My Blog

Google Drive

Have you heard the latest news yet? ‘The Next Web’ has announced that Google will be launching their own cloud service named ‘Google Drive’ within the next few days that will compete directly with Dropbox. TNW has released a screenshot of the homepage to ‘Google Drive’ which it has been given an early trial to by Google. The screenshot clearly shows text on the homepage stating that Google Drive users will be given 5GB of free storage before they have to pay a penny. This is compared to Dropbox which only currently offer 2GB free storage to each user without having to pay. Although Google are eventually planning to start charging for the service.

Twitter users took to the web on Tuesday trending the words ‘Google Drive’. Users of the social media website posted messages such as ‘RIP Dropbox’. Could this be a sign that Dropbox, the company which has had domination over the cloud market for so long, could lose all of its customers the day that Googles new service is launched? Only time will tell.

Google Drive is expected to launch Tuesday 24th April at the url: Drive.Google.com

What are your thoughts about this?  Let us know in the comments below!

'The New iPad'

Well, its finally here. On Wednesday 7th March Apple finally announced the ‘New iPad’ after months of speculation of when their next release would be. Perhaps the most memorable thing about this release is the name; not the iPad 3, not the iPad HD, simply: ‘The New iPad’. This has led to a lot of speculation of what will come after this release because after all, you can’t name the next iPad the iPad 4 if you haven’t given this one a name. Industry experts such as the guys over at Twit.tv were quoted on their live show suggesting that Apple are preparing to bring out a smaller ebook reader version of the iPad to compete with companies such as Amazon having made the Kindle.

To summarize the new iPad: It has a new 9.7-inch retina display which it boasts on its website as ‘Resolutionary’. It says it has ‘Four times more pixels than iPad 2, Razor-sharp text and Richer colors. The Retina display transforms the entire iPad experience. So everything looks and feels incredibly lifelike and perfectly detailed.’

It also has an A5X chip with quad-core graphics which drives four times the pixels of iPad 2, 10 hours of battery life despite the new display, 4G LTE which is ‘Built with the latest in wireless technology. The new iPad lets you connect to fast data networks around the world — up to 4G LTE.’, Dictation, iCloud, Airplay and the new iPad smart cover.

For an interactive tour of The New iPads features visit: http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/

OR tweet us @onestopsupport and we’ll be happy to answer any iPad/Other IT related problems!

It may not seem to be important or high up on anyone’s lists but IT support for schools and providing IT support for schools should be classed as a high priority. Especially as so many things are run through the same network in schools, if one little thing fails then so does everything else, very much like a domino effect.

Many schools may think they already have it sorted with one of their staff (who has an interest in IT) standing up to volunteer to keep an eye on things taking on the new and fancy role of ‘IT Co-ordinator’. If you really are an IT genius, your school e-mail and all your apps are running perfectly then you probably don’t have to read any further. As we say here, if it aint broke, don’t fix it! BUT if you’re still biting your finger nails in awe of what to do next, please read on!

This is the part where we come in. Here at One Stop Support in Romford, we want to work with you and offer you excellent quality IT support. We have been working with schools for 8 years now, so we’d like to think that through our experience we know what you’re after.

To make your lives easier, we have included our prices online, there’s no point in hiding costs like other IT support companies, what you pay is what you get with us and we’re proud of that.

So, let’s get down to the nitty gritty…

£5K a year gives you:

-       Access to our support team via our 0800 number.

-       An onsite engineer every half term to carry out any maintenance/updates/hardware and software roll outs.

-       A contract manager for you to contact at any point you may be having a technical emergency.

-       An annual performance review, along with an IT network strategy meeting.

£7k a year gives you:

-       All of the above.

-       Instead of our onsite engineer visiting you every half term, we will visit you weekly to carry out any maintenance.

We also provide an hourly service in case any of your current IT staff call in sick or you’re looking for consultancy.

Our hourly rate is £40

-       With the only exception, we ask that you have an existing in house IT team.

If any of our school support options sound like what you need, give us a call on:

08000 80 30 30.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Just like schools and charities, small businesses find it hard to spare the time let alone having to think about their IT support. It is typical that one of the employees or the owner/manager is involved in their own IT support. I guess you may think why pay out a bit of money when one of your own staff can do the job. Well maybe, but here at One Stop we would say to small businesses to consider 3 major factors when reviewing your IT support.

1. 1.      Planning = Profit

There can be unintended costly consequences when approaching IT, including operating system updates and not being aware of certain aspects of technology which may or may not increase company revenue. These small things can be costing your business money, so maybe it would be worth getting some expert advice from one of our IT technicians now, saving your company money in the future and hopefully increasing revenue.

1. 2.       Applying the right person for the job

As stated before, it is usually someone already in the company who manages their own IT support. Of course this may initially save the company money but if the employee is not an IT/tech whizz kid, then maintaining a healthy IT system will prove to be a problem, resulting in more money being spent on fixing errors.

1. 3.      Opportunity Cost

Following on from points 1 and 2, if the right person, (an IT professional) is applied to the job, then the company will be spending less money on outgoing costs of fixing IT problems. This would then be seen as an opportunity cost for the business as they will be saving money in the long term.

Through these 3 key points, we can see that it is important that small businesses look over their IT support team, if their system is playing up more often than not, perhaps it would be a good idea to get a professional involved. It could be saving your business money! If you would like a second opinion or some advice, give us a call on 0800 80 30 30.

Seems that Exchange 2010 SP1 knocked our iPhones out of sync with our Exchange server. iPhones could no longer view full emails, headers were downloaded but when opening the message the error: This Message Has Not Been Downloaded From The Server on the iPhone was received. After much research and lots of people having similar issues we found help from user TimMapes on the ExchangeTechnet Forums. After trying many scripts and other fixes it appears all that’s needed is to reset the default Accepted Domain in Exchange! We simply set a second domain as the default then set our original 1stopsupport.com domain back as the default. Low and behold opening an email on the iPhone now worked 1st time!

Such an easy fix but not something you’d naturally try as the correct domain was already set as default! Hope this helps if others are experiencing the same issue!

Need a holiday? Yes please…

 You’re self-employed IT Support, your business is just peaking and your life is currently your business, ever thought of taking a break? Most probably, but you’re too worried about your customers computer system crashing, causing all havoc to let loose while you’re away. A break where you’re supposed to be enjoying yourself turns into complete hell as all you end up doing is stressing about what is going on at home.

Sound familiar? If so, here at OneStop, we’d like to provide you with the opportunity to stop stressing about what could go wrong while you’re away but instead start looking forward to your flight out of the country, whether it be a romantic break in Bruges or an adventurers dream across the amazon rainforest.

How is this possible? Well we can’t make all your dreams come true but we can set your mind at ease when it comes to all your customers computing needs. For a set price we will look after your customers systems making sure everything is running smoothly and if something does go wrong we will be there to fix it for them.

Sound good? We like to think so, after all who doesn’t like a holiday!

Give us a call on 08000 80 30 30 then go take that well needed break!

When I stumbled across OneStop I was pleasantly surprised to find the answers (written in simple English, not techy jargon) to my puzzle. After reading through the website it soon became clear who would need this kind of support; schools, charities and corporate businesses. I guess it makes sense, you can’t run a business without your IT system being spot on. I’m only in retail but when our computers are down, it is absolute chaos! So when all systems are down, who ya gonna call? Ok, maybe not the Ghostbusters but maybe OneStop.

As for schools, both primary and secondary have IT lessons these days, it’s become something that we’re all expected to do and know. I remember the massive 8 bit computers we used in primary school (and that was modern at the time), there was a game where we had to put together a person and they would look completely square. I’m sure if I went back now there would be flashy computer rooms with top notch learning games. Whether it’s learning how to read via a programme or learning how to use PowerPoint or Excel, if there’s no IT support, kids will not be learning anything new on their computers.

What I like about this website compared to its’ competitors is that they are straight to the point with prices. They state them quite clearly and describe what is inclusive within that price, there is no faffing around with having to call them asking for quotes etc.

As I finish browsing the website, my dishevelled jigsaw seems to be coming together and my ignorance on the topic is soon disappearing. IT support is there 24/7 for businesses and schools when their systems halt to a close, it’s a bit like the A-team for computers, maybe Mr T will be fixing your next PC meltdown!

Great feedback from another satisfied customer!

www.1stopsupport.com

08000 80 30 30

AOC Unveils Latest Must-Have Laptop Accessory 

AOC the leaders in the market for monitor display technology have recently unveiled their latest gadget.

AOC is the world’s largest manufacturer of LCD/LED monitors and HDTVs. With more than 60 years of design and manufacturing experience, AOC has earned a reputation for selling user-friendly, technologically advanced monitors, TVs and multi-functional displays. A lightweight and portable USB monitor aimed at Laptop Users. The latest gadget comes in a 16inch model with a built in USB port which receives both the power and the signal via a single USB cable.

AOC’s Marketing manager Robert Velez said “The USB Monitor showcases AOC’s dedication to expanding its display offerings and using the latest technologies to come out with innovative and user friendly products.”This user friendly product will hit the market in the next month and looks like it will be a hit with users. The ability to have multi-screens at such a cheap price and with a high resolution LED screen could appeal to many consumers.

Here at One Stop Support we feel it will be a great addition to the field engineers toolbox. Here are some of the specs that have been released by AOC:

• Panel Type: LED
• Widescreen 16:09
• Screen Size: 15.6″w
• Viewable Image Size: 395 mm
• Brightness (typical): 250cd
• Contrast ratio (typical): 50,000,000:1
• Response Time: 5ms
• Max. Resolution: 1366×768 @60Hz
• Input Signal: 1 USB
• HDCP Compatible: No
• Special Features: USB Powered