The SMB Tech Report

CorpGenome Announces Free MS Outlook CRM Plug-In

CorpGenome has released a free plugin to Microsoft Outlook designed to help SMBs manage their customer relationships. CorpGenome, a start-up focused on making CRM tools for SMBs, has designed this plug-in to help SMBs keep business contacts in Outlook up-to-date. The plug-in scans incoming e-mail and social network messages for contact changes such as phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and job titles, and automatically updates the Outlook record. more

FedEx to Give Away Holiday Gift Cards for Use at Small Retailers

FedEx has announced a $1 million give away in $25 gift cards to be used at small retailers. The Shop Small-branded American Express cards are designed to support Small Business Saturday on November 26, a day dedicated to attracting shoppers to local, independently-owned merchants. FedEx will start giving the cards away on a first-come-first-serve basis via its Facebook page beginning November 1. more

Kashoo Announces First Accounting App for iPad

Kashoo, Inc., a publisher of online accounting and bookkeeping software for small businesses and freelancers, has announced Kashoo accounting, the first free, full-featured, stand-alone accounting app built specifically for the iPad. The app is integrated with the company's online accounting system. more

Buckaroo Announces Social Media Marketing Service for SMBs

Buckaroo, a new e-couponing service, has announced a social media promotion for merchants to run custom e-mail marketing campaigns with coordinated Facebook and Twitter activities. Unlike daily deal sites like Groupon and LivingSocial, Buckaroo lets users run their own promotions with full control over promotional terms, transactions, and list management. The addition of social media allows them to reach new, potential customers they do not yet know. Buckaroo is free during its beta development period. more

Just Spotted: Track QR Codes

Code IT Barcodes: Generate and track QR codes. Free to use (limited use) and not very expensive to launch and track up to 50 campaigns at a time. It is on our list of products to evaluate.

AT&T Announces Webinar on Using Mobile Technology in Small Businesses

AT&T will present a free Webinar with technology expert Mario Armstrong on using mobile apps and smartphones to increase business productivity on April 14 at 1 PM EDST. Armstrong will discuss why mobile technology can be a game-changer for SMBs, how mobile apps can boost productivity and increase ROI, which apps are most effective for various business functions, and how to access important business and customer data and information while on the road. more

Business Wire Offers Free Webinar on Search Engine Optimization

Business Wire has scheduled a free Webinar on optimizing press releases for search engines for April 20 at 1 PM EDST.  Joseph Miller, EON Product Manager and Business Wire columnist and Alison MacDonald, a Business Wire account executive in Silicon Valley, will speak. more

TeamViewer App Available on Android

TeamViewer, which provides one-click access to Windows, Mac, and Linux systems, is now available on Android-based devices. Free for non-commercial use, the app was originally developed for the iPhone and iPad. The Android version provides complete access to computers from Android smartphones and tablets using ID-and-password-based security. more

Unified Communications Offers Free Comparison Guide for Eight Leading VoIP Providers

Unified Communications is offering a free comparison guide covering the technology strategies of eight leading vendors based on 26 of their flagship product features. The guide covers cost-saving and revenue-generating features of the Unified Communications platform, which unites e-mail, voice, data, chat, and Web sharing on one platform. The report also compares on-premise versus SaaS communications approaches. more

Consumer Electronics Show Included Products for SMBs, Reports NuWire Investor

NuWire Investor reported on a list of new technologies for SMBs exhibited at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Among these technologies were several credit card scanners that work with smartphones, including the Intuit GoPayment App for the iPhone4 that supports a direct interface with the Mophie add-on credit card scanner and integration with QuickBooks. Nuance Communications demoed its FlexT9 Mobile Input App, a keyboard tracing technology that lets users trace the path between letters on a virtual keyboard to sketch words for entry into e-mails, chat messages, and other text systems on smartphones. SugarSync showed an online backup system that includes a free 5 GB block of online storage accessible from nearly any device. more

Rapid eLearning Blog Provides Free PowerPoint Templates and Free Tutorials

The Rapid eLearning Blog has put together more than 100 free PowerPoint tutorials and is offering a free template to help businesses develop rapid e-learning tutorials of their own. The tutorials are loosely organized into topics. more

Need a Tech Manual? Retrevo.com Could be Your Online Source

Need a manual for your tech device? You might find it, free of charge, at retrevo.com. The site offers 100,000 free manuals covering everything from a new GPS through a dying laptop to a malfunctioning office printer/scanner/fax machine. more

Azalea Offers Free and Downloadable 2011 Calendars for Printing

Azalea Software is offering a set of four humorous, food-oriented 2011 calendars as PDFs for free download and printing. The calendar themes are: Key Lime Pi, Nuts & Bolts, Diversity Fish, and Hot Duck. more

Microsoft and the Small Business Administration Publish E-Course on Technology for SMBs

Microsoft and the U.S. Small Business Administration have created a three-module set of recorded lectures for small businesses to learn how to make the most of computer technologies. The free lectures are available online. more

Intel Offers Three $7,000 Small Business Equipment Makeovers

Intel has announced a contest with one of three prizes of $7,000 each in computer equipment including an Intel Xeonon server and a Intel Tech Pro installation. To enter, the business owner needs to record a short (less than 120 seconds) video about how having the new equipment would help the business, then post the video on YouTube and fill out the online entry form including a link to the video. more

Free DriveCarefully App Reads Text Messages on Smartphones Aloud

The new DriveCarefully app for various smartphones lets users listen to e-mail, text, and PIN messages by automatically reading them aloud through any bluetooth headset or in-car kit while the user drives. The app provides hands-free and eyes-free operation and works in English, French, and Spanish with automatic language detection. It is automatically activated by GPS and can provide a custom auto reply message. The app is available for Blackberry and Android; iPhone and Nokia versions are in development. more

Technology Makeover Competition to Award $60,000 in Technology and Services to Chicago-Area Women-Run Small Businesses

The Women’s Business Development Center has announced the second-annual Small Business Technology Makeover Competition for Chicago area, women-run businesses that have been in business for at least two years, have at last five employee workstations and at least $500,000 in revenue and that want to expand the business by using technology. A total of $60,000 in free technology products including three notebook computers, printer, projector, and a $30,000 scholarship to executive business training. Web site development services and licenses for Microsoft small business software will be also be awarded. more

Free Antivirus Software

AVG offers a basic, free antivirus software package. You can learn more about it and download the file to check it out by clicking here.

No Fax Machine? No Problem. Send a Fax for Free.

Fax machines do not cost much these days, and they can be handy if you have lots of pages to send or receive. But, if your machine dies an untimely death, you do not need to buy another one or pay money for an online fax service to send faxes. Take a look at some of the online services, but check carefully before you use them for any gotchas. For example, some of the services are free, but the company inserts ads in your fax. Here are three sites you can use to send faxes for free:

• http://faxzero.com/
• http://www.freefax.com/
• http://www.gotfreefax.com/

Tip of the Day: Adding Functionality to OpenOffice With Extensions

So, you are interested in the OpenOffice productivity software, but you are not sure it is worth the effort. Well, it might help to know that you can add on different functions and capabilities to OpenOffice. For example, you can create flashcards in Impress, the presentation software, after downloading a free extension. Click here to see more about the extension. Here are a few other extensions you might want to try:

• an MLA paper template,
• a balance sheet template,
• a French language dictionary, and
• an Oracle report builder.

You can look at the entire collection of extensions by clicking here.