Few PC buyers come to the table with an absolutely fixed budget, and most of them would be very willing to spend a little more on better equipment if only they knew how certain gadgets and upgrades could enhance their computing experience. Drive-thru restaurants know the value of simply asking, "Do you want fries with that?" The same principle applies to computer sales. Do your customers and your bottom line a favor by suggesting this month's easy upsell items.
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GENIUS
2.4 GHz Media Pointer: $44
www.geniusnet.com
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GETTING UP IN FRONT OF A ROOM FILLED WITH PEOPLE ready to hear what you have to say is ironically terrifying. The last thing someone wants to worry about when presenting a PowerPoint slide deck is standing next to his laptop and projector, completely disconnected from the audience. The freedom to move around and engage people is valuable. Genius’ 2.4 GHz Media Pointer is just the ticket for presenters seeking freedom from their notebooks in large conference rooms.
Configuring the pointer is a breeze. Genius includes a mini-USB receiver, which facilitates communication with the wireless transmitter. Your customer operates the Media Pointer in one of two modes: Presentation or Media. In the former, eight buttons correspond to navigational functions, features to help manage time, refresh, closing a presentation, and a laser pointer for emphasis on presentation points. Media mode facilitates volume control, track navigation, play, pause, fast forward and backward, along with the same laser toggle.
Tote the wireless presenter around in a laptop case. The pointer and receiver snap together so your customer doesn’t lose one of the pieces. Priced under $50, Genius’ Media Pointer could be the key to more engaging presentations. |
SPECK
ToughSkin iPhone Rugged Case & Holster: $29
www.speckproducts.com
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AT $399, THE LEAST EXPENSIVE Apple iPhone is still a substantial investment in cellular technology. And given the large, sexy touch screen, it’d be a shame for a customer to drop the phone and mar that glass.
Even if you aren’t selling iPhones, there’s no reason you can’t make some money protecting the customers who are shelling out big bucks for Apple’s latest. Speck’s ToughSkin is a rugged case that envelops the iPhone without cramping its style. Rubberized corners protect the phone’s edges against accidental falls, and a swivel belt clip in the back helps secure the iPhone so it isn’t in your customer’s pocket banging against the car keys.
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PINNACLE
PCTV HD Pro Stick: $129
www.pinnaclesys.com
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YOUR CUSTOMERS MIGHT NOT KNOW THAT HIGH-DEFINITION programming is available to anyone with the receiver equipment to pull it out of the air. In urban areas, that might mean free and easy access to seven or eight channels. More rural communities probably have only two or three channels. But this is high-definition content we’re talking about, which beams in alongside the standard-definition signal home users already get. We’ve played with a couple of USB-based, standard-def receivers in the past, designed for road warriors who prefer to watch and record their favorite shows on a laptop. Though these receivers get the job done from a hardware perspective, software is really what makes an innovative product easy to use. Hardware vendors notoriously have a tough time getting user interfaces right.
Not so for Pinnacle, the company already renowned for its Studio video-editing suite and Dazzle archiving app. Software is what Pinnacle does best. So when Pinnacle introduced its PCTV HD Pro Stick, we were most interested in the hardware. Pinnacle covers both bases very well. The PCTV HD Pro Stick is diminutive, includes an A/V adapter for analog video capture, and sports a remote control. A bundled antenna is suitable in areas with good ATSC (the digital broadcast standard) reception. When the installation is a little more permanent, Pinnacle’s PCTV HD Pro Stick also supports amplified rooftop antennas.
The software is naturally intuitive. Not only is it able to tune into high- and standard-definition broadcasts, but it timeshifts and supports scheduled recordings, as well. You can either record shows directly to DVD or in a destination file format of your choosing, ready to roll on an iPod, PSP, or PC. You can even integrate the PCTV HD Pro Stick into a Windows Media Center Edition environment using a compatible remote, IR receiver, and IR blaster, all available separately from Pinnacle.
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WESTERN DIGITAL
My Book World Edition II: $799
www.westerndigital.com
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EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES used to be simple USB affairs with one disk in a protective enclosure. They offered convenience above all else. Today, manufacturers such as Western Digital are offering multi-drive enclosures with built-in redundancy, network connectivity, and more advanced software than ever before. There’s a price to be paid for the extra functionality, but in an SMB environment, that certainly beats buying a rackmount NAS box when it isn’t necessary.
The company’s new My Book World Edition II is, as its name suggests, designed for the globe trotter who needs a reliable place to store and access data without worrying whether his home computer is on. The box hosts two 1TB drives, which your customer can use independently to total 2TB or together in a RAID 1 array, yielding 1TB of redundant storage. Gigabit Ethernet connectivity liberates the My Book from individual PCs on your customer’s network, making it much more accessible after hours or from remote locations.
Western Digital includes two notable pieces of software with the My Book World Edition II. The first is Data OnHand, which lets any computer with the software connect to and securely browse through folders on the My Book using Windows Explorer as if the network drives were local. There’s also a copy of EMC’s Retrospect Express backup software to schedule the backups of network machines.
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