So the folks at Incase have come up with an inexpensive alternative for people who already have an Apple Wireless Keyboard. The Incase Origami Workstation is designed to be a case for the Apple keyboard, which opens up into a simple stand for an iPad.

The name makes this case sound like more than it is. It’s made of a thin, stiff material with a grippable rubbery surface. It’s scored to fold into a prop-up stand, and in another position, as a cover for the keyboard. Both positions are held with Velcro fasteners. It also has a plastic holder for the keyboard. In all, it only weighs a couple of ounces, but it does what it’s designed to do.

Note that this is a case for the keyboard, not for the iPad, so you’ll be carrying around your iPad and your keyboard separately. But if you already have an extra Apple Wireless Keyboard, and you don’t want to spend the extra money for a case with a built-in keyboard, you might want to give the Incase Origami Workstation a try. It retails for $29.95 and is available online and at Apple Stores.

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So for people like me, the folks at Stem Innovation have come up with the TimeCommand, which will let you turn your iPod, iPhone or iPad into a Chumby-like device, and charge it at the same time. By itself, the TimeCommand is a perfectly acceptable dual alarm clock with dimmable display. Plug in an iDevice running the free Stem:Connect app, and it can wake you to music or Internet radio, or even turn on a lamp. It has a snooze feature and a battery backup, too, in case the power goes out.

Stem:Connnect won’t show you the latest news, but you can choose your music, adjust the sound, set an alarm, dim the display, and check the weather without leaving the app. The app also includes a graphic equalizer to let you tweak the dock’s sound, which I found performed well, both for playing music and for voice conversations using an app like Bria. The TimeCommand’s round shape is useful for being able to see its clock from various angles, too.

I tried using the TimeCommand with both an iPad and an iPod touch, and found that it interacted well with both. The app has been designed for both screen sizes. Even the dock connector itself can move enough to work without taking your iDevice out of its case (depending on the case’s thickness, of course). It even works with other iPods, like the nano, though obviously you can’t use the iOS app with these.

My only complaint is one that isn’t really the TimeCommand’s fault. It gets its time from the iDevice, and updates itself automatically when docked. Unfortunately, Wi-Fi iPads and iPod touches have no way of maintaining accurate time from an online server, so you’ll need to make sure the device is set correctly.

The TimeCommand is available for $99, which is a little pricey — you could buy a Chumby One for less than that — but if you already have an iDevice, the TimeCommand might be a useful place to park it, by your bed or your easy chair.

Disclaimer: The TimeCommand was provided to us by the manufacturer for the purposes of this review.

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Kerio Workspace has some features in common with collaboration solutions such as Basecamp, but without the project management features. It has more in common with file-sharing solutions such as ShareFile and with enterprise microblogging solutions like Flowr. When I spoke with the developers, they described Kerio Workspace as an email replacement and called it, only half in jest, “SharePoint meets Facebook.”

The idea is that organizations will use Kerio Workspace to organize and track changes to documents and other content files. As one might expect, it has a system for tracking changes, and social elements like a “news feed” where co-workers can post what they’re working on. It also lets users create internal “web pages” to display documents, audio and video, and users can specify if they wish to receive alerts by email.

Workspace 1.1 has added several new features, including:

• A touch-based mobile web interface for the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry smartphones.
• The ability for users to create templates by copying existing page layouts and/or content.
• Drag and drop file uploading.
• Enhanced administration and security options.

Kerio Workspace 1.1 can be hosted in-house on your organization’s servers under Windows, Mac, Linux or VMWare. Pricing starts at $150 for a 5-user license. Additional user licenses are $30 each. Hosting is also available from resellers at additional cost.

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At first glance, the K750 looks a lot like the Apple Wireless Keyboard, with the addition of a strip of solar panels above the function keys. It has the standard Apple layout, but adds a numeric keypad, something the Apple keyboard and the diNovo Edge don’t have. Although I don’t use the keypad often, it’s nice to have when I need it.

The keys on the K750 are very comfortable. They have just enough of an indentationthat my fingers know exactly where they are. As always when changing keyboards, it took me a couple of days to get used to the new layout, but I’m now typing as fast as I ever did (which isn’t all that fast).

I found that the keyboard worked right out of the box. It didn’t need any driver software or charging time, even though I placed it in a keyboard drawer away from any direct light source. The free Logitech Solar App for Mac lets you find out how much light the panels are receiving, and how much power the keyboard has in reserve. The app is cute, but it isn’t really necessary.

The K750 doesn’t use Bluetooth. Instead, it’s one of several Logitech products that uses 2.4 GHz wireless and is compatible with the “Unifying” wireless receiver, which allows a keyboard and mouse to share one USB port — handy when using a laptop with a limited number of available ports. I tried sharing the K750 and a Logitech M505 mouse, which generally worked well, although there seemed to be intermittent slowness in mouse scrolling. If you use the receiver with two or more devices, you’ll need to install the Unifying software.

The Logitech keyboard is missing a few features. Unlike the diNovo Edge, it doesn’t beep when you press the Caps Lock key, and there is no indicator light on the key. You can get around this somewhat using the Capster utility, which not only beeps when Caps Lock is pressed, it also displays an on-screen Growl notification. The K750 also doesn’t have illuminated keys, unlike most of Apple’s built-in notebook keyboards.

All in all, I am very happy with the K750. If you want a keyboard with the standard Apple layout, slightly indented, more comfortable keys and a numeric keypad, give it a try. Not having to worry about changing batteries or using a proprietary charger is a huge bonus, too.

The keyboard is available in several colors including silver and black, and is available for $59.99 from the Logitech website.

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The new feature is built into the latest version of the GoToMeeting software, and doesn’t require any fancy equipment — any webcam and microphone will do, although headsets will most likely be needed to keep room noise down, or users can choose to dial into an audio bridge. Each stream can be displayed at a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels, for a total maximum resolution of 1920 x 960 pixels.

I attended a demo with four attendees, and found it to be easy to use, and the quality to be very good. If you’ve used GoToMeeting before, you know that the software (available for Windows or Mac) is  quick to download, and doesn’t generally require any fiddling with settings. Audio was perfect, and video quality was quite acceptable for standard “talking head” meetings. The folks at GoToMeeting told me that they decided to limit the service to six simultaneous users in order to maintain video quality — plus, with more users, the video thumbnails for each person would be pretty hard to see.

The program automatically displays a split screen divided into the appropriate number of boxes need to show each participant, and a screen sharing space when desired. GoToMeeting has added some useful touches, like a subtle white outline that shows who’s talking at any given moment, and the ability to resize the viewable area to maximize the shared desktop if desired.

The new service occupies a niche between Skype and some of the higher-end video conferencing options that require sophisticated hardware. For organizations and individuals that won’t use the service often enough to justify GoToMeeting’s cost, similar technology will be available later in the year through Skype, since Citrix will be powering Skype’s upcoming web conferencing service.

HDFaces is available to existing GoToMeeting customers and trial users at no additional cost over the service’s standard pricing, which begins at $49/month or $468/year. A 30-day free online trial is available at the service’s website.

Do you use GoToMeeting? Will the addition of video capabilities make the service more attractive?

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These policies are created and controlled through a new cloud-based service that allows IT managers to provide secure access to corporate computers from employees’ mobile devices. The service is now available as a preview for iOS; other platforms, including desktop computers and Android, are in development.

Policies can be created to grant or restrict user access to individual computers, authorize specific iOS devices for users or groups, and block or discontinue access from any user or device. Specifically, organizations will be able to:

• Enroll individually-owned or company-procured iOS devices into an organization’s mobile inventory.
• Authorize individual iOS devices for remote access to one or more company computers, including access to corporate applications and files.
• Manage remote access rights and permissions by user, computer, and mobile device.
• Control whether files can be remotely transferred from remote computers to individual mobile devices.
• Handle lost or stolen devices by remotely wiping stored credentials.

Individuals interested in trying the preview of the access control service for iOS can sign up at the company’s website. Pricing depends on the number of devices to be controlled.

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So when Seagate sent me a Satellite to try out, I tested it by connecting to a first-generation iPad, a 3rd-gen iPod touch, and an Android phone. Unfortunately, I ran into significant problems. In fact, I ended up trying a second drive after Seagate had to replace the first one, but neither unit was satisfactory.

Hardware

The Satellite features a small 4.72in x 3.46in x 1.26in case that’s almost featureless, and weighs just over half a pound. It has a power button, ports for power and sync cables, and a couple of status lights.

The drive comes with two proprietary USB cables: one for syncing your media library with your computer, and one for power. The door that covers the sync port is removable, and could easily be lost. Seagate rates the non-replaceable lithium-ion battery at up to 5 hours of continuous streaming for one user, and up to 25 hours on standby.

Putting your media collection on the drive

The printed documentation for the GoFlex Satellite directs you to run installation software, which starts by opening a web page with a “getting started” video. Luckily for those of us who dislike video instructions, the page also includes a link to the Seagate website, where you can download a PDF setup guide.

The software then prompts you to install and activate an old version of the Paragon NTFS driver (which I already had, but the software didn’t recognize that). This is because the drive comes formatted as NTFS for Windows, and Seagate warns that the format cannot be changed.

Once you’ve installed the driver (and rebooted your Mac) you can plug in a short proprietary USB cable that lets the Satellite appear as an external drive in the Mac OS X Finder. Now you can either copy files directly from the Finder, or you can use the Seagate Media Sync software (available as a free download from Seagate’s website). I tried both approaches, but ran into several issues. The drive seemed to have a propensity for unmounting itself randomly, causing errors that had to be fixed using Apple’s Drive Utility, and in at least one case, I ended up having to reformat the drive (as NTFS).

Even when the Sync software seemed to be working, it was hard to tell, because the statistics showing the space available on the drive didn’t match what the Finder was showing, and the software doesn’t include a progress bar. So I let the software churn away for a couple of hours, only to discover that nothing had actually been copied. I also got “error code -36″ and even a couple of kernel panics — errors that I hadn’t seen in several years.

I had slightly better luck copying via the Finder. At least that way, I could tell exactly when the drive unmounted, and could start again from there. Of course, this isn’t useful if your media collection changes frequently.

At one point, I tried using the Windows version of the Media Sync software, but it doesn’t recognize network drives, so I wasn’t able to use it to access my media collection.

Wi-Fi connection

The GoFlex Satellite includes a 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi base station, with optional WPA security. In theory, all one has to do to stream files from the drive is select the “GoFlex Satellite” network in your player’s settings. Of course, this means disconnecting from whatever Wi-Fi network you usually use, so you won’t be able to surf the web while listening to music or watching movies.

The first drive that Seagate sent me seemed to be unable to maintain a Wi-Fi signal for more than a couple of minutes. The network name would continue to appear in my player’s Settings list, but when selected, I’d frequently get an “Unable to join the network” error, which could only be resolved by power-cycling the drive. The second drive maintained a signal slightly better, but I never managed to listen to more than a couple of songs before having to reset the drive.

Software

Seagate offers free iPad and iPhone/iPod touch apps for the Satellite — search for “goflex media” in the App Store. These apps, too, need a lot of work. Their layout is good-looking enough, and easy to navigate. But they are slow. Even when I managed to keep a Wi-Fi signal, it took a long time to download the folder structure from the Satellite, and I found that it often timed out.

The apps’ functionality is pretty limited. The Music option displays all your music as one big list. The Folder View option shows your collection in folders, which if you’ve been using iTunes, are probably sorted by artist. The problem is that while you can select multiple items, there doesn’t appear to be any way to play multiple items once they’ve been selected.

Unlike the native iOS Music app, the GoFlex Media app won’t work in the background, and if you pause while playing, your device won’t go to sleep. If you’re not using the apps, you can connect to the GoFlex Satellite through a web interface, but it has the same limitations.

The concept behind the Seagate GoFlex Satellite drive is a good one, and I hope they get the bugs worked out. In the meantime, you may be better off looking at the upcoming G-Connect from Hitachi G-Technology or Kingston Wi-Drive if you’re looking for a personal cloud option.

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ShareFile is worth checking out if you’re looking for a business-oriented file-sharing service, as it offers many features that you’d find in most of the other file sharing services, plus a few that won’t be found with more consumer-oriented solutions:

Security, user and file management

• Files transmitted and stored with encryption
• Tracking and alerts to confirm that clients have received files
• Granular folder-level permissions
• Bulk load client users from Outlook or spreadsheet
• Activity reports showing who uploaded and downloaded files and when

File access and transfer

• Upload individual files up to 10 GB
• FTPS over SSL transfers, compatible with traditional FTP clients
• Map a local drive letter to ShareFile account
• Automatic resume of interrupted transfers
• Access via the web, an Outlook plugin, and through desktop, iOS and Android apps
• API and command-line tools
• File versioning
• Full-text search
• Ability to request file copies on DVD or hard drives
• Ability to send a DVD or hard drive for initial population of files

Customization

• Custom branding
• Tools for your website, including a login widget and an upload form

Not all of the above features are available with all pricing plans.

ShareFile told me how one of its customers, a worldwide restaurant chain, uses the service to make creative materials available to their franchisees. The same customer’s HR department uses ShareFile to send sensitive employment documents.

The company boasts data centers on the U.S. East and West Coasts, as well as in Ireland and Singapore, but provides telephone and email help from a U.S.-based support staff.

ShareFile is available in several pricing plans, ranging from $29.95 a month for two employee accounts and 5GB of storage, to $499.95 per month for 150 accounts and 150GB of storage. All plans include unlimited client users. A 30-day trial is available.

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The survey also found that 67 percent of respondents spend between one to four hours per week just preparing for status meetings, and 59 percent said that preparing for status meetings often takes longer than the meeting itself. In addition, 57 percent of those surveyed indicated that they multitask during status meetings — so maybe there’s more work getting done than one might think!

The survey was conducted online within the United States from June 6–8, among 2,373 information workers. It was undertaken by Harris Interactive on behalf of Clarizen, the project management system that Thursday covered a few months ago. The survey defined a status meeting as one in which team members are updated on progress and completion of tasks. Brainstorming, strategy and planning meetings were not included.

If you’re finding your meetings unproductive, there are a number of tools available to help, including meetin.gs and yaM. Many of the project management apps that we cover are intended, among other things, to help keep team members updated on project status and what their colleagues are doing and so reduce the time spent in meetings. And there are some techniques, like the Google system that Imran reported on last year, for making meetings more productive.

How much time do you spend in meetings? Are they productive?

Photo by stock.xchng user wagg66

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Harmon.ie provides an interface for Microsoft SharePoint directly within Outlook. It simplifies collaboration and document version control by letting users send live links to SharePoint documents, rather than emailing individual docs that are hard to manage. Users can edit, rate, or tag documents, and see and manage previous versions, all directly inside Outlook. According to the developers, enterprises that have large investments in SharePoint have found that using Harmon.ie has increased end-user SharePoint adoption from 30 percent to as high as 80 percent..

Harmon.ie 3.0, being released Tuesday in beta, adds social features that recognize that collaboration is about people as much as documents. The new “people” tab in the Harmon.ie sidebar lets users see colleagues’ profiles and availability. Presence notifications are geared toward work environments, since they can be used to show what project or document an individual is working on. The people tab also displays a multi-threaded activity stream, and lets workers call, chat or video conference using Microsoft Lync/OCS, Lotus Sametime or Cisco UC.

Harmon.ie 3.0 also simplifies the creation of ad-hoc groups centered around a specific task. The “suggested colleagues” feature recommends possible group members based on the frequency of interaction (by email, chat or voice) and by whether they have co-authored or co-edited documents in the past.

Since Simon wrote about Harmon.ie a few months ago, several other apps have added some similar features to the email interface, for the simple reason that many workers in the enterprise spend a lot of their time there. Xobni, for example, offers “gadgets” for such enterprise collaboration tools as SharePoint, and several services, notably Rapportive and Gist, provide social connections directly from the email interface. And for organizations that don’t use SharePoint, Egnyte recently announced tools for file-sharing within Outlook.

Harmon.ie 3.0 is currently available in beta. The free version includes the SharePoint interface, but does not include the social features. The enterprise version of the software, which includes the social components, is priced at $125 per user, or on a subscription basis for $50 per user per year. In addition to the SharePoint version, the developer also offers a version for Lotus Notes, and another for Google Docs, although the latter does not currently include social features.

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