Too many smartphones....its all good for us...

The iPhone ins no longer the only kid on the block when it comes to smartphones, Google and now Microsoft all have credible alternatives to the mother of all smartphones.  The iPhone, as we found out yesterday, is still commanding such a high price point that it has to be making even the die-hard fan boys have a look at alternatives.  We spoke to Orange yesterday who wanted £110 for the iPhone on an 18month contract.

Can’t say we would ever recommend anyone going down the Nokia smartphone route though - this is one company that’s in DEEP trouble.

We found a decent review of the current crop of devices on CNET - link below:

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/htc-hd7-vs-htc-desire-hd-vs-iphone-4-vs-nokia-n8-vs-htc-7-mozart-50001151/

 

 

Davis IT Solutions

IT Support Coventry and Warwickshire

http://www.davisitsolutions.co.uk

 

 

 

 

Kinect for Xbox 360

Ok its not strictly IT from a business perspective but you cant deny Microsoft Kinect sounds almost impossible to believe.

Checkout the review at Engadget:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/04/kinect-for-xbox-360-review

Davis IT Solutions
IT Support in Coventry and Warwickshire
www.davisitsolutions.co.uk

Interesting concept from Dell

This baby is actually going to be released…

 

http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/04/dell-inspiron-duo-flips-its-lid-on-official-video/

 

 

Davis IT Solutions

IT Support Coventry and Warwickshire

www.davisitsolutions.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cloud Security

Great article on cloud computing security on the ITPRO website - link below:

http://www.itpro.co.uk/628204/is-cloud-computing-secure

Davis IT Solutions

IT Support Coventry and Warwickshire

http://www.davisitsolutions.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A solar power keyboard - what a great idea

We think this is a winner and such an obvious idea. 

http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/31/logitech-unveils-wireless-solar-keyboard-k750-does-away-with-ba/

 Davis IT Solutions

IT Support Coventry and Warwickshire
http://www.davisitsolutions.co.uk

New Small Business Server Install

Brand-new SBS2008 going in today for a new customer - it’s a first time for one of our engineers so valuable experience.  Server built and tested in our office lab several weeks ago which is always best practice.

Davis IT Solutions

IT Support Coventry and Warwickshire

http://www.davisitsolutions.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MB AIR

We here are very much in love with the new MacBook Air's. Hopefully be getting one here for testing in the next week or so.  For the definitive review, as always Josh at Engadget:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/26/macbook-air-review-late-2010/

Davis IT Solutions

IT Support Coventry and Warwickshire

http://www.davisitsolutions.co.uk

MacBook Air review (late 2010) -- Engadget

We at Davis IT are very much in love with the new MacBook Airs.

MacBook Air review (late 2010) -- Engadget



Davis IT Solutions
IT Support Coventry and Warwickshire
http://www.davisitsolutions.co.uk

Windows Phone 7 review -- Engadget

At last...after a lot of waiting Windows Phone 7 is with us...

Windows Phone 7 review -- Engadget

Cisco NSS 326 Smart Storage review | IT PRO Reviews

Cisco NSS 326 Smart Storage review | IT PRO Reviews

Davis IT Solutions are Microsoft Small Business Specialists

But what exactly does that mean? – read on:

 

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/smallbusiness/how-to-buy/small-business-specialist.mspx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3G Failover - what if your broadband fails

Davis IT Solutions are experts at implementing ADSL \ Broadband fail-over solutions.  As more and more companies start selling Broadband the diversity and quality of support and service level agreement varies dramatically.  If your ADSL \ Broadband fails having a fail-over solution in place is vital.  We can install an automatic fail-over solution whereby if your main ADSL line fails you will be automatically switched over to a backup ADSL, 3G or ISDN solution with no interruption of service - your business can resume as normal.

Ask us for details - these solutions are not expensive at all..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IT Support Coventry and Warwickshire, Computer Support Coventry, IT Services Coventry, Computer Services Coventry

Slight updates to the homepage - links now for non flash users

IT Support Coventry and Warwickshire, Computer Support Coventry, IT Services Coventry, Computer Services Coventry

Froyo update now out for HTC Desire...

 

We have applied the froyo update to our HTC Touch over the weekend and it hasn’t blown us away.  It does seem marginaly faster and the Wi-Fi hotspot is a nice add on, although I havent tested this yet.

 

One of the big points that was pushed in all the previews was the inclusion of an iTune sync update – well I have to admit we have not been able to find this anywhere on the device – personally this was the killer feature for me, anyone know where it is??

 

Froeveryone with carrier locked phones I wouldn’t stress to much this update has hardly been anything exciting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Default website domain changed.

Just in case you are wondering we have changed our default landing domain to davisitsolutions.co.uk.

 

http://www.davisitsolutions.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice to see Sony still havent got a clue how to run a service.....

Copy of email sent to Sony - all we are trying to do here is register an insurance pack for a Sony Vaio.  Supplied by Sony.  So far we have spent three hours in total on this and still no insurance is registered on the laptop.  Unbelievable.

 

 

 

Samantha,

(We are Bernie’s IT Consultants)

 

This is the first place we started in all this – the website has the following error – try the link yourself:

 

I’ve got to be honest I’m speechless at how difficult this process is – we try the website, then Sony online support, then telephone support, then an email address and now another email address to send details to!.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Barracuda Networks

Big thumbs up to Barracuda Networks for amazing customer service – it’s a rare thing these days but we have been blown away by how much they care about their products, are you listening Dell???

 

Rgds.

 

Neil Davis

Davis IT Solutions Limited

l:    0844 335 6625

m: 07968 605318

e:  neil.davis@dits.uk.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VLAN technology

Davis IT Solutions has just completed work on a VLAN setup for a new customer – separating the voice traffic from the data to ensure the IP phone system has all the bandwidth it needs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sony Vaio Z series...

A customer has requested two of these laptops - must admit they are very nice and also very expensive.  Good to see that Sony have always made decent looking laptops which is more than we can say for the rest of the Windows based vendors.

IT Support / Computer Support Coventry, West Midlands, Warwickshire

IT Support / Computer Support Coventry, West Midlands, Warwickshire

Blackberry Enterprise Server Express for Free!

Many of our customer have now taken advantage of this:

http://uk.blackberry.com/services/business/server/express/

Which allows full integration of BB's to Microsoft Exchange - what does that actually mean? in-box, calendar and contact sync over the air.  This was previously very expensive but now its a great price FOC!...

We are rolling this out to all customers with BB handsets.

http://www.davisitsolutions.com/index.html

iPad first impressions

In a word good, it really is just a large iPod touch but that's no bad thing we've always been big fans of the touch. The keyboard does actually allow you to touch type which is a weird sensation without a physical keyboard. App support is ok nothing amazing that I've seen yet but then I've only had it running for a couple of hours. It really is impossible to put this thing down...

Want your business on YouTube?

If you are interested in putting your business on YouTube then let us know - we are able to produce a video of anything to do with your biz for you completely FOC! - this can then be linked directly to your website.

This is available for all customer - SBS, SBS+ and Gold.

iPad.

After a three week wait the Davis IT Solutions test iPad has arrived.  These things seem to have sold out almost everywhere - we were unable to buy one in the Solihull Apple shop.

Customers slowly beginning to ask us about this device and what it will bring to them - watch this space - ask us for a demo and next time an engineer is on site we will bring it along.

Error on last post.

The link to our SBS+ support product was incorrect on our last post - the correct link is:

http://www.davisitsolutions.com/SBSPLUS.html

Busy times...

The last couple of months have been excellent for Davis IT Solutions - I've lost count of the number new server installs we have completed.

We have also taken over support of a well known business in Coventry who's existing providers were struggling with server 2008 technologies.  We were more than glad to help and secure a new happy Gold customer.

Remember all our services are listed in detail on our website:

Small Business:
http://www.davisitsolutions.com/smallbiz.html

SBS+

http://www.davisitsolutions.com/page19.html

Gold Service:

http://www.davisitsolutions.com/gold.html

Which support service is right for you?

A breakdown of the support services offered by Davis IT Solutions.

Our customers are based all over the midlands, Birmingham, Coventry, Leamington Spa and many more..

http://www.davisitsolutions.com/which%20service%20do%20I%20need.html

New Customers.

Always a pleasure to welcome new customers on board - April was certainly a great month three new Gold support customers fully on-board and a large server install project confirmed.  Its odd at times the customers just fly in and then at times you hear nothing.  One thing is for sure businesses are spending more on IT than they have done in the last two years which is good for everyone!.

http://www.davisitsolutions.com

Android - after a few days of heavy use...

Well I’ve had the new moby for a few days now and despite its amazing performance, great display and great customisation options I can officially say in my view the iPhone is better for one reason alone – ease of use.

The android has REALLY been put to the test this week what with customer calls coming in thick and fast and it just doesn’t deal with it in the same slick way as the iphone which is a shame.  I will stick with it until the new iphone comes out and then probably join the millions.

Daft things like the capacitive touch screen just isn’t as good as the iphones...its only probably about 1 or 2% worse but it makes a difference...sometimes you click on an icon and nothing happens...you have to press it again and again...when you’re used to the iphone this is a big deal.

End of review :)

http://www.davisitsolutions.com

Android arrives..

Got our first Android handset for testing (HTC Desire) and so far we are impressed.  The amount of customisation you can tweak is something else.  Thankfully Exchange is now supported and so far its as good as any implementation we have seen.

http://www.davisitsolutions.com

and another free tool....

and why not...here is another beauty of a tool all for the grand price of nothing - if you have lost something on your network this will certainly help you find it.

http://www.angryip.org/w/Home

Neil

http://www.davisitsolutions.com/

Free tool

Sometimes the most simple tools are the ones we cant live without...get the free ver of Gadwin PrintScreen from here its an amazing little app - must use it several times every day.

http://www.gadwin.com/products.htm

Neil.
http://www.davisitsolutions.com/

This weeks main project

Moving Sage accounting system and batch controller from a customers small business server to a new windows 2003 server.

Customer downtime will be zero - all scripts managed via group policy.

Tech used here:  SQL, robocopy and group policy for the scripts.

Moving these applications should free up the microsoft small business server 2003 r2 to perform better - to say its overloaded at the moment is an understatement.

Neil.
http://www.davisitsolutions.com

Website updates

Our website is changing on a daily basis at the moment - trying to make it user friendly and more informative.

Checkout the latest updates:

http://www.davisitsolutions.com

Davis IT Solutions Limited

Davis IT Solutions Limited

New services.

From 30/03/10 the service level agreement provided by Davis IT Solutions is changing.

(All customers who receive this email are on our existing SBS support package and you will have a server based IT environment)

For the past five years we have offered two levels of IT support service - Small Business Support (SBS) and Gold Service. With our growing and changing customer base it has become apparent that we need to add an additional service to cater for different customer setups and requirements. A new option “Small Business Support + Monitoring” (SBS+) is now available in addition to the standard SBS service. Although this is optional we recommend that all our customers with a server based environment add this option to their existing SBS package.

The existing SBS service on its own will now be aimed at our smallest customers without a server who are typically running a business from home or offices with only 3-4 people.

SBS+ is aimed at businesses with one server and up to ten laptops / desktop PCs.

Gold Service is for all customers regardless of size running business critical systems and requiring immediate onsite assistance in the event of a problem that cannot be fixed remotely.

FAQ

What is monitoring?

Daily backup checks, server security updates and much more. Please read the attached PDF outlining this.

Are we monitored at the moment?

A basic monitoring facility is provided for all SBS customers – from 30/03/10 this will no longer be provided with SBS only SBS+ see the table below.

How much does SBS+ cost?

SBS+ is not invoiced as an additional charge – one unit of time per month is taken out of the support time you already have with SBS – see attached PDF.

What’s Gold Service?

Our Gold Service support is available to any of our SBS customers for £155+VAT per month - this is our only support service where we guarantee immediate onsite response in the event of critical failure – loan servers, laptops, desktops and networking hardware are available to all our Gold customers – ask us for the full service details and SLA.

What Next?

You need to select which service you require, SBS, SBS+ or request more information on Gold Service and let us know.

Windows phone 7 certainly makes all other mobile OS's look OLD...MS may have pulled something out of the bag here. Even makes Andriod look old with its apps based view.

spent a fair bit of time on the new website...yes Im no expert on the web design stuff but it aint bad...much happier than the previous effort anyway. http://www.davisitsolutions.com

...and yes we have full SMTP diags on the receiving server...it just doesn't touch it. All DNS sound on both servers.

Sore head

Why is admin on microsoft exchange such a nightmare at times. One server sending to another - email just dont get there...leaves one server and that it...pooooofffff it jumps into the nothingness...