Computer Support Blog

Despite other tablet computers preceding and following it, the Apple iPad has virtually dominated the tablet computer market since Apple first released it. While Amazon has attempted to compete with its Kindle Fire, the name iPad is considered synonymous with tablet computer, much the way “iPod” and “MP3 player” are used (incorrectly) interchangeably. With so many tablet computers hitting the market in 2012, it is tough to guess which one might bite into the iPad’s market share the most. It was tough . . . until ASUS announced the Transformer Pad Infinity!

The ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity is built with the same consideration ASUS has for its high definition monitors. In addition to having exceptional durability, the ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity has a display that is at the cutting edge of the industry. With a 10.1” Super IPS+ display, everything looks incredible. With a native resolution of 1920 x 1200, the touchscreen display captures every fine detail from images and streaming videos. The 2.3 MP display on the ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity displays colors brightly and has wonderful black depth, even when you watch videos in sunlight!

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Some of the coolest ideas in the tech sector come about by accident.  These accidental ideas might not have the overwhelming significance to humanity that medical science kismet discoveries – like the discovery of penicillin through bread mold – have, but they can be pretty neat in their own right and lead to surprisingly cool businesses.  Andrew Houston is an American Internet pioneer whose frequent forgetfulness led to the creation of Dropbox!

Andrew (Drew) Houston studied computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the early 2000s.  Born and raised in Massachusetts, Drew Houston frequently forgot his USB flash drives while attending MIT.  Always on the run, Houston soon came to lament how forgetting his flash drive would affect his time, grades, and travel.  Houston began to back up his files so he had remote access to them.  When he started doing that, he realized the idea might translate into a service.  With his fellow MIT graduate, Arash Ferdowski, Drew Houston translated the idea for the service into a business: Dropbox.

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When browsing products on Amazon and you see a product has a five star rating that means it is a great product, right? Unfortunately, you cannot trust that rating as much as you might have thought. At least one Amazon retailer has been paying people to post rave reviews for its products on the site.

Though this highly misleading practice violates Amazon’s stated policies, VIP Deals paid its customers to give the product good reviews. The company is now suffering the consequences – Amazon took down the product page on which people posted the offending reviews and then removed all other VIP Deals products from the website.

When shopping online, many customers place a high importance on peer reviews because they cannot physically see or handle the item they are purchasing. Good reviews are essential for retailers to sell their product amid the multitude of similar products available online. Therefore, some retailers like VIP Deals are resorting to posting anonymous reviews or selling reviews in order to obtain customers.

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Not too long ago, Apple and Adobe (the software company that publishes Flash and Photoshop software) were in conflict because Apple’s iOS would not run Adobe programs. This failure of functionality was be design, though; Adobe and Apple’s Quicktime video formats have long been in conflict and Apple hoped to force programmers and websites to use their coding as opposed to Adobe’s. So, for some time, you could not play most YouTube videos on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. But then, Apple and Adobe settled their differences and now Adobe is writing programs specifically for the iOS operating system. One of the first truly meaningful Adobe programs to be recoded for iOS functioning is Adobe Photoshop Touch for iPad.

As one of its flagship software programs, Photoshop is a big moneymaker for Adobe. Adobe Photoshop Touch is the pared-down program for mobile computing devices; already there is an Android-based Photoshop Touch that has made Photoshop tools available to the wealth of Android customers. Adobe Photoshop Touch for iPad allows Apple iOS users using an iPad to create, alter, and publish images based on Adobe programming. This gives visual artists and photographers a huge opportunity to continue their art. No longer do Apple Computer fans have to choose between their preferred mobile computing device and the opportunity to become more proficient at their visual art.

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In the ever-more-complicated online world, new social networks seem to pop up (or close down) almost every month.  As you surf the web, you might be astonished to discover there have been entire social networks that you never heard of before.  Some of the photo sharing and intimate social networks actually only make headlines when they shut down!  But one social network you may not have heard of that is not closing down anytime soon is Yammer.  And while you may not have heard of Yammer, that is not the fault of An Le!

An Le is the Vice President of Business Development for Yammer.  Yammer is a company that builds social networks for private companies, almost like a social network for a business’s intranet.  Yammer serves companies like Ford, LG, and Pitney Bowes and developing the network to more companies is the responsibility of An Le.  As Vice President of Business Development, An Le helps businesses understand how vital an internal social network can be to increasing productivity, teamwork and corporate efficiency.

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One of the main features of the Xbox and PlayStation lines have been the ability to play online, download additional content, and even digitally download games directly to the console from the Internet. These services have mostly been used by more hardcore gamers because that is the type of gamer these consoles target. Nintendo marketed the Wii, on the other hand, as a console for social gamers of all ages – basically a family gaming console. With that in mind, it did not appear to need the same services as Xbox Live and the PlayStation network provided.

. Alongside the release of the Wii U console, Nintendo is preparing to release the Nintendo Network in order to take advantage of the popularity of mobile gaming on smartphones and social network gaming. This service will function similarly to the Xbox and PlayStation networks in that it will provide extra downloadable content. Digital downloads of full games will be available in the future, but Nintendo was hesitant to say when. There were also hints that the Nintendo Network will support micropayments.

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There are some truly incredible minds working in academia today.  The best teachers can inspire the next generation and help change the world by providing the fundamentals of their given field to their successors.  But only the most jaded people actually believe the unfortunate adage “those who can’t, teach.”  In fact, some of the very best educators lead by example and continue their professional development by excelling in their field while teaching.  Louis McPhee is one such educator and his latest invention, a medical robot, may well change the world.

An assistant professor at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, Louis Phee is able to translate simple ideas into complex, working technologies.  Louis Phee is credited with the design of a new medical robot based upon a crab!  When Lawrence Ho mentioned to Phee that cancer extraction would be much easier using a crab, over a crab dinner, Phee explored the possibility of taking that outlandish idea and making it into a reality.  Louis Phee and Lawrence Ho worked together to create a surgical robot designed like a crab that is now treating cancer in the esophagus!

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Facebook versus Google Plus – which side are you on? It is the battle for the future of social networking and the outcome will decide the direction the Internet takes in the coming years. Google+ is still a relatively new social networking site, having only been launched last year, but it shows promise.

Some of the most basic features of Google+ were applauded by the public when first introduced. Facebook did its best to integrate similar features within its own site, but the features on Google+ are far more seamlessly incorporated. These features include the circles, hangouts, and making Google+ part of all other Google websites.

Google+ allows you to easily group your friends the way we do in real life with the circles feature. The best thing about this feature is that no one else knows in which group you have put him or her. The hangouts are the video chat feature for Google+ and this feature allows people to chat with everyone in one of their circles all at the same time.

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Online gaming has taken a few major turns in recent years, especially in terms of type of players and company business models. Until recently, most games on the Internet were for hardcore gamers. Now, anyone can find a game online that he or she will enjoy playing.

Social networking games have created a window into the gaming world for casual players by creating thousands of games that are free and very easy to play. These games come with a revolutionary business model that other types of games are slowly adopting.

Massively Multiplayer Online games, known as MMOs, are a type of game in which players from all over the world can play the game together in an online world. MMOs can be any type of game, but Role Playing Games (or RPGs) are the most popular. These MMORPGs, like the well-known World of Warcraft game, are beginning to change.

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If you play games on Facebook, you know about Farmville. No matter your opinion on the game itself, there is no denying that Farmville is a huge success. As is Zynga, the company that created Farmville.

Zynga currently has four of the past year’s top ten games on Facebook, according to Gameinformer. These games, of which Farmville was not one, were ranked based on how highly players recommended the games.

Zynga’s Farmville remains a very popular game, even if it did not make that list. How and why is it so popular? Why do people play a game where they have to run a farm? How does Zynga make money from these free Facebook games?

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