Technology

Social Media Roundup: An Enterprise Challenger Appears

Google wants to make its web-focused laptops perfect for the enterprise—by adding Windows. Also: a new microphone, designed for conferences, that's begging to be thrown.

With Windows XP on its last legs, a lot of IT folks are wondering if the right move for their organizations is to change platforms entirely. And like clockwork, Google could have a solution for them.

Learn about it in today’s Social Media Roundup:

Chromebook, Enterprise Player?

First Google went after our videoconferencing. Now it appears to want our computers, too. Thanks to a new deal with the virtualization software giant VMWare, Google is making the case for running Windows apps via the cloud on its Chromebook platform—a move that just happens to come at a time when a lot of people are thinking about moving away from Windows XP. While the announcement drew a bunch of attention, not everyone’s convinced that the idea will work in the business world—at least, not in some parts of it. “Deploying a hosted virtual desktop infrastructure is not a trivial exercise, and it’s one with many costs and complexities,” Michael Silver, Gartner’s research VP for mobile and client platforms, told Computer Business Review. “Organizations have been able to move Windows workloads to a variety of back-end solutions for over a decade. For some users it can work very well. For others, not so much.” If you could run your Windows apps on your Chromebook, would that be enough for you to drop your old machines? (ht @PCMag)

Play Catch

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Your session is reaching the Q&A portion, and there’s some sort of mix-up with the microphone. Maybe people are talking over one another. Maybe there’s a kerfuffle with getting the microphone to the person who needs it. Maybe there’s even a loud, ear-splitting buzz emitted from the mic because it’s been handled the wrong way. But what if you could just throw a mic to anyone who wants to talk? That’s the idea behind the Catchbox, a wireless microphone that’s soft and fluffy—and designed to be thrown. (The microphone even mutes itself when thrown, so if it falls on the ground, no ear-splitting noises.) Launched back in December, the product is intended to offer increased engagement during events without relying on phone-based social tools. “There is a high expected value from every group session … so we want to provide a tool that would make each session more efficient,” Catchbox CTO Mikelis Studers tells TechCrunch. “[The] internet has created new ways for sharing. We want to enhance sharing of ideas when people physically come together.” (ht @esmergonzalez)

What’s your favorite piece of technology for encouraging people to engage at events? Tell us about it in the comments.

(Google press photo)

Ernie Smith

By Ernie Smith

Ernie Smith is a former senior editor for Associations Now. MORE

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