A website called LawBidding.com aims to lower legal costs for businesses by giving them a forum to solicit bids from attorneys.

The service is free to both lawyers and prospective clients. Here's how it works: Companies post a description of a legal problem that will be viewed only by lawyers registered with LawBidding. Posts can be anonymous, though a location is required. Lawyers can browse case descriptions and make bids based on a flat fee, hourly rate, or contingency. Prospective clients can check out each bidder's profile page, including information pertaining to state licenses, and communicate with lawyers over public and private threads. There is no obligation to accept a bid.

LawBidding, which was founded by corporate attorney Nick Cronin, currently has more than 300 open cases related to a variety of issues, including employment law, partnerships, and trademarks. There are more than 1,000 lawyers registered on the site. Even if a company doesn't find the right fit, the site could, at the very least, be a good resource for pricing out legal representation.

Slideshare, a service that lets you share presentations on the Web, introduced branded channels for businesses today. Companies can now create custom, branded "microsites" on Slideshare that include presentations, webinars, documents, and information about events. People can become followers of a microsite and make comments.

There is a handful of companies under the business category as of today. For example, Razorfish, the interactive marketing agency, has 21 presentations posted on its SlideShare site, which has 231 followers. The White House has a channel under the non-profit/government category that features more than 1,000 documents, along with translations of Presidential speeches and several presentations. The site has more than 500 followers so far.

The new channel offering comes on the heels of Slideshare's other business-friendly services, including AdShare, which helps you do targeted promotion of content, and LeadShare, which lets you collect information on viewers. So far, the company isn't saying how much the channels will cost.

An adorably named new service, PoketyPoke, could spare you the embarrassment of always being the last person to join a conference call. Once you sign up for the service, which launched in private beta yesterday, you can forward any free-form e-mail invitation or calendar invitation to calls@poketypoke.com. The service then calls you at the number of your choosing at the time of the scheduled conference call and patches you in directly, handling all the annoying pin numbers and meeting IDs for you. Based on some of the comments about the service on TechCrunch, it seems to be a bit buggy, but hopefully any glitches will be resolved soon.

Today at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Lenovo unveiled the IdeaPad U1, a notebook computer with a detachable screen that has its own processor and can be used as a multi-touch slate tablet (see picture below). The two parts of the computer are designed to work together or separately in a seamless fashion. If you're surfing the Web in laptop mode, for example, you can detach the tablet without interruption.

The clamshell device, which sports a red exterior, weighs just 3.8 pounds total. The detachable tablet weighs 1.6 pounds. Each mode supports more than five hours of Web browsing and 60 hours of standby. The device also has an integrated video camera and a microphone with echo cancellation. It will be available on June 1 for $999, according to Lenovo's press release.

I'm heading to CES tomorrow, and I plan to check out the IdeaPad, as well as Lenovo's new business laptops. Stay tuned for more posts on these and other new gadgets!

I recently stumbled upon the TSA blog and was pleasantly surprised by the often amusing and unexpected posts, including a response to a video on gossip website TMZ showing Britney Spears walking through airport security carrying a Big Gulp (the blog post explained that the cup contained only ice, which is permitted under current rules). The comments are equally spirited and surprisingly numerous (the Britney post, for example, garnered more than 200 replies).

Of course, some of the posts are more practical, including this handy roundup of holiday travel tips, which explains the latest TSA guidelines regarding liquids, family lanes, food (you can carry on pie, but dips and spreads must be checked), and even snow globes. The post includes a link to a printable PDF with helpful hints for holiday travelers. Happy trails!

Collaboration software company Huddle is running a special holiday promotion. Users who upgrade from a free subscription to a premium account by the end of December will get one month free and a chance to win $250 in Amazon.com vouchers. One in every ten subscribers will win, according to an announcement on Huddle's website.

Originally, Huddle was offering a Kindle to winners of the contest, but switched the prize after receiving a "flurry of user feedback demanding an alternative," according to the announcement.

Huddle's paid subscriptions start at $15 a month for five online workspaces with project and collaboration tools and 2.5 GB of storage.

An online store called Yak About It is devoted entirely to products made by independent inventors and entrepreneurs. The site holds contests that pit two products against each other and deems the one with the highest sales to be the "most yakable." Visitors can read about the products and the stories behind them, then make comments and purchases. Each contest lasts for between one day and one week.

Featured on the site today is the OK to Wake! Alarm Clock ($29.99), which parents can set to turn green when kids are allowed to leave their bedrooms (I wished that worked for one year olds!), and the TAC drive, a 1 GB USB flash drive encased in rugged metal ($25). Based on the low number of comments currently on the home page, the contests don't seem to be getting a huge amount of attention, but the overall concept is appealing, especially for entrepreneurs looking for new ways to increase product awareness.

To submit your product for consideration, fill out a form on the company site that asks for information such as your bio, company story, and available inventory.

Today, Dell announced the new Vostro V13 small business laptop designed for entrepreneurs on the go. The slim notebook computer (pictured below), which I checked out this afternoon, weighs just 3.5 pounds and is encased in brushed aluminum with reinforced zinc hinges. It has a 13.3 inch LED-backlit anti-glare screen, and a spill-resistant keyboard that lets you drain errant liquid. Business-friendly features include an integrated webcam and microphone for Internet calls and a VGA port for connecting to a projector or docking station.

Price: The base model, which costs $449, comes with 2 GB of memory, an Intel Celeron 743 processor, and a Linux operating system by Ubuntu. For $649, you'll get 2 GB of memory, Windows 7, and an Intel Core 2 Duo processor.

I have to admit I chuckled when I first saw the Seat Soother Laptop Airflow Mat (pictured below). But the travel accessory is a good idea for business travelers who frequently use their laptops while waiting out flight delays at the airport. The mat, which is made of small beads connected with plastic string and comes in a fabric bag with handles, shields your lap from the warm underside of your notebook. Unlike, say, your coat, the mat's design helps keep air flowing so it doesn't heat up.

One big drawback is the mat's cover, which looks like a reusable grocery bag and doesn't exactly scream "titan of business." The mat, which also is being marketed as a shiatsu-style massager, is available for $24.85 at Magellan's, an online travel accessory store.

Yola, a San Francisco software company, is discounting the professional edition of its website building application over the Thanksgiving holiday. Yola Pro, which typically costs $49.95 a year, lets you create up to 25 websites with 5 GB of storage per site. Yola Pro will be on sale for 50 percent off from November 26 through November 30. To take advantage of the sale, go to Yola.com and enter the promotional code: yolaprohalf.

Shoppers who eschew the malls this weekend in favor of buying gifts online might consider GoodShop.com. Here's how it works: When you go to GoodShop, you can choose a non-profit from among more than 8,000 in the website's database, including big names such as the ASPCA, as well as a large number of local charities and schools . If you buy something from any of the roughly 1,400 participating online retailers, a portion of the purchase will go to the charity. The amount of the donation varies by retailer and is listed on GoodShop. Today, the site is advertising a 2.5 percent donation if you shop on the Banana Republic website and up to 3 percent from Office Depot.

Today, video monitoring company Cernium announced that its Archerfish Quattro system is now available on Amazon.com. The system, which comes with two color weatherproof cameras, sends video alerts to your mobile phone or e-mail when it detects unusual movements. The coolest thing about the system is that it can distinguish between cars and humans and, say, a stray cat darkening your company's doorstep, so you won't get bombarded with unnecessary alerts. The system costs $1,699 for two cameras and a three month subscription to the Archerfish account management portal. After the trial ends, the subscription is $7.99 a month for one device and $3.99 for each additional device.

It's gadget season. Last week, I attended the New York City preview of the annual Consumer Electronics Show, which will take place in early January in Las Vegas, and tonight I'll be at the Pepcom tech showcase. We'll be featuring more detailed write-ups and reviews of many of the best new products in the print magazine in the coming months, but I'll also be blogging about interesting items on Quick Hits.

One thing I noticed at the CES preview is that Global Positioning Systems are still a hot item even though they've been around for a while. One interesting new gadget at the preview was Rand McNally's Intelliroute TND 500 Navigation system. The system, designed for trucking businesses, finds roads and bridges that accommodate truck, height, and weight. It also takes into account hazardous cargo. The Intelliroute is available on Amazon.com and costs $499.99 for a 5-inch portable GPS device, windshield mount, truck charger, home chrager, and USB cable.

Check out The Goods this February for more information about GPS for consumers.

This weekend, J&R is offering a couple of good deals on gear for business travelers. An expandable roller suitcase from Delsey, on sale for $99, has an ergonomic grip, extra long handles, and a foldout suit compartment. The MSI Microstar Netbook, which has an Intel Atom processor and weighs just 2.8 pounds, is on sale for $389.99. It comes pre-installed with Windows Vista. The weekend sale starts today (Friday) and runs through this Sunday, November 15.

I had to laugh when I saw the product listing for this "mobile desk." The contraption, which is made of powder coated metal with a vinyl saddle, allows you to "travel around your workplace without leaving your laptops or documents behind," according to the listing in the online store Opulent Items. The desk-on-wheels, which also comes in a mind-boggling tandem model, seems ergonomic enough to serve as a space saving work station in the home, but I have a hard time imagining anyone using it to travel around the office, unless you're trying to get a laugh. And those laughs won't come cheap: the Mobile Desk costs $500.

Today, Peek, maker of the eponymous e-mail and texting device, announced the debut of a new Tweet-dedicated gadget called the TwitterPeek. The device, which comes in charcoal or aqua, has a color screen and a push-button keyboard. It provides instant Tweet delivery and operates on its own high speed wireless network, so you don't need a WiFi signal to stay up to date on the latest Tweets. It is now available on Amazon.com and TwitterPeek.com for $199.95 with lifetime service included or $99 for six months of service and $7.95 a month thereafter.

Of course, the obvious question is who would actually buy the TwitterPeek when most Twitter fans most likely have a smartphone. Based on the wording of the press release from Peek, the company is targeting "Twitter diehards," "newbies" who couldn't figure out how to use Twitter on their phones, and even businesses looking for a convenient way to "stay connected with their customers."

The bottom line: the TwitterPeek seems well designed, but with dedicated devices going the way of the dinosaurs, I have a hard time believing it will replace many smartphones as a primary method of Tweeting.

Not For Tourists, which publishes city guides that eschew the usual tourist attractions in favor of spots frequented by locals, announced a new iPhone app yesterday. The app, called Not for Tourists, provides detailed neighborhood descriptions, editorialized listings, and interactive maps. The Manhattan, London, and San Francisco apps are now available for $4.99 each. Apps for New York City as a whole, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. are coming soon.

I just returned from the Windows 7 launch. Of course, the new operating system's touchscreen capability was a major theme. But one thing that struck me about Steve Ballmer's speech was his emphasis on Win 7's media capabilities. Microsoft has partnered with CBS to stream TV shows to Windows 7 computers and Toshiba has a new HDTV compatible with the operating system coming out this fall. Amazon is also launching a new Kindle app for Windows 7 PCs.

After the keynote speech, I went over to the SMB demo area to check out the Windows 7 Professional Edition, which costs $199 for an upgrade and $299 for a new package. Here's a rundown of some of the coolest features for business users:

Printer Connectivity: The new OS allows users to set default printers for different networks (for example, office and home) so your computer automatically prints to the correct location.

Presentation Settings: To prevent embarrassing technical glitches during presentations, Windows 7 lets users adjust settings beforehand to shut off notifications, set volume, and change the computer's background screen. It also lets you turn off your screen saver so your computer won't go blank during a presentation.

Projector Settings: Before, Windows users had to navigate through a projector wizard to manage projector settings. Windows 7 has four large projector icons that let you easily disconnect the projector, project your computer screen, project two computer screens, and leave your computer screen blank while projecting an image.

Back-Up: Win 7 Professional lets users schedule regular back-ups of the entire computer.

Compatibility with XP: The Win 7 Professional Edition also allows users to open XP applications that are not compatible with the new OS.

Touch Capabilities: Touch capability varies by computer. The demo I saw was performed on a Lenovo Thinkpad X2000 convertible tablet, on which users can rearrange icons with a press of the finger, open programs, take a "peek" at the desktop, and "shake" a window to make other windows disappear and reappear.

For a round-up of new tablets, notebooks, and netbooks that make the most of Windows 7's touch capabilities, check out The Goods section in the upcoming November issue of Inc.

Today, Barnes and Noble is expected to unveil its own electronic reader. The e-reader, called the Nook, will cost $259, the same price as Amazon's Kindle, according to a report in the New York Times. Barnes and Noble isn't commenting so far, but the Times got its information from a Nook ad sent to the publisher for placement in this Sunday's Book Review section.

Meanwhile, in a press release issued yesterday, Plastic Logic announced plans to introduce its e-reader, the Que, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this January. Plastic Logic is positioning the reader as a business tool, since it allows users to not only read books and newspapers, but also view PDFs and Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents. The reader also will feature a shatterproof display. The company isn't saying how much it will cost.

Spring Design hopped on the bandwagon as well yesterday when it announced that its own souped-up e-reader is slated to hit the market by the end of the year. The so-called Alex reader will be based on the Google Android platform and feature a traditional 6-inch black and white e-reader display as well as a 3.5-inch color LCD touchscreen for viewing photos and video. Spring Design hasn't said how much the Alex will cost, but one would imagine it will be pricier than the one-screen black and white e-readers currently on the market.

By now, you've probably heard about the technical glitch that most likely resulted in some T-Mobile Sidekick users permanently losing data such as contact names, phone numbers, and digital photos. It seems that Danger, Microsoft's aptly named cloud-based storage service, failed to properly back-up data, so customers who had removed their batteries from their phones or let their batteries run out may have lost the personal information on their phones forever, according to the New York Times and other news outlets.

The debacle is alarming for two reasons: First, it serves as a warning to people who have become increasingly dependent on their phones for storing contacts, photos, and calendar events, yet don't bother to back up their own data. More alarmingly, it calls into question the increasingly popular concept of storing valuable data, both personal and business-related, in the so-called "cloud."

I, for one, am guilty of not paying much mind to backing up my iPhone, which has now replaced my land line, my digital camera, my old-fashioned planner, and even my laptop. I'm curious to hear about other people's strategies for backing up their phones, as well as your thoughts on the safety of cloud computing in general. Please comment below or email me at nheintz@inc.com if you have any tips or opinions.

In June, The Goods featured a story about North American airlines that are offering Internet access on flights. Recently, two foreign carriers, British Airways and Lufthansa, joined the race to keep passengers connected in the skies.

Yesterday, German airline Lufthansa announced that passengers will be able to browse the Internet on a laptop or Web-enabled handheld device and send text messages and data using their cell phones thanks to Panasonic's FlyNet satellite technology. Lufthansa introduced a similar service in 2004, but the airline's former partner, Boeing, cancelled it in 2006. Lufthansa, which hasn't said how much the Wi-Fi access will cost, expects the service to be available in mid-2010.

Meanwhile, passengers on British Airways' new all-business-class flight from London City Airport to New York's JFK, which took to the air for the first time in late September, will be able to send emails and texts and surf the Web, all while reclining on the plane's 32 fully flat beds and enjoying the "best of British produce and regional specialties," according to a press release. One-way fares on the luxury flight start at $2,065. Hopefully passengers will be too busy tweeting about their kidney pie and stuffed baked potatoes to notice the New York-bound flight's pesky refueling stop in Shannon, Ireland!

This week, I've been testing out the new Powermat "wireless" charging device, which went on sale at Best Buy and Target on Sunday. I put wireless in quotes, because you have to plug the mat into an electrical socket, so there is technically a wire involved. But the good news is the mat charges up to three gadgets at once.

Here's how it works: As is with the case with the Wildcharge "wireless" charging mat, you can't simply plop your gadget on the mat and get a miraculous charge. Instead, you'll need to buy a receiver case or battery door receiver for your specific make of phone or use a small plastic universal receiver that comes with a variety of plugs and sits on the charger. When you put a device or a universal receiver on the mat, it makes a noise and a white light comes on to let you know your gadget is charging. There's also a slight gravitational pull that directs the devices to the right area on the mat, which is very helpful.

The Powermat comes in a desktop version and a handy portable version that folds up and fits in a small carrying case that you can toss in your bag when you're on the go. It's a bit heavy, so I wouldn't want to carry it around every day, but it would be fine for a business trip. I used both versions to charge my iPhone (using the special case) and a bluetooth headset (using the universal receiver). I definitely liked being able to simply place my phone on the mat and be done with it. Having to plug a device into the universal receiver is more of a hassle (more wires!). Also, the mat takes just as long to charge devices as a traditional charger, so there are no time savings involved.

The bottom line: The mat gave my phone and headset a good charge and kept things neat and tidy, but dealing with the universal receiver is a bit of a pain. The mat would be good for someone who uses multiple gadgets on a regular basis and likes to be organized.

Price:
Desktop Powermat: $99
Travel Powermat: $99
iPhone Receiver Cases: $39.99
Blackberry Battery Door Receivers: $29.99
Universal Receiver: $29.99
iPod Charging Dock: $39.99

Collaboration software company Huddle rolled out three cool new tools last week, including a new iPhone app. The free app lets users share documents and whiteboards and hold discussions on their phones. Based on the comments on the Huddle blog, the software seems a bit buggy, but the company is working on the issues.

For desktop users, Huddle's new Microsoft Office plug-in lets users access Huddle files from Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. You also can save and upload desktop documents into your online workspaces.

Meanwhile, Huddle also introduced a new web conferencing feature that lets people set up meetings and share their screens with other workspace members and invited guests, which makes it a handy tool for presentations and demonstrations. Minutes are included in Huddle's monthly packages, which range from a free ad-supported version to a $200 a month enterprise version.

If you've used Huddle and have any tips or comments, leave a reply below or email nheintz@inc.com. Your response may be used in an upcoming issue of Inc. magazine.

A big player in the stock photography industry, iStockphoto, recently announced it will be getting into the stock logo business in a few months. Using the service, clients will be able to browse a collection of logos submitted by designers and download one for between 100 and 750 iStock credits, the equivalent of roughly $140 to $750 based on the company's credit system. Designers, who can submit newly designed logos or work that had been rejected by past clients, will receive a 50 percent royalty fee. Those who create one of the first 10,000 approved logos will receive $5 each, if iStockphoto receives 10,000 submissions by a specific date.

Stock logos aren't a new concept. Plenty of sites, including Brandstack and Logopond, offer similar services. The new QuickBooks 2010 software, which I wrote about yesterday, even has a logo marketplace. Still, the announcement by iStockphoto, which is owned by Getty Images, has caused a stir among graphic designers, as evidenced by the response to the TechCrunch article on the new service. many of whom argue that designing a logo that effectively communicates a company's identity takes a good deal of research, design, and revision. Stock logos, many argue, are essentially icons with a company's name attached to them. Though iStockphoto plans to take any given logo off the market once it is downloaded, there is a possibility that designers could sell similar logos to other stock sites, rendering your company's identity less than unique.

What do you think? Is it worth spending a couple thousand dollars to work with a designer who will presumably create a logo more tailored to your company's image and message? Or is a stock logo good enough for your business? Let us know.

Plus: Read more about the stock logo debate in Ask Inc.

The latest QuickBooks software is available online today. The new edition features streamlined versions of older features, such as a more intuitive invoice design function, plus lots of new bells and whistles, including a business app store. Here's a rundown of some of the updates and additions:

Easier Installation: The older QuickBooks installation involved 15 windows. The streamlined version has only six windows, but users can opt for a more detailed custom installation.

Improved Data Import: Based on the conclusion that most users import data from Excel, Intuit redesigned the QuickBooks interface to look and work more like the Microsoft application. Users can now simply copy and paste data from Excel into QuickBooks with minimal tinkering afterwards. The software scans the data for errors, highlights them in red, and explains the reason for the alert--for example, a vendor's name is listed twice.

Customized Invoices: QuickBooks' previous layout design function was complicated and time-consuming. The latest version lets users chose between 35 templates created by graphic designers with a variety of themes--for example, a construction company might choose a design with a picture of a hammer or a blueprint background. Users can then upload a business logo from their desktop, drag and drop boxes, and fiddle with font selections, colors and sizes. The same design can be applied to a variety of forms, including invoices, receipts, and estimates.

Souped-Up Snapshot: QuickBooks improved upon the popular snapshot feature it introduced last year with more graphics and colors. Users can choose up to 12 widgets, including "top vendors by expense" and "top selling items" and print out color snapshots for reports.

New Report Center: QuickBooks automatically generates more than 100 reports based on data input by businesses, but they were hard to find on the old version of the software. The new report center lets users scroll through 3-D thumbnails of reports to find the right ones and also browse through a list of reports viewed in the past 90 days. Since businesses may give different names to the same form, each one is tagged with commonly used phrases that are likely to be used during a search. For example, a form titled "overdue customers" might be tagged with the phrase "past due customers" to make it more search-friendly.

App Center: Jumping onto the app trend, QuickBooks now features a center with free and paid apps, including one called Green Snapshot that helps users make their businesses more environmentally friendly while cutting costs. The center currently features 35 apps created by both Intuit and third-party developers, with more due to roll out in the coming months.

Add-Ons: The software also offers add-ons that cost extra, including a document storage feature that lets users upload documents, such as scanned receipts, and attach them to, say, an accounts receivable file. For an additional fee, another feature lets users upload scan checks that are then automatically matched up to accounts and sent to the bank for processing.

Cost: QuickBooks Pro 2010 starts at $199.95 for one user. The Premier edition, which is tailored to specific industries, starts at $399.95 for one user.

Availability: The software is available on the QuickBooks site today and will hit retailers next week. A Mac version is due out later this month.

If you've already tried out the new QuickBooks and have any comments or tips for other business owners, please leave a comment below or e-mail Nadine Heintz, editor of The Goods, at nheintz@inc.com.

A few months ago, I got a demo of a new free bookkeeping software called Outright. While a lot of Inc. readers are probably using more advanced accounting software, Outright is aimed at super-small-business owners, a.k.a the self-employed. The program makes it really easy to track income and expenses and estimate quarterly taxes. It also integrates with Freshbooks invoicing software and Shoeboxed.

It's an ideal tool for folks who are graduating from Excel spreadsheets or, worse, the receipts-in-a-shoebox approach. My friend Ben Yarrow, of Yarrow Communications, is a case in point. I told him about Outright and he loves it — he actually said that it's fun. "Bookkeeping is not my favorite part of the entrepreneurial experience, yet I have spent many entertaining and surprisingly enjoyable hours with Outright," Yarrow told me. "It feels good to be organized and to finally have a picture of my finances."

Try it, and let us know what you think.

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In our July/August issue, we wrote about the latest version of Ooma's highly-rated VoIP phone system. Launched a couple years ago, Ooma's system allows you to make free domestic calls, and call internationally for as little as 1.4 cents per minute. The upgraded version, called the Telo, comes with a handset and some added features, but the older model is on sale at Dell for just $172, compared with $300 and up for the Telo.

Just a couple days ago, I wrote about a $300 Toshiba laptop. Now, OfficeMax is selling the 15-inch Acer Aspire AS5515-5187 Notebook for $300. The computer has a 160GB hard drive, 3GB of RAM (unusually high for a laptop of this price), and a 1.6GHz AMD Athlon processor, which may be a little slow running Windows Vista; here's a review of another laptop with the same processor.

And by the way: Dell is offering the Dell V305w Wireless All-in-One Printer on sale for only $49; Brad's Deals says that's a $20 drop from earlier in the month.

If you see a $300 laptop deal, send it my way!

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Thanks to Brad's Deals for pointing this out: Best Buy is selling the 15.4" Toshiba L305-S5955 Satellite Laptop for only $299.99. It has a 2.2GHz Intel Celeron processor, 2GB memory, and a 160GB hard drive. Get more info here. Want more options? Check out this Toshiba Satellite for only $360.

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There are a couple of great new computer deals over at Brad's Deals, the site tended by our new blogger, Brad Wilson. HP is offering its TouchSmart IQ500t Desktop PC for $804.99, if you use the coupon code DTPC54567, which gets you 30% off a purchase of $1099. The computer has a 22-inch touchscreen monitor, a 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB of memory, and a 500GB hard drive if you select the free upgrade.

Prefer a notebook? The 13-inch dv3t laptop (4GB/320GB) is currently available for $620, if you use Brad's coupon codes. You can find other HP discounts from Brad's Deals here, including a 16-inch laptop (3GB/320GB) for $550, and an 18-inch Blu-Ray laptop (4GB/500GB) for only $1015.

The blog Upgrade: Travel Better alerted me to a new trend: airlines notifying their Twitter followers of hot deals. According to the Chicago Tribune, United Airlines calls them Twares and JetBlue calls them Cheeps. Recent Jet Blue fares included Palm Beach to Laguardia for $59, and Nassau to Fort LAuderdale for $9 (plus taxes and fees, of course).

But Upgrade also noted that Twitter fares have some fine print: some of them, for example, won't earn you any frequent flier miles.

By the way, Upgrade: Travel Better is a good blog to follow for info on travel deals; recently, for example, it alerted me to the fact that Westin hotels have a buy-two-nights-get-one-free offer going on until December 31.

Like the iPhone, the Pre has a notably short battery life. But there are a few ways to boost it. Laptop Magazine suggests changing the sync setting, so the phone checks for new messages less often.

You can also log out of instant messaging, turn off Bluetooth and GPS, or reduce the screen's brightness. CNET offers a video demo that shows how to do some of these things. Pre Central also suggests, counterintuitively, that turning the WiFi on in an area of good WiFi coverage could extend the Pre's battery as well.

But reader Angela Gonzales of Grayslake, Illinois-based GFXI has found another method. She has found that as long as she charges the phone while it is turned off—and charges it completely before using it—the Pre keeps the charge through the day. "We LOVE the Pre and love learning new things every day with it," she wrote me today.

Have you found any other ways to improve battery life on the iPhone or the Palm Pre?

Rosetta Stone, the language-learning company that had a very successful IPO earlier this year, announced a major expansion of its service today. In addition to its online and CD-ROM based tools, the Inc. 5000 company is launching two new features: online coaching with a trained Rosetta Stone coach, and person-to-person conversational activities with other learners.

The CD-ROM and online tools will still be available for $549 and up, but you can get the entire package for an introductory price of $999 (eventually, it will cost $1,200, according to CEO Tom Adams). That price covers 12 months of unlimited use of Rosetta Stone's tools for one language. (Here's a list of the languages available; the new services will be available for 24 of the 31 tongues.)

Rosetta Stone takes an innovative approach to language instruction: it offers no translation and teaches no grammar. Instead, it attempts to mimic the experience of being immersed in a foreign country. It uses images and games: you might, for example, be presented with four photos: a white dog, a black dog, a white cat, and a black cat. The first three images will be described in words ("Il Cane e Nero"), and you'll have to fill in or speak the sentence that describes the fourth. The company uses its own speech recognition technology.

The new service, Totale, comes with more complicated, competitive games. In one game, two students are presented with slightly different photos; they must find the difference by asking questions ("Is there a plate on the table?"). The coaches, meanwhile, play their own games with students, and are explicitly forbidden to give translations. Currently, the company employes 60 coaches, and coaching is only available at certain times of day.

Have you used Rosetta Stone, or another language-learning tool? What did you think? I'll be testing out the Hebrew tool, because I'm curious how Rosetta Stone manages to teach a language with an unfamiliar alphabet. I'll let you know how it goes.

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We've been busy putting together the Inc. 500 issue, and as a result I've seen a lot of cool stuff that I haven't gotten a chance to blog about. Hence, the cool stuff roundup.

Recycled Laptop Sleeves. Kena Kai is launching a new line of notebook sleeves made of recycled plastic bottles. They're available in three sizes: 10.8-inches ($25), 13.3-inches ($30), and 15.4 inches ($35). They have a felted look so it's rather obvious they're made from recycled plastic ... which could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your point of view. If you feel like buying me one, I've got a 13-inch MacBook and a 14-inch Dell; both could use a little recycled love.

Cheap Promotional Items. If you want to put your logo on pens, keychains, buttons, coffee cups, handheld fans, bag clips, foam visors, bottle openers, or pretty much anything else, but don't want to spend a lot of money, check out UnderABuck.com. Everything starts at, you guessed it, under a buck. My favorite is the promotional syringe pen.

A Nifty Speaker for Your iPhone or iPod Touch. I finally got a chance to try the portable Livespeakr, which launched in February. Your iPhone or iPod Touch can snap right into the cradle, which can be turned horizontally or vertically. (View it at Engadget.) It's shielded against radiofrequency interference, so the cell signal won't get in the way of your tunes. The company says the rechargeable battery lasts up to 16 hours, although I didn't test that myself. All in all, the sound quality was pretty good for such a small device. It's on sale at Amazon for $84.99. Buy it now; next Friday, you can leave work early and take it to the beach.

Çordless Charging for your iPhone or BlackBerry. If there is an easy way to charge an iPhone, I know not what it is. WildCharge just launched skins that fit snugly on the iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry Curve, or BlackBerry Pearl. Just plop the phone, skin-on, onto the WildCharge wireless charging mat, and voila, it starts charging. You can buy the mat and skin for $79.99, or just the skin for $34.99; check out the store here.

So far, no one has been able to unseat the Kindle for dominance in the ebook reader market. The Kindle's success is based in part on good design, it has gotten a major boost from Amazon's e-book store, which held 275,000 titles when we surveyed the e-reader market in our last issue—more than twice as many as Sony.

But next year, Barnes & Noble could take a big bite out of Amazon's lead. The retailer announced that it is offering 700,000 titles on a range of platforms, including the iPhone, BlackBerry smartphones, and, perhaps most importantly, the much-anticipated e-reader from Plastic Logic, currently slated for an early 2010 launch. (Though, as I recall, it was formerly slated for an early 2009 launch. The best laid plans ...)

Can Barnes & Noble catch up to Amazon? Amazon will probably boost its library to 700,000 titles or more, quickly obviating any quantitative advantage. After that, it depends in large part on the quality of the Plastic Logic device. The e-book reader market is still in early-adopter-land; I, for one, am sitting on the sidelines until the third generation of devices is released.

Amazon has done an impressive job of building up this market, but it has no iPhone-like hold on its customers—no app store, for example, to keep customers from switching to a new, better device. If a decent competitor comes along, its lead could evaporate quickly.

Recently, Microsoft has gotten a lot of positive press for its ads, which follow ordinary people trying to buy a computer on a budget. Until today, I hadn't seen Apple's response, probably because I've spent the last few months watching all five seasons of The Wire on DVD. Check them out below -- which do you think is more persuasive?

Here's one of Microsoft's ads:

And here is Apple's response:

American consumers must be spending too much time at the beach, not enough time shopping, because a lot of stores are dropping their prices on electronics. Some great laptop deals were announced today. Plus, take a look at our recent video, Ask a Store Clerk, after the jump. We checked in with Hector at J&R and got some good netbook-buying advice.

The Acer Aspire One 8.9-inch netbook is available for $258 at WalMart (it's usually $300). Drawback: it only has a 3-cell battery, so you'll probably get less than three hours of battery life. Splurge if you can and get the 10-inch, with a six cell battery, for $328 (it usually costs around $350). UPDATE: BOTH DEALS ARE STILL AVAILABLE AS OF 7/21.

J&R just released its Black Friday in July newsletter, which is full of deals. The Eee PC 1000HA (aka the Seashell) is $349, marked down from $389. UPDATE: IT'S NOW $379.

The 14-inch Acer Timeline is $649, marked down from $699; note that it has a budget processor, a 1.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Solo (for better performance, you'd want a Core 2 Duo of 2.0 GHz or above). But it has 4GB RAM and a 320GB hard drive. UPDATE: IT'S NOW $699.

Continue reading "Great Deals on Six Laptops"

Chances are you've cut back on your travel budget; perhaps you're flying coach, perhaps you're flying less often, or perhaps you're not flying at all. Today, British Airways announced that it is offering small business owners the chance to win a free trip anywhere in the world. Simply go to BA.com/facetoface, and write up to 500 words about why you—and a colleague, if applicable—need to travel overseas for business. Entries must be submitted by the end of July, and the winners will be announced in August.

Here's how it will work: A plane will leave JFK on September 15, LAX on October 13, and Chicago O'Hare on November 17. Each plane will be filled ONLY with the contest winners—a pretty good face-to-face networking opportunity in itself. British Airways will put up the winners for one night in a London hotel and host a networking event there. Then, you can go from London anywhere else in the world where British Airways flies.

There are, of course, plenty of tools that can help you do business while staying at home—Skype, AIM, and TokBox come to mind. But nothing replaces face to face contact for closing deals, researching potential partners, and staying in touch with employees. According to new research from the Harvard Business Review, which will be published in August, 87 percent of business travelers say they can't seal a deal without face to face meetings. Sales executives, in particular, say it's vital for shortening the sales cycle and reducing misunderstandings. And if you can travel overseas for free ... well, that's just icing on the cake.

Check out the contest, and let us know if you find any other travel deals.

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When I got a look at Nokia's N97 at CES earlier this year, it seemed pretty cool. And a lot of other reviewers thought so, too. (You can check out my video demo below.) But that was before the fabulous Palm Pre came out, not to mention the new iPhone 3G S. The N97 wasn't immediately available in the US so full-fledged reviews are just now starting to come out, and yesterday Gizmodo called it "doomed":

Nokia has to know where it stands. At least, assuming somebody actually used the N97 before it went out the door. ... [The operating system] only makes sense if it's a stopgap keeping Nokia in the game (barely) until they put out an actual next-generation OS... That's the only way I can fathom them releasing something this unusable into a world populated by the iPhone, Palm Pre, Android and BlackBerry.

I absolutely love the Clickfree Traveler. It's the size of a credit card, so it can easily fit in your wallet. Plug it in using the super-thin USB connector, and it automatically starts backup up everything on your computer—no clicking, installing, or approving required. Plus, it comes in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB versions (16GB should be plenty for most people.)

The drive is a little tough to find online. You can get it at Clickfree for the list price ($80 for 16GB, $150 for 32GB, $250 for 64GB). Amazon is selling the 32GB version for $131.56. And you can get an even better deal at B&H: $76.50 (16GB), $126.95 (32GB), $229.95 (64GB).

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I've written before about the HP Total Care Access Card, which small businesses can use to get discounts on web design and other services. Well, it used to cost $49 and now it's free, with purchase of one HP product. Deals include: $500 off website design with LogoWorks, a free Intuit credit card processing kit ($39.95 value), and distribution of one press release through PR Web ($80 value). For a complete list of deals and discounts, click here.

Ford's new small-business delivery vans are great, Jay Goltz says in a post on his New York Times blog today—but the company's marketing materials do a terrible job of explaining why.

For instance, they say, “The power train was upgraded to include a proven Duratec 2.0 liter dual overhead cam (DOHC) I-4 engine …” What does that mean? But then I drove the truck and noticed the pick-up. Me understand. Me go fast. Me want. How many people even know what a power train is? Or a dual overhead cam? Oh, excuse me, a DOHC.

Check out the full post, and let us know what you think. Does this sound like a van you would buy?

A while ago, I got a demo of Outright, a simple, free bookkeeping tool that makes it easy to track income and expenses, generate reports, and calculate your estimated quarterly tax bill. It's integrated with FreshBooks, so you can import invoices, payments, and other data. And it's also integrated with Shoeboxed, the service that helps you organize receipts and track expenses. (We wrote about Shoeboxed a few months ago.) All in all, Outright seemed like an easy, intuitive tool for a self-employed person—in other words, someone who doesn't need a full-featured program like QuickBooks.

Now, they're offering a bit of a bonus to anyone who signs up by the end of July: get a free domain name and a basic website from Network Solutions. Go to Outright.com for more info. Granted, this isn't a huge bonus; GoDaddy sells domains for $7.99, so getting one for free won't save you from laying anyone off. And the website is truly basic; you fill out some information about your company, and Network Solutions builds a very simple profile page. Nevertheless, this is a good excuse to test out Outright. Let me know what you think in the comments section below.

We've searched the Web to find the best deals on products featured in this month's issue of The Goods. For starters, here are the best camera deals we've found, based on our story about four of the best new cameras on the market.

DSL-R in miniature: The Nikon D5000 is available at Amazon for $780, and at J&R for $790 (add it to your cart to get the lower price).

Built for speed: The Casio Exilim EX-FC100 is at Amazon for $290 and NewEgg for $300 and Buy.com for $300; at Adorama, for $350 you get the camera and a $50 gift card.

Small body, big zoom: There aren't a lot of deals on the Canon SX200 IS; for the most part, it's priced around $350, the same price we quoted in the story. However, you can get a red one on Amazon for $325, or a black one at NewEgg for $$338.

Roughing it: The Olympus Stylus Tough 6000 is $269 at Buy.com, Adorama, and J&R; at Amazon, it's $266 when you add it to your cart.

For the last seven days, I've been testing the Palm Pre, and today, sadly, I must send it back. I generally don't think of myself as a person who gets attached to gadgets because of their design. I scoff at tech reviews that gush over a laptop's beauty or form factor. But I must say, I became very attached to the Pre, and I think design is one of the major reasons why. It is small enough that the iPhone seems almost bulky in comparison. Plus, it feels more durable than the iPhone, less fragile. I'm afraid I'd break an iPhone within two weeks, while the Pre feels as solid as a regular phone.

And, of course, there's the fact that the Pre can multitask. I had as many as eight programs open at once on the Pre; the iPhone, by contrast, can only run one at a time. The Pre can also combine your work and personal calendars, so you can look at them both at once, and it does the same for your contacts. Overall, it's quite a nice operating system; check out the video demo below to see how it works.

There is one flaw. As you can see in the video, the keyboard is very small. It was a bit uncomfortable for me, and I wish Palm had included the option of a touchscreen keyboard. But for those business users who hate touchscreens—but still want a decent smartphone—the Pre's physical keyboard will come as a relief.

Then there's the price. Sprint's Everything Data 450 Minute plan costs only $69.99 a month, and includes unlimited data and text messaging plus GPS navigation—so get rid of that standalone GPS device. With AT&T, the plans also start at $69.99, but you have to pay $20 more for unlimited text messaging, or $5 for 200 text messages a month. And it's unclear what the iPhone's new TomTom GPS app will cost.

There is, of course, one thing I haven't mentioned: Apple's App Store. When it comes to apps, the iPhone beats the Pre hands down. But if you're just looking for a device that lets you surf the Web, check email, keep tabs on your calendar, make calls, listen to music, and get where you're trying to go ... well, the Pre is a pretty good bet.

I recently received the following email:

I want to buy a netbook for $400 or less. Any advice?
—M.C.

The netbook category is changing so rapidly, it's sometimes hard to keep up. But it seems that the best value for your money right now is probably the Asus Eee PC 1000HE. It's an editor’s choice at PC Magazine and a favorite at Laptop Magazine, which called it “one of the best values in netbooks around.” It offers over seven hours of battery life (compared with less than five hours on average for netbooks), weighs 3.2 pounds, and sports a 92-percent keyboard that makes some crucial improvements over previous versions. (Notably, the shift key is now right under the enter key, a placement that’s more important than you might think.) The 1000HE is currently available at Amazon for $383.

Personally, I would avoid the Eee PC 1008HA, also known as the seashell, which is a little thinner and prettier than the HE but has 1.5 hours less battery life. Style is relative; even the best-looking netbooks look a bit like children’s toys. However, I know M. sometimes prefers style over substance, so I’ll leave that decision up to him.

Another good choice is Samsung’s highly-regarded N110, which also has over 7 hours of battery life and a great keyboard; it costs roughly $410 at Amazon, Buy.com, and J&R.

What if you want to go cheaper?

Continue reading "The Best Netbook For Under $400"

Mobile broadband has become an essential tool for business travelers. But what if you don't want to buy a $60-per-month subscription for each of your employees? Today, Virgin Mobile announced a new option: pay-as-you-go mobile broadband. Buy a $150 dongle, and then just pay for service when you need it.

Prices are a bit steep: $10 gets you 10 days of access, but only 100 megabytes of data, which is equivalent to about five hours of Web browsing. So if you want to get some work done in the airport, it might be worth the price. If you are planning on heavy usage over a week-long business trip, this plan probably won't cover it. Other pricing tiers include $20 (30 days, 250MB), $40 (30 days, 600 MB) or $60 (30 days, 1GB). Here's more detail from Virgin.

There's another great way to save money on mobile broadband subscriptions: buy Novatel's MiFi, which we wrote about in April. It's a device that has a mobile broadband connection embedded in it. It's like having a portable WiFi hotspot wherever you go. You have to pay for the subscription ($40 for 250MB, $60 for 5GB). But if you buy one MiFi for the office, then you can pass it around depending on who's traveling. Voila: there's no need to buy individual subscriptions for each of your employees.

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It's not easy to compare different credit cards—banks go out of their way to obscure key details, and most comparison websites are difficult to navigate. So I decided to test out BillShrink, the new website that tries to find you the best deal on gas, credit cards, and cell phone plans, based on your preferences and usage habits. It allows you to search for cards based on your spending habits, the kind of rewards you want, and your credit rating. Read on for the full BillShrink review, or simply skim through for the bolded names of credit cards that offer solid cash-back returns.

Continue reading "The Best Cash Back Cards"

Here's an interesting new service. VoxOx, which we called "Skype on Steroids" a few months ago, just announced a feature called SMS Callback, which supposedly allows you to place an international call, from any mobile phone around the globe, for just a few cents per minute.

You send a text message to a special VoxOx number, and wait for a call back connecting you with the person you're trying to reach. You avoid paying international rates because you're simply accepting an incoming call. And you don't even need Internet access. Setting it up requires a rather involved process, and it seems like there are multiple moments where something could go wrong, severing the call before it even begins. Nevertheless, it'll be a great deal if it works. Learn more here, and if you try it, tell us what you think.

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As expected, Apple announced a new iPhone today, the 3G S—the "S," they say, stands for speed. The Apple-hungry hoards were predictably delirious; according to an Engadget poll, more than 55% say the new iPhone beats the Pre hands down (though most have not used either). Looking beyond the hype, however, there are a few new features that are particularly relevant for business users.

Tethering. You can now use the iPhone as a modem for a laptop that doesn't have Internet access. (More info from Engadget.)

Speed. Word on the street is the iPhone 3G S really is a lot faster than the iPhone 3G. Apple says it can launch Web pages and applications up to two times faster than its predecessor. That's a good thing, because Laptop Magazine recently found that the iPhone 3G took twice as long to load a Web page as the Palm Pre.

Voice control. Now, you can speak commands into the phone—telling it to dial a particular number, pause music, play a particular song, or even "play more songs like this." Not a bad feature for anyone who uses the iPhone instead of the radio while driving.

Better value. You can get a 16GB version of the 3G S for $199, and a 32GB version for $299. (Before, you got half the storage for the same price.) Plus, the plain old 3G is now available, in its 8GB iteration, for just $99. That's right, you can now get a brand new iPhone for $99.

Of course, the iPhone 3G S also has Apple's new 3.0 software, which includes cut and paste capability, and Spotlight search, which allows you to search everything, including your email, calendar, and contacts. Plus, the keyboard now works in landscape mode, for those who found it tough to type on a vertical keyboard.

What do you think? Are you rushing out to buy the 3G S? Or will you get the now-outdated 3G for $99? Or, perhaps you're a huge fan of the Pre?

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I bought a Mac earlier this year, and for the most part, I'm pretty happy with it. But the speakers are terrible. When I watch TV shows or Hulu videos, I have to crank up the volume to its highest level, and it usually isn't loud enough. So a few months ago, I got a portable $30 speaker made by Altec Lansing—more specifically, the iM-237 Orbit Ultraportable Speaker for MP3 Players. It's small, and it comes in a nifty little case. And the battery life is amazing. I've occasionally left it on all night by accident. Yet, it's still using the same batteries I put in it in February. I watch a lot of TV online, since I don't have cable, and this speaker has become an indispensable gadget.

When I heard Microsoft was spending over $80 million on marketing for its new search engine, Bing, I was immediately skeptical. "If Bing was better than Google," I told my husband, "they wouldn't need to spend that much money." Plus, I've consistently been disappointed by other would-be Google competitors, like Kosmix.

But Bing, to my surprise, has gotten some good early reviews. And it deserves them—particularly for its video search. The interface is prettier and softer than Google's, but equally clutter-free. While Google seems to give preference to YouTube videos, Bing offeres a wider variety. Best of all, with Bing, you can simply put your mouse over a video, without clicking on anything, and it will start playing. Expect Google to add this feature soon.

To compare the two search engines, I started by doing a video seach for "managing a startup." Bing almost instantaneously turned up a really attractive page of search results that was easy to scan. Each video had a clear picture, usually of a person, and a brief, one- to five-word description. Google's page, by contrast, was difficult to read. The images were terrible; some were essentially blank, and most gave no clue as to what the videos were about. The descriptions were sometimes gibberish.

A regular Web search for "managing a startup" turned up disappointing results on both search engines. (Come on, people, Inc. magazine should be the top result!) I adjusted my query and tried searching for "hiring tips for startups"—that turned up pretty similar results on both Bing and Google. At this point, it's too early to say if one is better than the other for general search.

So does Bing have a chance of gaining marketshare from Google? It will be a rough road. Anyone over the age of 10 already sees Google as the Internet's soul mate: it's almost impossible to think of one without the other. Even an $80 million marketing campaign may not be enough to top that.

Airport terminals are usually associated with fatigue, boredom, and overpriced food. So it's remarkable that Terminal Five, JetBlue's new hub in JFK airport, actually generated excitement among New Yorkers. (We wrote about the terminal's takeout food stations a few months ago in Five Cures for the Layover Blues.) I finally got to see the terminal this past weekend, and while it's certainly an improvement over the tent-like system JetBlue was using last summer, it didn't exactly offer the air travel oasis I was expecting.

Thumbs up to the free WiFi.

Thumbs down to the Boar's Head deli. Four staffers were helping four customers ... so why did it take 15 minutes to make a sandwich?

Thumbs down to the food court. Why would anyone call it spacious? Sure, there's a lot of seating. But the place where you order your food—in other words, the place where you wait 15 minutes for a turkey sandwich—is cramped and crowded.

Thumbs down to the snacks without any prices on them. Okay, I should probably assume that a tiny box of chocolates sold at Cibo Express will cost $15. But it would save me some time if you'd just tell me that straight out.

But here's the biggest problem: JetBlue started a live music program last week, and the performances take place right outside the food court. As we waited for our sandwiches (did I mention it took 15 minutes?) we could hear recorded pop music playing over the loudspeakers, conflicting with the live music less than 50 feet away. It was excruciating.

As a side note, it would be nice if the flights left on time. But now I'm getting greedy.

We're going to start chronicling our favorite iPhone apps for business users on a weekly basis. Here's the first installment, by Kelly Faircloth.

Exec Tweets
Looking for a little light reading between-meetings? Website ExecTweets now has an app that’ll keep you updated about what other executives are twittering. What’s on Richard Branson’s mind? What’s Fred Wilson reading this morning? It’s a good way to kill time and stay up-to-day with what’s happening in the entrepreneurial world.

Tip
You probably don’t want to close a business lunch by struggling to figure out the tip. But that little bit of restaurant math can stymie even the most brilliant executive after a two- or three-martini lunch. Just in case, you might want to download this tip calculator. If your expense account isn't what it used to be, it'll even help you split the bill.

Traffic1
Presumably, you already know how long it takes to get to a meeting across town from your headquarters. But how long will it take to get from your hotel to your client’s office? How’s the traffic in Boise at 3pm on a Tuesday afternoon in June? That’s what iPhone app Traffic1 will tell you. It delivers real time traffic updates for every city in the US, so you can figure out exactly how much time it’ll take to get where you’re going.

We want to find the absolute best smartphone apps for entrepreneurs! Whether you use an iPhone, Blackberry, G1, or any other smartphone, let us know which apps you use to keep your business running smoothly. Just leave a comment below! We'll run our favorite reader suggestions in a future issue of Inc.

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Everyone's buzzing about the latest netbook from Asus, the Eee PC 1008HA, also known as the Seashell. PC World says it feels a lot like a Macbook, and it's so thin that it even looks a bit like the MacBook Air.

Now, you can get a $20 discount if you pre-order the Seashell from electronics superstore J&R by Monday, May 25. (That knocks the price down from $420 to $400.) The computer has classic netbook stats: an Intel Atom processor, 1GB RAM, a 160GB hard drive and Windows XP. It weighs 2.42 pounds. It also has a webcam, but there's one drawback: it only has a three-cell battery.

Toshiba announced a new laptop today that has some pretty impressive stats. The Protege R600-ST4203 is 2.4 pounds and less than an inch thick. And, more importantly, it has a 512GB solid state drive. Toshiba says this is the world's first 512GB solid state drive, and I believe it. Often, you see solid state drives in netbooks and they tend to come in sizes like, oh, 8GB or 16GB.

The problem is, most people simply won't need a hard drive that big. By pricing the computer at $3,499, Toshiba is clearly aiming at the true early adopters. Larry Dignan of ZDNet is skeptical the notebook will gain many followers. Most other tech pubs haven't weighed in yet but I'll keep you posted when they do.

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For this week's contest, I'm giving away a cell phone charger that plugs into the cigarette lighter in your car. You can use it with any gadget that has a USB-to-mini-USB adapter, and it has a flashlight on it as well. (More details here). The charger is made by a company called Flashlight-er, and it ordinarily costs $29.95 plus shipping and handling. To win, leave a comment below describing your favorite tech tool (and, ideally, how you use it in your business). If you already wrote about your favorite tool in last week's contest, go with your second-favorite! The contest is open until Friday at 5 p.m., and I'll use a random number generator to pick a winner.

Also, congratulations to Amy Ng of Fides Fashion, winner of last week's contest. Ng wrote about Google Analytics, but she uses another interesting tool as well: eCRATER, a Website where anyone can build an online store for free. She won the book AdWords for Dummies, which comes with an AdWords gift card worth $25.

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Don't believe the hype: the recession isn't over yet. That means there are still a lot of great deals out there on gadgets and gear including netbooks, HP laptops, the Nikon Coolpix, Magellan GPS devices, and Canon camera products. Read on ...

NETBOOKS
ZipZoomFly has the MSI Wind U90 for $195. Unlike other MSI netbooks, the U90 has gotten weak reviews; the operating system isn't great and the battery lasts for less than two hours, according to Laptop Magazine. But Engadget called its price tag "delicious"—and that was when it cost $350. Shipping is free.

The Eee PC 900 is $199.99 at ZipZoomFly, an $80 discount. Eee PCs are extremely popular, although this particular model is relatively weak; it has only 512 MB of RAM and an 8GB solid state drive. But you can't beat the price. Amazon is selling a similarly decked-out Eee PC, albeit with a more powerful processor, for $100 more. If $200 is still too pricey for you, check out this refurbished Eee PC 900 for $169.99. [NOTE: This deal is no longer active—the price has gone up to $279.]

Dell is offering its Mini 9 for $55 or $99 with purchase of select Latitude E6400 and E6500 netbooks. It's a little confusing, but one of the E6400 models includes a Mini 9 for an extra $55, and the total price is $1055. Another, more high-end E6400 model, comes to $1189, but XP is included for free. You have to add the Mini when you're configuring the system. For the E6500 with a cheap Mini 9, click here.

Continue reading "Netbooks Under $200"

It's tough to find good deals online, because any savvy Web retailer will tell that you're getting a bargain whether it's true or not. It sometimes seems like every product sold online is marked down by $50. I just learned about a tool that helps you sort through that and determine which deals are really deals on Amazon.com. It's called CamelCamelCamel.com, and it allows you to track how the price of the product you want has changed over time.

Take the Kodak Zi6 video camera. It's currently $135.74 on Amazon, marked down from $179.99. In reality, it hasn't been $179.99 in a long time. On CamelCamelCamel, I learned that its average price is $135.14, but it has cost as little as $129.99 during the last two weeks. And I can set up an email alert, so I'll be notified whenever it falls below $120.

UPDATE: I just found out there are other camel sites for other web retailers, including camelegg for NewEgg, camelbuy for Best Buy, camelstock, for Overstock, and camelcamper, for Backcountry.

Have you tried it? Do you like it? Let us know in the comments section below.

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In my quest to find a good remote access tool, I have been dying to try CrossLoop—but I've been stymied, because I use Macs at work and at home, and the software has only been available for PCs. Luckily for me, last week CrossLoop introduced a new version for Macs.

CrossLoop is free desktop sharing software—install it on your computer, and anyone, anywhere in the world can control your desktop from any computer connected to the Internet. (They must download the free software as well.) If your mom has trouble copying and pasting links (not that my mom would have trouble with anything like that), you can help her out by taking control of her desktop and showing her exactly what to do.

Or, you can hire one of CrossLoop's expert tech consultants, available 24-7. With this feature, CrossLoop differentiates itself from GoToMyPC and LogMeIn, two remote access tools we profiled in the most recent issue of Inc. GoToMyPC and LogMeIn are great tools for your tech support team, who can use them to do remote trouble-shooting. But CrossLoop is essentially a tech support department in itself.

Have you tried it? Did you like it? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

We're just full of free stuff this week. The software company BatchBlue, which makes free CRM software for small businesses, is having a contest. It takes a couple minutes to enter; just go here, scroll down, and write 200 words about why you're a small business superhero. Cheesy? Yes. Potentially lucrative? Also yes. First prize includes a $250 JetBlue gift certificate, $500 in credit at MailChimp, and six months of free Shoeboxed. And of course, if you haven't done it already, enter to win $25 in free AdWords credit. The deadline to enter the BatchBlue contest is May 22; the deadline to win the AdWords credit is 5 p.m. today.

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I have a copy of AdWords for Dummies, which comes with a $25 AdWords Gift Certificate. If you want it, leave a comment below describing your favorite tech tool or Web service (Mint.com, Google Docs, Zoho, etc.) If you're a business owner, describe how you use it in your business. The contest is open until Monday, May 11 at 5 p.m. I'll use a random number generator to pick a winner. I'll email you the promo code for the gift certificate so you can use it right away, and mail you the book. (Or, if you only want the gift certificate, let me know and I'll pick a second winner for the book.)

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Journalists often have a love/hate relationship with PR reps. We rely on public relations professionals a lot. Sometimes, they come up with great story ideas. Often, they help us find information for stories we're already working on. PR is particularly useful for a tech journalist; I rely on companies keeping me updated about the products in their pipelines. I say all this as a preface, because I want PR folks to know that I really do appreciate their efforts.

That said, here are eight ways to ensure that I will delete your email after approximately 1/4 of a second.

Use the word "mompreneur." We will never, ever, ever write a trend story about mompreneurs. Mompreneur is not a catchy word, it's not an illustrative word. In fact, it's not a word at all. Most people have kids at some point in their lives. If your client owns a business and is also a mom, that's nice, but it doesn't make her worthy of a story. This is true even if she makes some kid-related product, or she came up with the idea for her company while driving her kids to daycare. By the way, this also applies to dadpreneurs, kidpreneurs, and familypreneurs.

Write this: "He saw a niche, and filled it." That's pretty much the definition of entrepreneurship. It's not the basis for a story.

Don't tell me what your product is. Some people seem to expect that I will be so enthralled by their pitches that I will call and demand to know what amazing products they're talking about. Please, just tell me what your product is. Then, if I'm interested, I'll let you know. This is particularly relevant for phone calls. I will never, ever return a phone call if I have no idea what it's regarding. And "I represent this really cool company" is not enough to justify a return call.

Don't get to the point until the third paragraph. There are occasional exceptions to this, but for the most part, if I have to scroll down to get to the point, I will press the delete key instead. Every day, I receive emails that start with two paragraphs of throat clearing. Often, these paragraphs are filled with data. The writer is trying to lay out an argument for why I should cover this particular product or company. Please, just tell me up front what the product or company is. If it is even within the realm of something I might cover, I will keep reading.

Don't include a URL in your pitch. It's a lot easier for me to visit the company's website if there's a link right in the pitch. Call me lazy, but I don't want to type your URL into my browser when I could just delete your email and move on.

Refer to Inc. as FSB. This has really happened.

Attach eight PDFs. Attachments fill up my inbox really fast, and I have limited space. Plus attachments are a great way to get stuck in my spam filter.

Don't answer my questions. When I reply to a PR pitch with questions, many people ignore me and offer to schedule a call with the CEO. Scheduling a call takes up a huge chunk of my time. I'm not going to do it unless I know there might be a story in it for me. To know that, I need the answers to my questions. The thing is, if I responded to your email, that means you got my attention. That's good news. Don't lose my attention by totally ignoring my questions.

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Are you having trouble selling your product online? I've recently learned about a company called TrialPay, which has an interesting solution. TrialPay was founded by Alex Rampell, a young entrepreneur who got his start at age 15, when he wrote a popular software program that helped AOL users avoid losing their Internet connections.

The software was banned by AOL, but earned Rampell some great publicity. He went on to found FraudEliminator, which was sold to McAfee, and then he started TrialPay. TrialPay calls itself an "alternative payment" company, and it's growing fast: revenue was $20 million last year and Rampell expects it to double this year.

Here's how it works.

Say you’re a small company, and you have trouble convincing online shoppers to buy your product. (This is particularly relevant for companies that sell software, since consumers often expect software to be free.) Sign up with TrialPay, and at checkout, customers will see a “Pay with TrialPay” option, allowing them to choose from dozens of other offers and get the product you’re selling for free.

Say the customer chooses “Send Flowers with 1-800-Flowers.” Then, 1-800-Flowers will pay you a fee for each customer you refer. Sometimes, that fee is more than you would have gotten from selling your product; referral fees range from $5 to $200. TrialPay takes a cut of the referral fee, but doesn't charge businesses anything for signing up. More than 30 million consumers use TrialPay and the majority of companies that profit from it are small, private firms.

To see what Trial Pay looks like in action, check out this page from WinZip's website. You can also see a variation of it at Papa Johns' site; in the bottom right corner, you'll see an ad that says "Join Netflix and get a $10 Papa John's gift card."

Have you found any good ways to boost your online revenue?

Read more about TrialPay here.
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Who says Twitter is filled with useless information? Okay, maybe it is. But there are quite a few Tweeters who send out alerts about deals and discounts. Here are 10 that I've found; let me know if you have any others.

Walmartdeals. Even if you're not interested in the pleat-front pants, it's worth following Walmart for the tech deals, like this Vizio TV for $537.

Bradsdeals. Brad Wilson runs one of the best deal sites I've found, and his Twitter feed highlights his latest finds. It's heavy on consumer products rather than tech stuff.

Buydeals. Updates from Buy.com, which is one of the best places on the Web to find good prices on gadgets.

Softwaredeals. I think this is also a Buy.com Twitter account; at least, that's where all the deals are from.

Dealsrightnow. Some apparel deals, but also a lot of tech stuff, like a Kodak digital camera for $100 from Staples.

Continue reading "How to Find Deals on Twitter"

Ambient Devices has a new product out this week: an alarm clock that gives you a constantly updated, real-time weather report. The device also has its own email address and can receive emails up to 140 characters long, so you can have calendar reminders sent to your alarm clock or sign it up to receive school closure notifications. Ambient has its own little piece of the radio spectrum, so its devices can receive constantly-updated information without being connected to the Internet; its most popular product is a baseball team tracker.

But these cool features aren't cheap. The device costs $179. Only the first 20 emails are free—after that they cost 20 cents each. This gadget could make a great Mother's Day or Father's Day gift. But if all you really need is a halfway decent alarm clock, you should probably look elsewhere. Buy it here or here.

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Buy.com has a great deal on the Seagate FreeAgent XTreme 640GB external hard drive. It's just $84.99 with free shipping, compared with $168 for the exact same model at Amazon and $129.99 at NewEgg for a 500GB model. Laptop Magazine calls the FreeAgent one of the best external hard drives money can buy.

Are you wondering what to get your mother for Mother's Day this year? Here are six ideas from The Goods, ranging in price from free to $1,099.

Does she love capturing family moments? Get her the Flip Mino HD or the Kodak Zx1, portable camcorders that are easy to use, relatively inexpensive, and can be slipped in a pocket. The Flip is particularly portable. It's $205 at Buy.com, or $190 at Sale Zones, but if Mom can live without HD quality you can find it for $159.

Does she forget to backup her data? You could get her one year's subscription to Mozy online backup, now available for 20% off ($48). Or, if you'd prefer a tangible gift, check out the UltraBackup USB Drive from SanDisk (buy an 8GB for $34), which will allow her to back up all her documents with the press of a button.

Does she love having the next big thing? Get her the Livescribe Pulse Smartpen (buy it for $150). It contains an audio recorder and a tiny infrared camera that records everything the pen writes. Tap anywhere on your notes, and the pen begins playing the audio from that point in the recording. Dock the pen in its USB charging cradle, and the notes and audio are uploaded to your computer, where Livescribe can convert handwriting into type. The pen also has a calculator, and will have a Spanish-English translation tool.

Is she always on the go? Get her a netbook. Dell's Inspiron Mini 12 ($399) is small enough to toss in a purse, but large enough that it won't strain the eyes. If Mom wouldn't mind a 10-inch model, check out the Samsung N110 ($470 at NewEgg/$459 at Amazon).

Does she work from home? Then how about upgrading her office chair? Herman Miller's new Embody line has enough great features to make the Aeron jealous. At $1099 and up, it's not exactly a recession-friendly gift, but she'll thank you every day when she sits down to work. And of course, you could also go for the Aeron, starting at $629 at Office Designs.

Is she worried about identity theft? Obtain her credit reports from all three rating agencies, plus all three credit scores. Look over the reports and check for errors, then correct anything you find. Here's how you can do it for free. Confused about how to do it? Read how I corrected all the errors on my report (and boosted my credit score by 200 points) here.

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Mozy is one of the most popular online backup services available, and now you can get 20% off a yearly subscription of Mozy Home with the code UPLINE. (Click here to go straight to the deal; thanks to Twitterer Somsit for the tip.) Usually, it costs $4.95 a month for unlimited storage; with the deal, it's $43.57 for the year. You can also get 2GB of storage free.

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I just came across an interesting website: Credit Karma, which gives out free credit scores. It took under two minutes to put in all my information and get my score. Then, I was able to compare it to other Credit Karma users, other New Yorkers, and, strangely enough, other people with Gmail addresses. Overall, it was an easy and useful tool. I have no idea why the credit bureaus, which sell this information, are allowing Credit Karma to give it away for free, but I'm guessing they must have some sort of revenue share agreement.

I was not that impressed by Credit Karma's other personal finance tools. I used the home affordability calculator, for example, and it claimed I could afford a monthly payment equal to roughly 75 percent of my take home pay. Apparently, Credit Karma thinks highly of my ability to cut back on food and electricity. Either that, or it's trying to sell mortgages. Like Mint.com, Credit Karma makes money by marketing financial products to people who use the site.

Is Credit Karma a reliable source of information? Are its scores accurate?

Continue reading "Two Ways To Get Free Credit Scores"

Launching a missle? There's an app for that. My colleague alerted me to what has to be the best iPhone app yet. Okay, I don't have an iPhone yet so I'm probably not the best judge of this. But what could be better than an app that lets you control your USB missile launcher remotely? You can torture your colleagues with foam missiles without even being at your desk! From the press release:

"The iLauncher App Store program gives USB Missile Launcher owners the ability to move their Missile Launcher left, right, up, down and fire foam missiles wirelessly directly from their iPhone or iTouch. This allows for more discreet use of the Missile Launcher and adds a unique feature to the highly popular product. Were excited about this release and look forward to the release of more added value features to our line of innovative gadgets for the home or office," says Alex Yu, marketing manager at Newo Corporation.

The app costs $2.99 and the missile launcher is $29.99.

I just learned about an interesting new PR firm, with a business model that makes a lot of sense in a recession. PR veteran Geri Rosman has started a company called New Box Thinking. It's a PR help desk aimed at small businesses. Clients can sign up for one of two packages; for $95 a month, you can email Rosman with questions up to 10 times a month. For $150, you get ten emails plus a 30-minute brainstorming session. And as a "Recession Special," she's offering the email program for six months for just $50 per month. I can't vouch for her expertise, but as marketing expenses go, this is pretty cheap, so it's certainly worth checking out.

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Slide show: 11 Ways To Land Media Coverage

Summer's here, and you know what that means: ladies need to go sweater shopping. The office gets chilly once the AC is turned on. But who wants to carry a sweater back and forth to work every day? Thus, the search is on for the perfect office sweater. It's light. It goes with everything. It can be kept on the back of your chair for a day or two. Here are a few that I've found:

1. I like the The Ann Taylor Loft Tie Front Shrug, which costs $39. It's cotton and has three-quarter sleeves, so it's perfect for summer. Plus, I like that it ties in the front; not everyone looks good in a sweater that opens loosely on the sides. I also like that my mother-in-law works at Ann Taylor Loft, so I generally get the store's clothes for free.

2. Michelle Obama hasn't worn this particular J. Crew cardigan ($78), as far as I know, but there's no reason you can't pretend that she did. Same goes with this one ($148), which looks a little like the one she wore to meet British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

3. I've gotten a lot of compliments on the BCBG Max Azria sweater I wear all winter long. For summer, I'm thinking of getting this one ($198) or this one ($168). But the prices are rather steep ... maybe I'll save this for after the recession. (It's going to be over soon, right?)

My in-laws came to town yesterday, which inevitably means one thing: my husband and his father will go on a pilgrimage to Adorama, a famous camera store near our house. In the morning, I went on a bike ride and forgot to check my phone. When I got back, I had six missed calls from my husband, and I learned we were the proud owners of a new, $1,200 Nikon D90.

"Can I keep it?" he asked.

"Absolutely not," I said.

"But we need a camera," he said. "And it's a great deal because it's a floor model—usually this would cost $1,600."

It's true—we do need a camera. We always borrow my father-in-law's camera whenever we go on trips. For a while, we borrowed his D40. Then he upgraded to a D80 and we borrowed that. Then he sold the D80 and upgraded to a D90 and we borrowed that. It was easy enough, because they live only two hours away. But that era is about to end, because my in-laws are moving to Massachusetts. And we are left without so much as a point-and-shoot. Without so much as a cell phone camera.

It's nice having a camera that takes great photos without much effort. And photography is something of a hobby for Jon, so having a good camera is important to him. I wavered a bit. I want to buy a nice bike; he should get a nice camera. And if we're going to spend the money on this camera eventually, we might as well spend it now, in time to use the camera at the wedding we're going to in May. Eventually, however, I sent him back to Adorama with the unopened box. Here's why:

Continue reading "A Gadget, a Marital Dispute"

These days, it seems that everyone has a few air travel horror stories—everyone, that is, except me. Considering the fact that I fly in and out of New York, this is a minor miracle. Of course, I don't fly regularly for business; overall, I probably get on a plane four or five times a year. Still it's remarkable that I've never been forced to stay overnight in some random city because of an overbooked plane. My sister once got stuck in Chicago for three days after Christmas. And a friend of mine once was kicked off a flight and abused by airport staff for the simple crime of being one of the last people in the boarding line. But those are other people's terrible tales, not mine.

In the hopes that I can continue this winning streak, I have a few simple strategies.

Continue reading "How I Avoid Air Travel Disasters"

Two new Bluetooth headsets were released today: The latest Aliph Jawbone and the Plantronics Voyager Pro. Reviewers have wasted no time comparing them, with some surprising results. When we compared an earlier version of the Jawbone with the Plantronics Voyager 835 in our noise-canceling roundup earlier this year, reviewer Mark Spoonauer thought the Jawbone was the clear winner. Indeed, Aliph revolutionized the Bluetooth headset category by making a device that performed well AND looked good. But some of our readers disagreed with our assessment. Michael Felkey, president of a digital marketing company, said the Jawbone frequently lost contact with his cheek, rendering it useless. So he switched to a the Voyager 855.

Today, most reviewers seem to agree that the Voyager Pro is the gadget to beat when it comes to pure performance.

The fashion-conscious will still want to pick the Jawbone, which costs $130. It actually looks like it could be a fashion accessory, and it does a good job of canceling the noise around you; as Laptop Magazine says, it doesn't force you to compromise style for performance.

The Voyager Pro, by contrast, offers no real style improvements over the 835, which was the ugliest of all the headsets we reviewed. And yet, in terms of performance, it seems the Voyager Pro, which is selling for $100, may be your best bet. PC Magazine calls it "the best Bluetooth headset you can find for all-day chatter." CNET says the Pro has "the best sound quality of any Bluetooth headset we've ever tried." Even Gizmodo, which lauds the Jawbone over its competition, admits that incoming sound is weak on the device.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below. We publish the best comments in Inc. magazine.

I subscribe to a great travel blog, Upgrade: Travel Better, which recently ranked some of the airfare search websites out there: Kayak, Sidestep, Mobissimo, TripAdvisor Flights, Momondo, Skyscanner, WeGo (formerly Bezurk), Trax, Farecast, Fly.com, and Dohop. The overall winner was TripAdvisor, though Kayak came in a close second. It seems that the main reason TripAdvisor edged out Kayak is because it gives you an estimate of the total cost of your flight, including baggage check charges and other fees. Both sites are good bets for domestic flights, while Kayak and Trax are best for international flights originating in the U.S. The blog also identified the best sites for first-class and business class tickets, as well as inter-Europe travel, and offers individual reviews of all the included sites. Check it out here.

For those with a little cash on hand, this recession is proving to be a great time to scoop up bargains. (I should know; I spent the first day of Passover buying a new spring wardrobe. I saved about $120 with various coupons ... and I'm expecting a thank you note from President Obama for my recession-busting efforts.) Anyway, this just came in over the transom: Casio has dropped the prices on four of the projectors in its Super Slim line by about $100; the XJ-S32, XJ-S37, XJ-S42 and XJ-S47 will now cost $799 to $1,099.

But you can find all of them for less online. Here's the XJ-S32 for $753, the XJ-S37 for $859, the XJ-S42 for $959, and the XJ-S47 for $1035. Do Casio's lower prices simply reflect the prices that were already being charged online? That, I'm afraid, I cannot answer. But if you're looking for a really powerful portable projector, you should definitely check these out; they all have 2300 lumens or more, and weigh under four pounds. Of course, if you're on a budget, you should check out the portable projector offerings from Dell, Optoma, and 3M, which we featured in a recent video demo.

Stephen Colbert did a really funny interview with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, and the two of them debated the age old question: Is Twitter the messaging tool we never knew we needed? Or is it the answer to a problem we didn't have until Twitter's founders invented its solution?

P.S. Read our story on Twitter co-founder Evan Williams. Follow us on Twitter (@incmagazine) or follow me on twitter (@hannahsteiman). And tell us how you use Twitter in your business; we run the best reader comments in the magazine.

When I went to CES earlier this year, I came home with a stack of business cards. And because I’ve never spent the five hours that would be required to type each one into my address book, the pile has only gotten bigger since then. I wish I had the Cardscan V8 personal business card scanner, which is now available at Buy.com for only $114.99 (compared with $134.99 at Amazon $149.99 at NewEgg). It’s just 4.4 inches by 3.8 inches, so I easily could have taken it with me to Vegas.

By the way, WorldCard has a nice portable scanner, which is a little less delicate-looking than the Cardscan, and has the added benefit of working with a Mac. (CardScan’s Executive scanner works with a Mac, but not the portable one.) I tried out the WorldScan at CES, and you can see a video of it below. It’s incredibly quick and easy. Unfortunately, it generally runs closer to $200.

My birthday is in July; now you all know what to get me.

Dell launched its new line of Vostro laptops today, which come with some pretty cool features. Most notably, if you get the optional webcam ($40), you'll also get free videoconferencing software pre-installed. In just a few minutes, according to Sam Burd, global VP of Dell SMB, you can have it up and running and be on a video-conference with up to four people. The other folks on the video conference also need to have Dell's video chat software, but they can download it for free.

There are a couple other features that are new to the Vostro line. The laptops now come with fingerprint readers, so, if you want, you can require fingerprint identification to log on in addition to a password. There are free fall sensors, which lock the hard drive to protect your data in case you drop the laptop. And you now have the option of getting a solid state drive, which provides extra protection relative to a standard hard drive. The new line of laptops is available today; prices start at $569 (Vostro 1520), $629 (Vostro 1320), and $649 (Vostro 1720).

When I learned about the Microsoft Office program called OneNote, I thought my dream had come true. OneNote allows you to keep dozens of documents in one file. It has tabs across the top to separate each document. And each document can have multiple parts as well, thanks to more tabs along the side.

So, since I edit four sections of Inc. magazine, I could create four tabs across the top, labeled Passions, Behind the Scenes, Innovation, and The Goods. Then, since I plan out a few months in advance, I could give each section multiple tabs on the right (Passions May, Passions June, Passions July). Instead of keeping six or seven documents open at once, I could just open one. This was a beautiful vision, since there's nothing I love more than making minor adjustments to my story schedule. Seriously. I find it strangely satisfying.

But there was a problem. At the office, I work on a Mac, and Microsoft doesn't make OneNote for Macs. I looked around at some Web-based project management software, but it was all way too complicated to suit my needs. So, one of our extremely helpful IT guys suggested I try Notebook View in Microsoft Word. It's not quite as good as OneNote; it only offers tabs on the side, not across the top. Still, I can keep several months of ideas for The Goods nicely organized in one document. If I want to move a story from June to July, I can do it without opening up a separate file. I can tweak to my heart's content.

Do you know any other good alternatives to OneNote?

As many of you already know, the "Conficker Worm" was set to update today, in a sort of high-tech April Fool's joke. The Wall Street Journal has been saying the hype about the virus is overblown. Conficker has infected a lot of computers, but it hasn't done anything malicious yet, other than blocking access to security sites like McAfee. Today, the virus was supposed to get further instructions, but so far, it doesn't seem to have actually done anything. The sky is still firmly in place.

Still, if you have the virus, you should try and get rid of it, and if you don't have it yet, you should take steps to keep from getting infected. Here's what our IT department recommended. If you've been running Windows updates, you should be protected already, but I followed these procedures anyway this morning on my home computer just in case.

1. You can install the latest Microsoft service pack, with all its security updates, here.

2. If you don't have time to install the entire service pack, you can install just the Conficker update here.

3. If you think your computer is already infected, use this Malicious Software Removal Tool.

Today, Microsoft announced a new server that it's positioning somewhere between its home server product and its server aimed at small businesses. According to Russ Madlener, director of Windows Server Solutions at Microsoft, the new server—called Foundation—will be available in April from Dell, HP, and IBM, and will cost under $1,000. By contrast, if you want the regular small business server, you'll have to spend $1,000 on the software, with the hardware running you another $500 to $2,000, Madlener says.

So what's the difference between this product and its big brother? It supports up to 15 users, instead of 75. Beyond that, it's pretty much the same. You can use it for anything you'd usually use a server for; Madlener says it's most commonly used to run business software applications, though some customers also use it to run a Web site or as centralized file storage.

Netbooks
Readers had a lot to say in response to our story last month about the best netbooks for CEOs on the go. Andy Abramson, CEO of Comunicado, has a dozen netbooks, so he's probably a good person to turn to for advice. You can read his full comment here; the best deal on the market right now, according to Abramson, is the Asus 1000HE (he owns two of them). What's your favorite netbook? Weigh in here.

ProPay Portable Credit Card Reader
We thought this pocket-sized credit-card reader would be perfect for business owners who spend a lot of time at trade shows, and Barbara Hranilovich of Lansing, Michigan agreed. "This is brilliant for events and trunk shows and small businesses like mine," she wrote. "Managing paper receipts is a big responsibility and this takes out the fear factor of secure data getting lost or stolen. It's cute, too."

Livescribe Pulse SmartPen
The Livescribe isn't just a pen, it's a computer that writes. Here's what one of our readers, Kal, had to say: "I'm an engineering major here at Cal, and have been using the pen for a while now. I love it! It's a great resource for not only any student, but anyone who takes notes. The way I use is that I record all my lectures, and when studying for a test, just quickly go through my notes and tap the parts I need to brush up on. It's made studying so efficient for me! I recommend it to all my friends." He added that he used the discount code PULSE5A10 to buy the pen at Livescribe.com.

New home sales are up, durable goods orders are on the rise, and the stock market seems on track to make its biggest monthly gain since 1987. Could the worst be over? We'll reserve judgment. But if it is ... let's hope electronics retailers don't get the memo. Good deals abound, and we don't want them to disappear any time soon.

Toshiba has a 17-inch Satellite on sale for $529, and Brad's Deals has a coupon code that will bring the price down to $479. Brad's Deals (which is pretty much our go-to source for laptop deals) also has a 13-inch Gateway notebook, with 3GB memory and a 250GB hard drive, for $549.99 after a $70 mail-in rebate. NewEgg has a 16-inch Sony Vaio (4GB/250GB) for $899; the same model costs $300 more at Amazon and Buy.com. And if you're interested in Lenovo, check out these coupon codes—they are only available on certain models and certain dates, and most expire on March 31.

Have you discovered the beauty of a checkpoint-friendly bag yet? If not, this Solo bag for just $16 at Buy.com might be a good place to start. (By contrast, it costs $40 at Amazon.) It's not much to look at, but you can't beat the price. Checkpoint-friendly bags contain see-through sleeves. When you get to a security checkpoint, just pull out the sleeve, which will remain attached to the inside of the bag. Then, your laptop can be screened without being removed.

Recently, I've been exploring some different search engines. Today, I added another one to the mix: Newssift, recently launched in beta by the Financial Times Group. It's aimed primarily at people interested in business news; the idea is that it cuts out "the commercial clutter found with typical keyword search."

I've tried a few searches, on topics such as "General Motors" and "stock market," and I can't say the results were any better than those I found on Google News, but they weren't any worse. And Newssift has a nice-looking, easy-to-use interface. You can easily save a search, so if you look for news on the same topic day after day, you can simply go to "Saved Searches" and click on it. You don't have to set up an account or anything like that to save a search—it works right off the bat.

Test it out, and let us know what you think.

A couple months ago, we wrote about three of the new mini-projectors on the market: the Optoma Pico Projector, the 3M Pro, and the Dell M109s. The first two are iPod-sized, but have fewer than 10 lumens apiece, so they aren't that bright. Dell's projector is larger, but has 50 lumens, and delivers a bright, crisp image. You can compare the images yourself in the first video below.

Other companies have recently announced their own entrants to this increasingly crowded field. Toshiba had two small projectors on display at CES. Its LED Pico Projector will be available later this year, has 10 lumens, and weighs four ounces. The TDP-F1OU, available now from ToshibaDirect.com, is larger: 1.4 pounds, compared with only 12.4 ounces for Dell's M109s. You can check out the TDP-F1OU in the second video below; the Toshiba rep calls it "palm-sized," which might be true if you are, say, Shrek. For an average mortal it's three or four times the size of a palm—but it has 100 lumens, and the image it produces is fantastic.

Keep in mind, however, that I recorded Toshiba's projector in a very dark room at CES. We recorded the other projectors in a conference room at Inc.'s office with the shades pulled down—it was dark, but not nearly as dark as the room Toshiba set aside to showcase its wares.

Here are the Dell, 3M, and Optoma projectors:

And here is Toshiba's new projector:

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After my post about Kosmix earlier this week, the company's director of communications sent me an email response.

From our point of view, the question isn’t “which is better, Kosmix or Google?” but instead “Which one is better for my query right now?” Your query about “Should I buy GE Stock?” is more about getting a yes/no answer than about exploring the topic, and so Kosmix really isn’t the right place to go. On the other hand, if you wanted to know more about GE as a company, you’d explore Kosmix by doing a query for General Electric company. This page gives you investor information like stock charts and footage from CNBC, as well as link to GE’s different divisions, logos, fun old GE ads from the 1950’s, etc. If you want to know more about investment strategy, on the other hand, the page would look like this. We give you an overview, rather than one right answer.

But here's the thing: "Should I buy GE stock" is not a yes or no question at all; it really means "I want to know more about GE." I want to know what GE's PE ratio is, and whether that means it's a good buy. I want to know what its future prospects are, what analysts think, and whether GE will ever raise its dividend again. I think it's strange that no search engines out there understand that.

Kosmix is doing its best to argue that it is trying to be different from Google, not better. But it's not that different. If you want a topic overview, Google will give it to you. But Google will give it to you in list form, instead of laying it out like a "multimedia encyclopedia entry," as the NYT described Kosmix's search results.

Compare Google's search results for back pain with Kosmix's results—which, by the way, take longer to load. Google first three results are overviews from WebMD, the Mayo Clinic, and the National Institutes of Health—all reliable, trustworthy sources. Kosmix's first result is an entry it has compiled, apparently with information from a website called NaturalStandard.com, which I've never heard of. The beauty of Google is that it just presents you with a list ... and yet, it still manages to give you want you want a large percentage of a time. With notable exceptions, of course.

I've written before about Intuit's "Small Business United" program, through which it's offering a bunch of free software. Today I found out they also have a grant program, which could be a boon for anyone who has been struggling to find funding these days. The contest is open until April 24. Here are some details:

America’s entrepreneurs now have more time to share their stories and advice for the chance to win $30,000 in business grants, plus free software and services. ... To enter the Small Business United grant competition, entrepreneurs can go to www.smallbusinessunited.com to share stories about their successes and challenges. ...

Finalists will be selected based on a combination of ratings from the community, quality and creativity. The ratings will account for 40 percent of the overall score, so easy-to-use tools are available to help participants share their entries with family, friends and colleagues.

By the way, if you're looking for funds, Inc. has a variety of other resources available. Check out our recently updated angel investor directory. And take a look at our Finance & Capital resource center as well.

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The most buzzed-about laptop of the year was finally "officially" announced this week: Dell's addition to the ultra-portable, ultra-stylish laptop category, the Adamo, which aims to compete with the MacBook Air and HP's Voodoo envy. The notebook, billed as "the world's thinnest laptop," is available for preorder now, and will be shipping next week, so full reviews aren't available yet. You can check it out in the video we took at CES (see below). Or read what other folks are saying:

1. "There is no doubt that the Adamo will be one of the best looking laptops in history," according to Laptop Magazine. "Available in onyx and pearl, the Adamo is made of anodized aluminum and sports unique etching and finish. And that sexiness extends under the hood to a backlit keyboard and a 16:9 high definition edge-to-edge display."

2. "I'm going on record to say that I love this keyboard," says PC World. "It has wide, flat keys similar to the ones I've come to dig on the Gateway UC7807u and HP Mini 1000. A critical difference: The keys slope down, creating a little lip for your fingers to tell when you've pressed each key. And a tiny touch-inductive control panel consisting of basic multimedia shortcuts lines the top."

3. "Picking up the Adamo, we were surprised at how heavy it felt," says CNET. "At a hair under 4 pounds, it's certainly lightweight, but based on the size, we were expecting something closer to the 3-pound MacBook Air."

But one large question remains. The machine will cost $1,999, and a $2,699 model will be available as well. Is that too much during a recession?

Like most people in the Internet-using universe, I use Google as my default search engine, and expect it to answer pretty much any question I have. But I have noticed one large flaw with Google, and when I read this New York Times article about a new search tool called Kosmix, I wondered if it could do better.

Here's the flaw: if you search for "Should I buy GE stock" on Google, one of the top six results will be an entry I wrote for my personal blog almost a year ago. Search for "Is GE stock a good buy?" and Monogamoney is the number one result. Every day, my blog gets 15 or 20 page views just from people researching GE stock on Google. The reason, I assume, is that the wording in my entries mimics the wording of the phrases being searched.

But there are much better sources out there that can answer the same question. What about Barron's? The Wall Street Journal? TheStreet.com or Motley Fool? No ... Google thinks Monogamoney is more reliable. I am flattered, and I probably shouldn't be discouraging people from coming to my blog. But seriously, folks: I am not a good place to turn for investment advice. And please, please don't make any buying decisions based on something I wrote last April.

Kosmix doesn't just give its users a page of search results; it builds "a multimedia encyclopedia entry on the fly," according to the New York Times. That seemed promising, so I decided to give it a shot. Perhaps, I thought, Kosmix will do a better job of turning up relevant pages, even if the results don't mimic the exact wording of the search.

Continue reading "Is Kosmix better than Google?"

Last week, I met with Alibaba.com CEO David Wei, and after an unfortunately-timed fire alarm, we had a really interesting discussion. I always thought of Alibaba as a place for companies to find Chinese factories and Chinese-made components. A U.S. company that makes, say, coffee makers, could buy steel plates from a supplier found on Alibaba.com.

But actually, you can find the coffee makers themselves on Alibaba. The site offers all kinds of products, including electronics, wedding dresses, sailboats, and paper towels. Wei said some people have been using Alibaba as a sort of online Costco, a place to buy a year's worth of toilet paper. It struck me: should businesses be using Alibaba to buy cheap office supplies?

There are a few catches; it's not quite as easy as ordering from Amazon. Prices aren't always listed, and when they are listed, it's often in Renminbi. And the price is usually presented as a range. You have to contact the seller to negotiate the final cost, since it generally depends on how much you buy. I saw a listing for toilet paper in which the minimum order was one container-load. I would have a tough time storing that in my New York City apartment. But I contacted one seller who offered a minimum order of five cubic meters. I'll let you know when I hear back.

What do you think? Would you ever use Alibaba to buy cheap office supplies? If you do, please let me know, I'd love to hear about it.

Encouraged by Douglas Paul's comment on my last post about Mint, I decided to give Mint another shot. I loaded my husband's bank account onto our Mint account, and decided we would just ignore the fact that the money in our joint account is now double-counted. But I'm afraid that my frustrations have only increased.

1. Mint is only listing the transactions Jon has made in the last month. I have no idea why, or how to fix it.

2. Mint had lost the connection with a couple of our accounts, so I had to re-enter our log-in information. That's all well and good if I just have to remember my username and password. But Mint also demands that I remember which security questions I asked myself! For one of my accounts, it offered a list of maybe 15 questions. I had to pick four and answer them. This is something I've dealt with before on Mint, and if I don't remember the questions I have to log into my account and reset them! Luckily, in this case I was able to pick the correct four questions.

So, currently, Mint is double-counting our joint account and I have gained no benefit in terms of tracking our spending. Any suggestions?

I'm always on the lookout for free tools for business owners and on Wednesday, I spoke with Pamela O'Hara, co-founder of BatchBlue, which makes CRM software called BatchBook. With the free version, you can add up to 200 contacts; paid versions costs $9.95 a month and up, still a pretty good deal. One of the best things about it is the way it allows you to integrate social media into your customer relationship management system.

On the dashboard, you can easily search Twitter, Google News or Google Blogs to see what people are saying about your company or about your customers. If one of your contacts has two blogs, a Twitter account, and a Flickr account, you can receive updates from all of them, all within the system. Today, the company announced that it is partnering several other Web-based software companies, including FreshBooks and Shoeboxed, so customers can access several systems in one.

Have you used BatchBooks? If so, what do you think of it? If not, what do you use for CRM?

Now that thriftiness is hip, everyone's talking about personal finance software tools like Mint, Wesabe, Green Sherpa, and You Need A Budget (YNAB). These programs allow you to see all your accounts in one place and track your spending.

I signed up for Mint a long time ago, but was dissatisfied. It misclassified almost all my expenses; my gym membership, for example, was wishfully labeled "entertainment." The special offers were useless and based on incorrect information. And Mint emails me "low balance" updates whenever my bank account drops below a certain level—but the alerts usually arrive three days late.

A few weeks ago, I wanted to learn how much we spend on groceries each month, so I decided to get serious about using Mint. I spent about two hours going through our expenses from the last six months on Mint, and re-categorizing everything that wasn't properly labeled. I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of our grocery purchases were already labeled correctly, and making new categories was relatively easy.

But there are still flaws. My husband and I each have our own personal bank accounts, and we have a joint account as well. If we load his bank account information into Mint, our joint account is counted twice. So I was thrilled to discover that we only spend $350 a month on groceries, until I realized that, in fact, none of his expenditures were counted. And even if his bank account was loaded, Mint wouldn't be that effective because my husband likes to pay for things in cash.

Mint is still useful for some things; recently, I used it to calculate how much I spend on Pilates (answer: an embarrassingly large amount). But that's the only real benefit I've seen from it so far. I'm a pretty aggressive budgeter, and I pay more attention to personal finance than most people. So if Mint isn't useful for me, who is it useful for? Only truly hard core budgeters, I think. It's possible that another budgeting software program is better than Mint, but I doubt I will switch because I've spent so many hours on my Mint account already.

Do you use Mint, Wesabe, or a similar program? Do you like it?

Brad’s Deals has a lot of great deals listed this week, including a way for you to get McAfee’s Total Protection Software for free: buy it on Amazon for $60 and get a $60 mail-in rebate. Find out how here. Brad’s Deals also pointed out a Fantom 1 terabyte external hard drive for just $89.99 after a $20 mail-in rebate. Regular shipping is free; two-day shipping is only $5.49. Usually, you can find 1TB drives online for about $120, though they are much more expensive in stores.

And if you’re interested in an ultraportable computer, check out Dell’s Mini 12 for $419 with a coupon code, or this refurbished MacBook Air for $999. Meanwhile, the 9-inch Acer Aspire One netbook keeps getting cheaper … now it’s $250 at Onsale.com. Even better, go for the Asus Eee PC 100HE, which was one of the winners of Laptop Magazine’s netbook faceoff. It’s just $370 at OnSale.com, and $374 at Amazon.

Continue reading "Free McAfee Software and Other Deals"

We went to the Toy Fair to look for fun products Inc. readers could use at the office, and found a lot of great stuff, from obscure products like corporate carpet skates to an electronic Rubix cube coming out later this year. Unsurprisingly, a lot of the best products we found were made by small, entrepreneurial companies. Check out the video here. And if you lost any money with Bernie Madoff, there's a toy here especially for you.

Like almost everyone else I know under the age of 50, I switched over to Gmail almost as soon as I tried it. But lately, my Gmail account has been having problems. For several weeks, it has had trouble loading. Almost every time I log in to my account, I have to refresh the page before it loads.

Then, this weekend, my husband noticed a problem that was slightly more insidious. We were both logged on, and next to my name in his contact list, there appeared a photo. But I have never uploaded a photo to my Gmail account.

Luckily, it was just a picture of the two of us smiling into our webcam. But if photos are uploading themselves randomly to my Gmail account, I figured, it could happen with any photo. I removed the photo ... and a few hours later, it was up there again. I removed it a second time, and it reappeared again a couple days later.

I talked to a Google spokesman, who said archiving some of my messages might speed up load times. That seems odd, since I'm only using 18% of my available account space, but I'm willing to give it a try.

They were unsure why that photo kept posting itself to my account, but it may have something to do with the iChat account on my new Mac. It's possible I unwittingly selected this photo to accompany my iChat profile ... but I didn't do it on purpose. And I'm not sure why the photo keeps coming back, even after I specifically delete it from Gmail.

Here's the official statement from Google: "We give our users control over setting their Gmail / Google Talk profile photos. Gmail can't pull a profile photo from your computer; you must actively choose to upload a photo (though giving your Gmail password to third-party software may allow it to update your profile photo as well)."

Has anyone else had a similar problem with Gmail? How did you fix it?

In the next issue of Inc., we featured the Voltaic Generator, a solar-powered bag strong enough to charge a laptop. It's the latest product released by Voltaic Systems, which also makes less-powerful bags designed to charge cell phones and other gadgets. I caught up with Shayne McQuade, CEO of Voltaic Systems, at the Greener Gadgets Conference yesterday, and he gave me a demonstration of how the bags work.

They are compatible with most devices, though there are a few exceptions, most notably any laptops made by Toshiba or Sony Vaio. Five hours in the sun puts enough juice in the Generator's battery to fully charge most laptops, McQuade says. And the power will stay in the battery for months.

Some reviews have called the bag cumbersome. But you can always take the battery with you and leave the bag at home. Check out the video below for more; you can buy the bags here.

When I tell people how much I love my new portable video camera, they always ask, “Is it the Flip?” No, I say, it’s the Kodak Zi6. It’s a bit heftier than the Flip, but it’s shiny and black, got great reviews, and best of all it has a slot for a memory card, so I can record 4GB or 8GB or 16GB of footage … I am limited only by my imagination and the capacity of memory cards, which is now hovering around 32GB. (And memory cards are so cheap nowadays.) Anyway, my Zi6 cost $179.99, but it’s now available from BuyDig and at Amazon for just $149.99. A word of warning: it’s probably on sale because a new, slimmer version is coming out in April.

Speaking of things that are awesome, AT&T is selling refurbished 8GB iPhone 3Gs for just $99, and 16GB versions for $199—a $100 discount. I would buy it if I were ready for an iPhone (and if there weren't rumors of a new version coming in June).

Continue reading "A $99 iPhone and Other Great Deals"

Last week, disaster struck: I destroyed my cell phone trying to vote for Alexis Grace in the bathtub.

Alexis Grace, in case you don't know, is the American Idol candidate who blew away the judges with her performance of Never Loved a Man. And if I was going to sacrifice my Razr for anyone, I'm glad it was her.

Oh well, I thought. Poor me. I guess I'll have to get an iPhone.

As a writer of a tech blog, I probably shouldn't admit that I don't have a smartphone. But here's the thing: I'm a klutz. My first two cell phones each lasted less than a year, and they did not die natural deaths; one, I'm sorry to say, drowned in a toilet. Every two weeks or so, I drop my Razr so hard that the battery pops out; it's a miracle that I've had it for two years. When I buy a new computer, I always get the $300 warranty covering accidental damage, because there is a really good chance I will need it. And don't even think about letting me near your wine glasses.

Continue reading "Someday, iPhone, I Will Answer Your Siren Song"

A lot has happened in the short time since we published our story about four good netbooks for CEOs. Asus just started shipping the 10-inch Eee PC 1000HE, which has gotten good reviews and costs a reasonable $399. You'll have to wait a couple more months if you want the touchscreen tablet model we wrote about—but you can console yourself in the meantime by reading more details on Engadget. Freescale Semiconductor is promising a $200 netbook by summer. And while it is not technically a netbook, MSI has unveiled a 13-inch ultraportable which looks yummy enough to rival the Air but should cost under $1,000.

Meanwhile, Dell has launched the Mini 10; you'll be able to preorder one online this Thursday, and they'll begin shipping next month. We're big fans of 10-inch netbooks, as opposed to the squint-inducing 8.9-inchers that dominated the space a year ago.

What netbook do you use and how do you like it? If you're not a member of the club already, which one are you planning to buy? Leave your comments below, and we'll run the best ones in an upcoming issue of Inc.

My parents recently replaced one of their four-year-old computers with a new Acer laptop that runs Vista. But they only got 1GB of RAM on the new machine (2GB or more is optimal for Vista). They think the computer is fast, because it's so much better than their old clunker. But it can't even match the speed of my two-year-old Dell, which runs on XP. So I went searching for some online tutorials about improving Vista's performance. I found a couple that even my parents could understand.

Continue reading "Improving Vista's Performance"

Readers had a lot to say about our article on smartphones, which compared the iPhone with the BlackBerry Storm and T-mobile's G1. "I bought and returned my Blackberry Storm because it was not email or text friendly," wrote Greg Smith. "The Blackberry Storm is not ready for hardcore business users."

But Michael Felkey, president of marketing firm Intersect, disagreed with the chorus of anti-Storm voices.

I replaced my Blackberry 8830 World Phone with the Storm about a month ago. Although it has taken a little time to get used to the virtual keyboard, I couldn`t be happier with my choice. Unfortunately, I can no longer type messages with one hand while trying to drive with the other, but this is probably for the best.

Tony Darnell, CEO of WideVision, says he's switching from the BlackBerry to the iPhone.

Continue reading "iPhone vs. Storm: Readers Weigh In"

Kayak has long offered a rate calendar for flights, so you can see how the price of your airline ticket will change if you travel on different dates. Now they're offering the same thing for hotels. Just search for hotels on the dates you're looking to travel. Each listing will have a little link that says "rate calendar." You can see it on this search I did for hotels in San Francisco in March. At the Westin, prices within one week ranged from $171 to $255.

Of course, if you must travel on certain dates, this isn't particularly useful. But if your dates are flexible this could be a good money-saving tool. Click here for more tips for saving money on business travel. And if you have ideas of your own, please add them in the comments section below.

Why buy a netbook when regular laptops are getting so cheap? This refurbished 14-inch Latitude notebook from Dell is just $350. It doesn't have a lot of power (just a 40GB hard drive), so don't expect it to do any hard-core computing. But if you want the price of a netbook with a larger screen, this could be the computer for you. If you're willing to spend a little more money, the 15-inch Inspiron is now only $449. Since it runs Vista, you should probably upgrade to at least 2GB of RAM, which costs an extra $50.

Dell isn't the only manufacturer offering good deals on basic laptops. At Newegg, you can get a 15-inch Toshiba Satellite with 3GB of memory and a 350 GB hard drive, for just $699. And HP is selling its 15-inch dv5z for for $550—the price includes a 2GB hard drive, but we'd recommend upgrading to 4GB for just $25 more.

Here's another deal that's tough to pass up. Though they still cost $25 and up in stores, memory cards are getting cheaper and cheaper online. Brad's Deals found the 4GB Kingston SDHC card for just $7.50.

We've gotten some great reader comments on our article about the latest generation of Bluetooth headsets. While the Jawbone seems to be the top choice, Inc. readers are clearly looking into alternatives. "I agree that the Aliph Jawbone is the best," says James Chao, "but I also like the design of the Motorola Bluetooth headset—very light and easy to wear."

Michael Felkey, president of marketing company Intersect, preferred the Plantronics Voyager. Here's an excerpt of his comment:

If I had a complaint, it would be that it's relatively easy for the Jawbone to lose contact with your cheek, which cuts off your ability to speak to the person on the other end.

Because of this, I recently picked up a Plantronics Voyager 855 Stereo Bluetooth Headset. It's very lightweight, has very good noise control, and utilizes a non-proprietary USB-to-Mini-USB cord for charging. This latter feature helps me reduce the number of cords I have to carry around since many of my other devices use this type of cord as well. The sweet thing about the Voyager 855 is that it allows you to insert the ear piece into your ear, which makes it much more secure.

But Eric Schwartz, CEO of Foneshow, hasn't strayed from the Jawbone.

Continue reading "Readers Weigh In On Bluetooth Headsets"

I recently learned about the job listing website RealMatch, which seems to offer employers a great deal. RealMatch charges no up-front fee to list a job or even to review profiles of potential candidates. If you decide there are candidates you'd like to learn more about, you pay $125 to see an unlimited number of resumes. By comparison, Monster, CareerBuilder, and HotJobs all charge upfront fees. Monster charges $180 to $395, depending on how many postings you buy and where the jobs are located; HotJobs charges $148 to $369; and CareerBuilder charges $176 to $419.

Of course, any job listing website is only as good as the candidates who post their resumes on it. What websites do you use to post job listings? Why?

The New York Times’ Gadgetwise blog called my attention to a great new tool for saving money on printing costs. It’s a calculator from the American Consumer Institute, which helps you determine which printer will cost you the least over the course of its life—taking the price of toner into account.

Speaking of toner, before you buy it, check out the ink cartridge section of CouponWinner.com. It always has a lot of good deals from online retailers. Right now, you can save $10 off any purchase of $40 or more at Carrot Ink by starting your shopping here. You can also get 12 percent off at Abacus with the coupon code ABCWINNER. And if you shop for toner (or anything else, for that matter) at Office Depot, check out this coupon for $30 off a $150 purchase.

Lately, when a company says a new product will be released in the first half of the year, I assume it'll be delayed at least until August. So I was surprised to hear that Dell's new mini photo printer, Wasabi, which was announced at CES, is already on sale on Dell's website. You can check it out in the video below, taken at Dell's CES press conference (the Wasabi announcement is in the first 20 seconds of the video). And Dell has also released an instructional video. Dell is charging $99 for the printer after a $50 instant rebate. Electronics are like cars these days ... only suckers pay full price.

Big news on the netbook front today. The reviews are finally in on the latest Eee PC, the 1000HE. The main difference between this model and the 1000H is the redesigned keyboard, which puts the shift key where it should be, and according to Laptop Magazine, the changes make a world of difference. The HE also has over 7 hours of battery life, and above-average WiFi performance. And at $399, it's "one of the best values in netbooks around," according to Mark Spoonauer, editor of Laptop Magazine and a contributor to The Goods. PC Magazine also loves the new Eee PC, praising its six-cell battery, strong performance and low price. Check out Engadget for more reviews.

Continue reading "Two New Netbook Models Reviewed"

In times like these, who isn't interested in buying a netbook? Not only are they cheap, but they're ultra-portable and pretty darn cute. Since cheap and small are clearly the new black, check out our tips for buying a netbook, and then take a look at these deals. If you want to be notified regularly when we post new deals, subscribe to our feed by clicking on that orange icon to your right.

There are a few options out there for deals on the Asus Eee PC. Best Buy has one with a 120 GB hard drive for $330, while NewEgg has one with a 160GB hard drive, plus 10 GB of online storage, for $350. J&R and ZipZoomFly both offer the same one as NewEgg, but in white, for the same price. And both of them offer free shipping, which will cost you $12.99 at NewEgg and $19.99 at Best Buy.

All of them have 10-inch screens, which is what we recommend, and come with Windows XP. If you're interested in a smaller screen, Brad's Deals points out that the 8.9-inch Acer Aspire One is on sale at Office Depot for $290. Buy.com has the Aspire for $260, but it has a 16GB solid state drive, compared with a 120GB hard drive on the Office Depot model. (By the way, new customers can get an extra $5 off at Buy.com.)

Meanwhile, Dell is offering some discounts on its Mini 12. We'd recommend choosing the model that comes with Windows XP (as opposed to Vista or Ubuntu), which is currently on sale for $480, a $25 discount. It comes with a six-cell battery, which will give you over five hours of power.

And while it's not on our theme of the day, I had to include this Samsung all-in-one laser printer, on sale for $150 at NewEgg, a $110 discount.

In our last issue, we wrote about the portable NeatReceipts scanner, which weighs less than one pound and can even scan legal documents. Now, there's a new entrant into the portable scanner category: the Mobile Office D600 from Plustek. The big advantage: it can scan both sides of the page at once, at 3 seconds per page. That makes it a good tool for business travelers who need to scan business cards, checks, receipts or identification cards on the road.

But it has some drawbacks. It can only scan documents up to 5.8 inches by 4.1 inches, and it costs $329, compared with $199 for NeatReceipts. (At Buy.com, you can find the D600 for $297 and NeatReceipts for $76.99.) Our advice: only buy the D600 if you really need the double-sided scanning feature.

I recently learned about Visa's new Black Card, which comes with a bevy of benefits and a $495 annual fee, from the (very entertaining) blog Upgrade: Travel Better. But the details in the official announcements were a little vague, so I talked with the p.r. staff of Barclay Bank (the card's issuer) to fill in the gaps.

Concierge service. The card comes with 24/7 concierge service. According to the p.r. folks I talked to, you can use it any time you want, as many times as you want, all for free. So if you think of the card as a $495/year concierge service, it's actually not a bad deal. For more details about what the concierge service can actually do for you, click here. Verdict (on a scale of one to five planes, five being the best): 4 planes.

Membership in Priority Pass. This is a club that gets you access to 500 VIP lounges around the world (the usual fee is $99). But that doesn't mean you get to use the lounges for free; you simply get the privilege of paying to use them. The credit card comes with two free passes, and after that you can use the lounges for $27 each. Verdict: 1 plane

Luxury Gifts: I was unable to get any more details about this. The luxury gifts are mailed throughout the year, on no set schedule. I'm anticipating a lot of luxury flash drives and maybe a pair of earbuds. Verdict: zero planes

Trip Interruption Insurance: If you book travel with your Visa Black Card, you get up to $1,500 of trip interruption insurance, which kicks in if you or an immediate family member gets sick or injured. Or if your airline goes bankrupt in the middle of your trip. Nice to have, but chances are you won't have to use it. Verdict: 1 plane.

Rewards. 1 percent cash back. Pretty standard. If you're not getting 1 percent cash back already from your current card, what are you waiting for? Make the switch. I'm sure you can find a card with no annual fee that gives you the same amount of cash back. (In fact, you can find one here.) Verdict: 1 plane.

Exclusivity and a patent-pending carbon card. No, I'm not kidding. Nor am I giving this perk any planes.

The cost of an airline ticket is falling, compared with those oh-so-long-ago days of sky-high fuel prices. But companies looking to cut back still need to find discounts wherever they can. Here are a couple ideas; if you have some tips of your own, please leave them in the comments section below. If you want to be notified regularly when we post new deals, discounts, and money-saving tips, subscribe to our feed by clicking on that orange icon to your right.

Book creatively. In our last issue, we highlighted four niche websites that will save you money on airline tickets. Yapta, for example, will help you get a refund or flight credit if the price of your ticket falls after you buy it. And if you cancel a flight, Miss Refund can get you a refund of the taxes and fuel surcharges you paid. Check out the story here. The individual refunds you'll get from these sites might be under $100. But if you ask all your employees to sign up, the savings could accumulate.

Find the "flagpole room." Harriet Baskas, who pens the Stuck at the Airport blog and contributes to The Goods, recently wrote a column full of her readers' ideas about saving on travel. Some of the ideas are a little frightening; one guy found a way to eat free Whoppers for a week. But others tips are more useful for those of us who aren't quite THAT cheap. For example, she suggests asking for the "flagpole room"--the room that has some flaw that keeps hotels from renting it out at normal rates.

How is your company saving money on business travel? Have you changed your policies or invested in teleconferencing?

Yesterday, I learned about several cool tech tools from Ed Scanlan, the founder and CEO of Total Attorneys, as well as the company's president Kevin Chern. Chern uses a device that extends the iPhone's battery life. Scanlan has found a useful screen-capture tool. Plus, they both love Basecamp, the online collaboration software. To learn more about the things Scanlan and Chern can't live without, check out the video below.

Regular Inc. readers are probably familiar with Things I Can't Live Without, our monthly profile of a CEO talking about his or her favorite products. (Here's the latest one: Jay Steinmetz of Barcoding talking about Ipswitch Instant Messaging and Sonos wireless speakers.) If you're interested in being in a future Things I Can't Live Without, either online or in print, just leave us a note below and tell us why you should be featured. Make sure to include your email address when you're posting the comment.

Intuit announced today that it's offering some of its services for free, for six months to a year, in what it's calling a "stimulus" package for small businesses. Of course, if you stick with Intuit after the free period is up, then it turns into a stimulus package for Intuit. But why split hairs? You can get the free stuff at SmallBusinessUnited.com, and it includes a year of free help building and setting up a website; six months of free online payroll; free incorporation service until July 31; and six months of free credit card processing.

Meanwhile, HP has "officially" launched MarketSplash, its new service that helps small businesses build websites, design custom business cards, or create marketing materials. The Mom Entrepreneur is offering a $300 credit, which you can win by answering a trivia question. And as I mentioned before, HP is offering discounts on some of those services with its Total Care Access card. The card costs $49, and is available through April 30 at authorized HP resellers. The deals include a free download of QuickBooks Simple Start 2009 and a QuickBooks Credit Card processing kit, together worth $39.95. You can also get a free one-year subscription to McAfee Total Protection Services; a $50 discount on an online news release from PRWeb; and $500 off a website design package.

Free MSI Wind Netbook
Upload a photo of yourself and your "loved one" to win a free MSI Wind, in this Valentine's Day promotion. The Wind has gotten pretty good reviews for its keyboard and offers more than five hours of battery life. And it's pricier than many netbooks--making it a good computer to get for free. We assume MSI's definition of "loved one" is rather loose--a photo of yourself and your dog should suffice. After all, they want your name, address, email, and phone number whether you're in a relationship or not.

Free remote access software
Dell's remote access software is only $10 a month--far cheaper than other programs. But free is always better than cheap. We picked up a few coupons that offer three months free, and we're sending them out to readers. Read the details here.

Free six-month WSJ subscription
The personal finance blog Pecuniarities is hosting a contest for a free 6-month subscription to the Wall Street Journal. She offers several different options for entering: you can leave a comment with your financial resolutions for 2009, subscribe to her RSS feed, or follow her on Twitter, among other options. It's a good blog, and worth following if you like reading about personal finance. The contest expires Jan. 24.

Netbooks are all the rage right now; here are a few things to think about before you take the plunge.

1. How small is too small? A 9-inch screen may not sound a lot smaller than a 10-inch screen, but when you compare them side by side, the difference is striking. On the other hand, the price difference can be striking, too: the 8.9-inch Acer Aspire One can sometimes be found for under $300, while larger netbooks can cost $500 or more. Make sure you look at a few different models in person before deciding to buy.

2. Have you tried them out? Even if you plan to buy online, go to Best Buy or your local computer store and try typing on a few of them. The keyboards differ pretty significantly. You may not think you care where the shift key is, but trust me, you probably do. A lot of netbooks have it placed a little too far to the right, which makes a huge difference when you're typing.

3. Can you wait? Some great new models may be right around the corner. Dell announced a new 10-inch netbook at CES, which it said would be out in the first half of this year. A 10-inch Acer Aspire should also be on the market soon (more photos here). The 8.9-inch Aspire has gotten rave reviews, but the screen is too small for my taste.

4. Will you really use it? Netbooks are an excellent tool for people who travel a lot and really need to take a computer with them on the road. They could also be great for students who carry a backpack around with them all day. But if you don't have a pressing need to do word processing when you're on the go, then you might be better off with an iPhone. In fact, if you compare the iPhone to a netbook, the iPhone starts to look cheap ... perhaps that's a good way to justify getting a new smartphone.

5. Have you read Laptop Magazine's piece about the five best netbooks? No? Then find it here.

Citrix Online is launching a new remote tech support product aimed at small businesses; it's called GoToAssist Express and it's a slimmed down version of Citrix's enterprise software GoToAssist. GoToAssist Express will allow your IT staff to log on to your employees' computers and fix problems, even if they're in a different room, different building, or different hemisphere.

It seems a little pricey compared with Dell's Remote Access product, which I blogged about from CES. Dell charges $10 a month, while GoToAssist Express will cost $69 per month or $660 per year (you can also get a day pass for $9.95). But here's the good news: it's still in beta, and if you sign up now, you can use it for free until the official launch. And anyone who signs up during the beta will get a 30 percent discount after launch.

And here's some more good news. Dell was heavily promoting its Remote Access tool at CES, and I picked up some coupons offering free 3-month subscriptions. Since I am only one person, I decided to spread the love around to Inc. readers. To enter, leave a comment about any of the products featured in The Goods, Inc.'s new section focused on products and services for business owners, or on Quick Hits. Then send an email to FreeRemoteAcesss (at) gmail.com. I'll send coupon codes to the first five people who respond..

Just how bad are retail sales these days? For the answer, you could look at the headlines. Or you could just look at the discounts. Office Depot is offering a coupon for a free DVD and a Domino’s pizza. Are they afraid their customers are going hungry?

Welcome to 2009. Though the pizza was tempting, we decided to focus primarily on storage in the latest edition of the Weekly Deal from Inc. magazine. Many of Inc.’s readers have already graduated from the hard drive stage of life and moved on to cloud computing. If that’s you, check out our recent story on cloud computing and this guide. But if you’re still addicted to good, old-fashioned hard drives and flash drives that you can see and touch, we’ve got a few deals for you. If you don’t see your favorite hard drive listed here, let us know in the comment box below.

Get a 16 GB flash drive for $15.99 after a mail-in rebate at Newegg. (Thanks to Brad’s Deals for the tip.) If you don’t want to deal with a mail-in rebate (and who could blame you), check out this 8GB SanDisk Cruzer Hard Drive for $14.99.

This 4GB memory kit from Kingston has one SD card and a USB adapter, so you can use the same card with a camera, cell phone, or computer. It’s just $10.05 at Buy.com.

Save $10 on a Maxtor 160GB hard drive, which has a button that will back up all your files in one touch. It’s on clearance at Staples for $89.90. Also, check out this slim, portable 500GB Western Digital drive, selling for $129.99 at Newegg—a $20 savings.

If you’ve advanced beyond mere gigabytes, check out this 2 terabyte hard drive for only $224.99. You can also find a 1TB Western Digital Drive at Best Buy or Newegg for just $129.99. (You’ll save $40 compared with the usual price at Best Buy, and $20 over Newegg’s standard price.)

What's your favorite hard drive and why? Let us know in the comments section below.

At CES over the weekend, I got a brief demo of the N97, the smartphone that Nokia officially announced last month. The phone will be released in Europe the first half of this year, and should be stateside sometime after that.

Its biggest draws: 32 gigabytes of storage, expandable to 48 GB with a memory card, and a five megapixel camera. The iPhone 3G, by contrast, has up to 16 GB of memory, with a two megapixel camera. The N97 also supports Flash, unlike the iPhone.

So is it an iPhone killer? At a price of 550 Euros ($736), probably not. But take a look, and tell us what you think.

Dell announced several new products at the Consumer Electronics Show this morning. A new 10-inch model will be added to its line of netbooks. And a palm-sized photo printer will be out in the first half of this year (check it out in the video below).

But the biggest news is Dell's announcement of its new Adamo line of laptops. Adamo is a competitor to the MacBook Air (and could even be thinner than the Air, if rumors are to be believed). Other than the fact that it will be out in the first half of this year, Dell didn't actually reveal any information about the new line. As you can see in the video below, the model featured as prominently in the press conference as the computer itself. But the announcement should still generate a lot of buzz. Engadget got a close-up look and is already excited.

A lot of cool gadgets will be announced this week at CES. But so far, the most astounding thing I've seen here has to do with the management of the conference itself. In many areas where the conference is being held there is no WiFi. I repeat: There is no WiFi in much of the Consumer Electronics Show. Sure, it’s available in the press room, but not, as far as I can tell, anywhere else in the Sands Expo. (The show is held at the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Sands, and the LVCC does have pretty good WiFi coverage.) (UPDATE: I take it back. The LVCC has only spotty WiFi coverage.)

But here’s the truly remarkable part. Before I figured out that the WiFi was virtually nonexistent at the Sands, I asked several staff members whether there would be wireless access at the show. They were all wearing these bright, welcoming “Ask me!” buttons. And yet, the first four people I talked to didn’t even understand the question. “There are some kiosks right around the corner,” one person offered. When I explained that I just wanted to be able to sit down and get online with my laptop, she added helpfully, “There are lots of chairs around.”

Lesson number 1: We’re living in a digital world. If you’re hosting a conference, and you invite a bunch of journalists, make it easy for them to get online.

Lesson number 2: Train your staff! To me, it seems obvious that questions about wireless Internet access would be plentiful at the Consumer Electronics Show. Why didn’t the staff know the answer?

And, perhaps more importantly, why didn’t they try to find out? Why didn’t they say, “Let me call and find out the answer for you”? Instead, I was met largely with blank stares. I literally talked to ten people before I figured out the answer. Some didn’t understand what WiFi was; others didn’t know whether it was available or not; others thought it was available when it clearly wasn’t. Only Cindy in the press room (thanks Cindy!) actually made an effort to track down the answer for me, by picking up her phone and calling someone who knew something about it.

This is textbook bad customer service. Journalists don’t have to pay to attend CES, so we’re technically not “customers.” But if they’re providing me with such terrible service, I’m sure they’re giving it to the paying attendees as well.

Earlier today, I got a glimpse of Lenovo's new laptop, the ThinkPad w700 DS, which has a second screen that pulls out of the main screen. It's a behemoth--large enough to look like a desktop at first glance. But it is, indeed, a notebook and Lenovo is hoping it will appeal to engineers, architects, multimedia designers, and accountants--anyone who needs a lot of computing power and a lot of screen space, and also spends a lot of time on the road. Take a look at the video below, and let us know what you think. Does this seem like something you could use?

Have you ever forgotten a crucial file while traveling for business? Now you can view and edit files, perform remote tech support, and play music stored on your work PC. You can even view and control a webcam.

Of course, remote access is nothing new. But SingleClick is offering it at what seems like a ridiculously low price. You and your employees can remotely access up to 64 PCs for a total price of $10 a month. That’s $10 a month for everyone—not per person. And starting today, you can access all the same info on your smartphone, for no extra fee. That means you can play any music stored on your work computer without downloading the MP3s to your phone. (Of course, this all applies to your home computer as well, if you want to use it as a personal tool.)

But I wouldn’t count on that price being around forever. Yesterday, when I met with SingleClick founders Scot Zarkiewicz and Bret Zarkiewicz (no, it’s not a coincidence—they’re brothers) in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show, Scot kept muttering, “We really should charge more for this.”

Here’s how it works: Install Remote Access, SingleClick’s software, on only one computer in the office, as long as it’s networked with all of the other PCs. Then you can log in, pick your computer from a list, and connect to it. That computer’s desktop then appears on your laptop’s screen as if it were a browser.

Dell started including SingleClick’s software, branded as Dell Remote Access, on its consumer laptops last fall, and starting at the end of January, the computers in Dell’s small business line, Vostro, will have it as well, according to Scot. But you don’t need to use Dell to use the software; anyone can download it at www.DellRemoteAccess.com. There’s a ten-day free trial.

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells
I want an Aeron chair
Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells
And some QuickBooks software

Yes, dear Inc. reader, there is a Santa Claus. He comes during recessions, toting sacks full of discounted office chairs, memory cards, and restaurant coupons. He’s even offering free webinars on government contracting. We thought that was weird--Santa isn't known for bringing webinars. But hey, in tough times, you take what you can get. Read on for the latest in our series on discounts & deals for business owners.

Deals for yourself
Memory cards are getting cheaper and cheaper. Last week I saw a 2GB card for $12.75, but refrained from buying it. Good thing; today there’s a 4GB card for $8.75 with free shipping. (Newegg is selling it; thanks as usual to Brad’s Deals for pointing it out.) Get yours quickly, before I buy them all and resell them at Best Buy for $27.99.

Deals for your employees
Those cheap Restaurant.com coupons are now even cheaper. You can get a $25 gift certificate for only $2 by using the code SANTA when you check out, according to Brad’s Deals. Make sure to read the fine print though; there are usually a lot of restrictions.

Deals for your company
If you have a lot of shipping to do, check out ShippingSidekick.com, where you can compare prices from DHL, FedEx, UPS, and the U.S. Postal Service. The site used to charge a subscription fee, but now it’s free. Also, check out the rates offered at EShipper.com. It can access the same discounts that big corporations get, because it ships large volumes.

Continue reading "The Weekly Deal: Aeron Chair Discounts & More"

In the second installment of our series on great deals for business owners, we’ve got free software, an idea for a cheap holiday gift, and (finally!) a $100 computer.

The $100 laptop
Are we on the cusp of a new business model for laptops? RadioShack is selling the Acer Aspire One—a mini notebook with an 8.9-inch screen—for $100, as long as you sign up for a two-year contract for AT&T mobile broadband service, which costs $60 a month. You can check it out online, but the deal is only available in stores. With the mobile broadband connection, you can access the Internet as long as you’re within range of AT&T’s network. Read more about the deal here.

The Acer Aspire One has gotten good reviews, but here’s the problem: most business owners would use a netbook as a supplement, but not a replacement, for a more powerful laptop. And why would you pay $60 a month for Internet access on a laptop that isn’t your primary computer? Our advice: if you were, for some reason, planning to get a netbook with mobile broadband access, then go ahead and jump on the deal. Otherwise, ignore it. Still, this does open tantalizing possibilities for the future of computer sales. Will laptops eventually be sold cheaply or even given away for free with broadband contracts?

Continue reading "The Weekly Deal: A $3 Gift for Your Employees"

My blog entry on PayPal a few days ago garnered a lot of comments, many of them from readers who have also been frustrated by PayPal. I'm happy to report that my withdrawal from my PayPal account was successfully processed, and the money is now in my bank account. Or rather, it has already left my bank account to pay my student loan bill.

I also got a call from a very nice man at PayPal, who helped explain what happened. Apparently the second time my account was frozen was a mistake -- basically, the security breach happened on Sunday; I unfroze the account on Monday. It sounds like someone then went to restrict my account again, not realizing that it had already been frozen and unfrozen. And he explained why PayPal has to be more cautious about security than regular banks. All in all, it helped redeem PayPal somewhat, but as you can see from the comments in my previous post, the company clearly still has a long way to go.

A big part of the problem: the customer service reps don't seem to know anything. They couldn't explain to me what happened or why, and they seemed totally dismiss my concerns.

I've never been the victim of an online security breach. I've never had my identity stolen. That's partly because I'm lucky, and partly because I'm conscientious. Every year, I get a free copy of my credit report and scan it for errors (last year, there were eight or nine mistakes, and I managed to fix all but one before giving up).

In the last week, however, I have become a victim--not of an online security breach, but of a company's overheated reaction to what may or may not have been an online security breach. The company is PayPal, and this is probably the last time I will ever use it as a place to park my cash.

Continue reading "Why I'm Done With PayPal"