Prey is a program that is highly configurable and runs in the background on your mobile device.  You download it and setup all the different parameters you want about how often you want it to update and what exactly you want it to do.  If a theft does occur, you can then login to the Prey website on the Internet http://preyproject.com/ and activate the “lost/stolen” device.  The program will then begin sending out regular e-mail updates and location updates, depending on how it was configured when you set it up.  The program can send you screenshots of what the stolen user is doing on your device, which can help you track them down.  If the device has a GPS locator, Prey will email you its location. Prey can even use your laptops built-in webcam so you can potentially see the thief and/or help track down a location.

Keep in mind nothing with computers is fool-proof. Prey is not going to guarantee it will recover your device by any means, but it is a great tool that could potentially help you recover your stolen device.  We have a link to a testimonial about how it helped a user recover his laptop and phone.

If you are interested in getting Prey setup on your laptop and have configuration/install questions, feel free to give us a call at 651-454-7729 and we can answer any questions that you have and help you get everything setup.

Video Explanation – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIwEYd36wTo&feature=player_embedded

Testiomony – http://lifehacker.com/5838440/how-i-got-my-stolen-laptop-back-within-24-hours-using-preyGo%20into%20the%20Prey%20tool%20for%20recovering%20laptops%20and%20phones?

Reference – http://lifehacker.com/5643460/how-to-track-and-potentially-recover-your-stolen-laptop-or-android-with-prey

In order to qualify there are 4 criterion:

1. First, you must be located in an area where Comcast offers Internet service.
2. Second, you must have at least one child receiving free school lunches through the “National School Lunch Program”.
3. Third, you cannot have subscribed to Comcast Internet service within 90 days from applying.
4. Lastly, you can’t have an overdue Comcast bill or unreturned equipment.

If your household does meet the above criterion and you are interested in applying, you can call 1-855-8-INTERNET (1-855-846-8376) to request an application.  They will mail you an application for you to return along with lunch program documents from your child’s school, and then they will get back to you within 7-10 days.

If you have any questions about the program, feel free to give us a call at 651-454-7729, or you can check out the following reference articles.

http://www.internetessentials.com/index.html

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/09/comcasts-launches-999-internet-for-low-income-families.ars

Tablets are hand-held devices that have around a 10” screen. They have a full touch screen interface, can connect to Wi-Fi networks and often 3G networks too (networks provided by cell phone companies). They can run different operating systems, such as iOS 4 and Android, and there are many companies that make tablets. You make recognize some brand name tablets such as the iPad, Samsung Galaxy and Motorola Xoom.

Here are some instances for where tablets are useful. Tablets provide great lightweight mobile computing. They are a great way to access your documents and files for viewing. They make excellent web browsers and are much better than your smart-phone because of the large screen. They can be very handy for taking notes and checking e-mails, viewing presentations, and sharing information. Because tablets are highly portable, they are very nice when traveling to provide access to your data and files that you might need. They also get excellent battery life, often more than 6 hours, depending on what you are doing. They also make excellent e-book readers and are very nice for reading and viewing documents or all kinds. Tablets are great for watching movies and playing games and can keep kids occupied during a long car ride for quite some time.

Even though you can do a lot of things on a tablet that you can on your computer, tablets are not a laptop replacement; they are a supplement and an aid. They are not designed for word processing or doing advanced graphic design or video rendering. You will have the most productivity when you have a full keyboard and mouse on a more powerful computer.

Once you have created your files/data, tablets are a great medium in which to view, share and edit them. The biggest and most important aspect to remember is that tablets are not a replacement by any means, and while they are a fun “toy” to have, unless you have a specific need for them you don’t need to get one. However, if you have the means or are at all interested in tablets, please give us a call and we will work with you to find the best tablet that fits your individual needs.

With Emerson Technologies Premium Backup Service, your data will be backed up to two online locations. One of the locations is a secure server at our office, the second location is to a second secure server online. This double backup method provides for a second level of redundancy as well as the ability to perform a drastically faster restore. For example, if some catastrophic happened to a computer and multiple gigabytes of data needed to be restored, it could take days or even longer to restore all of this information from a typical online backup provider. With our backup service, we are able to restore a copy of the data right away and physically bring it to you to get you back up and running quickly. This eliminates the slow restore process often associated with bandwidth issues.

Our backup service runs seamlessly in the background. There is no need to change a tape or hard drive, and there is no need to run a manual backup. It is all done automatically and is backed up to both destinations. This easy backup can you give you the peace of mind that your data is being backed up without even having to think about it. Additionally, we are able to monitor your backups to ensure they are backing up properly. If you desire, we can setup regular email status updates as well.

We are seeing more and more cities fall victim to significant damage caused by natural disasters including fires, floods and tornadoes.  Japan is still trying to control a nuclear power plant damaged by an earthquake. Don’t think these can’t happen to you. Take precautions now to ensure your data is safe and secure, regardless of the world around you.

If you are interested in setting up online backups, please give us a call at 651-454-7729 so we can find a solution that works best for you. We strongly recommend that all important data be backed up to an online source, and we are happy to provide you with our Emerson Technologies Premium Backups service.

The new iPhone 4 is thinner than its most recent predecessor, the iPhone 3GS. It has a greatly improved display as well, even though the iPhone 3GS already had an excellent display. The new iPhone 4 will also be equipped with a 5mp camera (as opposed to a 3mp camera on the iPhone 3GS), which will be capable of HD video recording. Additionally, the iPhone 4 has a camera on the front of the phone. This is used for Apple’s new feature called FaceTime which allows users to have video calls with each other. This is a huge leap forward in cell phone technology, but it only works over a wi-fi network, not over the 3G network. The new iPhone 4 also has wireless-n technology built-in. (See this article we wrote a few months ago on wireless-n networks). Lastly, the battery life has been further improved to last longer.

IOS 4 has over 100 new features. There have been great improvements for multitasking, or running multiple applications simultaneously, without slowing down the performance of the phone. Organization has also been improved. Users are now able to put applications into various folders to organize them. Email has been improved to have a global inbox (as opposed to having multiple separate inboxes), if you want, as well as the ability to open more attachments. It is also more customizable and allows users to have a different home screen wallpaper. For more information visit Apple’s overview.  Current iPhone users may be eligible for an upgrade to iOS 4. If you are a current iPhone user, click here to see if you can upgrade to the new software.

There have been many rumors circulating around about a “4G” iPhone, as well as other carriers getting the iPhone, so let’s clear that up. The iPhone 4 is still going to be over a 3G cellular network; AT&T has made no announcements about a 4G network being implemented. Furthermore, there have been no reports from T-Mobile, Verizon or Sprint about getting the iPhone and it will remain an AT&T exclusive phone for now.

If you are interested in upgrading your iPhone or purchasing an iPhone, Emerson Technologies would be happy to assist you and configure it to work properly in your work environment. Just give us a call at 651-454-7729.

When Microsoft released Office 2007, there were significant changes to how the applications looked.  No longer are there menus such as “File” and “Edit” rather there is a ribbon with icons.  This change was designed to make using more features more intuitive. Many users have resisted upgrading from older versions because it takes time to get used to the new versions.  However this new interface is here to stay.  More and more applications from other vendors are utilizing this format.  Some office applications, such as Outlook 2007, did not implement much of this new interface, but Outlook 2010 has this new look and feel.  The ribbon in Office 2010 is much more customizable, allowing you to move tabs and create your own buttons.

If you are thinking about upgrading to a newer version of Office keep in mind that Office 2010 requires a little more powerful hardware than its predecessors, but it has a number of new features.  If you are currently using Office 2003 or an older version, it is strongly recommended that you upgrade.  Older versions of Office will stop receiving security updates and there are compatibility issues that have started creeping into some newer software causing problems with older versions of Microsoft Office.

Office 2010 allows for simultaneous editing of the same file. Have you ever seen a message popping up saying that the file is “in use” but you can open a “read only” version of it? In Office 2010 more than 1 user can be editing the same file at the same time. It will alert you and let you know who is editing it and what they are changing. This could potentially be very useful for a lot of people to collaborate on a project.  There have also been notable improvements to PowerPoint in terms of the video and photo editing capabilities. You are able to add a whole new amount of transitions and effects to pictures and videos.

The bottom line is if you are using Office 2003 or older you should upgrade.  If you are using Office 2007 then the only reason to upgrade is for the new features Office 2010 has, but there is no pressing need to upgrade.

If you have any questions about upgrading or are unsure if you should, or if you have any additional questions about Office 2010 please give us a call at 651-454-7729 and we would be happy to help.

These products are used around the country to protect computers in server rooms, drugs in pharmacies, expensive medical equipment, document storage rooms and more.

Here is a sample situation in which Invetex’s products could be very useful. Suppose it is a Friday night after everyone has left for the weekend and the air conditioning unit goes out in your building and/or server room and nobody will be in the office until Monday morning. Depending on the setup, the heat could rise to levels that could damage your server and any other of the sensitive electronic equipment in the room. This means that when you get there on Monday morning, there could be a lot of serious problems.  There are also going to be potential costs of replacement hardware and the time it is going to take to reconfigure everything, which could be hours or even days. If you had the proper monitoring equipment in place, then Friday night once the temperature started to rise an alert would have been sent out and action could be taken immediately- preventing any huge complications Monday morning so everyone can return to work and not even know there was a problem over the weekend.

For more information, send us an email or call us at 651-454-7729 and we can assist you in getting these products purchased and set up for you so that you can have peace of mind knowing that the correct precautionary measures have been taken.

The applications of a Pogoplug are limitless. If you have a very large music collection and like to listen to it on your phone, but you don’t have enough space, then a Pogoplug can be very beneficial. All of the data is stored on a hard drive, and the Pogoplug allows you to access it from your phone! You can watch movies on your phone (though the quality is not the highest because it has to stream all of the data). You can even setup certain folders you want to be shared with others. This means you can have all of your photos online and share them with friends and family very easily.

The Pogoplug currently costs $129. This does not include the cost of any external drives that you will need to store your files. It may seem like an expensive device but the functionality that it provides as well as the ease of use make it very valuable. If you are interested in learning more about the Pogoplug please see the following articles, or send an email to help@emersontech.net and we will assist you the best we can.

For more information see the following articles:

“Pogoplug second generation debuts, coming this holiday with enhanced web interface” – Endgadget

“Pogoplug: A Simple Way to Share Data in Your Personal Cloud”
(older version of the Pogoplug, but same idea)

“What Is Pogoplug” – Pogoplug.com

When wireless started becoming popular in many households, most people purchased a wireless b or wireless g router, which are backwards compatible with each other. It has only been recently (in the last 2 years or so) that wireless-n routers have been released and started to make their presence known. Wireless-n routers have some improvements over the older versions, but are they worth the additional cost?

Wireless-n routers transmit data at faster speeds than wireless g or b routers. However, the speed at which you browse the Internet is also limited by your Internet connection. Since your Internet connection is going to be a lot slower than the high speeds that data can be transmitted through your wireless router, if you are trying to speed up the use of your Internet, it really doesn’t matter that wireless-n routers can transmit data faster because you are still going to only browse websites at a maximum speed of your Internet connection. All types of wireless routers are still limited by Internet connection speed. If you are moving files around your local network, then wireless-n will not be limited by the speed of your Internet connection. For example, if you have a media center setup at home then a wireless-n network would be very useful for moving large videos around. Also, wireless-n routers can transmit up to 220 feet vs. 120 feet of wireless b or g routers. So if you need to have a wireless connection in a large home or even a small office, then a wireless-n router is advantageous.

Having said that, there is one issue with wireless-n routers to keep in mind: they require n-capable adapters to work at their top speed. This means if you have a laptop that doesn’t come with a built in n-capable wireless adapter, you can still connect to a wireless-n router but you won’t be able to get the full benefits of it. In order to use the benefits of a wireless-n router you have to upgrade the hardware in your laptops, computers, video game systems and portable devices as well. This can be an expensive process if you have multiple wireless devices that need upgrading. Having said that, you do not have to upgrade everything at the same time. As devices get old and are replaced, you will probably be replacing them with a device that supports the newer, faster technology right out of the box.

The bottom line is that for most people, wireless-n routers are not very cost effective unless you are in need of a new wireless device already. If you don’t have n-capable devices in your computers (which most people don’t), the benefit of wireless-n is not worth the cost of replacing all your older wireless devices. Additionally, even though wireless-n routers can transmit at faster speeds it won’t speed up most people’s Internet usage because the speed that matters is limited by your Internet connection. Unless you have a need to transmit wireless data over longer distances, or are moving large files between local computers, don’t worry about upgrading to a wireless-n device until your current equipment is up for replacement. In other words, don’t go out and buy a wireless-n router just for the sake of upgrading, rather wait until you have devices that support it and are in need of an upgrade, then buy a wireless-n router. If you don’t have a wireless router at all and are going to buy one, then it would be wise to purchase a wireless-n router.

If you are looking at buying a wireless-n router or need assistance setting one one, Emerson Technologies would be happy to help. Just call our office at 651-454-7729 or send an email to help@emersontech.net and we will assist you.

Here is another way to look at it. Driving an expensive car is nice and can come with a lot of cool features, but at its core it is still a car with a main purpose of transportation. Compare the expensive car to a more basic car without air-conditioning, power windows, heated seats, premium sound system, sun roof or leather seats; it still serves the same main purpose – transportation. The expensive car is going to cost more initially and is going to cost more to maintain. Now think of paid anti-virus as a more expensive car. It is going to have a lot of features, many of which are very useful and worth the money. There are still however other features that you may not need. Some might think all of these features might slow down their systems. It is true that some free anti-virus programs perform faster than some paid anti-virus programs, but this is not always the case. For more in-depth technical information on performance tests, take a look at AV Comparatives, an independent anti-virus review website.

In general, most home users will be fine with free anti-virus software assuming the following: your computer is kept up to date with Windows Updates and the program is setup to scan properly. However, if you don’t want to risk anything or if you are worried about a free program and aren’t sure what you need, you can purchase a full featured anti-virus program. They aren’t too expensive and often have versions that are licensed for use on up to 3 computers, so you can install them on your home computer and laptop.

By the way, it is NOT good to have more than 1 anti-virus application installed on your computer. They will conflict with each other and significantly slow down your computer. This can often lead to the anti-virus programs detecting each other and trying to remove each other (due to the nature of how an anti-virus program is designed). However, this is not to be confused with having an anti-virus program and also a secondary program that you use regularly to run additional scans periodically.

Currently, Emerson Technologies recommends that home-users install Microsoft Security Essentials for those looking for a free anti virus program and either Trend Micro AntiVirus and AntiSpyware or Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010 for paid anti-virus application.