in the past.”

In 1996, when Jobs rejoined the company after a period in the wilderness, it was on the verge of bankruptcy. All that changed with successive hits including the brightly coloured iMac computers, the iPod, which changed the music industry, and the world’s most popular phones and tablets.

With the release of the first iPhone in 2007, Apple triggered a personal computing revolution which has shifted our online lives away from PCs and laptops and on to smartphones and tablets.

It is a revolution that has turned Apple into the world’s most valuable company, with $620bn market capitalisation and a near $100bn pile of unspent cash, largely held in foreign bank accounts to avoid the tax bill repatriation would incur.

A successful iPhone5 could boost GDP in the US, with ripples around the world for the more than 150 companies in Apple’s supply chain, and the mobile networks hoping to fatten their revenues from an increasingly smartphone dependent subscriber base. But a new edition that lacks the wow factor needed to persuade shoppers to part with hundreds of pounds to replace their existing smartphones could have wider implications.

“There is an economic impact if they don’t come up with something more exciting than they did last time,” says telecoms strategist Bengt Nordström. “The impact will be slower growth in the industry, and this is one of the few industries that have been growing.”

Cook was never the ideas man, but is credited with making the Jobs vision a commercial success by reorganising Apple into a slick money-making outfit, closing its factories and outsourcing manufacturing to an array of largely Asian suppliers.

The challenge now is whether Apple can hold on to its creative edge without Jobs. To make this happen, Cook is relying on those who report to him such as British-born Sir Jonathan Ive whose minimalist designs and attention to detail can be seen in Apple’s hardware, and head of software Scott Forstall.

The fact that so many of the iPhone5‘s features, from photographs of its inner workings to its screen size and 4G capability, were leaked before the launch added to the feeling that Apple’s marketing events have lost some of their magic.

Jobs was a master showman, obsessively keeping details under wraps until the last moment, and often saving the most interesting news until the end of his presentations, pretending to walk off the stage before announcing, finger in the air, that he did have “one more thing”.

But as Ricky Gervais pointed out, there are legions of diehard Apple fans prepared to buy its latest hardware no matter how incremental the changes. The comedian tweeted: “Can’t wait for the new iPhone 5. I’ve had this mint condition, perfectly good, antique iPhone 4 for over a year now. Embarrassing.”

Read more:
iPhone 5: Apple unveils its faster, thinner 4G handset

Epson’s iProjection app for the iPhone and iPad lets you connect wirelessly to a number of Epson projectors–no laptop, router, or cables necessary. Paired with a small Epson PowerLite 705 (£450), this seemed like a good way to go. Configuring the free app took just five minutes, but it supports static images only–no transitions, animations, or video–and there is a slight lag between phone and screen.

If there is projector with an HDMI port on-site you could look at Apple TV, a compact £99 device that fits into the palm of your hand. After connecting Apple TV to the projector with an HDMI cable you could use Apple’s AirPlay to establish a wireless connection to an iPhone 4S. You could then create your presentation in Keynote and save it to Apple’s iCloud service.

Using the Keynote app (£6.99) you could download the presentation to your phone. (You can also edit your presentation or even create one from scratch right on your phone.) Setup took about 15 minutes, but there was a big upside: Swiping on my phone brought my full-blown presentation–transitions, animations, and video–to life onscreen (albeit with a delay of about a second).

Apple TV doesn’t work with Android phones, so I also tried a free service called MightyMeeting on my Samsung Galaxy S II. (It works with the iPhone and iPad, too.) With MightyMeeting, you store your presentation in the cloud, which allows you to access it from a connected device anywhere. MightyMeeting does not support transitions, video, or animations, and you can’t edit or create a presentation on the phone, as you can with Keynote.

You also must connect your phone to the projector using an HDMI cable with a special adapter. (A paid version lets you use your phone as a wireless controller, but you still need a laptop as a go-between.) On the plus side, setup took less than 10 minutes, and as I swiped through my slides, they were immediately mirrored by the projector.

In the end, I went with Keynote with my iPhone and Apple TV for my presentation. It was a bit trickier to set up than the other options were, but the ability to edit slides on the fly was a big plus. And, even without an inherent gift for public speaking, I wowed my audience with the ability to call up animations and video with just the tiny device in my hand.

Read more:
Toolbox: Leaving the laptop behind when making a presentation

Open to existing and new O2 small business customers On & On will let customers use their phone more than ever before, while paying less.

The new package will give business users access to unlimited calls, unlimited texts along with 1GB of data, and is available on a 24 month contract with a handset included or on a 12 month contract for the SIM only.

On & On will allow small business users to make calls, send texts and surf the web without the worry of incurring high charges. With a range of price points depending on handsets, for just £21.67 a month, ex VAT for customers keeping their current phone or from £30 ex VAT a month with a new phone – On & On offers unlimited minutes to mobiles and landlines in the UK and unlimited text messages to UK based numbers. Also included is a gigabyte (GB) of data for business to use however they like, including tethering and streaming. For more prolific internet users, there is also the option to purchase an extra 1GB of data for £4.17, allowing users to create a package that’s right for their data needs.

Claire Darley, Head of Small Business Sales at O2 said: “We believe that On & On will be the most competitive tariff in the SMB space for some while. O2 has been talking to small business customers and we know that they want better value from mobile networks, as well as simple tariffs.

Devices like smartphones have revolutionised the way we do business because they enable us to stay constantly connected. These tools and technologies add an enormous amount of value, but also make cost management more complex.

Small businesses want to know exactly what they are going to be paying each month to run their communications and connect their staff, suppliers and customers. On & On helps business customers to get the best of both worlds by keeping costs fixed whilst allowing employees to use their devices freely, without the worry of phone bills weighing them down.”

To help make that new phone even more affordable, On & On is available for £30, £34.17 or £38.33 all ex VAT per month. Each price point gives customers the same unlimited UK minutes, the same unlimited UK texts and the same 1GB of data. The three different price points enable a customer to select the right tariff for them based on their monthly tariff and hardware cost. For instance, the iPhone 4S 16GB has an up-front cost of £59.99 (usually £99.99) on the £30 ex VAT On & On tariff, £19.99 (normally £49.99) on the £34.17 ex VAT tariff or free on the £38.66 ex VAT per month tariff.

On & On small business customers will also get the same peace of mind as all O2 Pay Monthly customers with regular text updates on how much data they’re using.

Read more:
O2 launches On & On with unlimited tariffs for UK Small Business

Broadly the main upgrade of the Ipad3 is a change in the screen, However it is hard to overstate the significance of this upgrade as Apple has packed four times as many pixels into the same space and the improvement has to be seen to be believed as the display is extraordinarily sharp with text and photos looking beautiful.

Of all the changes Apple has made to the iPad since last year’s release of the iPad 2, this is the one that will make you want to buy a new iPad immediately.

There are other changes too, of course, particularly in performance. The upgrade is apparent already in some of Apple’s apps but it will become clearer still once new apps are released that take advantage of the graphics capabilities of the new A5X processor.

Photo and video related tasks will get a boost, which is handy because Apple’s new iPhoto and iMovie apps are remarkably powerful editing tools.

The performance jump is not as significant as the leap between the original iPad and the iPad 2. In normal use, it means that things are slightly more responsive. iBooks, for example, opens a book noticeably more quickly.

You’ll notice a difference if you buy the ‘4G’ iPad too. Though the super-fast LTE 4G mobile broadband service is not available in Britain, the new iPad supports faster 3G protocols than the iPad 2. Depending on your network, data downloads will be up to six-times faster.

Last year Apple brought cameras to the iPad, primarily for video chat. This year, the rear camera has been upgraded to 5-megapixels, with lens technology taken from the iPhone 4S and a range of image enhancements from the software to the processor.

Apple is pitching the iPad as a quality camera, although we were a little disappointed and struggled to be able to tell the difference between some identical shots taken with both the iPad2 and this third generation device.

The iPad is an unwieldy camera. Still, it is handy for quick snaps when the iPad is the nearest thing to hand.

Perhaps more useful for the business market is the new dictation feature. Tap the new microphone button on the virtual keyboard and you will be able to dictate emails, messages and other documents. It’s hard not to feel self-conscious at first while talking to your iPad but it is a time saver.

Regardless of those features, the new iPad is all about the screen. It is very slightly heavier and thicker but not enough that you would notice. Apple’s magnetic Smart Covers still fit and the battery life remains a robust 10 hours.

If you have been holding off getting a tablet then this is the one to go for. In my view, it’s the best that money can buy.

Existing iPad owners who are thinking of upgrading should take a look at this new device. You’ll see the difference, but we are unsure if many will non-geeks will rush to upgrade.

Cost
The new iPad, £165.83 from £22.50 on 24 month pay monthly plans

Stockists:
www.vodafone.co.uk/business

Business Matters Rating
4.8 out of 5

Read more:
Under Review: The iPad3

The outstanding Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a major contender in the tablet market

So what sets it? For starters the device is a marvel of engineering and just feels right. Unlike the Acer Iconia A500 and the MotorolaXoom, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 finds that ideal balance between a pick-up-and go e-book reader such as the Amazon Kindle 3 and a 10-inch tablet that’s perfect for watching movies on a long car trip, but given the Android Marketplace provides access to thousands of business led apps.

You can resize widgets and scroll through open apps in the pop-up thumbnails for the “recent apps” list.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 doesn’t have a USB port, so it doesn’t take advantage of the new Android 3.1 feature to support USB-connected peripherals which is a shame, but that’s not the direction Samsung is going with this tablet. This is all about pick-up-and-go functionality and portability.

Samsung actually downgraded the built-in camera on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 compared to the Galaxy Tab 10.1V, which had an 8MP rear camera. Still, the new model has a 3MP rear camera, which is three times higher than the Apple iPad 2’s camera. There’s also a front-facing 2MP camera.

There are quite a few interesting perks and additions on this tablet. Some may seem underwhelming at first, but as a whole they give Apple a good run for the prize.

One fact is that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 has a battery for all-day tablet use. In our tests, it lasted about nine hours for everyday tasks and marginally longer that you can expect from an iPad.

The 10.1 also has a four-way accelerometer and gyro and responded faster to quick turns and screen rotations, and generally worked better for controlling games. It also has great side speakers for playing music and movie audio, and plays smooth HD video.

And of course, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 matches the features of other Android tabs: built-in GPS, support for Adobe Flash in the browser, 1290 x 800 screen resolution, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, the Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor and Android tablet app.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a smart buy for anyone who wants a light and portable Android tablet. Google still has a ways to go on apps for Android and there are tens of thousands of worthy iOS apps.

If, unlike 75per cent of everyone who is reading this, you genuinely want a tablet and are not just going to automatically buy an iPad 2 or 3 then you really should look very seriously at the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Cost
£190.83 on 24 month pay monthly plans

Stockists:
www.vodafone.co.uk/business

Business Matters Rating
4.7 out of 5

Read more:
Under Review: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

A tiny, fully-functioning PC that costs just £22 could help Britain to unearth a new generation of tech entrepreneurs.

The  Raspberry Pi, which went on sale today, is built to teach children how to programme – it looks like a naked circuit board, but can plug into any television and work like a normal computer.

‘Initiatives like the Raspberry Pi scheme will give children the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of programming,’ said Secretary of State Michael Gove prior to launch. ‘This is the cutting edge of education technology.’

The credit-card-sized device is designed to teach children how to programme, and includes a wi-fi connection to access the internet was created by volunteers in the UK, and all profits go back to a charity.

Its makers hope that enthusiasts will write software for it, and that it will be used in schools.

Eben Upton, the Executive Director of the Raspberry Pi Foundation said, ‘We didn’t realise how successful this was going to be. This means we can scale to volume. Now we can concentrate on teaching people to programme.’

‘Six years after the project’s inception, we’re nearly at the end of our first run of development – although it’s just the beginning of the Raspberry Pi story,’ says the British company.

‘We have entered into licensed manufacture partnerships with two British companies, Premier Farnell and RS Components. They’ll be manufacturing and distributing the devices on behalf of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. The Foundation continues to make a small profit from each Raspberry Pi sold, which we’ll be putting straight back into the charity.’

The Pi requires an additional television and keyboard to function – but the £16 gizmo will eventually be able to do office programmes such as word processing, internet and even TV and video.

Its makers say, ‘The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard. It’s a capable little PC which can be used for many of the things your desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word-processing and games.

‘It also plays high-definition video. We want to see it being used by kids all over the world to learn programming.’

The computer resembles the first Apple I boards that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak sold from Steve Jobs’ garage in 1976.

The pocket-sized PC runs the operating system Linux or Mac OS.

The chips and connectors allow users to connect cameras and other gadgets via USB, and are powerful enough to deal with hi-def video and sound.

The Raspberry Pi is available at either Premier Farnell or RS Components however you might need to be patient as initial stocks sold out within minutes of the launch.

Read more:
£20 Micro computer set to revolutionise British entrepreneurs

This is network storage, useful if you’re growing beyond the comfort zone of a couple of PCs and need Network Attached Storage (NAS) so you can give multiple users access to files but still maintain easy administration of the system.

What sets the TeraStation Pro series apart is the fact that it uses Windows Storage Server software, making it secure, powerful, familiar to Windows users and very robust.

It’s affordable and easy to manage but you can scale it up to add extra storage as you need – it’s available in configurations up to 4TB of storage while other models beyond the Duo offer even more space with four or six drive bays instead of the two bays here.

It’s packed with features, including disk quotas to make sure none of your employees guzzles too much disk space. It’s fast and efficient, thanks to the Atom dual-core processor which keeps its performance reliably nippy and makes data transfer satisfyingly quick even when in demanding use from several users simultaneously.

Servers always get hot but the TeraStation is designed to keep things cool with two silent fans and well-designed ventilation slots to help. You can see from the LCD panel the status of the drives and can hot swap them – that is, no need to power down as you do so – if you need to.

Supplied software includes NovaBackup Business Essentials, so you can back up as many as 10 PCs, servers or databases easily.

And the Pro WSS tag in the name is what tells you it uses high-performance components and Windows software. There are Pro NAS dives without Windows and lower-performance TeraStations which are the entry-level models. But if you want speed, the new model will be of interest: for the Pro WSS models Buffalo quotes test results where three PCs are working simultaneously, performing search tasks, replication jobs and the like, with anti-virus scan in the background. The server manages data transfer at around twice the speed of the entry-level machines.

Cost
£622.76

Stockists:
All leading hardware suppliers

Business Matters Rating
3.5 out of 5

Read more:
Under Review: Buffalo TeraStation Pro server

Free wi-fi in hotels is always such a crowd-pleaser that it’s amazing it’s not universal. Of course, some hotels really don’t want you to stay in your room, wanting you to be in their restaurant, bar or conference room.

In these hotels, wi-fi can be prohibitive, and since the price is usually per gadget, you triple your bill when you connect tablet, phone and laptop. Some hotels don’t allow you to have more than one device registered to your room anyway.

Worse, if they do offer free wi-fi it’s restricted to communal areas like the bar – where you’ll be spending money in a different way. This is fine if you’re checking Facebook updates but not suited to confidential work.

Belkin’s latest gadget gives you the freedom to create your own personal hotspot for multiple gadgets. You use the hotel’s network, so you are still paying for connecting to that, but only for the router, which creates the connection for all your other gadgets.

It works with up to five devices simultaneously, which is handy if you’re using your room as a hub for your colleagues to work with you while you’re all away from the office.

What’s more, the router connects by Ethernet cable, so if there’s actually no wi-fi at the hotel, only a cable connection, the Belkin means you’re not restricted to where to sit. The router is supplied with the appropriate cables and a charger with UK and EU connectors.

It’s very simple to set up and works well, though if the hotel wi-fi is slow then using multiple devices will only hobble it further. And if you’ve picked a place with a wi-fi connection but no Ethernet option, it’s no use.

Still, it may be cheaper than upgrading to a better-equipped hotel. And needless to say it works everywhere, not just in hotels, so if your office has cabled internet only, it could add extra flexibility – though check with your IT supervisor first.

This is the sort of gadget that you would hope didn’t need to exist – hotel internet should be fast, wireless and free. But until then, it’s a good stopgap.

Read more:
Under Review: Belkin’s Go router turns a hotel room into an office

“Building on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet’s proven web browsing, multimedia and multitasking strengths, the new BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 introduces a range of new communications and productivity enhancements as well as expanded app and content support,” said David J. Smith, SVP Mobile Computing, Research In Motion.

New BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 features include:

• Integrated email client with a powerful unified inbox: With BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 you have the option to use a  unified inboxthat consolidates all messages in one place, including messages from Facebook®, LinkedIn® and Twitter®, as well as personal and work email accounts.
• Social Integration with Calendar and Contacts apps:  The built-in calendar harnesses information from social networks and makes it available where and when users need it.  Contact cards are also dynamically populated with updated information from Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to create a consolidated view of contacts.
• Updated BlackBerry Bridge app: BlackBerry® Bridge is a unique app that provides a Bluetooth® connection between your BlackBerry PlayBook and core apps on your BlackBerry® smartphone (including BBM, Email, Contacts, Calendar and Browser) in order to let you view the content on the larger tablet display. With BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0, it’s easier and quicker than ever to take documents, web pages, emails and photos that appear on your BlackBerry smartphone and display them on your BlackBerry PlayBook for an optimized viewing and editing experience. The updated BlackBerry Bridge app also provides a new remote control feature that allows a BlackBerry smartphone to be used as a wireless keyboard and mouse for a BlackBerry PlayBook.
• Improved mobile productivity: Updated document editing functions, the new Print To Go app, and increased control and manageability of corporate data with BlackBerry® Balance allow you to get more out of your BlackBerry PlayBook every day. Plus, an updated virtual keyboard with auto correction and predictive next word completion learns how you type to enable faster, more accurate typing.
• New apps and content: Thousands of new apps are being added to BlackBerry App World today (including a range of Android®apps that will run on the BlackBerry PlayBook). A new BlackBerry Video Store¹ is launching today. Enhanced web browsing capabilities are also available with BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0.

Read more:
New Operating System for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet users including email finally released

Design
The Samsung Galaxy S2 is slim and light – it’s plastic body together with the battery weighs only 116g whilst also giving off a feel of solid construction.

Display
It’s screen is very bright, all the colors are eye-popping and very beautiful, and they don’t darken or fade when you look at the screen at an angle. It’s great for watching movies and even for playing HD games (there are plenty of them in Android Market).

Processor
The Samsung Galaxy S2 boasts a 1.2GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor that provides really fast performance without any delay. Web browsing is very quick even via Wi-Fi networks.

Camera
The Samsung Galaxy S2 has a good 8MP camera with auto-focus and LED flash that takes 3264 x 2448 photos and 1080p videos at 30fps.

Platform
Android the Samsung Galaxy S2 runs is the most popular platform at the moment, famous for being easy to customize and for having a huge number of apps in Android Market, too.

Conclusion
This is the first Android phone that I have used and I was very impressed. It was fast, easier to use for web browsing and apps use than, my smart phone of choice, the BlackBerry, and after a while I got used to using the touch screen instead of hard keyboard. Buyers should definitely look at this phone before automatically going to buy an iPhone 4S.

Cost
Free from £30 pay monthly plans

Stockists:  www.vodafone.co.uk/business

Business Matters Rating

4.5 out of 5

Read more:
Under Review: Samsung Galaxy S2