Takeaway: Find out why Microsoft may still win the tablet war, even if its early efforts are unsuccessful.

After spending time with Microsoft’s Surface RT tablet, we were left with more questions than answers. The further we considered Microsoft’s tablet strategy, the more we wondered if it were genius or madness driving its recent moves. Depending on what we see in the next few months, it just might be the former.

Leaving the Home Court

Surface was most perplexing in that Microsoft aced the hardware of the device — an area most pundits, expected it to miss completely. The device was sleek and well-assembled, and it brought unique and noteworthy features to the table rather than simply trying to copy market leaders. If only the software were on par with the hardware.

The OS was particularly troubling, considering Microsoft essentially invented the tablet category a decade ago, only to let it languish until Apple ate its lunch and dominated the market in a matter of months. While all this is old news, and Windows RT remains what seems to be a compromised OS, there are some interesting things happening on the software front.

An Office for Everyone

Microsoft began its life as an applications software company, achieving dominance in the desktop space through luck and tenacity. People often forget that Microsoft set out to build applications for a variety of platforms rather than create the one that would dominate desktop computing for a generation. While Microsoft has released its Office suite for some competing platforms, the most interesting missing links in the Office world are mobile versions of the software for iOS and Android. There have been enough rumors and rumblings about an iOS version of Office that the rumor has a measure of credibility.

Microsoft also seems a bit more pragmatic and less dogmatic than Apple, and it has released several applications for the iOS platform, from relatively innocuous photography applications to versions of its SkyDrive cloud-based file storage platform. SkyDrive is available for all major OSs, and Microsoft’s cloud strategy points toward open platforms rather than a walled garden like Apple’s iCloud. With a Microsoft-based cloud storage service already gaining traction on a variety of platforms, mobile versions of Office don’t seem as much of a stretch as they might have been a few months ago.

Returning to its roots around application software might not be a bad strategy for Microsoft. Clearly, Surface has not lit the world afire in its first incarnation, so launching popular applications on a variety of platforms would keeps Microsoft relevant in the enterprise and personal space, no matter which tablet device an enterprise ends up selecting.

There’s also the possibility of a halo effect should Microsoft deliver a quality mobile Office experience on a variety of platforms. The iPod music player and iPhone arguably sold more Mac computers than any ad campaign, and a suite of compelling software and services might make a case for a deeper Microsoft experience, especially in the enterprise.

The End of the Platform

While the proclamations that the “desktop is dead” have not been as dire as predicted, many applications are shifting to the cloud- and browser-based interfaces. In mobile, especially, core application logic and data are cloud-based for most popular applications. Tablets and smartphones generally don’t have the “baggage” of legacy applications that have saddled our desktop computing experience, so in many ways, mobile operating systems are more likely to fade toward irrelevancy beyond running cloud-based applications. If Microsoft can rekindle its multi-platform application heritage and combine it with a strong hardware competency, it might successfully win the longer tablet war, even if its early efforts sputter.

Consumer-Rankings.com Named RingCentral as the # 1 VOIP Business Service Provider!

Consumer-Rankings tested the top VoIP service providers and compared their prices, features, ease of use, call quality and more so that you can determine which of the industry leaders offers the right VoIP plan for you. Read an in-depth RingCentral VoIP review  so you can make an educated purchase.

Best for: Small and large businesses that are looking for a reliable VoIP phone solution.

RingCentral is a company that specializes in providing business VoIP services, fax services and mobile communication solutions. With plans ranging from a single user to over 20 users, RingCentral makes it clear that they can cater to both small businesses and large corporations. With a cloud-based virtual office system, RingCentral eliminates the need for technical knowledge or bulky hardware and makes it possible to enjoy your virtual office from virtually anywhere.

Professionals looking for a VoIP business solution will be drawn to the RingCentral Office plan, which combines calling and online fax features.

Features

RingCentral offers a range of professional-grade VoIP features. Surprisingly, RingCentral is one of the few business VoIP providers that offer a free 1800 toll free number that includes 1,000 minutes of talk per month in the price of the plan. Overage charges for the toll free line cost 3.9 cents per minute. RingCentral’s other features include:

• Voicemail
• Voicemail to email (aka Visual Voicemail)
• Auto-attendant
• Missed call notification
• Outlook integration
• Call screening
• Call forwarding
• Call logs
• Call conferencing
• Caller ID
• Calling card (use your RingCentral account to make free calls from anywhere)
• Music-on-hold
• Dial-by-name extensions
• Online fax service
• Free softphone

Customer Support

RingCentral is one of the few business VoIP providers that offers 24/7 technical support by phone. The billing department is available by phone between 8am-10pm EST on Monday through Friday, 10am-7pm EST on Saturday, and 11am-8pm EST on Sundays. When  RingCentral’s customer support was called at various times throughout the day, and never waited on hold for more than 2 minutes for sales or technical support.

RingCentral also offers chat support, though this feature is not prominently displayed on their website. Chat support is available between 9am and 9pm Monday through Friday and is closed on Saturdays and Sundays.

A search button that is found on most of the site’s pages makes it easy to get answers to questions at any time, and we were happy to see that the search feature yielded relevant, useful results in the majority of our searches. RingCentral answers questions via email only for paying customers, and therefore, the company’s email information is not easily identifiable on the site. Still, we managed to email RingCentral and to receive a same-day response.

Tech trends to watch out for in 2013

Takeaway: IT leaders need to be smart about the decisions they make and truly leverage next-generation tools and strategies. Here are some technology trends that will shape their decision-making in 2013.

With the New Year comes a fresh set of technology imperatives, challenges and opportunities for organizations to consider. The increased innovation in the technology sector means that companies are finally in a position to be smart about the IT decisions they make and truly leverage next-generation tools and strategies to mitigate risk and shape strategies for the future. Below are trends that will shape and impact their decision-making in 2013.

Prediction #1: Cloud interoperability will take the spotlight

Cloud interoperability will be huge: private cloud adoption will continue to grow, but more organizations and MSPs will adopt a hybrid public / private approach. This hybrid approach could simply be an organization’s private cloud interfacing with other public clouds in a secure manner, or it could mean augmenting an internal private cloud with additional compute, storage or cooling resources from a public cloud. The biggest challenge with this reality will be the manageability of the hybrid environment. Generally, enterprises and MSPs don’t use the same set of tools and monitor environments in the same way. To ensure these hybrid cloud environments deliver on their promise of costs savings and productivity benefits, vendor-agnostic management and monitoring solutions are critical.

Prediction #2: Worldwide economic struggles will direct the data center world

Data centers are consuming more power, more cooling and their density continues to rise, but an organization ability to retrofit or expand the physical space is challenging and not cost effective. Private and hybrid cloud models will get traction because it saves on cost. It isn’t cost intuitive to upgrade a physical data center, so the shift to private clouds is the next logical step.

Worldwide economic struggles both in the financial sector, and more importantly in the energy sector, have the high probability of forcing data centers to close or increase prices to stay functional. While there has been a data center construction boom in the last several years, the demand for space will have to be countered by ever-rising costs in the energy industry. Depending on how the world can come together and address the energy crisis, this will continue to dramatically impact the data center world.

Prediction #3: BYOD and v Virtualization will collide

Smartphone, tablet, laptop and other mobile devices will all begin leveraging virtualization technologies, increasing virtualized BYOD, and this will become the next evolution of the mobile device. Consumers will be confident in the security and interoperability of a working profile with their personal profile on any device they choose, regardless of their location, and they will no longer need access to their specific mobile device. With virtualization, they can grab a friend’s and have access to their virtual identity no matter where they are. Service providers have already started leveraging this technology, and enterprises are not far behind, as they will benefit once they’ve addressed potential security and identity challenges and embraced the evolution.

Prediction # 4: Cloud outages by major Web hosts will gain momentum

We will continue to see cloud outages by all major cloud providers.  These outages will dramatically impact businesses and hosting customers on the cloud. Technology today is mature enough to prevent complete outage of customer assets.  The big balance has always been with hosting how much money you are willing to spend to ensure uptime.  More and more cloud and hosting customers are putting the trust in the clouds resilience without really understanding or choosing to understand that without paying for resilience you will experience some outage at some point.  As the cloud provider drive for pricing down to compete with each other and gain market share the cost of driving price down has to be found in some level of corners being cut.  Which will lead to more outages. Example: It comes down to mitigating cost vs. risk. Amazon keeps trying to drive costs down, but the tradeoff is their customers must decide how much they want to pay to mitigate their own risk. In order to lower risk, a company suffers the effect on its monthly price. However, with today’s economy and the focus on cost rather than risk, outages will still occur.

Prediction # 5: The Presidential imperative will be cybersecurity

President Obama has been elected for a second term and one thing is crystal clear: cybersecurity must be a top priority for him in 2013. There is an increased awareness around the issue of cybersecurity, and it is only set to rise further as more and more people transition information to the cloud. In 2013, the president will have to answer: how do I protect people on the Internet? We’ve had multiple bills passed but what we really need is education around how to be safe as a nation on the Internet and in the cloud. A cyber war is as dangerous as a physical one and with out a government focus on cybersecurity, we’re facing that risk head on.

Looking Ahead

When you take a step back and look at all 2013 technology predictions from industry one thing becomes clear: there are lots of moving parts for organizations to control. It will be critical next year that they have tools to manage and monitor these ever-changing environments. Organizations must be smarter about IT, proactive rather than reactive and continue to innovate.

Save your place in word a document using macros!

Takeaway: Use these two simple Word macros to temporarily bookmark a spot you want to return to later.

Large documents offer a few navigating challenges, especially when you need to jump back and forth between two areas. You could split the document, but that splits the screen and that might not be the right solution for you. Or, you could use any of the normal navigation tools and shortcuts, but it’s easy to get lost that way. Using VBA, you can insert a bookmark that acts as a placeholder. Then, when you’re ready to return, a single quick click is all that’s required.

This technique requires two quick macros, which follow:

Public Sub InsertBookmark ()

‘Insert bookmark for srz.

Call Bookmarks.Add(“srz”, Selection.Range)

End Sub

Public Sub ReturnToBookmark ()

‘Return to previously inserted bookmark.

ActiveDocument. Bookmarks(“srz”).Range.Select

End Sub

To add the macros, press [Alt]+[F11] to launch the Visual Basic Editor (VBE). In the Project Explorer, find ThisDocument for the current document. Then, enter the two sub procedures shown above.

Next, return to the document and add the macros to the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT), as follows:

1. From the QAT dropdown, choose More Commands.
2. From the Choose Commands From dropdown, choose Macros.
3. In the list on the left, find InsertBookmark.
4. Click Add to add the macro to the list of commands on the right.
5. With the macro still selected, click Modify.
6. In the resulting dialog, enter Mark in the Display Name control, and click OK. You could also change the macro’s display icon.
7. Repeat steps 3 through 6 to add ReturnToBookmark to the list on the right and add the display name, Return.
8. Click OK.

1. Launch the Customize dialog box by double-clicking a toolbar or menu or by choosing Customize from the Tools menu.
2. Click the Commands tab.
3. Choose Macros from the Categories list.
4. Find InsertBookmark in the Commands list and drag it to the toolbar.
5. Find Return ToBookmark and drag it to the toolbar.
6. Click Close.

Oracle says Java Update Coming Tuesday!

Oracle is working on an update to address a flaw in its Java software.

The company says it will release a patch that will fix 86 vulnerabilities in Java 7 on Tuesday.

The Department of Homeland Security last week said computer users should disable the program in web browsers because hackers were using a zero-day vulnerability to attack computer systems. Criminals were using the flaw to stealthily install malware on the computers of users who visit compromised websites.

The problem, which affects Oracle Java 7 update 10 and earlier, can allow an untrusted Java applet to escalate its privileges, without requiring code signing.

In fact, Java is so ubiquitous that the software has become a major bull’s-eye for hackers. Last year, Java overtook Adobe Reader as the most frequently attacked software, according to computer security firm Kaspersky Lab.

Mac users probably don’t have to worry because Apple already removed Java plug-ins from OS X browsers. Apple apparently learned a lesson last year when it took its time making a Java patch available and as a result more than 600,000 Macs were infected with malware.

Last February, Oracle released a fix for a targeted vulnerability identified as CVE-2012-0507 and included it in an update for the Windows version of Java. However, since Apple distributes a self-compiled version of Java for Macs, it ports Oracle’s patches to it according to its own schedule, which can be months behind the one for Java on Windows.

Mozilla also has blacklisted all current releases of Java.

Java Plugin Security Information

Kill your java plugin as soon as possible.

A new Java zero-day security vulnerability is already being actively exploited to compromise PCs. The best way to defend against the attacks is to disable any Java browser plugins on your systems.

The offending bug is present in fully patched and up-to-date installations of the Java platform, now overseen by database giant Oracle, according to Jaime Blasco, head of labs at security tools firm AlienVault.

“The hacker can virtually own your computer if you visit a malicious link thanks to this new vulnerability. At the moment, there is no patch for this vulnerability, so the only way to protect yourself is by disabling Java.”

The exploit targets Java 7 update 10 and prior versions. No fix is available and early indications suggest that exploitation is widespread. Brian Krebs reckons the exploit has found its way into crimeware toolkits, such as the Blackhole Exploit Kit, which will uses the hole to infect victims with software nasties.

Java vulnerabilities were abused by the infamous Flashback Trojan, creating the first botnet on Mac OS X machines in the process last year. In the years before that attacks on Java and Adobe applications have eclipsed browser bugs as hackers’ favourite way into a system.

In all but a limited number of cases Java support in web browsers is not mandatory for home users, unless required by a banking website or similar, so disabling plugins even as a temporary measure is a good idea. Businesses, on the other hand, that rely on Java for particular applications are not so fortunate.

While waiting for a patch from Oracle to plug the gaping hole, you can contact South Jersey Techies by emailing support@sjtechies.com to make sure your systems are protected.

Takeaway: This great quick Microsoft Word Document trick will have you filling in scanned paper forms in just seconds.

Word allows you to fill out scanned paper forms.  A quick easy trick renders most paper forms into an electronic file and isn’t a perfect solution, but works when you are in a jam. 

First, scan the form and save it as a graphics file.  Be sure to save the scanned form in a format that Word can use, such as jpg, png, or bmp. 

Once you have the scanned document file, insert it as a picture as follows:

1. In a blank document, open the header section. In Word 2007 and 2010, just double-click in the top margin area. In Word 2003, choose Header and Footer from the View menu.
2. With the header section open, click the Insert tab. Then, click Picture in the Illustrations group. In Word 2003, choose Picture from the Insert menu, and then choose From File. Browse to the file and double-click it or select it and click Insert.
3. With the picture file selected, choose Behind Text from the Text Wrap dropdown in the Arrange group on the contextual Format tab. In Word 2003, right-click the picture, and choose Format Picture. Click the Layout tab, choose Behind Text, and click OK.
4. Close the header section.  Don’t worry if the graphic dims a bit.

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