Intuit’s Mobile iOS Credit Card Processing System

Last year in Jude a wrote a quick post on Square’s updated Credit Card Processing System and now Intuit is adding its product into ring with less cost and a more substantial reading device.

They have an updated free app on iTunes for both the iPhone and the iPad that provides easy processing of credit card payments to your account.

---FEATURES---

• Receive a free card reader compatible with your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch
• Avoid start-up costs, a long-term contract, and cancellation fees
• 2.7% per card reader swiped transaction rate with pay-as-you-go pricing plan
• Customers sign with their finger and a receipt can be sent by text or e-mail, so you can be paperless
• Access your GoPayment account on your Mac or PC and accept, refund, and review credit card payments online
• All transactions are secure and encrypted, unlike some card readers
• Add up to 50 users to your account so multiple people can accept payments for your business
• We’ve made it easier for you to get started by not requiring bank account information. The money you make with GoPayment can be deposited into your Intuit GoPayment Prepaid Visa® Card account. You can conveniently access and manage your money online at www.gopayment.com, or use the GoPayment Card anywhere Visa debit cards are accepted – in stores, online, and at ATMs
• GoPayment integrates with QuickBooks, making it easier to manage your finances
• From Intuit, the makers of QuickBooks, Quicken, and TurboTax

The app will run on iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 or later
*You can also sign up at www.gopayment.com. If you would like to sign up for the High volume plan, you must do so on the website.
**Intuit GoPayment offers 2 pricing plans with the following rates to meet your individual needs:
Pay-as-you-go:
Swipe: 2.7%
Key-enter and non-qualified: 3.7%
High volume (option to pay $12.95/month for lower per-transaction rates):
Swipe: 1.7%
Key-enter: 2.7%
Non-qualified rate: 3.7%

---GET STARTED---

• Download the Free GoPayment Credit Card Processing App
• Complete the in-app application*
• Check your email for your approval notification, and then start accepting payments!

Once you’re approved, you can start accepting credit cards right away by key entering credit card info into the app.
Your free card reader will ship the next business day.
If you want to see GoPayment in action before you sign up, select the Test Drive button.

If you decide that this product is for you, then one of the things that jumped out at me right away is that the quantities field only seems to accept whole numbers. This can be a problem especially if you are selling by weight or if you are like me you are selling time. Another problem that you might have is that it only accepts one sales tax field. So if you are in a county that requires you to collect both a state and county sales tax you will need to make some kind of adjustment for that. Of course if you are not roaming around this is not an issue. If you are moving around it might be hard to track who you need to send the tax you have collected to the correct entities.

Otherwise, the interface seems to be simple and straight forward and if you don’t have the concerns about the limitations I stated above then it might be a good fit for you. The charge rates for processing are a little lower then Square’s and Intuit is a big player in the entry level accounting industry.

Compatible Devices

See all devices

CES: Wireless Sound Devices

There were quite a few new wireless speaker products that were introduced at this years CES show. In this post I will be highlighting some of the ones that have caught my attention that have a particular interest to me. There is a mixture of connectivity methods so you will need to look at your particular needs to see which device fits your particular budget, sound quality and connection type.

Altec Lansing Live 5000  and inAir 5000 WiFi music systems

One of the many new high end speaker systems that now support network connectivity over your WiFi network you can have iOS connectivity through AirPlay®. The inAir™ 5000 allows iOS devices to stream music wirelessly over a Wi-Fi network to any room, and with iTunes® multiple devices can be linked throughout the home or office, providing a seamless listening experience. Enjoy your music the way the artist intended with Altec Lansing's legendary sound quality. Your ears will hear the difference with this high-performance, all-in-one, networked speaker.

Altec Lansing has also created another device that uses its own separate networked ecosystem that will support a variety of devices. Connected to your network using WiFi connectivity, you can use any Android, iOS device or computer running the company's Live controller app to setup up a central playlist of your tunes. The music isn't sent to the cloud, but rather, streamed directly from each device's local catalog of music. This saves you from aggregating your files to one central storage hub. There is also support for services like Rhapsody, ensuring you'll be able to load up your music from wherever you normally would.

Engaget reports that:

We checked out an early build of the iPhone app (on an iPad), and the interface was simple and intuitive, but we're told to expect more polish in the final edition -- along with that missing tablet-sized version. Notably, the app allows playback to multiple speakers, giving you the option to set up various linkable "stages" to stream independent playlists to. We gave the unit a quick listen on the noisy show floor, and while it got plenty loud, the bass was on the anemic side, despite its 4-inch woofer. Highs and mids were alright, although, at times things felt a bit tinny to our ears. Of course, the hustle and bustle of CES isn't exactly the best spot for hearing how speakers like this sound, so we'll have to reserve final judgement until the unit ships this summer (not to mention that the testing material was streaming from Rhapsody). For now, hit up the gallery below for a closer look, and you'll find a press release past the break with more details.

These devices should be available in the early part of this year. Rumor puts the price at or around $500.

In the summer my wife and I enjoy each other’s company outdoors on sunny days floating around in the swimming pool. Behringer has introduced a spherical wireless waterproof speaker that floats in your pool. It is called the Splash 100 and will be priced around $99. Scheduled for release later this year it will be interesting to hear more about this product once it is released. This $99 speaker has a 230-foot range from the sound source and 3.5-hour rechargeable battery. They were not showing a working model at CES so I don’t have any reports on sound quality at this time.

Bank & Olufsen is known for their wonderful home theater systems and related gadgets introduced its new B&O Play brand. Hoping to entice the younger crowd with money to burn ($800 to be exact) they showed off their Beolit 12 AirPlay-enabled speaker. It is configured in a portable Picnic Basket form with handle and tray to hold your iPhone.

The 7-pound wireless sound system features a swappable leather carrying strap (color options are planned for the future), and its soft-touch top section is molded to serve as a tray for you device when you'd like to set it down -- this is also where you'll find buttons for power, network setup and volume up and down. Behind the 120-watt mini-rig's aluminum grill, you'll find one 4-inch center woofer, along with a duo of tweeters for stereo separation, not to mention a rechargeable battery rated for 8 hours using its inline connection and half of that when streaming to it using AirPlay. On the bottom front there's an IR receiver compatible B&O's Beo remotes, while on back is hinged door that opens to reveal a storage storage compartment for its power cable, as well as an Ethernet port for wiring directly into your home network -- perfect for firmware upgrades. See Engaget video overview below:

On a slightly different note, NuForce was showing a product that allows you take advantage of your in-place audio system by providing a device you connect into one of you input ports of your receiver and provide connectivity of iOS devices over the air. Details were not made available but it looks like you can have multiple receivers being controlled by single or multiple transmitters. It is designed to allow you to control your audio output in a self-designed environment. Expected to be very reasonably priced we should see more information on this later this year. Again, a brief interview with NuForce’s Ceo is shown below.

When looking at a lot of these devices, I can’t help but remember that SONOS has been out there with Mesh based wireless speaker systems that have been working with iOS devices for several years now. Priced in the same range that we have seen above, these products are available now and allow you to plunk down a speaker in any room and begin enjoying your music instantly. Place a bridge unit on your network to connect your music locally stored on any of your systems as well as internet radio and streaming services. This device then allows you to connect SONOS speakers and place them where you need them to provide a great audio experience.

iConnectivity outs iConnectMUSE digital audio mixer for iOSers

For those of you that want to be able to have a simple audio mixing device while on the road, here is a product from iConnectivity that will allow you to mix analog sound from several sources and digitize it onto your iOS device. Touted as the perfect product for the “garage band” on the road, this device can give you that extra capability from a very small and portable device. See the Press Release below:

LVCC North Hall – Booth #3922
Las Vegas, NV – January 12, 2012 – iConnectivity™, forward thinking developer of hardware accessories and applications for iPhone®, iPod touch® and iPad®, announce its latest creation, iConnectMUSE™ at CES 2012 in Las Vegas.

For musicians looking to control their unique mixes through iOS or computer software while maintaining exceptional sound quality, look no further than iConnectMUSE™– a palm-sized personal mini-mixer that combines several music accessories into one iOS controlled product, perfect for gigs at home or on the road.

The end result? Studio-quality analog audio converted to digital. With iConnectMUSE™, the user will experience higher quality audio processing, improved audio latency and the ability to share and mix audio through an iOS device, and even charge the iOS device at the same time.

Featuring six stereo inputs and six stereo outputs, each with its own unique mix, this ultra compact device may be small on size, but huge on functionality and features. If you're a student musician exploring your own personal composition technique, a professional musician composing in a hotel room or on tour, or the performing musician who needs consistency moving from gig to gig, iConnectMUSE™ is the all-in-one, portable solution.

Additional features include two USB device ports, hub-able USB Host Port, two input and two output ¼" audio port jacks, a headphone monitor jack, Ethernet connection for network sharing, a MIDI pass-thru interface and limited DSP processing.

"iConnecMUSE™ is the future of audio mixing," said Michael Loh, CEO of iConnectivity™. "Its portability, expandability and enhanced functionality through software integration provides the conduit for music creativity for all musicians."

iConnectMUSE™, available Q2 of 2012, will retail for $229.99* (MSRP).
For More Information, please visit www.iConnectivity.com.

Kindle Cover that Charges Your Kindle

I use my Kindle primarily around the pool and a company called SolarFocus has created a cover with a built-in solar panel on the front. So when you have laid your Kindle down and jumped into the pool, you can recharge by having the panel collect those wonder solar rays and boost your battery. If you just have the case with Kindle laying around it will help add up to 3 months of extended charge or 50 hours for it’s include LED lamp.

The SolarKindle is scheduled to be available on January 15th priced at about $80. Pretty neat! A fully charged reserve battery requires only eight hours of direct sunlight and provides up to 80% of backup power to the Kindle. That’s almost three days of use time for each hour of charging!

CES 2012

Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2012 has been going on all of this week and I will be going through all my feed grabs of products that struck me as interesting and discussing them over the next week or so. Some of the themes I am seeing from what is being reported incudes Android Tablets, Windows 8 Tablets and questions on what Apple will be updating on its iPad product in the next few months. I am seeing a lot of IOS accessories surrounding charging, wireless speakers (Bluetooth), wireless Airplay speakers, and printing. There are a few Home Control products that look interesting, some mobile road warrior accessories, All-In-Ones that have come down in price and have some special characteristics.

The Macbook Air has made everyone building laptops coming up with their own version of a Windows super-thin and powerful “Ultrabook”. These are coming in 13, 14 and 15 inch models and are all showing off sexy lines, super light and thin. All this comes at a premium though so if you are looking for a deal your not going to find it here.

A couple of new apps are surfacing that look interesting and I will post the ones that I find most useful to me.

So keep looking back and I will be posting all of this over the next few days.

xPrintServer makes printers AirPrint-compatible

I like looking for new products that will make both my life easier as well as our clients. For those of you that have an iOS device and none of your printers are AirPrint compatible there will soon be a product that could make your printers AirPrint compatible. Lantronix is planning on releasing this January their xPrintServer product that allows printing from any iOS device to network-connected printers.

I have several printers in my house and at work that I would love to be able to print to without the convoluted methods I now employ from my iPad and iPhone devices. Whether it is to my beautiful Canon Pro 900 photo printer or my Lexmark MFC Pro901 I want to be able to whip off a quick printed page for friends or family. Also, at work it would be nice while I am sitting with a client discussing options for their network I would love to be able to share the information I have on my iPad as I am talking to them.

The current drawback of this device is that it will only work with Ethernet-networked printers only. This means it doesn't help with printers that are connected directly to your computer via an USB port. The device comes with just one network port and will need an available LAN port from your router or switch to work. It also require an external power source.

When you plug the device into you network it will auto-discover and auto-provision for your network printers which in turn allows your iOS device to print to them. There is no software or device drivers to load and no special Apps to purchase. I am looking forward to testing this out myself.

More information at Lantronix’s site

Supported Printer List

Intel Launches the 'Cedar Trail' Atom Platform

Intel has today finally introduced its third-generation Atom processors, the 32nm chips codenamed Cedar Trail. This processor supports full 1080p high definition playback capability, support Blu-ray 2.0 and has integrated HDMI video support to give you the full rich video experience on netbooks, nettops, all-in-one PCs and tablet systems. The 32nm design provides higher clock speeds and up to 20% less power draw for the whole platform. It also supports an integrated memory controller supporting DDR3-800/1066 memory, and updated, but still DirectX 9-enabled graphics (Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3600/3650 based on the PowerVR SGX 545 from Imagination Technologies).

Intel claims that Cedar Trail netbooks will achieve up to 10 hours of battery life and consume up to 20 percent less power than its predecessors. The graphics chipset GMA 3600/3650 promises twice the performance of the previous generation platform. New features include WiDi and Wireless Music, which are now integrated in the product.With these new features and wireless enabled devices, people can share videos or photos wirelessly from their netbooks to a television, or stream music through their home stereo speakers.

Additional features such as Intel Smart Connect Technology allows users to have an instant Internet connection as soon as they open their netbook, and have email, Twitter and RSS feeds automatically updated even in sleep mode. Intel Rapid Start Technology enables fast resume from standby mode and helps conserve battery life.

The new Intel Atom processors provide a lower thermal design power (TDP) and power management features such as Intel Deeper Sleep and Intel SpeedStep Technology that enable lower power designs, making it especially attractive for netbooks as well as intelligent systems including: healthcare equipment, retail systems and entry-level digital signage.

In health care settings, the improved battery life and enhanced graphics means medical professionals can enhance patient care and bring infotainment services to a patient's bedside. Arbor technology will release a new patient infotainment bedside terminal, based on the Intel Atom processor N2800 that helps clinicians improve workflow management and work efficiency, reduce human error, and enhance healthcare quality. Patients can also enjoy access to plenty of multimedia entertainment, hospital information and communication services on the system.

The always on, always connected capabilities are also ideal for entry-level point-of-sale systems with the ability to boot up instantly to serve customer's at a moment's notice. Point-of-sale terminals based on the Intel Atom processor D2700 and manufactured by NCR Corporation will be installed in restaurant and retail locations throughout the US beginning in the first quarter of 2012.

News: Researcher finds vulnerability in WPS protocol

Stefan  Viehbock has just discovered a major security vulnerability which allows someone to use a brute force attack to access a WPS PIN-Protected network in about two hours. According to Viehbock, a design flaw allows the WPS protocol’s 8-digit PIN security to fall dramatically as more and more attempts are made. This flaw after each failed attempt will cause the router to send a message stating whether the first four digits are correct while the last digit of the key is used as a checksum and then given out by the router in negotiation. This results in what was a 100,000,000 possible choices that was initially considered for WPS security level to drop drastically down to around 11,000.

The reasoning behind the original design was to make it easier to bring new device onto your home network more easily especially for unskilled home users. This method now allows it to be much easier for hackers to break into a secure Wi-Fi network as well.

"A few weeks ago I decided to take a look at the Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) technology,"Viehbock said in a blog post. "I noticed a few really bad design decisions which enable an efficient brute force attack, thus effectively breaking the security of pretty much all WPS-enabled Wi-Fi routers. As all of the more recent router models come with WPS enabled by default, this affects millions of devices worldwide."

US-CERT said in its warning that there is no known fix to the security problem. Instead, the group recommends that users disable the WPS function on their routers. The warning lists several wireless router vendors as selling devices that are affected by the security hole: Buffalo, D-Link, Cisco Linksys, Netgear, Technicolor, TP-Link, and ZyXEL.

US-CERT indicated in its warning that it notified router vendors that are affected by the security issue in early December, but so far the vendors have not offered a response nor have any of them issued statements.

For more information:

• Wikipedia Entry about WPS Protocol Specification
• Stefan Viehbock’s Original Blog Post
• CNet’s take on this Vulnerability

Evernote vs. OneNote

And the battle goes on. There have been some recent updates to both of these programs that have prompted me to take another look to see which one is better suited for what I need.

Evernote’s general capabilities are still not as rich on the PC/Desktop side as they are in OneNote but it still has a better overall feel and function between all of the different devices that you can bring it up on. I have listed a table below on some of the major features and how each product rates in respect to each other.

Feature	Evernote	OneNote
Notebook –this feature allows you to group notes together to make them easier to access	Two Level-You can create a master Group and then have notebook containers listed within the master Group or container.	On the surface it appears that you only have two levels here as well however, you may have as many Notebooks that you want. The second level is called a section in OneNote but there are two types of sections that you can create, the first is a Section Group which can create one or more Sections or more Section Groups. A Section then is what actually is the container for your note pages.
Free Form Entries	You don’t have this with Evernote	You can place your entries anywhere you wish on the note. I really like this feature and I miss it with Evernote.
Text Style	The basics are here but they are very limited.	A much richer choice of controls to enhance your text styles. You can create a much richer end product here.
Web Versions	Very similar whether you use the Web Interface or the Desktop Interface.	The Web interface is poor at best not only to the desktop version but also to what Evernote provides. This is the one feature that is a tipping point for me to continue using Evernote as my primary note taking application.
iPad App	Again, this is very similar to the both the Web and Desktop Apps. This makes it much simpler to move from one device to another.	Ugh! The newly released app is ten time better than it was but it still is a poor cousin to anything else. Still not good enough. Evernote wins here as well.
Application Interfaces	Evernote is very strong when it comes to integrating on the iPad with other applications. It should since this is the world that it has mostly evolved in. More and more secondary apps that I use have tie ins to not only Evernote but also Dropbox that these features keep me coming back.	OneNote has very strong tie ins with other Office Applications that I use a lot. This makes it very hard for me to stop using it but in reality, other than the task management associated with Outlook many of the other features that I want can also be found in Evernote.

So, for me I still lean towards Evernote as my primary note program but I still find myself jumping into OneNote when I need that extra formatting or connection to Outlook.

Let me know your thoughts!

Some new features of SkyDrive that may get you to try it out!

I like some of the new file share features that are now available since the upgrade to SkyDrive. The key is that you can generate a share down to the level of the individual file and can even lock it down to viewing, view + edit and sharing with the general public. They have also made it easier to share to your social networks as well by including that capability as an option. Take a look at this video to see this in action.

For more information on this an other upgrade features visit the following links.

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_live/b/windowslive/archive/2011/11/29/skydrive-gets-simple-app-centric-sharing-for-office-powerful-file-management-html5-upload-other-updates.aspx

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_live/b/windowslive/archive/2011/12/21/designing-app-centric-sharing-for-skydrive-part-1-of-2-complexity-of-simple.aspx

http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_live/b/windowslive/archive/2011/12/22/designing-app-centric-sharing-for-skydrive-part-2-of-2-rebuilding-permissions.aspx

Burn ISO Images Natively in Windows 7

From Windows Experience Blog by Brandon LeBlanc 

We just had a question come internally about this and I thought that it might be interesting to have it available for everyone else as well…

Geeks and IT Pros often have to burn an ISO image (.iso file) to physical media such as a CD or DVD to test out and install software. We have made it easier to burn ISO images in Windows 7 by natively supporting the ability to burn ISO images directly within Windows without the need of a third party tool.

To burn an ISO image in Windows 7, all someone needs to do is simply right-click on an ISO image and choose “Burn disc image”.

This launches Windows Disc Image Burner, giving you the option to burn the ISO image to either a CD or DVD.

If you check “Verify disc after burning”, it will verify the ISO image burned correctly. Choosing to verify a disc you burned will require additional time so if you’re in a hurry, you will probably want to ensure this option is unchecked.

I often burn ISO images to a DVD-RW so I can re-use the media. What’s great about Windows Disc Image Burner is that it will detect that a DVD-RW has content on it already and prompt you asking if you would like to erase the disc and burn new content to it. This ensures you don’t accidently erase and burn over something important that may be on that DVD-RW disc. This is awesome because it lets me re-use DVD-RW media.

If you haven’t already discovered this feature in the Windows 7, you should give it a shot especially if you are burning ISO images quite a bit.

AVG Service Update

AVG 8.5 migration to AVG 2012 (Small Business)

End of Service Update for AVG 8.5 was released.

Users that are currently on AVG 8.5 need to migrate to AVG 2012 to stay fully protected. We have created a step by step guide to help you.

Please note that you are required to have AVG Remote Administration 8.5 installed on your machine before you begin the migration process. If you do not have AVG Remote Administration 8.5 installed please refer to the “Important note before installation”.

Important note before the installation:

• Workstations with AVG 8.5 will not be able to communicate with new Admin Server 2012, however the list of these stations will be transferred to the AVG Admin Console.
• All stations that will be upgraded to AVG 2012 will be restarted during the remote installation.
• When installing AVG remotely using the AVG Network Installer Wizard, please bear in mind that a manual restart is always required in case there is AVG 8.5 on the target stations. Sometimes the restart is needed also when reinstalling AVG 2011/2012. The restart is needed because all old AVG services and drivers are scheduled for removal upon restart, and new drivers and services cannot be started due to this. The result of reinstallation without restart would be an unprotected station.
• In general, it is recommended to install AVG remotely during off-peak hours, and enable the option "Reboot the computer after finishing AVG 2012 setup if needed". This will ensure that the computer will be unprotected for the shortest possible time.

Visit this site for more information…

Look at the bright orange Lenovo!

The new Lenovo IdeaPad U300 has some interesting specs and is going after the Ultra PC market that seems to be the new must have design for the ULTRA CHIC!

But, if you are a road warrior you want to have a really functional PC that is light and doesn’t take up much space. This is one of the reasons that I run around with and iPad under my arm and what would interest me in Lenovo’s Ultrabook™ design.

Here is a list of the U300’s best features:

• Slim, Ultrabook™ design for easy mobility, from just 0.6” thin
• Minimalist, one-piece aluminum shell, available in Graphite Gray or Clementine Orange (coming soon)
• Long battery life* with up to 30 days standby time
• Lenovo RapidCharge brings battery charge to 50 percent in 30 minutes
• Boot in as little as 10.5 seconds with RapidDrive SSD technology**
• Breathable keyboard uses Intel® Advanced Cooling Technology to improve airflow so PC can run cooler on your lap
• Cool-touch palmrest and intelligent glass touchpad with easy scroll, zoom and rotate functions
• HD graphics and stereo speakers with SRS® Premium Surround Sound™
• USB 3.0 port, HDMI output and 1.3M (720p HD) webcam
• Intel® Wireless Display (WiDi): wirelessly stream content from your laptop onto a big screen (requires TV adapter)
• BIOS-embedded anti-theft protection

U300s Tech Specs

Take the Lenovo U300 Tour:

Google continues to build on its Solar Energy Investment

PR: Ending the year with another clean energy investment.

Google has added another $94 million investment of four solar photovoltaic projects that is being built by Recurrent Energy near Sacromento, CA. This brings their entire investment in Solar Energy to $915 million. They have also committed themselves to providing funding to help more than 10,000 homeowners to install solare PV panels on their rooftops. They go on to state that this $94 million investment represents a much larger scale result than the individual rooftop installations providing a total capacity of 88 MW of energy, equivalent to the electricity consumed by more than 13,000 homes.

Google isn’t the sole investor in this project. They are investing with KKR and Recurrent Energy.Google’s posting states:

We’re joining KKR on their first renewable energy investment in the U.S. We believe investing in the renewable energy sector makes business sense and hope clean energy projects continue to attract new sources of capital to help the world move towards a more sustainable energy future

The energy produced by these projects is already contracted for 20 years with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD). SMUD recently created a feed-in tariff program (FIT) to help green the grid for Sacramento-area residents. We’re excited that these projects are the first to be built under the program.
We’ve had a busy year at Google. Since January, we’ve invested more than $880 million in clean energy projects. We believe the world needs a wide range of solutions—from wind, to transmission, to solar PV and concentrated solar—and we look forward to new opportunities next year to further expand our portfolio of clean energy investments.

Microsoft reveals SkyDrive Apps for both Windows Phone, iPhone

In the if you can’t beat them, join them category…

Microsoft has release a new SkyDrive Apps that work with both the Windows Phone and the iPhone. With 25Gb’s of free space in the Cloud, this provides you with another easy method to share files easily between computers and mobile devices where ever you are.

As reported in TweakTown posting: 

As devices proliferate, having a great experience on the Web is only one piece of a pretty complex puzzle. People are choosing where to put their files based on how portable and accessible they are across the various devices they use; therefore, it's critical that we continue to extend the SkyDrive experience to the devices you use every day.

Windows Phone's latest update, Mango, has deep integration with SkyDrive through its hubs Pictures and Office, which allows sharing of text, e-mail or IM. Users, as always, wanted more. Torres adds:

Many still want the full SkyDrive experience from Windows Phone, including tasks like browsing their entire SkyDrive, sharing links to folders or files, deleting files, and creating folders.

If you're on an iOS-based device, hit up the App Store and download the SkyDrive app. Torres adds about the iOS version:

On the iPhone, we've taken the next step by making the new SkyDrive app for iPhone available in 32 languages worldwide. In addition to their OneNote notebooks, iPhone customers can now access all of their files in SkyDrive, create folders, delete files, and share links to folders and files directly using the Mail app.

Next Month MS will be pushing silent updates to your IE

Microsoft is auguring that taking the responsibility out of the hands of users will keep the Web safer. This is not a new procedure for browser companies, but is an acknowledgement that Google’s model is proper methodology.

"It's the future ... for all software," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Security. "At this point, at least in the consumer space, people are expecting software to be up to date, and for it to do it itself."

Beginning in January it will roll out automatic upgrades of IE to the newest version suitable for a user's version of Windows. Windows XP users still on IE6 or IE7, for example, will be updated to IE8; Windows Vista or Windows 7 users running IE7 or IE8 will be pushed to IE9.

Previously, Microsoft has asked for user permission before upgrading IE from one version to the next, even if Windows' automatic updates are enabled.

The company will debut the new practice in Australia and Brazil next month, then expand the program gradually to other markets. Microsoft has not set a timetable for U.S. users.

While Chrome is the only browser that currently upgrades to the next version without asking users for permission, Mozilla is working on doing the same with Firefox. Mozilla has pushed back its schedule to release its auto update feature in Firefox 12, which is scheduled for April, 2012.

Microsoft will allow Users to retain control over when they want to update to new versions. So don’t worry about that. Enterprises using WSUS (Windows Server Update Service), or other patch management systems will not be affected. Microsoft is basically saying that if you set group policies through WSUS [to block automatic upgrades] that they are not going to override that.

Companies and individuals can also deploy the blocking toolkits that Microsoft had previously crafted for both IE8 and IE9 to stymie any auto-updating. Those kits can be downloaded from Microsoft's website. In future editions of IE -- meaning IE10 and beyond -- Microsoft will include an opt-out setting that users can select to disable automatic upgrades. While Chrome does not have such a setting, Firefox will when it eventually launches silent updates.

This seems to be a good balance between Microsoft’s desire to get consumers on the newest IE and retain its traditional conservatism where enterprises are concerned.

IE security updates, which are delivered every other month through Windows updates, will not be affected, as they are already silently downloaded and applied if users opt in to automatic updates.

Overall I view this turn of events as positive. Most of the work we do with systems these days are still cleaning systems of Malware, usually caught from visiting websites. So forcing an update to your browser only makes sense in the ongoing battle against the Malware creators. I applaud Microsoft for finally taking this approach.

With deadline looming, few healthcare providers prepared for ICD-10

CLAIMS AND CODING  Less than 10 percent of healthcare providers are over halfway there in terms of being fully prepared for ICD-10, according to the new KLAS report, “ICD-10: Preparing for October 2013.” For this research, KLAS interviewed 163 providers to understand their ICD-10 readiness strategy, major concerns, progress in preparing, confidence in their core and component vendors’ ICD- 10 readiness, and intentions for using third-party firms to assist them.

While providers know a lack of preparation could result in a halt to reimbursements and a revenue cycle disaster when ICD-10 comes, KLAS found that most organizations are still in the strategy/planning phase of their preparation. “We know there is a lot of work to be done. In our opinion, meaningful use is a cakewalk compared to ICD-10,” said one patient accounting director. The research found that many providers have not yet established an ICD-10 budget, while some large health systems are planning to spend tens of millions of dollars on their ICD-10 prep. Nearly two-thirds of providers are engaging or planning to engage with third-party firms to assist with at least one preparation step. “It is a feeding frenzy for consultants,” said one healthcare provider. Learn more about ICD-10 readiness preparations at www.KLASresearch.com/reports.

Allscripts MyWay EHR/PM product has already introduced this in their product and will work with transcoding from ICD-9 to ICD-10 when processing your submittals. Another reason for jumping on board with MyWay, the easiest product to implement, learn and achieve success!

Allscripts CEO honored with lifetime achievement award

ACHIEVEMENTS

The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) Foundation, which represents more than 1,400 of the healthcare industry’s leading CIOs, named Glen Tullman, CEO of Allscripts, the 2011 winner of its Lifetime Achievement Award. Presented Oct. 27 at the CHIME11 Fall CIO Forum in San Antonio, Texas, the award recognizes contributions to the healthcare IT industry throughout the recipient’s entire career. CHIME cited Tullman as “one of the nation’s leading advocates for the electronic, real-time sharing of healthcare information to improve patient care, lower costs and drive collaboration among physicians, hospitals and others in the healthcare community.”

Vulnerability in TrueType Font Parsing Could Allow Elevation of Privilege

Microsoft Security Advisory (2639658)

Updated: Tuesday, November 08, 2011

General Information

Executive Summary

Microsoft is investigating a vulnerability in a Microsoft Windows component, the Win32k TrueType font parsing engine. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run arbitrary code in kernel mode. The attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. We are aware of targeted attacks that try to use the reported vulnerability; overall, we see low customer impact at this time. This vulnerability is related to the Duqu malware.

Upon completion of this investigation, Microsoft will take the appropriate action to help protect our customers. This may include providing a security update through our monthly release process or providing an out-of-cycle security update, depending on customer needs.

We are actively working with partners in our Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP) to provide information that they can use to provide broader protections to customers. For information about protections released by MAPP partners, see MAPP Partners with Updated Protections.

Paul Thurrott has his on take on this posted Nov 8th 2011

Amazon Prime - A Potent Differentiator for Amazon

Amazon's Prime Program was originally set up to provide Amazon Members a service that gave them free 2 day shipping. Amazon has evolved this service into far more. The addition of free video streaming for Amazon Prime Members was an interesting addition and when compared to Netflix's streaming service while maybe not having as large of a library is still favorable. Netflix streaming costs about $95/per year, compare that with Amazon's $79. Now with the addition of the free lending library where you can get one book per month, compare this with a cost of $9.99 per for purchase that you are saving $119/year on average this service provides comparable $200's in services for just $79 with the added benefit of free two day shipping on the hard goods that you order. Makes me think of this as a one of those services that area really good value!


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