Tools for readers about at Consumer Electronics Show

BY TERRY L. BROCK
Technology/marketing specialist

Dateline: Las Vegas, Nev.  It is the annual gadget and gizmo-fest here in Las Vegas. It is called the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and I’m here for you, dear reader of The Wholesaler, to find applications that can help you in your business.  Gregg Marshall joined me and about 150,000 of our closest friends as we sifted through all the gizmos and gadgets looking for tools that can give you a competitive advantage. 

We came up with several and I want to share some of these with you in this article. 

 

International calling -- for free

There were many gems at this year’s show that I hunted down to find and share with you that can help you in your work. One of them was the service Efonica. This is a phone and internet service that allows you to make international calls for free over its service. 

With more and more manufacturing being done outside the U.S., it is imperative to stay in touch.Doing that via Skype is a good idea.  But, when you’re on the road, sometimes a good cell phone connection for a quick call would be ideal. You can have that with Efonica. 

Like Skype (www.skype.com) members of the Efonica can call each other using the service for free. However, where Efonica goes way beyond this is with their ability to call a regular phone number on your cell phone (646 area code) and you can place international calls around the world to regular phone lines for a fraction of what it would normally cost. 

If you need to connect with others around the world, this is a service that can make a huge difference. I used their service to place a call to England just to test it. The call connected in about two seconds and the quality was outstanding. This was a call made to a regular landline phone. 

To use the service, you buy a certain amount of usage, much like buying a pre-paid calling card. Then as you use the various services that Efonica provides you work against that balance.  You can place calls to the U.K. for less than 2 cents/minute. Other countries will vary but these are the lowest rates I’ve seen anywhere. This is even slightly less than U.K. calls placed through Skype. 

Check it out for more information on this service.  As the world becomes more globally connected, you need to have numerous alternatives to take advantage of the possibilities. This is a good tool that should be in your business-connecting arsenal. Visit www.efonica.com.   

Charge your cell phone, iPod and more

Have you ever run out of juice on your cell phone, Blackberry or iPod just when you needed to complete an important task?  Don’t you wish you could just add a regular AA battery and get the job done? 

Well, now you can. Turbo Charge is a company based in New Jersey that provides a product that you use by inserting one AA battery to power your cell phone, your iPod, your Blackberry or other mobile electronic devices. 

This is ideal for a rep in the field, or anyone using a cell phone, who has the aggravation of running out of juice --just when you need to make several more calls. 

I used it to charge my Apple iPod 80gb mp3 player. It worked very well and provided needed juice when my battery was running low. The operation to use it was very simple -- just plug in a AA battery, twist the cylinder so a dim light comes on and then plug it into the iPod. The charging began immediately. 

This is particularly useful if you’re on a long flight and can’t get access to electricity. It is also very helpful if you are in an environment where you can’t get access to power like camping or boating. As long as you have a supply of AA batteries, you’ll be able to keep operating.

The retail price for the cell phone charger is $19.99, and $29.99 for the iPod charger. You can find out more information on both at www.turbocellcharge.com.  

Flash drives beyond 4GB,  laserpointer flash drives and more

Flash drives are now a staple for the laptop-toting and information-sharing professional. You probably have been amazed, as I have been, with the possibilities to share information by porting it out to one of these drives. 

Wholesalers are using these devices in the office to transfer data from one computer to another. Many use flash drives to carry important files, Excel spreadsheets and documents from office to home for some tweaking and after-hours productive work. 

Ridata (see their website at www.ritekusa.com) has a variety of products that mobile professionals need to know about. Several of their flash drives hold up to 4gb of data (the current maximum for flash drives without extra additions), and you can connect up to six additional flash drives. That provides you with 24gb of external storage. 

In addition to that, the technology they have built into their flash drives lights up the drive in use. This way you know where it is being accessed. You can segment your information this way with different types of drives. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes that make them interesting (check out the Monkey Drive on the video below!).  

The retail price is $80.00 for each drive. For security, backup and more, this is worth investigating. They also have secure flash drives that require fingerprint to use. If you’ve ever had to carry sensitive information on a flash drive and lost it, you know how important it is that it is protected. If you make presentations, look into their laser pointer flash drive. It holds 1gb of information and serves as a laser pointer. This is great to use for a backup of your presentation and double with a useful pointer.

Bonus for you: I put together a video to better illustrate these products and show them in use. You can watch this video by going to: http://snipurl.com/CESVideo1.     

CES was a hit this year with lots of information. You’ll feel the excitement of it as you watch the video. Check out these products to see how you can leverage new technology to increase your business. 

Terry Brock is a marketing coach and regular columnist for The Wholesaler who helps businesses market more effectively leveraging technology. He shows busy professionals how to squeeze more out of their busy days using the right rules and tools. Brock can be reached at 407/363-0505, by e-mail at terry@terrybrock.com or through his website at www.terrybrock.com.