Gerry Blackwell

The life of the professional is only getting busier and more challenging. The right mobile tools, both downloads and hardware, help you run your life more efficiently. Gerry Blackwell reports. Do you remember what it was like to run a business before the Internet, before mobile phones and before you could carry your business in […]

Early on, someone at Apple leaked the little secret or some smart cookie figured out and reported that it was actually possible to turn the iPad into a VoIP phone — and make free phone calls — by plugging in a USB headset using the optional Camera Connection kit. The Camera Connection kit, a $29 […]

Are you thinking about migrating to Windows 7? It’s not hard, but due diligence and good planning are paramount for a successful migration. You need to follow best practices, which includes tapping into Microsoft’s readily available — mostly free — tools and resources. To start you off on the right path, our top seven tips […]

Online collaboration tools that let you work with far-flung co-workers and clients have moved into the mainstream of small business computing in the last few years. And while most small business owners understand why they should be using apps like Web, audio, and video conferencing; document sharing; white boarding, etc., many need help choosing which […]

Palm Pre Price: about $150 (with cellular plan)Pros: Cool dual-interface form factor, powerful processor, good Wi-Fi performanceCons: No Outlook desktop synchronization, Wi-Fi under-utilized The Palm Pre, Palm’s “revolutionary” response to the Apple iPhone, has much to recommend it, including reasonably good Wi-Fi functionality. But the Pre requires a paradigm shift that some users might find […]

What should you look for in a new notebook? In this economy, price ranks first followed closely by reliability and security. Way down at the bottom of that list comes styling, bells and whistles. With that in mind, consider the Hewlett-Packard ProBook 4510s, a well-priced, reliable yet attractive 15.6-inch widescreen laptop. Prices range from $529 […]

Recession-battered small businesses looking for an edge can now find one – even if only a small one – in Skype, the low-or-no-cost voice-over-Internet service that until now has mainly been of interest to consumers. Skype, launched in Europe in 2003 but acquired three years ago by eBay, offers free voice and video calling between […]

Online storage – uploading your data over the Internet to a service provider’s data center – makes such perfect sense that the market is now glutted with vendors all hoping for a share of the anticipated revenue. And that is both a good thing and a bad thing. Storing your data online, also called “cloud […]

Xohm, the WiMAX-powered wireless service that Sprint and partner, Clearwire launched recently in Baltimore. It has been widely hailed as the first 4G mobile service in the U.S. Is it? Certainly it’s a breakthrough, and a hopeful sign of things to come. Subscribers are experiencing download speeds from 2 to 4 megabits per second (Mbps) […]

Hallelujah. A new day is dawning in mobile communications. With the September launch in Baltimore of Xohm, the WiMAX-powered mobile broadband wireless service from Sprint and Clearwire, the 4G era has, unofficially at least, begun. What will it mean for enterprise IT and telecom managers – beyond higher mobile wireless data speeds? It depends who […]