Do you have a backup system in place?  If so, have you actually tested the backup and made sure it restores correctly?  Many people have backups, but they never ever tried a failure drill – this includes a number of small businesses.  Well worth the cost, such drills will truly test what would happen if disaster struck….would you be able to get back on your feet?

Ask yourself this question:

If you are without your computer tomorrow how crippling will it be? 

There are 2 scenarios here: a hardware one and a software one.  Let’s address software first as that’s the bulk of computer problems.  It usually consists of Windows going belly up due to viruses or a bad update.  

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Every year, I get asked by a number of different people, what computer they should buy their loved one(s) for Christmas (or your end of year holiday of choice).  My answer is never what they expect and never what they think they need, as it starts with a question for them – "What do you/they want to do with the computer?" I almost always get the same response – "Hmmm.  I’m not sure."

Unfortunately, that’s one question you MUST know the answer to. If you don’t know what you (or your loved ones) want to do, buying the right PC for your/their needs is going to be harder than it might be if you knew what they wanted to do.  Good thing, though – unless you have a specific need that you need special hardware for (like a gaming PC), most people want to do the same things:

1. Surf the Internet (Facebook and its online games (farming…!)
2. Take, process and share family photos
3. Manage their music and off-line video collection
4. Send and receive e-mail/ Update social networking status

Other than the above, unless, as I said, you’re wanting to do something specific with your computer that requires specialized hardware, such as play processor and graphics adapter intensive games, buying the RIGHT PC is pretty easy; and for most (at least in this economy) price is usually the biggest driver. As such, I’ve pulled together the following holiday suggestions for desktops, note books and netbooks as well as tablets to help everyone out.  Let’s take a quick look and see what is available for everyone.

Check out the rest of part 1 of my 2010 Holiday Buyer’s Guide on iTechGear.org!

Have I mentioned how much I love Evernote? Not only is it functional and completely spot-on at syncing across devices, it is useful in many imaginative ways. AND NOW the Windows Version has been updated with a Webcam button for storing webcam notes!

If you use a webcam with your Windows computer, you will see a new note type in your Evernote toolbar: WebCam note. Clicking the WebCam note button turns on your camera and pops open a snapshot window. Once you take the snapshot, a new note is created in Evernote containing the image.

Turn your creative thinking loose on this. You might want a shot of a business card, the greeting card that just arrived, a wine label from the great bottle of wine you had never heard of but just finished and plan on buying again, shots of yourself for the Avatar you need to make.

Point is, once captured in Evernote, those images will be synchronized and processed so that you’ll be able to find your notes from anywhere.

Open up your Windows version of Evernote and check for an update or get the new version for yourself HERE.

Kinoma Play, the spectacular must-have media app for any Smartphone, evidently sees the writing on the wall (along with many of us) and announced today they are no longer going to develop for or support the Palm OS. Here is the explanation in their own words:

“Since the launch of the original Kinoma Player in 2002, Kinoma has led the way in mobile media technology. The platform first established in Kinoma Player lives on not only in Kinoma’s flagship product — Kinoma Play — but also in products from companies including Sony and Sling Media.

As Palm OS fades into the sunset, we’ve had a lot of folks ask what our plans are. Today we’re announcing that we’ll be ending sales and support for Palm OS products in order to focus completely on current phone OSs.

If you’re a Palm OS user, here’s what you need to know: Kinoma will be ending sales of Kinoma Player 4 EX on 8/1/2010. We’ll continue to offer support, including any necessary security and critical fixes, until 10/1/2010. Effective 10/1/2010, Kinoma will offer only community-based support Kinoma Player 4 EX via our forum at forum.kinoma.com.

We’re also ending sales and support for Kinoma Producer for Windows and Mac OS on the same schedule.

We’d like to thank everyone who’s supported these products, and helped pioneer the now-common sight of people enjoying music, movies, podcasts and audiobooks on phones. You were ahead of your time, and when you upgrade your phone we hope you’ll choose Kinoma Play.”

There is a new EVERNOTE update coming today for Windows and MAC (iPad later this week) and with it a whole slew of interactive functions and applications. Once you access the update, read THIS article and learn how to work with the available capabilities. Pretty exciting.