There is a professional version which gives you more functionality, currently on sale for less than $50 compared to Adobe’s Acrobat that starts at $99.

CutePDF was featured in the “50 Best free downloads” by Computer Shopper.

In the fast moving world of multiple off-site locations and virtual offices, dimdim offers free web conferencing for up to 20 users.  Now of course there’s a catch for the free service or else they wouldn’t be in business.  You can only have one user displaying the video while the other 19 are watching and communicating with each other.  Now imagine the same situation where you’re producing a product in China, while you at home and your warehouse in Georgia are able to see the product and discuss shipments and packaging.

dimdim offers 3 level of services:

• Free: 20 person meetings, 1 webcam, standard feature set & standard support. – $0
• Pro: 50 person meetings, 2 webcams, HiRez Video, faster performance, complete feature set & premium support – $25/month
• Webinar: 100 person meetings, 2 webcams, HiRez Video, faster performance, complete feature set & premium support – $75/month

In July, Microsoft and Yahoo finally announced a long awaited deal that will give Microsoft a better footing to take on Google’s dominance in Internet search and help Yahoo return to profitably. In the 10 year deal, Microsoft will handle all of Yahoo’s search inquiries, while Yahoo will sell the ads associated with the search results.

Although Yahoo investors seem to be disappointed that they didn’t get a
“boat load of money” on the deal, the resulting cost savings are hard to ignore. If and when the deal goes through, Yahoo is expecting to save $500M in annual operating expenses and $200M in capital expenses. They also expect to add $275M to its annual operating cash flow.

Prior to the deal being announced, Barron’s magazine had highlighted Yahoo on their main cover of the June 22^nd issue. Even though the new deal is a big game changer, I still believe some of the arguments presented in the article holds true. For one, Carol Bartz, who is the new CEO and was credited with increasing the annual revenues at Autodesk fivefold at her previous tenure.

Yahoo generates 88% of it’s $7.2 billion dollar revenue from marketing services. Does it really matter who is providing the search technology…

Microsoft is also poised to benefit handsomely from this endeavor. I feel the biggest concern for them in the Internet search business is that Google’s dominance has allowed them to invest in other projects, recently even into operating systems, Microsoft’s bread and butter. To slow Google’s investments into these areas they must cut off their main source of funding by gaining market share in the search arena.

But even without this deal, Softie is overdue for a bounce. The Windows 7 operating system has been getting some good pre-release buzz and is set to hit the market in the next few month. New developments in their windows mobile software, app store and even a new HD Zune player. Microsoft seems to make some smart moves in the right direction.

Ok, so Yahoo is going to save a lot of money and Microsoft is finally getting their chance to become a real competitor in the Internet search business. Even Google might benefit if the deal manages to keep the US Justice Department off their backs for “anticompetitive actions”.

So how does that benefit the rest of us? Well I think you’re going to see much more money flowing into search technology so that we can find what we’re looking for faster. Already we’re hearing about how Google is upgrading their search technology, code-named Caffeine.

Although there isn’t much you can do about ad prices since they are set through auctions, I believe that the competition between the 2 rivals will create greater incentives for users of the search engines and vendors who are placing the ads. Microsoft has already been offering people cash-back incentives for Bing Searches. Everybody may end up coming out ahead from Microhoo, but seeing as they still have to pass some anti-trust hurdles it may be some time before we know how this deal plays out

Some of the problems that I had with Vista included but not limited to the computer lags, network connection problems and just being a big resource hog.  Keep in mind that my computer is isn’t too shabby: 3.4 GHZ Pentium D with 3 GB of memory.

Rather than run the risk of downgrading by to XP and not be supported by Microsoft in the future, I went out looking for alternatives.  I have noticed that Dell had been offering Ubuntu with some of their systems.  So I decided to give it a try with Ubuntu 8.10 Desktop.

I downloaded the software from their website for free and burned it onto a CD.  The Ubuntu software allows you to test out the operation system on your computer to make sure all your hardware is compatible before you install it.

Since installing Ubuntu, I haven’t looked back since.  I don’t get to use the traditional Microsoft Office applications but Open Office is just fine with me.  I can connect to shares on a Windows network with no problem.  Similar to how you would do so on a Mac.

Additional software can be downloaded for free through the add/remove programs tool.  You check off the apps that you want and apply it to your system.  Similar to downloading an app onto your iphone except you don’t have to put in your credit card information.

Recently, I upgraded to the newest version Ubuntu 9.04.  The whole process, with the exception of maybe the last 10 minutes, took place in the background while I was working on my computer.

Just a warning though, if you do not like change you should or set on your Window ways you may want to test out the operating system before you install it on your computer.  The option is available when you boot your computer with the CD in the tray.

The new age of information has been making their way to the center stage for some time now.  The next phase of this migration will come in the form of news being delivered straight to millions of hand-held mobile devices.

Now it would seem kind of silly to to blame your woes on a service that lists your articles to millions of potential viewers.  The complaint of the publishers is that the snippets and headlines give away too much of the story and should be illegal to reproduce without some sort of monetization.

But as one author points out, Google is much like your local newstand.  You can easily remove your publication just as easily as you can opt out of Google news, but you run the risk of losing potential customers because you are not available.

At the annual meeting of the Newspaper Association of America, Google CEO Eric Schmidt gave a closing speech addressing the challenges and opportunities to come.  By working together, the newspaper sites can benefit by converting the enormous amount of traffic that is passed along from Google into advertising dollars.

Instead, these players of the Old Media are considering charging a subscription for their content.  Something that Schmidt makes clear, Google is unlikely to participate in with it’s current pricing model of FREE.

In the spirit of ushering in new age information, here’s a short list of news sites:

• Google News
• Yahoo News
• Digg
• Reddit
• Techmeme
• Fark
• Mixx

Sales reps can close more deals by spending more time selling and less time on administration.  Other services include solutions for customer service, partner relationship management, marketing, content management and real-time reporting & dashboards.

Their strongest selling point in my opinion is being able to install customizable applications into your CRM environment through the “appexchange“.  These apps are similar to plugins where you just download, click install and you’re ready to start using the new functions.

There is no software to install and all of your data is hosted online.  The pricing for Salesforce is:

• Group edition starts at $9/ User/ Month
• Full featured edition starts at $65/ User/ Month.

The Group edition is good for teams of up to 5 sales and marketing professionals, featuring award-winning ease of use and built-in Google AdWords integration.

The Enterprise edition is where you can get into advanced customizations to fit your business.  There are 5 editions in all, including a personal edition that you can use for FREE.

List of some SlideRocket features & benefits:

• Import PowerPoint presentations as images or converted to a SlideRocket format.
• Access your presentations wherever you go both online and offline.
• Create presentation directly online with professional authoring tools like themes & layouts, shapes, charts, tables, pictures and text.
• Collaborate with other team members with user and object permissions.
• Integrate dynamic data such as Google Spreadsheets and Adobe Flash video files.
• Share your work easily by publishing a presentation URL to embed in a web page or send in an invitation for others to view.

SlideRocket is free with up to 250 MB of storage and an unlimited number of presentations.  You will get up to 1 GB of storage when you move onto their paid services for $10 a month and $20 a month for a business account.

With the business service you get to have an unlimited amount of user accounts and access to professional collaboration tools to help you share and hold meetings.

Screen shots:

The beauty of Thunderbird is that like Firefox you are able to install add-on features and themes.  So if you need to have a calendar with your emails, simply go to the website, download and install through the application.

Features that come standard are:

• Advanced folder view.
• Message tagging with descriptors.
• Find bar for quick searches within displayed messages.
• Message history navigation.
• Phishing Protection.
• Pop and IMAP support.

As I’ve already mentioned, you can add additional features onto your application.  The “add-ons” range from contact management to additional privacy & security functions.  The add-on manager makes it easy to add or remove extensions to customize the look and tools to fit your needs.

The price for Thunderbird and all the additional add-on is FREE.

As long as the person you are calling is using Skype your calls are totally free.  It doesn’t matter if you’re on opposite sides of the globe.  The only requirement is that you have a decent broadband connection and the Skype software installed on your computer or device.

In addition to free calls, they also offer very inexpensive premium services:

• Unlimited calls to landlines and cell phones in US and Canada:  $2.95 /month
• Unlimited calls to landlines in 36 countries worldwide:  $9.95 /month
• Send text message directly from Skype:  $0.09 /text.
• Forward a call to your cell phone:  Free with subscription, otherwise prices vary depending on where you’re calling.
• Online number:  $60 /year, up to 50% off with a subscription.
• Voicemail:  Free with subscription, otherwise as low as $20 /year.

One of the biggest complaints that I have heard is that they don’t want to talk in front of computer all the time.  Well now there are quite a few ways to use Skype.  There are many phones and accessories that you can purchase that are preloaded with the software so you can make calls without turning on your computer.

The key features in QuickBooks that will help you save time on routine accounting tasks are:

• Easily print checks, pay bills & track expenses.
• Track sales, sales taxes & customer payments.
• Manage payroll & payroll taxes.
• Quickly create estimates & invoices.
• Create & customize professional-looking forms.

You’re left with free time to focus on growing your business and most importantly make money!  QuickBooks allows you to manage your finances more efficiently:

• 100 plus business reports to monitor your business.
• Effortlessly track bills & set due-date reminders.
• Track Inventory, set reorder points & create purchase orders.
• Track international sales & expenses in multiple currencies.

Quickbooks Pro is advertised as their most popular version but you have other options as well, such as an industry tailored edition (Premier) and an online edition.

FREE versions of both the desktop version and the online version are available for you to try and use.  These versions mainly allow you to only create invoices and track money.  There are no inventory controls and have limited reporting.