Here we go again! As I do each week, I am really enjoying bringing our readers a quick round-up of the blog coverage I didn’t manage to get to during the week prior. We are coming down from our very busy Spring Conference and SMB 150 Awards Gala, which took place this past weekend. Now is the time for a bit of a “breather” until we start gearing up for our annual Fall Conference, which will be held again in Vegas, October 10-12, 2013.
Regarding other live events, Harrybbb will be viewing the HTG Peer Groups event online. The event runs for part of this week in Dallas.
Please take some time to peruse a few snippets of information that we didn’t get a chance to bring you last week….let us also know if there was something we might have missed, which is not mentioned in this entry…because as you know…we love news!
1.) NETGEAR 802.11ac Router Goes Faster and Farther With Beamforming+: NETGEAR last week announced support for Beamforming+ (www.netgear.com/80211ac) on the NETGEAR R6300 802.11ac Dual Band Gigabit WiFi Router and the NETGEAR A6200 802.11ac Dual Band WiFi USB Adapter (www.netgear.com/landing/fastestwifi/).
Beamforming+ is also available through a free firmware upgrade for current NETGEAR customers of the R6300 WiFi Router and the A6200 WiFi USB Adapter. The new router firmware improves WiFi performance and range when connecting to other WiFi devices. You'll see even more improvement in WiFi performance and reliability when you connect your R6300 Router to a PC or laptop configured with an A6200 Adapter or with an 802.11ac device with Beamforming support. A second R6300 acting as a client bridge would also provide a higher performance solution for critical video over WiFi applications.
The Beamforming+ firmware update for all other NETGEAR 802.11ac routers is anticipated for early summer.
2.) Zoho Card Scanner Designed to Turn Business Cards into Zoho CRM Leads: Zoho last week announced the immediate availability of Card Scanner, its online business card scanning application. Now, users can take a photo of a business card and Card Scanner intelligently converts the image to text that is automatically saved either as a new contact or lead in Zoho CRM or as a new contact in Card Scanner.
Card Scanner currently supports the iPhone and will support iPad and Android devices going forward. Card Scanner is available for download at http://ow.ly/kC2kR.
Card Scanner is $4.99 and available immediately for the iPhone; download at https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=588799392&mt=8.
3.) QuorumSoft Changes Name to Quadric Software, Expand into Hyper-V : QuorumSoft has changed its name to Quadric Software, Inc., to coincide with a strategic move to support Citrix XenServer and Microsoft Hyper-V virtual environments. The name change became effective on May 1.
Quadric Software also announced the general availability of Alike Version 3.0, a powerful new backup and disaster recovery solution for protecting multiple hypervisors. Alike v3.0 will be publicly available on May 15th. The Alike name and product branding will remain the same.
As part of the name change, Quadric Software is launching a new website at http://www.quadricsoftware.com.
4.) Ingram Micro Now Offering Electronic Service Delivery for Microsoft Office: Ingram Micro Inc.is now offering electronic service delivery (ESD) for select Microsoft Office products including Office 2013 and Windows 8 Pro Pack.
The ESD model for Microsoft Office products is available now as part of Ingram Micro North America’s new, proprietary Digital Locker, an online software activation portal that makes it easy and secure for channel partners to instantly download and deploy select Microsoft software to end-users.
5.) Avnet Technology Solutions Introduces Avnet Services: Avnet Technology Solutions last week released Avnet Services, a new global business model designed to create greater alignment and increase operational efficiencies for Avnet's services offerings around the world. Avnet Services will combine existing services organizations within Avnet into one dedicated, global team with a unified strategy focused on software, lifecycle and education services that complement existing solutions sales and suppliers' services offerings.
The Avnet Services team will continue to work with channel partners, including value-added resellers (VARs), independent software vendors (ISVs), system integrators (SIs), and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), to sell and deliver these services. Avnet's channel partners and suppliers will benefit from expanded capabilities, extended reach and scale, faster time to market, variable cost models, and increased revenue and margins from services offerings.
