Yesterday, Apple unveiled the iPad2. Ladies and gentlemen, here is Steve Jobs:

WordPress 3.1 has now been released and includes:

• a lightning fast redesigned linking workflow
• an admin bar so you’re never more than a click away from your most-used dashboard pages
• a streamlined writing interface
• a refreshed blue admin scheme available for selection under your personal options.

Full details are available on the Wordpress Website.

Source: Stefan Swanepoel

Stefan Swanepoel

Customers pay for services on an as- needed, pay-per-use business model in which the cloud provider maintains the infrastructure, not the individual user. This virtualization of resources won’t, however, occur overnight. The single biggest hurdle to overcome is the difficulty in delivering a standardized environment to all members. This initiative is still at a very early stage of development with Forrester Research estimating that only 5% of companies are currently prepared for cloud deployment.

A major driver of cloud computing is the freedom in mobility, the ability to use Software as a Service (SaaS) like cloud-based email services Gmail and Yahoo! Mail anywhere without having specific hardware with you. In 2009 only 3% of email accounts were in the cloud. By the end of 2012 that number is expected to explode to 10%. Gartner believes that as cloud email offerings are adopted it will pull wireless email implementations into the cloud. Companies like Research In Motion and other wireless email vendors are forming partnerships with cloud providers to address their customers’ cloud needs.

Think of the impact of cloud computing on a typical real estate office as it opens up ways to stay on top of the latest technological advances in the growing demand for data and bandwidth without all the infrastructure cost. The power of the cloud allows the system to pull in data from third-parties to blend data from local MLS systems and websites like Zillow, Google, etc. in order to provide a full spectrum of available real estate data.

About the Author

During the last fourteen years, nineteen-time author Stefan Swanepoel has widely become regarded as the leading researcher on the business and technology trends impacting the real estate industry. For more information on his annual Swanepoel TRENDS Report and the annual Swanepoel SOCIAL MEDIA Report visit www.RETrends.com.

Teach your old docs new tricks with Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office. Google Cloud Connect is a free plugin that improves Microsoft Office 2003, 2007 and 2010 on Windows PCs. It adds simultaneous collaboration, revision history, cloud sync, unique URLs and simple sharing to the Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint applications

For more information go to www.google.com/apps/cloudconnect or watch the following video:

Let this new year bring you new gadgets! Find out which tech items are a must have for 2011:

In celebration and triumph of the power of the Internet, this three-minute animation details the “State of Cloud Computing,” highlighting the efforts of companies like project patron Salesforce.com, a software as a service (SaaS) company, best known for its CRM products. While the average person may not be able to clearly define cloud computing, this video helps everyday folks understand that they are actually in the cloud — whether it’s through their online email account, bank account or tending to their Farmville crops while on Facebook.

About 30 real estate professionals attended an interactive session at yesterday’s New York City REBarCamp and collectively identified ten cool tech tools for the real estate industry. The session was coordinated by Rick Rabideau and Gary Rabideau of Telivant.

The criteria for determining “coolness” were:

• Free or low-cost (below $50)
• A Website, application or accessory
• Relevant to real estate Professionals

Four groups shared ideas and developed a list of up to ten cool tech tools. Each group then described their top choices to form a consolidated list of 16 cool tech tools. The entire group then voted on each of the 16 top choices resulting in the “REBCNYC Ten Cool Tools List.” They are presented in descending order based upon vote count. Thank you to the participants for sharing their best tool ideas!

REBCNYC Ten Cool Tools List:

Dropbox
Google Docs
Google Analytics
Google Forms
Skype
Follr.com
Dragon Dictation
WorldCard
Jing
RSS Feeds

Other top choices:

Twitter clients (Tweetdeck, Hootsuite)
Open House Pro
Gist.com
iThought
Productivityjunkies.com

Do you know of any cool tools that should be on this list? Let us know!

The Wall Street Journal recently wrote about a security breach at Gawker Media sites Gizmodo and Lifehacker. Having described the people who use the Websites as “may be among the savviest on the Web” they then detailed a list of their passwords which would suggest otherwise.

Your password should have a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, some numbers and a wild card character or two. Here is an example:

R3a!tor (as in Realtor)

Also consider this advice from Google. The assumption of course is that a Websites password rules allow this. With so many passwords to keep track of I use a program (Access Manager) to keep track of mine. And yes, of course it needs it’s own password…

The importance of online security cannot be understated. If you look at the following list and your password is on it then I (and many others) know your password. You have been warned….

In the following video, Rob Mauceri from the Internet Explorer team walks through how the newly announced “Tracking Protection” in the upcoming Internet Explorer (IE) 9 Release Candidate is going to work.

Yesterday I discovered that Ryan, my 5 year old son, had written his name in pen on the window sill of his recently decorated bedroom and in doing so broken his promise to keep the room clean and tidy. If you are a parent then you know that doing such things, especially the week before Christmas, has consequences…

And so to the Portable North Pole which is amazing, entertaining, shareable, easy and free! With editable messages for toddlers, children and adults please enjoy this years best seasonal technology. The following video gives you a brief overview and to see Santa’s personal message to Ryan click here. Remember, Santa is watching…

You may have heard that Microsoft Lync connects people in new ways, but what exactly is Lync? This short video explains and you can get extra information on the Facebook page:

Ahhhh, the memories….

Looking to attach photo albums in your email messages? Windows Live Mail simplifies the task with Photo Mails, take a look: