SanDisk developing 128GB MicroSD cards for a 2011 release

It’s generally accepted that flash memory eventually doubles in capacity and apparently SanDisk is looking towards the future when 128 GB MicroSD cards are available. ‘cording to the Deccan Herald and SanDisk’s CEO though, those cards will not be available until 2011 and I am assuming they will be of the new SDHC flavor. Seeing as the largest widely available MicroSDHC card is currently only a 8 GB and 16 GB flavors coming real soon, it might just take over two years for us to see 128GB MicroSDHC cards. Just think of all the crap you can load on your phone when you have 128GB of room!

ZoomProspector helps you relocate your business

A new commercial real estate site is opening its doors Tuesday: ZoomProspector. It’s designed to help businesses find communities for new offices or plants, and then find the properties that fit their needs.

The service collects business stats on cities and counties, and lets you explore those in a clean interface. More importantly, it lets you search for communities that meet the criteria that matter to you. If you want a fast-growing, white-collar community near an active entrepreneurial ecosystem and a major airport, you probably already know where to look. But if you need to site and staff a manufacturing plant and are looking for community stability and an underemployed blue-collar workforce, there are options you may not know about. This service should help you find and compare them.

The ZoomProspector team gets its data from a variety of sources and has deals with chambers of commerce and commercial real estate companies to pull it all together. I saw an earlier beta of the site and found it hard to use, but I like the version that’s being released Tuesday. I did find the “wizard” that walks you through community selection too linear, but you can skip it and enter in your criteria directly to search the database if you like.

The service will also connect you with consultants who specialize in industries or locations, as well as economic development agencies that can help you grease the skids when you get interested in a locale.

One might think it is a bad time to launch a real estate site, either commercial or residential, but in the coming months business owners who want to survive will be forced to take a very clinical view of their operations, which includes siting. This tool could help.

Brokers and Landlord listings

Almost happy halloween!

Allied Properties
Downtown Area Office Space
Financial Core Office Space
Midtown Office Space
Metrus Properties
Emery Investments

Support OfficeSearchToronto.com.  Call us to simplifiy your search, for free.  416-992-9869 or chris@officesearchtoronto.com.

Please note the attached office space is not listed with OfficeSearchToronto.com

Telecommuting Talking Points [Telecommuting]

This works great for me!… actually I find myself more productive at home without people constantly stopping by.

Link

by Gina Trapani

Wired magazine columnist (and friend of Lifehacker) Brendan I. Koerner makes the case for companies to ditch their offices entirely and let all their employees telecommute to work. Nuts? Maybe, but in a time of budget crunches and sky-high gas prices, it can save both the company and its workers a whole lot of scratch—plus up productivity.

Last year, researchers from Penn State analyzed 46 studies of telecommuting conducted over two decades and covering almost 13,000 employees. Their sweeping inquiry concluded that working from home has “favorable effects on perceived autonomy, work-family conflict, job satisfaction, performance, turnover intent, and stress.” The only demonstrable drawback is a slight fraying of the relationships between telecommuters and their colleagues back at headquarters — largely because of jealousy on the part of the latter group. That’s the first problem you solve when you kill your office.

While big companies with dozens of established offices (and leases) probably won’t take this advice, if you’re trying to make the case to your boss for telecommuting (even once or twice a week), this article’s a good reference point.

Print2pdf Adds Advanced PDF Conversion to Windows

Perfect for sending offers, brokers letters and the like.

by Kevin Purdy

Windows only: Free PDF conversion tool Print2PDF isn’t as click-and-go friendly as a tool like doPDF, but it does offer a serious amount of control over the looks, permissions, and security of your PDFs. Like other PDF apps, Print2PDF installs itself as a printer, but after you hit “Print,” you can add watermarks, passwords, change the read/edit/print permissions, add attachments and auto-email, manually change the compression levels, and do much more. Print2PDF also integrates itself directly into Microsoft Word, Excelt, and Internet Explorer, and supports encryption for sensitive documents. It’s probably more than the average home user needs, but office workers may find its options seriously handy. Print2PDF is a free download for Windows systems only.

Link

Tools and fun

ShowDocument
If you’re in need of a quick and simple way to share a document with a few other people at the same time, worth checking out is ShowDocument.

Coud Contacts
Here’s a time saver if you don’t have an assistant.  Cloud Contacts. It’s a simple service: You send it your business cards, and it enters them all into a format you can import into the contact manager of your choice. An existing scanning service company, Shoeboxed, announced a similar service Monday morning, adding it to the company’s receipt scanning service.

Pective
Say you’re shopping for laptops online and you’re trying to figure out how big one is just by its product photo and measurements. It’s not easy is it?

Journal Live – tracking your employees

Think you can use this tool to see where your employees are spending their time?  Facebook anyone?

Windows only: See how much time you spend instant messaging friends and crafting PowerPoint presentations with time tracker app JournalLive. JournalLive logs everything you do on a computer, from gaming to email, including who you communicate with and what documents you’re working on in applications. It automatically generates all sorts of reports for tracking productivity on the web site, including timesheets—perfect for keeping recording billable hours. The pro edition allows managers to track employees, presumably so hard workers can be recognized and shirkers sent to human resources for a stern lecture. The personal edition is free, the professional edition costs €10 per user, for Windows only.

Link

Market Information

Commercial real estate faces pinch – The Canadian commercial real estate market will be hit by shockwaves emanating from the economic crisis in the United States next year, according to a report by the Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. However in 2009 the Canadian market is more likely to be in for a tough slog rather than the full-blown disaster unfolding in the U.S., according to the report, which included feedback from more than 700 industry members.
Globe and Mail, Oct 22, 2008

GO eyeing Union Station as site for head office – GO Transit, a major user of Union Station, is considering a move of its head office into the historic city-owned building slated for an overdue facelift. He and others refused to say whether GO is the prospective tenant identified only as a “third party” expressing interest in a long-term lease of 87,300 square feet of the vacant west wing of the station. The potential lease arrangement is to be debated at council’s government management committee today.
Globe and Mail, Oct 21, 2008

Morguard increase Revenue Property interest to 86.4% – morguard.com – MRT.UN-T – Morguard Corporation has acquired an additional 201,326 common shares of Revenue Properties Company Limited through the facilities of the Toronto Stock Exchange at a price per Share of $11.50. Morguard now owns 9,123,157 Shares representing approximately 86.4% of the issued and outstanding Shares. The Shares were acquired in connection with Morguard’s previously announced intention to acquire all of the remaining outstanding Shares not already owned by Morguard and its affiliates.
Canada News Wire, Oct 23, 2008 Canada News Wire, Oct 23, 2008

Falling dollar to shave Brookfield results – brookfieldproperties.com – BPO-T – The sinking Canadian dollar is creating another headache for Brookfield Properties whose investors are already pained by the decline in their shares as fears spread about the deterioration of the U.S. financial services sector. Brookfield, which owns 108 high-end office properties in the downtown cores of cities including New York, Toronto and Calgary, reports in U.S. dollars but collects a large portion of its rents in Canadian funds.
Globe and Mail, Oct 24, 2008

Oxford has plans for Yorkville eyesore – oxfordproperties.com – Oxford Properties is aiming to redevelop its Cumberland Terrace shopping mall. It’s currently home to hobby shops, discount electronics stores and basement food court. Oxford representatives freely admit that the commercial property, which it has owned since 1999, is a troubling eyesore. The company wants to replace it with two glass condominium towers – 45 and 36 storeys – along with nine residential villas to be perched atop a street-level retail platform.
Globe and Mail, Oct 24, 2008

Task Coach Portable

I’m going to give this a try… maybe you should too?

by Gina Trapani

Previously mentioned to-do manager Task Coach is now available as a standalone, portable version, fit for taking your tasks (and subtasks) along with you on your thumb drive. Update: Task Coach Portable has available, but it just got updated yesterday. [via]

Toronto Financial Core Office Space

Here’s series 3 of the office space that has recently come out in Downtown Toronto.

Toronto office space – Financial Core

To book a tour call us at 416-992-9869 or email chris@officesearchtoronto.com

Please note the attached office psace is not listed with OfficeSearchToronto.com

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