New Tech Ideas

As suppliers of a wide range of products, Efrat Networks gets bombarded with a variety of emails from importers pushing their wares. Some of what we’re seeing is not your run-of-the-mill products, yet we find them to be interesting enough to share with you for your consideration.

Pen Camera Recorder
Here’s where the announcer says: “It slices, it dices…”

Actually, this device can really come in handy if you’re in a meeting or at a location where a regular camcorder won’t do the job. We won’t ask any questions.

It writes, records and does take pictures. Just like in the James Bond movies…

This pen retails for $59 + VAT and comes with 4GB of storage, recording time of about 1.5 hours, and resolution of 640×480 pixels.

Logitech Sound
Logitech has released a range of new products for use with your iPod or iPhone.

The Pure-Fi Express Plus (shown to the right) and Pure-Fi Anytime are great sound solutions for next to the bed or in the office. Express Plus comes with omnidirectional stereo speakers, an alarm clock and wireless remote. It retails for NIS 419+VAT. The Anytime version includes motion-activated backlighted controls, alarm clock stereo (2.0), and an AM/FM radio. It retails for NIS 565+VAT.

Add Color to Your Life
If your kids need to make color prints for their reports, put away the markers and crayons. Now’s the time to consider buying a quality color laserjet. The HP CP1215 is a powerful printer that is easy to install. It prints high-quality color documents, supports manual duplexing (double sided printing) and takes up a small amount of real-estate on your desk. This printer retails for over $170. We have one unit remaining - it is selling for $135+VAT. First come, first served.

Back To School Software Ideas

Herbi Writer is a Tablet PC/UMPC application for people with handwriting and speech disabilities that lets them develop handwriting skills. The handwriting development software available here is being used today by occupational therapists and teachers to help their students, and the speech assistance software has been used by people who are unable to speak.

Herbi Writer shows sample letters to the student, and the student writes the letter on the computer screen. If the software considers the student’s letter to be a match for the sample, positive feedback appears on the screen. You can have reinforcing phrases spoken by the computer too. A simple game can be played to see how many letters of the alphabet are correct when writing all the letters of alphabet.

The developer of this application has been kind enough of making this fine application for free.

Efrat Networks has a wealth of experience in working with and training owners of Tablet PC’s. These computerized notebooks are powerful tools for accountants, lawyers, doctors and other professionals, along with students.  Tomas, one of our premier technicians, will tell you that his highly souped up tablet PC allows him to be a full time graduate student and work with our Efrat Networks clients, also full time.  Stay tuned for Tomas’ tips for high powered student use of computers beginning in the next issue of Get Connected.

Efrat Networks is keen on training our techs early on, giving them sharp technical instincts and a love for their work. Check out this link and take note :~)

Beat the Economic Crisis

Even with a growing number of Swine Flu instances in Israel, the pandemic pandemonium seems to have abated, at least from the headlines. However, it appears that the Swine Flu and the economic crisis have left an indelible mark on the business world.

As enterprises seek to bring down costs and minimize potential exposure to the Swine Flu (airplanes are “ideal” for picking up other people’s viruses through the air ventilation system), video conferencing has gained popularity as a way to reduce travel expenses while maintaining mission critical communications.

Recent studies are showing a dramatic increase in use of video conferencing systems both on the corporate and even private levels. This shift is attributed to the requirement of minimizing travel budgets.

Here’s the good news. With a now larger base of video conferencing systems installed around the world, there are potentially more business and people with whom you can work via your own video conference system.

“Short” Flights
The Wall Street Journal published an article (June 4, ‘09) on the latest attempt by airlines to squeeze more profit out of their passengers. American, Delta, and Continental, to name a few, have added some 10-16 seats in the Economy section (”Sardine Class”) of their new 737-800’s.

Where did they find all the space from?

Well, 2 inches have been shaved off of the legroom and seat pitch between the seats, and the seat cushions are thinner. That means you’ll have about 31 very tight and uncomfortable inches for your legs. (If you are taller than 5′ 10″, ask for a window seat so you can hang your legs out the window.) The big service galley at the back of the plane was also cut down, since food and beverages are no longer being served on flights.

The real “consolation” here is that with more people on the flight, you’ll still have the same number of bathrooms and the same amount of overhead storage space. With no real seat space to maneuver, it’s probably best if you don’t bring your laptop to work on the plane.

If you must fly, we recommend seats in the exit rows. The legroom there is still 39-40 inches.

The alternative? Buy a video conferencing system from Efrat Networks and sit in the comforts of your office to conduct business with anyone, anywhere in the world!  We, at Efrat Networks, use video conferencing ourselves to avoid trips into town to meet with clients and vendors.  We save on the commute, parking fees, and the lost time back and forth.

Efrat Networks sells and installs refurbished video conferencing equipment in Israel and around the world at a fraction of the cost of new equipment, with all the ease of operation and functionality of the new systems.  In fact, our refurbished Polycom video conferencing systems have more features than new Polycom systems.

Call Efrat Networks today to shorten your commute with a Polycom video conferencing system.

Susan Boyle’s Popularity Slowed Down Business

As always, good news travels quickly. It didn’t take long for everyone and his brother to receive a ‘must see’ link from a friend to watch Susan Boyles sing ” I Dreamed a Dream” on Britain’s Got Talent, courtesy of YouTube.

 Reality shows are not everyone’s cup of tea, but they are definitely a big part of the Internet today. Anytime online access to all these various shows, is an impediment to work and a bottleneck on the Internet. Because people are watching YouTube at all hours of the day, consumer grade bandwidth, i.e., your Internet connection, is peaking out at all hours of the day - downloads are taking much longer and sending/receiving emails just doesn’t go as fast as it should.

Eric calls the recent plunge in Internet quality that coincides with Susan Boyle’s YouTube debut as the “Susan Boyle Effect”, where so many new people discovered YouTube, that our Internet circuits are now overwhelmed with their downloads.

If you are running a business that is dependent upon downloading or uploading information/emails via the Internet, your productivity is dramatically effected by the Internet’s level of efficiency. It is not simply a matter of the size of the bandwidth, but rather the quality and number of users of the lines. For example, check out most any large city freeway in the US that has recently been widened for more lanes. Within a very short period of time, the ‘relief’ in traffic disappears and the lanes are just as crowded as before the additions.

Next generation bandwidth in Israel is expected to go live over the next few years. However, as with the freeways, this will bring more frequent usage of the Internet at a greater intensity of downloads. More important, the next gen bandwidth will be for inside of Israel only, meaning anything being down/uploaded from overseas, will be constricted by the increasing traffic.

Your business, no matter how many employees, cannot afford the productivity roller coaster that consumer grade Internet offers. Therefore, our advice is simple.

Efrat Networks offers a range of reliable and managed, commercial grade Internet accounts that operate on the “diamond lane” of the Internet highway.

Why is managing the account so important? We aggregate Internet services to provide the best available connection to the Internet. When problems arise, we also have a direct, 24/6 line to our service providers, enabling us to make adjustments quickly to keep you working.

Efrat Networks can also provide a higher order of management of this bandwidth to allow you to prioritize services such as VoIP and video conferencing, and also to filter out content and services that may detract from your employees productivity.  Combine this with our new Cellcom backup links for your home office or business, and you have a winning combination of high reliability and high quality Internet, all day, every day, at an affordable price.

Please call Efrat Networks today to review your bandwidth needs.

Hosted Exchange Improves Your Business’s Productivity, Efficiency, and Security

Hosted Exchange is a platform for e-mail, calendaring, and unified messaging. ‘Hosted’ means that instead of owning a Microsoft Exchange Server, the application is hosted on the server(s) of a third party. It has nothing to do with Hostess Twinkies…Exchange server hosting means that a specialist IT company, like Efrat Networks, runs the technology and charges businesses a small monthly fee to use it. This allows them to enjoy the same enterprise-strength IT that Fortune 500 companies have, but at a price they can afford.

What are the primary benefits to using hosted exchange, particularly if you are using a mobile device for sending and receiving email?

Productivity - Exchange allows your team to collaborate more efficiently on projects through the ability to share calendars, tasks, and important contacts. Sharing notes and files on the included shared folders can act like a virtual message board, promoting more efficient teamwork.

Anytime, Anywhere Access to mission critical data - The office isn’t the only place where you and your team can be connected to your business. Exchange allows everyone on your team to access their important data and communications from any Internet connection or on their mobile device (i.e. - Smartphone, BlackBerry, iPhone, web book).

Archiving - Outlook stores your inbox, sent items, and contacts in a single current .pst file. Unattended, this file can get monstrously huge, leaving your Outlook crippled. Most people do not do the archiving that is required with Outlook  to keep the .pst file down to a manageable size. Using Exchange, you no longer need to archive your Outlook folders. Exchange does it for you.

Security - Using mobile devices increases the possibility of theft or loss. Exchange hosting ensures your information’s security on your desktop, and if your mobile device is lost or stolen that unit’s settings can be quickly removed from the Exchange service. Also, with all emails and information to our Exchange being encrypted, you can be sure your company’s communications are kept from prying eyes.  If your laptop is lost or stolen on a business trip, you can buy a new laptop, configure your exchange account, plug it into your hotel’s Internet service, and have all of your Outlook email, contact, calendar, and tasks back exactly as they were before the theft, over night.

Make the most of your IT (or lack thereof) - you don’t need a dedicated IT department just to get your company on the fast track to enterprise-level communicating. Efrat Networks’ team of IT professionals can set you up with an Exchange service that will truly make your work more productive and efficient.

Quick and Easy Implementation - Getting your email up and running on hosted Exchange is easy. Our technical support team can have your email up and running within minutes of signing up.

Call Efrat Networks today to set up your hosted Exchange accounts.

Unfortunately, for most small and mid-size businesses (SMBs), the cost of running an MS Exchange server ‘in-house’ is simply too much money. Up-front costs can exceed $10,000-plus staff time to maintain the server. This is why hosted Exchange makes sense for smaller businesses.

Save Lots of Time Scheduling Meetings

Since we already spoke about using hosted Exchange within a business to share your schedules, how about sharing your available time to colleagues outside of your Exchange group?

Jiffle is a scheduling tool which seeks to put an end to the back and forth deliberations that precede a properly scheduled meeting. Plug in your availability and let people request a slot.

Jiffle is web based but there is integration available for both Outlook and Google Calendar. The premise is simple enough. You tell Jiffle when you’re available and then share your availability. You can share it either publicly or with a set of contacts. When someone needs to schedule a meeting with you they can see instantly when you’re available. They don’t need a Jiffle account, just the URL you share with them. From there they can pick a time, enter in their contact info and notes, and the request appears in your email inbox.

When you accept a potential meeting time your calendar is populated with the information from the other party and your own additional notes if you’ve added any. Other users only see when you are available, no other information about your calendar is shared.

Jiffle is free for individual use.

Getting Practical and Creative

Efrat Networks recently installed an alarm system in an apartment in Jerusalem that was being remodeled. We were late… Not because we were slow in doing the work. Rather, the alarm was installed after all the air conditioning equipment had already been delivered to the apartment.

You don’t need to work hard to guess what happened. The same night after delivery, the air conditioning equipment was cleaned out of the apartment by thieves. The neighbors didn’t hear a thing, and even if they did, they may have thought that it had something to do with the remodeling.

So, our first practical tip: when you buy a home or apartment, or move into a new/used office, don’t move in and don’t even have expensive equipment delivered until the alarm system is in place. This can be done in stages, with no need for aesthetics, to insure that general protection is intact until the ‘face lift’ of the apartment or office has been completed. After completion of the interior design work, Efrat Networks can then come in and properly place all of the alarm equipment.

And now, for the creative… Internet Surveillance

Setting up Internet security cameras for your home or business is less complicated than you might think. The cameras can be connected directly to your computer network connected to the Internet, which you can then control, monitor, and view directly through a computer with Internet access. This gives you a lot of flexibility in how you customize your video surveillance.

Let’s take this one step further. Many homeowners and business owners want to be able to see what’s going on while they are away - e.g., watch the kids in the home/backyard, watch your workers in the office. Using the online interface from any computer in the world (preferably not in Mexico…), you can scope out your home or business in real time.

For example, if you get an SMS that an alarm went off, you can quickly go on line to see whether its a false alarm (as in most cases) or someone unwanted is in your home or office.

One more step further… if you love the view from your home, why not put a pan and tilt IP camera up on your roof. You can see the view on line as if you’re standing on the balcony yourself.  We did this for a client in Yamin Moshe just recently.  And while its not the same as being in Jerusalem, its still pretty cool to watch the Independence Day celebration over the Old City from the States.

IP cameras come in a range of shapes, sizes, functions (e.g., pan/tilt, day/night vision, 2-way audio, etc.)  and prices. They do not replace a solid alarm system, but come as wired or wireless add-ons to your security system.

Please call Efrat Networks today to review which IP cameras best meets your home or business needs.

Technological Solutions to the Pandemic Panic

It is no secret: the Swine Flu [Influenza A(H1N1)] is now at the top global alert level (Phase 5) of the World Health Organization (WHO). While journalists are doing their best to create global panic, and some Mexican government officials are suffering from denial, the facts are as follows (according to WHO) as of May 1 2009:

• 17 countries have officially reported 787 cases of infection.
  
• The United States Government has reported 160 laboratory confirmed human cases, including one death.
  
• Mexico has reported 506 confirmed human cases of infection, including 19 deaths.

All of Mexico City’s citizens are sitting at home, waiting for this pandemic to pass. Mexican businesses and businesses dealing with Mexico are being crippled from this forced ‘curfew’.

We don’t need this or any other pandemic to know that air travel is one of the great ways to transmit contagious illnesses. The air conditioning systems of airplanes are notorious for harboring germs and bacteria, which are easily passed around to passengers on the same flight and on later flights. Moreover, we never know the true health status of other people who board the flight with us.

OK, enough of the scare tactics. Now what?…

How do we avoid these issues and still function?

As we’ve said many times before, video conferencing systems offer a cost effective, efficient, immediate, and very practical solution to business travel and even ’shmoosing’ with the family. In the pandemic, from the safety and comforts of your office or home, you can virtually be on the other side of the globe with your clients in real time, any time.

The compelling arguments just get better when pandemic panic reaches new heights.

• You’ll save days/weeks in travel time.
  
• You’ll save money from less travel.
• You’ll improve your existing business relationships by having regular (anytime you want) face-to-faces with the critical decision-makers.
• You’ll have more time to spend with your family at home, and…
• You’ll avoid contagious carriers of H1N1.
  

The list goes on, but the point is clear. Call Efrat Networks today to discuss how we can help minimize your travel while boosting your business relations abroad.

Pandemic Tips from an Expert
Here are several tips from a pandemic expert for all of us when pandemonium hits:

1. Wash your hands thoroughly, for a period of 20 seconds, with warm soapy water.
2. Wash your hands frequently.
3. When coughing and sneezing, (regardless of whether you think you’re sick) cover your nose and mouth in the inside of your elbow or on your upper sleeve.(The people standing nearby will thank you for not ’showering’ them with your germs).
4. Don’t travel to Mexico.
5. Don’t go to work when you are sick.
6. Don’t send relatives to work or school when they are sick.
7. Take care of yourself while caring for others who are sick. (They need you well.)
8. Be very aware of how you and your loved ones feel. This flu comes on fast, and if it doesn’t stay mild for you, it will hit like a ton of bricks in a matter of a couple of hours to half a day. Don’t wait to see if it passes.
9. Understand that you are contagious during the 24-48 hours prior to showing symptoms yourself, and you remain contagious until as many as 7 days after your symptoms began, maybe longer.
10. Call Efrat Networks to install a refurbished video conferencing system…save time and money while traveling less.

P.S. We’ve seen several reports that the medical masks really don’t work when worn over an extended period of time.

Automatic Shutdowns Don’t Have to be Automatic

Ever update your system through Windows Update or install a new piece of software, and when the process completes, your system automatically shuts down or reboots? Of course you have. It’s annoying, right?

Free application ShutdownGuard addresses this problem by preventing Windows from automatically shutting down, rebooting, or logging off without confirmation. Each time it prevents a shutdown action, you’ll see an alert in your system tray asking if you really want to shutdown. If you do, click the alert. If not, just keep on keeping on. The lightweight ShutdownGuard is a free download, Windows only.