You can already find lots of reviews of the Apple iPad. The device hasn’t been out for very long, so most reviewers are still in the honeymoon period and most of their observations and conclusions are speculative. Opinions may change once the novelty wears off, but here are some first impressions of why businesses should keep an eye on the iPad, as well as the top reasons why it’s safe for the corporate world to ignore it at this point:

Three reasons to love it

1. Great battery life

The iPad has even better battery life than last year’s much hyped netbooks. Apple claims 10 hours of battery life, but The Wall Street Journal reported 11 hours and 28 minutes of power, even during a period of heavy use.

2. It’s a briefcase, a whiteboard, and a dashboard

While most demos and commercials for the iPad focus on playing games and watching videos, don’t think for a second that this device is irrelevant for business users. The iPad allows you to skip paper copies of newspapers and magazines and avoid the pile of reports and other long documents in your briefcase. Between specific apps like USA Today and the open Internet, the iPad is a great business reading device. And with third-party apps, the device is also great for reading documents such as PDFs and DOCX files. Business professionals will also appreciate apps such as Ideate, which allows you to sketch ideas on a virtual whiteboard, save them as images, and then email them to your colleagues.

Another way for users to take advantage of the iPad’s great LCD screen is to use it for checking business dashboards. Before long we’ll see more apps that help display specific data, but for now you can open Microsoft Excel files and pull up Web-based data such as Google Analytics in the Safari browser.

3. You’ve seen Star Trek, right?

At this point, the iPad is primarily a device for early adopters. By the third generation, Apple will likely have something far more useful and functional. Nevertheless, using an iPad today feels like touching the technology of tomorrow. It is satisfyingly futuristic. If you’re a business leader, using the iPad could help you get a jump on the next stage of the evolution of computing. That could give you a competitive advantage by enabling you to better organize and consume important data.

Three reasons to ignore it

1. Imprisonment in the Apple ecosystem

While Apple’s integration of hardware, software, and e-commerce is one of the things that makes it so easy to use, that simplicity comes at the price of being locked into the most draconian ecosystem in the technology world. While some consumers are willing to give up a little freedom in return for a system that “just works,” that’s a much more difficult proposition for businesses. There are times when a business may need to do something — e.g. build a custom app, tweak a payment system, change configuration settings — for a business reason. However if you’re locked into Apple, the system can be extremely rigid and inflexible. Businesses don’t like that. It’s one of the things that has kept Macs out of many organizations. Apple is making strides to accommodate iPad deployment scenarios in business, but so far the company appears unlikely to open up.

2. Only one app at a time? Seriously?

Like the iPhone and the iPod Touch, the iPad can only run one application at a time. This approach makes some sense on the iPhone, which struggles with processing power and battery life at times. However, it doesn’t make sense with the iPad, which is surprisingly speedy and has plenty of battery life to spare, as mentioned above. Most business people need to multitask when they’re getting serious work done, so this aspect of the iPad definitely limits it as a laptop replacement. One thing to keep in mind is that the upcoming iPhone 4.0 operating system will finally add multitasking, but it won’t be iPad ready until this fall.

3. It doesn’t replace anything, yet

Despite all the hype for this long-anticipated device, the tablet itself remains an unproven factor, with the failure of the Tablet PC over the past decade as proof positive. Tablets have only found usefulness and acceptance in a few vertical markets such as health care. Despite that, users still remain keenly interested in the possibility of a great tablet, even if they’re not quite sure what they would do with it. The iPad certainly won’t replace a smartphone for any business professionals. In rare cases, it may replace a laptop for people with light computing needs centered around the Web and email. However, the most likely scenario is that the iPad will become an add-on device in the same category as netbooks. People will still carry a smartphone and will still have a primary desktop or laptop. That leaves the iPad to become a more convenient computer used for light computing tasks that don’t involve creating much content. This tablet would have to succeed where others have failed.

When most users launch Outlook, it displays Outlook Today. This view shows calendar entries and tasks for the current day, but if you’re like most users, you don’t pay much attention to this and would rather jump right in to your Inbox or Calendar. If that’s what you prefer, you can customize Outlook’s launch pattern by changing one simple setting:

1. From the Tools menu, choose Options.
2. Click the Other tab.
3. Click the Advanced Options button in the General section.
4. In the General Settings, click the Browse button, to the right of the Startup In This Folder option.
5. In the Select Folder dialog box, select the folder you want Outlook to default to when launched. You can choose any of Outlook’s folders.
6. Click OK three times.

If you start to miss Outlook Today, reclaim the old view simply by choosing Personal Folders in step 5. Enjoy the freedom of choice!

Cloud computing is one of the hottest topics in IT these days, with Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and other big players joining in the fray. However, the technology brings with it new terminology that can be confusing. Here are some common cloud-related terms and their meanings.

Cloud
A metaphor for a global network, first used in reference to the telephone network and now commonly used to represent the Internet.

Cloud operating system
A computer operating system that is specially designed to run in a provider’s datacenter and be delivered to the user over the Internet or another network. Windows Azure is an example of a cloud operating system or “cloud layer” that runs on Windows Server 2008. The term is also sometimes used to refer to cloud-based client operating systems such as Google’s Chrome OS.

Cloud portability
The ability to move applications and data from one cloud provider to another.

Cloud provider
A company that provides cloud-based platform, infrastructure, application, or storage services to other organizations and/or individuals, usually for a fee.

Cloud storage
A service that allows customers to save data by transferring it over the Internet or another network to an offsite storage system maintained by a third party.

Cloudsourcing
Replacing traditional IT services with cloud services.

Cloudstorming
Connecting multiple cloud computing environments.

Cloudware
Software that enables creating, deploying, running, or managing applications in the cloud.

Cluster
A group of linked computers that work together as if they were one.

External cloud
Public or private cloud services that are provided by a third party outside the organization.

Hosted application
An Internet-based or Web-based application software program that runs on a remote server and can be accessed via an Internet-connected PC or thin client.

Internal cloud
A type of private cloud whose services are provided by an IT department to those in its own organization.

SaaS
Software as a service — Cloud application services, whereby applications are delivered over the Internet by the provider, so that the applications don’t have to be purchased, installed, and run on the customer’s computers.
Vertical cloud
A cloud computing environment that is optimized for use in a particular industry, such as health care or financial services.

Are you curious about how cloud computing can add value to your business? Stay tuned—later this year, we will provide a strategic guide on this emerging trend.

Computing is in a state of constant change: systems are migrating toward cloud technology, mobile devices are changing the way we interact with machines and networks, and real-time information has become increasingly important. But along with these positive changes, cyber crime threats are changing too. Defending against such threats requires a proactive investment in security, but that’s preferable to receiving e-mail from a hacker that reads, “IM IN UR PC STEALIN UR DATA.” While it’s impossible to determine exactly where the bad guys will strike next, here are a few of the danger zones:

1. Spam & Scams Go Social
Security researchers concur that cybercriminals will escalate attacks on social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, and on real-time social sites like Twitter. With Google and Bing integrating realtime features, scammers know that time is increasingly on their side: It usually takes a while to recognize a malicious file or link and unless countermeasures are immediate, there will always be victims.
2. Hijacking Trusted Sites For Malware
Experts predict innovation in efforts to compromise trusted sites and load them up with malware. For criminals, it almost always makes more sense to trick a trusted third-party into distributing their viruses, spambots, trojans, and trackers.
3. Macs Compromised In Significant Numbers
Hackers have begun to pay increased attention to the Mac platform. Threats have been minimal in the past, and users haven’t gotten into the habit of paying for antivirus software. But Apple’s increasingly high profile will force the company and its fans to invest more in security as their devices come under more sustained attack.
4. More Poisoned Search Results
Again, exploiting trust works. Cybercriminals will use popular search engines like Google & Bing to infect the unprotected. Experts anticipate continued efforts to subvert search results and exploit interest in breaking news and events. A cybercriminal could even create a fake malware outbreak story that draws attention and leads users astray into web sites that make the outbreak real.
5. Mobile Security Becomes Real Issue
Smartphones are essentially miniature personal computers, and in 2010 they will face the same types of attacks that target traditional computing. Practically every security vendor is developing a mobile security product or service, since it is yet to be seen which devices and services will be the biggest target of mobile malware.

Awareness is good, protection is better. If you have any questions about your security situation, just give Responza a call and we’ll do all we can to provide answers and assistance!

There are now over 175,000 mobile apps available across the three leading smartphone platforms: iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android. With that many options, it is becoming hard pick out the good ones, especially for business users. Here are a few apps to help you succeed when you’re out of the office.

Evernote

The Swiss Army knife of note taking, Evernote allows you to snap a photo, take a screenshot, type in text, or speak your note to capture information on the go. And once the information is captured, Evernote helps you organize and find it by making all text in your photos or notes searchable!
Click here to visit their official site

Documents to Go

Documents To Go is an all-in-one application with support for Office, PDF, Apple iWork, and many other file types. If someone e-mails you a PowerPoint presentation, you can now view and edit the file on your mobile device. It’s especially useful in meetings when you forget to bring the hard copy of a file. Also great for prepping documents during travel since it’s always handier to whip out an Blackberry than a laptop.
Click here to visit their official site

LinkedIn

Whether or not you’re a fan of social networking in your personal life, having a LinkedIn account is a great way to keep track of business contacts online. Their mobile app brings many of the Web features, such as your Connections and Status Updates, to your phone. Their best mobile-specific feature is InPerson, which allows you to quickly share contact information with another smartphone user via Bluetooth.
Click here to login from your mobile phone

BusinessWeek Mobile

The BusinessWeek app allows you to create a personal watchlist of companies, giving you quick access to the stories that matter most to you. The app is customizable and allows you to organize the news by topic. You can also easily share BusinessWeek content right from your phone via email.
Click here to download the app

What business apps would you recommend? Did we miss a great one, or did we include one that you think is overrated? Leave a comment and let us know.

In a recent interview, Scott Charney, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Trustworthy Computing, suggested that the businesses should follow health care’s model of quarantining infected PCs from your network to prevent them from being used to send spam and conduct attacks on other users. Here are some of his comments:

When people get diseases and run the risk of contaminating other people, the medical community has devised mechanisms to help ensure the public’s health. It’s a combination of inspection, quarantine, and treatment. In today’s computing enterprises, we have Network Access Protection…The theory is if a machine is known to be infected do you want it to connect to the network and infect everyone else? Or do you want to take it offline, clean the machine, and then let it connect? The concept isn’t that complicated, but the challenge is in the implementation.
The Internet is so many things for consumers. It’s a way to engage in free speech, to engage in online commerce, to get education, to seek health care information. Their lives center around this technology in so many important ways. And they’re used to the PC being in their home. It’s considered a very private device in a way. And it may be storing a lot of private sensitive data, like your diary or your tax records. But what we’ve seen is that when people get infected they may not be the ultimate victim. The ultimate victim might be the person who receives more viruses and spam directed by the originally infected PC. You can tell people to make sure they’ve updated your machines, running antivirus, and backing up data, yet we still see a lot of people who just don’t do that. So, the question becomes how do you create a less infected Internet? Quarantining and disconnecting machines at the source is an important place to start.

If you have any questions or concerns about the integrity of your security infrastructure, never hesitate to call Responza so we can stop problems before they start and help you retain peace of mind.

Excel is an amazing and powerful tool that has come to impact nearly every aspect of the business world and makes our lives easier (at least when it comes to math). But anyone who uses Excel on a regular basis knows just how frustrating it can be to alter the formatting of a workbook to suit your basic needs. You might alter the font, borders, and alignment defaults, or perhaps you might delete or add sheets to control the number each new workbook offers. Whatever your needs, here’s a sneaky way to tweak Excel so you’ll always start out right where you want to:

• When you open a new workbook, Excel creates a copy of a template file named book.xlt (the .xlt extension denotes a template file). If you make changes to the defaults in book.xlt, every new workbook will open with the settings you need and you can go right to work!

To customize your spreadsheet, open Excel, choose Open from the File menu, and navigate to one of the following folders to find book.xlt:

• C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates
• C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICEx\XLSTART

x is the version number. For instance, if you’re using Office 2003, that folder would be OFFICE11. If you can’t find book.xlt, use the Windows Search feature.

Once you have book.xlt open in Excel, make the necessary changes to bring the template into compliance with your organization.

You can even add a generic header or footer. For instance, you can enter a header that will display each new workbook’s name, as follows:

1. Choose Header And Footer from the View menu.
2. From the Header control, choose Book1.
3. Click OK and Excel will display the workbook’s name in the header. This header trick works in any workbook, not just Excel’s template file.

When you’ve finished customizing book.xlt, save it as book.xlt. Don’t change the filename. Specify Template (*.xlt) in the Save As Type control and be sure to save the altered template in the same folder where you found it. Customizing book.xlt makes sense. By reducing the amount of work necessary to get each new workbook file ready, you’ll be more efficient and productive.

One of the simplest yet most powerful pieces of advice for good IT security is to use strong passwords. A strong password should draw from as many keys on the keyboard as possible, with at least three different factors:

1. How long is your password?
2. How many different types of characters (lower case, upper case, numbers, punctuation, spaces, etc.) are in your password?
3. How many different characters are in it? Be as random as possible! Replacing letters with similar looking numbers (O=0, 5-S, 3=E, etc.) can be an easy and memorable way to boost security.

With a strong enough password, hackers won’t be cracking into any of your accounts any time soon. Unfortunately, some sites place limitations on what characters can and cannot be used in a password— this may be an indication that their personal security infrastructure is somehow lacking. Major players like Google, MSN, Facebook, and Twitter all allow you to use anything you want in your password. So remember: a little creativity on the keyboard can lead to long term security success.

Just a few years ago, Microsoft looked like a real contender in the mobile-phone market. Windows Mobile accounted for about one quarter of all Smartphones as recently as 2004, and it was gaining ground. Then Apple and BlackBerry left the software giant in the dust. on February 16, at the wireless industry conference in Barcelona, Microsoft unveiled its latest effort to get back into the game: the renamed Windows Phone operating system.
Microsoft needs to be a player in the Smartphone market. Tasks once done on personal computers, are migrating to mobile devices. iPhone, Blackberry, and other phones have become the preferred way to read e-mail, check out Facebook or catch up on the news. Total shipments of Smartphones will more than double between 2009 and 2013, so Microsoft’s new mobile software has to be different to convince their customers that they are going to fundamentally change direction and regain share.

Windows Phone is much improved and has the advantage of easily handling word processing and spreadsheets sent from PCs. It will also be more integrated with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 gaming console and Zune music player, so users can share music and videos among their Microsoft devices. But that won’t solve another challenge the company faces in attracting customers: independent software developers who create new applications for mobile phones have mostly ignored Microsoft and focused instead on the iPhone and Google-backed Android phones. Developers have cooked up more than 140,000 apps for the iPhone alone. There are about 800 available in Microsoft’s online mobile store, though the company estimates 20,000 applications will ultimately run on its new operating system.

Microsoft has begun working more closely with hardware partners, such as HTC and LG, to share engineering resources and better customize their software to their particular phones. They also plan to reduce the number of hardware partners from 58 at the end of 2008 to between a half dozen and a dozen to gain more control over hardware and make sure the total experience is consistent and better.

Microsoft may look like they’re caught in a box right now, but analysts say not to underestimate their potential. They have a lot of funding, they have terrific engineering resources, and the game is not over.

When you select a block of text, Word assumes a lot. If you drag the mouse down, it automatically selects all of the text to the right of the cursor. Similarly, if you drag the mouse up, Word selects all the text to the left of the cursor. What if you want to select text moving up or down without selecting text to the right or left or the cursor? Fortunately, you can force Word to select a vertical block of text–ignoring the text to the right or the left–if you know the right keystroke.
To customize the selection area, position the cursor at the beginning (or end) of the block you want to select. Then, hold down the [Alt] key and drag your mouse up or down and right or left to select just the block you want—without Word’s interfering assumptions.
For a quick glimpse of what you can do, just click anywhere in the middle of some text, hold down the [Alt] key, and make a small circle with your mouse. By using the [Alt] key while dragging your mouse, you can customize the shape and size of the selected block of text—it’s up to you, not Word!