Computer Support Blog

New crowdfunding sites seem to pop up every day since Kickstarter blew up on the tech scene.  Most sites focus on one particular industry or type of project that can benefit from the now-popular model.  Almost all of these sites are very capitalistic in nature, looking for backers to support businesses or commercial music, writing, and art.  There is nothing wrong with helping entrepreneurs or artists chase their dreams, but cool person in tech Beth Schmidt believes there’s another group who could benefit greatly from this concept—poor and underprivileged youth.  Beth Schmidt is the founder and executive director of the non-profit Internet company Wishbone.  Wishbone finds promising young people who do not have the resources to pay for the education that would allow them to chase their goals.  Schmidt’s company then provides them a space on the Internet where backers can crowdfund their education.  Rather than use the crowdfunding model to invest in single projects or startup business, Schmidt wants people to invest in a proven resource for society’s future—smart, young students.  Read more »

Spambots, hackers, and other intruding forces constantly create problems for businesses that provide online services and products.  That’s why companies are constantly looking for new solutions to verify their users.  RingCaptcha is a cool product that adds phone verification as a feature for any website or app.  Companies only have to add a few lines of code to their site or program and RingCaptcha automatically integrates phone verification security into their product.  RingCaptcha contacts customers who try to create new accounts or sign in from unfamiliar locations by phone.  By providing these customers specific verification codes by phone, the service confirms that a user’s phone number is both real and their own.  Theoretically, this keeps out spambots or any fake accounts that people create to use for illegal or questionable means.  RingCaptcha means to provide an added security for companies that want to avoid the hassle of illegitimate user accounts and fraud.  Any business that has been the victim of a malware attack, knows how costly office virus removal service can be if they don’t have the proper security measures on their site. Read more »

Having a dedicated platform to promote and sell your art can have a significantly positive effect at any stage of an artist’s career.  Getting access to such a platform early on is particularly helpful in the crowded world of fine art.  That’s why cool person in tech Alex Farkas created UGallery in 2006.  UGallery is an online platform that promotes and sells artwork specifically created by artists who are still young in their careers.  Farkas knew the web could be a powerful tool for leveling the playing field between new artists and established ones.  That’s why when he formed UGallery, he chose to target the emerging crowd of painters, illustrators, and photographers rather than chase after established names in the world of gallery art.  UGallery’s model is dependent on newer artists submitting their portfolios to the curation staff at UGallery, which includes Farkas himself.  UGallery selects the artists they want to promote and then help them set up a presence on their site where they can sell their work to interested buyers.  Buyers who have trouble browsing through choices on UGallery can always contact computer support for help.  Read more »

Crowdfunding has deeply affected the way many people look at their entertainment and the artists who create it.  Where popular art, fiction, music, and even games once only came from monolithic institutions that had a disproportionate amount of say over what the public got to consume, now Kickstarter, Indiegogo and its brethren have made it so the public can access and fund any work they want to see or hear, independently of larger industry trends.  Still, most people consider crowdfunding solely as a way to fund the actual creation of a project, not to directly compensate creators for their work.  This is why most art that people fund on sites like Kickstarter are projects that take large amounts of cash to complete such as albums, movies, comics, and video games.  However, cool product Unbound wants to use the crowdfunding model as an alternative to the book industry and, even more significantly, want to use it to compensate authors directly. Read more »

Customer engagement is critical for website services and mobile applications.  Even if a website draws many unique visitors or app gets thousands of downloads, it doesn’t mean much if users don’t keep coming back for more.  Cool person in technology Robert Zepeda believes he has an answer to this dilemma with his gamification methods.  Zepeda founded Playbasis in 2011 in order to help both startups and established businesses use gamification to improve user engagement with their services.  Zepeda’s company believes that user engagement and behavior is key to providing a company with useful insights into their business practices.  Zepeda’s clients receive access to an online platform that allows them to set “rules” for their service or app.  These often come in the form of special badges or achievements that customers earn from their usage of a website or application.  For example, a business could award a “power user” badge to a site user who signs in to its service over five hundred times.  Playbasis offers a number of pre-created rule-sets for businesses to use, but also lets them create their own set based on how users interact with a product.  Companies that have trouble with getting badges to operate correctly on their apps or websites should contact office computer support for help. Read more »

Solar power can potentially save homeowners significant amounts of money on electricity every year.  However, installing solar panels into a home can be extremely costly.  It also requires significant amounts of time and effort many working people simply don’t have.  Cool product Sunrun is a service that makes these issues irrelevant by repackaging solar power as a cheap, fixed-rate service to consumers.  Rather than having to purchase solar panels for a high price and install the technology themselves, consumers who sign up for Sunrun receive free panels and installation in return for signing a contract that requires a monthly fee. Sunrun says on their site that they offer locked-in rates for twenty years, so a customer’s electric bill remains static over long periods of time.  Sunrun proposes that it can still save homeowners money with its solar power as a service model, while offering lower fixed rates compared to traditional electricity’s unstable month-to-month prices.  With Sunrun’s fixed monthly fees, consumers shouldn’t have to worry about electricity-hogging activity like air conditioning or keeping the computer on for long periods during remote computer support sessions. Read more »

Most travel or concierge style apps target the lower and middle market of consumers, as that’s where you find most mobile users.  However, cool person in tech Matthew Rowe founded iVIP to cater to a very specific, premium piece of the travel market—the very rich.  Rowe created his suite of iVIP apps as part of a service that gives targeted advice, information, privileges and special offers to individuals of high net worth who prefer luxury accommodations and services.  Rowe believes there that the upper tier of the market is looking for a mobile app that caters specifically to their taste and lifestyle.  The iVIP apps come with a service where luxury companies offer members exclusive upgrades, products, and services to members of the app.  Rowe’s iVIP apps connect users to these services based on their specific location, as the app’s offers vary from city to city.  If you were interested in checking out the iVIP app but have trouble with your mobile device, a mobile tech support service would be the best option for you. Read more »

Urban professionals often work sixty to eighty hour weeks if they’re part of a major industry.  That schedule leaves very little time for errands like housework, furniture assembly, and moving.  Cool product Handybook is using the Internet to try to make getting these services booked as faster and easier.  Handybook lets users book home services through their website by simply filling out a quick online form.  The site then connects its customers to one of their pre-screened home service providers.  The idea is to eliminate the time and hassles required to do proper research on home service providers, make several calls, get quotes, and choose a provider.  Read more »

The healthcare industry is constantly a controversial topic and many believe it is an industry ripe for disruption.  GoGoHealth is a cool product in tech that is trying to shift the way people think about healthcare and technology.  GoGoHealth targets individuals who have experienced and had to pay for unnecessary doctor visits.  Going to a doctor’s office for an appointment over a simple health issue can have serious costs attached to it.  Cancelling work costs you productivity and probably money as well.  You waste gas by having to drive yourself to the office, and the visit itself costs you a certain amount of money out of pocket depending on your insurance provider.  This may not seem worth it when all you have is an ear infection and all you need is a simple prescription.  Small health issues like these take up many people’s time and money and the company behind GoGoHealth wants to eliminate that from happening.  GoGoHealth provides consumers with an online connection to health professionals that they can consult over the Internet to determine whether it is worth it to pay an actual visit to the office.  If you have trouble connecting with GoGoHealth online, you should find a home tech support service that can help you connect once more. Read more »

The holiday season is only a few months away and for many people that will mean the buying and receiving of copious amounts of retail gift cards.  Thickening your wallet with these cards and even remembering to use them all can be inconvenient and troublesome—not the sort of experience you want to have associated with gift giving.  Cool person in technology Vinny Lingham founded his startup Gyft in 2012 to attack the problem of physical gift cards.  Gyft uses mobile technology to make storing, keeping track of, and using gift cards a seamless process for consumers.  Users download an app on their smartphone where they can enter the information from their physical gift cards.  Lingham’s app stores the information and lets users access it directly from their phone so they can toss all the plastic versions of their cards away.  Read more »