Networking technology and virtual desktops are set to make office space redundant.

A study produced by a think tank and the Institute of Directors predicts that virtual desktops are leading to a reduced demand for office space. Companies are using new technology to work from a variety of locations such as at home or on the road and only using an office when they book a conference room for meetings with clients.

Dave Coplin, national technology officer at Microsoft UK, said, "Companies will be a bit more aggressive with how much office space they need. The savings in the short term will be around office space.

At best, 55% of office space is used at any one time, leaving 45% unused. That is 45% of your office costs."

This means that in years to come social networking technology and virtual desktops will help businesses to be more efficient and to deliver better services to their clients. With schemes already in place, such as booking bureaus as and when needed, it seems inevitable that virtual desktops are the way forward for commercial organisations.

Mr Coplin said of the changing technology tides, "We have talked for a while about the death of the desk phone. Now we are talking about the death of the desk. It’s not just about working from home. There are compelling reasons for working from a variety of locations."

The networking bug already seems to be having a significant impact across business hubs like London, Birmingham and Manchester, with more and more businesses realising the benefits it can offer.

Kaweah Delta Health Care in California is to hand out Apple iPads to their employees in an attempt to replace the traditional laptop.

With the Citrix technology implemented, known as Citrix XenApp, employees will be able to view ECG results, monitor patients and study x-ray images, also taking advantage of iPad's multi-touch capabilities and pinch-zoom technology.

With an increased battery life when compared to laptops, and a considerably easier and swifter power-on-and-off process, the iPad would appear a fine replacement for the conventional laptop.

Director of technical services at the health care institute, Nick Volosin, said "We’re giving users full access to a full virtual desktop. They can run anything we can run internally."

The institute is currently testing three iPads in different departments on a trial-basis, but it is hoped that this new technology will be implemented soon. Citrix, who are developing the application, will soon release Citrix XenApp 6, which will feature greater enhancements, advanced management capabilities and improved scalability.

It is not known if this technology will be implemented into hospitals in the UK as the iPad has recently suffered long delays in reaching European retailers, but is currently expected to become available on May 10^th of this year.

Origin Storage has today revealed new laptop encryption software called the Enigma SED. 

The self-encrpyted drive has been designed to secure laptops should they become lost or fall into the wrong hands. Security is a major factor for many businesses, particularly those with mobile workers, and Origin Storage are hoping the new Enigma SED could be the quick, cost-effective solution companies have been looking for. 

It's been on display at the Infosecurity Europe exhibition which is taking place from today until Thursday at Earl's Court in London. 

The Enigma SED conforms to the latest Trusted Computing Group OPAL Self-Encrypting Drive standard and provides permanent full disk encryption, which means there's no loss of speed when reading or writing data. 

"With over 3500 laptops going missing every week in European airports and the average cost of a data breach to an organisation is currently at £1.7 million (€1.87 million); it's now imperative that organisations take extra precautions to protect the data stored on all their computer systems, especially laptops," said Origin Storage's Andy Cordial.

"With the recent introduction of the ICO fines that will bring higher financial penalties to organisations that fail to implement measures to safe guard data, the Enigma SED range has a vast target market, ranging from SMB users to Local Authorities."

The Enigma SED can be set so that all the data on your laptop is automatically encrypted which makes data management easy, while self-help passwords make it simple for you to re-access your files. It is 100% compatible with SATA based notebooks which have been specifically designed for the SME market and is due to go on sale later this year. 

T-Mobile has been named as the best mobile broadband provider in the UK following tests by Broadband Genie. 

Mobile broadband dongles from the UK's top operators were tested over the course of one long train journey in terms of megabit speed and reliability and T-Mobile came out on top. The tests took place over the course of a 350 mile journey from Bournemouth to Cambridge and found that speeds and reliability varied greatly from area to area. 

The dongles were tested on upload and download speeds and were tested on streaming content from BBC iPlayer and Spotify. The top speed reached was 3 megabits per second but the average was only 1 megabit per second, highlighting the unreliable nature of many mobile broadband dongles.

The tests also showed a significant variation in upload speeds, with Virgin Mobile beating the rest with a speed of 1.6 megabits per second. The results are vastly improved upon 2009 but showed some operators' services were more than double the speed of others. 

"Getting mobile broadband to work well on the move presents some real problems for providers, especially in more rural areas," said Chris Marling from Broadband Genie. "But as we work towards establishing a universal minimum standard for UK broadband, these challenges need to be met."

Home workers are being urged to do their home work when it comes to insurance. The growing trend for home working means that more and more people are choosing to take a step away from the office and a step towards their home. A recent survey showed that 69% of workers would work from home if given the opportunity. 

Whilst working from home might seem fairly easy, many seem to forget the need for insurance. Insurance is needed in case there's an accident, loss or theft of some kind and should be ideally obtained before starting any work from home. 

Many people seem to think that self-employed insurance is reserved for just (you guessed it!) the self-employed and mobile workers but home workers can also be covered by this kind of insurance. 

"Home workers do need to consider the insurance implications because equipment used for commercial purposes may not be adequately covered or covered at all by a standard home insurance policy, particularly if removed from the home," said Mark Bishop from insurance group Cornhill Direct. 

And it's not just yourself that you need to consider when working from home. If you invite customers into your home on a regular basis then it's definitely worth taking out public liability insurance to cover yourself on any grounds of legality. 

If home working continues to grow at the current pace then it's clear that home workers will need to spend money and invest in insurance now or risk being out of pocket at a critical later date. 

Tesco Mobile is attempting to boost its market share by offering customers an attractive 12 month plan for the iPhone. 

Last week the supermarket announced they would be offering a 3G handset for £100 with a 12 month contract at £35 a month. They're also offering a 16GB 3GS handset for £200 and a 32GB 3GS model for £275. All deals work out at £35 a month, including unlimited texts, data, WiFi and 750 minutes. 

The news is just the latest announcement from a string of operators which mean it's now more affordable than ever to own an iPhone. When Apple originally launched the iPhone in 2007, prices started at around £269 upfront along with a £35 monthly fee. iPhone users also had to sign up to a contract that was at least 18 months long. 

"Tesco Mobile's iPhone tariffs have been very popular," said Tesco's Lance Batchelor. "We've now made them even better with a lower upfront cost for an iPhone and a new 12-month contract."

Sole rights to sell the device were originally granted to O2 but Apple later relaxed the rules to allow Orange, Vodafone and Tesco to get a piece of the action. The low prices are believed to be the result of the imminent release of the 4th generation iPhone, which could be in the shops as soon as July.

The 4th generation model is expected to have better functions such as multi-tasking which are bound to attract mobile consumers who use the device to work productively on the move.

Since its release 3 years ago, hundreds of thousands of users have been drawn to the handset - 8 million devices were sold in the last quarter alone. Both consumers and mobile workers now regard the iPhone as their most important device thanks to its great features and useful applications. 

Sharp have unveiled 3D technology which does not require users to wear glasses. This new development means 3D technology on mobile devices like smartphones and digital cameras could be one step closer to becoming reality.

The Japanese electronics company has forecast the technology will be available on around 10-20% of small displays on the market in the coming year. Sharp have said they will start mass production in September and the technology will be installed on a number of their devices. The firm are also believed to be in talks with mobile manufacturers.

How does it work? The product consists of an LCD screen, which has a "switch panel" attached to it. When the clever panel is turned on, a fine grating appears over the panel which blocks light from the screen travelling in different directions. This results in the left and right eye seeing different parts of the panel which creates a 3D effect.

What are the negatives? The technology hasn't been adapted for TVs yet because the 3D effect is only created when users view the panel from a certain direction and angle. According to the Financial Times, the technology only works effectively when you stand directly infront of it and hold it about 30cms away from you. This means it's much more practical for mobile devices which only have one user, compared to televisions.

The display screen is around 3.4 inches across which is similar size to that of a Nintendo DSi. Although the two firms are based closed to each other in the Kansai region of Japan, it's not yet known if the technology will be installed in the new games console which Nintendo are launching later this year.

Developers at Sharp insist that the new technology will just be the latest step up for mobile devices.

"Just like the switch from monochrome to colour, in the future we are going to see a shift from 2D to 3D," said Yoshisuke Hasegawa from Sharp's LCD business.

Ordnance Survey Ireland is believed to be in talks with Apple about providing digital maps for iPhone applications.

The talks come after OSI released their online mapping service MapGenie last month. MapGenie provides access to map data using geodatabases obtained by OSI and LPS. Unlike other free mapping services, MapGenie does require a third party cost nut OSI say in the future OSI would be willing to discuss flexible pricing options.

 All the data from MapGenie is stored on OS' own server so companies don't need to spend lots of money to store the information.

MapGenie is not designed to compete with free online services like Microsoft Bing or Google Maps and can be used with existing web software tools. The business-to-business service is aimed at organisations who need maps of the entire country.

“We believe our data is more accurate, more detailed and it’s maintained consistently across the country. Others might be patchy or city-specific," said Hugh Mangan from OSI. "We see the customers for MapGenie coming in a roughly 50-50 split from our existing customer base and new customers.”

Mobile workers and consumers use map services on their smart phones on a daily basis to help them find their way to important client meetings. The iPhone application argreement would mark a major deal for OSI and could potentially be worth millions of pounds.

Are you constantly trying to find signal on your mobile device? If your mobile's signal is so bad that you keep missing all important calls at home then you might be interested in a new piece of technolgy. 

Femtocells have been around for more than 3 years but could finally be about to hit the commercial market in the UK, according to an article in The Independent. A femtocell is a 3G phone mast which sits in your office or living room and connects back to the mobile network via your fixed broadband line and... voila - perfect signal! 

Femtocells increase signal strength and also increase battery life because your phone isn't constantly trying to connect to the network. A satisfied customer from Northumberland has elegantly said, "Finally, I feel like I'm not living in a hole anymore."

While the mention of phone masts in your own home might cause initial alarm, you'll be pleased to hear femtocells are incredibly low powered so health risks are kept to a minimum.

Previously mobile phone companies have been reluctant to market these products in the UK because it means admitting that they are providing an inadequate service but that could all be about to change. Vodafone decided to relaunch their femtocell a few weeks ago under the imaginative name of "Sure Signal". 

Sure Signals cost £50 a go but could mark a new generation for mobile networks. If femtocells prove to be popular it could eliminate the need to build unsightly phone masts, which would save operators millions of pounds a year. 

While femtocells might prove to be popular in some areas of the UK, cheap services like Skype and Truphone means operators will definitely have a fight on their hands to keep hold of customers in the near future. 

The launch of Windows 7 has led to a growing number of firms taking on various VDI programmes, according to new figures.

Microsoft's senior product manager for virtualisation Ian Carlson has said that the "VDI revolution" has now commenced because it gives more agility to mobile workers and more business continuity to companies.

 “A year ago, desktop virtualisation would have been a narrow conversation around VDI, but we are beginning to see this broaden out," he said.

Ian claims that Microsoft, which spends around $8 billion every year on research and development, has now begun to invest heavily in virtual desktop technology. In particular they've been focussing on solving virtualisation issues, enabling one-to-one mapping for shift workers and enabling technologies which suit a wide variety of industries.

“Virtualisation is a critical and strategic investment area for Microsoft. We think of virtualisation as a management technology," Ian said. "Is it an infrastructure technology? Absolutely, but it really is the ability to manage disaster recovery, performance, and workloads dynamically."

He says that businesses are now keener than ever before to have a system where they can deploy one application centrally instead of from machine to machine. One of the biggest issues which is believed to be holding some companies back is the fear of application compatibility if they move to a new OS, however with the huge growth in virtual desktops in the last few months it looks like this could soon turn out to be an unfounded fear.