You’ve got password protection on everything from your office computer to your microwave.  Between updating your Facebook status, checking in with your friends, paying bills, texting (hopefully not while driving) and talking, your cell phone has become an extension of your arm.  You make very sure to keep your computer locked down… how about your phone?

I’ve noticed more than a few smart phone users that don’t take the time to lock their cell phone.  While it may seem like a nuisance to enter a 4 digit code before you are able to make a call or check your email, take a minute to think about how your use your phone.  Have you ever REALLY thought about the information stored within? Read the rest of this entry

If you’re online you’ve got passwords. In all likelihood you’ve got multiple passwords you need to remember.  If you’re like me you’re “logging in” to everything from your office computer to your microwave.  While it may be difficult to remember all of the different username / password combinations you should really resist the urge to have simple, easy to guess passwords.  Here’s yet another reminder.   Read the rest of this entry

When it comes to surfing the web there’s one thing that we all have in common – we’re using a web browser.  Unfortunately, that’s about where the similarities come to an end.  Everyone surfs the web differently, with different personal settings on  their machine and on their web browser.  I often get ask, “Which browser should I use?”  Every time I get asked that question I cringe because like so many things in the IT/Web world there really is no “right” answer.

When we talk about browsers there are essentially 4 that we’re referring to:

1. Microsoft Internet Explorer
2. Mozilla Firefox
3. Google Chrome
4. Apple Safari

Read the rest of this entry

If you’re an iPhone user you’re very familiar with the “feature” known as Auto Correct.  Essentially its a feature that tries to determine what you’re saying and attempts to replace your words for you as you type.  As an example, if I typed “a-c-r”, Auto Correct may assume that I’m typing “Acroment” and it will fill it in for me.

Note in that last sentence that I said that Auto Correct “may” assume I’m typing Acroment.  In MANY cases, the feature doesn’t quite hit the mark and give you an incorrect word.  As in this screen shot, iPhone has incorrectly assumed that I was going for “acromegaly”.  I didn’t know the word so I had to look it up (courtesy Wikipedia): Read the rest of this entry

I recently ran across this article on smallbiztechnology.com and wanted to pass it along:

Microsoft and Google: 3 Misconceptions That Microsoft Wants You To Know About

The article is certainly biased (It’s written by Microsoft Product Manager, Bhavika Thakkar) but I think it highlights some differences that business owners really need to consider when moving ANY of their services to the cloud.

In my experience, no other email server works as well or is as powerful as Microsoft Exchange Server. While you may be using Microsoft Office Outlook to connect to other email servers (POP or IMAP servers for example) there are a lot of back end features of Outlook which are not unlocked unless you have your mailbox on an Exchange Server (as many of our customers do).

The information in this article isn’t news to me.  However, it does help highlight some of the risks you take when evaluating a move to hosted services.

For some additional reading on “The Cloud” see below:

• Can You Rely On The Cloud For Your Business?
• Ease Into “The Cloud” With Dropbox

Are you using Cloud services for your business?

If so which ones and what’s been your experience?