Don’t feel like waiting for a free iPhone 4 bumper case from Apple? Here are three alternatives that you can buy now.

Speck Products Fitted Case for iPhone 4
A stylish option, Speck’s case has a hard-shell coated with matte, soft-touch coating. The back of the case is wrapped in fabric available in several color and style options, including black and white houndstooth, camouflage, and lavender argyle (shown at left). The case offers access to all buttons, controls, sensors, and connections. Speck plans to release a protective screen film for the iPhone 4 soon. Cost: $29.95

Case-mate iPhone 4 ID Credit Card Case
This multi-tasking case has a slot on the back that fits two credit cards, IDs, or cash. The case, which is made from impact-resistant, flexible plastic, offers access to all ports and controls. It comes with a screen protection kit and is available in black or silver. Cost: $34.99

Otterbox iPhone 4 Defender Series Case
The Defender has a clear protective screen membrane and a polycarbonate shell covered with silicone skin. It offers access to the sync/charge port via silicone plugs and access to all side button features. The case, which is available in black, comes with a belt clip holster. Cost: $49.95

Planning to do some e-reading by the pool this Fourth of July weekend? The Guardian, a new waterproof Kindle case from M-Edge, can keep your e-reader dry in up to 1 meter of water. The case is made of molded plastic and has sealed cut-outs for access to navigational controls. It also has buoyancy chambers that allow it to float and anti-reflective film for reading in sunny environments. One caveat for air travelers: A rapid change in air pressure may damage the Guardian if it is sealed, so be sure to unlatch the case before getting on a plane. Available in black, red or blue. Cost: $79.99

Today, HP introduced its first all-in-one business PC, the HP Compaq 6000 Pro, which will be available on July 16. The sleek, space-saving computer has a 21.5-inch HD LCD monitor with a built-in webcam, stereo speakers, and a dual microphone array. It comes with a choice of Intel Core 2 Duo processors, up to 8GB of memory, and an integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator. The Windows 7 computer comes loaded with HP Power Assistant software for managing energy use and a full version of HP Skyroom for videoconferences. Another big plus: it has seven USB ports, as well as an optional TV tuner. Cost: $899 and up

Looking for a way to keep staffers alert during meetings? Try replacing the conference room chairs with the Chairless, which debuted at the Milan furniture show this spring. The product, designed by Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena and made by furniture company Vitra, is really a strap that wraps around the wearer’s back and knees to relieve tension while sitting on the floor. The design was inspired by a sitting strap used by the Ayoreo Indians, a nomadic tribe living in the Gran Chaco region between Paraquay and Bolivia, according to Vitra. Made of wear-resistant polyamide, the strap comes in four colors. A portion of the proceeds goes to the Foundation for Indigenous Communities in Paraguay, which supports the Ayoreo Indians. The product is currently sold out, but you can email Vitra to get updates on availability.

Meanwhile, Cocoon Innovations recently released two new iPad bags featuring its signature GRID-IT gadget organizing system. The Harlem ipad/Netbook Sling ($54.99) has a front pocket for a phone or MP3 player and The Gramercy Messenger Sling ($29.99) has a front pocket with a window that allows you to use your touchscreen iPhone or iPod while it is stored away. Both bags come in black, gray, and red.

Plus, read more about tablets in Meet the Apple iPad and its Rivals.

1. Outlook’s new Social Connector feature allows you to view profile information for e-mail contacts below each message, including a profile picture and feeds from Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace. (Microsoft is currently in talks with Twitter to add those updates as well). Companies can do some extra work and customize feeds to aggregate other people-centric information, such as CRM data.

2. For de-cluttering inboxes, a handy Clean Up button lets you delete all redundant messages in a long e-mail thread.

3. Not interested in reading a chain of e-mails about the company picnic? An Ignore button lets you automatically move an entire conversation, including future messages, to your deleted items folder.

4. New Quick Step buttons can be customized to do multiple actions in one step. For example, if you are receiving e-mails for a project you are no longer working on, you can create a button that automatically replies all, forwards the message to the appropriate contacts, and deletes the e-mail from your inbox.

5. Using the new Outlook and Exchange Server 2010, you can now receive voicemail recordings in your inbox, along with a one-line voice-to-text preview of the messages (though even the Microsoft rep doing the demo admitted the transcriptions are less than perfect).

Pricing: $149.99 for Outlook 2010, or $499 for the Professional edition of Microsoft Office 2010, which includes the new version of Outlook.

Availability: The new Office suite will be available to businesses in May and hit retail stores, including Best Buy, in June. Read more about Office 2010 in The New Microsoft Office Suite.

HP also introduced the new ScanJet Professional 1000, a mobile scanner that weighs just 1.4 pounds and can scan both sides of a document, including business cards, at once. The scanner is $249. For more information on scanners, read our round-up of must-have hardware for the cloud-friendly office in the March issue of Inc.

Users can apply Pro features to new and existing Brainshark slideshows for a monthly fee of $9.99 per presentation. There is a 10 percent discount for users who create and store five presentations with pro-level features and a 20 percent discount for 10 or more presentations. You can turn off pro features at any time.

The U.S. Department of State, which recently updated its Mexico Travel Warning, suggests some other tips. Travelers should give their itinerary to a friend, family member, or colleague not traveling with them, avoid traveling alone, and make sure that their cell phone will work at their destination before they leave. The State Department also warns travelers to stick to main roads, especially toll ("cuota") roads, and avoid roads altogether at night.

The e-book, which costs just 99 cents for an online version or iPhone app, has a uncluttered, crisp design. You can choose to view it as text only, video only, or a mix of both text and video. Each section features text and accompanying videos. For example, the section about the decline of "interruption marketing" includes a video case study about the Little Miss Matched sock company. Some of the terms in the text are linked, so you can click on GeoCities, for example, to read about the company on Wikipedia. Of course, there are pictures and plenty of graphs that help illustrate Godin's ideas. Another cool feature of the vook is the ability to click on the "connect" view to comment on the book on Facebook or Twitter or go to Godin's website and blog.

It might take a while to adjust to toggling back and forth between the videos and text, especially if you're viewing the vook on your iPhone. But the concept makes a lot of sense now that more and more books are being read on tablets and e-readers. In particular, the multimedia approach works well for instructional books such as Godin's. I think I'd rather read my Jane Austen the old fashioned way, though.

This week, Olmstead Williams Communications, a public relations agency in Los Angeles, launched a new division that charges a flat monthly fee for a full range of PR services.

PRTechConnect is geared toward tech start-ups with limited marketing and PR budgets. The News Release Package, which costs $999 a month, includes services such as the creation and maintenance of a master list of media contacts, customized news release templates with tips for making announcements stand-out, targeted media pitching for 20 news release per year, and basic wire service distribution to Google News, Internet search engines, and RSS feeds. Companies must commit to at least three months; a $1,500 set-up fee will be waived if you commit to six months.

A pricier Industry Expert Package, which costs $1,999 a month, includes extras such as filtered email delivery of journalist queries, custom pitches, and follow ups with reporters. There is a minimum three-month commitment; a $500 set-up fee is waived if you commit to six months. If you decide you need additional services, the firm will bill at regular hourly rates.

To start selling in the DocStore, simply sign up for a free account and begin uploading documents onto the site (you also can embed DocStore documents on your website). DocStoc handles all the financial transactions and sends you a check at the end of each month. Sellers keep 100 percent of all sales for the first 60 days, with no hidden fees. After that, you'll split sales evenly with the store, which will send you a check for your 50 percent of sales in any given month. You can set any price you'd like for your documents, those most on the site sell for between $15 and $30. You also can track sales on a personalized dashboard.

Of course, the store won't let you sell just any document. All documents posted for sale are reviewed by DocStoc. If a document is not approved, you'll receive an email with an explanation for the rejection.

The new Portg convertible notebook has a 12.1-inch LED backlit display that swivels to convert to tablet mode. It comes with an Intel Core processor and faster DDR3 memory than its predecessor. The touch-enabled notebook is loaded with Windows 7 Professional, though there's an option to downgrade to Windows XP Professional. Ideal for computing on the go, it has an impact sensor that "parks" the hard drive heads when it detects sudden movements, LCD display protection, and a spill resistant keyboard. A handy USB Sleep-and-Charge port lets you charge a phone or camera even when the notebook is asleep. Price: $1,279 and up

The Satellite Pro U500 is powered by an Intel Core processor and comes loaded with Windows 7 Professional and an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator. The notebook has a 13.3-inch multi-touch display and a hard drive impact sensor, along with a built-in webcam with face recognition log-in. Price: Starting at $949

The new voice collaboration features lets users make conference calls on the fly simply by clicking the names of contacts. The service does all the dialing, contacting invited parties on their regular phones, so there's no need to set up calls in advance and e-mail everyone with dial-in info. Another plus: You can record each call and e-mail a link to the recording to meeting participants.

The service, which is currently in beta testing, is available to PBworks' business and legal edition customers, as well as those using a free trial of the business edition. It will be free during beta testing, with a cap of 200 call minutes for free trials. After beta testing ends, business and legal edition customers will receive 200 minutes a month at no extra charge. Heavier users can purchase a calling plan starting at $5 a month per person for 300 min]]> Wed, 17 Feb 2010 09:24:24 -0500 Nadine Heintzhttp://www.inc.com/nadine-heintz/2010/02/conference_calls_made_simpler_1.html http://www.inc.com/nadine-heintz/2010/02/the_buzz_on_googles_new_social_1.html When I logged on to my Gmail account today, a page automatically popped up asking me to try out Buzz, the social network that Google unveiled at a press conference yesterday. I'm already on Facebook, Twitter, Yammer, and Skype (the latter two added when Inc. commenced its month of working remotely last week), so I'm a bit networked out. But I gave it a whirl anyway.

Here's how it works: Like Facebook, you can use it to update your status and share photos and videos, but on Buzz, videos appear within status messages, and photos pop up in a gallery for easier viewing. Buzz is integrated with Gmail, so it's easy to add your email and chat contacts. It also can be integrated with Twitter and Google Reader, as well as photo sharing sites Picasa and Flickr. Comments go to your Gmail inbox; you can respond via email or Buzz. Of course, privacy is a big issue on other social networking sites, so Buzz makes it easy to choose whether you want to share your posts with everyone, or with just your contacts.

There is Buzz for mobile phones as well. I haven't tried it out yet, but according to Google, it has some handy mapping functionality that lets you add your location, along with a map, to a post. (Though this could come in handy when you're arranging a meeting, there is an obvious stalker concern.) You also can add a "Buzz layer" to a Google map to see nearby contacts. Another neat feature of the mobile app is the ability to speak a Buzz post into your phone instead of typing.

It's difficult to form an opinion on Buzz at this point, considering the only other person who seems to be on it is my colleague Max Chafkin. Given the mediocre reception of Google Wave, I'm not quite sure Buzz will generate much excitement. But the network's integration with Gmail might make it a no-brainer for fans of the webmail program. Apparently Google has a business-friendly version of the program in the works as well, so stay tuned.

The service is free to both lawyers and prospective clients. Here's how it works: Companies post a description of a legal problem that will be viewed only by lawyers registered with LawBidding. Posts can be anonymous, though a location is required. Lawyers can browse case descriptions and make bids based on a flat fee, hourly rate, or contingency. Prospective clients can check out each bidder's profile page, including information pertaining to state licenses, and communicate with lawyers over public and private threads. There is no obligation to accept a bid.

LawBidding, which was founded by corporate attorney Nick Cronin, currently has more than 300 open cases related to a variety of issues, including employment law, partnerships, and trademarks. There are more than 1,000 lawyers registered on the site. Even if a company doesn't find the right fit, the site could, at the very least, be a good resource for pricing out legal representation.

There is a handful of companies under the business category as of today. For example, Razorfish, the interactive marketing agency, has 21 presentations posted on its SlideShare site, which has 231 followers. The White House has a channel under the non-profit/government category that features more than 1,000 documents, along with translations of Presidential speeches and several presentations. The site has more than 500 followers so far.

The new channel offering comes on the heels of Slideshare's other business-friendly services, including AdShare, which helps you do targeted promotion of content, and LeadShare, which lets you collect information on viewers. So far, the company isn't saying how much the channels will cost.

The clamshell device, which sports a red exterior, weighs just 3.8 pounds total. The detachable tablet weighs 1.6 pounds. Each mode supports more than five hours of Web browsing and 60 hours of standby. The device also has an integrated video camera and a microphone with echo cancellation. It will be available on June 1 for $999, according to Lenovo's press release.

I'm heading to CES tomorrow, and I plan to check out the IdeaPad, as well as Lenovo's new business laptops. Stay tuned for more posts on these and other new gadgets!

Of course, some of the posts are more practical, including this handy roundup of holiday travel tips, which explains the latest TSA guidelines regarding liquids, family lanes, food (you can carry on pie, but dips and spreads must be checked), and even snow globes. The post includes a link to a printable PDF with helpful hints for holiday travelers. Happy trails!

Originally, Huddle was offering a Kindle to winners of the contest, but switched the prize after receiving a "flurry of user feedback demanding an alternative," according to the announcement.

Huddle's paid subscriptions start at $15 a month for five online workspaces with project and collaboration tools and 2.5 GB of storage.

Featured on the site today is the OK to Wake! Alarm Clock ($29.99), which parents can set to turn green when kids are allowed to leave their bedrooms (I wished that worked for one year olds!), and the TAC drive, a 1 GB USB flash drive encased in rugged metal ($25). Based on the low number of comments currently on the home page, the contests don't seem to be getting a huge amount of attention, but the overall concept is appealing, especially for entrepreneurs looking for new ways to increase product awareness.

To submit your product for consideration, fill out a form on the company site that asks for information such as your bio, company story, and available inventory.

Price: The base model, which costs $449, comes with 2 GB of memory, an Intel Celeron 743 processor, and a Linux operating system by Ubuntu. For $649, you'll get 2 GB of memory, Windows 7, and an Intel Core 2 Duo processor.

One big drawback is the mat's cover, which looks like a reusable grocery bag and doesn't exactly scream "titan of business." The mat, which also is being marketed as a shiatsu-style massager, is available for $24.85 at Magellan's, an online travel accessory store.

One thing I noticed at the CES preview is that Global Positioning Systems are still a hot item even though they've been around for a while. One interesting new gadget at the preview was Rand McNally's Intelliroute TND 500 Navigation system. The system, designed for trucking businesses, finds roads and bridges that accommodate truck, height, and weight. It also takes into account hazardous cargo. The Intelliroute is available on Amazon.com and costs $499.99 for a 5-inch portable GPS device, windshield mount, truck charger, home chrager, and USB cable.

Check out The Goods this February for more information about GPS for consumers.