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The 4 IT Staffing Models: Pros & Cons

PlanetMagpie — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 11:25:00 GMT

For years a debate has raged. What kind of staffing model should we use to handle IT needs?

Hire full-time IT staff? Outsource the work to consultants? Or do both? Nobody seems to agree on the best approach (not even ...

10 Things to Know Before Moving to Office 365

PlanetMagpie — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 08:47:12 GMT

Office 365 is NOT the next version of Microsoft Office. Rather, it's a cloud-based service where businesses can subscribe to Microsoft servers (e.g. Exchange, SharePoint, Lync) for a monthly fee per user. Think of Office 365 as an "office IT ...

Is Your Information Safer on a PC or a Smartphone?

PlanetMagpie — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Many think Android smartphones & iPhones are more secure than PCs. They're a closed-platform device, they use iOS or Android, they receive auto-updates…

Oh, and they don't run on Windows.

So people tend to trust their phones more than PCs. ...

4 Components of Internet Explorer 9 You Should Know About

PlanetMagpie — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 10:12:21 GMT

Internet Explorer 9 has been released. Have you switched yet?

If not, you may want to. Microsoft used a very successful beta release to build a slimmed-down browser with many new components. When released, it was downloaded 2.3 million times ...

8 Ways Office 2010 Makes Office Work Easier

PlanetMagpie — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 11:04:16 GMT

Microsoft took a hammer & chisel to Office 2007. They added lots of little improvements across the board for 2010 – design improvements, new tools, feature fixes. So many things in fact, that listing them all out would require a ...

5 Improvements Outlook 2010 Will Make In Your Productivity

PlanetMagpie — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 12:16:11 GMT

Office 2010 will be released in June. This new version naturally includes Outlook – everybody's favorite email and calendaring app. Let's discuss some of its improvements as they relate to everyday productivity.

In Office 2007, new additions like the Ribbon ...

Microsoft's 2010 Releases and the Problems They'll Solve

PlanetMagpie — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 09:13:07 GMT

Around here, when a new year comes up we think about changes. How – and where – can we improve things? There's some brainstorming, ideas are tested, and changes are agreed upon. Usually they take the form of solving problems ...

Battle of the Business SmartPhones: iPhone vs. Pre vs. Blackberry

PlanetMagpie — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:00:00 GMT

In July we had an Ask Magpie! Question about which smartphone to choose for business use. Magpie thought it was a question that deserved much more attention. So we decided to write a longer comparison of the iPhone, the Palm ...

The New Search Underdog - Is Bing Worth Switching To?

PlanetMagpie — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:07:00 GMT

Last month we introduced Bing in an Ask Magpie. By now, Microsoft's new engine has been out for over a month. And the conversations on its viability as a search engine are all over the map.

Search is supposedly a ...

Is Your Password Strong Enough to Repel Viruses?

PlanetMagpie — Wed, 20 May 2009 10:52:00 GMT

Last month, the Conficker virus caused anywhere from $200 million to $9 billion worth of damage to infected networks. Whatever the final amount, much of that was spent on fortifying networks beforehand.

How much of that time could have been ...