Computer Support Blog

In case you have not yet encountered it, Apple Computers currently has a product available called the Apple TV. Despite what you might think from the product’s name, it is not a physical television.  Instead, Apple TV is a media-streaming device that connects to a television. Apple released the first incarnation of Apple TV in 2007.  The current iteration of Apple TV was released by Apple Computers in 2010 and is more popular and much smaller. Since then, the design and basic capabilities of the Apple TV device have stayed the same, with only incremental updates over the last two years.

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The first big threat to traditional advertising models on television came from the development of cable tv.  Advertisers liked it even less when premium cable channels like HBO, Cinemax and Showtime offered viewers both original programing and advertisement-free television viewing at a price customers appeared willing to pay.  As advertisers struggle with how to monetize streaming television technology, HBO is working to adapt to the digital transmission framework.  For that, they have Alison Moore.

Alison Moore is the Senior Vice President of Digital Platforms for HBO.  In that role, Moore is responsible for all aspects of HBOs online and streaming presence.  It is her job to oversee the creation of a viable online subscription service for HBO, especially marketing its original content on the Internet.  Her responsibilities also include promoting and positioning the HBO digital services to compete with established streaming services like Netflix and Blockbuster Online.

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Everything else is going electronic, why not psychological care as well? There are still some things you just cannot do while mobile and, so far, receiving psychological help is one of those things. Some doctors and researchers would like to change that fact.

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GitHub has become the primary website for democratic open source coding. Open source coding, simply put, is the principle that many programmers work under in which they freely give away their programs and source code (basic programming language) to anyone who wants to use it. Open source software is quite common, though you may not know a program is open source if you are user, as opposed to a programmer.  The Android operating system is a well-known open source program. Google allows programmers to access the root code and write new programs for Android, which makes it open source.  By contrast, programmers who want to write applications for Windows must to access the source code and sign a contract for the right to use the proprietary code.

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It is a rare thing for a company to have a loyal worker who has risen through the ranks of the established corporate structure only to redefine the company when they get to the top.  Far more often, those who start low on the corporate ladder and work their way up become concerned with preserving the corporate identity of the organization of which they have been a part.  But more often than not in the rapidly changing tech sector, survival in business requires flexibility.  The companies in the technology industry that cling to rigidly to a set corporate structure, product line or idea often find themselves hemorrhaging capital when the market changes abruptly.  Belkin was in danger of suffering that type of horrible corporate downturn when Mark Reynoso turned the company around!

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We are using our smartphones less and less for actual phone calls and more for mobile web browsing, text messaging, video chats, and apps. This implies that we do not like calling people anymore, not when it is far easier to simply text them or pull up a website. Of course, that applies to ordering takeout food as well.

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With smartphone technology and mobile computing technology constantly changing, it can be exceptionally difficult for a communications business to remain competitive.  By the very nature of discovery, if your business is not the first to market with a product or technological advance, you end up following someone else.  In the tech sector there are few things worse than being a follower and in the mobile phone carrier industry, that is especially true.  So, when Sprint-Nextel and Verizon developed 4G networks for their customers, they left the other telecommunications companies in the dust.  That, however, was not enough to stop Neville Ray.

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Despite the growing number of choices in the tablet market, where nearly every company has multiple options for customers to choose from, there are two big names for tablets: iPad and Kindle. A few years ago, it would have been inconceivable for Amazon to enter the tablet computer market, but with the success of the Kindle e-reader, the Kindle Fire tablet took the 2011 fourth quarter by storm. Amazon’s sales of the Kindle Fire were boosted, in part by the $199 price tag.  Compared to Apple’s iPad at $499, the Kindle Fire seemed like a real value to consumers.  Now, other tablet computer manufacturers are following Amazon’s lead and offering more affordable options than Apple Computers.

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Have you ever wanted a computer that was just the bare minimum, without all the extras? Did you ever think you would like to learn computer programming? Would you like a computer, but do not have the hundreds of dollars to buy one? If any of those situations apply to you, then you may want to consider the Raspberry Pi.

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Sometimes, an individual’s association with a company can make all the difference in establishing a business venture.  John F. Kennedy Jr.’s decision to make a political magazine at a time when the market was pretty much strangled with political print magazines did not stop him from making George a success.  In a similar way, one of the new tech sector startups benefits greatly from the celebrity of one of the members of its management team.  Numecent is an emerging Cloudpaging company and it would be just another Internet startup if it was not for Hildy Shandell.

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