Computer Support Blog

Quite a few creative individuals find that the art they love and skills they develop through higher education are not immediately profitable.  As a result, the current generation of would-be playwrights, painters, and photographers have largely turned to the tech sector for income while they develop the craft they are passionate about in their spare time.  As such, they end up as bloggers, digital artists and software engineers while they work in their off-time toward their “big break.”  One such artist who is leading the dual life in the artistic and tech sectors is Michael Kaplan. Read more »

Apple enthusiasts are, in many ways, an ideal type of customer for a big business.  The culture that surrounds Apple products makes virtually every new product release a resounding success.  There is such enthusiasm for new Apple products that entire websites are devoted to leaking rumors to keep that enthusiasm active and engaged on a daily basis.  Add to that, Apple enthusiasts are very slow to quit on an Apple product or service.  To wit, despite consistently declining customer satisfaction rates with the service, virtually everyone who has an Apple iPad, iPhone, or iPod utilizes iTunes.  To reward Apple customers for years of putting up with a system that has not kept up with its other products, Apple is revamping iTunes. Read more »

Over the last few years, business travelling has changed dramatically.  While many businesses have been able to reduce corporate travel by more effectively teleconferencing using new technology, many business travelers have more intense needs while traveling.  Often, air travel is not a chance to relax, it is prep time for the businessperson and many businesses expect their traveling executives and technicians to be in contact, especially on longer flights.  As a result, new technologies have emerged in order to make the office a more portable thing; the office is no longer necessarily a place, but the equipment one utilizes while on the job!  One of the increasingly vital products for business travelers is the portable scanner and one of the best portable scanners on the market today is the Mobility Air. Read more »

No company, within the tech sector or outside it, is able to handle rapid growth without having an incredible staff in place or hiring individuals who fast become a team that achieves amazing results.  Neither the assembly of a great staff over time or its rapid development happens as an accident; it is the result of great human resources management.  Choosing personnel who will be successful and might make your company successful is a skill that is mastered by individuals who understand people, understand the specific workplace for which they are hiring, and have incredible instincts.  Michelle Lo has a great track record in staffing tech companies for exactly those reasons. Read more »

While much of the news in the mobile phone industry is usually about mergers and new products, the rise of a new company or the influence of a new technology in smartphones, the days of excitement for the company Research In Motion may be behind them.  Despite having bold plans for the BlackBerry 10 operating system that RIM executives have been promoting as the product that will turn around the company’s cash flow problems, there have been signs that RIM may be too weak to survive until the BlackBerry 10’s release. Read more »

As the world moves away from print media and more toward the dominance of digital media, it is unsurprising that more products and services that we used to have printed now are easily available on the Internet.  Already, the rise of e-readers and tablet computers has made a significant impact on how people read and purchase books.  The greeting card industry has been scrambling to use the Internet to remain financially viable.  That might be a hard sell, though; like so many things on the Internet, there are some great free e-card sites.  One of them is 123greetings.com. Read more »

The software field has become an important marketing tool for other, seemingly unrelated, fields and businesses.  As a company finds profitability in one venue or medium, they often look to expand and, when it comes to software, that usually means synergizing a brand name with a new-to-market piece of software.  So, while there are many different software programs that allow you to play with home design, only HGTV Ultimate Home Design has the endorsement of a major cable network that specializes in such things as home repair and interior design.  The “HGTV” moniker adds a level of celebrity and consumer enthusiasm to the software and to get the name attached to the program, the software company Nova Design had to make a business arrangement (license)  with the company that owns HGTV.  Such licensing agreements are becoming increasingly important in the software market and that makes people like John Bartlett more important than ever! Read more »

The challenge many advertisers and brands continue to have is connecting with customers, especially new customers, utilizing the Internet.  Many Internet-savvy potential customers already use ad blocking software or, because of the prevalence of ads around the Internet, mentally block out all but the most inspired Internet ads.  With social networking, the challenge of connecting advertisers and potential clients is still one that experts in the industry are figuring out.  Trying to crack the formula to utilize the power of social networking for business purposes is what Josh Emert is involved with now and with GoChime, he may be on the right track! Read more »

The tech sector has a way of recognizing good ideas and making sure those good ideas continue to develop, even if their initial application was very specific.  In the case of Microsoft’s Kinect, the motion sensor technology was originally developed for gaming.  In fact, the Kinect helped the Xbox 360 compete against other platforms that utilize motion technology, most notably the Wii.  But Kinect is no longer just for gaming and while Microsoft may not be developing the new uses for Kinect, the company is fostering the non-game growth of the system.  Microsoft provided grant money to start-ups to develop new products and applications using Kinect.  While none of these products are market-ready, the most exciting highlights of Microsoft’s Kinect-related program are: Read more »

Despite what the big computer companies might want you to believe, the tablet computer is not a new idea.  In fact, before tablet computers achieved popularity with the breakout of the iPad, there was the computer tablet!  Less a full computer system like a tablet computer, computer tablets are essentially a peripheral, an input device used by visual artists to create artwork on the computer.  Despite the rise of tablet computers, computer tablets remain very popular with digital artists.  One of the most impressive computer tablets is the Wacom Bamboo Create. Read more »