Although cloud providers may go to great lengths to ensure the security of information stored in the cloud, they can still be subject to government regulations that take precedence over privacy rights.

Interest in cloud computing is growing rapidly, as many organizations are realizing the benefits of adopting a highly scalable, robust and cost-effective model of computing. However, you may not be aware of all the privacy risks that come with putting your sensitive corporate and customer data in the cloud.

Here are five things you may not have considered about data privacy and the cloud:

1. Your data may simultaneously be subject to the competing objectives of both the USA Patriot Act and the data privacy/protection laws of other countries.

Customer data in the cloud may not be physically stored or pooled in one place; it could be spread across a service provider’s global cloud network and subject to the data privacy regulations of multiple jurisdictions. In many cases, customers may not know where their data is actually stored, or may assume that since the provider has a local presence, their data is stored locally. This can place cloud customers in a Catch-22: on one hand, the USA Patriot Act (and similar legislation elsewhere) contains provisions for the seizure of data unbeknownst to the target of the investigation, and on the other hand, privacy protection laws in other jurisdictions require that the target be notified of any requests made for the turning over of personal data.

In addition, your data may be subject to industry and government regulations such as HIPAA, PIPEDA and FISMA. These laws specify how personal data is handled regardless of where it is stored, essentially as a precondition of doing business in an industry governed by the legislation (e.g. health care).

2. You cannot rely on data encryption to ensure data privacy.

Most cloud storage service providers automatically encrypt the data that is stored in their clouds. However, this alone does not guarantee protection of your privacy. For example, under the USA Patriot Act, the US government may not only order a service provider to surrender data to the authorities, but also demand the encryption keys used to protect that data. To truly protect your data, you will need to encrypt it before storing it on the cloud, which is an added step that drives higher costs and increased complexity.

3. There is no legal requirement for businesses to store customer data in Canada.

In general, federal and provincial privacy laws do not place any restrictions on where customer data is stored. However, they specify how and when law enforcement or other individuals may access that data. For example, if a law enforcement agency wants access to an individual’s data stored in the cloud and makes that request of a service provider, privacy legislation in Alberta and Quebec require the service provider to notify the targeted individual that such a request has been made. In other provinces, even if this notice isn’t legally required the Privacy Commissioner of Canada advises it’s a best practice to follow.

4. You cannot assume that your data is ‘gone’ from the cloud once you remove it or have discontinued your contract with your service provider.

There are a number of questions you must ask your cloud provider to confirm that your data is properly destroyed or returned to you, including:

• How does the cloud provider destroy proprietary data at the end of a contract?
• How do you ensure that your data is destroyed by the service provider at the right point and is not available to other cloud users?
• How do you know that your provider won’t retain additional copies?

More than any legislation, external attacks remain the primary threat to the privacy of data stored in the cloud. Although the security of the physical cloud infrastructure may be in place, you must also build firewalls for the areas within and between the virtual machines in the cloud. Don’t assume that your cloud provider ‘has it all covered’ in the monthly fee; make sure a comprehensive, professionally monitored security solution is included as part of the service.

Are you concerned about data privacy and the cloud? Feel free to share your thoughts and comments below.

Reduced Travel Costs

In today’s globalized economy, travel is often a prerequisite for leveraging new market opportunities. Journeying to distant locales to engage in face-to-face interactions with customers, partners, and colleagues is a time-honored business ritual, and nothing will ever replace the immediacy and impact of live interactions. But

a large percentage of routine or regular business trips—with all their attendant expense—can be eliminated by communicating over video. With vast improvements in quality, availability, and ease of use, and with the ability to interact and share content in high definition, today’s video conferencing is as close to “being there” as one can get without actually making the trip. Travel reduction is the easiest expense to calculate when determining ROI of a video conferencing investment. Fundamentally, video ROI calculates the number of trips taken annually, multiplied by the cost (transport to and from the airport, flight, per diem expenses, salary of time lost in traveling) versus the investment in the video conferencing solution ( equipment, service, training, network). The majority of organizations will see a single outlay of annual travel expenses far outweighing the entire video conferencing investment, easily justifying the implementation.

Increased Productivity across Dispersed Workforces and Teams

Dispersed work forces and project teams present many challenges, none more misunderstood than lost, slow, or simply nonexistent communication between individuals residing in different locations. Most teams interact using phone, e-mail, instant messaging (IM), or workflow applications. However, with 80 percent of communication consisting of non-verbal visual cues, the ability of teams to understand, process, and collaborate over distance using these methods is at best halting, and at worst,severely impeded. Wherever video is added to a meeting, participants are more likely to stay focused, because they can be seen as well as heard. Expressions of satisfaction, concern, confusion, understanding and so on, can easily be seen and addressed, speeding and informing the group more effectively than myriad e-mails, voicemails, and IMs. The result: decisions are made faster, projects completed sooner, and productivity increased across the organization.

Improved Hiring and Retention of Top Talent

Hiring processes can be very lengthy and costly, especially when candidates are located in other cities orwhen multiple people are involved in the interview process. Organizations with video conferencing systems in their offices can reduce expenses and time by bringing candidates into the nearest facility and allowing interviews to be conducted both in person and over video. Video interviews can also be recorded, enabling persons unable to be part of the live interview process to see and evaluate the candidate over video. Video communication impacts employee retention just as positively. Examples include improved cooperation by allowing remote employees to become closer faster with other team members; helping employees retain work/life balance by mitigating travel so they can spend more time with their families; allowing employees to work partially or full time from home, to alleviate the impact of commuting; or simply engaging in real-time face-to-face interactions that are richer and more fulfilling than any alternative short of a live in-person meeting.

Sustained Competitive Advantage

Video communication offers multiple paths for creating and maintaining competitive advantage. Teams communicating over video share knowledge more widely, resulting in faster and more informed decisions that reduce the time to market for new products and services. Support teams leverage video to create more personal, one-to-one relationships with their customers, encouraging a loyalty far beyond the capabilities of a traditional call center agent. Manufacturing organizations use video conferencing and content sharing to verify product quality, make revisions, and ensure accuracy throughout the supply chain, while their competitors continue to rely on next-day delivery of services. Video enables sales executives to clearly and immediately appreciate the status of the pipeline, beyond the rows on a spreadsheet. Public relations and human resources departments can promote the organization’s use of video as proof of corporate efforts to protect the environment, helping to ensure they end up on the short list of preferred vendors for environmentally friendliness in competitive governmental or commercial bids.

Support for Environmental Initiatives

Video conferencing is an obvious “green” technology, allowing organizations to mitigate energy use by dramatically reducing the need to travel. By communicating over video, organizations can also substantially reduce their carbon footprint and help ensure a basis for regulatory compliance. With tools that provide a powerful way to enable conferences and other video content to be streamed live or on demand around the world, employees, customers, partners, and students can use video to communicate, engage and interact with others across distance at any time, from wherever they are.

PRI stands for Primary Rate Interface. In simple terms, PRI is a digital trunk line that connects to your PBX telephone system. It combines multiple phone lines into a single digital line. More importantly, it can be a monthly cost savings.

PRI is organized in a format called 23 B + D. It’s just short form for 23 B or bearer channels and 1 D for delta or data channel. The T1 line is split into 24 equal size channels of 64 Kbps each for a total of about 1.5 Mbps total bandwidth. It’s full duplex, so you get the same bandwidth in both directions.

Why carve up the line capacity into 64 Kbps chunks? That happens to be exactly the size required to transport one digitized telephone call using PCM or Pulse Code Modulation, the telephone company standard. It actually breaks down into and 8 bit digitized sample x 8,000 bits per second. The entire switched telephone network is organized around these channels, designated as DS0. They are carefully synchronized so that one call will not bleed into another.

With 23 bearer channels, each “bearing” is a single telephone call. You can get the equivalent of 23 separate telephone lines on one T1 PRI line. The remaining channel, the D channel, is used for call control and data. This is how the PBX system and the telephone service provider exchange information know when a call is coming in, when a line is being requested, what number is dialed, and the extent of any auxiliary information such as Caller ID.

Fortunately, you don’t need to dig in any deeper than this to be able to put PRI to work in your business. You order your PRI service with so many incoming and outgoing phone lines, local and/or long distance. There a lot of customization you can do with this. Then it’s a matter of plugging your T1 PRI line from the telco demarcation point (usually in a back room) into the socket on the PBX circuit card designed to accept PRI service. There can be more than one PRI interface on larger systems. Each line will deliver 23 outside phone lines.

Who uses PRI? Medium and larger size businesses, or even smaller businesses that are telephone-intensive. Sales offices, customer support, call centers of all sizes, and corporate headquarters all use PRI phone service.

Why use PRI? Because it connects and disconnects telephone calls faster than the older T1 phone line service, it consolidates many analog lines into one or a few digital lines, it offers exceptional voice quality and reliability, and it’s cheaper. Any business that uses 10 or more analog phone lines can potentially save money by switching to PRI service. The more lines you have, the BIGGER the savings

Here are 10 simple tips that will allow you to reduce your Mobile costs:

1. If your firm covers the costs of personally owned devices, or if you currently deal with multiple providers, consider consolidating as many devices as possible under one corporate plan. More volume with one vendor allows you more leverage in negotiating the best rates. It also makes it easier to track and analyze costs if bills are consolidated.
2. Stay on top of the many and always changing plans offered to businesses. These plans may include pooled minutes as well as plans that provide a capped amount of minutes per month. Picking the one plan which best matches your usage and calling patterns can result in significant savings.
3. Review the features for which you are being charged (i.e. call waiting etc). Providers charge a premium rate for features so make sure you are only paying for features that you truly need.
4. Keep track of contract renewal dates. Allowing your contract to auto-renew without re-negotiating your plan may cause you to lose out on a better deal.
5. Develop a comprehensive policy for employees and include it in your company employee handbook.
6. Set clear expectations for employee wireless usage. Share actual monthly costs with supervisors and consider publishing a monthly report ranking actual employee’s usage costs.
7. Leverage new technology such as IP soft phones and Skype to reduce expensive roaming charges. Many IP PBX’s will also allow you to transfer calls received on cellular while in the office to a landline without the caller even knowing it happened.
8. Depending on your Smartphone, you may have the option to automatically detect and switch to wireless network(s) or hotspots when available resulting in savings on Data usage charges.
9. Know your Roaming plan! There is nothing worse than getting an outrageous bill for a few phone calls south of the border. You may also want to call your provider in advance of your trip to enquire about special roaming packages. Depending on your Smartphone, you can change your settings to “Off while roaming” and save yourself a surprise.
10. Make sure you review your bills. Often you will find mistakes, wrong rates or catch devices which should have been cancelled, all adding up to big savings.

We understand that these tips are simple, but due to lack of resources, not always easy to implement.  There are many consulting services available which can help. In most cases, the savings they help you uncover will more than cover any costs.

Want to know more? Call us. We keep our customers current on technology.

The latest bundle of fines from the CRTC totalled $41,000. The fines came as the result of a five-month investigation.

According to the CRTC, many of the companies fined were small businesses. Larger companies have faced much more significant penalties in the past, like when GoodLife Fitness was fined $300,000 over robocalls. Bell Canada was fined in December of 2010 to the tune of $1.3 million after it had called Canadians who had registered for the Do Not Call list.

Since the rules were put in place in 2008, the CRTC has lowered the boom on companies for a total of $2.1 million in fines.

“Today’s announcement should serve as a reminder that registering as a telemarketer is a basic requirement,” said Andrea Rosen, the CRTC’s chief compliance and enforcement officer. “Anyone making telemarketing calls to Canadians while not registered and subscribed to the list is strongly encouraged to come into compliance as soon as possible.”

In July of 2010, it looked like the national registry was bungled. Whether it was the embarrassing array of exceptions to the rules, enough to keep Pierre Poutine and the robocalls away from CRTC trouble, or the lack of fine collection, the CRTC’s foray into protecting consumers from annoying telemarketers didn’t look to be going anywhere.

It’s still difficult to get data on how much of the $2.1 million in levied fines have actually been collected, of course, but the CRTC does appear to be flexing its muscles at least somewhat. But the complaints are still rolling in, which means companies are slow to learn lessons – especially if the fines are so limply enforced.
“We get hundreds of thousands of complaints, so (the number of violations) didn’t surprise me,” Rosen said. “But we are hoping to reduce those complaints.”

According to the CRTC’s numbers, there are 10 million phone numbers on the national Do Not Call registry.

Many businesses today still use traditional TDM (Time Division Multiplexing) telephone lines and systems for their voice communication needs. This approach maintains the separation between the organization’s data network and voice network creating the necessity for two separate infrastructures, cabling systems, maintenance processes and monthly fees. This is not an efficient way to implement business communications; it can also be inflexible and costly, limiting the organizations ability to grow or respond to changing market demands.

Voice and Data traffic over a single network

Allstream IP Trunking service leverages the advances in IP and Internet technologies to offer a better way to deploy voice and data communications. It allows businesses to converge their outbound and inbound voice traffic onto the same connection that transfers data between their offices or to customers and suppliers’ sites. This results in important financial, productivity and strategic benefits to your business. Using a Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) data network or the Internet in order to deliver voice services, Allstream IP Trunking supports a rich set of telephony features backed by superior management functionality and outstanding reliability.

Allstream IP Trunking delivers increased productivity and flexibility with:

Quality Connection to the PSTN

Allstream IP Trunking service connects business voice systems to the PSTN while providing advanced features like Calling Line ID, DNIS (Dialed Number Identification Service) or per call negotiation of G.711 and G.729 compression algorithms.

Virtual Presence

Allstream IP Trunking allows your callers to reach you by dialing a local number in a geographical area where you have no physical presence.

High Voice Quality

MPLS based SIP Trunking assigns a high priority to voice traffic. This ensures you will enjoy good call quality, free from any echo, delays and jitter problems that are sometimes experienced with IP telephony services.

Reliability

All components of Allstream IP Trunking service such as core network, media gateways, soft switches, etc. include carrier grade redundancy provisions that provide very high availability to the service. In addition, the service supports multiple re-route and failover options that ensure you will remain connected in case of outages or traffic congestion.

Managed Service

Allstream manages the MPLS based SIP Trunking service components all the way from the customer router to the PSTN interface. You can view on-line, comprehensive reports that include important performance parameters such as latency, packet loss, jitter, etc. Optionally, Allstream can manage your LAN, IP PBX and other infrastructure elements.

The difference Allstream IP Trunking will make to your business:

Reduced Cost

• Reduce or eliminate the need for dedicated PRI connections and/or gateways at each location.
• Reduce the number of PBXs required in the enterprise by consolidating all outside traffic at a central location such as a headquarters office or a secure data centre.
• Eliminate the cost of maintaining separate voice and data networks.
• Eliminate long distance fees when calling between your corporate sites.

Improved Productivity

• Improved voice quality for better, faster communication. MPLS quality of service and less TDM/IP transcoding lead to fewer packet losses and distortions of the voice signal.
• SIP Trunking makes it easier to deploy new productivity enhancing Unified Communications applications.
• SIP Trunking scalability ensures rapid connection of new offices and locations to the PSTN.
• The centralized character of the consolidated SIP trunking service makes it simple for you to add or re-configure advanced applications.

Increased Business Flexibility

• Increase or reduce subscribed bandwidth to meet changing needs. SIP Trunking capacity can be bought in increments of one channel at a time while for TDM trunks one extra PRI connection adds 23 channels and costs accordingly.
• Enhance your national presence. With Allstream IP Trunking, a corporation can now establish points of presence with local telephone numbers in locations where it does not have offices or physical voice circuits. This practically eliminates the need for costly toll free numbers.
• Gradually migrate your sites to SIP Trunking. Allstream IP Trunking service allows you to upgrade in accordance with your needs and your budget.
• Use a wider variety of business communication options taking advantage of SIP Trunking’s effective support for collaboration and other advanced applications.
• Improve your disaster recovery planning. Central locations normally have a significant redundant capacity in terms of bandwidth and alternative routing. With SIP Trunking you can use that capacity to support robust and stable voice communications.

Accelerated Return on Technology Investment

• Open an easy migration path to a Unified Communications environment. Subscribing to Allstream IP Trunking service facilitates adding new valuable Unified Communications applications.
• Facilitate a future migration to a Cloud Computing environment. SIP Trunking service makes it easier to outsource voice services and have them hosted by the carrier or other third parties.
• Provide centralized management efficiencies. Convergence of voice and data connectivity on one network enables your IT personnel to control the communication infrastructure through a single point of management. The whole network can be seen and managed as one system even if it includes multiple types of equipment and locations.

By: Janine Popick

These free (or next to free) apps promise to make your life easier.

Who doesn’t like the word free? I know I sure do. The great thing about being an entrepreneur these days is the huge variety of free or low-cost online business tools out there to help keep everything organized and your company running smoothly. It seems like every day I hear or read about a shiny new app or service promising to save me time and money. It’s hard to resist saying, “Sign me up!” … Especially if it’s free.

Here are seven free (or next to free) business tools that I can’t live without:

Animoto – We’ve all heard how video can increase engagement with customers and attract more eyeballs than just text and pictures alone. But getting a video produced can be pretty expensive. About a year ago, I needed to create a quick video for an employee get-together. I hopped onto Animoto, uploaded a bunch of employee photos, selected a music track from my library and voila! Everyone loved it, and I didn’t need any fancy video editing software. Cost: Tiered pricing, beginning at free

UserVoice – With UserVoice, small businesses can quickly set up a feedback forum and/or helpdesk where customers can submit (and you can track) customer support tickets. This is especially useful if you aren’t at a point in your business where you can have a customer support team or call center. You want your customers to air their concerns in a place you have complete access and control over, versus a third-party forum, as much as you can. Cost: Tiered pricing, beginning at free

Roost – Full disclosure: My company, VerticalResponse, recently acquired Roost … largely because it has a strong reputation for being a super easy social media marketing tool for small businesses. With Roost, you can view and schedule your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn posts in advance. It also provides suggested content, like news articles and quotes, based on your industry and interests – so you don’t have to waste time searching. Cost: Free

Evernote – I admit, until January of this year I was one of those people who still jotted down notes and ideas on paper. One of my resolutions for 2012 was to organize all my thoughts via Evernote, and now I’m addicted. I have it open all the time on my computer, and the iPhone mobile app is a breeze to use whenever I’m on the road and see or think of something I want to follow up on later. Side benefit: I can clip recipes from the Web and have the ingredients list on my iPhone when I’m at the store. Cost: Free for basic version

Join.me – Virtual meeting providers like WebEx and GoToMeeting certainly offer lots of bells and whistles (with price points that show it), but there are others out there that offer similar features – for the cool price of free. With Join.me, viewers just have to type in your code onto the Join.me home page for instant access to your screen, no app for them to download required. Cost: Free for basic version

Instagram and Postagram – Think Instagram is just for hipsters? Think again. The ability for someone to follow, comment or share photos in your Instagram gallery is another way for people to engage with your content – especially if Instagram’s artsy aesthetic reflects your brand. And with Postagram, you can send those cool photos in postcard form – a blend of old-school and new, and another great opportunity to get in front of customers in a pleasantly surprising way. Cost: Free for Instagram, 99 cents per Postagram postcard
Granted, there are countless tools that I’ve tried out and for various reasons, and they just keep comin’. Just like a good pair of jeans, you might need to do some shopping around to find the ones that truly are a great fit for you.

What business tools are in your everyday arsenal, and how have they improved your life?

With two of the largest smartphone events — the Consumer Electronics Show and Mobile World Congress — now behind us, a number of clear trends are starting to develop. Last year, tablets seemed to dominate all chatter, but after another year of iPad domination, many manufacturers are aiming their innovations back at the phone market. For a look at some of the hot new devices hitting US carriers in the next few months, check out our Best of MWC 2012 piece. Here, however, we’re going to look at some of the broader trends sweeping through the world of smartphones in 2012.

Waterproof it!

If you can’t beat your competitors at anything else, buy a fish tank and start dunking your phones in water. This has been the strategy of companies like Fujitsu, Panasonic, and Motorola, which have each shown water proof and resistant Android phones in the past few months. Sometimes its called water ‘resistance,’ other times water ‘repellent,’ and Fujitsu was bold enough to call it water ‘proof,’ but it doesn’t seem to be a trend that is slowing down. In the next year, more and more phones will likely start adding seals, casings, and coatings to keep water out, some to get a competitive advantage and some to keep up. We couldn’t be happier about this trend. Losing your $700 smartphone to water damage is not a fun ordeal.

Android 4.0 (ICS)

No matter where you turned at events in the last couple months, the words “Ice Cream Sandwich” could be heard by passersby. Very few people seem to understand exactly what it is or what it means, but they know it means new. As our loyal readers likely already know, ICS is the new version of Google’s Android operating system and comes with a number of marked enhancements over Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), which debuted in late 2010. Google updates its OS once or twice a year, but ICS was an especially big update, designed to unify the apps on Android tablets and phones and improve stability across both device types. So far, we like it.

One thing that we keep noticing is just how dominant Android has become. With the exception of a couple Windows Phones, almost every new device shown this year runs Android, and all of the exciting ones are running Android 4.0.

Quad-core phones

If you thought dual-core processors (two processors in one) were cool last year, Nvidia has a surprise for you. At Mobile World Congress, the first slate of handheld devices running on the Tegra 3 quad-core processor debuted, including the HTC One X, ZTE Era, Fujitsu Ultra High Spec prototype, and LG Optimus 4X HD. Huawei got in on the action as well, unveiling the Ascend D Quad, a quad-core phone based on its own technology. The Tegra 3 is interesting because it actually has five cores, not four. A fifth “companion core” works in place of the other cores when you’re not really using your phone much, saving battery life. This actually makes many of these quad-core phones more battery efficient than their dual-core predecessors.

The downside: Tegra 3 isn’t yet compatible with LTE, meaning that none of these super fast, super awesome new phones will be able to connect up to Verizon or AT&T’s fast 4G LTE networks — a real bummer. Nvidia representatives told us that LTE compatibility will come in the next couple months, but currently Qualcomm Snapdragon processors seem to be the platform of choice for LTE. Qualcomm will also release a quad-core mobile processor later this year and Samsung has already shown off its new quad-core Exynos chip, which will likely debut with the Galaxy S III.

Huge screens

It all started with the HTC Evo with its 4.3-inch screen, and now almost every major phone coming out this year will sport a screen size of at least 4.5 inches. Devices like the Galaxy Nexus have stretched things even further with 4.7-inch screens, but Samsung and LG are taking things to the limit with the LG Optimus Vu and Samsung Galaxy Note, both of which exceed 5 inches in size and are so large that they can’t be held (comfortably) in one hand. Samsung is clinging to the controversy, releasing its own ads that ask “Is it a tablet? Or is it a phone?” Unfortunately, it is a phone. We’ve been a bit critical of these huge device sizes. Luckily, help is coming and the small phone may make a bit of a comeback as well.

Budget phones that aren’t terrible

Lately, we’ve been seeing a lot of budget Android devices and Windows Phones that are smaller in size and weaker in specs, but run quite well for their price. Motorola, in particular, showed off a nice Android device in the MotoLuxe. Sony’s Xperia U was also compact but nice and Nokia debuted the first Windows Phone Tango device, the Lumia 610, which runs on only 256MB of RAM (half other WP7 devices) and a much weaker processor, but still manages to respond and feel as responsive as a Windows Phone running on much better hardware. The new ZTE Orbit was similarly decent for a cheap device. Time will tell, but Samsung today unveiled the Galaxy Pocket, which seems aimed at exactly the same market.

Stylus support

Samsung has decided that styluses are cool again and everyone else seems to be noticing. The Galaxy Note ships with a stylus (called an S-Pen) and the Korean manufacturer has debuted a new 10.1-inch Galaxy Note tablet as well. In reaction, LG is including a stylus with its Optimus Vu, even though there is no place to hold it, and other manufacturers like Asus seem to be scrambling to prove that they support styluses as well. It will be interesting to see if stylus support for smartphones continues to grow, or if anybody really wants to use them, but at least for a while, expect new mobile devices to ship with, or be compatible with, capacitive touch pens.

Great cameras

The battle of camera quality kicked off when Apple showed how adept the iPhone 4S was at photography last October. Since then, all of the major players have been upping their game. Most recently, at MWC, HTC unveiled its One X phone with an F2.0 sensor, a dedicated imaging processor, and a host of other upgrades that help it churn out some amazing photos for a phone. In response, Nokia ended HTC’s thunder by unveiling a new Lumia phone with a 41MP camera on it. Yes, 41 megapixels. There was an audible gasp in the room when the device was unveiled. It’s certainly not perfect (currently running on Symbian, for example), but Nokia claims that this technology will make its way into Windows Phones soon enough. We expect other companies like Samsung to continue to up their game in cameras as well.

Battery life: It’s not improving anytime soon

The Galaxy Nexus and all of these dual-core, quad-core, LTE-enabled phones are great, but they are draining batteries faster than ever. I even recently stopped using the Nexus because it just can’t hold a charge all day. The Motorola Droid Razr Maxx is the first device we’ve seen with truly impressive battery life since the smartphone revolution began, but it may be alone for a while. Manufacturers have been talking up cameras, specs, styluses, Android 4.0, and quad-core processors, but not one of them is talking about battery life. That’s a bad thing. With AT&T and other wireless carriers rolling out 4G LTE connectivity in 2012, battery life is going to become a bigger and bigger issue.

Smartphones become tablets and PCs

Motorola introduced the concept of using your smartphone as a PC with the Atrix in 2011 and it has been met with little uptake, mostly because the company’s Webtop interface is sluggish and just doesn’t do everything you hope it would. However, Android 4.0 appears to have given manufacturers more options. As Asus has been demonstrating with its upcoming PadFone, Google’s new OS is capable of dynamically resizing itself, allowing you to plug a smartphone into a bigger screen and have it become an Android tablet. Plug in a keyboard and you have yourself a netbook. Now we just have to find out if anyone wants to use their smartphone as their computer.

Chinese invasion and the return of old faces

Currently, Apple, Samsung, Motorola, HTC, and (sort of) LG rule the the smartphone market in the United States, but there are a number of big companies that want in and have shown off some impressive new phones. ZTE, Huawei, and Lenovo may be from China, but it may not be long before they begin to secure deals with top-tier US carriers. We’d be happy for the increased competition, as the US market is seeming less and less diverse each month.

At the same time, this year may also see the return of some familiar faces. Nokia has already inked a deal with AT&T for the Lumia 900 and Sony, now free of Ericsson, is making a big push back into the smartphone market with its Xperia S, P, and U. Acer, a PC maker, also showed off some nice Android phones at MWC. Of course, a nice phone doesn’t guarantee success, but a crappy phone really hurts your chances. Enter Panasonic. At MWC, the electronics maker showed off its waterproof Eluga Android phone, but we don’t see much of a future for the sluggish device. Fujitsu also has a lot of nice devices, but no real plan on how to break into the US market. Nokia, Sony, and some of the Chinese companies stand a shot, but not everyone will make it onto Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, or Sprint shelves this year. It will be interesting to see who does.

Update: Added “Smartphones become tablets and PCs” category. A great trend that I neglectfully did not have in the first draft. 

Independent of industry, scale, history, status, or any other descriptor, a business that is going to continue to grow and be successful will need the benefits of a strong network. A secure and stable network for your business will minimize expenses, reduce risk, and stay connected when it matters. Below is the speech in its entirety.

1. Apart + Together – wireless/mobility, the Internet, teleworking, globalization, outsourcing, partnering, etc. are stretching companies apart. In opposition, we place a much higher value today on togetherness; on teamwork.
2. Fast + Slow – We are all wired to connect at very fast speeds. But with that speed also comes communications overload, a lack of “slow time” to think the erosion of mental space. This creates demand for more choice, control and efficiency in how we are reached or reach others.
3. Open + Closed – The Internet has opened up information flow for relationship-building, for new customer touchpoints and different kinds of conversations. There is the opposing priority of being more closed for security threats: identity theft, hacking, protecting your reputation online.
4. Simple + Complex – Everyone wants simplicity in everything. You push a button and – boom – the right voice or the right data is right there. We want things to be simple but the technological fact in the background is that it’s complex.

So how does your business “do more with less”? Do you use telecommunications to achieve that? We’re excited to hear how!

Nothing quite beats the 3:30pm blues like reading online comics, browsing image boards and forwarding photos of cats with abnormally elongated torsos. But is there anything a business person can benefit from all this tomfoolery? Yes, because laughter is the best medicine.

Take a minute to laugh a little with the top five memes for business people:

1. Why working from home is both awesome and horrible.
This chillingly accurate comic portrayal by The Oatmeal hit the web in late 2010, and spread through the business social media community like wildfire. With over 90,000 Facebook likes, I’d be surprised if you haven’t read this one already. Click here for the full comic.

2. Forever alone guy.
Another jab at the self-employed person who works from his or her couch, Forever Alone guy is someone you might be able to relate to. His tears are so blue, yet his loneliness somehow makes us feel less alone. For his history and a plethora of forever alone videos and quips, click here.

3. The Rickroll.
A classic bait and switch trick. To “Rickroll” someone, send an email saying, “Here’s that link to the informative article we were talking about”. But instead of the article, the shortened link you send takes your friend to the 1987 Rick Astley video “Never Gonna Give You Up”. The song will be stuck in their head for weeks.

4. Charlie Sheen.
How could I leave out the most widespread meme of 2011? From a business standpoint, Charlie Sheen’s Tiger Blood rant, if not purely entertaining, is chock full of guerilla marketing inspiration. Getting the attention of the entire world through a wild publicity stunt might be a tad risky for your mom and pop shop, but it’ll certainly get you thinking outside of the box. Instead of the same old direct mail campaign, why not try a contest using QR codes as your own version of “roll up the rim to win”?

5. Serious Business.
Ever wish you had a way to poke fun at someone who is taking things just a little too seriously? Send them an image from the “Serious Business” collection. With a variety of silly graphics, this meme will help you to sarcastically, yet gently mock their serious tone.

Have a favourite meme that makes your day go by quick? Feel free to share it in the comments.

Image by Know Your Meme.