It’s hard for a security program to be considered essential when it can’t win independent antivirus certifications. The Verge reports that Microsoft’s (MSFT) Security Essentials anti-virus software has failed the latest certification test from the AV-TEST institute, as it “failed to adequately protect against 0-day malware attacks, scoring an average of 71 percent vs. the industry average of 92 percent.” Microsoft isn’t taking this lying down, however, and the company is directly challenging the AV-TEST results by saying that it can be “difficult for independent anti-malware testing organizations to devise tests that are consistent with the real-world conditions.” Microsoft says it has conducted its own “rigorous review of the results” and has found that Security Essentials holds up well compared to the industry average.

via Microsoft Security Essentials: Antivirus test failure | BGR.

The post Microsoft Security Essentials Review – Do yourself a favor and skip it appeared first on .

Sennheiser understands that comfort and sound quality are key elements for headset happiness. Whether it’s the single-ear (monaural) or dual-ear (binaural) headsets, the wearer is assured of a perfect fit from adjustable ear cups and all day comfort from ultra lightweight designs and generous padding where it’s needed.

Sennheiser VoIP headsets are offered in over-the-ear or over-the-head models that feature wideband voice, HD audio, noise cancelling microphones, and eardrums will appreciate ActiveGard technology for acoustic burst protection.

Wireless Features

In addition to the features above, Sennheiser Wireless VoIP Headsets feature long battery life and ultra-fast charging, PC connection via USB, and a wireless range of over 500 feet that works through walls and ceilings.

“Sennheiser VoIP headsets are perfect for call centers and those noisy offices with open floor plans,” said Garrett Smith, Chief Marketing Officer at VoIP Supply. “Sennheiser’s top quality noise-reduction, HD audio, and comfortable designs do their part to help cushion the wearer from their environment.”

How to select a Sennheiser Telephone Headset Solution

The post How To Choose The Right VoIP Headsets for Noisy Call Centers and Offices appeared first on .

At fullserviceit.com we only install onsite phone systems for these very reasons.

via InfoWorld

The next day at 8 a.m., we were back at the offsite location, ready to test everything once more before returning to the home office. At 8:15 a.m., we got a call from the vendor inquiring if we’d had a break-in the previous evening, occurring just after 5 p.m. We were quite sure we hadn’t since we’d been standing outside the door talking until 5:15.

He explained that shortly after the system went to night ring, there were 19 calls of 10 seconds or less placed to a number in Africa. Each call was charged at several hundred dollars. Fortunately, the vendor’s tech staff were online, noticed the call log, and immediately disabled international calling from that location.

We quickly verified that those calls had not originated from our site, and a couple of hours later, the vendor reported back with the results of the inquiry.

It turned out one of the vendor’s former employees had stolen and cloned the credentials for one of the phones given to us. Though he was no longer employed by the company, he apparently still had access to monitor the phones, which he used to watch for the same media access control ID to be deployed.

At the same time, the ex-employee registered a phone number with an African phone service, similar to the way a 900 number works in the United States. Just by dialing such a number, the caller consents to the charges, which can run into several hundred dollars, depending on how the person sets it up. It soon became a waiting game for him.

When the opportunity arose, he acted quickly. He could tell we were on the East Coast and simply waited for 5 p.m., figuring it was the common quitting time. He called the office to test for a night ring, got it, and began to dial the number in Africa over and over again before the vendor saw and cut him off. The vendor understandably didn’t disclose any more details about the depth of the ex-employee’s shenanigans.

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HelloSign is a new service from the founders of HelloFax, that is giving document signing services for free to its users. I don’t know about you, but I am going to start using this free document signing service in my business.

The founders at HelloFax needed a simpler way to help customers get their documents signed. And so they developed a digital signature tool. In short time, they realized they had stumbled into a new space. The young YCombinator startup found that digital signing of documents was not just a feature but a market.

Today HelloFax is breaking into the digital signature category with a free service called HelloSign.

HelloSign is s service meant to disrupt the incumbents in the market through its freemium, Yammer like model. HelloSign pairs with HelloFax, a service for digitally sending and receiving documents.

Yammer amassed millions of users by offering a free service that could be upgraded to a paid account. The company sold its corporate activity stream/social networking technology earlier this spring to Microsoft for $1.2 billion. HellloSign follows a similar model. All signatures are free. Paid services are in the works for such offerings as managing complex workflows.

HelloSign is a business grade service with such features as audit trails and business receipts. Its premise: signing a document should be free and simple. It should not require printing and scanning a document. Instead, it should be as easy as digitally signing a document and emailing it to the recipient.

via TechCrunch.

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If your business is currently running an older version of OSX and would like to upgrade to the latest version, contact us today for help in making it a smooth upgrade.

Great OSs stick together

The overall impression I get from Mountain Lion is one of cohesion, on several fronts.

Apple is certainly bringing iOS and OS X closer together, at least superficially in terms of the user interface. Common elements like Notification Center and Share buttons are making these two very different operating systems start to feel like two sides of the same coin. That’s a good thing, although I’ll change my mind if Apple ever starts bringing the restrictions of iOS over as well. I believe this to be very unlikely, though.

iCloud syncing, both of documents and preferences, also brings greater cohesion to the process of using multiple devices, whether they are Macs or iOS or any combination of the above. As long as app support is there — which is thin right now, admittedly, but it’ll improve — then access to your data is seamless. Having bookmarks, open tabs, email accounts, and all the rest sync between Macs is much appreciated.

Mountain Lion is certainly a worthy upgrade that, whilst it doesn’t contain any life-changing upgrades over Lion, makes OS X a more productive operating system than ever before in a value-for-money package.

via TUAW.com.

The post OS X Mountain Lion Is On The Loose: Read The Review appeared first on .

This week on The BGR Show we spent some time looking at Google’s (GOOG) first ever Nexus tablet, the Nexus 7, and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, which is just starting to roll out to the Galaxy Nexus and Nexus S. We take an in-depth look at both of Google’s flagship Nexus products running Google’s latest mobile OS and break down all of the best new features. At $199, we’ll say it again — this is the best tablet you can buy.

via BGR Show: Jelly Bean video review.

The post Google Nexus 7 review video – Local Business Owners Take Notice appeared first on .

If you want to know how to protect a data center in 2012 you don’t have to look further than the QTS Richmond Data Center. With what seems like a fortress surrounding it, the data center meets all the Department of Defense anti-terrorism force protection physical requirements.

That’s serious stuff. Here’s what else the QTS Richmond Data Center does to protect itself:

• 500 foot setback to all buildings surrounded by an energized fence protecting the campus perimeter
• K-12 delta vehicle barriers with K-12 rated fencing at all vehicle entrances
• Hardened 24x7x365 visitor screening facility rated National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Ballistic Level 3
• Metal detection devices and x-ray scanning instruments screen all visitors
• Central command center with 24x7x365 security staff with roving armed security officers
• Security monitoring with video surveillance and security cameras
• Card access, biometric fingerprint and iris scan identification systems throughout the facility

In other words, it looks like one of those buildings where you could only break in if you were starring in a heist movie and looked like George Clooney. The QTS Richmond Data Center had originally been a semiconductor fabrication facility but has been undergoing a conversion process to amp up its security measures for the past two years. From the sounds of it, no one will be breaking in.

via gizmodo.com.

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via bgr.com.

Google is an advertising company first and foremost, but the big revenue the company sees from ads is funding the rest of the company’s efforts — efforts that have brought us great products and services like Gmail, Google Maps and the company’s new Nexus 7 tablet. Search remains Google’s core product, of course, and countless businesses are sustained by traffic generated by Google searches. As such, it’s no mystery that advertising is Google’s biggest revenue generator by a landslide. Google has made moves recently to promote clicks on paid ads rather than organically surfaced results, and a new study reveals that Google’s efforts have had quite an impact.

Google’s net income popped in the first quarter this year, and a recent study conducted by online advertising consulting firm WordStream highlights one of several key factors responsible for the increase: Google is burying organic search results under a mountain of sponsored results, and the impact is huge.

For keyword searches with high commercial intent performed by U.S. Google users, sponsored results attracted the lion’s share of clicks by a huge margin — 64.6% of traffic from theses searches went to sponsored links while 35.4% when to organic links. WordStream defines searches with high commercial intent as searches where the user is looking to buy a product or service rather than answer a question. These searches are obviously far more important to businesses than any other type of search.

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