Computer Support Blog

Flipboard is a tablet application for iPad and Android that aims to improve the user experience for consuming social media and news.  Mike McCue, the CEO of the company, founded Flipboard in 2010 alongside iPhone engineer Evan Doll.  He branded the app as a “social magazine”, which collects information from a person’s many different social media accounts and specific news sources and places it into a magazine aesthetic for the user.  Users can then quickly flip through the digital pages of their personalized magazine to take in all the information from their media and news feeds in a single place.  This is opposed to the traditional web format of news and social media, which usually involves vertical scrolling and does not consolidate and organize your data the way Flipboard attempts to do. Those who have interest in Flipboard but are struggling with the app should find iPad support for help. McCue has lead Flipboard to great success since founding it.  He has helped to make the application one of the most featured and prominent on both Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS operating systems. Read more »

SwiftKey is one of the most successful pieces of Android software in the history of the operating system.  Millions of people have downloaded the keyboard app and used it to replace the less popular stock keyboard of the operating system.  What makes SwiftKey so popular?  The people behind the technology designed SwiftKey to be an effective and convenient program that accurately predicts what you are trying to say as you type it, saving you time as you send your messages by e-mail and text on your phone or tablet.  Dr. Ben Medlock, a computer science expert specializing in Natural Language Processing, is the man behind this technology.  Dr. Ben Medlock is currently the CTO of SwiftKey, which he founded with current CEO Jon Reynolds in 2008.  While Reynolds runs the business side of the company, Medlock is in the man in charge of the SwiftKey program itself.  Medlock’s technology has clearly resonated with Android users, as the app constantly remains one of the most popular in the Android store.  If you need help replacing the Android keyboard with SwiftKey on your mobile device, you should call for mobile support. Read more »

It’s a common experience: you turn on your computer, go to Google, Bing or whatever search engine you prefer and you search for local restaurants.  You end up with countless choices to sift through and an immense amount of research to do before even leaving the house.  Tom Copeman, CEO and founder of Nara, is trying to eliminate this problem with his artificial intelligence based restaurant recommendation service.

The most common model for websites and apps that review and recommend restaurants is usually review-based.  There are common listings and individual customers can rate their experiences.  However, this leads to inconsistent data and often times, you’ll enjoy a restaurant that someone else will hate, making their review a hindrance more than a help. According to Copeman, Nara handles recommendations differently. Copeman informed Rescuecom that Nara uses artificial intelligence to mine the Internet for information and make more personalized recommendations for you based on its analysis of your preferences and larger trends.  Read more »

Busywork taking time away from productivity is a problem in many workspaces, but one of the most damaging places this issue pops up in is education.  Teachers waste many hours hand-grading quizzes and tests when they could spend those hours on lesson plans and finding better ways to engage students every semester, both in primary and secondary education settings.  However, the team at Design by Educators, Inc. has developed an iPhone app that they believe could help solve this problem for good.  Quick Key is an application that allows for quick, efficient grading and it only requires a smartphone to work.  In theory, this program could be able to save many teachers’ hours of time grading that they can put back into making the classroom a better space for learning.  Read more »

Social media is quickly becoming a bloated market these days.  It seems there are a million different social platforms all competing for your attention at any given moment. So how does Pheed, a new mobile-focused social network, intend to stand out from the pack in such a competitive space?   According to Chrysta Olson, the company’s Communications Director, Pheed offers an “all-in-one” solution to social networking and media sharing that the company believes will appeal to a large audience.  “People are getting overwhelmed managing so many separate accounts,” Olson told Rescuecom, explaining that Pheed intends to put all forms of social media—text, video,  music, voice recording, photos, and even live broadcasting—into one online space.  The concept is that rather than go through the tedious process of managing several different social media accounts such as Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube on a daily basis, Pheed users will be able to access all forms of media in one convenient space.  Read more »

Most of us have experienced it at one point or another: you’ve finished your meal at a restaurant and its taking far too long for the servers simply to close out your bill.  Many have probably wondered if there was a way for recent advances in mobile technology, like smartphones and tablets, to improve this process.  TabbedOut sets out to do exactly that.  TabbedOut is an app found on both iOS and Android devices that allows patrons to check in to a restaurant and then pay their check when they are finished via their mobile device.  In theory, this could save both the customer and servers valuable time and improve the overall experience of eating out.  While there are many apps and services for purchasing take-out food, TabbedOut is unique in that it focuses on the experience of dining out.  However, if you have problems operating the mobile app, you should ask mobile support for help. Read more »

Many have toiled over problems regarding how to handle young computer users.  It is practically a requirement for children of all ages to use computers in our connected age.  Their homework often requires it and even kids must complete many of their everyday tasks online now.  However, Internet security has always been a difficult issue in regards to children on the computer.  Parents have struggled for years to find a solution that will truly teach their children about proper use of the Internet and keep their PC safe in the process.  Richard Shah and the MiiPC team at ZeroDesktop believe they’ve developed a product that can tackle these difficult issues.  The MiiPC is an affordable desktop running on the Android operating system that comes with a mobile app that allows parents to monitor their children’s computer activity in real time.  Read more »

Both on-demand music streaming and Internet radio services seem to be taking the music industry by storm.  Many streaming service options have flooded the market, including Spotify, Rdio, and Rhapsody, among others.  However, these services don’t do much to distinguish themselves.  They all tend to offer mostly major-label music, and they split their services into a limited free option that includes many advertisements and a paid option that limits the devices on which you can stream your music.  Joey Flores, CEO of Earbits, believes in a different model for Internet music streaming.  Earbits.com offers both Internet radio and on-demand music streaming free of cost but focuses on new and independent artists as opposed to the usual major-label music you find elsewhere. Read more »

We all have stories to tell and many of us fear losing them to history, where at best they’ll become lists of facts stored in dusty file cabinets.  Personal histories, especially those passed on orally, are often lost this way.  Michael Davis believes StoryPress can help solve this problem.  StoryPress lets users document and record their personal stories orally using an iPad.  Each story is stored virtually on StoryPress’s cloud drive, where one can access it anytime.  StoryPress also organizes your stories and allows you to make them available for public viewing if you desire.

This is an elegant application of technology for recording and organizing family and personal histories.  Michael Davis, the CEO of StoryPress, had family histories in mind when he created the app, but other interesting uses have appeared. Read more »

 The world truly is interconnected by telecommunications technology now.  Even so, there are gaps in the worldwide network and the people who explore those gaps are often the individuals who would benefit most from having reliable technology.  Where smartphones may fail or one might find themselves out of network – on the open sea, in the wilderness, hiking and/or climbing – there are technologies that may allow you to communicate with the rest of the world and the mainstream communications networks.  One of the premiere companies providing such communication channels is DeLorme.  DeLorme has an impressive satellite network that allows its devices, like the Inreach For Smartphones, to operate wherever you are on Earth. Read more »