2008 looks like a year when most of us will be tightening our belts a bit as finances get squeezed. As a business proffesional you may need an out of office computing and communications package to keep you on the road and in touch with your business.

As we showed in a previous post you can save lots of cash on office applications if you check out the competition. There is a trend towards super low cost mobile computing and communicationsl. Our two favorite offerings currently are the Eee PC from Asus and the 3 Skype Phone.

Eee PC
This small sub-notebook (mini laptop) has all the usual requirements for a good mobile office. Wireless connectivity, built in web-cam, integrated mic and speakers and plenty of USB extension. It also comes with a solid state hard drive so there are no moving parts and it will survive the bumps a unit usually gets on the road. Not bad for a PC thats a bit bigger than a paperback.

But the most exciting thing is the price. These units can be picked up for as little as £199.

How can they do all that for the price? One of the main reasons is the operating system they are using. Although it is possible to run windows on one of these mini wonders they come loaded with a Linux operating system from the open source community. Not only does this keep the cost down but it also runs faster and is more stable than windows.

The Eee PC has loads of applications and tools ready to go from the box and is a great low cost solution for the average road warrior. Check it out in further detail here

Skype Mobile
If you don’t already know skype is a VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) service that has gained a huge following around the world. Skype allows you to chat, call (including video call) and transfer files to other skype users for free. You can also call standard land lines and mobiles, send text messages and get a skype in number to receive calls for a small fee.

The new skype phone, in partnership with 3 mobile, offers all of the features of a great little mobile phone with a 2 megapixel camera with the additional benefits of the skype platform. That means you can do all of the things you can do with skype for free on your phone.

So with skype phones issued to colleagues and skype installed back at the office you can all communicate with each other for free.

The phone is either on contract or for only £50 you can buy a skype phone and run it on pay-as-you-go (you will need to charge it up with £10 of credit per month to keep skype active).

Our low cost mobile office suggestion is an Asus Eee PC and Skype phone have a look for yourself it may just be he solution you are looking for.

More details about Skype Phone
Buy a Skype Phone

More details about the Asus Eee PC
Best deals on buying an Asus Eee PC

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What is your most used piece of software? Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint? If your in an office with more than one computer a set of three licenses plus the software itself could put you back over £600 pounds. And what do you do write letters create some spreadsheets? There are thousands of functions in MS Office that you will never use.

I’m not saying that they have no use, but for the everyday business the applications are overkill. Save yourself asmall fortune and have a look at the alternatives. First let me suggest the total free and very capable Open Office this suite of applications runs on Windows, Mac and Linux and is fully office compatible. The download is about 95mb so you could run it of a small USB driv. You can distribute it to your employee’s and colleague freely and I doubt whether most people will ever need more than it offers for most office work.

Here are a few others:

Corel WordPerfect X3

Sun StarOffice 8

iWork ‘08

IBM Lotus Symphony

ThinkFree Office 3

Google Docs & Spreadsheets

Zoho Office

Take a moment to have a look you may just save youself some money. I’ll bring you more office alternative as I find them.

2008 and here we are ready to pounce on any unsuspecting business in want of a website. We have just made a major overhaul to the entire website. Added lots of content and case studies and we’re ready to face the new year.

So what will it hold for this blog? Well there are a million and one items that I wish to add to the site about technology trends, ways of working smarter and new gadgets to look out for but for the time being I will start the year off with a bit of advice.

We all work to pay our bills and hopefully build some kind of a future for our families, however, if looking back at last year like me you’ve though “I wish I’d spent more time with the wife and kids” well make sure you do this year. Saying that here I am writing advice a 11:35 pm and the wife’s gone to bed so maybe I should take a leaf from my own book.