We are all experiencing the results of the economic “reset”. Companies and consumers are scaling back spending to lower levels despite modest signs of growth. However, we are all recognizing that you cannot simply save your way to success. Costs savings are critical but not enough. In response to this, businesses are emphasizing efficiency which includes trimming costs but also involves increasing productivity and innovation for sustained growth. Microsoft is calling this the New Efficiency.

As mentioned last week by Stephen Rose, Microsoft is hosting a special VIP Business Leadership Roundtable event on September 29, 2009 in San Francisco from 9 to 10:30am Pacific to discuss the New Efficiency and other relevant trends.

Attendees are encouraged to join in on the conversation with our CEO Steve Ballmer and co-host Robert Youngjohns as they discuss major trends in the workplace and the role of technology in driving growth and competitive advantage during this economic reset. Steve and Robert will be joined by a panel of early adopter customers representing key industries like automotive, hospitality, transportation and IT. Attendees will get a close look at how real companies are justifying IT investments across the desktop, server, and network and beyond. The event will be broadcast live over the web and listeners will be able to submit questions to Steve Ballmer and the rest of the panel.

Add the event to your calendar and watch it live here at www.TheNewEfficiency.com.

Things are heating up as we ramp up for Windows 7’s launch on October 22nd!

Lenovo announced today a new T-Series ThinkPad Laptop called the T400s. Lenovo’s T-Series laptops cater to business customers looking for a powerful and thin laptop. Lenovo put a lot of effort in designing this laptop to be light, durable, robust, and powerful – key elements to a great business laptop for the mobile worker. I’ve had the chance to play with a T400s here in my office for the last few days and it has been a great experience so far.

The T400s will ship with the following specs:

• Choices of Intel 2.53 GHz Core2Duo processors and graphics
• Choices of up to 128GB SSD or 250GB hard drive storage
• 9.5 mm slim DVD burner or Blu-Ray player
• Ethernet (Gigabit) & WiFi
• Optional WiMAX, WWAN, Bluetooth and Ultra-wideband Connectivity
• 34mm Express Card slot or 5-in-1 multimedia card reader
• Almost 6 hours of battery life
• Display Port and VGA connectors (Supports 2 External Monitors!)
• Energy Star 5.0 Compliant
• 2 Built-in USB Ports
• 1 Built-in eSATA/USB Combo Port (Total of 3 USB Ports)
• Fingerprint Reader
• TPM 1.2

As you can see, with these specs the T400s is quite powerful. It also can come jam-packed with network connectivity options (including support for Mobile Broadband) helping keep you connected no matter where you go. Because security is super important to the Mobile Worker – the T400s comes with a Fingerprint Reader and TPM 1.2. With TPM 1.2, BitLocker can be used in both Windows Vista and Windows 7 to secure the laptop. You also get your choice of storage. My T400s had a 250GB hard drive.

The design of the T400s is pretty slick. The T400s uses Lenovo’s “Top Cover Roll Cage”, which they first introduced with the X300, in the construction of its frame. This roll cage is made out of reinforced monocoque carbon fiber which is the same stuff they use on airplanes and super-fast cars. This keeps the T400s pretty light. It weighs in at just under 4lbs (with a 6 cell battery) which is about 20% less than its T400 predecessor. A non-SSD hard drive may also add some weight to the laptop as well as they tend to be a little bit heavier. But Lenovo gives you the choice to choose (as mentioned above).

This is a pretty thin laptop, measuring in at 0.83 inches (yes, I measured!). Part of the ability to keep this laptop so thin is that Lenovo uses a very thin 14.1 inch LED screen.

For the T400s, Lenovo tweaked the keyboard a bit. The keys are much closer to each other – likely to prevent gunk from getting underneath. The Delete and ESC keys are also larger.

The touchpad is now flush with the palm rest and is textured to help people feel its location.

I also discovered that the T400s has an “always on” USB port in the back. This means that if the system is in sleep/standby or hibernate mode you can still plugin devices like MP3 players or mobile phones and have them charge off the laptop’s battery.

Another very interesting aspect of this laptop is how Lenovo optimized it for VoIP. Many businesses are utilizing VoIP for their communications. This laptop can essentially serve as your communication hub when you’re out-and-about. Lenovo added a new toggle switch at the top of the keyboard so that you can easily increase and decrease your system volume – putting the user in more control of their audio. I’m told this will become a standard for all Lenovo laptops going forward. The speaker volume has been amped up to be more than 2x greater than audio levels see on the T400. And the speakers themselves have been moved to the sides instead of on the palm rest area seen on the X300 series laptops.

Lenovo put 2 digital microphones in for better recording. The dual microphones are expected to cut down the amount of ambient noise picked up during your VoIP calls and improve clarity with sound. And of course you can have audio without video. The T400s comes with built in 2.0 megapixel webcam that can shoot video up to 30fps. The webcam also has “Lower Light Capture Capability” to capture decent video is very low-lit conditions.

Lenovo puts Windows Vista Business or Windows Vista Ultimate on their business laptops. The T400s I have came with Windows Vista Business.

However I decided to put Windows 7 (the Windows 7 RC) on it. Instead of upgrading from Windows Vista, I did a clean install. Windows 7 picked up most of the drivers with updates to many of them available for me on Windows Update. I had everything up and running very quickly.

With Windows 7 and the T400s, I am able to secure the laptop with a variety of features from Windows 7. Windows 7 has BitLocker (which we introduced with Windows Vista). Using TPM, I was able to encrypt the hard drive of the laptop to ensure if the laptop ever gets lost so that no one can get the data off the hard drive.

Windows 7 has a new biometric framework and in combination with UPEK’s biometric software – I was able to quickly enroll fingerprints for a further enhanced security. UPEK takes advantage of Windows 7’s biometric enhancements. This process was incredibly easy. As mentioned above, the T400s can come with built in Mobile Broadband. Windows 7 brings enhancements that take advantage of Mobile Broadband making it easy to connect and stay connected.

I had fun playing with this laptop. Special thanks to Lenovo for the opportunity!

The Lenovo ThinkPad T400s will become available at www.lenovo.com starting at $1,599.

When it comes to Internet Browsers such as the Internet Explorer, rarely would you consider them having any impact as far as the business aspect of things is concerned. But apparently, that is one additional highlight that Microsoft aims to cater to as it has announced better performance, easier Web development tools for enhanced browser experiences and improved security and reliability.

Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of the Internet Explorer team at Microsoft, showcased solutions from industry partners such as ESPN, eBay Inc., Digg Inc., Facebook and OneRiot that create new value for their customers.

“With the Internet Explorer 8 platform, Microsoft creates opportunities for Web sites to engage customers in new ways and drive not only more traffic, but also more value in the online experience,” Hachamovitch said.

Developers will benefit from performance features that enable Web sites to allow customers to engage more deeply with their site content. Accelerators and Web Slices make it easier for developers to reach beyond the page and provide new ways for people to stay connected to the content and services of their choice. Internet Explorer 8 has enhanced search features and capabilities to provide more interesting and relevant content, increased speed, and enhanced security, and offers greater performance and reliability.

Internet Explorer 8 is Microsoft’s most standards-compliant browser to date, and benefits from work the company is doing with standards bodies to bring increased measurement and consistency. As part of Microsoft’s commitment to supporting standards, the company has submitted more than 7,000 cascading style sheet (CSS) 2.1 test cases to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in the last year to help drive easier and more measurable standards adoption for all developers.

Moreover, Internet Explorer 8 now passes more of the W3C CSS 2.1 test cases than any other shipping browser and has invested significantly in support for HTML 5. Defaulting to standards-mode for Web sites and featuring a Compatibility View list to ease the transition enables developers to be sure their code runs across multiple browsers and platforms, freeing developers to innovate, not re-create.

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The business world is in a frenzy right now and it is all due to one irritating worm, the Conficker. To date, it has infected close to 9 million computers and growing. The said worm can spread in three ways:

First, it attacks a vulnerability in the Microsoft Server service. Computers without the October patch can be remotely attacked and taken over.

Second, Conficker can attempt to guess or ‘brute force’ Administrator passwords used by local networks and spread through network shares.

And third, the worm infects removable devices and network shares with an autorun file that executes as soon as a USB drive or other infected device is connected to a victim PC.

Businesses are obviously the main prey considering that offices make use of networks to do their dirty work. However, home-based computers are not completely off the hook. Issues surrounding having a firewall and having properly safeguarding software can still be breached.

Hence, it is all about patching the loopholes. Be careful of the gadgets you plug-in and be wary of the connections you have like accessing the web. These are the spots where it can come from and to make sure, just do the necessary so you don’t end up being infected as well.

Disable the Autorun so that a PC won’t suffer automatic attack from an infected USB drive or other removable media when it’s connected.

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Most people who go to the office are bound to be equipped with their own PC these days and normally, these are given for work purposes. However, we cannot discount the possibility of perhaps surfing some sites or using our computers for other purposes. However, some companies are not as lenient and if you are not careful, you may just find yourself getting the pink slip and out in the cold looking for a new job.

The employees in question worked in half a dozen departments from Purchasing to Public Works, WPBF News 25 reported.

Human resources managers said the investigation began with a check into one employee’s e-mails and Internet history.

There is no doubt that companies mean business these days. Productivity is their main focus. And finding your employees simply surfing or bumming around doing non-work related things with your computer, the position may as well be open to other people who really want to buckle down and work.

They have ways to check your computer. E-mails, instant messaging history and browsing history. All of these are cached and can be accessed in an instant. So if you want to avoid getting the boot, better avoid these sidelights unless you have a new job in mind. Certainly, this is not the time to lose a job especially that recession issues are increasing in numbers. Use your PC well!

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