Computer Support Blog

Most online marketing tools offer businesses an analytics feature to measure the successes and failures of their online strategy.  Many businesses have found that these analytical tools help them visualize their business model and customer base in new ways.  Analytics can also help them gain new insights into their model that they didn’t originally consider.  What if you could apply the same analytics to an enterprise’s offline marketing and get similar insights?  That’s exactly what cool person in technology Cory Capasso is trying to do with his company Nomi.  Nomi claims to offer businesses a vertically integrated solution that provides analytics about their offline marketing in the same way a business receives analytics from online marketing services.  Offline marketing includes sales, promotions, events, in-store signs, end caps, displays and any other form of advertising that doesn’t involve an Internet connection.  Capasso’s company leverages an enterprise’s POS, CRM, and BI systems to gather the appropriate data.  It then uses that data to try to provide you with insightful analytics.  If you’re interested in utilizing an analytics service like Nomi, but you need technical help implementing one, make sure you contact a business IT service before going forward.  Read more »

Budgeting your time to work on learning a new language is difficult.  Keeping up-to-date on vocabulary, studying flash cards, and working on your reading comprehension don’t always fit into a busy schedule when you’re trying to balance work and life.  Cool product Lingua.ly aims to make learning a new language a more convenient option by allowing people to work on their language skills as they browse the Internet.   The theory is sound.  Most people spend massive amounts of time web browsing both at work and in downtime they have at home.  Building the process of language learning into something we already do so often could certainly make it easier to add learning Spanish, French, or Italian to the daily routine.  It may not work for people who need computer support just to handle a web browser properly, but it could break down some barriers to learning a language for most of the connected world.  Read more »

One of the most touted features of Google’s mobile operating system Android is the level of customization that it offers to users.  With the help of many different settings available as well as specialized Android applications, Android users can redesign their phone or tablet’s entire interface.  Cool person in technology Ashvin Dhingra knew that many Android users like himself were passionate about their own customized Android designs.  Dhingra acted on this passion by creating MyColorScreen.com, an online community that lets hobbyist Android customizers share their own design with others.  Users post images of their different Android interface designs and tutorials on how others can create and install them on their own phones.  Dhingra’s website features the most viewed and talked about designs on its main page and runs a blog with tips, guides, and opinions as well.  Dhingra even placed a special section on the site for those who have hacked their iOS devices to customize their home screen as well.  The website claims that its community has uploaded over 49,000 designs so far.  If you want to learn more about Android customization, find an Android tech support provider to help you. Read more »

Influential people such as celebrities, CEOs, former political leaders, and other prominent figures often find that there is a large demand for their time.  People swarm them with fan mail, tweets, e-mails, and other requests for their attention, advice or consideration.  Since this is often overwhelming, people of influence don’t take the time to respond or address these requests for their time in any meaningful way.  Cool tech product Huddlewoo attacks this problem by allowing influential people to advertise their free time and receive offers for personal video chats.  Huddlewoo allows people to charge an hourly rate for their time to keep requests only from those with serious inquiries.  If someone is a particularly famous celebrity, they can even make conversations they have public so others can share the experience as well.  Those who want to connect with influential people via Huddlewoo will need to know how to set up and use a web cam for video chatting.  Those who are inexperienced with video chat should seek an onsite computer support service for assistance to get started with Huddlewoo. Read more »

It is hard to gauge just how hyped the public is for certain products.  Whether it’s in tech or entertainment, advertising and press coverage can often be misleading indicators of how much people anticipate an upcoming product.  Cool person in technology Grant Yim founded HypeJar to garner more accurate ideas about how much the public is looking forward to different product releases.  HypeJar does this by aggregating the opinions of everyday consumers itself for insight.  Yim’s website invites users to vote, comment, and tag upcoming products to share their opinions on them.  HypeJar then takes this data and uses it to measure how much “hype” a product actually has.  In theory, one can gain a more accurate idea of the buzz surrounding a product by seeing what users think on HypeJar, rather than what journalists, critics, or advertisers think in their respective bubbles.  For example, while a tech blog may be hyping an upcoming phone release, users may actually be unexcited by it because it seems confusing and would require smartphone tech support just to complete simple tasks. Read more »

Digital distribution is a growing standard for the release of video content.  It is becoming common for consumers to forgo disc-based media altogether and view all their movies, TV shows, and other videos via web streaming or file downloads.  This market shift has the potential to give filmmakers and artists far more power and control over their own work’s distribution.  Cool product in technology VHX helps to facilitate that shift of power with their digital distribution platform, which erases any middlemen between filmmakers and their audience.  VHX users receive all the tools necessary to create their own customizable website where they can sell and distribute their movie both through streaming and digital downloads.  VHX lets artists distribute their video in multiple formats that are cross-device compatible so they can reach as many customers as possible.  VHX’s avoidance of DRM practices also prevents frustrated consumers from calling remote computer support services because their video won’t play on their device.  Filmmakers who want to give their customers complete flexibility and have a direct channel for selling their product will probably find VHX very useful. Read more »

Being a successful young entrepreneur is never an easy thing to accomplish.  Founding a company, directing it in its early stages and turning it into a successful business are things that many people struggle to do even after years of experience in an industry.  That’s why cool person Katherine Fleischman, the twenty-eight year old founder and CEO of Blink PR, is so impressive.  Fleishman has built Blink PR from the ground up and has garnered a long list of clients.  Fleischman founded her PR agency in 2008, less than two years after graduating from the University of Michigan with a degree in art history and psychology.  After only a year of working as a media coordinator at agency212, Fleischman made the bold move of stepping out on her own and trying to build something from nothing.  Five years later, Blink PR is the result of her efforts.  While working on Blink PR in New York City, Fleishman also managed to get a Master’s degree in public relations from NYU. Read more »

When you have a service that you believe people in multiple markets throughout the world will appreciate and buy into, the clear and obvious goal is to make your business global.  However, doing so requires a massive amount of work, but cool technology product Startling wants to make one part of that process easier.  Startling offers companies translation management software that allows them to translate their content in both websites and mobile apps, allowing them to open their service to a global user base.  Smartling’s software helps companies manage all translation and localization projects and supposedly makes it easier to keep your content updated properly across different local markets in multiple languages.  Smartling uses a cloud system to ensure that uploaded website content and updates about various translation projects is always accessible via the web.  Smartling’s translation turnaround times vary based on the scale of a project, but companies can also pay premiums if they need a project finished in a certain amount of time.  Smartling’s goal is for companies not to have to worry about customers in foreign markets calling phone tech support because of poorly translated instructions on a website. Read more »

Finding the right company to enjoy a game of football, baseball or basketball and talk about your favorite teams usually isn’t much of an issue for local sports fans.  Sports bars and restaurants are littered throughout every major city with a professional sports team and even many that aren’t, but what happens when you move away from your local team for a new job or another opportunity?  You suddenly find yourself separated from everyone you can talk to about your favorite team.  That’s why cool person in tech Leigh Goldstein has founded Exiles, a social networking site designed specifically to cater to communities of displaced sports fans.  Exiles hosts several micro-sized social networks on its site, and each one is specifically dedicated to a particular sports franchise and its displaced fans in other areas of the country.  Goldstein and his team are aiming for these microsites to replace the community feeling of a local sports bar or club.  Fans can share team-specific stories, ask questions of the community, share related news articles, and even form local meetups if you find other displaced fans in your area.  By transferring teams’ fan community online, Goldstein believes he can recreate the communal experience that local sports fans have for fans that live away from their team. Read more »

Using the Internet to network and increase your web of contacts in the professional world is hardly a new concept.  LinkedIn has been doing this for ages.  However, simply clicking a link to add another “connection” on your profile can be impersonal and even undermine the chance to make a true connection through networking in the first place.  This is why cool product Peer tries to add a more personal touch to online professional networking by incorporating video messaging and chats into the process.  Peer lets you make professional connections, leave video introductions and schedule video chats on your phone so you can make a real connection while networking rather than just a name on the screen.  The team at Peer believes this process can help facilitate stronger relationships through networking that will be more helpful than the typical ones made through social networking.  Currently, Peer uses LinkedIn to help users find others to connect with over their service.  If you do not have a LinkedIn profile and don’t know how to create one, you will need computer tech support to help you. Read more »