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Newsletter Number Twenty Four - December 2007
In this Newsletter... Ready for Vista, Blackberry or Windows Mobile, affordable colour laser printers and more...
You're getting this Newsletter because you are a client, friend, prospect or just because you enjoy the content and want to be kept in touch, with some of the trends affecting Small Businesses and Information Technology.
Holiday Greetings
Thank you for joining me again. I'd like to wish you the very best for the holiday season. May the best of 2007 be the worst of 2008. I received this card from some friends and wanted to share and wish - goodwill and friendship, for all of us.
Those of us in Toronto and eastward to Montreal were hammered with about a foot and a half of snow between Saturday 15th December and Monday the 17th. On Sunday evening the snow had mostly eased up and our driveway and walkway were clean. Fear not... the snowploughs came and on Monday morning we had another 18 inches of snow to clean... mutter mutter mutter. What a start to our 29th winter in Canada!
Ready for Vista
I think it might be time! Most of the initial bugs have been sorted out and the Service Pack 1 is due out imminently. Most of the peripheral product available now is Vista compatible and there are a bunch of new drivers available for some of the legacy products, specifically printer drivers. None available for my (then expensive) HP ScanJet 7400c. I purchased a new HP ScanJet G4010 scanner that was Vista ready out of the box. By the way, this is an excellent scanner if you're looking to buy one.
The one annoyance you'll have to get used to is the well publicized "Allow or Deny" prompt that frequently pops up if you want to run a program that is not currently trusted by Vista. If you're unfamiliar with this, watch the Apple Mac adds on TV.
Most of the new computers from the manufacturers are only offering computers with Vista. Only a small number offer Windows XP as an alternative.
Blackberry or Windows Mobile
This is an interesting debate and is the result of one of my clients posing the question. I cannot cover the pro's and con's within the scope of this newsletter but will offer some points to consider.
Blackberry has been around for a number of years now and is a mature product. It is well supported through the Wireless Service Providers like Bell, Fido, Rogers and Telus. The service provider interface is Web-based and allows you to use either the your.name@xxxx.blackberry.net (where xxxx is any of the above service providers) or you can configure it to get and forward your email from your local ISP account like your.name@rogers.com or your own domain like yourname@yourdomain.com. If you are running your own server you can purchase the Blackberry Enterprise Server and manage your Blackberry Accounts within your Microsoft Server domain/servers.
Windows Mobile is only a couple of years old and version 5 and the latest version 6 is well matured and relatively stable. There are a number of manufactures that have devices that use Windows Mobile. Better known are HP iPaq, Palm, HTC and Motorola.
I'm using an HTC Dash with Windows Mobile 6. It's actually a T-Mobile branded phone that I purchased unlocked on Craig's List about 6 months ago. Some of my clients are using an HP iPaq in conjunction with their Windows Exchange Server which affords synchronization "over the air". It was also relatively straight-forward to setup up within their environment. The SmartPhone can be configured to "POP" your email server for mobile email.
In all instances, you need to have activated a Data package with your service provider if you are to take advantage of mobile email and web browsing.
My preference? Windows Mobile. Why? More choice and versatility, but that's only my opinion.
Affordable Colour Laser Printers
There are a few available well below $1000.00 and some below $500.00. Some examples are Brother, Samsung, and my personal favourite, HP. Clients of mine have has success with each of the printers just mentioned. I have an HP LaserJet 2605dn printer. This one comes with duplexing and networking built-in. Duplexing allows you to print on both sides of the paper and networking allows you connect the printer to your network as opposed to connection to a computer and then to have to "share" the printer. The price of the 2605 varies between $320.00 and $400.00 depending on who's offering rebates at the time.
Be prepared to spend at least the same amount as the purchase price, on toner cartridges (around $100.00 per each colour) - there are four required.
In the upcoming issue... Alternate SMTP gateways for "Road Warriors" requiring to send email while traveling, Out of Office Messages, why it may be a good time to register your own domain, and more...
Once again, I appreciate your perspective on the content of my newsletter, both good and bad. I look forward to hearing from you. Just click this feedback link and let me have your comments.
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