I love freeware games – especially once store-bought titles gone public domain. That is, you once had to shell out money for ‘em. Now, gratis. Well, if you’re any kind of fan of strategy, I have a pretty good pick for this week – Warzone 2100. Rebuild civilization and design your own weapons of mass destruction along the way. (And the best part: You should be able to play this on any modern computer – like a Pavilion dm1.)

If you travel a lot for business, you’ve likely done the mad dash to send off a last minute email just as you hear “The cabin door is now shut. Please turn off all electronic devices.”  I personally have done a little “sync, sync, sync!!” chant myself now and again as I wait for the email to leave my Outbox (and avoid eye contact with the stewardess headed my way). With HP QuickWeb, taking a last minute look online can be done in seconds – even when your PC has been shut down. 

Your potential customers listen to hundreds of pitches in the span of their careers. However, only a handful of them shine through for being truly memorable. The best part is – it could be yours! Stay tuned to our blog series – ‘Pitch to Win’ and who knows, it might seed an idea for pitching excellence in your minds!

Do you want details of your whereabouts posted on the Internet for the entire world to see? More importantly, do your customers? I’m oversimplifying the issue, of course, but it’s a question you need to ask of yourself – and your customers – when deciding whether or not to leverage the power of location-based social media technology as part of your marketing strategy. While these technologies can provide an unprecedented depth of data on your customers, it’s important to strike a very careful balance before proceeding.

Photographer Trey Hill is first and foremost a storyteller. Whether he’s capturing fleeting emotional moments in the fast-paced, physical game of hockey or documenting the lives of lepers in India, Trey’s work embodies the old cliché “a picture is worth a thousand words.” I sat down with Trey to explore what goes into creating these narratives, and how the HP ZR2740w Performance Display enables him to produce vivid results for his small business.

We revealed the ENVY 14 Spectre in January – and it won Best of CES 2012 for its awesome design. And tomorrow, you’ll be able to order a Spectre if you’re on the market for a premium ultrabook that stands out in a crowd. Truth be told, these laptops are a little in demand at that moment – but that ain’t stopping me. I was able to grab a prototype unit for an hour or two. So, of course, I decided to take it for a spin around town. Read on for a couple bits from my short, sweet test drive.

If you’re spending as much time working on your business’ IT infrastructure as you are running your business, it might be time to consider hiring some outside help. Click here to learn more about outsourcing for your small business.

Microsoft’s seminal flight sim is back – and soon. We’re talking the end of this month. If you ask people – even ones that don’t consider themselves “gamers” – Microsoft’s Flight Simulator series is one of those classic PC apps. That’s partly because of the degree of realism in control; largely because the games have looked so dang pretty. After 29 years, Flight Simulator X was the last of the series in 2009. End of the story? Not quite. As of this morning, it has a new name and departure date: Microsoft Flight taxis down the runway come February 29^th.