Firefox users have been waiting for this one!  Mozilla has announced that June 30th will see the release of the newest version of their popular browser, complete with a whole mess of new features, including HTML5 support, private browsing (which Google’s Chrome has sported for some time now), and a brand new JavaScript engine.  Head on over to Mozilla’s Firefox 3.5 page to see some more details, or take a look at their release video:

(Main image courtesy of Mozilla)

Now IT Works is pleased to announce the details of our new referral program and participation with One Laptop Per Child!

Through our referral program, you can help provide computer networking services to other small businesses and to children around the world.

Here’s how it works – For every referral you make and that we sign as a customer, you will receive:

- $250 gift card to use as cash

- Now IT Works will donate a laptop in your name, through the One Laptop Per Child organization.

“The mission of One Laptop Per Child is to empower the children of developing countries to learn by providing one connected laptop to every school-aged child.”

Click here to visit the official OLPC website

Make a referral today, it’s for a great cause! referrals@nowitworks.com

Please note – a good referral for Now IT Works is one of the following:

- a business with 10 or more employees,

- a business that would be in a tough spot if they lost their client data,

- a business that could grow indefinitely with the right technology team.

Contact Now IT Works today and help us connect the world!

But today, we bring you a different kind of technology. Brilliantly quoted as “from a time that never existed.” You will never listen to your music the same way again with this one-of-a-kind creation…

Presenting The Eye-Pod from Dr. Grymm

“All functionality of the iPod remain intact an a hidden USB cord retracts from the base to either a wall charger or your computer. There are hidden pressure plates that when touched send a strobing “static charge” into the quartz crystals on either side of the magnified veiwing portal.”

Please see more of these amazing creations at: Steam Gear Lab

Here is a reasonably priced t-shirt for just $8.99:

Another shirt, perfect for the warm weather and in a light blue color,  is the tank top for $16.99:

Or, outfit the coolest baby you know with a Now IT Works bib for $5.99 or onesie (available in pink and blue) for $9.99 -

For even more products, including mugs, mouse pads, sweatshirts, hats, tote bags and stickers – visit our Cafe Press store at: www.cafepress.com/nowitworks

Thank you for your support!

Implementing technology in your business can create many different points of failure that can cost you money on any given day. One of your goals should be to minimize these points of failure so that your business and employees can have 100% up time with nothing affecting your work flows.

Ask yourself the following questions:

1. When you have problems, is your IT support quick to respond?
2. Have you capitalized on your initial investment that you have made into the technology for your business?
3. How much did you spend last year on technology for your business?
4. Did you have lots of down time because your ‘computer/network/server’ wasn’t working properly?
5. Did you lose business during this down time?

As a small business owner, you must make relationships with other businesses in order for your business to be successful. Creating a path to an IT resource is key. A small business needs a support avenue when something runs amok. Who do you call? If you call the freelance IT guy Larry, is he going to call you back? How long does it take for him to call you back? We find that in too many cases, Larry probably could have prevented the issue from happening in the first place if he had the proper tools to do his job. Since he didn’t and you chose him to implement your new email server, your company is now paying the consequences because you can’t get your email and Larry hasn’t answered your phone calls all day long.

Now, Let’s meet Larry. He is probably a small business owner himself, consulting other small businesses on technology and making a good living. Larry is also busy. He really doesn’t have ample time to manage that nice shiny new ‘computer/network/server’ he implemented for you last month. Unfortunately that leaves you, the small business owner, not capitalizing on the huge investment that you just made with Larry. Does it feel like Larry is just solving problems for you that he created himself?

The decision you have to make now as a small business owner is clear, you must find someone or something that can help. What you want is Large Business infrastructure in your ten man shop so that you and your crew can be as efficient as possible all the time, meanwhile making you and the business tons of money. Companies like us at Now IT Works are bringing corporate IT infrastructure to small businesses and essentially creating a technology department for your small business. Why pay Larry when you can gain a team of professionals to run your IT department for the same price, if not lower than what you pay for Larry? Did Larry check your company’s data backup from last night? Hmm…see where I am going with this?

Now you might be thinking, “What if I just hire Larry and he works for me?” Sure, you can do that if you have $60-80k to shell out to a network engineer every year. If you are that ten person shop, I doubt it’s a good idea. If your business is thirty employees strong, we have a different scenario on our hands. You can afford to hire Larry, but will all your problems go away now because Larry is dedicated to you? My guess is most likely not. Why hire Larry when you can have a team of people in different places at the same time working on new projects and helping your business to succeed? You can have a CTO, helpdesk technician, field technician, account manager, and network engineer all for the same price as Larry’s chunky new salary.

I can go on and on to prove my point that technology is essential in small business and that same technology needs to be constantly managed. So we here at Now IT Works decided a long time ago not to be like Larry and to join a team of professionals designed specifically to become the outsourced IT department for small businesses.

A few years back, the team here at Now IT Works was trying to come up with some sort of name that we could use to describe all of the above and more. Besides from being a famous Derek Zoolander modeling pose, Blue Steel has a few additional meanings. When working with steel and stainless steel parts, ‘blueing the steel’ is said to help from corrosion and rust. Technology and steel share similar qualities. Steel is known today for being cheap, easily recycled, strong and highly adaptable. Becoming a NIW Blue Steel customer is the only way to ensure the safety and well being of your steel.

To learn more about becoming a Blue Steel customer, please Contact Us

What most users do not know, is that you have a way of redirecting the My Documents folder to another location. Why would you want to do this?

The biggest reason for this is so that you can direct user’s My Documents to point to a server – for central backup.

This way, if a user’s computer dies – we can set them up with a new computer, redirect the My Documents folder to the server and the user will have instant access to his/her documents without cost of recovery.

Click on the video below for a 33-second demonstration of this process:

My Documents Redirect Demo Video

Contact Now IT Works today and ask about our free daily backup check service.