Computerware Blog

In the midst of one of the coldest and most grueling winters the U.S. has experienced in years, millions of Americans are growing impatient for the arrival of spring. As subzero temperatures spread across the country, the cold weather and snow has become a hazard not only to humans, but to their technology. How cold is too cold for your gadgets?

Due to the many different forms of digital communication, you may check your email less than ever before. However, just because you may not use your email account very often, it doesn't mean that a hacker will leave it alone. Every email account is full of valuable information and should be protected with the strongest security measures available.

We marvel at how easy it is to stream media over the Internet and turn our PC or mobile device into an entertainment terminal to the world's vast entertainment library. Having every movie at our fingertips is a new experience, but the technology of instant media is over 100 years old, and its development is a testimony to human innovation.

If you take a look around, it's a mystery that the human race is tied to their technology. Many of us use smartphones and tablets every day to get our work done, to communicate with friends and family, to feed us information, to help us be more efficient in everyday life, to aid us in our hobbies, and to entertain us. In their research, Gartner recently found that over 1.2 billion smart devices were purchased in 2013 alone, opening up new market opportunities for technology innovators to explore. XD Design is certainly rising to the occasion with an impressive line of solar-powered battery chargers.

It's a rare occasion that a company grows to have as much prowess over multiple industries as Google has. Since their launch in 1998, their mission has been "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." By launching products and services centered on this purpose, Google has grown to set the world's standard of information and how it's managed. What can your business learn from them?

Previously, we wrote the blog post, "The Digital Payment War, Round 1", where we looked at the differences between the old school PayPal and the new school Square Cash methods of digital payment. While we didn't officially declare a winner, Google Wallet and Coin are a couple more contenders to our "Best Online Digital Payment Method Ever in History" award.

You've heard it said that data is your business's most valuable asset. This is because it's virtually impossible to keep an operation going without it. Therefore, it's vital to have a data backup solution for your organization. There are different levels of data backup; you will want to pick one that's right for your business.

The most common way malware spreads is through phishing emails. These messages are essentially traps designed to trick you into downloading a malicious virus. How do you know if you've got a phishing email on hand? The best way to avoid a phishing scam is to know what the bait looks like.

If you know how to use technology, it can be a powerful tool that can take your business to the next level. Knowing how to operate and maintain your company's network requires a very technical knowledge, a knowledge that you may not have. Instead of trying to take a crash course in networking, it will be more advantageous if you outsourced your IT.

There was a time when finding a mobile device for your business meant choosing the best laptop. Thanks to all the new mobile devices hitting the market, you now have smartphones, tablets, netbooks, and more to choose from. You can know which device is right for your business by reviewing these five points when doing your shopping.

With the introduction of Microsoft's Kinect and Apple's iPhone 5s, biometrics has exploded! Both of these tools are being utilized for security purposes to lock others out of your device and accounts. Biometrics for these devices are also being employed to grant you access to your technology. As biometrics becomes more popular, you are sure to see it used for your business in the not too distant future.

Awareness to business trends are important for any business owner. The savviest businessman finds a way to use the trending topics to improve their enterprise's operational efficiency. The trends of the past for small business computing seem to be focused on the establishment and practical use of technologies that are relatively new, but are in full practice in the business world. These technologies include the manufacturing and worldwide distribution of devices that enhance a user's connectivity by presenting powerful interfaces to take advantage of their incredible mobility.

Android vs. iOS, it's a battle of the brands that evokes passionate responses from both sides of the technology isle. In 2013, the battle intensified as Apple launched iOS7, and Android gained significant ground as the standard OS installed on a barrage of devices. As the dust settles from a competitive year we're left asking, "Who won?"

It's no secret that businesses often have limited space and resources. The problem is that you need your IT infrastructure in order to do business, and when you don't have a dedicated server room, you have to house your server in a common area. This presents an annoyance since a running server sounds like an air conditioning unit on full blast.

It's no secret that social media has become an integral part of any business' marketing strategy. Twitter, being one of the top social media outlets, should certainly not be avoided. There is much potential to be unlocked by your business by using Twitter.

Companies that are actively seeking growth would be well advised to have a backup plan in place in case of emergency. Businesses that don't have a solid continuity plan in place will seldom survive accidents and disasters. Without a business continuity plan, your company may be forced to operate without using computers. Could your company survive?

According to IDC, the fastest growing sector in the new cloud IT market is Infrastructure as a service (IaaS). This consists of providing users virtual machines and other resources to manage tasks over the Internet, and it's scalable to the user's needs. Additional services offered over the cloud include firewalls, load balancers, IP addresses, virtual-machine disk image library, raw (block) and file-based storage, virtual local area networks (VLANs), and software bundles. With IaaS, the cost will reflect the resources allocated and consumed, making it an attractive option for businesses wanting to take advantage of these services without having to purchase and maintain their own IT infrastructure.

The Internet has become an extremely efficient shopping tool for consumers. Nearly all available products can be found quickly and easily online. Traditionally, when shoppers settle on what they'd like to purchase, they charge their credit cards, but a new school of digital payment has provided a more secure alternative. How will this affect your business?

Keeping your software up to date is one of the most important things you can do to secure your system and give your business the competitive edge. However, staying on top of these upgrades is a big maintenance job that's easy to neglect when things get busy. A system with neglected upgrades could spell trouble for your business.

The computer mouse is a great tool that has made our operating system navigation much easier. However, our dependence on the computer mouse has naturally led to an independence from its counterpart, the keyboard (aside from everyday word processing). Here are a few awesome functional keyboard shortcuts that everyone has forgotten about.