When not designed and enforced properly, your IT security can have vulnerabilities and holes that allow unauthorized access to your critical data. Customer credit cards, company financials, strategic plans, and product designs may be obtained by competitors and prove cataclysmic to your organization. The risk increases to the extent that your organization processes information. A bank that suffers information theft may be able to point to that event as the reason they go out of business. For a manufacturing firm, loss of data does not necessarily mean loss of product control… but it could lead to that.
With more and more houses using 3D printers to “print” a product from a design file, it is now relatively easy to enable another entity to quickly generate your product with their name on it) without you even knowing it. And it is easier than you would hope… the most notorious file sharing sites, The Pirate Bay, now has an area for “3D Designs.” This means if your product design gets out, it could be copied freely like MP3 music files are now. While there is admittedly not a large market now for 3D printing, it is a growing manufacturing area that will attract pirates who can obtain your design source files, and easily run them locally to generate an identical product to the one you produce. They can start where you left off with “improving” the product and creating their own offering based on your initial labor.
A video of how these printers work can be seen here…
The bottom line for manufacturers is that they need step up their security protocol to protect themself, showing the same concern about piracy and security as the recording industry does. It means ensuring that you are kept updated on operating systems and their patches; applying security rules to limit access, improving physical and logical access to systems and data, and other measures. As the recording industry has shown, once the cat is out of the bag it is almost impossible to put it back, so looking at your system now and getting ready has to be in your plans.
If you would like an opportunity to discuss how you can put the right systems and polices in place, feel free to drop me an email or place your feedback below.
Often business owners are making financial decisions based on historical financial data presented in a traditional financial statement format. Although this traditional method is effective and valuable, there is a more powerful way to get your arms around your company’s overall position through financial modeling.
Financial modeling takes the same historical financial data used in traditional financial statements and expands upon the normal financial statement. A properly prepared financial model will give you a detailed report that places your company’s performance up against others in your industry and of the same size. This model will also highlight areas of your business that are performing poorly and will suggest actions to take to alter these undesirable results.
When we prepare financial models for our clients, we produce detailed reports with graphs and other valuable information. In greater detail the financial model includes the following:
A robust financial report that provides insight in key areas of the business. Areas such as liquidity, Profits and Profit Margin, Sales, Borrowing and Assets.
Recommendations on how to improve these key areas.
Benchmark data that measures the company against other company’s financial well being of similar size and industry.
Industry Scorecard that displays the company’s key financial indicators (financial ratios) and how they measure up to the company’s industry.
Three to five year projections that are based on historical data and three to five year projections based on new assumptions.
A valuation of the business based on the “discounted cash flow method”.
With a minimal investment, a well prepared financial model can impact your business immediately and well into the future making this an extremely valuable exercise for your business.
You may have heard that recently the Federal government coordinated an international effort to raid and shutdown the popular online file-sharing website Megaupload.com in late January. With 180 million registered users, Megaupload accounted for approximately 4 percent of all traffic on the Internet. No trial was held to precipitate this shutdown – although there will be cases brought to prosecution in the near future.
So this brings about some important questions for those of us who use cloud applications. Can other file sharing and social-media websites be shut down just as easily? What are the implications the shutdown of Megaupload will have for users of similar services who use these services for legitimate (and legal) purposes? Currently there are no laws protecting the data of law-abiding end users utilizing public data storage. In the case of Megaupload, every user, legal or otherwise, lost all of their stored data.
The authorities shut down Megaupload because they believed a large amount of copyright-protected materials were being stored and shared on the site. In essence, Megaupload provided a digital “locker” for subscribers to upload data such as photos, films, music, personal documents, business documents, backup data, etc. Megaupload was enabling users to doing things not so different from accepted sites that include YouTube, Facebook, Tumblr, SugarSync, and Dropbox. So, what was the difference that let to Megaupload’s shut down? Many legitimate sites have been known to contain illegal content (although admittedly they do take steps to remove such content). So does the government have the legal authority to shutdown whichever website it chooses for being suspect to hosting copy-protected content? Should a website be responsible for the actions of its users? These questions have all been recently raised by social-media and file sharing websites, rattling the industry since the Megaupload controversy.
The implications have gone so far as to spill over into the enterprise business world as more and more companies adopt “cloud” storage solutions and utilize social-networking sites for low-cost marketing. What will the ramifications be for enterprise business taking advantage of these services? Moving forward, enterprise business will need to become more discerning with whom they choose to host their cloud data. Choosing reputable, public companies to host data is not a safe solution; as any data stored with a public company is just as susceptible to be used for piracy and just as susceptible to be shut down at the authority’s whim. A safe and complete solution is to have data hosted by a private cloud storage provider, such as Keystone.
What exactly is the big deal with the “cloud?” The future of computing lies in the “cloud.” Instead of companies spending thousands of dollars on hardware, upkeep, maintenance, connectivity, and backups in house; only to turn around one or two years later and spend more man hours and thousands more to upgrade and scale their equipment; it only makes sense to take advantage of the cloud. The cloud enables businesses to offload the expense, labor, and maintenance of their data by letting someone else take care of these needs for them, all the while making their data accessibility more stable, faster, easily scalable, and cheaper. The way we do business is changing, with computing and data storage moving to the cloud, data suddenly becomes accessible anywhere, anytime. How many of you have had a computer fail and lost irreplaceable data? Now imagine being able to pick up any computer, any tablet device, or any phone and have complete access to all your personal and business data from wherever you are in the world. All of these services are available now, kept safe and secured, and always accessible from Keystone Business Solutions.
Keystone Technology Achieves Gold Certification as a “Midmarket Solution Provider,” and Four Silver Certifications
Continuing Keystone Business Solutions and Keystone Technology’s commitment to providing its customers with the highest level service available, Keystone announces its “Gold” Status as a Microsoft Partner, the top level a Microsoft solutions partner can obtain.
“We’re constantly striving to enhance our skill set to make sure we’re able to bring our customers the greatest value,” explains Brian Fontanella, “By going through the extra step to obtain Microsoft certifications, we’re not only able to bring to bear all of our skills, but the resources Microsoft provides its partners.”
Keystone continues to develop its technology competencies and is also a “Silver” Partner for Virtualization, Server Platform, Desktop, and Hosting.
For many years business owners and decision makers have walked a fine line in classifying the people performing services for their companies. Is the person an employee or are they an Independent Contractor? More so than ever, it is imperative to “pay” very close attention to the IRS rules and regulations when faced with this decision. The IRS has launched programs that focus on these misclassifications which the Government estimates costs them approximately $2.72 billion in unpaid federal taxes, state workers’ compensation and unemployment.
In addition, the IRS is now in a joint program in conjunction with the Department of Labor (DOL) where they share data related to worker misclassifications. The IRS and the DOL also have agreements in place with more than 30 states to also share this information.
In determining whether the worker is an employee or an independent contractor, the IRS looks at the evidence of the degree of control and independence.
Behavioral – Does the company control or have the right to control what the worker does and how the worker does his or her job?
Financial – Are the business aspects of the worker’s job controlled by the payer? (These include things like how worker is paid, whether expenses are reimbursed, who provides tools/supplies, etc.)
Type of Relationship – Are there written contracts or employee type benefits (i.e. pension plan, insurance, vacation pay, etc.)? Will the relationship continue and is the worker performing a key aspect of the business?
In an effort to promote compliance, the IRS launched a new the program called “The Worker Reclassification Settlement Program.” This is a voluntary program that allows a participating employer that has (or may suspect they have) misclassified workers as Independent Contractors to avoid problems with the IRS by agreeing to treat the works as employees in the future.
Here’s how it works. The employer pays 10% of the employment tax liability that should have been paid the year prior, had the workers been properly classified as employees. This is paid with NO penalty or interest. The employer will not be audited on the reclassified workers payroll taxes for other past years. The one downside is that during the first 3 years of participating in the program, employers are subject to a 6 year statute of limitations (instead of 3 years) for payroll tax liability issues.
Take the scrutiny the IRS applies to this area very seriously. Properly classifying your workers from day one will save you, your worker and your company time, frustration and money in the long run. If you find yourself debating between the classification as a way to cut your cash flow, consider that the savings is actually immaterial (approximately 10 to 15% of gross) when compared to the risk. Additionally, take a look at ways to cover these costs in your business model, especially if the worker is directly related to revenue generation. You could raise your rates or your product price in proportion to these additional costs…food for thought.
To see if you qualify and to learn how to apply, please contact us at 330.576.5116 or drop me an email.
I was in a public setting the other day when I was reminded just how much I… and I realize this is going out on a limb given where I live… dislike Ohio State and their fans. (Please Note: This is meant to be satire, of course there is no actual dislike for OSU fans… OSU… well maybe.)
You see, “The” Ohio State University’s fans are – from an outsider’s perspective… obnoxious, arrogant, and a stranger to reality. Reality: you got off easy, quit whining. They look at the world through one perspective, and one perspective only. It is the attitude that makes “The” a point of emphasis when people refer to the school as The Ohio State University.
Prior to living in Ohio, I spent 13 years in Connecticut where… get this… women’s (and to a lesser degree men’s) college basketball was seen as be all, end all, most infallible, least questioned institution since Newt was asked his opinion on Reagonomics.
This is all strange for a native of Indiana, where you grow up in an environment where – gasp – there are two different sides of the coin. You either liked IU or Purdue… and every day you had to coexist with people who had different opinions than you did. You had to coexist, respect someone else’s opinion, and sometimes even (attempt to) have civil discourse.
I guess growing up in an environment where a “one size fits all” mentality when it comes to rooting interests is beneficial… and it has nothing to do with sports.
In business, in marketing… it is imperative that different voices be welcomed, fostered, and never… never see one solution or one person as “THE” anything. That’s why I always tell my employees that they must feel free to speak their mind. You never know where good ideas may come from – but I’m pretty sure new ideas will be stymied if anything is ever seen as “the” way.
Don’t be afraid to be challenged, it doesn’t mean the Buckeyes are any worse for it!
Happy Cyber Monday! For those of you who held off on the craziness that is Black Friday and are looking for gift ideas, we present our annual tech gift guide. As technology lovers, we’re big supporters of Cyber Monday as it is a day to drive online sales. So go online today and you might be surprised at some of the great deals you find and what you can get without camping out at Best Buy through Thanksgiving.
Greg Cordray You can find some great deals on printers on Cyber Monday and leading up to the holidays. The HP LaserJet P2055dn CE459A Workgroup is reliable and versatile. Make sure to get the 2055dn as it gives you the option in the future to purchase the “High Yield” toner which gives you about 3 times the printing capacity at a 1/3 the cost. This printer has a nice size, 250-sheet paper tray and rarely, if ever jams. It is compatible for both the PC and Mac and is a great small business printer with an integrated Gigabit Ethernet networking port – or just be a hero with the family as this will easily meet all your home needs.
Doug (Jack) Adams I was told that the Steve Jobs book and the 20th Anniversary Deluxe CD of U2’s Achtung Baby do not count as tech gadgets. Given that, I turned to my 14 year old for his number one wish list item. Like most boys (and man boys), Jack is a big fan of the Call of Duty Games – and he has already logged many hours on the latest installment, Modern Warfare 3. While this game looks an awful lot like the previous installments to me – I have been told that this edition is a major upgrade! So for the gamer boy (or man boy) in your life, be sure to get them what I have been told is the perfect complement to enhance the playing experience – Turtle Beach’s Call of Duty: MW3 Ear Force Bravo Limited Edition Programmable Wireless Universal Gaming Headset.
Whew… that is a long name… and a bit of a steep price. But for the gamer in your life who plays online, this headset provides “ridiculous” sound quality to enhance your little warrior’s ability “hear everything’ to better shoot his friends (online). These wireless headphones come with a full supply of bonus MW3 content that let you enhance and personalize your game experience with fully customizable game audio and chat signals. The headphones can apparently let you hear enemy footsteps and every shell casing hit the floor. Nope… I don’t get it. When is the new Mario Brothers coming out?
Brian Fontanella Another year, another TV on my wish list… I love my TV’s. This year, I am zeroing in on Sharp’s 80 inch TV – the AQUOS® LC-80LE632U 80″ Class – more than double the size of a 55 inch set. While the selection of TVs gets more and more complicated with the advent of 3D, Blu Ray, and High Definition audio – you can be sure to have a TV that fits your needs for years to come, minus the 3D glasses. With this TV as the centerpiece of your home theater experience, you’ll be the envy of the neighborhood with the largest LCD television available. As the pioneer of large screen LCD TVs, Sharp’s latest is a “smart TV,” delivering Netflix and other streaming video through its built in WiFi on its 1080p screen. The Sharp also appeals to the man boy side of me (yes, this is a shot at you Doug) as its Vyper Drive for gaming eliminates the ‘lag’ between game consoles and the TV display.
David Howard I’m a big fan of a clothing line known as SCOTTEVEST. These clothes target the uber-geek, so it is of course entirely a coincidence that I like them.
I first heard about SCOTTEVEST from a blog called “No Baggage Challenge,” a fascinating set of posts and videos about a man who travels around the world for 6 weeks with no bags: as in no suitcases, backpacks or even a stick with a handkerchief. He did this by using SCOTTEVEST clothing and its numerous pockets. I have since purchased the SCOTTEVEST vest, jacket, Revolution jacket, a pair of pants, shorts, pullover, and zip up hoodie. Between them all I probably have 200 pockets! I recommend the SCOTTEVEST Tropical jacket for warm weather, and the Revolution Plus for colder weather. If you need something more casual for the weekend try the MicroFleece Pullover.
Your biggest problem will be remembering which of the 20+ pockets has your wallet!
Sean Yost Like to entertain? The block rocker is an affordable way to have a sound system with you anywhere. If you’ve thought about investing in an outdoor audio system – try the block rocker for a fraction of the cost. And it is not useless for the half of the year we call winter. I had a party this summer and was playing music outside for about 15 hours. It does not need to be plugged in – as it comes with a rechargeable battery that outlasted the battery life of an IPad and two IPhones! The block rocker is a fully portable music system that puts out great sound quality at a volume that will carry through your backyard. If you need a system in your backyard, your basement, or your garage… all you need is one block rocker. The block rocker is fully compatible with any device (iPhone, iPod, MP3 player… Zune) and comes with a microphone so you can have an your own karaoke contest… although I’m not sure I’d advise that.
Brandon Conrad For a young guy, I’m a little old school. I love my blackberry and am happy to see the release of the Blackberry Bold 9900. While the browser on the Blackberry has traditionally been challenging, this new phone will run the BlackBerry 7 OS (launching in the summer), promising faster and better browsing through a new JIT (just in time) JavaScript compiler, includes support for HTML5 Video, voice-activated search and a content management feature known as BlackBerry Balance, which separates personal and work content. The Blackberry is a phone that excels at what a business needs it to do. Mail, Calendar, Email, SMS. It may not be the best screen for playing angry birds, but for me and my work needs – it’s my go to device.
Brice Milla While noise cancelling headphones are great for travelling, they’re also a great solution to help you focus on the task with music in the background. With all the project work – and studying for Microsoft certifications – taking up my time, it is great to have a nice pair of headphones as opposed to ear buds available. This year I’ll be asking for the Beats Studio Hi-Def Headphones. These nose cancelling over-ear headphones feature a fantastic level of audio accuracy and clarity. Combining extra-large speaker drivers and a high-power digital amplifier, Beats provides what has been described as “an unprecedented combination of super deep bass, smooth undistorted highs, and crystal clear vocals never heard before from headphones.” Well I don’t know about all that – but I do know from what I’ve heard, they sound great to me!
Dan Ragan So if the iPad2 is the Cadillac of the tablet world, the new Kindle Fire may be the Buick. Solid, reliable, has appeal… but still missing a lot of bells and whistles, the sizzle of the iPad. While not a great business tablet with a clunky email interface and no calendar app, the hot new e-reader is sure to be a popular gift this year as, at $199, it is a fraction of the price of the basic iPad 2. The smaller (7 inch) screen makes the Kindle Fire lighter and easier to transport than the iPad… but of course, a smaller screen also has downside.
Still, building on the popularity of the Kindle e-book readers and its aggressive price point, this may be seen as a great “intro” tablet or just a better, faster version of the book reader.
I did get a chance to play with one at BestBuy. Its integration with Amazon’s storefront is really slick. It is a hassle free way to read the latest books or magazines in color, plus you get added features the other Kindles’ didn’t have such as watching video, listening to music, checking email, browsing the web, saving books or music to Amazon’s cloud, even playing some games.
Its hardware is solid, it has a 1GHz processor dual-core processor, an IPS display (which is the same type of display the iPad uses), integrated Wi-Fi, USB, 8GB internal storage.
Is the Kindle Fire for me? I think I prefer the iPad – but I do have a few people on my list who this is perfect for!
Mike Riemenschneider Looking into getting a Bluetooth headset, there are lots of great reviews for the Motorola ELITE SLIVER Bluetooth Headset. It is described as extremely slick and extremely comfortable – users claim they forget using it at all. It comes in a case to help keep me from losing it and features HD Audio Plus with true wideband audio and CrystalTalk dual-mic technology. The MotoSpeak app works great with this as you can dictate texts hands-free and even listen to my text messages. The ELITE SILVER provides 15 hours of talk time and lets you listen to music from your phone.
Justin James It’s always great to have an external hard drive for backup and aditional storage. One that I have found that is really great is Seagate’s FreeAgent GoFlex Desk 4TB External USB 3.0/2.0 Hard Drive. The drive features a ton of storage – 4 Terabytes, probably more than you will ever need, and comes at a good price! Use the fast transfer speed options to store the equivalent of 1000 dvds or over 100 Blu-Ray movies on this drive. You could even store over 400,000 high quality photos or over a million songs.
In 2011, and soon to be 2012, it is all of our jobs to take a step back and ask – how do I reach my customers? Where do we find our audience? The days of trade magazines being the key to unlocking B2B opportunities has clearly passed. So… today, where can we find buyers?
eMarketer provides us some insights with some numbers that I thought low (only 3 out of 4 watching HD TV and less than 1 out of 3 going to a social networking site) and some numbers, as a marketer, I’m thrilled to see are higher than I expected. The implications of many of these could be key to how your business raptures sales in 2012, let’s take a look at just a few…
Smartphones and Tablets
Is your website smartphone and tablet ready? With 70 percent and 40 percent accessing content from a smartphone and tablet respectively, the time is now to make sure your website works for these devices. Your only chance to capture market share may depend on a visit to your site on an iPhone… how do you like your chances?
Online Video
Nearly half of executives are watching video on a website. While Google is making videos a key to driving traffic to a site, ranking sites with videos much higher than those without, an online video may not only be the best way to get someone to your site – but the best way to make sales. Videos can help make your message much more compelling. Capturing an audience for 1-5 minutes is like getting a five minute uninterrupted pitch. But don’t go it halfway with a video – just pointing and shooting will not create an effective sales tool – and can actually do more harm than good by making your operation look amateur. Invest in professional video shooting and editing – you’ll be quick to find a payback.
Blogs
We’ve espoused the benefits of blogs just from the pragmatic, content creation and search engine optimization benefits – but the number of blog readers is growing rapidly. In single digits in 2010, the number of executives reading blogs on a regular basis is now at 22%. Whether your target audience reads your blogs or not, they separate you from your competitors by demonstrating thought leadership and creating a trust relationship. By providing advice, insights, and (sometimes) opinions, your organization can develop deeper relationships faster.
So as you plan to reach your target audience in 2012, take a minute to ask – where is my audience… and when they are there, am I capitalizing on the opportunity to impress?
I had a client ask me if he could provide a mobile phone to his employee without any tax implications. I froze for a moment because it has been a long time since I have even thought about it. Having a mobile phone and using it from the time we wake up to the time we go to bed is standard in a lot of workplace environments. It is often standard-issue… here is your work space, your computer, and your smartphone… be available 24/7!
As the IRS is prone to do, they are constantly reviewing the taxability of potential fringe benefits. That being said, I told my client I would do my research, freshen up on the rules and get back to him.
So here is what I found…
Generally speaking, employer provided mobile phones are not a taxable benefit. Some new IRS rules for taxation of business and personal use of employer provided mobile phones are effective retroactive to January 1st, 2010. The service must be provided for “noncompensatory business reasons.” In other words, if you are providing a phone to someone to be available 24/7, with no additional compensation, this is not a taxable benefit.
Or, using the IRS’ (longer) definition, they define “noncompensatory business reasons” as those that have a substantial business-related reason including, but not limited to:
The need to contact the employee at all times for work related emergencies
A requirement that an employee be available to speak with clients/customers when the employee is away from the office; and
The need to speak with clients/customers located in other time zones at times outside of the employee’s normal work day
If an employer requires an employee to maintain and use personal cell phones for business purposes and reimburses them at a reasonable rate to cover their base monthly cell phone charges, the reimbursements are also tax free. Tax free treatment does not apply to the reimbursement of unusual or excess expenses or for payments that are substitute for regular wages.
The IRS also points out some reasons that do not qualify as substantial business-related reasons. These include, but are not limited to:
Promoting employee morale or good will
Attracting prospective employees; or
Giving additional compensation to an employee
Bottom line, the IRS understands that a lot of business is done over mobile phones, including during non-traditional work hours. Businesses all need to pay attention to the taxability and non-taxability rules of mobile phone benefits. It is my experience that more times than not, the “noncompensatory business reasons” can be met and therefore, keep cell phones provided for employees as a non-taxable benefit.
Organizations generate lots of data – data that needs to be protected in reliable media, secured from unauthorized use, and backed up. And of course all of this data, especially historical data such as sales history, contracts, emails, etc. is essential to make decisions pertinent to the future of the organization. More and more organizations turn to a Document Management System (DMS) to store them, providing data organization to ensure easy access and an easy-to find format that also assists with version control and tracks changes, as well as that were applied, while at the same time enforcing retention rules that dictate what must and must not be kept. This forms a repository to ensure data is both secure and can be located easily.
But the short version is this – Google is being sued by Oracle for use of a programming technology called Java in their Android phone and tablet operating system. Most lawsuits have a discovery period, in which each litigant turns over all documents pertinent to the case, but can exclude any client-attorney privileged documents. For example, original blueprints of an alleged copycat product must be turned over, but a letter between an attorney for the litigant and the engineer which discusses the blueprints is protected and can be held back from disclosure.
In order to facilitate discovery assembly, legal analysts use tools similar to the Google search engine, which allows them to collect information from across the organization’s systems using keywords like “Java” while at the same time excluding documents with phrases like “attorney work product.” In this case Google was caught by a draft email stored on the server; one of 9 drafts before the final. This particular version stated that Google should license the Java technology from Oracle. But because it was an early draft, it did not include the key phrase “attorney work product,” and was released to Oracle’s attorneys. It may change the case completely.
This illustrates the key point – you need to know what you keep and what you should not keep, and how it is encoded. Document Management Systems can help with this, by setting up and enforcing retention or coding rules, they can automatically add a tag, or delete documents over a certain age.
This Google mess is a cautionary tale… will we learn from it? If you would like an opportunity to discuss how you can put the right systems and polices in place, feel free to drop me an email or place your feedback below.
3D printing is a growing manufacturing area that will attract pirates who can obtain your design source files, and easily run them locally to generate an identical product to the one you produce.
Can other file sharing and social-media websites be shut down just as easily? What are the implications the shutdown of Megaupload will have for users of similar services who use these services for legitimate (and legal) purposes?
Financial modeling takes the same historical financial data used in traditional financial statements and expands upon the normal financial statement. A properly prepared financial model will give you a detailed report that places your company’s performance up against others in your industry and of the same size. This model will also highlight areas of your business that are performing poorly and will suggest actions to take to alter these undesirable results.
You may have heard that recently the Federal government coordinated an international effort to raid and shutdown the popular online file-sharing website Megaupload.com in late January. With 180 million registered users, Megaupload accounted for approximately 4 percent of all traffic on the Internet. No trial was held to precipitate this shutdown – although there will be cases brought to prosecution in the near future.
“We’re constantly striving to enhance our skill set to make sure we’re able to bring our customers the greatest value,” explains Brian Fontanella, “By going through the extra step to obtain Microsoft certifications, we’re not only able to bring to bear all of our skills, but the resources Microsoft provides its partners.”
In addition, the IRS is now in a joint program in conjunction with the Department of Labor (DOL) where they share data related to worker misclassifications. The IRS and the DOL also have agreements in place with more than 30 states to also share this information.
This is all strange for a native of Indiana, where you grow up in an environment where – gasp – there are two different sides of the coin. You either liked IU or Purdue… and every day you had to coexist with people who had different opinions than you did. You had to coexist, respect someone else’s opinion, and sometimes even (attempt to) have civil discourse.
Happy Cyber Monday! For those of you who held off on the craziness that is Black Friday and are looking for gift ideas, we present our annual tech gift guide. As technology lovers, we’re big supporters of Cyber Monday as it is a day to drive online sales. So go online today and you might be surprised at some of the great deals you find and what you can get without camping out at Best Buy through Thanksgiving.
You can find some great deals on printers on Cyber Monday and leading up to the holidays. The HP LaserJet P2055dn CE459A Workgroup is reliable and versatile. Make sure to get the 2055dn as it gives you the option in the future to purchase the “High Yield” toner which gives you about 3 times the printing capacity at a 1/3 the cost. This printer has a nice size, 250-sheet paper tray and rarely, if ever jams. It is compatible for both the PC and Mac and is a great small business printer with an integrated Gigabit Ethernet networking port – or just be a hero with the family as this will easily meet all your home needs.
I was told that the Steve Jobs book and the 20th Anniversary Deluxe CD of U2’s Achtung Baby do not count as tech gadgets. Given that, I turned to my 14 year old for his number one wish list item. Like most boys (and man boys), Jack is a big fan of the Call of Duty Gam
es – and he has already logged many hours on the latest installment, Modern Warfare 3. While this game looks an awful lot like the previous installments to me – I have been told that this edition is a major upgrade! So for the gamer boy (or man boy) in your life, be sure to get them what I have been told is the perfect complement to enhance the playing experience – Turtle Beach’s Call of Duty: MW3 Ear Force Bravo Limited Edition Programmable Wireless Universal Gaming Headset.
Another year, another TV on my wish list… I love my TV’s. This year, I am zeroing in on Sharp’s 80 inch TV – the AQUOS® LC-80LE632U 80″ Class – more than double the size of a 55 inch set. While the selection of TVs gets more and more complicated with the advent of 3D, Blu Ray, and High Definition audio – you can be sure to have a TV that fits your needs for years to come, minus the 3D glasses. With this TV as the centerpiece of your home theater experience, you’ll be the envy of the neighborhood with the largest LCD television available. As the pioneer of large screen LCD TVs, Sharp’s latest is a “smart TV,” delivering Netflix and other streaming video through its built in WiFi on its 1080p screen. The Sharp also appeals to the man boy side of me (yes, this is a shot at you Doug) as its Vyper Drive for gaming eliminates the ‘lag’ between game consoles and the TV display.
I’m a big fan of a clothing line known as 
Like to entertain? The block rocker is an affordable way to have a sound system with you anywhere. If you’ve thought about investing in an outdoor audio system – try the block rocker for a fraction of the cost. And it is not useless for the half of the year we call winter. I had a party this summer and was playing music outside for about 15 hours. It does not need to be plugged in – as it comes with a rechargeable battery that outlasted the battery life of an IPad and two IPhones! The block rocker is a fully portable music system that puts out great sound quality at a volume that will carry through your backyard. If you need a system in your backyard, your basement, or your garage… all you need is one block rocker. The block rocker is fully compatible with any device (iPhone, iPod, MP3 player… Zune) and comes with a microphone so you can have an your own karaoke contest… although I’m not sure I’d advise that.
For a young guy, I’m a little old school. I love my blackberry and am happy to see the release of the Blackberry Bold 9900. While the browser on the Blackberry has traditionally been challenging, this new phone will run the BlackBerry 7 OS (launching in the summer), promising faster and better browsing through a new JIT (just in time) JavaScript compiler, includes support for HTML5 Video, voice-activated search and a content management feature known as BlackBerry Balance, which separates personal and work content. The Blackberry is a phone that excels at what a business needs it to do. Mail, Calendar, Email, SMS. It may not be the best screen for playing angry birds, but for me and my work needs – it’s my go to device.
While noise cancelling headphones are great for travelling, they’re also a great solution to help you focus on the task with music in the background. With all the project work – and studying for Microsoft certifications – taking up my time, it is great to have a nice pair of headphones as opposed to ear buds available. This year I’ll be asking for the Beats Studio Hi-Def Headphones. These nose cancelling over-ear headphones feature a fantastic level of audio accuracy and clarity. Combining extra-large speaker drivers and a high-power digital amplifier, Beats provides what has been described as “an unprecedented combination of super deep bass, smooth undistorted highs, and crystal clear vocals never heard before from headphones.” Well I don’t know about all that – but I do know from what I’ve heard, they sound great to me!
So if the iPad2 is the Cadillac of the tablet world, the new Kindle Fire may be the Buick. Solid, reliable, has appeal… but still missing a lot of bells and whistles, the sizzle of the iPad. While not a great business tablet with a clunky email interface and no calendar app, the hot new e-reader is sure to be a popular gift this year as, at $199, it is a fraction of the price of the basic iPad 2. The smaller (7 inch) screen makes the Kindle Fire lighter and easier to transport than the iPad… but of course, a smaller screen also has downside.
Looking into getting a Bluetooth headset, there are lots of great reviews for the Motorola ELITE SLIVER Bluetooth Headset. It is described as extremely slick and extremely comfortable – users claim they forget using it at all. It comes in a case to help keep me from losing it and features HD Audio Plus with true wideband audio and CrystalTalk dual-mic technology. The MotoSpeak app works great with this as you can dictate texts hands-free and even listen to my text messages. The ELITE SILVER provides 15 hours of talk time and lets you listen to music from your phone.
It’s always great to have an external hard drive for backup and aditional storage. One that I have found that is really great is Seagate’s FreeAgent GoFlex Desk 4TB External USB 3.0/2.0 Hard Drive. The drive features a ton of storage – 4 Terabytes, probably more than you will ever need, and comes at a good price! Use the fast transfer speed options to store the equivalent of 1000 dvds or over 100 Blu-Ray movies on this drive. You could even store over 400,000 high quality photos or over a million songs.
As the IRS is prone to do, they are constantly reviewing the taxability of potential fringe benefits. That being said, I told my client I would do my research, freshen up on the rules and get back to him.
It’s this background that makes it especially interesting to learn that search giant Google was tripped up by a search engine on documents in their own possession.