Yelp: the Business of Extortion
Starting, maintaining, and growing a business is no easy task. It is even more difficult when you face a bully which happens to be a much larger, better-known business threatening you to use their service or face destruction for refusing them. Nonetheless, this has been the case for many businesses, from very large corporations to tiny businesses struggling to make rent month to month to every type of business in between. This is because of an online company utilizing a rating system of individual user reviews to leverage businesses, ultimately, to believe they require its services or they will suffer. The company responsible for this behavior and for the subsequent difficulties of many businesses as a result? Yelp, a name with which anyone who has searched for a business on the Internet or knows anything about online reviewing is familiar. Many have found its services helpful since its founding in 2004, and it does seem like a good thing. When a business model like Yelp’s becomes abusive and resorts to bullying to make money from businesses who need to have a positive presence online, though, things can go very bad quickly. This is, in fact, exactly what has happened in the fifteen years Yelp has been operating online. Read more »
Until recently, relatively speaking, a high-tech setup necessarily involved a mess of wires. While it would be impossible to overstate the benefits of the technology that made this necessary, all of the wires needed to run various tech was still problematic, even if bundled as best as anyone could manage. It meant that one had to maintain a specific position in a room unless using extension cords or power strips, which in themselves further added to the mess. On top of that problem, so many cords together could easily tangle together and the stretching of cords everywhere posed a tripping hazard, not to mention the electrical danger as well as the cost of running so much electricity at once. With all of the different peripheral devices and accessories we love to use with our computers, we needed a solution, and one of those solutions was the invention of Bluetooth. What exactly is Bluetooth, though, and how does it work? The basic, overarching answer is that Bluetooth was the perfect solution to several problems caused by tech. Firstly, it solved the issue of the excessive need for cables and cords. It also provided hands-free solutions for tasks that previously could not be or, at the very least, could be with some difficulty (or more cords). Another benefit was the ability to pair numerous devices together to access much more quickly and easily without the use of anything extra. Simply put, it is a wireless technology that allows the exchange of data between mobile devices, computers, accessories, and more over short distances. Technically, it is a newer technology that utilizes much older technology, as it actually operates using radio. Specifically, it uses FHSS (Frequency-Hopping Spread Spectrum), which is a method of transmitting short-wave radio signals by quickly switching a signal among many different frequency channels. 
While wifi in the home is a luxury decades old, not everyone initially used it for more than one or two computers. In the beginning, these connected to the Internet via dial-up, but home wifi became more of a practicality with the use of laptops, the development and release of devices such as wifi connected printers, and the rise of activities performed mostly online such as gaming. Things have advanced far beyond that, now. Everybody has a cell phone, most homes have at least one tablet, we now use smart TVs, and we live in fully connected homes with Internet connectivity extended to everything from security systems, thermostats, lights, speakers, portable wireless assistants like Echo and Alexa, kitchen appliances, and even light bulbs. Unfortunately the large numbers of devices we use in the home and the fact that said homes were not built with technology that its builders could not fathom in mind can lead to wifi problems. Fortunately, however, a startup called Eero has a solution. 
Applications for technology are far-reaching, extending to just about every known device for innumerable purposes in every imaginable field, but there is one common, everyday implement to which many never could have foreseen applications of tech as advanced as we have today: pens. The newest and most blatant example of the use of technology in writing implements is Cross’s new Peerless TrackR pen. Of course, Cross is a very well-known maker of pens since the mid-19th century and has always created the highest-end pens on the market. They have always been top of the line for style and used mostly by businessmen looking to make an impression. Why else would someone spend $100 for a pen when you can buy a pack of ten for around $5? The difference has always been that Cross has created pens for their quality and style rather than frugality, and their target has always been businesspeople in particular. The difference between every other pen and the TrackR is the very particular implementation of mobile technology in this newest model. 
Runners have a lot of apps to track various aspects of their runs, with a plethora of options from which to choose whether a phone app connected to a wearable on your wrist or one for a smartwatch. Now Under Armour, one of the premier names in sports and fitness wear, has released technology that is not only wearable but completely unnoticeable. What this means is that runners no longer need to wear a fitness watch or activity band to track your workouts. Instead, the technology is in their running shoes: the SpeedForm Gemini RE. 
With all of the options available and new developments coming out every year, choosing a smartphone can be quite a challenge. There are almost innumerable factors to consider, and making the wrong choice can leave you stuck with a phone you hate sometimes for years before you can afford to make such a choice again. There is one widely agreed upon choice as one of the best phones ever available on the market: Google’s new Pixel 2. It is one of the newest generation of smartphones and, by the estimation of tech experts on such sites as techradar.com, CNET, and Computer World, one of the best phones ever created. The question that we must ask, then is this: what exactly set is apart from other phones, and do those differences justify its place as one of the most talked-about new mobile devices? 
There are many different ways people can make use of tech to listen to music in their cars. Newer models have built-in Bluetooth, the auxiliary cable can be a reliable choice, and people can still use CD players in some older models. There are some who still drive cars old enough to play cassette tapes. Whatever the case, there are clear drawbacks to each of these methods and situations in which they would not be usable. People driving older cars may need to retrofits their stereos with Bluetooth, and that would include a cost some would not find it worthwhile to pay. Many people would like to upgrade their audio experience while driving but do not want to pay for higher end Bluetooth audio adapters and find ones in their price range to either break down easily or offer low overall audio quality. Fortunately, there is one device on the tech market that solves all of these issues: the AUKEY Bluetooth audio transmitter. 
It is unwise in an age of rapidly growing technology not to utilize it to your advantage in whatever your chosen field. This is true in the field of sports whether you are an owner, manager, coach, player, scout, or whatever your role. There are many ways in which professional sports in particular have already advanced due to the use of rapidly advancing tech, and a startup called Vantage Sports looks to go beyond the steps already taken. It is a tool that uses tech to change the way that sports teams, media, and fans collect, analyze, and use data. 
While there are very few apps, if any, dedicated to improving the shipping of purchased good, the process has certainly seen improvements with technological advancements. Shipster is a service and an app made to be, in its creators’ words, the fastest way to send anything anywhere. It is not a shipping company in itself, but works with major shipping companies worldwide. Firstly, it addresses the issue caused by the refusal of many businesses to ship overseas or charging higher costs to do so by providing a U.S. address and low shipping rates to overseas consumers trying to buy from U.S. stores. They also offer package consolidation, competitively priced express shipping, and more. These are just the very most basic services Shipster offers, and it is the use of its app that give customers the real advantage. 
One of the things that has naturally resulted from the increasing accessibility of information and the removal of limitations on its access is the proliferation of open educational resources, or OERs. This includes any text, media, or other digital assets that are freely accessible and openly licensed for the purposes of teaching, learning, and research. OERs are the foundation of an education startup called panOpen, which seeks to, in its founders own words, promote their widespread adoption in education. While there is plenty of information available openly on sites like Wikipedia, it can be a lot to sift through and many people end up searching blindly or without direction. The other options include textbooks, which can be costly for students are many of which receive updated information that makes older versions nearly useless. PanOpen provides a platform for the reception of information gathered by professionals and focused on specific studies at a dramatically reduced cost.