october 2009

It’s only rock and roll, but we like it

by Glen Craven (service@loop.ca), Business Systems Analyst

On September 9th Apple held what seems to be an annual event where it introduced the new iPod line up in time for Christmas. This year’s event was called “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it”. Apple introduced changes to its line-up of iPods as well as a new version of iTunes. We’ll leave iTunes for now, and instead take a look at the key features of each of the new iPods.

iPod shuffle is incredibly small and colorful in black, silver, pink, blue, and green. Even more clever, the VoiceOver feature tells you what song is playing and who is performing it. It can even tell you the names of your playlists, giving you a new way to navigate your music with controls located on the earphone cord. You can clip a 2GB or 4GB iPod shuffle to your sleeve and take up to 1,000 songs wherever you go.

iPod nano not only looks great, with its larger screen and polished anodized aluminum finish; it now has a built-in video camera that lets you spontaneously shoot video wherever you are. As well, a new Genius Mixes feature can act as your own personal DJ, automatically searching your iTunes library, to create mixes tailored to your taste. The new iPod nano also features a Pedometer to count your steps. To top it all off, the device now includes a built-in FM radio with two amazing features—iTunes Tagging and Live Pause. The world’s most popular music player now has more features than ever to play with.

The new iPod classic comes with 160GB of storage in the same compact size, making it the take-everything-everywhere iPod. Available in silver and black, the iPod classic offers enough battery to give you up to 36 hours of audio playback or 6 hours of video playback, good looks with its sleek anodized aluminum finish, and great features like Cover Flow and Genius playlists. You can even rent a movie 
from iTunes and watch it on the go.

iPod touch is a great iPod, pocket computer, and portable game player. There is still the 8GB iPod touch but there are also two new 32GB and 64GB iPod touch models that boast improved performance, making them up to 50 per cent faster than the previous generation. You can listen to a mix of songs automatically put together by the new Genius Mixes feature, watch a movie, surf the web, view rich HTML email or find a location and get directions with Google Maps. Discover games and apps you’re sure to love with new Genius recommendations for apps. And since iPod touch now comes with the latest 3.1 software already installed, you can start using its fun, convenient features right out of the box.

Time Machine and Loop Drives: A Match Made in Heaven

by Simon Strantzas (procurement@loop.ca), Product Specialist

Loop is proud to announce its new line of external hard drives, designed for use with both Mac and Windows computers. The drives are a perfect compliment to Apple's Time Machine software (included with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and 10.6 Snow Leopard), and comes with both USB 2.0 and FireWire 400 connection to work with all modern computer systems. For those who need something faster, we carry a desktop model that also includes FireWire 800 port, and for the truly adventurous the desktop models ship with eSATA ports. Couple the drive with an eSATA card for your Mac Pro and get optimal speeds out of your external device.

For those on the go, try our Loop Portable Drives, which also have FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 ports. Never leave your backup at home, never be on the road and lose the precious data you were working on. Install a spare OS on the drive and boot from it an emergency situation.

We also carry an external RAID solution for those who need extra redundancy with their storage. Use it for archiving without risk of data loss, or for extra secure backups.

Each comes with a one-year parts/labor warranty from Loop, which means there is no need to send the drives away or across the border for repair. You'll get your drive back sooner, which ensures your data is always backed up.

We also carry a range of capacities for the modern user. Contact you Loop representative today or visit our online store at http://store.loop.ca for more information.

Ask, and you shall receive

by Bryan Chiasson (sales@loop.ca), Sales Relationship Executive

“Ask, and you shall receive”, a principal that offers some of the best sales advice for new salespeople and experienced sales professionals alike. The best sales presentation imaginable generally will not yield the desired results unless the salesperson asks for the business.

Is this advice just for people who make their living offering products and services to others for a commission? Yes, of course, but it is actually for all of us. After all, everybody sells! Surprised? Everybody does sell, although many people may not realize it at the time or think of themselves as salespeople. We sell our ideas and ourselves everyday.

Selling, broken down to its most basic roots, is simply the matching of benefits to needs and desires. The salesperson acts as the broker who is simply bringing the product or service to the table so that the buyer can be shown the personal benefits of ownership or use. Under ideal circumstances, the salesperson’s purpose is simply to help the buyer purchase what he needs or wants. It is a win-win scenario for both.

After all, an interested potential customer can go to the Internet these days and learn just about every fact imaginable concerning our products or service. He/She can also examine our competitors. The customer is better educated than ever before. The salesperson must be at least as well educated as their customer as to the features; advantages and benefits of his/her own products and services, as well as those of her competitors.

Remember, we are all sales people in an organization regardless of the size. Every one of us speaks to internal and external customers everyday. If we listen to what the client is looking for, we should all take ownership and ask for the business! We might be surprised with the result!

Fall Seminars are here!

by Sherri Stirpe (vendorpartner@loop.ca), Vendor Partner Relationship Manager

There is a certain crispness in the air these days, the leaves’ are changing color and the kids are back in school. The routines are settling in and the excitement to learn something new is back again! Loop is pleased to announce a two exciting seminars happening this month. Loop’s new offering: Unified Communications which includes IBM, Bell, Cisco and WatchGuard on October 14th at the The Rostie Group in Toronto. On October 29th, Loop is teaming with Adobe with CS4 seminars at the Delta Chelsea Hotel in Toronto. They are free of charge, extremely informative and a great way to meet and learn from the Leaders in Virtualization and Adobe.

I hope you can attend these exciting seminars!

Stay in the Loop

We want you to stay in the ‘Loop’ and by doing so, we are now on Twitter, Facebook and Meetup. Please visit us today and everyday!