Acer Debuts Aspire One Happy 2 Netbook

Acer America just recently expanded its popular line of netbooks to include the Aspire One Happy 2, a series of stylish netbooks that come in four bright colors: Banana Cream, Blueberry Shake, Papaya Milk and Strawberry Yogurt. Acer is hoping that with names and colors like this that the Aspire One Happy 2 will bring a fresh sense of fun and style to the ultra-light mobile PC experience.

The cover of the Aspire One Happy 2 features a bright and shiny finish with a textured liquid "water ripple" pattern, heightening visual and tactile appeal. These 10.1" netbooks are light and portable enough to take with you almost anywhere and are packed with powerful features and performance to boost productivity. They utilize the latest Intel dual-core technology and also consume less power, allowing you to stay mobile longer with better battery life. These devices also provide the computing performance required to take on Office applications, stay in touch with social networks and enjoy web-based videos.

According to Pete Dailey, Senior Product Marketing Manager for Netbooks with Acer, "We've made our industry-leading netbook lines more personal by giving consumers a wider variety of colors and style treatments.The new Aspire One Happy 2 offers users fresh and bright color options, while maintaining the Aspire One's legacy of offering PC productivity for mobile consumers."

These devices feature the Intel Atom N570 dual-core processor, integrated Intel graphics, up to eight hours of battery life and fast WiFi connectivity. All of this comes in a package that is only 1-inch thin, weighing just over 2.5 pounds. These devices also come with a 10.1" CrystalBrite LED backlit display that saves 22.2% power compared to other netbooks and also offers an optimal viewing experience. The Aspire One Happy 2 also has a stylish white keyboard that is 93% as big as a standard size keyboard for a more convenient feel.

These netbooks also feature 802.11 b/g/n WiFi as well as fast Ethernet LAN connectivity. There is also a built-in 0.3 megapixel webcam that allows for smooth video streaming and high quality images for online chats and video conferences. A built-in digital microphone also conveys high voice quality, keeping background noise levels low and minimizing echos. These devices also feature 1GB of DDR3 memory and a 250GB internal hard drive. These netbooks also include Windows 7 Starter and Microsoft Office Starter 2010.

The Acer Aspire One Happy 2 Series of netbooks is available now in the United States for a base price of $269.99.

Source: Engadget - Acer announces Aspire One Happy 2 netbook for the US market, shows its commitment to pastels

A Tech Travel Agent can get a laptop rental to you within 24 business hours in over 1000 cities worldwide. Call 800-736-8772


We have 3987 Installers, Technicians and Engineers stationed in nearly 1000 locations worldwide to serve you.

Phone Bill Cramming Under Fire

Ever heard of phone bill “cramming"? Even if you haven’t, most likely you have been subject to it, and you might not have even known it.

Cramming is any odd, extra charges that appear on your phone bill that shouldn’t be there. Now you should make sure that you haven’t gone over on your long distance minutes or sent one too many text messages, but if you know that such things are not the case, then you have been subjected to phone cramming.

This is something that phone service providers are making tons of money off of. If you don’t carefully watch your bill, they will slide charges in without you even noticing it. Fortunately, the Federal Communications Commission has decided to crack down on cramming and unauthorized charges. On Monday, June 20 the FCC chairman Julius Genachowski encouraged users to regularly examine their phone bills for any charges that should not be there. He also announced that there is a proposal that would allow for more transparency with cell phone and landline bills.

"Cramming is not only illegal, it erodes consumer trust in communications services," Genachowski stated while making an appearance at the Center for American Progress. "That makes it both unfair to consumers and unfair to most communications companies who do the right thing every day."

So what kind of charges is he talking about exactly, you might ask, and how much is it costing people? Well, Genachowski says that there have been reports to the FCC of charges including things like yoga classes, cosmetics, diet products and psychic hotline memberships. The charges usually range from $1.99 to $19.99, and many customers simply fail to notice them.

"In fact, according to a survey done for the Federal Trade Commission, only 1 in 20 cramming victims ever notice the charges," Genachowski said. "We estimate that the problem may affect up to 20 million Americans a year. People like a St. Louis, Missouri woman who was charged for 25 months of long-distance service she never authorized or used. When she protested the charges, the company sent her a copy of the form that she had supposedly used to authorize the service. It had a different name, address, email, and birth date than she did."

Genachowski noted that it can be a little difficult and slightly time consuming to examine each and every line of a phone bill; however, this is exactly what the companies are counting on. He continued to urge customers to scan their phone bills and if any unauthorized charges are found, the charges should be reported to the phone company. He continued saying that if the issue was not resolved by the phone company, users should file a complaint with the FCC via fcc.gov or 1-888-CALL-FCC.

Genachowski said there is a proposal that he will be presenting to the other FCC commissioners tomorrow that will "look at ways we can improve the disclosure and transparency on phone bills to help consumers ... look through the phone bills."
He went on to say that ideally the FCC will make it "difficult, if not impossible, for unscrupulous companies to get away with what they try to do."

Just last week the FCC proposed over $11.7 million in fines against companies which have been found to be utilizing cramming practices. These companies charged more than $8 million in fees for long distance services that were not authorized by the users. Genachowski said that this should serve as a warning to other companies who are engaged in cramming or thinking of doing the same thing.

Security Camera Solutions

Samsung Releases 30-pin to USB Adapter for Galaxy Tab 10.1

When the 3.1 upgrade came to Honeycomb, so did a lot of cool features, one being the ability to allow your tablet to perform as a USB host. This was cool and all, but this usually required a full-sized USB port which is not featured on most Android tablets without an adapter. One such tablet is the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. While the Galaxy Tab 10.1 was nice, neat and cool, it didn't have a full-sized USB port. However, Samsung recently tweeted about an adapter that just went on sale allowing you to get on with your hosting via your Galaxy Tab 10.1.

USB hosting is a great feature that, unfortunately, has been missing from Android phones due to power restraints. However, tablets have larger batteries so hosting was possible. Google was the first to show off the ability to host accessories like thumb drives, keyboards and gaming controllers to the Android 3.1. The problem was that most of these devices need a full-sized USB port, so you would need to get a micro-to-standard USB adapter in order to do so and you would need to make sure your device even had a micro USB port.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a really amazing tablet with a great battery, dual core power and the fact that it is the thinnest 10.1" tablet on the market. The one downside is that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 lacks a standard USB port, going for a 30-pin connector instead. However, Samsung has heard our cries and designed a 30-pin to USB adapter. This device will run you $19.99 plus shipping and handling but doesn't support power over USB. This isn't outrageous by any means but if you want hosting then you will need this adapter.

Source: Android Community - Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 USB Adapter for All your USB Hosting Needs

SMBnow.com is news of, for and by SMBs!
SMBnow.com... The Small & Medium Business Magazine!

Walmart iPhone 4 Offer

On Monday, June 6 Walmart announced that they will be offering the Apple iPhone 4 for $147 at a select group of its stores from now until June 30.

The special deal applies to both the Verizon and the AT&T version of the smartphone. Walmart said in an email that the price will also include the black and the white version of the phone. To get the iPhone for $147, customers will be required to sign up for a two-year wireless contract with either of the above carriers and also take out a data agreement.

Before this deal was announced, Walmart had been selling the 16GB version of the iPhone 4 in black and white. As of right now, Walmart has both versions of the phone listed on their website for $197, but they are listed as “out of stock online.”

Walmart began selling the AT&T version of the iPhone 4 back in June 2010 when it was first launched, and in February it added the Verizon version.

So far, Walmart has not specified how many phones they will be offering for the $147 price or exactly which stores will be carrying the phones. They have simply said that the devices will be available at “select stores.”

This is not the first price drop on the incredibly popular smartphone from Apple. A little bit earlier this year, AT&T lowered the price of the Apple iPhone 3G to $49. This deal is not quite as sweet, but it will definitely save you some money if you are looking to pick up an iPhone 4.

SMBnow.com is news of, for and by SMBs!
SMBnow.com... The Small & Medium Business Magazine!

BlackBerry PlayBook Hitting Sprint on June 5th

Ready for some good news, Sprint customers? Well, the highly anticipated BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is said to go on sale at all Sprint stores as well as Sprint direct ship sales channels and business sales on June 5, 2011 with a $499.99 price tag.

The BlackBerry PlayBook is the new tablet from BlackBerry that comes with a lot of cool features including WiFi connectivity and 16GB of storage. The PlayBook is an ultra portable tablet that measures less than half an inch thick and weighs less than one pound. It features a nice 7-inch high-resolution touchscreen that is said to be highly responsive and fluid. The PlayBook also offers high performance along with excellent web browsing and full support for Adobe Flash Player. It also allows for true multitasking, HD multimedia, advanced security and out-of-the-box enterprise support.

If you already own a BlackBerry smartphone, you will be pleased to know that you can benefit from BlackBerry Bridge. BlackBerry Bridge is a unique feature that allows you to wirelessly connect your BlackBerry phone to your BlackBerry PlayBook via Bluetooth. The secure connection allows you to access your BlackBerry smartphone's email, address book, calendar, memo pad, task list, BlackBerry Messenger and browsing functionality with the advantage of the larger tablet display.

The best thing is that BlackBerry Bridge will be available as a free downloadable app via the BlackBerry App World and will also be supported on BlackBerry smartphone data plans from Sprint without incurring an additional fee.

Key features of the new BlackBerry PlayBook include:

• 7-inch 1024x600 WSVGA capacitive LCD touchscreen


• Ultraportable design


• 1GHz dual-core processor


• BlackBerry Tablet OS with symmetric multiprocessing support


• MP3, AAC and WMA audio playback


• Support for high resolution video playback


• 1080p HDMI output


• Two 1080p HD cameras (3mp front-facing, 5mp rear-facing)


• 1GB RAM


• 16GB internal storage


• GPS, Accelerometer, Gyroscope and Magnetometer


• Stereo Speakers


• Stereo Microphone


• WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n


• Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR support

Source: Engadget - BlackBerry PlayBook headed to Sprint on June 5th for $500

Security Camera Solutions