Seems like you can’t purchase any electronic device without being offered an extended warranty - but is it a good investment? According to a recent poll of over 2,000 readers of PC World magazine, 63% said they always go for the extended warranty plan; and of those who had to use it, 80% were satisfied with the service. Does that mean they are a good investment?

     In our opinion, extended warranties are not necessary since most bugs will reveal themselves within the first 90 days of purchasing a technical gadget, which is well within the normal warranty of the product. But if you feel better buying an extended warranty, here are 5 tips to follow:

1.      Read the terms before you buy: You don’t have to read the warranty in the checkout line - take it home. You can usually buy it later.

2.      Beware shipping charges: If the product needs to be sent in for service, you could get stuck with the tab.

3.      Look for accidental damage coverage: Most policies do not cover products that are damaged from falls or spilled coffee. If that option is available, you might have to pay more for it (a good idea, particularly for mobile devices that get abused).

4.      Look for extras: Many extended warranties cover replaceable items, such as bulbs in projectors which are expensive and can wear out.

5.      Check for the product’s reliability online first. If you are buying a quality product, an extended warranty might not be necessary. Obviously doing a little research and spending a bit more on a better built product will save you a lot of time and aggravation in the long run anyway. You can find some good information in PC World’s annual Reliability and Service survey and Consumer Reports’ reliability ratings.

Of course, you can always call us for our opinion since we have to fix the PCs, servers, and other gadgets for multiple clients!

The 2010 hurricane season is upon us!  It is a good time to look at whether or not your business has a plan in place, to make sure you are covered in the event of a storm or a disaster.
Even if your business is not in an area that is prone to hurricanes, these tips are still for you. Floods, earthquakes, ice storms, fires, and even oil spills can dramatically affect your business operations by causing rain damage, electrical surges and power outages. 

What You Can Do To Prepare: 40% of small businesses never reopen after a major disaster due to lack of planning, according to a study by the American Red Cross. Small business need to make sure that they develop a disaster recovery strategy that outlines what programs and data are crucial to their day to day operations. Your data files represent many hours of work, and this effort should be protected against loss. Confirm that your procedures are sufficient to protect your data files. In addition, a monthly verification process should be in place, to make sure that the data you are backing up is everything you need. If you don’t have access to a file server or network, some form of scheduled desktop data backup should be performed. There are several inexpensive options such as external hard drives, flash drives, and CD rewritable disks. Businesses should back up the information in a timely manner and store the data in a safe, secure and dependable facility.

1. Backup Data Files.

2.UPS.  Due to the frequency of summer electrical storms, protecting computer equipment with an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) that provides both over and under voltage protection is recommended. These devices contain a battery that will provide electrical current to a computer for a short period (usually 4 – 15 minutes), even when the power is out.

3. Ensure an Uninterrupted Power Supply. Consider purchasing a backup generator, but at the very least make sure you have plenty of batteries on hand. If you lose electrical power, you won’t be able to support your network infrastructure, let alone maintain the things we seem to take for granted, such as lighting the office.

4. Sign Up for a Reliable Internet Service. All of our businesses rely on the Internet to handle day to day operations. Without the Internet, we wouldn’t be able to send and receive e-mail, fulfill orders from customers, or perform a variety of other daily tasks.  When terrestrial networks are severely damaged, satellites provides instant infrastructure where it’s needed.  This allows business owners to ensure their Internet connection is not interrupted, so they can continue to send and receive e-mails, process orders, check inventory, and conduct day-to-day business.

5. Plug in a Corded Telephone. If you use a cordless phone in your office, don’t forget that it will not work during a power outage. By having at least one corded phone, you can make sure that your business will still have a telephone even if there is no electricity.

6. Computer Storage. If worst comes to worst and you have to evacuate, your computer, monitor, and all peripherals such as printers, scanners and speakers, should be shut down properly and unplugged from wall outlets. Move computers and peripherals away from windows and doors, and towards the center of the room.  If flooding is a possibility, place all your computer equipment on a raised platform least two feet from the floor.  Make sure everything is securely supported and covered with plastic sheeting.

Let Us Help You!
Intelligent Technical Solutions will be glad to help you get ready for the season. We can help you document your Network, prepare your Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plans, and get ready for the storms. If we are unlucky enough to get hit by a weather emergency, we can help you recover and get your technology back up in the shortest possible time. Call us today at 702-869-3636 for a free disaster preparedness assessment.

 Summertime is different from the rest of the year. It’s hotter, of course, but there are many other ways that summer is different: Kids are out of school, days are longer, we wear different clothes and shoes. Work schedules usually change in the summer - depending on the type of work you do, it may be busier or slower than normal. Most people take vacations in summertime, so we travel more, visit family, see new places, try out new things. Leisure activities change too, as concerts move outdoors, grills get fired up, we spend more time biking, swimming, gardening, and mowing the yard.

Despite these changes to our routine, most of us have no trouble adjusting to summer. We see it coming months in advance, we make preparations and plans, we even look forward to it. Perhaps this is because it is cyclical. We have been through the changes many times before in our lives, and we know what to expect. But even so, every summer is different. There are unexpected or infrequent events, like hurricanes, or the summer Olympics. There are things that happen in different stages of our lives, like weddings, or sending the kids away to camp.

Adjusting to change is a life skill that we all need to exercise. In today’s world, change is always accelerating. There is even a theory that the rate of change is increasing so fast that it will go “off the charts” in about the year 2045, leading to a “technological singularity” (www.singularity.org).

In our lifetimes we have seen entire industries come and go. My grandfather ran a livery stable in the early 1900’s - does anyone even remember what a livery stable is these days? Phone booths and typewriters have all but disappeared; newspapers and gasoline-powered cars are next. Travel agents, free-lance musicians, and telephone operators are being replaced by automated systems. In the meantime, we’ve watched cell phones and computers take off, and we’re just now witnessing the birth of the iPad. What’s next - valet robots, synthetic replacement body parts, computer implants?

Apart from technology, we’ve seen huge social and economic changes. Wealth and consumerism have blossomed, but at the same time we have the economic crisis, unemployment, social inequity, and shifts in the global geo-political situation, along with ever-growing population and ever-declining natural resources. In addition, we all undergo huge life changes as time passes: in employment, marital status, children, finances, health, aging, and hopefully wisdom.

Why can’t we apply the lessons of seasonal change to all areas of life? We prepare and look forward to Summer, because we know it is coming. The same goes for Winter. But if we can come to understand and accept that all kinds of other changes will happen, as sure as Spring, throughout our lives, then we can be ready. We can prepare for them also, and even learn to anticipate and enjoy.

Today, education never stops. We must always be learning new technologies. In our work lives, we must be ready to switch gears and take on different tasks, as our employers’ needs change. We should even be thinking ahead to changing occupations, as society evolves and industries fade. Think of your career, not in terms of developing expertise in a particular field or skill, but as mastering Change Management. Learn to handle not only life’s ups and downs, but also its reversals and detours - then you’ll be ready for the inevitable future. And remember, as you put the sunscreen on this summer, that you already have plenty of practice!

Let’s say you’ve started lusting for a 3-D television.

Never mind that when you get to the store to sample 3-D TV, you discover that World Cup soccer in 3-D may not grab you like a scene from the 3-D animated film “Monsters vs. Aliens.” The soccer match seems disappointingly flat in its wide shots. “Monsters vs. Aliens” immerses you in its animated antics.

You’ve just learned a basic lesson of 3-D: It isn’t all the same.

But when it’s good, it’s very good. It sucks you in. It’s in your face, you’re in its face. Or so it seems. No wonder you’re picturing one of these sleek, wide-screen beauties in your own living room.

That’s what visitors to the Sony 3-D Experience at CBS’ consumer research center in Las Vegas are saying, according to preliminary polling results. Two-thirds of the visitors to this exhibition at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino say their next TV will be 3-D-capable, reported David Poltrack, president of CBS Vision.

Maybe much of the public is pre-sold by now. “3-D is a form of content that people not only like, but are willing to pay a significant premium at the box office for,” Poltrack said.

“We’ve very fortunate that ‘Avatar’ was done so well and was such a big hit,” said Dan Schinasi, senior marketing manager for HDTV product planning in Samsung’s Visual Display Product Group.

“That 3-D theater experience captivated millions of people and made them realize, ‘There’s a new dimension that I’ve been missing,’” Schinasi said. “The result is, they’re saying, ‘I want to experience that at home.’”

In these early months of 3-D-mania, jolted by the December release of “Avatar,” a growing number of manufacturers (including Samsung, Panasonic and Sony) are wooing you with mirror-thin 3-D models whose screens stretch 40 inches and beyond, and whose price tags start at about $1700.

Granted, you can’t yet frolic with the Na’vi in your home in 3-D; only a 2-D edition of “Avatar” is currently for sale. But ESPN is airing 3-D sports events (including World Cup soccer). DirecTV has just flipped the switch on a trio of 3-D channels. And Discovery says its 3-D channel, in partnership with Sony and IMAX, will debut early next year.  Headed to the marketplace by year-end will be dozens of 3-D movies, games and other home videos viewable with 3-D-ready Blu-ray and PlayStation players.

Meanwhile, some 3-D TVs boast an additional feature that converts any 2-D show to 3-D, at least in a limited version that offers a measure of interior depth, although nothing will leap out at you into the foreground. For now, “true 3-D” on-air content will mostly be sports, nature programming, concerts and other special events. Where it goes after that will depend on several as-yet-unanswerable questions.

What do you think ? Will you stick with your TV or go 3D?

 Pay attention to your printer’s cost per page

Small businesses often gravitate toward low-cost inkjet and entry-level laser printers. Not surprising, since most businesses are looking for ways to reduce costs right now.

Given their extremely reasonable price tags (in the neighborhood of $100 to $400), at first glance, this seems to make sense.

But here’s the DARK SIDE of these types of printers… Inkjet printers, although very inexpensive to purchase, often have an extraordinarily high cost per page for cartridge supplies. It’s not uncommon for printer manufacturers to boast inkjet cost per page rates of $0.08 for black ink and $0.25 for color ink. 

That may sound down-right cheap, but the dirty little secret is that these costs generally reflect a 5% coverage area.  (Try this: Fold a piece of paper in half…in half again…in half again…and one more time. You are looking at 6.25% of the page. Could you fit everything you need to print on that square or less? Probably not.)

Page coverage for a typical business document ranges from 25-35%, so your costs can actually be 5-6 times higher per page than those quoted by printer manufacturers.  Factor in the average cost of a cartridge at $20 and you’re paying more than $1,700 per gallon for ink.

But what if you really need some color? You’re still better off using a black-and-white laser printer for your regular correspondence, and sparingly leveraging an inkjet printer for occasional color printing needs.

Laser Printer Supply Cost Differences

An entry-level, black-and-white laser printer will cost you $300 to $600 and have a cost per page of around $0.04 to $0.05. Although this is still substantially less expensive than operating an inkjet printer for moderate volume users, entry-level laser printers still may not make sense for your business. 

Entry-level laser printers have a much higher cost per page than workgroup laser printers. In addition, entry-level laser printers are likely to break down much sooner than a workgroup printer.  

Depending upon your monthly print volume, investing in a workgroup laser printer may be the best bet for your business.  Based on the manufacturer, networking capability, and advanced paper handling features, workgroup laser printers typically cost anywhere from $850 to $1,200 (and up). 

Workgroup laser printers typically have a per page cost in the $0.025 to $0.03 per page range and often serve double duty as a copier by attaching a flat bed scanning device near the copier.

A Colorful Future

If you have a high-volume color printing requirement, you might consider a color laser printer to rapidly drive down your cost per page, while producing much crisper and more professional looking color print-outs.  At prices below $2,000, high volume toner cartridge costs can be nominally more than a black and white laser printer.

Printer options for a small business can be dizzying.  If you’d like to optimize your printing costs, why not take advantage of our <<Printer Advantage Review>> where we review your page print counts, printer configuration, supply costs and business image objectives to provide you with the lowest cost solution for your needs? 

We’re able to offer a FREE Printer Advantage Review (normally $195!) to the first 5 businesses that contact us at 702-869-3636.  Appointments will be made on a first come, first served, basis so don’t delay, contact us today.