I just saw an alert come by that Verizon Wireless is now telling customers that orders placed for the Droid Incredible may not be delivered for a month.  You can see the ship date that shows online on the Verizon Wireless site in this picture of the phone.

Seems demand for this popular high end smartphone is much greater than either the carrier or the manufacturer, HTC, anticipated.  Yikes. 

If you seriously want one of these, and you should, you better get your order in fast if you want to see it anytime this summer.  Good luck!

I was not planning to write about smartphones again so soon, but this week's announcement of the latest iPhone by Apple as well as the recent announcement of new Android-based smartphones make this topic too timely to hold off.

The announcement this past Monday of the fourth generation iPhone has been eagerly anticipated. While the announcement did not hold anything nearly as revolutionary as the first announcement of the iPhone, Apple has certainly built on its innovative traditions by adding high-definition video and a front facing-video camera to enable video chat with this latest version. But perhaps most notably, the curves of the device have been slightly diminished and the size is being heralded as the world's thinnest smartphone to date. The screen is also so high quality that it has a higher resolution than is discernible by the human eye. In other words, it's crisp beyond description.

It's too soon to know if this latest edition of the iPhone will make it even more of a hit than it already is, but it is certainly not going to diminish its market share. The new iPhone will be available later this month, and we are sure to see droves of current owners rushing to upgrade to the latest hardware as well as causing many who have been holding off to dive right in.

Perhaps what was missing the most from the announcement of the new iPhone was its rumored arrival to the Verizon Wireless network. It didn't happen, at least not yet, and I will not waste column space speculating on whether it will come to carriers other than AT&T before the 2012 expiration of the reported exclusive contract between Apple and AT&T.

Over the past several months, Verizon Wireless has sent me several new Android-based smartphones to evaluate, the more recent being theHTC Droid Incredible, a phone I have begun to think of as the incredible Incredible. For those on the Sprint network, the new EVO 4G is a nearly identical device. What has impressed me the most about the Droid Incredible is similar to what impresses me about the iPhone. The intuitive nature of the device, aided in part by some additional software from HTC, manufacturer of the phone, that simply makes it a pleasure to use.

I have had several clients mention to me recently that they no longer rely on their notebook or home computer for remote access to their offices. Rather, they use their smartphones, whether an iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile or Blackberry device, to access much of what they need while they travel.

One client even boldly commented to me that he does not take his notebook with him on any business trips less than four days as he can stay in contact with everyone he needs to with his smartphone, including reviewing documents and spreadsheets. This more than anything illustrates just how far smartphones have come. Business people across industries are able to operate without their main computer for days at a time thanks to these devices. It's truly impressive.

Smartphones are capable of providing secure access to business resources at a much higher level than ever before.

To be able to carry a single device so thin and light as to be able to be comfortably placed in a shirt pocket that can access not just your e-mail but also files on the company network, securely and efficiently, is a real benefit to many in the business community.

From an information security point of view, the fact these connections are secure and encrypted is critically important. Moreover, the fact IT administrators have the tools to remotely wipe out and erase a lost and stolen device provides the security necessary for many industries.

These developments are part of what is fueling the rapid pace of development of these devices.

I plan to release my detailed review of the HTC Droid Incredible on my blog at mjsblog.jenaly.com over the coming week and may devote a future column to that review, as well.

In the meantime, if you have not made the move to a smartphone, I encourage you to do so.

You won't regret it.

The following was posted to the Green Alliance Blog...

By Jim Cavan

In the “Green IT” section of their May Newsletter, Jenaly Technology Group introduced many on the Seacoast to “Granola”.

Not the oats and berries variety, mind you. More of the circuits and chips variety.

Released in January by MiserWare, a Blacksburg, Virginia IT company specializing in green and intelligent software management systems, Granola is a free software program that can help reduce your PC’s energy use by up to 30%.

Granola saves energy by applying dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) to the CPU of a system – sort of like a "dimmer switch." When a user is browsing the web or working on a document, Granola scales down the power needed; when the CPU is running at full blast for creating charts and graphs or other computing-intensive processes, the software draws more power.

While certainly a novel and welcome idea for anyone interested in reducing their individual carbon footprint, for Portsmouth-based Jenaly Technology Group, such advancements are par for the course.

Jenaly boasts a number of green approaches and programs that set them apart from others in their industry. Their Virtual System Administration (VSA) management services remotely service your computer to keep it running at maximum efficiency, cutting down on frequent updates, travel and maintenance time, and subsequently reducing e-Waste. Their Disaster Recovery service removes costly and wasteful tape media from your computer’s backup, reducing waste and making your backup capabilities more reliable.

Jenaly also boasts an impressive paperless filing and billing system, as they work towards their long term goal of being 100% digital. They work with several e-waste recyclers to help people dispose of their used computer parts responsibly, and they often encourage employees to work from home in order to reduce carbon emissions and needless travel time.

Then, of course, there’s the “Green IT” section, published in every monthly FY I.T. newsletter. The section provides readers with easy, common-sense solutions and alternatives to help them reduce their energy use, particularly with respect to their computer. Some past tips have included: encouraging downloading of software instead of having a CD delivered; showing how to convince suppliers to ship your equipment with minimal packaging; and providing guides to the country’s greenest electronics companies.

For Jenaly’s Customer Advocate Ellen Sargent, such initiatives reflect an ethos that everyone at Jenaly is proud to rally around. “In a nutshell – and this can be applied to a lot of industries – even the little things you do can make a huge difference,” says Sargent, who among other things is tasked with publishing Jenaly’s FYI.T. newsletter. “And because they are effective solutions that are also green, it’s a win-win.”

What are these “little things”? It can be anything from switching to online data backup, uploading as many as five servers onto one physical server to save energy, or even something as seemingly benign as single-spacing your documents. In the end, they all add up to a smarter, more efficient computer, while subtracting energy and waste from the equation.

They’re also making bigger moves to bring awareness to their ever-greening portfolio. In 2009 the company joined the Green Alliance, a Seacoast-based “green business union” and discount member co-op that helps raise the profile of local green businesses.

While many of these measures fall under the heading of common sense, Sargent maintains that everyone at Jenaly is encouraged to “think outside the box”.

“I remember one of the employees was fascinated with combining server spaces and really wanted to run with the idea,” Sargent recalls. “MJ told him to go for it, like he does with a lot of ideas that don’t necessarily fit into the current program. It’s that sense of experimentation that I think really makes our office unique.”

But for all the specific examples of how Jenaly is greening the face of IT, and for all the reasons they provide for doing so, the company’s commitment can perhaps be best summed up with the first eight words on their website’s Green IT section: “Simply put, it’s the right thing to do.”

Going green is everywhere. Whether it's recycling at home or the office, the cars we drive or the products we purchase, we all know there is a lot of momentum behind going green. Even the new fire station just opened in Portsmouth is being praised for its green construction, which will save taxpayers money not just today, but throughout the station's lifespan.

With all the awareness and sensitivity to green initiatives around us, it only stands to reason that we should occasionally ask ourselves if we are really improving things when trying to be more green. I think it's clear to most people that it's the right thing to do, but from a business sense, in addition to doing the right thing, will it also save our businesses money? I believe the answer is yes. And in the world of IT, I also think it's relatively straight-forward to monetize green initiatives as cost-saving measures, as well.

Especially as we move into the warmth of summer, one of the obvious areas is cooling. Computer technology generates a lot of heat, from the computer itself, the monitor and all the peripheral devices that drive a present-day office network. The more gear, the more heat. The more heat, the more cooling required. It's fairly simple in this respect. While at the individual desk this may not seem substantive, if your company runs multiple servers and associated networking devices, it may generate significant cooling requirements. This translates into power costs, not to mention maintenance of the cooling capacity, which may be significant.

I have seen several examples where power consumption may be reduced by as much as 30 percent by leveraging more power-efficient technology and even by simply putting computers to sleep when not in active use and turning off printers and monitors outside of business hours. Newer equipment has sophisticated power management capabilities that some manufacturers state are up to 80 percent more efficient. With even a few computers, an 80 percent gain in efficiency may translate into hard savings on monthly electric bills.

However, all this said, the real opportunity for IT to be more green starts with the manufacturing of the computer equipment and its ultimate disposal. Improvements in the manufacturing processes probably hold the most potential for improving the sustainability of technology hardware and this responsibility rests with the manufacturers themselves. That does not mean we, as users of these technologies, should not do what we can to help in the process. When we are ready to dispose of computers, they should never go into the office trash. Computer equipment needs to be properly recycled as there is a very large industry growing around providing these services. It's not difficult to find responsible companies that will come and pick up your old technology and repurpose it for good or properly recycle it. Every computer has hazardous metals and chemicals, and these need to be properly disposed of. This, too, is part of being greener.

There are many rapidly maturing technologies that will have a positive green impact on business. The adoption of more online, or cloud, technologies has the potential to allow businesses that are able to leverage these to be more green with their IT footprint. Paperless technologies also improve a company's green footprint as it allows a business to require less space for records storage as well as generate significantly less paper and printer waste.

Remote, mobile and telecommunication technologies all have a positive impact considering the reduction in space, power and emissions that each is able to deliver. Some of these have direct benefit to the business and some to the employee, but the net gain in terms of lower costs and less waste transcend both business and individual. Businesses that embrace these technologies also report gains in productivity and quality that translate to direct profits.

There is no shortage of opinions that challenge the benefits of green IT, however, I do believe green IT makes sense. I would expect to see some tangible cost savings for even the smallest offices. Globally, green IT makes even more sense as the potential to reduce environmental impact of our increasing use of technology is just good business, not to mention good stewardship of our environment.

I have written several columns over the past year focusing on data privacy and security. Over this time, there have been several new regulations that have come into effect that require businesses to take specific steps to secure their customers' data.

With all that has been written, by myself and others, there are still an alarming amount of data breaches. Individual computer users and companies at large continue to do reckless things online that put data and business security at risk. You would think this would not be the case, but it is. A recent report by Consumer Reports notes more than 1.7 million cases of online identify theft over the last year. The report further stated more than 2.4 million individuals submitted information to phishing e-mail messages. Phishing e-mail messages are e-mails that often appear to be coming from legitimate organizations, like your bank, and ask you to reply with specific sensitive information, like your account number or other similar information. The report estimates the cost of cyber crime last year at $4.5 billion. That is a staggering cost and one that needs to be mitigated.

With the dramatic increase in use of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and others, this report and others find that people post far too many details about themselves, facilitating identity theft. Many surveys show people will post complete address information and even things like names of their children, which may potentially expose your children to online advances. The threats are numerous and getting very subtle, so vigilance and common sense needs to be stressed at every opportunity.

A threat often overlooked in the office environment is the office copier, more commonly referred to as the office multi-function device. These are your large copiers that are now much more; the network scanner, copier and fax machine. These devices have changed dramatically over the years. Remember when you got your first office copier how you had to place the document in the feeder and wait for the copier to warm up, then it would pull in the original and kick out the copies one by one. Today, everything is based on the scanning engine in these units. When you place your original document into the device, it will rapidly scan in the document and then print the copies. This has led to dramatic increases in efficiency with these devices, but it also has introduced a security threat very few people recognize. In fact, you may have seen a recent CBS news expose on this topic.

Simply stated, when you use these devices, the documents you are copying and scanning are being stored, albeit theoretically temporarily, on an internal hard drive within the device. After you have received your scanned document or taken your copies back to your desk, data on those documents remains on the internal hard drive. When the time comes to dispose of this device, either by direct disposal or a trade-in back to your vendor, the data goes with it. There are documented cases of multi-function devices being removed from medical offices and returned to the vendor and replaced with a new unit. When the returned unit was inspected and hard drive removed, sensitive medical data was retrieved from the drive and that medical office had just violated Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act privacy laws. This is a serious matter and one very few business people understand.

These devices are often leased and every few years, the vendor will replace the leased device with a new one. It's very important that part of the process be a secure wipe of the internal hard drive to ensure your business does not expose sensitive data or worse, unknowingly facilitate a data breach by not managing these devices properly.

As you can see, there continue to be many threats to your data security and privacy, some of which are obvious and some are not. It's important to maintain a dynamic information security policy in your organization that adapts with the changing landscape and helps you do everything possible to keep your systems and data safe.

Thanks for reading.