Welcome to Tech Trends Newsletter archive, where you will
find articles from past Tech Trends Newsletters.

FIND ME/FOLLOW ME PHONE SERVICE Q2 2021
Find-me and follow-me are two closely related business phone services that are often sold and installed together.

BENEFITS OF OUTSOURCING YOUR IT SUPPORT Q2 2021
Working with an IT and network management service has multiple benefits that doing it yourself does not.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD BARCODE? Q2 2021
The International Standards Organization (ISO) has specific standards for barcodes that are meant to define and control all barcodes used throughout the world.

USING MANAGED PRINT SERVICES TO REDUCE YOUR BUDGET Q2 2021
The goal of print management is cost savings and improved productivity, but a good print management program takes multiple issues into consideration.

WHAT TO CONSIDER WHEN BUYING A WIDE-FORMAT DEVICE Q2 2021
There are many wide-format inkjet printers on the market, and many brands and models claim to offer the same benefits and capabilities. So where do you start when you’re looking for one?

WHAT IS VoIP? Q1 2021
Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, is a method for placing and receiving phone calls over the internet.

ACID-FREE AND ARCHIVAL PAPER Q1 2021
In business, archival papers might not seem as important (considering the increasing reliance on digital documents), but they still serve a purpose.

PRINTING WITH PDFs Q1 2021
You might be faced with a decision regarding which version of a document you should print from – a Word file, or a Portable Document Format, better known as a PDF.

MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT MANAGED NETWORK SECURITY Q1 2021
You might wonder if outsourced network management is a good option for your company. In most cases, the answer is yes.

YOUR PRINTER’S HARD DRIVE Q1 2021
Did you know the multifunction printer (MFP) in your office also contains hard disk drives that record and store data and that residual data that may remain on the disk after printing and copying?

WHAT IS A CLOUD PHONE SYSTEM? Q4 2020
Cloud phone systems typically offer advanced security and telephony features that are especially useful for businesses.

HOLIDAY EMAIL SCAMS Q4 2020
This holiday season, as with every holiday season, the hackers and scammers will be out in full force.

OFFICE TECHNOLOGY AND TAX DEDUCTIONS Q4 2020
There are some tax code sections which are not only beneficial to your business, but which are also relatively straight forward. One of them is Section 179.

NETWORK CONNECTIVITY Q4 2020
These days, the network that we use to connect ourselves to the larger digital world is like the electricity that powers our lives.

WHAT IS A PRINTER DRIVER? Q4 2020
The purpose of the driver is similar to that of an interpreter – it allows two different and otherwise incompatible devices to communicate.

WHAT CAUSES PAPER JAMS? Q3 2020
Printer paper jams are easily one of the most common printer problems and are indiscriminate – they happen on bargain printers and they happen on the most expensive printers.

BOOK BINDING WITH A PRINTER Q3 2020
Today’s multifunction printers can do may things, including binding printed items into a finished item.

INKJET LABEL PRINTERS Q3 2020
Inkjet label printers combine the speed and efficiency of a thermal printer with the vibrancy and full-color printing capabilities of a desktop inkjet printer.

WHAT IS OPTICAL CHARACTER RECOGNITION (OCR)? Q3 2020
OCR stands for Optical Character Recognition, and is the technology used to recognize text that has been turned into an image.

DEVICE SECURITY Q3 2020
The biggest challenge for an IT department today is ensuring that the proper security measures will still apply to a largely remote workforce.

CONSUMER PRINTERS vs BUSINESS PRINTERS (Q2 2020)
Should you invest in a small consumer printer – sometimes referred to as a desktop or personal printer, or a larger business printer – sometimes referred to as an enterprise printer?

LET’S TALK ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS PHONES (Q2 2020)
Office technology has changed at a rapid pace, and most businesses have kept up. Surprisingly, business phone systems are usually overlooked or are the last business tool to be updated.

SLOW PRINTER? THERE MIGHT BE A FEW CULPRITS… (Q2 2020)
There are some things that you may want to check on in order to keep your printer running at its optimal speed.

WHY IS INK SO EXPENSIVE? (Q2 2020)
One of the biggest frustrations faced by anybody who owns a printer is the high cost of most inks. However, printer ink is not expensive just because it can be.

THE BENEFITS OF LEASING (Q2 2020)
If you’re shopping for a printer or copier for your business, then you’ve no doubt wrestled with the question of whether purchase or lease the device.

MONITOR CALIBRATING FOR BETTER PRINTING (Q4 2019)
It may sound strange for a printer and copier company to suggest calibrating your computer monitor, but it’s one way to assure that the images you see on your screen will look the same when they come out of your printer.

PRINTER SECURITY HACKS (Q4 2019)
These days, most printers are connected to the internet in some form or fashion, and that can mean trouble.

MAGNETIC STRIPS – HOW THEY WORK (Q4 2019)
The chances are pretty good that at some point today you will use a card that has a magnetic strip on it. Everybody uses them, but have you ever wondered how they work?

ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY PRINTING (Q4 2019)
More and more printing companies are introducing sustainable, “green” printing processes. Are you?

DIGITAL SAFETY DURING THE HOLIDAYS (Q4 2019)
During the upcoming holiday season, most of us will do more of our shopping online than ever before, and the cyber criminals are watching and waiting.

CLOUD PRINTING BENEFITS (Q3 2019)
Printing is an area where the cloud is having a large impact in a number of ways – from enabling mobile users to print documents from anywhere, to making printing more secure.

THE HISTORY OF THE BARCODE (Q3 2019)
This year, the ubiquitous barcode celebrates its 70th birthday. Since its inception, it has been put to use in numerous ways. Would you believe that it all started on a beach?

DISASTER RECOVERY (Q3 2019)
Disaster recovery means the security planning that documents the processes and procedures a business will take to protect (and quickly restore) its business processes and/or IT infrastructure following a disaster.

THE ENERGY STAR PROGRAM (Q3 2019)
Clearly, the Energy Star label is a symbol that promotes and awards energy efficient products. But how and why is a product awarded this certification?

PAPER WEIGHTS (Q3 2019)
The paper you choose for any given product will almost certainly impact the result, so it is important to take the weight and thickness of paper into consideration.

DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (Q2 2019)
Document management services help your company create a defense against fraudulent behavior, both inside and outside of your organization.

DIGITAL WHITEBOARDS (Q2 2019)
We’re all familiar with analog whiteboards, sometimes called dry-erase boards. Fortunately, the whiteboard has gone digital, and its usefulness has increased exponentially.

THE MUSIC OF MODEMS (Q2 2019)
If you are at least 25 years old, you probably remember that at one time you had to connect to the internet through a modem. But what was that sound your modem made?

CONSIDER YOUR PASSWORDS (Q2 2019)
We’re not the first ones to tell you that you need to use a strong password. But just how much thought have you put into your passwords?

MANAGED IT – IS IT FOR YOU? (Q2 2019)
For many of those small businesses, a managed network/IT service provider (MSP) is an increasingly popular option.

FINISHING UNITS FOR COPIERS (Q1 2019)
Finishers provide added functionality to an MFP and can become indispensable for certain businesses.

PROCESS COLOR vs. SPOT COLOR (Q1 2019)
Both can be used for large-run and industrial offset printing. But what’s the difference between the two?

CYBERSECURITY AND SMALL BUSINESS (Q1 2019)
Cybercriminals do not always chase after the biggest score. They are fully aware that smaller targets can also be easier targets.

LASER PRINTERS (Q1 2019)
A laser printer doesn’t look that different to an inkjet printer, but it puts ink on the page in a completely different way.

PREVENTING ID THEFT (Q1 2019)
A recent poll found that 92% of Americans had left their personal data unsecured at least once in 2018. Were you one of them?

FAX HACKING (Q4 2018)
With more than 300 million fax numbers and 45 million fax machines still in use globally, fax is still popular among certain business organizations.

WHAT’S NEXT: LIQUID PRINTING (Q4 2018)
Researchers at MIT are experimenting with a new 3D process called rapid liquid printing.

PUBLIC WI-FI AND SECURITY (Q4 2018)
Very few public wi-fi networks are able to offer encryption security in instances where everybody uses the same password and hotspot, which is generally how public wi-fi works.

WHAT IS RMM? (Q4 2018)
Remote monitoring and management (RMM), is a type of software designed to help managed IT service providers (MSPs) remotely and proactively monitor a client’s network.

ARCHIVAL INK (Q4 2018)
These days you are able to find dye inks and pigment inks that call themselves “archival”, and often times it’s a matter of opinion as to what is “archival” and what is not.

DIGITAL PRINTING VS OFFSET PRINTING (Q3 2018)
You’ve undoubtedly heard the terms offset printing and digital printing. How do they differ from one another?

PPM (Q3 2018)
PPM, or pages-per-minute, is the measurement standard for how fast a printer can print a standardized page. There are many types of printers on the market and the PPM for each printer is different.

REMANUFACTURED EQUIPMENT (Q3 2018)
When it comes to office technology, one option for businesses to consider is purchasing remanufactured equipment.

PAPER SIZES (Q3 2018)
Everybody who has ever held a job, especially in an office, is familiar with the 3 most common sizes of paper – letter, legal, and tabloid. You may have also heard some other terms applied to sizes of paper and wondered what they mean.

RANSOMWARE AND YOUR BUSINESS (Q3 2018)
Experts agree that the first – and therefore most important – line of defense against ransomware is user awareness and education.

“BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE” POLICIES (Q2 2018)
Most employees now use at least one of their connectivity devices – usually a phone – for both business and personal activities. That might be a problem.

INK TECHNOLOGIES (Q2 2018)
There are numerous kinds of printers in use today and numerous kind of ink available for those printers.

IMPORTANT REGULATIONS BY INDUSTRY (Q2 2018)
In order to maintain competitive fairness across industries, legal mandates have been imposed on many of these industries.

BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANS (Q2 2018)
Build and maintaining a disaster recovery and business continuity plan can keep your business running in the face of most disasters.

THAT OLD PRINTER (Q2 2018)
If it’s time to move on to a new printer because the old one doesn’t work any longer, you might be wondering what to do with the old one.

PRINTERS IN SPACE (Q1 2018)
Printers have become such an ingrained and necessary piece of technology that they are now in space, too.

CHAOS FOR SALE (Q1 2018)
It shouldn’t surprise anybody that everything is for sale on the internet, and that now includes ransomware and other virulent software.

5D PRINTING……YEAH, IT’S A THING (Q1 2018)
5-D printing is not the addition of an additional dimension. Which is good, because then we’d have to rewrite every physics book in existence.

THE BENEFITS OF SCANNING (Q1 2018)
Document scanners provide numerous benefits for businesses of every size and type, including some benefits that you may not have considered.

USE LESS TONER BY PRINTING SMARTER (Q1 2018)
Becoming more aware of wasteful practices and cutting corners where you can, are the first steps in reducing your printing costs and your environmental footprint.

RECYCLING INK CARTRIDGES (Q4 2017)
Recycling empty cartridges has numerous benefits. What’s the difference between recycling and re-manufacturing?

CYBERSECURITY AND THE INTERNET OF THINGS (Q4 2017)
The rate in which the IoT introduces new opportunities for a cyberattack is higher than anything we’ve seen previously.

HIPAA COMPLIANCE AND SAFEGUARDS (Q4 2017)
Attempting to become, and remain, HIPAA compliant can be daunting and more than a bit confusing.

PRE-COPIER COPY TECHNOLOGY (Q4 2017)
Easing the process of information duplication has long been on the minds of inventors, and over the years they have developed numerous methods and technologies.

RGB vs CMYK (Q4 2017)
Understanding the difference between RGB and CMYK color modes and when you should or shouldn’t use them.

TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP (Q3 2017)
The initial purchase cost of a business printer or copier will likely represent only a fraction of the money you spend on that device
over the course of its life.

THE EVOLUTION OF RANSOMWARE (Q3 2017)
Ransomware made its debut in Russia and Eastern Europe around 2005. The first instances were more disruptive than lucrative.

PAPER DEINKING (Q3 2017)
When you recycle paper, where does the ink go? How does it get removed?

UNUSUAL PRINTERS (Q3 2017)
Some printers don’t print documents or photos, but they do “print” an unusual assortment of things.

HOW DO COPIERS WORK? (Q3 2017)
Believe it or not, the modern copier in your office relies on technology that is quite similar to that used in much earlier copiers.

WHAT IS THE IoT? (Q2 2017)
The concept of an internet of things (IoT) was initially coined in 1989. An internet-ready toaster, of all things, was the hardware that set the idea in motion.

THE IoT AND SMART PRINTING (Q2 2017)
Today, three quarters of American companies are using or planning to deploy some form of IoT. So, what does this mean for a business’ print environment?

HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW YOUR INK AND TONER? (Q2 2017)
Have you ever wondered about what was in that stuff? You haven’t? Well, we have. Here is what we found out.

4D PRINTING (Q2 2017)
As 3D printing evolves into a much more accessible and affordable technology, let’s explore this next dimension in a bit more detail.

THE PRINTING ICEBERG (Q2 2017)
Have you considered all the costs associated with your organization’s printing environment? Probably not.

MILLENNIALS AND PRINT (Q1 2017)
We all know that they are the first generation raised surrounded by digital technology – the first purely online generation. So how have
they embraced print, assuming they’ve embraced it at all?

3D PRINTING TECHNOLOGIES (Q1 2017)
3D printing has begun to evolve into a much more widely utilized manufacturing technology – one that has the potential to radically
transform many design, production and logistics processes.

CLOUD PRINTING (Q1 2017)
The ability to print from our mobile devices is becoming increasing prevalent, but it is still in the process of evolving.

ADVANCED PRINTING TECHNOLOGIES (Q1 2017)
Even though 3D printing seems to be what everybody wants to talk about, traditional printing will not be left by the roadside. So what
might the future hold for an enterprise printing environment?

THE PAPERLESS OFFICE (Q1 2017)
Within an office environment, the continual chase to optimize business processes drive the adoption of digital-only technologies. What’s
keeping us from adopting a completely paperless office?