Computer Support Blog

For those who chose to keep the purity of the Kindle idea alive by not upgrading to the much-hyped Kindle Fire, there are some rewards awaiting you!  The e-reader concept was upgraded into a multimedia player, much like a tablet computer, with Amazon’s latest iteration.  But for those who like to read, for whom being trendy, current and/or not upgrading at the first sight of the next new product, companies like SolarFocus are there for you!  SolarFocus has a great product for Kindle users with its SolarKindle Lighted Cover!

The SolarKindle Lighted Cover is a portfolio-style cover for the Amazon Kindle that features a powerful solar panel on the front cover.  The cover helps to recharge both the Kindle and the case using solar power.  As trendy as renewable energy is, there have been very few companies to tap into the market and synergize it with the e-reader and tablet market.  With the SolarKindle Lighted Cover, SolarFocus brings together two very popular concepts to enhance the user experience of the Kindle e-reader!  Read more »

Every good idea has its time.  Sometimes, the window for that idea can be very small and a business that fails to enact the good idea in a timely fashion, it can find itself in a world of trouble.  Similarly, when a business uses a good idea well, it often has to remain ahead of its competitors.  Blockbuster Video knows what it is like to wait too long to get on board a good idea; Netflix, with its innovative business strategy and product delivery method virtually buried the video rental chain.  Much of the success Netflix has had is the result of Neil Hunt.

Neil Hunt is an accomplished software engineer who rose to become one of the most vibrant executives in the technology and entertainment industries.  As the Chief Product Officer of Netflix since 2002, Hunt helped Netflix rise to become the industry leader in DVD rental services.  As a shrewd businessman, Hunt helped to build the platform for Netflix that has made it one of the most flexible and successful media delivery services ever.

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Serious photographers who live on the cheap and use computers for their digital photography are feeling the squeeze.  One of the best sites for altering digital photographs is closing down on April 19, 2012 and the virtual world of the Internet will be a little worse off for it.  The site is called Picnik and is has announced that it will be ending service soon, sending many photographers scrambling.

Picnik is, at least for the next few weeks, a free website where you could alter photographs you took.  The site was simple.  You uploaded a picture to their site, where Picnik provided tools to crop, resize, alter lighting and color settings, reduce red eye and do several other alterations to your photograph.  When you had the picture looking the way you liked it, you could download your altered picture and move on to more pictures.  This was a wonderful alternative to expensive, licensed programs like Adobe Photoshop or Photo Explosion.  Through Picnik, you could transform the photo you actually took into the photo you wanted it to be.

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When you are not a member of a certain subculture, you may be entirely ignorant of its existence, much less what the principles and beliefs are for that culture or group.  As the Internet has effectively made the world smaller by connecting people from obscure subcultures, it has made learning about different groups of people much easier.  One of the most intriguing subcultures that has a surprising interest in computers and technology is the steampunk movement.

The steampunk subculture is preoccupied with reimagining the modern world as if steam power was still the dominant form of power.  The steampunk movement glorifies the sense of style of the Victorian Era and redesigns our modern conveniences to fit that style.  One of the very best resources on the Internet for those looking to understand steampunk is The Steampunk Workshop.

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Alpha Consumers, we need you!

In just a few days, Victorinox will release one of the coolest products to hit the portable memory market ever.  However, like so many initial product releases, it comes with a pretty hefty price tag.  As a result, many of us will rely upon the fact that Alpha Consumers satisfy the initial demand and absorb the expense of producing the next, less expensive, round of the product.  The cool new product is the Victorinox 1 TB USB/eSATA II flash drive!

Victorinox, most famous for creating and selling the Swiss Army Knife, has been making and selling USB flash drives of a similar style for years.  Incorporated into their trademarked fold-out design that allows you to essentially keep several different tools within a common handle, Victorinox included a USB flash drive to keep the tool relevant in the 21^st Century.  Victorinox is pushing the envelope forward now with their 1 TB USB/eSATA II flash drive.

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In the United States, students learn that there are two avenues to success: connections and higher education.  While nepotism and interpersonal relationships certainly have their roles in advancing one’s career, nothing takes the place of hard work.  But even those who work hard are told the only way to truly get ahead is by pursuing higher education.  The technology sector confounds those expectations by advancing educated individuals who have great ideas and needed skills, as opposed to just higher degrees.  One executive who has benefitted from corporations who value experience over degrees is Patti S. Hart.

Patti S. Hart is the Chief Executive Officer of International Game Technology, the maker of video slot machines, like Lucky Larry’s Lobstermania!  Hart joined the Board of Directors of IGT in 2006 and ascended to CEO of IGT in 2009.  Since becoming CEO, Patti Hart has expanded the influence of IGT in casinos and promoted the video game versions of IGT games, making International Game Technology even more profitable.

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There are plenty of different options for data storage available on the market and many of them work great. So why do we need a new device for data backup? The Samsung Optical Smart Hub is not quite the same as any of the other options, although it is not yet for sale. At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Samsung unveiled the Optical Smart Hub SE-208BW along with their many other great new products.

Until now, the options for data backup were CD/DVDs, tape drives, external hard drive, or a Cloud (a method of online storage for data). These are all great methods of backing up your data and programs, but they usually require you to connect to some other device in order to work such as a CD/DVD burner.

If you are looking for a more secure, off site method of data backup, however, look no further than Rescuecom. Rescuecom provides online backup on our secure servers so that you will never lose your valuable information.

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Angry Birds is very cool and it is time we acknowledged that.  Angry Birds may have started as a limited computer game for smartphones, but it has evolved into a real cultural phenomenon.  In addition to the smartphone game, Angry Birds is now a merchandising bonanza.  Stuffed toys, t-shirts and other swag featuring Angry Birds hit the market right in time for the holidays last year and were very popular among a diverse range of ages and subcultures.  Even Hartz, the pet product manufacturer, licensed Angry Birds for dog and cat toys!

Why is Angry Birds so cool?  First, Angry Birds is very easy to buy.  The popular game started its life as a game application for Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch.  Because those products featured a touchscreen, Angry Birds exploded onto the market as one of the first games that utilized that technology well.  Apple customers were excited about their touchscreens and Angry Birds gave them something to get truly excited about.  While Angry Birds was originally only available as an Apple app, with the rise of Android, the game’s publisher, Rovio, expanded the programming to allow it to play on the Android Operating System.  Now, there are versions of Angry Birds for virtually every platform, including Windows, Playstation 3 and the Nintendo 3DS!

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Sometimes, a good idea is as simple as making a product easier to buy or rent.  What is the value of an idea that simplifies the buying experience?  In the case of Redbox, making DVDs and video games easier to rent made the company billions of dollars.  Much of the success of Redbox is the result of the hard work of Mitch Lowe.

Redbox was a novelty pilot program outside McDonald’s restaurants when Mitch Lowe joined the company in 2003.  Lowe was one of the co-founders of Netflix and he saw in Redbox a real threat to the company for whom he was working.  Adopting the philosophy of “if you can’t beat them, join them,” Mitch Lowe decided he wanted to see the Redbox model succeed.  He left Netflix and joined Redbox as a consultant.  Lowe quickly rose to Vice President of Purchasing and Operations of Redbox before the Board promoted him to Chief Operating Officer.  In 2009, Mitch Lowe was promoted again, this time to President of the company!

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Have you had enough with portable technology devices?  If you said ”yes,” it can hardly be considered a surprise.  More than any other time in history, the consumer electronics market is overflowing with options . . . so many that it is easy to fail to see what the point of it all is.  Media players alone have become a market where the options seem to be designed more for competition between products than actually filing a niche that is desperately yearning to be filled.

For small-screen devices, you have your smartphones.  While many of the smartphones have screens that are less than 2” for the diagonal screen measurement, the iPod Touch changed the nature of such devices when Apple released it with a 3.5” screen.  This created a niche of handheld devices that could surf the Internet and perform all sorts of media functions, including playing movies and music.  The Apple iPhone added telephone communication to that and with that, Apple firmly entered the smartphone wars.

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