Is Everything Built To Be Broken?

Refurbished technology or new? You should have options.

Consumer Electronics Talker Kim Komando recently published a list of common technology myths.  Things like MAC’s never get viruses, the more megapixels the better, public Wi-Fi is safe and a myth near and dear to our hearts–Always buy new gear.

To quote Kim…

As long as you buy direct from the manufacturer or a trusted re-seller  and there’s a good return policy and warranty in place, there isn’t much of a downside to buying refurbished.

Kim is referring to refurb as a first time buy and we agree.   There are plenty of great deals on “refurbished” consumer tech that cost a fraction of what new will run.  A great example is my first (and only) portable GPS system for my car.  I bought it so long ago I can’t recall, refurbished, for about a third of the retail price of a new one.  It still works great today.  And I have no plan or need to replace it.

But you can’t always use consumer tech in rugged applications and you can’t always start out with refurb.

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An Environmentally Friendly Super Battery That Could Change Everything?

Introducing Graphene, a carbon based super capacitor that charges like a capacitor but could discharge like a battery.   It has tremendous structural strength but is extremely light.  The cost to create it, at this point, is extremely low, while its potential as the battery of the future is high.

Oh yeah, and this “super capacitor” is made entirely of carbon.  When you’re done with it you could throw it in your compost.

Modern batteries are heavy, environmentally unfriendly at both ends of their life, are made with things we (in the US at least) have to import.  Graphene is made with ordinary carbon, is abundant, and offers us the potential for exactly the opposite.

It has the potential to change the world.  Here’s some video

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What’s In Your Mobile Work-Force?

Cost of Ownership Makes Glacier Rugged Tablets a BargainYou’ve heard about it.  The global mobile workforce.  Well it’s growing.

The number of mobile workers across the globe will reach 1.3 billion by 2015 but research commissioned by ClickSoftware Technologies indicates that companies are not ready to tap this trend.

Forty-six per cent of CIOs surveyed believe current corporate strategy does not deliver on the ‘Mobile Dream.’ However, 74% of CIOs believe mobile customer service is important for the companies.

Mobile is where it‘s at, so much so that many workers use their own devices (BYOD) for work and home.  But as observed  here, the potential cost savings on equipment can quickly vanish as potential IT/security issues mount with regard to linked devices loaded with software that the employer does not control.

But that’s not the only barrier.  The mobile dream cannot be delivered from the retail shelf either.

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