Computer Support Blog

Motivating yourself to go to the gym when you’re trying to get in shape is difficult enough.  In many ways, it’s even harder to push yourself to go as hard as possible during your workout routine.  How many people do you think have cut exercises out of their routines, or done fewer reps in their sets because it’s more comfortable to do the minimum?  GymFu is a cool product available for smartphones that gets you to work harder when you work out.  GymFu aims to make sure that you push yourself and intensify your workouts to get the absolute most out of them every time.  If you are someone that constantly gets stuck in the same workout routine and benefits little from it, then this cool product might be exactly what you need.  GymFu helps users increase the reps and sets in their workout routines over time.  On the company website, it says that so far, 40% of the app’s users double the reps in their workouts.  Assuming these numbers are accurate, GymFu is clearly working for the people who have downloaded it so far.  The GymFu app is currently only available on Apple devices.  That means you’re going to need iPhone support if you’re unfamiliar with Apple mobile products and have trouble with them. Read more »

Auto insurance claims are never fun or enjoyable experiences.  However, cool person Brad Weisberg has created a system that at least makes the process a lot more convenient and easier for auto insurance claimants.  Weisberg wanted to use technology to find a faster way for people to get quotes from auto body repair shops when they need to make an insurance claim.  Weisberg saw that opportunity when smartphones became ubiquitous devices in the public sphere.  With his service Snapsheet, Weisberg has made it so anyone with a smartphone can streamline the process of getting quotes for auto insurance claims by performing all of it directly through their mobile phone.  Users simply take pictures of the car or truck in need of repair and send it to body shops directly through the Snapsheet app.  The body shops then deliver a quote directly over the phone so users can make a claim with their auto insurance.  Users can even request direct deposit or check-by-mail from within the app when the insurance company settles their claim.  Users who have difficulty using Weisberg’s app to communicate with repair shops and insurance companies can get mobile PC support to find the source of the problem. Read more »

Gift giving is often a stressful experience for the giver and disappointing for the person receiving the gift.  No matter how well someone knows a friend or family member, there will always be times when that person chooses an awkward, inappropriate or just plain bad gift.  Jifiti is a cool product that uses mobile technology to try to get rid of this problem.  Jifiti makes a mobile application that facilitates gift giving for both givers and receivers.  Jifiti works with Facebook to help friends give each other items that they actually want.  Users can add gifts from any store or vendor to their wish list.   They can add potential gifts either through e-commerce websites or by taking a picture of the gift in a physical store.  The Jifiti app will recognize the gift from the image and label it appropriately in the wish list.  Other users can then browse friends’ wish lists in order to find gifts that their friends actually want.  Then, when people find gifts they want to give, they can simply click the gifting button on Jifiti app.  Jifiti charges the giver and sends a voucher to the giftee immediately.  Each voucher is instantly retrievable through any online or in-store vendor with whom Jifiti partners.  This process removes a lot of hassle from gift giving experience and ensures that users receive items they actually desire.  If the Jifiti app doesn’t work properly, users can always contact smartphone tech support. Read more »

A slew of startups have popped up over the past few years that offer technology-based solutions for large events and professional conferences.  BusyEvent, one such startup based out of St. Louis, is trying to set itself apart with a cool product that leverages mobile technology for event organizers.  While many other companies design individual apps for events, costing an event’s host significant amounts of time and money, BusyEvent offers a way for event organizers to create their own mobile apps.  BusyEvent produces, in their own words, an “app that builds apps” for event organizers and marketers.  BusyEvent claims that their mobile application allows their customers to create event-specific apps “in five minutes”.  Organizers can then personalize their event’s app with different styles, themes, layouts and of course, content.  Users can view and edit the apps they make with BusyEvent through the web, on Android or on iPhone.  Anyone who needs help navigating or working through BusyEvent’s features can get help from a mobile tech support provider. Read more »

It is common for people to have an experience where they remember an item of clothing by its color or pattern, but cannot remember the brand or the store where they purchased it.  ASAP54 is a cool product that solves this conundrum by letting you search through fashion websites and online clothing stores by simply uploading a picture.  If an ASAP54 user wants to find a piece of clothing they see someone wearing, they can just snap a picture, upload it to the app and ASAP54 does all the work.  The app recognizes the image and scours the Internet trying to find visual matches for the item you photographed.  The app provides users with all the matches that it can find, and then lets the user filter further by looking for specific brands, types of clothing, and colors within their results.  Users who have difficulty operating the search filters can always call iPhone support for help navigating the app. Read more »

When Instagram launched in 2010, it changed the way many people approached mobile photography.  While anyone could snap pictures just for themselves and their close friends to see, Instagram offered users a simplified way to make artistic-looking photos that people wanted to share publicly.  Instagram’s filters gave people a sense of performance when taking and uploading their pictures and allowed many people without photo editing skills to feel like pros with their smartphone camera.  Magisto is a smartphone app that wants to recreate this experience on mobile, but this time for video rather than photography.  Magisto is a cool product that lets you upload your mobile videos to its app and choose a “theme” to apply to them.  Each theme dictates an automated editing process, which gives your video a more artistic look.  Themes add different visual filters to your video, not unlike Instagram does with photos, but also actually edits the video itself to make it more dynamic. Those who have have trouble recording videos with their mobile devices can get smartphone IT support to help them with their camera. Read more »

The holiday season is only a few months away and for many people that will mean the buying and receiving of copious amounts of retail gift cards.  Thickening your wallet with these cards and even remembering to use them all can be inconvenient and troublesome—not the sort of experience you want to have associated with gift giving.  Cool person in technology Vinny Lingham founded his startup Gyft in 2012 to attack the problem of physical gift cards.  Gyft uses mobile technology to make storing, keeping track of, and using gift cards a seamless process for consumers.  Users download an app on their smartphone where they can enter the information from their physical gift cards.  Lingham’s app stores the information and lets users access it directly from their phone so they can toss all the plastic versions of their cards away.  Read more »

Voice control is a growing trend in the smartphone arena.  Both of the two biggest smartphone operating systems—iOS and Android—have voice-activated virtual assistant features built in to their system (Siri and Google Now, respectively).  However, these virtual assistants often don’t work within many specific applications, limiting how many actions they can actually perform.  This is why cool person in technology Stuart Patterson is making virtual assistant style voice control available for individual mobile applications with his company Xtone.  Consumers have responded well to the ease-of-use presented by Siri and Google Now, so Patterson sees an opportunity for app creators to transplant that experience into their own mobile software.  Patterson targets Xtone’s services at small and medium-sized app developers who want to add a Siri-like experience to their product.  Xtone’s own website lists various potential applications of such a feature.  One could use Xtone’s technology for booking hotels and rental cars quickly with a travel app, transferring money or paying bills with a banking app, or even connecting to an online tech support service when you have trouble operating an app.  While virtual assistants like Siri and Google Now can only let you open certain programs or access specific OS commands by voice, Xtone’s technology lets people commit these essential tasks the same way.  Read more »

There are many cases where having a private phone number can be beneficial and increase personal privacy.  However, setting up a second cell phone line can be costly and require more effort than it’s worth.  Cool product Burner makes the process far simpler.  Burner is an iPhone and Android application that creates private numbers for use on your smartphone when you need them.  You can either set up a separate number indefinitely or make it active for a specific period of time.  This creates a wall of privacy between you and general public.  For example, if you ever need to give out a number on Twitter or Facebook for business reasons, Burner allows you to create a private number specifically for those calls.  If that number is ever compromised somehow, you can just “burn” it by deleting it from the app.  Users can keep as many extra phone numbers as they want in the app at any given time.  If you have trouble getting your Burner numbers to integrate into your phone properly, you will need smartphone computer support.   Read more »

Those who commute to and from work on public transit know how unpredictable and inconvenient it can be to use.  Trains, buses, and ferries often run off schedule due to delays.  Scott Kolber is a cool person in technology trying to tackle this problem as CEO of Roadify.  Roadify is a company that makes and distributes an iOS app of the same name, which feeds users information about public transit schedules, changes, and delays in real-time.  Kolber and his team aggregate all public transit information through the app in real time so users are up to date on what the fastest public transit routes to home and work are and what routes might slow them down or get them in trouble.  Kolber wants to offer users a comprehensive resource so they can avoid public transit disasters as they try to get around their hometown.  Users who believe their Roadify data isn’t updating properly can always contact smartphone tech support to find a solution. Read more »