Cool Person of the Day

Actors, artists, and others who need to promote and market themselves on the web all use social media as a key way to get others to notice them.  One of the major obstacles of promoting oneself on social media is a lot more obvious than many people expect—having people see what your post.  Even if someone has a substantial following on sites like Facebook and Twitter, it can be a challenge to maximize the number of followers that see a post.  Buffer CEO Joel Gascoigne is a cool person in technology who has created a product that can help with this particular problem.  Buffer is a service that helps people who need their social media posts seen by as many people as possible.  With Buffer, users can submit their social networking posts and Gascoigne’s product will post them at the most optimum times so that as many people see each post as possible.  Buffer lets users manage multiple accounts on social media through their service so they can manage all of their content in one place.  Computer tech support service may be helpful for anyone that hasn’t managed social media accounts through a third-party service before.  Read more »

College textbooks are rising in price faster than college tuition, which itself is outpacing inflation.  Over the last thirty years, college textbook prices have increased by 812%.  This fact means that current college students should take every chance they can get to save money on buying books each semester.  Cool person in technology David Miller founded SlugBooks to help students in their quest for the best and lowest prices on their textbooks.  Many universities overcharge for textbooks in their bookstores because they know most students don’t have the time and information necessary to find better prices online or elsewhere.  Miller’s company SlugBooks takes the difficulty and time-consumption of textbook price hunting away with its online tools for finding good textbook prices.  Miller’s website lets students find the textbooks necessary for their classes and then searches the web to find the best deals available on those books.  Miller’s goal is to make it easy for students to find cheaper prices and spend the least amount possible on textbooks to help them save money for the semester but still got all the books that they need.  Whether someone is taking a class in Advanced Network Services or in Political Science 101, SlugBooks can help them find inexpensive alternatives to getting the necessary textbooks. Read more »

Online reviews can often be a struggle for both small businesses and larger corporations.  All it takes is for one negative review to go viral and it can heavily affect a company’s reputation.  Mark Salsberry is the CEO of JetJaw and a cool person in technology that wants to help businesses deal with the problem of online reviews.  JetJaw uses a web-based platform for customer interaction and support that can work with any business providing a service.  When a company signs up for JetJaw, Salsberry’s platform becomes the main point of interaction between customers and the business.  If someone wants to share their experience or write a review about a company’s service, they must do so through the JetJaw platform.   Read more »

While online shopping has become the norm for many people, many still prefer to shop in physical stores.  This is especially true for home-based products like furniture and decoration.  No matter how many pictures someone looks at online, seeing the physical product in person is always preferable when it’s going to be on display in one’s home.

Cool person in technology Alex Loizou has created a product that uses the resources of the web to help people who prefer to shop in the physical world.  Loizou’s product StreetHub has a database of items on sale in retail shops and boutiques.  Using GPS technology to cross-reference with this database, Loizou’s website connects users with nearby shops that carry the specific products and items they want.  This way, a user can browse through products online but still go out and purchase them from a physical store once they find what they want from the convenience of their home.  If someone is on Loizou’s site and sees a set of table and chairs they like, or any other product, that person can still go to the store and see it in person before buying.  StreetHub could be a godsend for anyone who has ever bought items online only for them to be very different than a shopping website represented them.  Since StreetHub uses Wi-Fi and GPS to determine location, someone who has a computer with these features broken may need home computer repair to use Loizou’s service. Read more »

It’s a common phrase uttered to college students: “You should really go abroad.”  It’s true that studying abroad while someone’s in school can open a person up to new experiences and give them insight they otherwise would not have had.  However, not all study abroad programs are equal.  Many students unfortunately go on the recommendation of others but choose a less-than-excellent program.  Cool person in technology Mitch Gordon has created a website called Go Overseas that looks to prevent students from choosing the wrong study abroad program for them.  Gordon’s website is a directory for thousands of different study abroad programs that are available to students.  People can look at abroad programs available for travel all over the world on Go Overseas.  Users can also leave reviews and give third-party advice about specific programs to help anyone who’s searching through study abroad ideas.  The resources that Gordon offers through his website are potentially far more useful to interested students than the usual advertising brochures that different programs distribute.  If someone is looking for honest opinions and the complete picture about different study abroad programs, Gordon’s website provides a comprehensive look at a person’s options.  If a student has problems accessing different areas of Gordon’s website, they should seek help from a computer tech support provider. Read more »

Working remotely or from home is becoming essential for many businesses.  With all the time many professionals have to spend on their jobs, some of it has to come while they’re not at the office in many situations.  Most remote work comes through desktop applications and remote control of office computers.  However, with the recent boost in the use of mobile devices for professional applications, there is a growing need to be able to use smartphone to access work-related content.  Cool person in technology Israel Lifshitz founded Nubo for exactly this reason.  Nubo is a mobile application that remotely connects professionals’ smartphones to the computers at their offices.  Lifshitz’s app essentially gives workers a remote connection to their work in their pocket or purse at all times. This connection makes completing necessary work functions while away from the office quick and easy.  In fact, given the portability of mobile devices, users can access important files, send e-mails, and set up meetings even while they’re out or traveling.  The remote function in Lifshitz’s software is similar to, but not exactly the same as, technology that remote computer repair companies use to access people’s PCs.  With this cool person’s mobile software, professionals may be able to access work easier than ever before, whether from home or on the road. Read more »

Hiring personal tutors to help students with subjects that they are struggling with in school has been a growing trend for many years now.  With standardized tests carrying so much weight in college admissions as well, an entire sub-industry of SAT preparation tutoring continues to grow as well.  However, despite these trends, there aren’t many online resources for finding a quality tutor when a student needs help.  Cool person in technology Andrew Geant is trying to change that with his company WyzAnt.  WyzAnt offers people a database of tutors in a slew of different available subjects.  Website users can book tutoring services directly through the website.  WyzAnt has tutors available for all primary and secondary school grade levels.  Subjects that Geant’s company provide help for include math, foreign languages, science, English, and test prep.  Geant also offers a limited number of tutors for other, advanced subjects such as economics, finance, accounting, and computers.  WyzAnt even offers some physical education tutors and personal coaches for sports.  Geant wants WyzAnt to be the go-to resource for tutoring help with all subjects so that any student that needs the help can get it.  Those who have difficulty using the WyzAnt website can get computer support to help them use the site and book a tutor. Read more »

Reviewing places and things has become an essential aspect of the Internet.  Every major online retailer has a review system for customers to use with the products they sell. Most blogs and news sources on the Internet contain sections for product and entertainment reviews. Even major web companies like Google incorporate reviews into their online services.  However, with so many reviews spread out across so many sites, there is no easy way to get the full picture on the quality of a product without investing significant time into the project.  Cool person in technology Ryan Charles wants to change that with his service called Consumr.  Consumr is a website and mobile app that provides people with a collection of the available online reviews for any packaged good on command.  Consumr is an unbiased third party that simply gathers information about products from reviews that already exist on the web.  This fact means users can trust Consumr to provide a complete and objective picture of a product’s quality based on all of its online reviews.  Charles’s company collects both professional and customer reviews to ensure that people have all the information they need about any given item.  Any user who needs help downloading Consumr’s iPhone app can get Apple tech support to fix the problem. Read more »

Living with diabetes is no easy task, even with all the advances of medical technology in the last few decades.  One of the most difficult aspects of living with the condition is the need to keep track of one’s body chemistry constantly.  Cool person in technology Erez Raphael wants to make it easier and more convenient for diabetics to track their blood sugar and insulin.  Raphael’s company, Dario, has developed a small mobile phone accessory and companion app that let diabetics check their blood with their smartphone.  Usually, people require separate devices for checking their blood sugar and insulin levels.  Even worse, these devices are often very expensive and invasive to the user.  Dario is a very small device that plugs directly into a smartphone’s headphone jack.  The device holds a number of strip cartridges that provide minimal discomfort when sampling blood.  Users can easily insert and eject cartridges without expending much effort. The lightweight convenience of this device is certainly a preferable alternative to more complicated and painful dedicated devices for the same purpose.  Any user who has a broken headphone jack on their smartphone will need smartphone PC repair in order to use Raphael’s device. Read more »

ELearning and education technology are two of the hottest areas in the tech industry currently.  Startups are attacking this area from many different angles. While some companies, such as Coursera, are trying to transplant the traditional experience of college-level education onto the Internet, many other companies are trying alternative methods to propagate learning on the web and through technology.  One such cool person who is working to accomplish this is Emily Foote.  Foote is the co-founder and vice president of curricular design at ApprenNet.  ApprenNet is a web-based learning tool that Foote and her colleagues designed to promote educational discussion about a variety of topics.  Foote is a co-founder of the company and an originator of the idea.  She handles the curriculum and the application of it ApprenNet programs while her partners and other co-founders—Karl Okamoto and Paul Tzen—handle other aspects of the company.  Okamoto works with business aspects as CEO and Tzen is the engineer who builds the backbone of ApprenNet’s software.  Since Foote and her team designed the ApprenNet product for use in large institutions, organizations that want to use the product will need large-scale computer support help to integrate and maintain it.  Read more »