Well, here’s a list of 5 guaranteed gift ideas that any tech geek will love!

1. iTunes Store Gift Cards

The name iTunes really doesn’t describe what all is in it’s store anymore. It started out with Music and then added Movies and TV shows. Now it’s also the only place to find iPhone/iPod Touch applications. If your household geek has an iPod or iPhone. An iTunes gift cards is easy gift to give. You can find them at almost every check out counter and you can even send a gift card right from iTunes to their email with whatever amount you want to give. Easy.

2. iPod Touch

The Holy Grail of iPods. It play Music, Movies, and TV shows.You can also load it up with over 100,000 apps to choose from (really an insane amount). Lot’s of great apps are free or less than $5.00. This iPod’s real new claim to fame is gaming. There are some of the best mobile games of any device, including the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. Games and Geeks usually go together well. Oh and yes it’s like having an iPhone but without the phone and without the monthly bill that comes with it. The iPod Touch (sometimes mistakenly called an iTouch) starts at $199. You can pick them up locally at Walmart or order online from store.apple.com and you can have your gift engraved with a special message for free.

3. Viper SmartStart

Does your geek love his or her car? And do they also posses an iPhone? This security system and iPhone application from Viper is the ultimate tech/automobile combination. The SmartStart system allows you to arm/lock and disarm/unlock your car using your iPhone. It also allows you to remotely start your car. FROM ANYWHERE. It uses your 3G connection to communicate from the iPhone to the installed security system in your car. Technically your car could be on the other side of the country and you could start it. You’ll also get notifications straight to your phone when the alarm goes off. Being able to start your car from the comfort of your home or office on a cold or hot day is a luxury we all want. If they only added a GPS tracker then I don’t know how this system could get any better. Of course the best gear does comes with a price. $499 for the SmartStart system + Best Buy installation + $30 a year subscription. Your car geek would simply die if this was under the tree.

4. Windows 7

Yes, your eyes didn’t deceive you. A Mac guy just put Windows on a Christmas wish list. Until we can afford to upgrade my wife to the #5 Geek Gift on this list she’s still rocking a two year old HP notebook that came with Windows Vista. The notebook was really not powerful enough to run Vista well. It eventually began to crash and became the usually frustrating PC we’ve grown not to love. She didn’t have her discs to reinstall Vista so I decided to install Windows 7. And you know what, it’s not half bad. Microsoft finally put in some effort in the user experience and design. Simple things like switching Wi-Fi networks no longer require 10 clicks or more. Her notebook runs much better now; no crashing, doesn’t slow down, and runs as good as my MacBook Pro.

Now all the PC manufacturers would love for you to run out this Holiday season and buy a brand new computer with Windows 7 on it. But you can save some money and just get the software. So if you’re still stuck on XP, it may finally be time to upgrade. The time that you waste upgrading your anti-virus database could be spent on, oh I don’t know, Facebook. Partner Windows 7 with Microsoft’s new and free Security Essentials software and now the PC isn’t so bad. However, Microsoft didn’t make upgrading to 7 an easy task. You have multiple versions to choose from with prices varying from $120 to $220. Of course you could fore go this headache and get a Mac.

5. The 27″ iMac

Apple makes it too easy to fill your holiday shopping cart with their products. Their newest drool worthy computer is the 27 inch iMac. This desktop Mac is not only beautiful but very powerful. The large screen is spectacular. New technologies like LED back lights and in-plane switching (IPS) make the screen evenly bright and viewable from almost any viewing angle. The display is also in 16:9 HD aspect ratio. Absolutely perfect for viewing HD content, whether it’s HD movies from iTunes or from the web like Hulu and YouTube. No, it does not play Blu-Ray HD discs. According to Steve Jobs Blu-Ray is “a bag of hurt.” I’ll let you translate that one.

But the one super neat trick the 27 inch has that it’s smaller 21.5 inch sibling doesn’t, is HD Video input. The Mini DisplayPort not only let’s you output it to another monitor but it also allows you to use it’s own display as a monitor for another device. For example, the iMac is your home computer. You have newer MacBook that you’ve been using on a project your working on and you’d love to use your iMac’s big screen as the display, with the 27 inch you now can. But it doesn’t stop there, more devices like Blu-Ray players, PC’s, and video game systems might soon support this connection (with or without a proper adapter). This means the iMac can double as a really impressive HDTV. Let that sink in for a bit.

The iMac also ships with a wireless (Bluetooth) keyboard and the new Magic Mouse. This mouse has a multi touch sensitive surface like an iPhone. Scrolling through pages with the touch of your finger feels just right. Prices on the 27 inch start out at $1,699. That gets you 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 4GB of memory (upgradable to 16 GB!), 1TB hard drive, 8x DL DVD R/W drive, and 256MB ATI graphics card. Of course it goes up from there for those who want Intel’s new Quad Core i5 or i7 processors. Just add $300 – $500. My only complaint with this amazing machine is Apple nickel and dime-ing you for the Apple remote, $19. By the way, this iMac runs Windows 7 great, works great with the iPod Touch and those iTunes gift cards too!

The above article I wrote for the new business section of the December 2009 issue of Stillwater Living magazine. Thank you to Sarah Little for letting me republish the article here. Learn more about the magazine and publisher, Peacock Pro here. Be sure to pick up your copy, it’s only $2 at magazine stands around Stillwater.

]]> http://www.blog.yourappletrainer.com/2009/12/five-guaranteed-to-satisfy-geek-gifts/feed/ 0 http://www.blog.yourappletrainer.com/2009/11/backup-strategies-for-your-business/ http://www.blog.yourappletrainer.com/2009/11/backup-strategies-for-your-business/#comments Mon, 30 Nov 2009 06:40:40 +0000 Chris http://www.blog.yourappletrainer.com/?p=190 In today’s digital world we often take the reliability and security of our computer and it’s files for granted. In the “analog” world making sure our valuable documents were safe was pretty easy to comprehend. We kept these important files in a nice fire proof filing cabinet. The Xerox copier was our friend, photocopy the original then place that original in the safest place we could afford. Of course the hardest part of keeping physical copies was the amount of space required for storage. Businesses would have a room full of nothing but filling cabinets. You made sure the files were organized so that to find one later would not take an entire day. Large companies would have positions for people who just took care of these files.

When the digital revolution came we rejoiced. Hundreds of thousands of documents that once took up a whole room and staff to manage it could now be stored all on the computer on your desk. An amazing thing for sure but this digital revolution has come with it own perils.

A physical document has a few threats to it’s survival; a natural disaster, theft, or just getting lost. If the fire/flood proof filing cabinet was in a secure location you felt pretty safe. That same document in the digital world suffers many more threats. Natural disaster, theft, accidental deletion, overwritten, file corruption, viruses, malware, computer crash, and hard drive failure. The digital file has so many ways for it to be altered or destroyed. The number one cause of file loss is human error but second is hard drive failure. Almost every computer today has a hard disk drive. It’s your computer filing cabinet. It’s made up of tiny spinning magnetic platters that are very sensitive. These HDD’s are great, they let us store all of this information that used to take up an entire room but they also fail. They fail Alot! It’s not a matter of if your hard drive will die, it’s a matter of when. It could be ten years. It could be two months. I actually had a customer who thought she was backing up her brand new computer and it turns out it wasn’t backed up and her HDD died. She had irreplaceable photos and files on that drive. She paid a specialist file recovery company $2,800 to recover maybe one hundred photos.

This is why it is so important to have your files backed up.

Let’s define what a backup is:

A backup is having two or more copies of your files at all times. Those additional copies must not reside in/on the same computer as the original. Those additional copies must be in a safe easy to access place.

What a backup is not:

Say you have a folder with your business’ most important files. It is not a backup if you move those files off your computer’s hard drive and on to a USB flash drive that lives in your pocket. Also, if your computer is backing up files to the same hard drive as the originals.

Basically if your files don’t exist in two or more places then they don’t exist at all.

Here are some backup strategies and tools that your business can and should use.

First is a local backup, this local backup is usually a USB external hard drive plugged directly into your computer. It can also be a drive on your network. The purpose of this drive is to backup your entire computer. Not just your user files but the system files too. If your HDD died you would be able to restore your entire system from this drive. This local backup is also great for when you accidentally delete or overwrite a file. You want a backup program that allows you to recover the single file you need.

All you need for this local backup is software and an external hard drive. Any USB or Firewire external hard drive will work. You also want a drive that’s capacity is twice (or more) the size of your computer hard drive. So if you have a 200 gigabyte hard drive, you’ll want a 400 or more backup drive. Keep in mind that this backup drive should only be used for your backup. Don’t let someone borrow it to load up their music library.

When it comes to software you shouldn’t need to buy any. Both Windows and Macs come with great backup utilities. For the Mac Time Machine is your friend. It makes it super easy to restore that file you didn’t mean to trash or restore your entire system. For Windows, I have been informed by my Twitter PC friends (remember I’m the Apple Expert not the PC Expert) that Windows NT Backup is a backup solution that works great. However, there are plenty of 3rd party solutions. Symantec has Backup Exec for the PC and SuperDuper! is a great solution for the Mac.

Tip: If you want to get even more secure with your local backups, get two hard drives. Have one for your daily backups then another that you just backup say once week or month. Take the 2nd backup to an offsite location. Maybe from the office to your home, a friend’s house, or better yet a safety deposit box. The benefit here is in case of physical threats like fire or theft your 2nd backup is safe.

So now we’re feeling good, we have a real useful backup of our system, is there anything else we can do? Yes, there is and like everything else today it’s happening online. The idea here is that your most precious files get backed up securely over your internet connection to another companies server automatically and in the background. Like a good local backup it just works and there’s little management on your part.

Not until recently online backup wasn’t possible. It was limited and expensive. But today many companies are offering attractive solutions for online backup. The advantage of having an online backup is that your files are stored off site. Way off site. So if a tornado rips through Stillwater, your business building may not survive but your files did because they live in another state where hopefully they didn’t have a tornado at the same time. The other advantage is that those files are accessible anywhere you have an internet connection. So if your traveling with a notebook you know that you can access those backup files and you can continue your backup while your traveling.

Companies offering online backup are popping up all over the web. Here are a few that are also securely encrypted so your files are safe while on their way to and from the servers and your computers.

Carbonite.com – For personal use they offer unlimited online backup for $54.95/year. If your a one computer business this will work for you. They do offer volume sales for small business but no pricing is given.

Mozy.com – For personal use they offer a free 2GB of space. For businesses needing more back storage they offer MozyPro. $3.95 + $0.50 per GB/month. Mozy’s advantage is a monthly plan instead of a 1 year commitment.

iDrive.com – Their basic plan gives 2 GB free. Their iDrive Pro for personal is $4.95/ month for 150 GB. For Business $9.99/month for 50GB. They offer yearly and monthly plans.

All of these solutions require you to install software on your computer. All three also are PC and Mac compatible.

Ideally, you should have a combination of both local backup and online/offsite backup, this strategy will significantly reduce your risk of data loss. Remember if a file does not exist in two separate places, it does not exist at all.

The above article I wrote for the new business section of the November 2009 issue of Stillwater Living magazine. Thank you to Sarah Little for letting me republish the article here. Learn more about the magazine and publisher, Peacock Pro here. Be sure to pick up your copy, it’s only $2 at magazine stands around Stillwater.

It’s always tough trusting a third party for your crucial business communications. The comforting thing with Google Apps is that they use widely adopted standards and protocols for these systems. The advantage of using a non-proprietary system is that it makes it easy to get your email and calendars into almost any computer application or smart phone.

For example, my business uses Google Apps for all of it’s email, calendars, and instant messaging. Here is how Google Apps works for me and how it can work for you.

Email:

I have a couple of email addresses for my business. Some emails come to me and others go to my assistant (my awesome wife). I can check my email via the web interface (which allows me to access it on any internet connected computer), my MacBook Pro, and my iPhone. They all stay synced up thanks to IMAP. I can create a folder on my Mac and it will show up on my iPhone this allows me to move messages to those folders when I’m on the go or away from a computer. If I delete a message on my phone, then it’s deleted on my computer.

Another great feature is that Google has some of the best junk/spam filters around. So if one of your employees has put their company email address on too many “win a free iPod” sites then this will be a life saver. Google also uses industry-leading security so your confidential information is safe.

Calendars:

Much like email, I have calendars set up that stayed synced thanks to Google Calendar and it’s use of CalDAV. Once again I have access on the web, my computer, and my phone. The thing that can make calendars really useful are the alarms and notifications. We use our calendars to remind us of anything from appointments to phone calls. If I’m sitting in front of my computer I’ll get a pop up message with the reminder. If I’m on my phone I receive another notification with or without a sounded alarm. It’s really interesting when my assistant and I are both on our computers and have our iPhones out (notifications will go off on all four of our devices at once). There is no way we are going to miss a reminder!

An ideal situation is that I’m out on an appointment and my assistant books me a new appointment for later in the day. She sets a notification to go off 2 hours before the new appointment. So even if I don’t look at my calendar I get the notification alarm or vibration on my phone. Next time I look at my phone I will see the new appointment and see useful information like location and notes.

Another great use of Google calendar is it’s ability that each user can have their own personal calendar, it can set up group calendars with multiple administrators, and it can create public calendars that you can put on your website. If you ever need to post events and dates on your site, there is no better way then having a dynamic web calendar that people can interact with and even add to their own Google calendar so they don’t miss an event.

Instant Messaging:

I use Google Talk to communicate with my assistant. Either from iPhone to iPhone, or computer to iPhone and vice versa. Google Talk uses Jabber technology that many instant messaging applications like iChat on the Mac, Pidgin on the PC, and IM+ on our iPhones use.

If you ever received an email from a co-worker that says “Hey, what do you want to do for lunch?” then you may want to move those kinds of employee to employee communications to instant messages. Your email inbox will thank you!

You can do more than just text chatting. Depending on your computer and application setup, you can do multi-way voice chats, video chats, file sharing, and even screen sharing. This can help your office become more efficient if they use these tools appropriately.

This tool has actually helped expand my business outside the borders of Oklahoma. I have a customer on the other side of the country that I do personal Mac training with. We use iChat’s Mac to Mac screen sharing feature to see and control his desktop while talking through our microphones just like we were on a phone call.

Documents:

Google Docs are helpful if I’m away from my computer and I need to jump on a public computer to create a document. I can use Google Docs web based word processor, spreadsheet, or presentation tool and then send it to a customer. It’s not nearly as powerful as Microsoft Office but it is compatible.

So now your thinking “Okay Chris, this sounds great but how much is this going to cost me and my business?” Well, if you have less than 50 users you’re in luck. Like everything else Google it’s free. This free service is called the Standard Edition. For businesses who will need more than 50 users they have their Premier Edition which runs $50 per user per year. This also gives a few more features like 25GB of email storage per user, versus 7GB. You also get 24/7 phone support and more. Google Apps is as little as 1/3 the cost of solutions like Microsoft Exchange 2007.

You can learn more about Google Premier Apps benefits at: http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/details.html

Getting all of this setup can be a little daunting. It requires some settings to be changed with your domain registrar. Google gives you instructions on what to do but if your not comfortable then contact your domain registrar. Most can get it all setup with a simple phone call.

The above article I wrote for the new business section of the October 2009 issue of Stillwater Living magazine. Thank you to Sarah Little for letting me republish the article here. Learn more about the magazine and publisher, Peacock Pro here. Be sure to pick up your copy, it’s only $2 at magazine stands around Stillwater.

No matter what business you’re in, one of the hardest things to do is build relationships with your customers. It’s symbiotic, one does not exist without the other. Your business will thrive or die based on the relationships you build with your customers.

The absolute best method for advertising your business is “word of mouth” advertising. You talked with your customer, got to know them, they got to know more about you and you begin to build trust that will lead to a fruitful lasting business relationship. The ultimate fruit of your labor is when your customers tell their friends and family about you and your business and sales continue. It doesn’t get any better than this. Or does it?

I believe the internet and social networking websites like Twitter and Facebook are changing this tried and true method and taking it to another level. For example, you have a very satisfied customer who just loves you. They might tell a friend about you. That friend then may or may not become a new customer. If they do, then without any extra effort on your part you’ve gained a new customer that in turn might tell their friends and family about you and your business. This is the domino effect that all businesses want. The quality of these relationships far out weigh the billboard you rented for the month.

But what if that positive conversation the first customer had with their friend could be heard by potentially millions of others? That one positive conversation can be amplified when it happens online. This is the potential of social networking and your business working together.

Also, keep in mind that the exact opposite is true with word of mouth advertising. If someone has a bad experience it can be multiplied without you even knowing about it until it’s too late. This is where participating in social networks can be a relationship repairing tool. Here is a true story of how a business turned a bad review on Twitter into a die hard fan and customer for life:

A friend of mine in Oklahoma City went to try a new restaurant in town with his wife. Unfortunately, the new place didn’t impress them and they felt like they received very poor service. When he got home he sent out a tweet stating his poor experience and suggested his friends and followers not bother with the new restaurant.

Now this is something any new business owner dreads. Especially when the customer doesn’t come straight to you with the disappointment and instead tells everyone but you. Now the business owner also happened to be on Twitter. He used Twitter’s search tool to find tweets and updates with the name of his business as a keyword. Upon his surprise he found my friend’s tweet about their poor experience. He then proceeded to send a reply tweet to my friend stating he was the owner of the restaurant and would love to have a second chance. Offering dinner on the house helped entice them to give the place a second try and guess what? They loved it. Not only did they tweet about the much better experience but they also become friends online with the owner. The owner took their negative tweet as an opportunity to repair his relationship (one he didn’t even have before) with them and knock it out of the park, thus creating customers for life.

But it didn’t stop there. Not only did he save his relationship with one customer but I guarantee he gained possibly more than fifty new customers who where Twitter followers of my friend. People love businesses that give them a great experience but they love businesses even more than can own up to their mistakes and go above and beyond to fix them. This business owner didn’t just create new customers he created new fans of him and his business ethics.

So how do you get started?

Surprisingly, when it comes to Twitter you don’t even have to sign up to search all the public tweets. (Yes, some people protect their updates and make them private. To me this defeats the whole purpose of Twitter. Facebook is more suited to those who want to a more private walled garden experience.)

Try it yourself. Go to http://search.twitter.com. Try searching for your businesses name, keywords about your business, your location, heck search for your competition! See what people are saying. If you find someone said something positive or negative then you might want to contact them. But to send them a reply (a public message) you will need to sign up for a free account.

Here are some tips when you do sign up. Make sure you fill out the complete profile. You’ll want to fill out your location (city and state), a brief bio about you and your business, and be sure to put in your web address. Finally, upload a picture, you can use a logo or a picture of yourself. I know it’s scary putting yourself out there but using a well cropped personal picture of yourself helps people trust you more. It’s like talking face to face, it increases a person’s comfort level when communicating with you.

Another strategy is to answer questions that people are asking online. If you are knowledgeable in that area they will appreciate any answers they get. Then they may possibly decide to follow you because you made yourself valuable to them. When you send out a tweet asking if anyone needs help with such and such, tell them you’re here to help, they may “re-tweet” your message to their followers and say, “I recommend this person, they helped me out with my problem”.

Companies that treat Twitter as an advertising tool will not be successful in building those valuable relationships. Sending out a link to your weekly sales page won’t cut it. You must add value and engage people even if it’s not about your business. If someone says they like a certain music group and you like them too, then share that with them. Start a conversation. Who knows what will happen? The good news is seasoned users will be more than willing to help you learn the ropes.

Just like any aspect of your business it takes time, effort, and attention. These conversations are happening online every second. “Word of mouth” is great and if it’s in the form of a tweet it can be priceless.

The above article I wrote for the new business section of the September 2009 issue of Stillwater Living magazine. Thank you to Sarah Little for letting me republish the article here. Learn more about the magazine and publisher, Peacock Pro here. Be sure to pick up your copy, it’s only $2 at magazine stands around Stillwater.