by Joi on December 30, 2009
If you spend as much time working online as I do, you know what it’s like to want the following:
Unfortunately, I’ve given up on waking up to a 36 hour day and, frankly, I’m not sure I could pull off a 4 hand look, try as I might. So, there you have it. I’ve accepted the fact that I have only 24 hours and 2 hands to work with.
A well-constructed daily planner and to do lists placed where I can see them gets around the time issue nicely. And extremely innovative and brilliant office technology such as the AT&T TL7610 DECT 6.0 Digital Cordless Headset (Silver/Black)
make my two hands seem like 4. Without the stares. I was recently sent one of these fantastic headsets to review and I totally give it two thumbs up (or would that be 4?).
AT&T Cordless Headset DECT 6.0 Digital (TL7610) Features:
- Unsurpassed range
- DECT 6.0 digital technology
- Wirelessly pair to any 2008 AT&T DECT 6.0 cordless phone
- Headset volume control
- Up to 500 feet of range
- Auto off
- Conference capability with up to 2 headsets
- Dual color lighted in-use indicator
- Headset volume control
- Lightweight and comfortable design
- Multiple connection options: handset port and parallel PSTN
- Multiple wearing styles: over the ear, over the head or behind the neck style
- Mute
- One-button answer
- Optional handset lifter (AT&T TL7000 sold separately)
- Optional remote dial pad works with PSTN connection mode only (AT&T TL7601 sold separately)
- Sound level protection
- Works with corded or cordless 1-line and 2-line phones
- Works with multi-line business systems
- Silver
The AT&T TL7610 DECT 6.0 Digital Cordless Headset (Silver/Black) isn’t just perfect, it’s essential.
Here’s why:
- No more pain in the neck. If you’ve ever done the ridiculous phone balance (where you try to hold it between your ear and shoulder) while keeping your hands free as you talk on the phone – you know the pain and strain that you feel in your neck. The pain doesn’t go away, sometimes, for days. A cordless headset frees you from the pain as it frees your hands from the phone.
- No more embarrassing drops. It’s just not cool to drop someone on the floor then follow it up with an, “Uh oh, I dropped you! (nervous laughter) What were you saying???”
- Your hands are free, free, free. As you’re listening to the person on the other end of the phone, your hands are free to type, write, search, drink coffee, file your nails, play Farmville (don’t judge me), or file papers. Multi-tasking is a given today – not an option.
- You’ll look so darned tech-y. That counts for something, right?
The gorgeous, sleek AT&T TL7610 DECT 6.0 Digital Cordless Headset (Silver/Black) should absolutely be the next thing you buy for your office. You’ll want to get one for the home as well – cooking is so much easier to do with two free hands.
This particular cordless headset is as clear and perfect as you could ever hope for. It sounds just like a regular phone conversation – just without the neck strain or tied-up hands. What’s more, this headset features an unsurpassed range of up to 500 feet – so if you like to walk while you talk (my husband’s the expert at that), feel free to be free! The AT&T TL7610 Digital Cordless Headset is compatible with any phone you can think of. The TL7610’s base doubles as its charger, which I love. The last thing I need is another charger to chase around the house.
This is an extremely comfortable and very easy to use cordless headset. The instructions and guide are 100 percent clear and easy to follow. It’s a personal opinion, but I think AT&T always excels at keeping things very clear and uncomplicated. Man, I love them for that.
At less than $200, the AT&T TL7610 is priced lower than most of its competitors. With above-average sound quality and range, it is a must-have for anyone who uses the phone for more than just a few minutes a day. I think that’s pretty much everyone!
The links I’ve included in this post point to Amazon, where the AT&T TL7610 is just $169 – unheard of!
by Joi on December 8, 2009
Below is a guest post by Kevin Baker. Enjoy!
Ah, the holidays. That wonderful time of year when families gather ‘round the fireplace to drink a little eggnog, trim the tree, and experience the joy of being together.
For most of us, the holidays are also a very hectic time of year. Especially the 12 days leading up to Christmas. And that’s true even if you don’t happen to celebrate Christmas, because it still sets a very short deadline for getting business done since most of the business world seems to come to a stop from December 25 until around January 3.
How do you reconcile the high-pressure needs of your small business with your family’s desire to roast chestnuts on the open fire? Having a virtual phone service can help. Toward that end, we offer up these 12 small business phone tips ‘til Christmas. Hope they help make your season a little brighter.
1. Pre-record a message and make it an option on your phone system’s virtual receptionist. It’s great for businesses with a small staff and different hours during the holidays.
2. Use an extension to tie to ads and/or direct mail/email promotions. Encourage customers to call a specific extension you set up to promote the door buster of the day.
3. Give Santa an extension. Let kids call to listen to Santa directly at the North Pole. This will work even better if you have an 800 number through your virtual phone service provider.
4. Instead of having personnel on the phone when they could be helping live customers, set up your phone system to post updates on current inventory levels of hot items. Add the date and time so customers know how current the information is.
5. Create an FAQ recording with answers to common questions for customers. Just remember to leave them a way to opt out and talk to someone live if they want.
6. Customers often gather information on the Web then use other means to make the purchase. Make it easy for them to call by adding a Web call button (a “Call Now” type button) to your Web site.
7. Make a quick business call while you pick out a Christmas tree. With virtual phone services for small business, customers will see your caller ID and will likely assume you’re calling from the office.
8. Instead of missing out on holiday parties you can step aside with your peppermint hot chocolate in hand and finish-up last minute business with the your phone’s conference call feature.
9. Don’t stay behind waiting to receive a fax in your home office while your family heads out to the in-laws for a pre-holiday feast. Treat your virtual phone service as a fax delivery the same as you do with your voicemail messages, and receive your faxes via email on your cell phone or laptop. Never wait around for a fax again!
10. Use smart call forwarding to offer 24×7 customer support. Smart call forwarding connects to any phone you choose. Have each person on staff take a night to provide that support during the holidays – then advertise it’s available.
11. Use smart call forwarding to carve out a little time for yourself. With smart call forwarding you can sneak out to do a little extended shopping, trim the tree with the family, or a holiday lunch without losing touch.
12. Make your holiday bright. Not a phone tip just good advice. Take the time to relax, enjoy and refresh yourself for 2010. Happy holidays!
Kevin Baker is my1voice Product Marketing Manager for Protus (www.protus.com), provider of the highest quality Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) communication tools for small-to-medium businesses (SMB) and enterprise organizations, including my1voice, the cost-effective, feature-rich virtual phone service that travels with the user from phone to web, award-winning MyFax, the fastest growing Internet fax service and Campaigner, an email marketing solution with advanced automation features. Kevin can be reached at kbaker@protus.com
by Joi on November 27, 2009
Digital frames remain one of the most popular gifts for Christmas and for good reason – they’re beyond clever. Everyone loves showing of their pictures.. whether they’re of their spouse, son, daughter, cat, dog, hamster, Mustang, or all of the above. At heart, we’re pretty much all show offs.
Features:
- Built-in memory: This frame comes with integrated memory to store up to 15 photos so you don’t have to leave your flash media inserted in the frame. This frame is compatible with your SD, MMC, MS, XD, and CF cards.
- Interchangeable frames: Switch between two decorative frames–black or wood–to match a range of decors and color schemes.
- Put on a show: Create a cool slide show or just let your pictures just auto rotate.
- File compatibility: JPEG, MP3, MPEG1, MP4 and WMA.
- Resolution: HP DF750A2
Specifications:
- Media Formats: JPG, MP3, MPEG4
- Internal Memory: Up to 15 photos
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Contrast Ratio: 400:1
Package Includes:
- HP DF750A2 7″ LCD with MP3 Digital Frame
See HP DF750A2 7 Inch LCD with MP3 Digital Frame
for more information.
Kindle: Amazon’s 6″ Wireless Reading Device (Latest Generation)
Everyone’s talking about the Kindle for good reason – the dude’s cool. It’s about as slim as a typical magazine and about as light as a short Dean Koontz novel. You can download your favorite books in under a minute with no wires, no hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots, no monthly fees, and no annoying “plans.” I hate “plans” – it seems like they never have ME in mind.
The new Kindle now has 16 shades of gray for clear text and even crisper images.
Other Features:
- Long battery life
- Holds over 1,500 books
- With the new text-to-speech feature, Kindle can read every newspaper, magazine, blog, and book out loud to you! Unless the book’s rights holder goes all party pooper and makes the feature unavailable
- Free book samples
- Newspapers and magazines available as well as books
- The Kindle store has over 300,000 books – biographies, thrillers, classics…
Amazon’s incredibly ambitious – they want to have every book ever printed, in any language, all available in under 60 seconds on Kindle. They’ve gone on record as saying that they won’t stop until that happens. I totally believe them.
Click through to learn more about the Kindle: Amazon’s 6″ Wireless Reading Device (Latest Generation). It’s currently under $300, so I’d take complete advantage of it and grab at least one. It’d make an ideal Back to School gift for a college or high school student or for the mom who’ll find herself in a suddenly quiet house when September rolls around.
I’m actually in the middle of creating two membership sites at once. Literally – I have, like, 789 zillion windows open at the bottom of my laptop. It’s a personal record.
Even though I’m ridiculously busy (keep that coffee coming!), I HAD to take a break and let visitors on a few of my sites know about this brilliant system. I have created membership sites for other people in the past.
In fact, I once got sucked into creating one for a client and it nearly resulted in my loss of sanity. I had my atlas out, researching which would be the highest local cliff to jump from when he suddenly decided to go in a different direction. Saved!
That was back in the days when membership sites were created by sadists. Today, thanks be to God above, there is a simple and beautiful way to create membership sites. All you need is WishList Member. It’s actually an ingenius, elaborate plugin that you use along with Wordpress.
Unlike the membership nightmares of the past, WishList Member includes a wonderful collection of step-by-step videos along with Quick Start Guides that lay it all out for you. They practically take you by the hand and show you what to do and where to do it. They show you how to use their software and even give you great tips along the way – letting you know how you can optimize the features.
Why Create a Membership Site?
So what are the benefits of having a membership site?
- Money, honey! One of the most obvious benefits of a membership site is the fact that you can make money. Why keep giving your valuable information away for free if you can attach a price tag to it?
- Exclusiveness. Literally every day I come across sites that are scraping posts and content from my sites and sites of people I work with. Even when they’re cool enough to give a link back, it’s still bothersome when something YOU write for YOUR visitors and YOUR site ends up on someone else’s site. A membership site takes care of cyber pirates. Sorry, mate.
- Create a Community. If you sell products or services, creating a membership site will establish a community of individuals who are actually interested in what you have to offer. You’ll weed out the spammers, casual surfers, and link droppers. You’ll draw legitimately interested and invested readers and potential clients. You don’t even have to charge for your membership site – it could be a free service for clients that you already have. A membership site could also be used by savvy business owners as a way of putting helpful, motivating content in front of their employees.
If a little extra money sounds sweet to you, click through and learn more. As for me, I’m back to work…
Have you laid eyes on a netbook yet? These streamlined little geniuses are designed for the Internet, so you can stay connected on the go. That means you can get up-to-date news, the latest scores and weather information whenevery your heart desires. You can also access your e-mail, twitter, blogs, and so on when you WANT to – not just when you HAVE to.
Netbooks may look like laptops, but they don’t have the full capabilities of a computer. Instead, a netbook specializes in mobility and the Web, so it’s great for travel or as a supplement to your main PC.
The Acer Aspire One 751h – Netbook with Intel Atom Processor Z520
pictured here is from Best Buy.com.
From the website:
AO751h-1153 LU.S820B.101 Genuine Windows XP Home Edition; Intel Atom Processor Z520; 1GB DDR2 667 SDRAM; 160GB hard drive, multi-in-one card reader; 11.6″ WXGA (1366 x 768) TFT display, Acer CrystalBrite Technology; Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 500; 802.11b/g WLAN, 10/100 LAN, webcam; ruby red chassis; three-cell battery; one-year limited warranty
Breathtaking sights and sounds The Aspire 751h breathes life into your favorite movies! Get picture-perfect visuals on the 11.6″ high-def display with 1366 x 768 resolution, and plug in your headphones to relish realistic 5.1-channel surround sound.
Pushing performance limits The Aspire 751h is equipped with a small-yet-powerful processor. You can store massive files on the large hard disk drive, share multimedia via the multi-in-one-card reader and conduct a videoconference with the integrated webcam.
Center of attention Only one-inch thin, the slender shape and gleaming chassis of the Aspire One 751h has futuristic appeal.
Keyboard comfort The full-size Acer FineTip keyboard has flat, broad keys for enhanced typing comfort. In addition, the multi-gesture touchpad supports circular-motion scrolling, pinch-action zoom and page flip.
Features
- Intel System Controller Hub US15W
- Multi-in-one card reader:
- Supports optional MultiMediaCard, Reduced-Size MultiMediaCard, Secure Digital, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO or xD-Picture Card
- With optional adapter supports optional Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO Duo, miniSD, microSD
- Interface ports: DC-in, RJ-45 LAN, VGA, headphones/speaker/line-out, microphone, three USB 2.0
- 11.2″ (284.0mm) W x 7.8″ (198.0mm) D x 1.0 (25.4) H / 2.8 lb. (1.3kg) with three-cell battery, 3.0 lb. (1.3kg) with six-cell battery
- Six-cell – up to 7.0 hours life depending on configuration and usage or
- Three-cell – up to 4.0 hours life depending on configuration and usage
- Multi-gesture touchpad pointing device with two buttons supporting circular-motion scrolling
- One-year limited warranty
Click through the link or the image to learn more.
If you’re as interested in a great deal as I am, you’ll want to Check out the newest coupons this week at Accessory Geeks
. The only thing better than saving money online would be Starbucks offering free Iced Coffee Lattes. Are you listening, Starbucks? Did you catch that wildy fantastic idea I just had?!?!
The following deals at Accessory Geeks.com expire on June 26, so make haste.
- Class 4 Kingston 4GB Micro SD Card & Adaptor – $10.99 when you add 2 or more
- 10 Feet HDMI Cable 1080p Gold Plated – $9.99 each (must by 2 for discount to work)
- Original Motorola 2.5mm Headset – $4.99 Shipped with coupon
- Original Belkin Apple iPod Nano 3 Leather Sleeve in Black – $4.99 Shipped with coupon
Also, don’t forget about the AccessoryGeeks.com Closeout Bin for all kinds of protective cases and accessories for cell phones and mp3 players. Not only are the prices cut, shipping is free. I dunno, maybe I’m a tightwad, but I think shipping should always be free – the whole idea of having to pay to buy something leaves me cold. Kudos to Accessory Geeks for helping a tightwad out.
Check out the AccessoryGeeks Closeout Bin to get great deals with FREE SHIPPING all of the time!
I honestly can’t imagine how anyone gets by without a notebook or laptop these days. Even though I work from home and have access to my desktop PC all day and night, I absolutely love the fact that my laptop allows me to reintroduce myself to the rest of the house. I had SO missed our living room. Sure, I love our office, but I’d almost forgotten our home had more rooms than just the office and kitchen.
Coolies, our house is way bigger than I thought!
When we’re looking for a laptop and/or notebook, three words spell out our game plan: affordable, powerful, and reliable. Gateway is one of the names that comes to my mind when I hear these words.
The Gateway T-1631 Turion 64 X2 TL-60 2.0GHz 3GB 250GB DVD±RW DL 14.1″ Vista Home Premium w/Webcam (Red)
, pictured above (featuring what appears to be the Double Delight rose, one of my favorites – a real beauty) is a powerful notebook from Geeks.com.
From the Website:
Stay connected to the digital world on the go with the Gateway T-1631 notebook! The T-1631 is powered by the AMD Turion 64 X2 2.0 GHz dual-core processor and 3 GB of DDR2 RAM. The spacious 250 GB hard drive plays host to Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium.
Backup data, record CDs, and watch DVD movies with the DVD±RW DL drive. Stay connected on the go with the built-in 56k modem, IEEE 802.11g Wireless LAN, and integrated 10/100 Fast Ethernet! Video-chat with friends via the built-in 1.3 MP webcam! A built-in multimedia card reader lets you quickly access the most popular flash media formats!
Experience an unsurpassed multimedia experience on the go, this Gateway features the integrated ATi Radeon X1270 graphics with up to 256 MB of HyperMemory. View high-defintion content on the 14.1-inch Ultrabright WXGA widescreen LCD display! For a quality mobile computing experience, look no further than this Gateway T-1631 14.1-inch notebook!
For features and specifications, please click HERE.
by Joi on February 28, 2009
We’re all looking for ways to save money, cut corners, and stretch our dollar – all without compromising our standard of living (or at least as little compromising as possible!). The experts tell us time and time again to watch for sales. They say to buy what we need when it’s at the best possible price.
Sounds logical, no?
That’s why I always watch the circulars and my favorite stores’ websites. This way I can know immediately when they want to make me a deal I can’t refuse.
Staples wants to play the savings game beautifully this week and are offering up great deals on all things tech.
Their 40 Tech Deals under $100 Event and Big Printing Event are loaded with everything you’re looking for – short of a Caramel Latte topped off with caramel and a fat dollop of whipped topping and a fat chocolaty Walnut Brownie. Someone woke up with her sweet tooth locked and loaded.
The deals aren’t just tech-ish, though.
You’ll find lots of savings on standard office supplies, office furniture, and office equipment. For example, the 2-Drawer 25 inch Staples Vertical File Cabinet pictured here is on sale, for a savings of $10.
That $10 could buy a Caramel Latte and 2 Walnut Brownies. I apologize. I’m out of control. (I’m also headed to the kitchen. he he he)
This Week Only:
40 Tech Deals under $100 at Staples®! Save on hard drives, printers, memory cards, mice and more. Ends 3/7.
One Day Only:
ONE DAY ONLY – Up to 50% OFF select Lexmark printers at Staples®. Offers valid 3/4 only. Shop now!
Ongoing!
It’s not hard to make a difference. It’s easy. Find eco-friendly products at Staples®. Shop green now!
by Joi on December 28, 2008
We did a lot of Christmas shopping at Best Buy this year. A few things were, admittedly, “To: Us/ From: Us” – like a new HP Laptop
we desperately needed. With a family of 5, you can’t have too many computers – expecially when 2 of them work online, full time, 1 works online part time, and 2 use it frequently for school. Our cats use the internet entirely to satisfy their vanity – MySpace, Facebook…
Best Buy had some really purse friendly deals during the weeks leading up to Christmas, and I’ve noticed that they’re still at it.
One of the sweetest of these deals is the one pictured to the left (or above, depending upon how wordy I’ve been) – You can save 10% – 45% off Select GPS Receivers at BestBuy.com from December 28th through January 3rd. With a brand new GPS, you can reach your destinations safely and on the first try. That’s always good, right?
Below are the best deals they’re offering up this week:
Selected Laptops are On Sale this Week at BestBuy.com.
$100 Off Select HP TouchSmart All-In-One Desktop Computers at BestBuy.com. Valid 12/28-1/3
All Apple® iPod® Nano & Classic MP3 Players On Sale at BestBuy.com. Valid 12/28-1/3
5% – 15% Off Select TVs at BestBuy.com. Valid 12/28-1/31
Check Out this Week’s Computer Offers at BestBuy.com
10% – 45% Off Select GPS Receivers at BestBuy.com. Valid 12/28-1/3
Happy shopping! (Hmph. Like there’s any other kind.)
