bruceb news

Happy Thanksgiving from Bruceb Consulting! Remember to look up from your computer and smartphone and iPad and Kindle Fire on Thursday – your family and friends are right there hoping to spend some of that old-fashioned face time with you.

Friday is shopping time, right? Well, so the retailers want you to think. It’s all hype to create an artificial sense of urgency but maybe you’ll be caught up by an urge to spend money. If you sit at your computer to do it online, LastPass has an overlooked tool to make it easier: the Form Fill feature will help you fill in shipping and billing screens with a single click, along with filling in credit card information if you choose. […] continued

When you’re wrestling with your computer and wondering why everything has to be so complicated, maybe it will help to know that you’re not alone. It’s not any better behind the curtains where we pull the levers and pretend to be wizards. Here’s a random story about one of my frustrating moments this week.

One of the challenges of doing work with very small businesses is that there’s very little continuity. An IT person at a larger company will set up the same servers over and over, with shelves full of parts and a lot of time to learn the ins and outs of the equipment. […] continued

By the end of the year there will finally be a dozen or more reasonably-priced ultrathin, ultralight notebooks on the market, mostly priced under a thousand dollars.

Almost three years ago Apple introduced the MacBook Air, an ultrathin 13” notebook. Even with an example in front of them suitable for copying, PC manufacturers didn’t have any reasonably powered thin and light notebooks on the market until more than a year later, and even then there were only a few niche products – the Dell Adamo and one or two others. It wasn’t until Dell introduced the Vostro V13 that it was possible to get a satisfying ultrathin notebook that wouldn’t break the bank. […] continued

In April, with little fanfare, Microsoft released three new server products to manufacturing and to the hardware vendors: Small Business Server 2011 Essentials, Windows Home Server 2011, and Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials.

Small Business Server 2011 Essentials is so well-designed and fits its niche so perfectly that I expected that it would become the standard platform for many very small businesses, as ubiquitous as SBS 2003 was in its day. I excitedly previewed SBS 2011 Essentials back in November 2010, and I began using it in my own office earlier this summer. It’s great! Ever since the final product shipped in April I’ve been waiting to detail some of its best features – waiting until the inevitable burst of promotion from Microsoft, waiting until Dell and HP start selling it preinstalled on their servers, waiting until there was something concrete for you to look at and consider buying for your office. […] continued

Dell has upgraded the specs for the new Vostro V131, the latest version of its standout ultra-thin, ultra-light 13.3” notebook.

The styling is very similar to the Vostro V130 (and the beloved previous generation Vostro V13), but under the hood a number of things have been bumped up – Sandy Bridge Core i3 and i5 processors, USB 3.0 ports, and improved battery life. Getting the specs you want will probably take the price up to about $800, but that’s pretty reasonable for such a lovely bit of hardware. (If you want a 15” screen, don’t overlook the new Dell XPS 15z, which offers the same sleek lightweight styling.)

Why doesn’t everyone get one of these? […] continued

The little box in the picture to the left measures eight inches across and just over three inches tall. It’s quiet and inexpensive. In this difficult world of technology, the best I can tell you is that it might be just what you’re looking for.

The Dell Inspiron Zino HD is a compact little computer that is best used for a single purpose: to bring your photos, music, and videos to the big screen TV in your living room. There are more details about the Zino in this review.

The Zino runs Windows 7 and has sufficient processing and video power to decode most video formats. […] continued

Almost everyone has to do business with Adobe at some point. Businesses and law firms rely on Acrobat to scan documents and manage the ubiquitous PDF file format. Adobe products continue to be the basic tools for artists, photographers, web designers, and graphics professionals.

It’s a frustrating company.

• Malware authors have been able to take advantage of security problems in Acrobat and Adobe Reader and create evil PDF files to distribute malware.
• Adobe software is expensive. Graphics professionals can pay more for a license for Adobe Creative Suite than they pay for their computer.
• The process for buying Adobe software has been difficult – confusing licenses purchased from a poorly designed web site.

[…] continued

Dell introduced the XPS 15z this week, a new ultrathin 15” notebook for $999. It might be exactly right for many people – a bigger screen than the 13” Vostro V130 and a much more reasonable price tag than the gorgeous Samsung Series 9.

Apple has once again provided the inspiration for the design. Samsung more or less copied the MacBook Air for its ultrathin Series 9, and Dell has copied the MacBook Pro in almost every detail. Engadget has an amusing gallery of photos from all angles of a MacBook Pro and an XPS 15z next to each other and it’s obvious that the new Dell laptop is an homage to the original. […] continued

The Samsung Series 9 combines elegant design, advanced engineering, and uncompromising peformance in a stylish ultralight, ultraslim premium laptop. It stands alone at the top of the Windows laptop market. Samsung might not be the first name you think of in notebook manufacturers but the company poured money into developing the Series 9 in the hope that it would draw attention to the entire Samsung notebook line.

That thin sliver in the picture above is less than two-thirds of an inch thick and weighs just over two and a half pounds. Inside is an ultra-bright 13.3 inch display, a full-size backlit keyboard, and a more responsive computing experience than any other computer I own, thanks to the latest Intel Core i5 “Sandy Bridge” processor technology and a blindingly fast solid state hard drive. […] continued

If you’re considering an iPad, you must read this article by Marco Arment. Everything you need to know, in plain English. Verizon/AT&T or wi-fi only? 16Gb, 32Gb, 64Gb? Black or white? If you already have an iPad 1, is it worthwhile to upgrade to the iPad 2? All the answers are there. Sample:

Should you get an iPad 2?

If you want an iPad but don’t already have one: Probably. You can argue that there might be another one coming out within the next 8-12 months… but that’s always going to be the case.

. . . If you already have an iPad 1, there’s not a lot in the iPad 2 that will make it worth upgrading, unless you can spare the money fairly comfortably, and you can either sell the old one for a good price or give it to a relative or spouse (and they won’t resent getting a hand-me-down instead of the new one).

[…] continued