With the end of the annual Consumer Electronics Show is Las Vegas, there have been a lot of exciting products announced that could be great tools for your company. Watch the video above to see the best new Laptops, or "Ultrabooks".

I think the important thing to watch for is the last laptop / convertable at the end of the video. This is exactly what I imagined we'd see with Windows 8. The Lenovo Yoga is a touch screen laptop that flips around to become a Windows 8 tablet. A device like this will be truly perfect for employees that are on the move for most of their day. Normal laptop mode for when you need to get some typing done, flip it around for walking around. I am personally super excited that laptops are trending towards this very portable form factor. The Lenovo Yoga won't be coming out till the fall, likely in line with the launch of Windows 8 (in October, is the rumor).

Gift cards are a great gift item for the holidays because they allow the recipient the choice of what they want to purchase. The problem is that they come with expiration dates, and we often don't remember to use them. Sometimes the store that we receive the gift card for is overpriced, or inconvenient to visit. 

I've happened upon a great website that allows you to sell or trade your gift cards so that you won't run the risk of forgetting to use them. It's called Plastic Jungle. https:// www.plasticjungle.com/

So here's the deal: They both purchase and trade gift cards, taking a small percent of the value. The percent they take is based on what you want in return. If you just want cash, they take around 15%. If you want an Amazon gift card in return, they take closer to 5%.

For someone like me who has a hard time making it to the mall/stores to use my gift cards, the Amazon option is perfect. I'm normally able to find things cheaper on there anyways. 

Just wanted to share that website and let you know that type of thing is available. 
Don't let those things expire! No throwing money away.

Switching operating systems for your business can be costly, and time consuming because of the time involved with employee training. Selling their new OS approximately one year from this month will be a challenge Microsoft has to overcome. I do want to mention an important point regarding how businesses can most benefit from Windows 8.

Windows 8 on the desktop may or may not prove to be a great experience, at least from the touch interface standpoint. Whether or not controlling the "Metro Ui" with a mouse and keyboard will be seamless is yet to be determined. However, Microsoft's new "Metro UI" is designed perfectly for touch screens.

I believe the most compelling prospect for businesses with regards to Windows 8 is the potential for portable touch devices. Employees will be able to take advantage of tablets, and convertible touchscreen ultrabook-like devices with software that is touch friendly, and windows enterprise compatible. This is truly the best case scenario for business. A Windows 8 tablet will be portable, touch friendly, intuitive, and most importantly, cheap.

The trend in tablets is to match a sub $500 price point. The trend for Ultrabooks is a near $1000 price point. I think we can expect to see devices ranging from $200 to $1200 that offer different form factors of touch screen devices (with keyboard and without) that will undercut the cost of traditional business workstations.

With CES coming up in January, keep an eye out for upcoming Ultrabooks with touchscreens, and ARM based Windows 8 tablets. These will likely be the most valuable addition for businesses in late 2012 and 2013.

Read news online on websites? Ok, imagine this. All of your news from all over the internet, in once place, and presented with the beautiful design of a magazine. Google's new RSS news reader app for iOS and Android isn't the first app of it's kind, but it by far the most beautiful and elegant. Best news? FREE. (In classic Google fashion). Make sure to check it out, for Android and iOS.

Story from Foxnews:

Over 100 million smartphones are tracking their owners’ every step, Android developer Trevor Eckhart claimed, thanks to software that comes preinstalled on phones from most major carriers.

During a security demonstration revealed on Monday, Eckhart showed how software developed by Carrier IQ tracks virtually everything a user does -- going as far as logging individual keystrokes and button presses. The company claims it helps its customers improve quality and performance “by counting and measuring operational information in mobile devices.” Security experts call it spyware. 

"I assume that when I SMS my wife on the phone, no one is intercepting that message," Chet Wisniewski of security firm Sophos told FoxNews.com. He called the whole ordeal is a "serious invasion of privacy." 

"Why do they need to know when I'm logging into Bank of America, when I'm accessing my password? It's a different level of snooping," he said. Developed as a mobile analytics platform, Carrier IQ's software can be found on most Android, BlackBerry and Nokia phones -- over 140 million phones in total, the company's website boasts. Some reports suggest Apple iPhones may carry the software as well. 

The company has flat out denied that its software records keystrokes, a claim Eckhart’s latest video seems to refute. “Every button you press in the dialer before you call,” Eckhart says in his latest video, “it already gets sent off to the IQ application.”

As you might imagine, when a story like this makes it to major news outlets, who often have their heads in the sand when it comes to cutting edge technology issues, it becomes a much more widely observed and pressing issue.

Verizon has already made a statment that this software isn't on any of their phones. There will no doubt be a lot of noise around this until either the carriers explain what it's doing on their devices, either by thier own initiative, or by a government investigation (which has already begun probing into the issue).

Source: Fox News, Futher Reading: The Verge Story Coverage

Some great news from Microsoft recently on Engadget:

" Trudging through Windows 7's upgrade process drags users through as many as four wizards, 60 windows, and more mouse clicks than anybody at Microsoft cared to count. In a recent study covering PC upgrades, Redmond found this was simply too much of a hassle for many customers. The fix? Consolidate and streamline - according to the outfit's Building Windows 8 blog, upgrading customers will be able to power through installing Windows 8 using a single wizard in as few as 11 clicks. The new process scans the machine for compatibility, checks for the best version of Windows to install, and prompts the user through the process. Moreover, using Windows 8's upcoming web delivery method pre-keys the setup image, freeing users from remembering a 25-digit product key. Advanced users will be able to use a new Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit to create customized unattended setup configurations for multi-boot and specialized network installations. "

via Engadget

Be aware of any offensive images / rogue posts on your facebook account. Apparently there has been an attach that puts offensive images on your facebook wall, however, you can't see them on your account. Only other people can see them. One way to check your account would be to log out of facebook, and then visit your page (while logged out). You could also use the "view my profile as" feature. Take some time to make sure your company's facebook page hasn't been compromised.

"Thousands of Facebook users are reporting an influx of spam on their walls containing images of violence, pornography, animal abuse, and even death. The images are said to appear on users' timelines without their knowledge, and are visible only to their friends and not to the user themselves, making them impossible to remove. Facebook has confirmed to ZDNet that the issue exists, and that its teams are working to uncover the source of the problem, but as yet is unsure what's causing the exploit. Rumors that Anonymous is behind the attacks appear to be unfounded, with the group not claiming responsibility.

Despite the lack of certainty from Facebook itself, it seems likely that the spam is caused by the now all-too-familiar clickjacking apps that have plagued the platform for years. The apps function on a promise — Like the page to reveal the latest celebrity mishap, or see the moment a dictator was captured — which lures people in without thinking about what permissions they might be providing and to whom. The writers of these applications can then abuse these privileges to advertise, gather data on users, and spread like any other malware through a computer system. This isn't the first time we've seen Facebook's security called into question, and it seems unlikely that it'll be the last."

Source: The Verge

Today Google has announced that it's new social network "Google +" will be opening up to businesses, offering them a way to connect with thier customers. During the first five months of it's service, registration with Google + was limited to individuals and required a verifiable first name and last name, so it was not possible for companies or organizations to make a digital presence in the community.

It appears that Google + Business Pages are currently in testing, and will open up to all businesses in the coming weeks. SCD strives to stay on the cutting edge of social media and will keep our clients updated on how they can utilize Google + as a vehicle to drive their business.

You can check back with https://plus.google.com/pages/create to see if registration has opened.

Today Nokia annouced the Nokia Lumina 800, the long awaited Nokia Windows phone 7 phone code named "Sea Ray". Windows Phone 7 is a relatively new platform, compared to Android and iOS, but with the recent "Mango" update, it has really come into it's own software-wise. The Lumina 800 causes the hardware to now reach that top-teir level of quality and polish. Windows phone has excellent office, exchange, and security support for businesses. On the non-corporate side, the phone has a beautiful Nokia 8-megapixel camera on the back, and smooth curved amoled display, and a unibody plastic carbinate body (that's right, that color isn't paint, it's the material... so no ugly scratches).

Update: Announced to launch Q1 2012 with LTE, CDMA in addition to Global and AT&T radios (read: all carriers)

It appears that the phone won't be available in the US until Q1 2012. But It looks like it will be worth the wait. This phone joins the Galaxy Nexus, and the iPhone 4S as the best smartphones available currently (or to be available in the near future).

It will be possible to order the Lumina 800 from the UK on Vodophone and have it delivered to the US to use on AT&T, but it would probably be better just to wait for the U.S. launch. There really are some great phones available as we go in to 2012. Analysts predict that the soon to be launched Kindle Fire tablet from Amazon (7" $200) will do for the video (movie / tv) industry what the iPod did for the music industry. It truly is an exciting time in technology.

"Western Digital Corp., a maker of disk drives and networking products, expects a loss this quarter and forecast sales below analysts’ predictions as the worst flooding in five decades in Thailand hobbles production. Excluding certain costs, the company will have a per-share loss of $1.10 to $1.50 in the fiscal second quarter, which ends in December, Western Digital said yesterday on a conference call. Sales will be $1.05 billion to $1.25 billion in the period. Analysts projected profit of $1.04 on revenue of $2.58 billion, the average estimates in a Bloomberg survey.

Western Digital has shut two factories in Thailand, joining such companies as Honda Motor Co. and Canon Inc. that have closed about 1,000 facilities in the Asian nation ravaged by rising waters. It may take several quarters for Irvine, California-based Western Digital to resume normal production, Chief Executive Officer John Coyne said on the call.

“This is a disaster of unprecedented scale,” Coyne said on the call. “Full recovery will be a multi-quarter challenge.” Western Digital may see exports from Thailand slide as much as 40 percent to 120 billion baht ($3.9 billion), Wannarat Charnnukul, the country’s industry minister, told reporters after meeting with company executives on Oct. 18. The stock fell 5.9 percent in late trading yesterday. That extended an earlier 9 percent slump to $24.44 at the close in New York, for the biggest decline since Jan. 22, 2010.

Western Digital, which counts Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Inc. and Acer Inc. among its customers, relies on its plants in Thailand for 60 percent of production, Wannarat said. It may take the company between four and six months to resume full production, cutting Western Digital’s exports from Thailand by 80 billion baht, from 200 billion baht last year, the minister said. The company has a 33 percent share of the global hard-disk drive market, according to Wannarat.

Other electronics makers are being affected by the flooding. Seagate Technology Plc said on Oct. 12 that while all of its factories in Thailand are operating, the supply chain for the components that go into hard disk drives is being disrupted. Together, Western Digital and Seagate account for about 64 percent of all hard disk drives globally, according to supply chain analysis by Bloomberg."

-Bloomberg Businessweek

Making a good impression is everything in business, and there's no better way to do that than having a professional and defined company image. We've recently updated the design section of our webpage with examples of work that we've done. Check out our Corporate Identity page to learn more about branding, or our Websites page to see how a cutting edge website can set you apart.

I'll just put it like this... the new Google Translate is jaw-droppingly awesome. Need a personal translator? Google just made one you can fit in your pocket. Simply choose the two languages you want, press the microphone, speak. It will translate what you said to the second language, and then say it (in the second language) for the other person. They can then tap to respond and it will read back what they said in your language.

Google has just provided a connection between people where there wasn't one before. Thank you Google for your innovation! The only downside is you have to have a data connection to use the app. Hopefully they will make an offline mode in the future to make the ultimate translation app!

Heads up if you use a BlackBerry:

' It's day three of RIM's BlackBerry service outage in much of the world, including Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, Brazil and Chile. But now the problem appears to have spread into Canada -- RIM's home turf -- and we're even hearing reports of some service issues in the US as well. '

From RIM: "BlackBerry subscribers in the Americas may be experiencing intermittent service delays this morning. We are working to resolve the situation as quickly as possible and we apologize to our customers for any inconvenience. We will provide a further update as soon as more information is available."

Source: Engadget