Google Now Allowing Education and Business Chromebook Customers to Pay Upfront

One of the biggest things to hit the tech world a while back was the fact that Google, the search engine superpower, was expanding into hardware with its all new Chromebooks, all new cloud-focused laptops aimed at the education and business sectors. What made the announcement even more interesting was the fact that Google would offer business and education clients a 3-year monthly payment subscription-based payment plan, charging no upfront costs whatsoever. However, Google has just recently announced that it will begin allowing businesses to pay for their Chromebooks in full upfront.

Google has stated that it discovered some businesses were simply unable to budget for a three-year commitment requiring annual cycles. As a result of these findings, Google is offering education and business customers the choice to pay upfront for their Chromebook with one-year access to a web-based admin management console, phone support and hardware warranty. After the initial year, customers will have the option to pay a monthly fee for the second and third year of management console access and support.

Customers in the education industry are able to get their hands on a Chromebook for $449 if they choose the WiFi option or $519 if they go with the 3G option. Business customers will have to pay $559 for the WiFi version and $639 for the 3G version. The changing policy for the education and business sectors is notable for many reasons, primarily for the fact that we have yet to hear anything from Google about success in this market. I know it has only been four months, but with the way information flies around the internet you would expect to have heard something by now even if it was leaked information or a rumor.

Nevertheless, Google is still very well known for its policy of launching during a beta and it appears as if that applies to the company's enterprise business models as well. I guess we will just have to wait and see how this business venture plays out for Google, though I don't think the company will take any serious financial dips if the project doesn't quite meet expectations.

Source: The Next Web - Google drops Chromebook business, education subscription-only policy, lets them pay up front

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iPad Users Can Now Display PowerPoint Presentations

Brainshark, a company that creates software for online and mobile video presentations, has created a great new app for iPad users. The app, SlideShark, gives iPad users the ability to professionally display PowerPoint presentations from their tablets, and the best part is that it is free!

There have been some issues associated with users importing and viewing PowerPoint presentations on their iPads. Mostly, there have been problems keeping the original formatting of the presentation. Well, with SlideShark, all of those issues are eliminated.

Users are now able to upload their PowerPoint presentations to their online accounts on SlideShark’s website. There the presentation is converted to an iPad viewing format, and then, using the SlideShark app, users are able to download and view the file on their iPad.

"The iPad is supporting business mobility like never before," said Brainshark CEO Joe Gustafson. "At the same time, and as the mobile workforce continues to grow, the need to present PowerPoints on the iPad is becoming more critical. We're pleased to offer the SlideShark app to resolve this issue—allowing mobile sales, marketing and training professionals to present their business content both reliably and effectively, and helping companies maximize productivity."

The best thing about SlideShark is that it preserves all of the original fonts, graphics, colors and formats of the PowerPoint presentation. Users with an iPad 2 are then able to connect their tablets to a TV or VGA projector in order to project the presentation. SlideShark also has the ability to support gesture. This means that users are able to swipe or tap the screen of their iPad to control the presentation being projected.

"As more and more companies make tablet investments, it's important they do so strategically—with a game plan for how they'll use the devices," said Scott Nelson, managing vice president, Gartner Research. "It often comes as an unpleasant surprise—particularly for salespeople and others in the field—that there's not a simple way to convert some collateral material that they rely on. Addressing this market need will help companies maximize their technology investments and enable business professionals to be even more agile and effective when presenting on-the-go."

Source: PCMag - Slideshark Brings PowerPoint to iPad

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iPhone 4S Plagued by AT&T Activation Issues

Even though the iPhone 4S literally just launched, people are already reporting complaints and problems with the latest smartphone from Apple. People all across the internet have been complaining that they have been unable to activate the iPhone 4S on AT&T's network because of too much strain on the carrier's servers.

Those iPhone 4S owners did state later that the activation process was sped up when the device's screen displayed a message saying, "I may take up to three minutes to activate your iPhone." What is of more interest is that there have yet to be any reports from users on the device's other two carriers, Verizon and the newly added Sprint, reporting similar issues.

Naturally, the host of complainers took to the social networks to voice their frustration at being stuck on the iPhone activation screen for an absurd amount of time. One user on Twitter stated that he waited two hours for the iPhone 4S to activate with another using tweeting, "there was a problem connecting" to the AT&T server during activation of the device. Another, more comical post stated, "5 years and counting, AT&T iPhone activation fail."

It comes as no surprise to anybody that iPhone 4S users are having troubles on AT&T as the carrier has a long-standing history of iPhone problems. When the iPhone first launched back in 2007, a plethora of people were forced to wait more than a day for the carrier to activate their device. iPhone 3GS users back in 2009 experienced similar issues and were also forced to wait several days before their devices could be activated. However, Apple did offer a $30 iTunes credit to customers experiencing the problem.

AT&T didn't have to worry about competition in those days as the company was the only carrier. This time around things are different as AT&T has not just one but two companies vying for iPhone customers, and since both Verizon and Sprint have not reported any problems, that makes the problems over at AT&T stand out even more.

Source: CNET - iPhone 4S buyers complain of AT&T activation issues

Power Point Projectors
Most business class projectors will do a good job displaying your PowerPoint presentation. If you have a small presentation group, a 2000 lumen LCD projector will be able to produce a nice and clear picture. For larger audiences you should consider a 5000 lumen LCD projector.

Courts Decide That Australia Won’t Be Seeing the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

In Australia this week, a court decided that it will be complying with Apple’s request to participate in a temporary ban of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1. This means that consumers in Australia will most likely not be seeing the newest version of Samsung’s tablet during the holiday season.

Samsung released a statement after the decision was made. It stated that the company was disappointed with the court’s decision, but it would "take all necessary measures including legal action in order to ensure our innovative products are available to consumers."

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Justice Annabelle Bennett believed that there were several different factors that were in Apple’s favor. Earlier this month, Samsung informed the court that it would consider cancelling all plans to sell the Galaxy Tab 10.1 if they placed a ban on the tablet. Despite this, the Herald reported that Bennett said, "she had to weigh this consideration against the loss and injury that could be caused to Apple should Samsung be allowed to sell the iPad rival."

Samsung had been confident that they would be able defeat Apple with a countersuit which it filed in September, but clearly things didn’t work out as well as they had hoped.

"Our wireless standard patents are essential for mobile business. We will continue to legally assert our intellectual property rights against those who violate Samsung's patents and free ride on our technology," Samsung said.

The Herald reported that Apple released the same statement that it had issued earlier this year, "This kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple's intellectual property when companies steal our ideas."

Patent blogger Florian Mueller said that of course the issue will not be completely resolved until the full trial has concluded, but by the time that the trial is complete "the product will likely be obsolete in this rapidly evolving market," he wrote in a blog post.

"After today's decision, I believe no company in the industry will be able to launch any new Android-based touchscreen product in Australia anytime soon without incurring a high risk of another interim injunction," Mueller wrote.

"If Apple wins the Australian case at the end of the main proceeding, all Android-based products will effectively be shut out of the Australian market forever, unless Google or its device maker partners settle with Apple," Mueller said. "Therefore, Google and Samsung will have to fight very hard to have the asserted patents declared invalid, or at least have their scope narrowed."

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Could the Kindle Fire Outsell Apple's iPad?

Consumers can’t seem to wait to get their hands on the Kindle Fire, and according to Cult of Android, there are numbers that have been compiled showing that the newly released tablet has the potential to outsell Apple’s iPad.

About a week ago, there were leaked screen shots of Amazon’s internal inventory management system that allegedly revealed that consumers had already preordered more than 250,000 Kindle Fires. Amazon announced the tablet less than a week prior to the leaked screen shots. Cult of Android claims that the tablet is already selling around 50,000 devices a day, more than 2,000 tablets per hour.

Two thousand devices per hour?!? That’s absolutely insane! If these numbers are correct, this would mean that Amazon is set to have the biggest tablet launch to-date. It would be even bigger than the launch of the iPad or the iPad 2.

On April 3, 2010 Apple sold 300,000 of the original iPads at the devices launch. As of right now, Apple still has not released any of the details concerning the launch of the iPad 2, but Cult of Android claims that somewhere close to 2.5 million devices were sold in the first month that the device was available.

So far, Amazon has not released any numbers concerning the Kindle Fire, but it has been estimated that Amazon presold 95,000 units the very first day that it was announced.

According to Cult of Android, none of the other devices have had presale numbers like the Kindle Fire. BlackBerry sold 250,000 PlayBooks in the first month, while Motorola only sold 100,000 Xooms.

The Kindle Fire does not ship until November 15, so Amazon has plenty of time to overtake the iPad, even if presale numbers begin to slow. Another tablet could definitely help to boost the sales numbers, and reportedly Amazon is working on a 10-inch version of the Kindle Fire.

The media is saying that the Kindle Fire is the tablet that could actually present some decent competition to Apple’s iPad. It also helps that the Kindle Fire will only cost you $199 and that Amazon is offering free two-day shipping. Who knows how it will all turn out, but if Cult of Android is even close to being on track with their estimates, the Kindle Fire really could become the tablet to beat.

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Disabling Your Laptop's Trackpad

If you are constantly working on the go and constantly taking your laptop with you wherever you go, then I think it is safe to say that you are a person who probably likes using a mouse as opposed to your laptop's trackpad. I'm like that; I hate track pads for anything other than casual internet browsing and even then I still get irritated. However, there is a way to avoid that irritation by simply disabling the trackpad.

Choosing which way to disable your trackpad depends on your hardware. Thankfully, most modern laptop makers have attempted to address that problem outright. Some notebooks contain a physical switch that allows you to seamlessly turn your trackpad on and off. Others may incorporate a keyboard shortcut to disable it or may require you to simply press a certain area of the actual trackpad.

There are other ways to disable the trackpad through the software, which can be done with three easy options:

Option 1: Identify a trackpad icon in the notification area. Once found, double-click or right-click the icon to browse the trackpad options and disable the trackpad from here.

Option 2: If that doesn't work or you can't find the icon, then click your Start button. From here go to your computer's Control Panel, then to Hardware and Sound. From here click on Devices and Printers, then click Mouse. The Mouse Properties window will appear where you might find an option of disabling your laptop's trackpad.

Option 3: If the first two options don't work, you can always search for trackpad software from the Start menu.

If you can't find a way to physically disable the trackpad or to disable it via software, you still have one more option with five easy steps.

Step 1: Click Start

Step 2: Type Device Manager into the Search Box. Then click the Device Manager result, subsequently opening up the Device Manager window.

Step 3: Expand Mice and Other Pointing Devices.

Step 4: Right-click the trackpad's entry, then click Disable.

Step 5: Confirm that you want to disable the trackpad.

This should go without saying but make sure you have another pointing device ready before disabling your trackpad, otherwise you won't be able to enable it. Other than that, it should be smooth sailing from there. Now you can enjoy full use of your laptop without the trackpad and you can also get the trackpad back up and running again if you feel like you miss it.

Source: PC World - How to Disable Your Laptop Touchpad

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Sonnet Introduces New Fusion Storage System

Sonnet Technologies has just announced the new Fusion F2QR portable teo-drive hardware RAID storage system. Physically this device is very compact and is about the size of two CD cases stacked on top of each other. The drives come mounted side-by-side and are also housed in a sturdy aluminum case.

The system itself contains two 2.5" 1TB hard drives and is based on the Fusion F2, a portable two-drive raid SATA storage system. As far as features go, the F2QR adds a built-in hardware RAID controller for configuring the drives, a quad interface with eSATA, FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 ports for compatibility with pretty much anything. In addition to that, the two 1TB drives also offer a large amount of storage.

This device also delivers high performance with up to 160 MB/second read and 100 MB/second write data transfer rates as well as being bus powered by a FireWire port on the computer, regardless of the interface you are using. Mounted inside the case, both drives are shock resistant and vibration resistant in order to help protect against rough handling, according to CEO of Sonnet Technologies Robert Farnsworth. The engineered aluminum case also effectively transfers heat, eliminating the need for an external or internal fan.

The F2QR also features a built-in hardware RAID controller that manages the drives and enables the system to connect to a computer with a single cable. The F2QR also supports fast (RAID 0), safe (RAID 1), big (Span) and JBOD configurations without relying on OS RAID or a specialized controller card. In addition to that, the included configuration utility software also supports Mac and Windows operating systems.

The quad interface of the device also offers users three different ways to connect the storage system to their computer. Users can connect via either an eSATA, FireWire 800 or USB 2.0 interface and Sonnet includes all the cables for each interface allowing you to connect immediately. The Fusion F2QR is available now for a retail price of $569.

Source: Mac News - Sonnet Introduces Fusion Storage Solution

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