Activating Windows 7

I know this is simple and easy but here it is in case you don’t know where to go.

Nexus 7 Update

Last week I had an issue with my new Nexus 7 but this week all is right with the world. I was able to get a taste of Google's support for Nexus 7 and the short of it is I am very impressed!

A little over 10 days ago I began having some lock up problems, deletion issues, and when I tried to do a factory reset I was unable to reset the Nexus 7 back to its factory defaults.

So I called up the 855-836-3987 support line to get some suggestions on what I should do. This is the Google Play device support team number and it is available 24/7. Two things impressed me. First I did not have a long wait for someone to pick up the phone and talk to me and second it was someone speaking to me in my Native American English!

After speaking to two separate technicians over a half hour period, we determined that this was a very strange failure and proceeded to process the RMA. I have to give them a credit card but 2 days later I had a new Nexus in my hands and I should the other one back to them. Except for the fact that the unit failed, it was quite painless to get this turned around. It took me about an hour and a half to reload my applications and to reenter my logins to my online accounts, but I seem to be getting really good at this.

Pro's: Nexus 7 Support
Con's: Nexus 7, and I broke you in just one month! Not good...

TechSmith Snagit Volume Purchase/Upgrade Promotion

Create eye-catching images and videos with Snagit

Multi-user licenses are an easy and efficient way to get everyone communicating and on the same page. Add visuals to presentations, create quick how-to videos, embed images into Microsoft Office projects—whatever you need—and instantly share the content across your entire team or with just a few people.

This is a product that I couldn’t live without. If you are a Windows 7 user and use the built-in Snipping Tool, you will just love the ease of use and flexibility of this program. It has totally replaced my use of the Jing application which is also written by TechSmith. Try the free trial and you will be getting it for everyone that creates content in your office.

A year of maintenance is typically priced at 25% of the new license purchase price, but will be offered for FREE with any 5- 99 volume purchase from 11/1/2012 – 12/14/2012.

The 12 month Maintenance Agreement provides you with:
-Free major release upgrades as well as the standard minor release upgrades
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Call us at 1-800-640-7506 to place your order and don’t forget to mention the promo code SNAGMAINTFREE in order to receive one year free maintenance.

But don’t wait – this offer ends December 14, 2012.

SSL Certificates - What’s changing for October 2016

We are seeing some issues in renewing SSL Cert’s for a 3 year period because of some changes that will come into effect as of October 1, 2016. See the excerpt from one of our suppliers below:

Using Intranet and Reserved IP Addresses as the Primary Domain or Subject Alternative Name in SSLs

The Internet security community is phasing out the use of intranet and reserved IP addresses as the Primary Domain Name or the Subject Alternative Name in SSL certificates.

This is an industry-wide decision, not one specific to our company.

An intranet name is any name that is not in the public Internet DNS (e.g.'server1', 'mail', 'www', 'server2.local', etc.). A reserved IP address is any address designated by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) as being reserved.

To create a safer online environment, members of the Certificate Authorities Browser Forum (CA/Browser Forum) worked to define the guidelines and means of implementation of SSL Certificates. As a result of these meetings, effective on October 1, 2016, Certification Authorities (CAs) must revoke any SSL certificates that use intranet names or reserved IP Addresses.

As a result of this decision, on July 1, 2012, we no longer accept new requests, process rekeys or renewals, or allow any management of Subject Alternative Names for certificates that contain intranet names or reserved IP addresses, and are valid beyond November 1, 2015. If you have an existing certificate that contains an intranet name and/or a reserved IP address, you can continue to use that certificate until it expires or until October 1, 2016, whichever comes first.

To read CA/Browser Forum guidelines, go here.

For more information on which IPv4 addresses are reserved, go here. Some addresses are mentioned only in the footnotes. We do not support any certificates using IPv6.

Interesting Note sent to us from one our distributors…

Win 8 units will have Win 8 as the OS at the time of load. You will have access to Win 8 restore media via USB recovery BYOM (Bring Your Own Media) option. USB only, does not support CD/DVDs, 8GB USB recommended.

Also, in case you missed it:

For Win7 systems purchased between June 2, 2012 and January 31, 2013, the Windows 8 Promotional Upgrade program will be managed and fulfilled by Microsoft. Promotional Upgrade is available at: www.windowsupgradeoffer.com

Xbox Music: Free streaming music on Windows 8 and RT PCs and Tablets

Xbox has officially announced Xbox Music tonight which begins rolling out to Xbox consoles on October 16^th. Starting on October 26^th, Xbox Music will deliver free streaming music on Windows 8 and Windows RT PCs and tablets.

Microsoft states that Xbox Music has a catalog that is on par with iTunes and will give you access to millions of songs and albums that you can subscribe to or purchase through their online store. You can also purchase an Xbox Music Pass for $9.99/month to give you access to ad-free, unlimited playback of any song in their catalog.

Check out this press release with all the details

Supporting our Client Network Systems

This is the service model that Computer Connections has always focused on and is continually providing the support your company needs every day. Many of you have already taken advantage of our Managed Services Products that provides 24 x7 support for you networked servers but in the last six months we have added a new product line that we think is a great solution for your workstations as well. Our CCI Desktop Plus Security Suite is a great addition to our product line that provides around the clock support for your workstation with Virus Protection (Vipre Enterprise), Malware Protection (Malwarebytes), Remote Access/Management (LogMeIn Pro) and Patch Management for just $5/month per PC.

VIPRE Enterprise combines antivirus, antispyware, anti-rootkit and other technologies into a seamless, tightly-integrated product. Starting with a blank slate, Sunbelt architected VIPRE to incorporate the best ideas for dealing with malware in the most comprehensive, highly efficient manner. The result is a clean, fast, and powerful anti-malware solution designed "by admins for admins".

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware software provides an essential layer of protection that works alongside antivirus programs and is renowned in the industry for its unparalleled ability to detect the behaviors of today's malware and effectively stop it at its source. Malware, also known as malicious software, is one of the fastest-growing and most disruptive threats on the Internet today. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware uses advanced heuristic and behavioral scanning to monitor every process in order to detect, destroy, and prevent malicious processes before they start injecting viruses, spyware, trojans, keyloggers, password stealers, dialers and more. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is available as part of Continuum’s RMM platform and free of charge to Continuum partners.

LogMeIn provides us with a quick method of accessing your system for support and training. It can also be setup for your use to access your machine from home or out of the office as well. This has been a great tool that allows us to quickly connect and perform simple diagnostics and fixes to systems from our offices. This cuts down on the cost of travel, and actual support time that is charged to you for these services.

Patch Management provides security updates that have been tested and approved before they are implemented on your computer. This service along with all of the other updates are done behind the scenes without your intervention. Because these are all script based functions they can be performed in the off-peak hours when you are not using your machines. You have little to no interruption to keep you computer healthy and functioning at its best capability.

Accessing our Client Portal

I have put together a short video demonstrating how you access your client portal screen. This portal provides you with access to your service tickets, both past and present, the ability to add comments and provide additional information to our service department on open service tickets and to create new service tickets. Please feel free to use this to help us better server you.

If you haven’t received your login and password to access your system please contact us to set this up for you.

IOS received updated Dropbox app this week

If you are a big user of Dropbox as a note taking application, and you use it on an iOS device, then this may be of interest to you. There are several new features that allow you post a file now directly to Facebook and Twitter.  It also now supports iOS AirPrint as well. So now you have the options of emailing a file, text messaging a file, message through Facebook, post to Facebook, Tweet and copying the link to a clipboard. If you post to Facebook the file link will be posted and can then be found on your timeline.

I’m not a big Facebook or Twitter poster so these two things don’t hold much interest to me but the AirPrint capability makes sharing a file much simpler. If you haven’t downloaded take a trip to the iTunes store and get your updated copy.

Lexar Multi-Card 25-in-1 USB 3.0 Reader

Lexmar has released a press release on this new product and we don’t have it in distribution yet as of this posting. Nor do we have an idea of how it will be priced but it should retail around $30 or less. If you have just purchased a new laptop or workstation in the past few months you may want to consider one of these devices when they come out. I have many different devices that I work with in photography and my memory cards keep getting bigger and bigger as I move along. What this device will do for you is to speed up the data transfer from your memory card to your computer for you to backup, process and share from your devices.

It has a pop up type of design that allows you to close it when not in use. This helps to protect it from dirt and other types of damage that might occur from being carried in your camera or computer bag. So when used as part of your portable arsenal it will cut down on carrying multiple devices to give you the maximum flexibility.The reader comes with a 1 year warranty and comes from a memory card vendor that we know and trust.

This memory card reader supports the following formats:

CompactFlash® Type I and Type II, SD™, SDHC™, SDXC™, miniSD™, miniSDHC™, MMC™, MMCplus™, RS-MMC™, microSD™, microSDHC™, Memory Stick™, Memory Stick (with MagicGate™), Memory Stick PRO™, Memory Stick PRO Duo™, Memory Stick Duo (with MagicGate), Memory Stick PRO Duo Mark 2, Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo™, Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo “HX”, Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™), xD-Picture Card™, xD-Picture Card Type-M, xD-Picture Card Type-M+, and xD-Picture Card Type-H.

Office 2013 vs. Office 365 Pricing… a comparison

Microsoft Office 365 news release

The differences between Microsoft’s cloud offering with Office 365 and boxed product with traditional Office licenses. Office 2013 is the successor to Office 2010. But Microsoft has confused the discussion just a bit by mixing in chatter about Office 365. Office 365 supports SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, Lync Online and other cloud services. Microsoft also has an option that includes desktop productivity capabilities. Here’s a sampling of Microsoft’s Office suite pricing, subscription services and product lineup:

Office 365 Home Premium: This $99.99 per year subscription offering covers an entire household. It’s not tied to a single person, or account, and each person that uses the service and applications can sign in to their own Microsoft account with its custom online document store, settings sync, and more. You can use Office on up to 5 PCs (or Macs), and switch which devices are activated on the fly. PC-based subscribers get Office 2013 Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access, and Publisher, while Mac users get Office:Mac (whatever the current version is).

Office 365 Home Premium subscriptions come with a number of benefits. The software installs are delivered via Click-to-Run, which takes just a few minutes. But more important, the software is always kept up-to-date, not just with bug and security fixes, but also with the latest new features and services: Microsoft says that it will add new capabilities to Office 2013 “multiple times per year,” as it would with any service.

Additional benefits include 20 GB of additional SkyDrive-based storage (for a total of 27 GB), which I assume applies only to the account that signs up for the subscription, and not for all accounts that access the software installs from that subscription. (That is, the 20 GB of additional storage is for one account, not for up to five accounts.) You also get 60 minutes of Skype-based world calling per month. And you can access the Office on Demand service to temporarily stream any of the supported Office applications temporarily to any PC in the world (assuming it’s online).

Office 365 Small Business: This $149.99 per year subscription offering is licensed per user, but also covers up to 5 PCs and/or Macs. Aimed at small businesses with 1 to 10 employees, Office 365 Small Business utilizes Office 365 backend services—Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync Online—rather than the SkyDrive-based services used by the Home Premium subscription. So while you basically get all the benefits of the Home Premium subscription, there are additional benefits and features as well.

On the client front, Small Business subscribers gain access to the same Office 2013 applications as Home Premium—Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access, and Publisher—but also get Lync and InfoPath, or, of course, Office:Mac.

In the cloud, you get a 25 GB Exchange Online mailbox with shared calendaring, contacts, scheduling, and task list, and 10 GB of SharePoint Online-based cloud storage for the organization with an addition 500 MB per user account. You can host online meetings with audio, video, screen sharing, and HD video conferencing using Lync Online, and can set up, build, and maintain a public-facing web site with custom domain for no additional fee.

Traditional Office 2013 Single User Licenses: Prices start at $139.99 for Office Home and Student 2013 (which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote). Office Home and Business 2013 ($219.99) includes all the applications in Home and Student plus Outlook. Office Professional 2013 ($399.99) includes the applications in Home and Business plus Access and Publisher. With the boxed product you have a onetime fee which allows you to use the product on that one machine. You can uninstall/reinstall as you change out your equipment.

The comparison: If you were to purchase Office Home and Student for five machines it would cost you $699.95 compared to $99.99 for a one year subscription. It would take seven years for the payback on the boxed product and by then you would probably want to have already upgrade to the newest version well before that time is up. With the subscription model you will always be up to date. If you don’t need the extra home licenses and you don’t use Outlook than you may be better off with the boxed version. But in a multi-license scenario you may want to consider the subscription.

Compared with Small Business Premium and compared with Office Professional, you are getting a whole host of extras with the subscription model per user that you are not getting with the boxed product. While the cost between the Home and Small Business version of the boxed product would be much closer, you are missing a few of the products that are included in the subscription model. There is a $70 difference in cost for the first year but halfway through the second you are saving money with the boxed version. But you don’t get the updates and you don’t get the full product or cloud services. So in my mind you are much better off in the long run with the subscription service.

Let me know your thoughts.

Lenovo buys Stoneware

Lenovo has purchase Stoneware, apparently to acquire their cloud computing and classroom management software products. Stoneware’s product lineup includes webNetwork, LanSchool and webRDP.

Stoneware’s webNetwork simplifies your life by enabling you to create a Unified Cloud. A unified cloud delivers private data center, public cloud and local device resources through a common webDesktop. With webNetwork you can simplify your user’s life by providing a common HTML5 webDesktop. The webDesktop, accessed through the Unified Cloud, delivers all files, applications and reports through a single user id and password on any device. They suggest that this product will make IT costs go down and simplify the user’s online access. See Brochure. Business – K12 – Higher Ed. So whether you are using a phone, tablet, notebook or workstation you will have the same basic look and feel through their web browser interface

Lenovo certainly has a strong Educational presence and this new product offering can only help with giving them more focus.

Peter Hortensius, Lenovo senior vice president and product group president, said that the Stoneware acquisition furthers the vendor’s PC Plus initiative, its strategy to branch out beyond PCs to the interplay of multiple devices, the central point of which is enabling client devices such as notebooks, tablets and smartphones to communicate through the cloud.

“Adding Stoneware cloud computing into the Lenovo line up presents a significant opportunity to leverage their success, and enhance our PC+ offerings, all to the benefit of our customers,” he said.

Rick German, Stoneware chief executive, seemed to enjoy the prospect of talking to a worldwide audience, in what, for the small developer, must be rarefied air. “Lenovo is one of the largest and fastest growing technology companies in the world and for Stoneware, a small company with roots in the heartland of the United States, we are delighted to be given the opportunity to deliver real benefit to customers on a global stage,” he said.

More on these product offerings as we get news from Lenovo directly.

iLounge Article: Removing an iOS device from an iTunes account

By Jesse Hollington

Applications Editor, iLounge (Google+)
Published: Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Good show and tell how to remove an iOS device from your iTunes account. I like to earmark these for future use.

Remember that you can only have only a maximum of 10 devices per iTunes account and this is probably the main reason to get in and manage your device list.

Intel’s Next Unit of Computing-Things just keep getting smaller!

Talk about small and still powerful, this 4x4 core i3 System is being targeted at just $399, including case, power supply and a solid state disk. The system being label the NUC isn’t yet a standard form factor but it is going to be a great size for some of space constraining projects. This product should become available in October this year. Looks like October is going to be a busy month.

Loyd Case wrote for PCWorld the following:

NUC is an Intel-developed program, with the goal of shrinking a full performance desktop PC into as small a form factor as possible. While it might seem to compete with Via's Pico ITX, the performance is substantially better than the Via Centaur CPU on those boards. The 4-by-4-inch format was chosen as the smallest board capable of supporting an Intel Ivy Bridge CPU with supporting core logic and expansion.

NUC is aimed at OEMs that may need the small form factor for embedded applications as well as hobbyists looking to build tiny computers into cards, home theater systems or tiny servers. The dedicated video block inside Intel's HD 4000 GPU can handle two HD video streams at full frame rate. Intel isn't planning on selling complete systems, but will source a small case and external power supply for buyers who want to experiment with building a system.

Intel will offer two boards, with the key difference being connectivity. One will include a Thunderbolt port, while the other will have a wired Ethernet connector instead of Thunderbolt. Both will still have WiFi options, similar to those used in many laptops, which will take up the lone mini-PCI slot. OEMs can feel free to use the mini-PCI slot for other purposes if they don't need WiFi. Intel will also offer a chassis just big enough for the board plus an external power supply with the units, so hobbyists and OEMs can experiment with these tiny PCs. The case itself is barely bigger than the 4-by-4-inch board, though the power brick is an external unit. The cases will even have VESA mounts, so can be attached easily to the backs of LCD displays or wall mounted.

Kindle/Audible-New WhisperSync Capability

WhisperSync will now link an Audible audio book with it’s Kindle counterpart file. You can try if for free on the link list to the left. You will need a Kindle and the free audible app. You can listen on audible for iPhone, Android or on the Kindle Fire and read with any Kindle E Ink Reader, Kindle Tablet or Kindle reading app. If you have the latest generation Kindle you can read and listen on that device at the same time.

The free trial is for some of the old classics that you probably remember from when you were growing up.

It appears that the cost for this is only going to be about $3.95 or less to add the audio book to your library. Both files show up in their respective libraries so you can listen or read individually or together. Your choice. This will go over big in my house because I am an avid audible book listener while my wife would rather read it on the kindle. Now we can have the best of both worlds.

Amazon also announced 3 new kindle fire’s in 7inch, 8.9 inch and an 8.9 inch with LTE priced from $199, $299 and $499 respectively. All of these devices will allow you to use the new Whispersync voice option and kindle book at the same time on the same device.

Tonido–Cloud based Storage/Share/Sync

Tonido has several products that allow you access your files both locally and remotely with different types of devices. You have a choice of either Tonido Cloud (cloud based storage) or Tonido Desktop which provides access to your computer stored documents.

Tonido Desktop might be good for:

• Home users who need anytime access to files and media
• Professionals (Legal, Real Estate, Designers, Accountants) who need to share files privately and securely with their clients
• Mini Businesses who need a file sharing solution

This may work for you if you upgrade to the Pro version to tie in your music and pictures with friends and family using a myriad of devices.

Tonido Cloud provides access to your storage system from anywhere. You can use local storage, Amazon S3, Openstack or any object based storage. Tonido is targeting Enterprises, Universities and Schools, ISPs & Telecom Companies, System Integrators, IT Consulting Companies and Hosting Providers with this service. Pricing starts at $499 per year for up to 25 users. Since you are providing the storage there is no other cost. If you want to setup a controlled cloud accessible service like Dropbox, this could be your best solution. It is a little steep unless you need a lot of storage or at least 25 users, but this could be a great way to place FTP services, synchronization services, and file sharing under one product with simple access control.

Western Digital making a sleeker My Passport

Western Digital has unveiled a sleek new My Passport Edge portable drive. It is ultra thin and works with bot Windows and Mac computers. I don’t know if you want to call a hard drive Sexy but if you did the term would probably fit this new device.

There are minor differences between the Mac and Windows versions. They are both USB 3.0 compatible and are bus powered. In other words, plug you USB cable in and you are powered up. Both of them are about as thin as a traditional internal laptop hard drive (9.5 millimeters). This is because on the inside they use the new ultra slim type of internal hard drive that's just 7mm thick.

WD says the My Passport Edge for Mac is designed specifically to complement Apple's portable computers (MacBook Pro and MacBook Air), and has an all-aluminum exterior that's not just good-looking but also protects the drive against drops and bumps. The drive is preformatted in HFS+ and has support for Apple's Time Machine right out of the box.

The Windows version of the My Passport Edge, according to WD, has a premium-finish plastic cover and includes WD SmartWare software that's capable of continuous and automatic backup. It's preformatted in NTFS. Either version of the new drive can work with either Windows or Mac OS, however, once formatted in the appropriate file system.

The new 500GB-capacity My Passport Edge is available now and costs $110 and $120 for the Windows and Mac versions, respectively. Both versions of the new drive come with a three-year warranty.

Another interesting Storage Choice–Pogoplug and Amazon Glacier

Press Release:

POGOPLUG INTRODUCES NEW CLOUD STORAGE SERVICE USING AMAZON GLACIER

New Service Combines Safe, Affordable Cloud Backup with Instant Access and Sharing

San Francisco, CA, September 6, 2012 - Pogoplug today announced its new cloud storage service for families and small businesses. The service seamlessly integrates Amazon's Glacier storage with Pogoplug-enabled storage in the home or office. The combination provides the most affordable and safest multi-user cloud backup, with instant access and sharing from anywhere on the Internet.

"Amazon is revolutionizing cloud storage with Glacier. Our new offering provides the missing link by eliminating the three to five hour retrieval time intrinsic to Glacier - making all content instantly accessible," said Daniel Putterman, CEO of Pogoplug. "By keeping data synchronized between Amazon Glacier and a Pogoplug device in the home or office, we are offering unprecedented pricing for safe, fast cloud storage."

Pogoplug's new Family and Team services are available immediately. Family plans start at $29/year for unlimited private cloud storage at home, paired with 100GB of offsite cloud storage. The $99/year Family plan offers 1TB of cloud storage. As an introductory promotion, all Family plans include a free Pogoplug storage device.

Pogoplug Team plans enable businesses to leverage existing servers or computers for backup, private cloud storage and team collaboration. Each Pogoplug Team plan includes a fully customizable user interface, and up to 5 terabytes of offsite cloud storage. Team plans start at $199/year for five users.

ABOUT POGOPLUG
Pogoplug's proprietary hybrid cloud technologies meld offsite archival storage with Pogoplug-enabled storage in the home or office. The combination provides the most affordable and safest multi-user cloud backup, with instant access and sharing from anywhere on the Internet.

Pogoplug is led by seasoned entrepreneurs from the digital media and security space and is backed by Foundry Group, Softbank and Morgan Stanley. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, with a satellite office in Tel Aviv. For more information, please visit http://www.pogoplug.com.

Have you ordered yours yet?

InFocus IN3900 Interactive Projector Demo

I was doing some research for a customer in a classroom situation and I found this interesting product from InFocus that will make an electronic whiteboard with just a  $149 add-on option.

InFocus IN3900 education demonstration features the IN3914 and IN3916 interactive projectors as used in a classroom.

Special promo pricing on Snagit by TechSmith

Starting 9/1/2012, TechSmith will be running a special promotion on our 25 and 50 user packs of Snagit. Details are included below.
MSRP Costs

Quantity	Commercial	Government	Education
Snagit 25 Pack	$499	$449	$349
Snagit 50 Pack	$949	$849	$549

Valid Dates:
9/1/2012-10/15/2012
Please Note

• These are not stockable
• Maintenance is not being discounted, and should be purchased with the standard part/price
• Please contact your Distributor for setup costs