Tag: microsoft

  • Tech Scalpers and How to Get What You’re Looking For

    Tech Scalpers and How to Get What You’re Looking For

    We’ve all experienced it at some point, you’re looking to buy something that was just released, perhaps as a Christmas gift or just for yourself and can’t find it in the regular channels. You know where you can find it? eBay or some other reseller site – usually for an inflated price.

    Those who enjoy gaming are experiencing it right now. Trying to find the NVidia RTX 3080 card? Gone. Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Series S as well as Sony PlayStation 5 buyers had a similarly frustrating time trying to get their pre-orders in. Nintendo has been accused for years of “artificial” shortages.

    Is it a lack of stock or is the demand really that great? How much of it is resellers swooping in, buying up all the stock and reselling it for artificially inflated pricing?

    What should you do if the item you’re looking for is out of stock, and how do you avoid being one of many who won’t get their hands on the tech item they’re looking for?

    One thing that appears to be new is the advent of items targeted by bots to buy up all the product for resellers. To say they have an unfair advantage when it comes to making a purchase quickly is an understatement.

    It’s clear more needs to be done to combat the unfairness of scalpers swooping in, and buying limits need to be more strictly enforced on tech items. What are some ways you can still get what you’re looking for anyways?

    1. Be aware of the sales date and be on the website early, websites will often crash in the wake of a launch but most retailers have queuing systems in place so the earlier you’re on there, the more likely you’ll be able to get what you’re looking for.
    2. As a general rule, do NOT refresh your page when you’re in a queue. If you refresh the page most times you will be moved to the back of the queue (it’s the same as getting out of line).
    3. Figure out which retailers are going to have the item you’re looking for and queue up for multiple sites to give yourself a better chance. Just be sure to jump off the additional ones once you’ve purchased your item.
    4. If it seems like your order didn’t go through, don’t despair. Many times, an order that looks like it didn’t go through actually did. Keep this in mind if you go to try and buy it again.
    5. If you did miss the item, instead of buying it from a reseller (and thereby validating the practice) find out when the next launch date it. For popular items it’s probably sooner than you think.

    NVidia, Microsoft and Sony could take a page from companies like Apple who seem to have the buying process down. Apple has scaled up their production for every new launch and those who want their products have no trouble buying them with ease. Nothing is more frustrating to a potential buyer than to have cash in hand ready to buy and end up leaving empty handed.

    They may find if they don’t solve these stock issues more aggressively, that these same buyers will move on to different products.

    Looking for more to read? We suggest these tech articles from the last week.

    This article was powered by Valley TechLogic, an IT provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://x.com/valleytechlogic.

    Looking for IT Services in Fresno, Modesto, Stockton, Ceres, Atwater, Merced, Visalia or Lodi? We cover all these areas and more!

  • Microsoft Teams is changing, can it catch up to Zoom in popularity?

    Microsoft Teams is changing, can it catch up to Zoom in popularity?

    There’s no question that Zoom is a behemoth in the video call making space, from its massive growth back in March to the re-energized vigor as schools across the nation are using it to conduct virtual lessons now in August. Zoom has a commanding 42.8% of the web conferencing market and it doesn’t seem like they’re losing any steam.

    Platforms such as Google, Microsoft and Cisco are trying to re-invent their web conferencing platforms to capture more of that lucrative pie. Today’s article is going to focus on the changes coming to Microsoft Teams as well as its existing features and evaluate whether it might be the better platform for your business.

    Microsoft Teams was released in 2017, it came 6 years off the massive acquisition of Skype by Microsoft (the once popular video chat software now languishes, a shadow of its former glory). Teams solved Microsoft’s problem with Skype being P2P (Peer to Peer) and gave a business facing option to all the companies already using their Office 365 platform.

    Before Zooms rising popularity Microsoft’s main competitor in this space was Google, with Google Hangouts being another popular option in the video conferencing space (now called Google Meet). Google is still an excellent choice, especially for companies who use the Google suite primarily within their businesses. Where Google falters in our eyes may be their habit of constantly pursuing new targets versus improving upon existing services (see the Google Graveyard for more of what we mean).

    Zoom has taken over the market mostly for it’s easy of use, you don’t even need to download it. Also, with zero cost to entry and a paired down UI even those who are less tech savvy can find their way around using it. If you want to set up a meeting with someone all you have to do is send them a link and you’ll be good to go.

    So why would a company want to switch to Teams? Microsoft Teams comes out ahead in the collaboration space, a one-off Zoom meeting is great for external meetings (say a sales call with a potential client) but for meeting with your in-house staff Teams is really the better option.

    Both have scaled up the number of users you can have on a call (100 in the paid for version of Zoom, 5000 on Teams). Both have a good chat system and the privacy enhancing benefit of blocking out your background (although we’d argue Teams does this a little better).

    Credit: Microsoft

    Where Teams comes out ahead for internal use is its integration with Office 365. When you create a new team of users to work collaboratively on the platform, it will create shared versions of One Point, Share Point and Plan. You can also have separate channels so you can easily distinguish who is working on what and organize your work more effectively.

    On top of that, Microsoft is now allowing Teams to have integrations with other applications, including Zoom. Allowing third party applications on the platform could further expand their popularity and allows third party designers to bring new solutions and tools that will greatly expand its usability.

    Microsoft is even allowing users to log into Teams with a personal account as well, encouraging people to use the platform for calls with family and friends. At a time when video conferencing is so crucial to staying connected, it doesn’t hurt to have more options.

    Microsoft Teams is a robust answer to the question of conducting office collaboration and Zoom is the quick and easy option for an impromptu meeting on the fly for colleagues and prospects alike. In our mind when it comes down to which is better for your business between Zoom or Teams, the answer may very well be both.

    Looking for more to read? We suggest these tech articles from the last week.

    This article was powered by Valley TechLogic, an IT provider in Atwater, CA. You can find more information at https://www.valleytechlogic.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/valleytechlogic/ . Follow us on Twitter at https://x.com/valleytechlogic.

    Looking for IT Services in Fresno, Modesto, Stockton, Ceres, Atwater, Merced, Visalia or Lodi? We cover all these areas and more!