BlackBerry Mobile Fusion - MDM Solution for BlackBerry, iOS and Android Devices

A mobile device management solution for BlackBerry,
iOS and Android devices 

Put an end to mobile chaos.

Now all personal and corporate-owned BlackBerry®, iOS and Android™ devices can seamlessly access business data and applications on a single, secure management platform. No compromise.

Let us look at the key feature of the BlackBerry Mobile Fusion:

1. Manage devices, users, groups and policies from a single user interface

 From a single interface, administrators can access the most common management tasks for BlackBerry, iOS and Android devices. They can even use the interface to access management features on BlackBerry® Enterprise Server and BlackBerry® Enterprise Server Express instances across multiple BlackBerry domains.

Create and manage groups, manage user profiles and provision mobile devices from an interface designed to help make completing tasks fast and easy. And if needed, the full interfaces of individual servers and services are always available.

2. Support for iOS and Android devices

In addition to BlackBerry tablets and smartphones, BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion can be used to manage and secure iOS and Android devices. Through the same familiar administrative interface, administrators can use BlackBerry Mobile Fusion to perform a number of tasks. Administrators can add and import iOS and Android users, create group memberships, view user and device information, define IT policies and connectivity settings, manage applications on devices and assist users with the recovery of misplaced devices.

 Download TRC Case Study Here

3. Manage required and optional work apps

BlackBerry Mobile Fusion lets you create and manage your organization’s work apps catalog so you can support over-the-air installation, upgrade and auditing of required and optional apps on BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets⁴. Users of activated tablets can browse and download these apps easily by tapping the Work tab in the BlackBerry App World™ storefront. And apps that your organization requires users to have on their tablets will be downloaded, installed and updated automatically.

4. Manage and secure PlayBook tablets 

 

BlackBerry Mobile Fusion gives organizations the tools they need to easily manage and secure PlayBook tablets. After being enrolled in a work environment, administrators can use a centralized administrative interface to configure settings and policies for devices wirelessly. Set password requirements, enable encryption of work information, remotely lock tablets or wipe work-related or all information from tablets and more.

5. Support for BlackBerry 10 platform

Get ready for the future today. BlackBerry Mobile Fusion is designed to help manage BlackBerry devices available now and future BlackBerry® 10 platform devices.

6. Supports BlackBerry Balance technology for BlackBerry devices

 BlackBerry Mobile Fusion includes BlackBerry® Balance™ technology which allows BlackBerry devices to be used for personal and work purposes without compromising management or security. When a device is activated with the service, work and personal information are kept separate to help keep information secure.

In the event an employee leaves the organization, an administrator can wipe work-related information from the device. Or if a device is misplaced, administrators can wipe all information from the device to help ensure sensitive information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.

 Learn about BlackBerry Balance Technology
View the BlackBerry Technology Video

 

7. Security designed for everyone 

Whether securing devices your organization acquires and deploys to users, devices that employees own and want to use for work purposes or a mix of both, BlackBerry Mobile Fusion provides the flexibility to secure mobile devices in a simple, sensible and seamless way. A variety of policies provide maximum control with minimal impact to the user experience.

For PlayBook tablets, it uses the trusted security of the BlackBerry solution to provide an added layer of protection. Activation establishes a secure connection with the BlackBerry® Infrastructure, so administrators can ensure that work information sent to, from and on tablets is secure, including email, calendar and contact information delivered using Microsoft® ActiveSync® connections behind the firewall.

To download and read more information on BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, visit the BlackBerry Mobile Fusion website

Importance of resume and social media consistency

I just stumbled on this piece and I considered it relevant that you also know. Your social media presence and resume consistency matters a lot.

Don’t underestimate the importance of having consistency between your resume and your social media presence when looking for a job or trying to establish your professional brand.

Given the continued tightness in the job market and the omnipresence of social media, companies are doing everything possible to properly research potential job candidates. As always, companies are still performing formal and traditional due diligence by:

• Analyzing your resume for gaps and inconsistencies

• Contacting educational institutions to assure that your degrees are real

• Calling past employers to be sure you actually worked at the companies you listed

• Speaking with your references

Companies are now, however, also performing new types of social media based due diligence with the goal of gaining an overall perspective of you as shown in paper and as seen in real life. As a result, they are also:

• Reading your public LinkedIn page to assure consistency with your resume and reading any recommendations given by those in your LinkedIn network

• Checking your public Facebook page to see if they can gain an understanding of you outside the workplace

• Performing a general Google search on your name looking for other interesting tidbits of information that will give them a better understanding of the overall you; note that this could be positive or negative based on what they find

In addition to using the internet and social media as a way to research you once you have come to their attention, they also use social media as a way to find you in the first place. Employers have been known to use products such as LinkedIn to find people that work at competitive companies that they respect with the specific intent of hiring away their people. 

This has multiple advantages for the company including weakening their competitor and reducing the learning curve of the new employee. From your perspective as the employee in question, they can’t find you if your LinkedIn profile is not completed and up to date. That said, if they find you in this manner, then when you send them your resume it must be consistent with your online info. 

 

A convergence of your resume and social media that can be fraught with danger during your job search is unflattering pictures and/or comments about you on Facebook or other social networking platforms. For example, if you say in your resume that you are a quiet, conservative, and ethical person and your friend’s public Facebook page shows a picture of you in a less than conservative situation, your resume will very likely be moved from the table to the trash can and you will never know it. 

 

10 Android tablet apps for IT pros on the go

Although not an owner of any Android phone, I know what joy it brings and the level of power it can command. I'm a big fan of Android powered devices particularly the HTC and Samsung Droid devices. Thanks to GodwinZzz and Chilas who allowed me play with their Samsung Android phones in school. These two are tech buffs and they like gadgets but maybe not more than I do. I just do not own much of them, that is the difference. However, not everyone who handle Android devices such as the HTC, Samsung Galaxy SI, II or III or even Tabs or Note 10.1 and others in Nigeria especially use their devices to perform the tasks they are made for.

If you've ever thought "I wish my Android phone would do [X] whenever [Y] happened"—for example, text your significant other whenever you leave work; silence your phone when you walk into a movie; or turn on your ringer when you wake up in the morning—Tasker makes it possible. - Alan H.

Read what Alan Henry has to say about this app, Tasker on LifeHacker. This is just to expose you to more powerful apps out there if you don't know already.

Now, lets go into the real matter of the day. IT Pros have a lot to conquer each moment of the day. Held down by tasks, strategies, and dealing with the people who they support, they can get frustrated and eventually run down. But read what Vangie Beal of CIO has to offer you, the IT Professional.

Do you frequently fly out of town for business meetings or to wine and dine clients? Flight delays, strange hotels, and a full itinerary can make it difficult to stay on task while traveling for business. The good news for busy IT professionals is that an Android tablet—along with a few good business apps from Google Play—will help you schedule meetings, find a restaurant in an unfamiliar city, or even check in with the office. This list of 10 useful Android tablet apps will help you work smarter, save time, and be prepared for any task when you're on the go.
Based in Nova Scotia, Vangie Beal has been covering small business, electronic commerce and Internet technology for more than a decade.

1. ListNote speech-to-text notes

Khymaera's ListNote speech-to-text app helps busy IT professionals create meeting notes, to-do lists, and even a virtual blackboard for jotting down those great ideas you come up with after a meeting. If you're not shy about talking to your Android tablet in public, the hands-free speech feature lets you create and save notes more quickly than you could by typing messages on a small touchscreen keyboard. The best feature for traveling professionals is the convenience of sharing your notes with co-workers who use any Gmail or other Android messaging applications that accept text.
Download ListNote (free) or ListNote Pro ($4.99).

2. Due Today

Staying organized can be a daunting task under normal circumstances—and nearly impossible when traveling for work. The Due Today task scheduling app from Lakeridge Software offers useful

The 12 most dreaded help desk requests

 

These 12 questions and requests are guaranteed to draw groans from practically any IT pro in the world

Originally published on InfoWorld| Click here to read the original story.

Working on an IT help desk can feel like an endless case of déjà vu. Let's face it: Computer users are damn predictable. If you've heard a problem once, you've heard it a thousand times before.
Some things, though, have been said so many times that they've practically become help desk clichés -- and the very sound of them is enough to make any IT pro want to smack his or her head with the nearest blunt object.
If you've called your company's help desk with any of these problems, trust me: You've been the target of a serious eye-roll on the other end of the line. And if you've fielded one, feel free to share your favorite rejoinder in the comments.

1. "I think the printer might be jammed."

It's one of the most common help desk calls -- and one most every help desk staffer would be happy never to hear again. Whether the jam is caused by shoddy parts, shifty users, or shiny candy (yes -- shiny candy), it's no less likely to elicit an exaggerated sigh.

2. "Can you help me get my email on my new phone?"

"My non-company-supported personal phone, that is. While you're at it, can you also put the Facebooks and Twitters on there? And all the pictures of my kid? They're right here on my personal laptop. Oh, and if you could get all that done by lunchtime, that'd be great."

Cloud careers: It's a seller's market

Cloud careers: It's a seller's market

How the Generations Use Social Media to Job Search (Infographic)

How the Generations Use Social Media to Job Search (Infographic)

Healthy Computing Habits for Kids and Teens

As kids spend more and more time using technology, it is essential to make sure that they adopt healthy computing habits early on to avoid cumulative damage on their eyes, ears, muscles, joints and overall well-being.

Here are few habits that should be adopted by kids.

• Use an ergonomically correct computer setup - There are plenty of studies out there about how to set up your computer to minimize strain on your muscles, eyes, etc. Make sure that your kids' computer setup is optimized for their age/size.

• Choose a desktop as the family computer instead of a laptop - Laptops and netbooks may seem appealing, but they generally don't provide an ergonomic environment, especially for kids who may be too small to comfortably adjust the angle of the monitor. In addition, portable machines lend themselves to curling up on the couch or lying in bed, neither of which is ergonomically sound over long periods of time. If you have to use a laptop, try to find an ergonomic "home base" for it where kids can play and do their homework. Better yet, add on some kid-sized peripherals (see next point).

• Choose kid-sized peripherals - Small kids have small hands and short arms. Using adult-sized mice and keyboards are challenging for them both in terms of size and in fine motor skills. Choosing a child friendly keyboard and mouse will make it easier for them to learn to use the computer as well as create a healthier computing environment.

• Take frequent breaks - You've probably heard this before, but you want to encourage your kids to take frequent breaks. Set a kitchen timer, user your operating system parental controls, or find another way to remind them to stop, stretch, and do a different activity for a few minutes. This is important to reduce muscle strain, but also wear on the eyes.

• Limit time in front of the computer - Taking breaks is great, but it's even more important for kids and teens to engage in other activities, especially those that get the body moving. Not only can it help avoid unhealthy weight gain, but the additional oxygen to the brain can give them a boost for when they do return to the computer.

 Putting these tips into practice will help children develop great, healthy computing habits and by so doing cumulative damages that may occur from the use of computers. I'll be putting down more resources on healthy computing habits. Don't forget to bookmark this page or subscribe to our feed and email notifications.

10 dirty little secrets you should know about working in IT

If you are preparing for a career in IT or are new to IT, many of the “dirty little secrets” listed below may surprise you because we don’t usually talk about them out loud. If you are an IT veteran, you’ve probably encountered most of these issues and have a few of your own to add — and please, by all means, take a moment to add them to the discussion. Most of these secrets are aimed at network administrators, IT managers, and desktop support professionals. This list is not aimed at developers and programmers — they have their own set of dirty little secrets — but some of these will apply to them as well.

10.) The pay in IT is good compared to many other professions, but since they pay you well, they often think they own you

Although the pay for IT professionals is not as great as it was before the dot-com flameout and the IT backlash in 2001-2002, IT workers still make very good money compared to many other professions (at least the ones that require only an associate’s or bachelor’s degree). And there is every reason to believe that IT pros will continue to be in demand in the coming decades, as technology continues to play a growing role in business and society. However, because IT professionals can be so expensive, some companies treat IT pros like they own them. If you have to answer a tech call at 9:00 PM because someone is working late, you hear, “That’s just part of the job.” If you need to work six hours on a Saturday to deploy a software update to avoid downtime during business hours, you get, “There’s no comp time for that since you’re on salary. That’s why we pay you the big bucks!”

9.) It will be your fault when users make silly errors

Some users will angrily snap at you when they are frustrated. They will yell, “What’s wrong with this thing?” or “This computer is NOT working!” or (my personal favorite), “What did you do to the computers?” In fact, the problem is that they accidentally deleted the Internet Explorer icon from the desktop, or unplugged the mouse from the back of the computer with their foot, or spilled their coffee on the keyboard.

8.) You will go from goat to hero and back again multiple times within any given day

When you miraculously fix something that had been keeping multiple employees from being able to work for the past 10 minutes — and they don’t realize how simple the fix really was — you will become the hero of the moment and everyone’s favorite employee. But they will conveniently forget about your hero anointment a few hours later when they have trouble printing because of a network slowdown — you will be enemy No. 1 at that moment. But if you show users a handy little Microsoft Outlook trick before the end of the day, you’ll soon return to hero status.

7.) Certifications won’t always help you become a better technologist, but they can help you land a better job or a pay raise

Headhunters and human resources departments love IT certifications. They make it easy to match up job candidates with job openings. They also make it easy for HR to screen candidates. You’ll hear a lot of veteran IT pros whine about techies who were hired based on certifications but who don’t have the experience to effectively do the job. They are often right. That has happened in plenty of places. But the fact is that certifications open up your career options. They show that you are organized and ambitious and have a desire to educate yourself and expand your skills. If you are an experienced IT pro and have certifications to match your experience, you will find yourself to be extremely marketable. Tech certifications are simply a way to prove your baseline knowledge and to market yourself as a professional. However, most of them are not a good indicator of how good you will be at the job.

6.) Your nontechnical co-workers will use you as personal tech support for their home PCs

Your co-workers (in addition to your friends, family, and neighbors) will view you as their personal tech support department for their home PCs and home networks. They will e-mail you, call you, and/or stop by your office to talk about how to deal with the virus that took over their home PC or the wireless router that stopped working after the last power outage and to ask you how to put their photos and videos on the Web so their grandparents in Iowa can view them. Some of them might even ask you if they can bring their home PC to the office for you to fix it. The polite ones will offer to pay you, but some of them will just hope or expect you can help them for free. Helping these folks can be very rewarding, but you have to be careful about where to draw the line and know when to decline. For help, take a look at TechRepublic’s free download “Ten ways to decline a request for free tech support.”

5.) Vendors and consultants will take all the credit when things work well and will blame you when things go wrong

Working with IT consultants is an important part of the job and can be one of the more challenging things to manage. Consultants bring niche expertise to help you deploy specialized systems, and when everything works right, it’s a great partnership. But you have to be careful. When things go wrong, some consultants will try to push the blame off on you by arguing that their solution works great everywhere else so it must be a problem with the local IT infrastructure. Conversely, when a project is wildly successful, there are consultants who will try to take all of the credit and ignore the substantial work you did to customize and implement the solution for your company.

4.) You’ll spend far more time babysitting old technologies than implementing new ones

One of the most attractive things about working in IT is the idea that we’ll get to play with the latest cutting edge technologies. However, that’s not usually the case in most IT jobs. The truth is that IT professionals typically spend far more time maintaining, babysitting, and nursing established technologies than implementing new ones. Even IT consultants, who work with more of the latest and greatest technologies, still tend to work primarily with established, proven solutions rather than the real cutting edge stuff.

3.) Veteran IT professionals are often the biggest roadblock to implementing new technologies

A lot of companies could implement more cutting edge stuff than they do. There are plenty of times when upgrading or replacing software or infrastructure can potentially save money and/or increase productivity and profitability. However, it’s often the case that one of the largest roadblocks to migrating to new technologies is not budget constraints or management objections; it’s the veteran techies in the IT department. Once they have something up and running, they are reluctant to change it. This can be a good thing because their jobs depend on keeping the infrastructure stable, but they also use that as an excuse to not spend the time to learn new things or stretch themselves in new directions. They get lazy, complacent, and self-satisfied.

2.) Some IT professionals deploy technologies that do more to consolidate their own power than to help the business

Another subtle but blameworthy thing that some IT professionals do is select and implement technologies based on how well those technologies make the business dependent on the IT pros to run them, rather than which ones are truly best for the business itself. For example, IT pros might select a solution that requires specialized skills to maintain instead of a more turnkey solution. Or an IT manager might have more of a Linux/UNIX background and so chooses a Linux-based solution over a Windows solution, even though the Windows solution is a better business decision (or, vice versa, a Windows admin might bypass a Linux-based appliance, for example). There are often excuses and justifications given for this type of behavior, but most of them are disingenuous.

1.) IT pros frequently use jargon to confuse nontechnical business managers and hide the fact that they screwed up

All IT pros — even the very best — screw things up once in a while. This is a profession where a lot is at stake and the systems that are being managed are complex and often difficult to integrate. However, not all IT pros are good at admitting when they make a mistake. Many of them take advantage of the fact that business managers (and even some high-level technical managers) don’t have a good understanding of technology, and so the techies will use jargon to confuse them (and cover up the truth) when explaining why a problem or an outage occurred. For example, to tell a business manager why a financial application went down for three hours, the techie might say, “We had a blue screen of death on the SQL Server that runs that app. Damn Microsoft!” What the techie would fail to mention was that the BSOD was caused by a driver update he applied to the server without first testing it on a staging machine.

Feature #10 - System Restore Born Again

Windows 7 improves on the System Restore feature. Using System Restore in previous versions of Windows has been something of a gamble. There’s no way of telling which applications or drivers it might affect.
Windows 7 is different. Click the Start button, right-click Computer, and select Properties > System Protection > Configure, and set the Max Usage value to a size that suits your needs (larger to hold more restore points, smaller to save disk space). And if you don’t need System Restore to save Windows settings, then choose the Only restore previous versions of files option. Windows 7 won’t back up your Registry, which means you’ll squeeze more restore points and file backups into the available disk space.
To restore, right-click Computer, select Properties > System Protection > System Restore > Next > and choose the restore point you’d like to use. Click the new button to Scan for affected programs, and Windows will tell you which (if any) programs and drivers will be deleted or recovered by selecting this restore point. Take a look! Thanks
This brings an end to Windows 7 Features. We have instead of 77, made it ten because of time. Thanks a lot. You can also get more info from Global Knowledge.

Feature #9 - Eliminate the Notification Area

Eliminate the Notification Area
This choice is located in Control Panel under Notification Area Icons, or type Notification in the search line. What, I can even get rid of the clock and volume icons? Yes. Click the arrow that gives access to the overflow icons in the notification area and click customize. Select each icon and click hide icon and notifications to remove it. Clean up notifications by turning them all to off. With Windows 7, we finally see system tray icons behave in a
similar way to everything else on the taskbar. So if you want to rearrange them, just drag and drop them into
the order you like. You can decide to show icons of Running Programs and or which Notifications are displayed.
The following is the view of which System icons to turn on or off.

Notification Settings: Configure notifications to off

Feature #8 - A Stage for Your Device

A Stage for Your Device

With the new Device and Printers button on the Start Menu, devices that are connected to your computer

can have their own Stage. This Device Stage presents supported devices with a photo-realistic render and a link to the vendor’s website, along with other updates and useful information (such as firmware updates and manuals). Plug an external device into your machine and navigate to Device and Printers from the Start Menu.

See what else your device tells you. Open an instance of the tool on your live machine and see what it will

show. It will amaze you.

Feature #7 - Switch Mutiple Display Devices

Try Win + P. Do this even if you don’t have an external monitor or projector attached at the moment. You will still be able to see the “film strip” style of duplicating or extending your display to other monitors, it takes just a second to select. The Win + P or run DisplaySwitch.exe presents you with an Alt + Tab style menu, which is ideal if you give a lot of presentations on your laptop or want to rearrange your extended desktop.

Feature #6 - Snap and Shake into Place

Snap and Shake into Place

Known as AeroSnap, simply drag your window to the left or right edge of the desktop to snap and resize the

window to one half of the screen. Drag the window to the top to maximize it. A pretty neat idea made neater by

the use of the keyboard shortcuts Win + respective left/right arrow keys). No longer do you have to frus-

tratingly position the mouse at the edge of the window to resize it. Use the Aero Shake feature to minimize all

background windows except your working window to the task bar, using your mouse. Grab the title bar of the

window you wish to keep open and give it a shake. Have you ever had many, let’s say 10 or more, application

and or tool windows open at the same time, and you wanted to minimize all of them except the window you

were working on at the moment? Shake the window again and watch the background windows maximize.

Wow!

Feature #4 - Preview Running Apps!

Preview Running Apps
Hover over an icon button on the re-designed task bar, and you will get a preview view of an open window that pops up to show you what’s inside. You can move your mouse on top of the preview window to look at a full-size “peek,” which is a maximized temporary view of your opened window. Click on the window to keep it maximized. While in Peek View, you can close the peek window with the exit button on the top right of the window. You can also use the Win + T hotkey to scroll through the preview in the taskbar. Wow, wonderful isn't it?

Preview Bar: A smaller preview, hover over for a full-sized ”peek” and an exit button to close Window

Feature #5 - AeroPeek the Desktop

In case you have not noticed the Show Desktop Button has been moved to the far right side of the TaskBar,
on the right side of the notification area. Put your mouse on this new button, and it will preview the desktop.
Hold down the Windows Key + SpaceBar, and you can AeroPeek the desktop; release the hotkeys, and the
windows return to their position previous positions.