Editor's Corner

The other risk mobile devices bring into play
With the advent of winter, flu season and the inevitable cold that's bound to hit all of us in the next few months, it's not a bad time to look at one of the real worker productivity risks that comes into play within a mobile working environment--the germ factor. Don't laugh too loud--an in-depth feature at Computerworld on this topics offers up some good insight and strategies for both IT leaders and users to make sure that nasty germs don't put productivity behind. E. coli, salmonella, staph infections, streptococcus and Klebsiella pneumonia--do any of these sound enticing to you? Well, they're all likely sitting right alongside you, laying quietly on your phone, mouse and keyboard. And while there are a lot of cleaning products that can thwart germ growth, interestingly enough, there are actually new mobile products coming to market that are using special coating materials to create antimicrobial phones, keyboards and mice. I kid you not. There's actually a mouse called the Iogear Germ Free Wireless Laser Mouse which automatically protects users from germs and bacteria using an auto-disinfecting surface. - Judy