Computer Support Blog

In a world with rapidly changing technology, it is rare when one encounters a truly good idea anymore.  Indeed, many emerging technologies simply seek to improve upon already existing devices or technology.  So, when FXI Technologies virtually reinvented the computer with the Cotton Candy 3” computer device, it was newsworthy.  The brain behind Cotton Candy and FXI Technologies is Borgar Ljosland.

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For those who might not have heard of it yet, there is a social network challenging Facebook for supremacy on the Internet.  It’s not Google+, either!  The social network is called Diaspora and it is an open-source alternative to Facebook that was founded on the belief that users ought to control their information and social network experience.  Diaspora is a good idea that has been plagued by problems, not the least of which are a lack of name recognition (outside the hacker community) and the suicide last November of one of the company’s four co-founders, Ilya Zhitomirskiy.  Despite the setbacks, Diaspora is poised to break out into popular culture.  If it does, it will no doubt be in part because of Rosanna Yau.

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It is hard to imagine a cooler connector than the USB port.  Seriously, USB connectors truly live up to their name as being a Universal port.  USB flash drives can be cool and stylish and the ability to connect them to virtually any computer device has made the exchange of data and media exceptionally easy.  In fact, with so many different devices that use a USB port and contain a male USB jack, you are much more likely to run out of USB ports than ever before!  With the USB hub from iBuffalo, fear of not having enough USB ports may be safely set aside.

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It was not too long ago that webcams were a novelty.  Well before they were made standard equipment on virtually every laptop computer, webcams were a separate peripheral that allowed computer users to stream record and transmit small movies.  Even now webcams are a fun accessory for PCs and having an external webcam may offer you more versatility than the one embedded in your monitor or laptop computer.  For those who want more webcam options, it is hard to do better than the new Hercules HD Twist!

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With so many specialized electronic devices on the market, it can be very hard to keep all of the cables and adapters straight.  More than ever before, many electronic devices utilize cables that act as adapters!  With so many devices, cables and adapters, it can be difficult to figure out which are worth buying as well, especially given how fast technology continues to change.  Given the rapid pace of modern technology, the Delton USB Data For All Micro USB Ports is a great investment.

The Delton USB Data For All Micro USB Ports is a remarkably simple cable adapter.  You may use the Delton USB Data For All Micro USB Ports for cell phones, smartphones and feature phones that have a Micro USB Port.  The Micro USB Port is a small female port on your electronic devices that has a wider top than bottom and, like a standard USB port, features a small chip-style lead projected from the center of the port.  The female Micro USB Port is identical in size, shape and configuration on all Micro USB equipped devices.  The Delton USB Data For All Micro USB Ports features a standard USB jack on one end and a Micro USB jack – which fits into the Micro USB Port on your device – on the other end.  The two jacks on the Delton USB Data For All Micro USB Ports are separated by over seven inches of durable, insulated cable.

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Some of the coolest ideas in the tech sector come about by accident.  These accidental ideas might not have the overwhelming significance to humanity that medical science kismet discoveries – like the discovery of penicillin through bread mold – have, but they can be pretty neat in their own right and lead to surprisingly cool businesses.  Andrew Houston is an American Internet pioneer whose frequent forgetfulness led to the creation of Dropbox!

Andrew (Drew) Houston studied computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the early 2000s.  Born and raised in Massachusetts, Drew Houston frequently forgot his USB flash drives while attending MIT.  Always on the run, Houston soon came to lament how forgetting his flash drive would affect his time, grades, and travel.  Houston began to back up his files so he had remote access to them.  When he started doing that, he realized the idea might translate into a service.  With his fellow MIT graduate, Arash Ferdowski, Drew Houston translated the idea for the service into a business: Dropbox.

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If you are a serious audiophile, or just love music and live in a noisy house or apartment building, there is one essential tool for you: noise cancelling headphones.  For those unfamiliar with the product, nose cancelling headphones operate on a principle much like earplugs.  Noise cancelling headphones eliminate overt loud noises as well as background white noise.  The theory behind the headphones – as opposed to earplugs – is that using noise cancelling headphones creates a clean auditory palate which will leave the music you play sounding extra clear, crisp, and unhindered by other auditory distractions.  For a long time, noise cancelling headphones were a Grail for audiophiles, now they are fairly common.  But arguably the best noise cancelling headphones are the new ones from AKG.

AKG’s new K 495 NC noise cancelling headphones represent the highest-quality headphone for listening to music from portable music devices.  With its 121 decibel sensitivity, you are much more likely to notice flaws in your digital music files than you are with the sound quality from the K 495 NC headphones.  To make that clear, most digital music is compressed and does not contain as much audio information as music does when you play it from a compact disc or over the radio.  With a basic pair of earbuds, though, you might never notice how much is missing from your favorite songs.  The K 495 NC headphones, though, are not a pair of cheap earbuds!  As a result, you will hear the full depth of sound that is in your music files.  When you hear how much is missing from your digital music files, you may feel compelled to upgrade your digital music service and player, just to keep up with your awesome new headphones!

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Even as the recession in the United States persists, there are still some fields that are still employing highly-educated individuals.  In the tech sector, one of the most coveted and competitive positions for new graduates is the position of software engineer.  The online data storage company, Dropbox, continues to hire software engineers.  Just what are they looking for?  You have to be as smart, versatile and fun as Tina Wen!

Tina Wen is a software engineer at Dropbox and a recent graduate of MIT.  With her B.S. and Master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Microsoft quickly hired Tina Wen.  Intrigued by her thesis on bandwidth-sensitive oblivious routing, Microsoft put Wen on the team that developed Microsoft Outlook for Mac.  If you have Microsoft’s Office for Mac 2011 edition, you have some of Wen’s software!  Working as a software developer engineer was a nice step up for Wen at Microsoft; she had a summer internship there working on script tests for Microsoft TV the summer before she finished her Master’s.

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More than ever before, consumers are bombarded by advertisers and institutions that demand your attention.  Network television studios try to keep you thinking about your favorite show for the entire week between episodes, just as news channels tease upcoming stories constantly and advertisers desperately try to get your attention so you can buy their merchandise.  As consumers adapt to one form of advertising or programming reinforcement, experts in the industry work to develop new methods, products and services.  Arguably the coolest new service that connects your television viewing experience to other aspects of your life is Flingo.

Flingo is a relatively new company that combines the television watching experience with the social resources that enhance the experience.  The CEO of Flingo, Ashwin Navin, is not attempting to change the way network television viewing happens.  Instead, with Flingo, Navin hopes to enhance the viewing experience in ways that others have not tried before now.  In addition to innovating for television viewers, Flingo works with high definition television manufacturers and producers to try to elevate the television-viewing experience as much as possible, while still keeping it the passive activity most viewers want.

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Apple Computers, employs an elegantly simple strategy to dominate the mobile computing marketplace.  Apple’s strategy is built largely on a hope that you will buy their entire product line, not just one or two of their devices.  That is to say, products from Apple, more than any other company in the technology sector, are designed to interact easily with one another.  For example, Apple makes it very easy to connect an iPad to an iTV or a MacBook Pro.  But, as many people have discovered, there are more affordable high definition televisions with more options than the iTV.  But why should you be inconvenienced for wanting a great HDTV and an iPhone and wanting them to interact?  Scosche does not think you should be inconvenienced!  That is why Scosche made the sneakPEAK HD Cable!

Scosche’s sneakPEAK High Definition Audio/Video Cable for iPad, iPhone & iPod is a fairly simple cable that allows you to connect virtually any Apple i-product that has a screen on it to a high definition television.  By connecting your Apple products’ output port to the HDTV’s input ports, you are transforming your Apple product into a media player, like a DVD or Blu-Ray player.  This will allow you to play media from your iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad on your high definition television, even if you are streaming it from the Cloud!

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