Asus Chromebox CN60: A review

Recently Newmind received our first ASUS Chromebox. Although we didn’t get the version with an Intel Core i3, we did get the model with an Intel Celeron processor. The Celeron performed well with every task we threw at it, playing 18 YouTube videos at once before becoming too slow to load another. Scrolling through the average website (forbes.com) with several tabs open resulted in a smooth experience with no discernable issues.

If you want to find out more of what Tyler has to say, read further here.

Getting on board with mobile apps: Build IT Session 1

For this year’s Build IT Together event, we were fortunate to have President of Kalamazoo-based Maestro, Jen Randall, come and speak in one of our sessions. Unfortunately, for confidentiality reasons, we are not able to publish the video of her speaking onto our site. That just means you’ll have to come to the event next year so you don’t miss out on any info! Here is a summary of her talk.

Our favorite moments from Build IT Together

Around mid-June we held our second Build IT Together event in downtown Kalamazoo. Our CEO was the Keynote speaker, presenting on Chrome for business. Session 1 speakers included Jen Randall talking about mobile apps and businesses and Daniel Jefferies on innovation in the workplace. Session 2 speakers were Matt Mace presenting on using big data in businesses as well as Hans Erickson talking about developing an IT strategy.

With all of these quality speakers and opportunities to collaborate and network with others in the area, we were bound to have a great time! Here were some of our favorite moments.

Google I/O keynote rundown [2014]

This year, Google I/O kicked off on Tuesday, June 24th. Many new and exciting features were released in the opening Keynote so we thought we would give you an overview of those updates. Some of our favorites were: new authentication features for your smartphone and Chromebook, Android Auto, Google Drive for work and Native Office Editing.

Check out their announcements here.

Google Apps Monthly Updates Early Release [July] - Part 2

This is Part 2 of our Google Apps monthly update for July. Many of these features were released at the Google I/O conference during the last week of June. If you still haven’t read Part 1 of the update, click here.

Notable new features:

• Google Drive for Work
• New Quickoffice integrations
• Dedicated home pages for Google Docs, Sheets, & Slides

Click here to learn more about these features and many others!

Google Apps Monthly Updates Early Release [July] - Part 1

Thx for the photo @carlosluna 

Here you’ll find the official Google Apps updates from the month of June, as well as some updates that came out at the very end of May. We’ve decided to release this a bit early due to the amount of updates that surfaced after the Google I/O conference. To check out Part 2 of this month’s update, click here.

Notable new features:

• Enabling Google + premium features for everyone
• New spam management system
• New visual reporting for Admins
• Cloud-based migration of email to Google Apps

Read about these features and others in more detail.

Developing an IT strategy: Build IT Session 2

Hans Erickson, CIO and Senior VP from the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce, came and spoke at Build IT Together this year about what it takes to develop an IT strategy. If you’re in the IT field, check out a summarization of his presentation here.