Computer Support Blog

Schools do not generally allow teachers to have direct communication with their students outside of class due to privacy and safety concerns.  Unfortunately, this mistrust of teachers makes it difficult to keep students and parents informed about what is happening in class at school.  Students do not have permission to share cell phone numbers, so mass texting is impossible; despite the fact that many young people use their phones as their main means of communication.  Some services provide an Internet-based hub or website where teachers can post assignments and updates, but there is no guarantee that students are going to visit the site and check their assignments.  It is equally unlikely that parents would check for their children.  Read more »

Subscription services are quickly becoming the norm in several industries.  Services such as Spotify and Netflix have made music and movies a service rather than a product. People have even switched to subscription plans for things like online computer repair service. However, what if people could turn something more essential and important into a subscription service too?  Pillpack is a new startup that wants to switch pharmaceutical medication to subscription-based service.  This cool product would replace customers’ weekly or monthly trip to the local pharmacy with a delivery of their medications in one simplified package, which is where the name of the startup has its origins.  This new model certainly disrupts a decades-old system of using brick-and-mortar pharmacies for prescription medicine.  Even online pharmacies have never quite tried anything like the subscription service that Pillpack offers patients.  Read more »

As the Internet continues to thrive and social media expands its reach into every aspect and details of our lives, there is a continuing marginalization of people’s desire for privacy and secrecy in their communications.  With every aspect of our daily lives, including what we say to our friends and family, constantly monitored by sites like Facebook, it is easy to forget that there was once a time when people could leave messages or communicate with one another without considering public ramifications.  One cool person in technology who realizes this change is affecting people and wants to present a solution is Howard Lerman. Read more »

One of the biggest downfalls of shopping for clothes online is the inability to try something on before a customer makes a purchase.  With the exception of casual clothing like t-shirts and sweatpants, trying on clothing to see how it fits is an essential step in choosing someone’s wardrobe.  While shopping online beats out going to a store in convenience, it will always remain an issue that people cannot try on the clothes they purchase first.  Cool person in technology Ankus Seghal founded BranDiD to erase this problem and introduce a service that allows people to try on the clothes they want to buy even when shopping on the web.  Read more »

Local businesses that use social media have a common problem: targeting local customers who are more likely to use their services.  Even if a restaurant, shop, or local service company such as a plumber or electrician uses Facebook, they often receive friends and followers that cannot convert into customers due to geographic location. Targeted advertising through social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus can help to deal with this problem, but it is not a permanent solution.  Cool product UMeTime wants to offer local businesses the permanent solution that they need to target people most likely to become long time customers through social media advertising.

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Any company that wants to sell to an international audience needs a reliable and scalable way to translate their written contact, whether it be advertising or part of the project itself.  However, bad or awkward translations can be damning to a business that wants to appear professional and legitimate in a new market.  Word-for-word translations and computer software will not be able to create nuanced translations in multiple languages.  It doesn’t matter how much a computer support specialist helps a business tweak translation software. That company will never get software to create high-quality written translations for the written content that they promote.  While software helps with the issue of scalability, the technology is not at a point where it can produce the quality that enterprises need.

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Customization is a theme that comes up over and over again when reading about new tech startups.  Whether it’s the ability to change the look of a mobile phone or modify a service exactly to a customer’s liking, many companies are appealing to customers’ wishes to make whatever they buy uniquely them.  Now this is true even for what people wear thanks to cool product Bow & Drape.  Read more »

Despite the sentiment involved in sending one, many greeting cards can feel impersonal.  When someone simply grabs a card from the Hallmark shelf at the drug store or picks a pre-formulated greeting from an e-card website, the feelings the care tries to represent often feel watered down and less impactful.  Choosing a card to send to someone does not have the impact that making a card does.  Kealan Lennon knows this fact, and that’s why this cool person in technology founded CleverCards in order to help people easily send personalized, thoughtful greetings with the help of social networking.  Read more »

Everyone knows the popular tourist attractions and most famous restaurants in a city.  People got to New York to visit Times Square, Central Park, and the Empire State Building.  In London, people visit Parliament and eat at popular pubs.  The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and the restaurants and shops on the Champs-Elysse are the biggest draws in Paris.  However, these big cities have more than the obvious to offer not only tourists, but residents as well.  Gems like amazing bars, small cultural festivals, outdoor markets and specialty shops can give people excellent experiences, but they don’t get the publicity that draws big crowds.  Phaedra Chrousos is a cool person in technology that wants to help people get it on the secret of these smaller, but immensely enjoyable attractions with her company Daily Secret. Read more »

Data entry is never anyone’s favorite task in a sales job.  Sales professionals always prefer to spend more time connecting with clients and working out deals rather than typing details into a computer system.  Filling out forms with customer information, dates, and progress reports often feels like wasted time.  However, these processes remain necessary parts of a sales operation, much to the chagrin of anyone who sells. Read more »