Brother Builds a Printer for Small-Business Budgets

The high price of inkjet-printer replacement cartridges may be among the highest hidden costs lurking in your small business. While printing giants such as Hewlett-Packard, Lexmark and Epson equip their inkjet models with options that are attractive to small-business users, the annual cost of replacing cartridges can add up. Inkjet cartridges can easily exceed half the cost of the printer itself -- or even more for heavier users.

But a new generation of high-quality, low-cost laser printers is bringing the penny-per-page economics of laser printing to even the smallest business. For several weeks, I've been testing one such printer, the Brother HL-2270 DW.

At $150, Brother International's pricing is aggressive, giving businesses the chance to get laser-quality printing and wireless network access for about the same cost as a full-featured inkjet printer.

My verdict: While the unit lacks many of the features of pricier units, it does one important thing well: It prints lots of inexpensive black-and-white pages.

What It Is

The HL-2270 DW is a black-and-white-only desktop laser printer. Unlike inkjet models, which use a small reservoir of powdered inks that are sprayed onto paper using a computer-controlled nozzle, printers using lasers quickly and precisely draw an image onto the paper, which is held close to the toner on a larger rotating drum. Laser models print faster and offer a much lower cost per printed page. They also require less initial maintenance than inkjets, although with heavy use, major components like drums and drive assemblies must be serviced and replaced.

Sony's New Z Series Laptops Offer Lightweight Power

No business mobile device does everything, but here's one that tries: the Sony VAIO Z Series.

Finding the right mobile tool for your business can be a balancing act. Smartphones and tablets are portable, but they're limited when it comes to the software they run and the processing power they offer. And while the new wave of lightweight business-class laptop computers can run almost any application, they can't match, say, an iPad for its toss-it-in-the-bag and go factor.

Electronics giant Sony's latest model in its VAIO Z Series of ultra-portable laptops (starting at $1,999) seeks to be the ultimate do-anything portable business device. It combines powerful processors, memory and connection options with a surprisingly small form factor, measuring in at slightly more than half-an-inch thick.

We've been trying out a new Z for several weeks to get a feel for the ins and outs of using one in a small business. While the Z are not low-priced -- a fitted-out model can run close to $2,500 -- these ultra-light laptops offers a ton of business functionality.

New Option for Online Backup Offers USB Ease Without the Fear of Data Loss

Web-based data storage services such as Dropbox,Box.net and other cloud options are starting to replace the trusty--but easily misplaced--portable, solid-state flash drive. But limits on the amount of data that can be stored online, the cost of such storage and nagging security issues limit how small firms tend to use these backup services.

Boston-based iTwin is attempting to ease the pain of the online backup process by combining the strengths of web-based data storage with (now) old-fashioned flash drives. The company's new USB-based file-sharing tool lets users pass data between two internet-connected computers without using a dedicated web storage service or remote access software.

Related: This Cloud-Based Storage Service Offers Deep Features for Businesses

The iTwin is clever, but not completely intuitive: Users plug the $99, two-part device--which looks like a normal USB flash that can be snapped in half--into a computer. The software launches from the iTwin automatically, and users designate which files or folders should be shared. Next, users detach one half of the iTwin, leaving the other half plugged into the main computer. Then they just plug the detached half into the USB port of any other web-connected Mac or PC, and voilà: the remote PC has direct access to shared files back at the office.

The effect, we found, was a bit like having a very large, web-connected flash drive but with an incredible benefit: If the iTwin gets misplaced, there won't be any data lost.

BlackBerry Management Center: Reining in Smartphone Chaos

If smartphones are a small-business boon, they're also a potential liability.

Not only do businesses who offer them to employees have to keep track of who is using what device, they're also loaded with information you don't want "just anyone" to have access to. (If you've ever had to replace a lost or stolen company smartphone, you know what a hassle it can be.)

The Waterloo, Ont.-based smartphone giant Research in Motion recently debuted its new BlackBerry Management Center -- basically a do-it-yourself tool for managing three to 100 BlackBerry devices. It's free, which makes it an appealing choice for companies that can't afford expensive IT services to handle their growing arsenal of smartphones.

It's also one more reason RIM hopes businesses will continue to use its products. Google's recent blockbuster buy-out of Motorola Mobility means these business oriented technologies are more important to the struggling smartphone maker than ever before.

Here's a first look:

What it is: BlackBerry Management Center lets you manage your business's BlackBerry devices from anywhere using an online Web application. You can manage a number of things through the service like setting up email, contacts and calendars for each of your company phones. If a phone gets lost, you can lock it and display a message telling whoever finds the phone how it can be returned. Worst case scenario: you can use BlackBerry Management Center to wipe the data from a lost or stolen phone, including its microSD card. You can also restore the settings and content from a lost or broken phone onto a new phone.

What you might like: Managing user phones from the Web application is as easy as promised, although you're going to have to do some legwork to sync company devices with your BlackBerry Management Center account. The hard part mostly boils down to retrieving several ID numbers attached to your various BlackBerry devices as well as making sure apps like BlackBerry Protect and email are properly configured on each device. Once that's done, using the service is pretty much a matter of navigating a few simple menus that display your options for each smartphone.

Another useful feature: Employees who use their personal Blackberry devices in your business can add them to the service. In that case, users can determine how much control BlackBerry Management Center has over their device.

What you might not like: The mobile work crowd is diverse. And if they're not all using BlackBerrys, they're not all controlled by this product. Which absolutely limits how much order the Management Center will bring to the mobile chaos in your shop.

What to do: If your shop has a bring-your-own-gadget-to-work culture, Management Center is not for you. It simply does not support a broad enough array of devices to make it worth the hassle. But if your business has even a couple of BlackBerry devices in the mix, this service could provide some peace of mind.

How to Increase Social Sharing to Generate More Leads

Why do you e-mail articles to friends? Or "like" a link on Facebook? Or retweet a post on Twitter?

Content that triggers an emotional response is more likely to be shared, according to a recent University of Pennsylvania study of the most e-mailed New York Times articles. What's more, "surprising" stories (like one about free-range chickens hanging out on the streets of New York) were also more likely to be passed along.

But the most-shared articles are those that go beyond surprise to actual awe--or what the researchers defined as an "emotion of self-transcendence, a feeling of admiration and elevation in the face of something greater than self." In other words, people share the stuff that ignites a little spark in them.