Posted on: January 8th, 2013 by DPhayre
You are doing all you can for your organization. You have a website and a blog. You are getting your name out there via social media sites. Now you hear that you need a tablet to truly help your business thrive. But tablets are costly and you are not actually sure why you would need one or how it could be useful.
Reasons You Need a Tablet
There are actually many reasons why employing a tablet in your business can be helpful. It’s an excellent tool and here are a few reasons why it might be beneficial.
- Amazing presentations: Tablets allow you to have easy access to your presentation and portfolios. It is not necessary to wait for a computer to boot up. You can simply show your prospective client what you do. These un-wasted minutes could be the distinction between a new client and a missed opportunity.
- State-of-the-Art: Being up-to-date in the world of technology can wow possible clients. And, these days, tablets seem to be on the cutting edge of technology. This is applicable to most fields, but particularly in the fields of marketing or technology. People are reassured when a person who works with technology is up on the latest and greatest.
- Information at your fingertips: Say you are a real estate agent trying to determine how much your clients should offer for that house on the corner. With your tablet computer, you can instantly discover that the home three doors down sold for $250,000 a few weeks ago. Armed with this information, you can confidently advise your clients, and you can be assured that your clients will tell their friends and family members that you relied on actual market information when advising them.
- Signing documents is a breeze: There are so many applications available that can enhance your processes. With a tablet you no longer need to transport paperwork. Everything you need can be saved on your tablet. Your customers can sign any paperwork on your tablet as well. You can then email these documents minus the added step of transferring files to your computer.
Posted on: December 18th, 2012 by DPhayre
Those of us who have smartphones love them, but we realize they have one big fault. Their batteries do not last long enough. You can send emails, listen to music, and make calls, but all smartphones are limited by their battery life. While there are several companies working to improve this issue, there are a few things that you can do with your current phone to increase its battery life.
Dimming that smartphone screen
A bright, cluttered screen display sucks the life out of batteries. By switching your screen’s brightness level to the lowest you can endure, you’ll already be doing a lot to increase the lifespan of your smartphone’s battery.
Screen lighting
You can also change the number of seconds your screen stays lit once you have touched it. The more your screen stays lit once you have stopped using it, the more your battery will deplete.
Bluetooth
A Bluetooth device is a massive drain on your battery as well. As it is continuously looking for outside signals, it is continuously draining your battery. So when you are in meetings or not expecting calls, shutting it off can make your smartphone battery last a lot longer.
Posted on: December 4th, 2012 by DPhayre
When new technology comes out, we snatch it up, and a month later we can’t imagine what life was like without it. But what about the technology that it replaced? We have a tendency to forget about that as it quickly fades into history. For instance, the telephone: our phones today do so much and landlines are quickly getting phased out. Yes, many people still use them but it’s not difficult to imagine a near future where they will be gone completely from households.
Here’s a look at some other key pieces of technology that were once essential and are now on their way to becoming useless. In fact, a number of these gizmos might become obsolete during the next 10 years.
Fax Machines: Most people hate sending faxes; it is old technology. There was a time when it was cutting edge, but don’t be surprised if this is one technology that quickly ends up in the “Remember this?” classification.
Newspaper Classified Ads: Recently The Huffington Post stated that classifieds are on the endangered species list. This is mainly due to sites like Craigslist which provide massive forums for people to search classifieds and add their own for free. This opportunity may have put the nail in the coffin for newspaper classified ads.
Film-Based Cameras: Digital cameras have transformed the art of taking photos. Once venerable, Kodak has felt the brunt of this revolution, and the company is no longer making cameras. Consumers like digital cameras because they can instantly print their photos, and they can dump photos that they don’t like without having to pay a cent. This has significantly decreased the lifespan of the traditional film-based camera.
The Calculator Watch: In its short-lived life; the calculator watch was a well-loved item. It made it easy to always have a calculator handy when you needed one. When cell phones with built in calculators came into existence, the calculator watch went out the window. It’s pretty obvious why PCWorld listed it as an obsolete technology.
The Video Arcade: The video arcade may be dying also. Older gamers remember hoarding quarters so they could later feed them into Pac-Man and Space Invaders consoles at their hometown malls.
Those days are gone, though. Gamers today prefer experiencing their video adventures from the comfort of their own homes.
Posted on: November 20th, 2012 by DPhayre
The Power of the Retina Display
One recent example of a company who is doing this right is Apple. Apple’s new Retina display provides the clearest images and videos compared to any other. This is because of its 2,048-by-1,536-pixel resolution. Digital
Trends recently wrote an intriguing article about it, and it seems like Apple isn’t stopping there.
Arming the MacBook Pro with High-Tech Visuals
What does Apple have planned next? Apparently they are going to release a line of MacBook Pros with a resolution of 2,880-by-1,800 pixels and a 15-inch screen. This is twice the clarity of the current MacBook Pro line. The concept is that by constantly enhancing the pixel density the human eye will ultimately be unable to differentiate the individual pixels. The human eye will then see the images as single continuous tones rather then a grid. This makes the images virtually flawless.
Not a New Technology
An interesting fact is that this is not actually a new technology. The U.S. military has been utilizing it in their flight simulators for quite some time. And IBM uses retina technology in their massive super-computers. However, until now, the technology hasn’t been available on the mass market. You can bet that after this next advancement is released, consumers will be anxiously expecting the next advancement. So, Apple has the right idea to stay ahead of its competitors as far as screen technology goes.
Posted on: November 17th, 2012 by DPhayre
You’ve probably heard the term “data center,” but you’re unlikely to know what they are unless you’ve toured one. This brief article will give you the very basic facts.
A data center is an expansive warehouse-like facility that’s designed specifically to house thousands of servers. They have numerous very high-speed connections to the Internet, redundant power, fire suppression systems, and stringent physical security. Simply put, a data center is the very best place you could house your server equipment.
Location is Key
Despite the fact that data is transported at nearly the speed of light on the Internet, the physical location of individual data centers is still a major consideration. In order to deliver services within seconds to any user in the world, data centers must be situated strategically for optimal economy and efficiency. For instance, the Amazon CloudFront service takes advantage of dozens of highly dispersed data centers to reduce latency and ensure reliability. Las Vegas is especially well-suited for data centers because it’s less prone to natural disasters than most other places in the world.
Interior Design
As with all electronics, heat is the number one killer of servers. That’s why heat dissipation is key to the performance of any given data center. Servers are stored in racks and organized in rows so HVAC cooling systems can keep them cool. Facilities like Microsoft’s Tukwila data center also boast huge banks of emergency batteries and massive diesel backup generators to ensure an uninterruptible power supply in the event of a power outage.
Energy & Environment
Data centers use massive amounts of power and strive to make their facilities as energy-efficient as possible. Thanks to abundant renewable energy provided by hydroelectric dams, the Pacific Northwest is a popular region for the construction of data centers. The Switch SuperNAP data center in Las Vegas is a prime example of a data center that takes energy-efficiency and innovation to the next level.
The Future of Data Centers
As the adoption of cloud computing increases, the demand for data centers will grow, especially in areas like Las Vegas where the climate is favorable, and there is available land and a lower occurrence of natural disasters. Cobalt Data Centers is scheduled to open Dec. 3 of this year, and offers amenities for its customers including a business center, lounge, kitchen, and conference rooms. Viawest is in the process of opening their new Lone Mountain facility, and other data centers in Las Vegas are likely to expand their footprint to meet the increasing demand.
Posted on: October 23rd, 2012 by DPhayre
Workers who trudge into an office every day are jealous of people who work from home. After all, the work-from-home crowd does not have to battle rush-hour traffic, listen to office gossip, or even get dressed.
The grass is always greener right. But the truth is, people who work from home have their own list of issues to deal with. The main one being that it’s hard for them to stop working. When your work place is also where you unwind, it can be difficult to transition. It’s not unusual that these people start working and then 11 hours later realize that they are still working.
Luckily, there are some things individuals who work from home can do to help them keep the balance between there personal home life and their work home life.
- Set up a time for your “close of business”: And stick to it. Be it 5 p.m. or 8 p.m. you should resolve to shut off your computer and close your office door for the night. Resist the temptation to write one more paragraph or make one more sales call. Also, ensure your workday is a normal 8 or 9-hour day.
- Do something for yourself: When your day ends, make sure you do something for yourself. It doesn’t need to be much. Watch a TV show, work out, or read something non-work related. This habit will help you regardless of when you have set your workday to end. This can be something simple: Maybe you want to take it easy on the couch and stream a few episodes of your favorite sitcom. Or it can be a bigger deal, such as a dinner date with a friend or a trip to the movies. Taking a mental break will help get you mentally out of your work.
- Leave the house: It’s easy as a work-from-homer to spend all of your time at home. You look up, see it’s the end of the week, and realize that the only time you left your house was to go to the grocery store when you ran out of cereal. Don’t become a work-from-home shut-in. It’s simply not healthy.
Overwork leads to stress, whether you work from home, in an office, or out in the field. The key to holding onto your sanity, no matter how you work, is to reserve non-work time for yourself.
So what happens if you can’t force yourself to shut off the workday if you work from home? Maybe it’s time to consider returning to the office, where there’s always someone around to shut off those lights and chase you out of your cubicle.
Posted on: October 2nd, 2012 by DPhayre
Have you ever been curious, in this country of invention, what creative ideas are sprouting? Google has made it possible for you to explore this with Google Patents.
The Wonderful World of Google Patents
Haven’t heard of Google Patents? You’re not alone. This offering by the Internet search giant Google is an intriguing one. It lets you peer into the future – or at least a potential future – by viewing the numerous patents issued by the United States. As you may imagine, the patents range from the serious – new ways of delivering vaccinations – to the absurd – an electronic pickle jar game. By merely plugging random words in the Google Patents search engine, you can sift through these useful and arguably useless futuristic marvels.
Organizing the World’s Information
Google has stated that its main mission is to organize the world’s information and Google Patents is one part of that mission. The data that you access when you browse within Google Patents originates from the United
States Patent and Trademark Office. All patents issued in the U.S. are public domain, so that makes it very effortless for Google to access such a searchable database. And this is no small database; it covers patents that have been issued in the United States from 1790 to the present!
A Patent History Lesson
Because of the amount of time the site covers you can get a view of advancements in technology over a long time period. You can see the patent given to Alexander Graham Bell in 1880 for an automatic short-circuiter for telephones or the patent granted to Thomas Edison in 1889 for the incandescent electric lamp. If you wish to get a glimpse of where we came from and where we are going, take a little time studying Google Patents.
>
Posted on: September 21st, 2012 by DPhayre
The telephone has been an important tool for businesses communication since shortly after its invention in the late 19th century. With its ability to provide real-time, transcontinental communication, the telephone revolutionized the speed at which business takes place.
Even with the invention of the personal computer and email, the telephone still reigns supreme. While many transactions take place via email in a manner more similar to telephone’s predecessor, the telegraph, email cannot replicate the personal nature and speed of voice communication. It is clear that email will only supplement the telephone; it will not replace it.
But new technology is merging these two technologies. Voice over IP (VoIP) technology is allowing businesses to harness the infrastructure of the Internet and implement fully-functional telephone systems without relying on the big names in traditional telephone service.
Instead of relying on traditional telephone lines, VoIP runs through the ever-growing network of Internet cables. Because of this, international communication spanning oceans can be more reliable and cost-effective. Phone lines become congested quickly; Internet lines, on the other hand, can handle several orders of magnitude more data at a time. Compared to videos, voice communications take up very little bandwidth.
Further, VoIP systems allow businesses to configure and seamlessly expand their telephone systems. While traditional phone networks depend on specialized hardware, VoIP systems can run on consumer-grade computer and networking parts. Making calls with multiple parties on the same phone network is much easier with computer-moderated systems.
And VoIP systems allow businesses access to advanced features that traditional phone services cannot offer. Digitized voice mail systems allow users to configure their voice mail any way they choose; multiple greeting messages, automatic transcription of messages and nearly limitless message archiving gives businesses increased flexibility. Many VoIP systems allow businesses to use “virtual numbers,” which eases growth and helps streamline relationships with customers and other businesses. And the price of these features is often less than the cost of less capable solutions provided by traditional telephone system providers.
Businesses are adopting VoIP systems at an astonishing rate. From mom-and-pop sized businesses to the largest corporations, businesses are finding VoIP to be a worthwhile and cost-saving upgrade. Many speculate that the leading factors keeping businesses on old traditional telephone systems is familiarity and inertia; when its time to upgrade, businesses are making the switch to VoIP.
Posted on: September 11th, 2012 by DPhayre
Many people use Gmail nowadays, and that is hardly surprising. It’s simple to use, free, and Google knows how to make a good product. However, if you use Gmail you may not be using it to its full potential. It includes some remarkable tools that make it easy for you to organize your email. Below is a description of some of those tools and links to pages that show you how to utilize them.
Label your messages: Is your email inbox filled with messages from friends, co-workers, bosses, and family members? It can prove challenging to keep track of these messages. Luckily, Gmail allows you to add brightly colored labels to your messages which helps organize your inbox. For example, you can slap a red “Urgent” label to all messages you need to address quickly. You can put a blue “Vacation” label on email messages relating to hotel reservations, car rentals, and other vacation-planning activities. If you’re conducting a job search, emails from prospective employees and networking contacts might include a purple “Job search” label.
Free up space with archiving: Do you like to keep your inbox clear of emails, but you can’t delete ones you have read because you might need them? Rather than make a bunch of different files you can easily archive old emails. Archiving emails sends them to an “All Mail” folder so they don’t clutter up your inbox but you can still access them when needed.
Add a signature: Everyone should have an email signature, it saves so much time because you don’t have to type your name and contact info at the bottom of each and every email. After you have created a signature, Gmail will automatically drop it into the bottom of your emails.
Filter your incoming messages: Gmail can automatically filter your incoming emails. For example, if you are presently accepting applications for a job opening, you may create a filter that sends any email with the words “resume” or “application” to a file you have created called “Applicants”. Or if you would like all of the emails that come from your supervisor to be labeled as “Urgent”, you can do that with this feature.
Posted on: September 7th, 2012 by NetEffect
MSPmentor 250 is a list of the top managed services provider (MSP) experts, entrepreneurs and executives.
http://www.mspmentor.net/2502012-g/
