Jon Norris | Review,Technology
When Google debuted their Chrome operating system, there was lots of excitement about the prospect of a web-only OS. You could do away with pesky updates, niggling security worries and annoying software installations and fully embrace the web, at the same time benefiting from the increased speed that a virtually non-existent OS brings.
Rather than coming from a dawdling consultant, or ghostwritten on behalf of a high-flying CEO, the author Daniel Priestly actively practises what he preaches, putting on seminars which are attended by entrepreneurs in their hundreds. His opening gambit – “I arrived in the UK with nothing more than a suitcase and a credit card” – may seem a little cheesy, but indulge him for a while and you’ll most likely find something useful in this book.
A little while back we reviewed the quite-excellent freelancing guide Brilliant Freelancer by our friend and contributor Leif Kendall, proprietor of Kendall Copywriting. Luckily for you, dear reader, we’ve now been given five copies of the book to give away by the man himself.
Online productivity is becoming increasingly popular, but there is still a need for offline suites. Which is the best? Microsoft’s all-conquering Office, or open-source upstart Open Office?
HM Revenue and Customs have released a new action plan designed – not the same as committed – to significantly opening up the public sector marketplace to small businesses. The actions outlined in the document range from increasing the amount of information available and holding ‘product surgeries’, to piloting new procurement methods and increasing SME access to sub-contracting opportunities.
Jon Norris | Review,Technology
As you may have noticed, Microsoft is currently in the midst of some quite pronounced marketing gesticulations to promote their new cloud-enabled productivity suite, Office 365. Aimed squarely at the droves of Office users fleeing the good ship Microsoft in Google’s direction, Office 365 purports to have brought the functionality of Microsoft’s world-beating Office software to the web.
Jon Norris | Review,Technology
Have you checked a calendar recently? It’s 2011 – officially the future. Where are the jetpacks? Why can’t I eat my lunch in pill form? Lots of the magical technologies we were promised as children have failed to materialise, however one of the few technologies that has mode it from the screen to our sweaty palms in wireless charging.
Written by Chris Barling, CEO of popular ecommerce software provider Actinic, Selling Successfully Online is an updated version of a previous work by Barling, which only featured around 120 Top Tips. Obviously since the first edition Barling and Actinic have learnt a few new tricks, adding 200 new snippets to the latest version.
As part of the Government’s continuing drive to cut costs, last Thursday Business Secretary Vince Cable launched the Red Tape Challenge. Although it sounds exciting, it actually seems like an attempt by the Government to take advantage of this so-called Big Society they’ve been trying to create, to get us to do the legwork in weeding out costly legislation that needs to be cut.
We first took a look at Receipt Bank, or Receipt Farm as it was then known, about a year ago. Still in it’s infancy, the service nonetheless offered an invaluable service for freelancers who generate a lot of receipts and need to claim back those all-important expenses.
There are some things in life that are designed to make you feel happy: candyfloss, Christmas Trees, people falling over. This book is one of those things. Yes, it’s a bit contrived. And yes, it’s fairly superficial. But if you’re reading this book as an exercise in cheering yourself up on a rainy Sunday afternoon, then it will undoubtedly work.
I just want to say upfront that I am a super macho guy. I have a moustache, I arm-wrestle bears and I can yodel to a semi-professional level. Why am I telling you this? Well I wanted to make sure you knew that I was comfortable enough with my rugged manliness to review the latest lime green man-bag from be.ez.
We’ve taken a look at services like Keebo in the past – most notably ReceiptFarm – that take over the arduous task of managing your receipts and expenses for a small monthly fee. Keebo are the new kids on the block, having just launched in the last few weeks.
Michael Rose | Technology,Working From Home
The Lexmark Pinnacle Pro 901 wifi printer is an absolute delight to use — it solves so many problems it feels like an Angel has descended into my home office. It’s also a bit of a monster.
Its dark brooding looks help hide some of its bulk, the footprint is large so I had to place it on the bottom of the bookshelf rather than having it hanging ominously in mid-air. But the size is understandable as there seems to be nothing this machine cannot do.
Michael Rose | Lifestyle & Time out
Freelancers need focus; without a boss to keep you in line and being outside a traditional workflow it can be hard to know where to focus your efforts. Combine this with the pace of modern life and it’s easy to get swamped and to feel that there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Not only is there a lot of work there are constant distractions, tweets, bleeps and pings pulling us away from our true goals and aspirations.
Focus: The Power of Targeted Thinking attempts to give the solution to all these feelings of confusion and distraction.
Portfolio To Go is a fantastic iPad app for artists and photographers who use Flickr.com to showcase their photographs online.
Lovingly created by Brighton-based freelance developer Nick Kuh, easily allows freelance photographers, graphic designers and artists to present their portfolio offline to clients — perfect for use with a wifi iPad.
Just sync and go.
If you’re like me – a freelancer who occasionally works from home and who happens to live in an old, listed or converted flat – you’re no stranger to fluctuating wireless signals, and the headache they can cause when you’re trying to work.
Thick concrete walls, organic (horsehair) insulation and poor telephone infrastructure make working from home in these types of flats something of a struggle. It makes matters worse when the one room in your flat where you get the most work done just happens to be out of range from your wireless router. So, when you run a business that relies heavily on a stable internet connection, what’s a freelancer to do?
Michael Rose | Lifestyle & Time out,Technology
Teux Deux is a super-simple, sleek and stylish to-do list manager. If you like great design with a tiny pinch of minimalism then this might be for you.
Built entirely for the web you just sign up for a free account and start typing in your to-dos. To add a task you just type and hit return. That’s it.
Michael Rose | Technology,Working From Home
Brother MFC-255CW – Wifi Multi-function Printer
If you’ve got a wireless network at home then a Wifi printer is a no brainer. With just one wire for the power supply the Brother MFC-225CW can sit anywhere — I had mine out of the box and sitting on a shelf, ready to print within just 5 minutes.
David Howell | Technology,Working From Home
If the underneath of your desk looks like a bird’s net of tangled cables, power bricks, and distribution sockets, now is the time to tame your wires and create a tidy environment in your home office.
Here are a few quick ways to tame those cables…
I’ve long advocated Dropbox as the absolute best file-sharing tool for Freelancers, Contractors and just about anyone who needs to backup their important work files and share content across multiple machines or locations.
But the best of the best has just added a killer new feature.
As part of our #GreenOffice series we’re looking at neat tips and technology for keeping costs down and running an efficient eco-friendly office.
While most new PCs come with a decent keyboard and mouse these days (Dell’s keyboards are still a personal favourite of mine) the Solargizer package has all you’d expect from a keyboard (you know, keys with numbers and letters on them, all in the right places) but adds a nice little ‘solar powered’ feature for anyone concerned about chewing up batteries.
The guys and girls at Cloud Engines are my new best friends! As a roaming freelancer (working on contracts in other people’s offices, working from home and, sometimes, working from bed) the problem of where to keep my data has always been a difficult one to solve. Not any more.
Pogoplug is a great solution. It’s got 4 USB slots and it connects to a home WiFi router and, yes it really is that simple, now I have access to my portable hard drives wherever I am in the world.
Darren Fell | Guides,Resources
A must read for Freelancers and Contractors. Rarely do you pick up a book that answers all the questions. Not only does the new Contractors’ Handbook answer them in detail, it goes into areas I hadn’t even thought about – despite creating and running several successful businesses.
The laptop. A useful tool for portable working or an ergonomic time bomb? Nowadays with many of us relying on our portable friends as our main computer, the laptop has thrown up a new set of ergonomic challenges. By its very design the laptop is disastrous for the back, particularly if you use it as it’s meant to be used on a table hunched over the keyboard peering at the screen. At the end of the day you straighten up and wonder why you’ve got backache or neck ache.
Getting the job done in a timely and professional manner is a combination of both knowing how to do the job, and having the right tools with which to get the job done. If you are carrying around a battered old consumer notebook and struggling with a shortage of processing power or connectivity, then it [...]
If you wanna get ahead, get a headset Bluetooth headsets get a lot of stick from a lot of people, largely because the general public seems to have taken issue with the idea of somebody going about their business with a hi-tech gadget so visibly attached to the side of their head. I wonder if [...]
Jim Hatley | Technology,Working From Home
If you’re freelancing from home on a regular basis a well-lit, well kitted-out office is essential – not just a luxury. Freelance Advisor’s resident gadget guru Jim Hatley takes a look at some home office must-haves. Home office heaven: Screens, scanners, DAB and desk-lamps Last year I have covered a few bits of kit to [...]
Off on his travels again… our tech-loving freelancer and electronic evangelist Jim Hatley grabs some essential items for work on the move. Essential items for your mobile office Today I am going to look at a few more items that are essential for life on the road. Working from home is fantastic, and is certainly [...]
Free-roaming freelancer and technology evangelist Jim Hatley has been out and about putting a few mobiles phones through their paces finding out which work best for freelancers and contractors who need to stay connected on the road. Time to upgrade? Two great mobile phones for freelancers Mobile phones are big business, both for those who [...]
Freelance Advisor and Gadget Guru Jim Hatley loves his home hi-fi, but when freelancing work takes him out on the road he needs a powerful portable musical system to keep his music playing at the quality and volumes to which he’s become accustomed. Today Jim looks at how the Bose SoundDock provides a good-looking, great [...]
Gorgeous gadget: the Sony VAIO AW11XU/Q Life on the road can be tough. The contents of a suitcase are certainly no match for the comforts of home, but if you pick and choose your gear with a little care it doesn’t have to be all bad. We all need cutting-edge technology for the work that [...]
