(This post originally appeared on Forbes)
Here are five things in technology that happened this past week and how they affect your business. Did you miss them?
1 — Apple rolls out its most expensive computer ever, topping out at $53K.
Apple revealed their new Mac Pro this past week touting massive storage capacities as well as unparalleled processing capabilities that will come at a big cost. While the basic Mac Pro costs $5,999, it’s the high-end add-ons that will make the total cost add-up quickly. Some of the add-ons include a $7,000 processor, a $25,000 RAM, and an optional $2,000 add-on if users want to include the Afterburner accelerator card, wheels, and trackpad for the newest model. If a user wants to purchase all of the new add-ons in order to make the most out of storage capacities and processing capabilities, the total cost could come to $52,599, not including the monitor. (Source: SFIST)
Why this is important for your business:
I doubt there will be few takers for the fully-souped-up version of the new Mac Pro. But what Apple is doing is not inconsistent with other hardware makers. New laptops are being sold with bare-boned specs, even without keyboards, and many buyers are forced to add additional capacity to make them worthwhile. In other words: don’t believe that initial laptop price. It will likely cost more.
2 — Yahoo is giving users more time to download Groups data before it’s gone forever.
Yahoo is doubling back on an announcement made this past October that all content posted on Yahoo Groups would be deleted as of December 14th. Yahoo will now allow users to request Yahoo Groups data up until 11:59PM on January 31st, 2020. However, users still will not be able to view content on Yahoo Groups after December 14th and — as of October 28th —Yahoo no longer allows users to upload content, making the platform relatively limited already. The company also shared that they will be extending the deadline for restricting public groups, meaning that users will need to request an invite or be invited by a group administrator after January 31st. (Source: The Verge)
Why this is important for your business:
Many small businesses have created Yahoo Groups over the years and many small business owners I know participate in other groups. It’s all going away soon, so if there’s data on a Yahoo Group you want to preserve, time is running out.
3 — Twitter will now preserve JPEG quality for photo uploads on the web.
Twitter has announced this week that they are going to be changing the way that uploaded images are processed, making it more efficient for photographers who use the platform to display their work. Instead of transcoding images —which degrades the quality of an original image — Twitter will now be preserving JPEG encoding when images are uploaded to the Internet through the platform. While thumbnails will still require Twitter to transcode and compress images that appear in Twitter feeds —as soon as users click on the thumbnail —they will see an uncompressed, full image. (Source: Tech Crunch)
Why this is important for your business:
I like that Twitter is aggressively moving to enhance the quality and creditability of its platform. Purging non-active or bogus accounts is important. So is improving the quality of the images we use.
4 — A NYC-based startup has launched a WeWork-like service for online retailers.
ShopFulfill—a New York City-based startup—is planning to offer a co-working-style option to online retailers through their new Anchor Shops. (Source: Yahoo Finance)
Why this is important for your business:
Anchor Shops will give the opportunity for online brands to lease a space in one of their locations starting at $600 a month. The model will allow online retailers to share retail staff, warehousing, as well as transportation for stocking their merchandise, saving them upfront costs that typically come with leasing a traditional brick-and-mortar locations. Contracts between Anchor Shops and online retailers will be customized according to the amount of space that the retailer will require.
5— To save sending a bunch of emails, you can now forward them as attachments when you use Gmail.
Google has announced that they will be rolling out a new Gmail feature to help when it comes to forwarding multiple e-mails and attachments. With the new feature, users will now be able to combine multiple e-mails and attachments—that they otherwise would have had to forward individually—into one e-mail, including the would-be forwarded e-mails as attachments. When composing an e-mail, users will be able to provide an explanation for the series of e-mails being attached and simply click in order to enable the feature to attach each e-mail they want to forward as attachments. There will be multiple ways for users to attach the desired forwarded e-mails as attachments, each effectively negating the need to forward multiple e-mails at once. (Source: ZDNet)
Why this is important for your business:
Seems like a significant time saver. As a Gmail user, I’ll be taking advantage and hope you will too.
