With the world increasingly working on the go, are you sure you’re packing the right tools? Technology is increasingly making it possible to work from almost anywhere. With this flexibility comes a host of benefits – enhanced productivity, better quality of life, and even improved health. But to fully realise the potential of the mobile workplace, you need to make sure you’re packing the right tools. Download our free white paper to get the latest insights, advice and tips.

Intel's Virtual Booth Explorer was created as a way for demo teams within Intel to extend the reach and life of the demos that they create. So much time and effort goes into creating a demonstration for a show, that it only makes sense to try to capture that demo and make it available to others that could not attend the show. 

Think of all the passwords you have to remember on a daily basis. You have one to log on to your PC, one for your e-mail, one for your favorite social media site—and the list goes on. For many people, having a dozen different user names and passwords is normal. When you’re dealing with trying to recall all those log-ons, you’re bound to forget one or two.

We understand that you want convenience. That’s why we’ve developed a solution to help you simplify your digital lifestyle. Face Recognition is an innovative technology that allows you to log into your laptop, and all your important cloud services and websites, using a single sign-on. Because Face Recognition logs you into your websites using your most personal feature—your face— there’s no need to recall dozens of user names and passwords. It’s all done by simply sitting in front of the computer so the webcam can capture your image.

Face Recognition works with your laptop’s webcam. Launch the setup Wizard for HP ProtectTools from the HP Advisor toolbar and select “Face Recognition.” You will now be guided through a brief enrollment, during which the software takes sample pictures of your face. If the lighting is too dark—for example, if you’re on an airplane—the software will brighten your screen, turning your display to all white in order to light up your face. It will then recapture your picture, and log you on. Once the software builds a complete portfolio, it will no longer ask for re-enrollment.

Once the software has captured a few images, you’re set to go. You can log in to your laptop, as well as your favorite sites using Face Recognition for HP ProtectTools. At most websites that require a password, a window pops up over your browser and gives you the option to log in using Face Recognition—quick and easy.

From your Windows® log-in to e-mail access, from online shopping websites to social networking sites, and even travel sites, all you have to do is look at your screen and you’re in. Thanks to Face Recognition for HP ProtectTools, your face becomes your password.

This is a guest post from Melissa Ziegler on our US sister blog, 367 Addison Avenue.

The Innovator’s Dilemma, by Clayton Christensen, is a book about disuptive innovation and business. He differentiates two types of innovation: sustaining innovations which are incremental improvements on existing products – faster, smaller, better, cheaper – and disruptive innovations which represent something completely new in the market.

Enhance or disrupt?

Following our recent post on next-generation UIs, it seemed like a good idea to think about how to turn innovation into products. In particular, what should developers do with insights from academia and research labs like Microsoft’s?

Can you use them to enhance an existing product? For example, could you add augmented reality to an existing product? Or disrupt the market, perhaps by developing an altogether new product using a breakthrough technology?

If anything’s possible what’s important?

Sometimes user interface innovation takes a while to reach the market. After all, Douglas Engelbart invented the mouse in the 60s but we only started using them with computers in the 80s. Other times, new user interface paradigms spread more quickly, as with web browsers or Kinect technology. The challenge is to pick your bets.

Innovation on a budget

Just because smaller companies can’t afford big labs of their own, it doesn’t mean that they can afford to opt out of R&D. Here are some tips for innovating on a budget:

• Get help. The Government’s Technology Strategy Board can help you with grants, knowledge transfer and innovation centres. Check out NESTA’s Creative Enterprise Toolkit.
• Get inspired. Stay in touch with Microsoft Research and check out other online resources, such as TED and Phil McKinney’s Killer Innovations blog.
• Get in touch. Organisations like NESTA, the British Library’s Business and IP Centre and the RSA can help you link up with like-minded people from different disciplines and get help.
• Get brains. Talk to your local university. They all have business liaison departments.

This is a guest post from our friends at Microsoft MSDN and Ubelly.