One conversation new or potential business owners may want to have with their IT professionals is about what technologies exist that can improve their life. Below you will find some that are must haves…

Apple iPhone

Smartphones: Whether it is an Android, iPhone or even a Windows based phone, you cannot survive without one. These devices provide instant communication with your clients through email, text message and phone, along with the ability to browse the web and select from tens of thousands of applications to assist in your business. Your clients will not wait for you to get to your office to respond to an email. Even a quick, “I’m driving, will respond as soon as it is safe” auto-response is better than no response. The cost of a typical phone can range from 100 to 300 dollars per phone depending on features and term of contract from the carrier of your choice.

Square Credit Card Reader

Credit Card Processing: If you expect to get paid, then you need to accept every form of payment possible, including plastic. Yes, you will lose a little bit on the sale, but you will gain an instant payment. If you are just getting started, without purchasing a machine or paying a monthly charge, you can accept credit cards anywhere you have a cell signal using the Square credit card application with your smart phone and the free reader device that they provide to you. No per-swipe fee, and less than 3.0% charge. Fast, secure, and in your account the next business day. Find it in your phones’s marketplace.

Reliable & Fast Internet: There are a lot of choices these days for fast internet, from DSL to cable to fiber, and the old tried and true T1 standard, but some businesses may find that a wireless broadband internet plan may be enough for them. We recommend Charter Business in most situations, but that varies depending upon what is available at the business location. One advantage to using a cellular based broadband internet connection is that you can take it with you, which is great for businesses that are not tied to one specific location. Typical 4G plans will provide over 5 meg down and up to 2 meg up. Verizon Wireless offers the MiFi devices for around 50 dollars with 5GB plans for 50 dollars per month.

IP Surveillance Cameras

IP surveillance: Sure it sounds like the CIA, but IP security cameras at your business will decrease loss of inventory, increase productivity, and may provide an insurance savings. You can even keep tabs on your employees using a smartphone or any web browser to view these camera. Recordings can be reviewed after events occur, and most systems can email you when there is movement in a particular location. Prices range from $150 for a single entry level camera into the $2000 range to cover an entire business. You can install yourself, or get an IT provider to handle this for you for the most professional results.

Email: This is a no-brainer, but many small businesses will cut corners here. A Hotmail account will work for sure, but who wants AcmeWidgetCo@hotmail.com on their business cards. At the very least, your business should use a service that allows for linking a domain to your mail, such as Google Apps (Gmail) or Microsoft Office 365. This gives you a professional appearance, and provides for important features such as linking of your smartphones, sharing of calendars between users and so much more. Microsoft Office 365 costs about 5 dollars per person per month and gives you up to 20GB of storage.

Anti-Virus & Security: Far too often this is overlooked, or taken for granted. A business that is vulnerable to viruses or malware is a business that could experience costly downtime and repairs, not to mention, open yourself up for compliance violations and potential fines or legal issues depending upon the field you are in. The components of a secure network are as simple as a quality firewall like those offered from Cisco, Watchguard or SonicWall, an anti-virus software package from Trend Micro or Symantec, and taking the time to apply updates to the Operating System (Windows, Mac, etc) and support software (Microsoft Office, Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash, JAVA).

Backup: When disaster strikes, you need to be prepared for it. Having backups of your important files will insure you are not out of business when a computer or server fails. Backups technology can be as simple as an external USB drive or remote backup solution, or on the other end of the spectrum, as complicated as auto-loader tape drives. One thing is for sure, ANY attempt to backup your data is better than none. For automated cloud backup solutions, consider Servosity or Mozy Pro.

Here at Homeland Secure IT, we utilize a vast array of technology and we also help many small and medium businesses and even home offices stay up to date. If we can help you with decisions regarding your Greenville or Upstate technology infrastructure, please call us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com. We offer sales, service, repair and consultation of everything from computers to VoIP.

What is your “must have” business technology? I would love to hear about it.  VoIP phone systems? iPad, Android or Windows based tablet computers? A favorite app (We love TiKL & Waze)?

An interesting article was pointed out to me over on the AndroidPolice.com site that says, “Massive Security Vulnerability In HTC Android Devices (EVO 3D, 4G, Thunderbolt, Others) Exposes Phone Numbers, GPS, SMS, Emails, Address, Much More“…

This article pretty much says it all…

There is even a work-around, but not an official fix for the security vulnerability from HTC as of this date.

The authors of the above article also state that you should be careful as to which apps you load, as you never know which one could actually exploit the vulnerability and expose your information to the world.

What smartphone are you using and why?

Our office has moved to Androids, and in particular Samsung Epic 4G (original and the new Galaxy S II Touch) and absolutely love them.

I’d love you input….

One of our phones has a contract that is up and I could upgrade to the Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch that was released just today on Sprint.

Only one problem…  Nobody that I called in the Greenville area has one!  One person told me only 200 of the top stores got them today and those 200 stores only received 2 each.

So I will wait a while, or I could buy it online at sprint.com.

Why do I want it? Last year about this time, we replaced our aging Blackberry phones with Samsung Galaxy S Epic 4G phones and have loved them! BUT, that was this, this is now. The new phone does not have a keyboard built-in, so it is much thinner, and it also has a much larger display. The battery life is improved to boot.

As far as speed, the new phone has a 1.2Ghz DUAL CORE processor, compared to the 1Ghz single core we currently have.

The OS is upgraded, the camera is 8 megapixels.  What’s not to like?

Apparently the size. Some people don’t like that bigger 4.5″ screen, compared to the 4.3″ screen in our current phones.

We’ll see… Maybe by next week I can find one?

Thoughts?     OH, and don’t make it about carriers.  Sprint has done a great job of keeping us happy.  Verizon would be our 1st choice, but we’re locked in for a little while longer with 3 of our phones.

Have a great weekend!

It’s almost that time again!   Starting tomorrow, August 5th at 12:01am until August 7th at midnight, South Carolina’s Sales Tax Holiday will be in effect.

During this time, you can save 6% state sales tax on purchases in many categories, including the one we are most interested in, electronics.

A few examples from the www.sctax.org website of exempt products:

• Computer hardware service contracts sold in conjunction with computers
• Computer software (This includes Microsoft Office, Microsoft Windows)
• Computer software service contracts sold in conjunction with computer software
• Computer software service contracts when the true object of the contract is to obtain computer software updates during the contract period
• Computers (computer parts, such as computer monitors, keyboards and scanners, when not sold in conjunction with a central processing unit (CPU) and accessories are taxable) (Think notebook, desktop & tablet computers here)
• Personal Digital Assistants or PDAs (PDAs are hand-held computers used as daily planners. Please note that the exemption does not apply to cell phones with a PDA, computer applications or similar components.) (The rules are sketchy here, an Android tablet computer is a PDA OR a computer, not primarily a cell phone)
• Printer supplies (replaceable ink cartridges used in printers are exempt from tax as “printer supplies”)
• Printers (replacement parts are taxable)

You need to read the information at THIS SITE before making these purchases…

There are a number of exclusions and something VERY important for businesses to understand is that you cannot use the sales tax holiday for making purchases of items that will be used in your business or trade.

Homeland Secure IT will be honoring the sales tax holiday on purchases made tomorrow (Friday). It’s a great time to buy your college-bound child a new notebook computer!

We offer HP, Dell, Lenovo, Toshiba, Nexlink and more… We can custom spec a computer today, place the order tomorrow and in most cases have it in your hands on Monday or Tuesday!

Call us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com

Watch out for these on your Android smartphone

Here’s an ugly one… A piece of malware could be installed on your Android that records your phone conversations and saves it to your memory card.

A blog post over on the CA community site states that you could have a trojan spying on your conversations. While the author goes into detail about the functionality of the trojan, little is said about the distribution method.

We’re left to believe it came from the marketplace, distributed with a supposedly legitimate application, but who’s to say you could not be brought to the app by your browser or an email link.

I think the bottom line here is to be careful when installing any apps on your Android phone, pay attention to which Android resources applications may be requesting access to. Why would a game need access to phone calls for instance?  A little common sense can go a long way.

The author does correctly state that this is the year of mobile malware….   Be careful out there!

A couple weeks ago I was watching a conversation about the popularity of certain devices for browsing and thought I would pull out some recent information about our own website, http://www.HomelandSecureIT.com…

Here’s a look at our site for July 1st until August 1st broken down by browser and platform:

Homeland Secure IT Browser Stats

Other than the super-high bounce rate, we see some important information…

Internet Explorer running Microsoft Windows is just darn popular! Followed by Firefox and then Chrome, also on Windows…   In fact, they account for about 80 percent of all traffic…

Up next is Safari & Firefox on the Mac…  And then down a bit is Chrome on the Mac.  Mac is the apparent source of 9.38% of traffic to our site (And less than 5% of our business).

The iPad viewers and the Android viewers accounted for 2% and 1.2% respectively… So a number of people were sitting on the toilet while surfing our site.

Here’s a further break down of mobile user specs:

Homeland Secure IT mobile browser info

iPad, iPhone & iPod dominates this category for sure, with Android 2nd, and Blackberry 3rd…   Windows made a horrible showing… And what’s up with Palm? Someone is using that? hehe

I compared these stats to July 2010 and found Android usage has come up considerably, but iPad maintained a steady lead even then.

Looking at the percentage of Windows versus other platforms, Windows has lost only a two percentage points in a year, and those were taken up by mobile devices.

It will be interesting to see what this looks like in another year. I’m guessing mobile device usage will continue to grow, maybe even at an accelerated rate due to the large numbers of new tablets being introduced, and smartphones replacing older cell phones…

What are your experiences with your own website/s?

Toshiba Thrive Android Tablet

If you are one of the many looking for an alternative to the iPad and can’t bring yourself to like Windows based tablets, Toshiba may have the device for you.

The Toshiba Thrive 16GB tablet is a brand new product featuring:

• Android 3.1 Honeycomb (Yes, it has Flash!)
• 16GB storage, 1GB DDR2 memory
• 10.1″ Display with 1080p resolution (1280×800)
• NVidia ULP GeForce graphics for fast graphics
• Stereo speakers w/Toshiba sound enhancements SRS Premium Voice Suite
• Dual cameras – 5megapixel on the back (720p capture) and 2megapixel front facing with microphone
• Expansion ports! HDMI to allow connection to your big screen or a projector for presentations,  full size SD card slot, USB 2.0 (Both full sized and mini!), docking connector and a stereo headphone jack
• 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0 + HS

It also has a rubberized finish that helps you keep your grip and a replaceable battery!

There are a growing number of Android based tablets, but this one could very well be the best of the bunch (so far)…

To purchase this tablet, call us at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com – We are a Toshiba partner here in Greenville / Upstate, SC.

If you would like to discuss how this product or any other tablet may work within your business, please call us…

i'm watch in Black & Gold

Father’s day is this weekend, however, one of the things I would like is simply not available yet.

That thing is the “i’m Watch”, a connected watch that works with your Android phone, which is not available to purchase, but you CAN preorder on the www.imwatch.it website.

You get a wrist-watch type device that runs the Android operating system and interconnects to your Android smartphone. It enables you to keep your phone in your pocket, while receiving text messages, email and notifications from popular social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and Foursquare.

You are not limited to those applications, there will be more available and you can develop your own!

Basically, this thing puts the information you need most right on your wrist.  You can get it in a variety of colors and styles it would appear.

Oh yeah, it’s a watch too… =)

Should I get my hands on one, I will let you know more about it, until then, visit the i’m Watch site for more info.  Now if you ARE with “i’m Watch”, feel free to send me one for father’s day.

Looks like this Father’s Day could be very good for those dads who have really rocked…

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is shipping on the 17th of June, and pre-orders are being accepted at major retailers now, so dads, be sure to let your family know!

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 comes in two flavors, a $499.99 version which sports 16GB and a $599.99 version which has 32GB.

Anyone want to buy a slightly used, and personalized Apple iPad 2 64GB w/Verizon 3G?  I would gladly let it go for slightly less than I have in it in order to get the Android Honeycomb 3.1 operating system, Adobe Flash, dual core processor, yada yada yada…  But alas, Verizon has not released their 4G LTE version yet. When that happens, you may be seeing me dump an iPad 2 for just enough to replace it with the Tab 10.1!

If you plan on getting one, or maybe plan on NOT getting one, I’d love to hear what you have to say…