Computer Support Blog

A constant complaint from those that switch from Apple mobile products to Android-based ones is the loss of iTunes.  While Google Play is useful for streaming music, it lacks many of the features that iTunes fans love.  These features include the ability to sync several devices quickly and easily as well as a centralized local music player software for users’ home computers.  Dazzboard is a cool product that includes these features so that Android users can have an experience close to what Apple users have with iTunes.  The Dazzboard team makes their product open so that any Android user can use their software regardless of what device they own.  Dazzboard has software available for users’ computers that links to the Android apps they download for their phone.  The Dazzboard desktop program manages a person’s digital music library locally, organizing it in a convenient fashion for users in a single program.  The Android app does the same for mobile devices and syncs up directly with the Dazzboard app.  This level of convenience is something many people who have switched from iPhone to Android will appreciate.  Any users who have trouble handling the Dazzboard app should get Android tech support service. Read more »

It seems there are countless new messaging apps popping up every month for mobile devices.  Mobile chat is currently one of the most popular platforms in consumer technology and many different companies are trying to jump on the bandwagon.  However, most of these apps aren’t very different from each other.  Many use basic text, others use photos, and some even use videos.  However, with such an explosion of options becoming available, it is very difficult to find a messaging app that does something truly different or unique.  Cool product Pingtune is a messaging app that manages to stand out from its competition due to its creative medium for messaging: music.  Pingtune lets users send messages in the form of songs to their friends.  Pingtune users can take music available from SoundCloud and YouTube and embed them in special messages to send to others.  Users who have difficulty getting songs to embed correctly in their messages should seek help from a mobile IT support service. Read more »

Unless a member also happens to be a mobile software developer, most bands and musical artists on the independent scene don’t have the resources to make a dedicated mobile app for their music.  The money a band would need to spend in order to hire an app development service is just too much to justify when there are touring and studio costs.  However, the Internet music scene is very important in a band’s early stages since they are trying to get their name out as much as possible.  Cool person in technology Adam Perry wants to solve this catch-22 with his startup BandApp.  BandApp provides bands with an easy way to create a functioning mobile app from their template.  Bands can put photos, music, tour dates, and their biography on the app.  Artists who use the app can even link directly to their music on SoundCloud or iTunes.  Perry wants to give newer artists a way to promote themselves on the mobile web conveniently and easily with this new venture.  Any band that runs into technical difficulty while building their app on Perry’s platform should contact computer support for help. Read more »

Bands and musical artists have used photos from concerts as promotional items for years.  However, getting good pictorial content from gigs can cost a lot of money and require a lot of resources for artists, especially if a major label doesn’t back them.  Bands need a paid photographer to get the content and need to put up on their website or across social media.  Cool product Vivogig wants to take the effort out of this process by allowing bands an easy way to use their fans best photos for promotional and marketing content.  Fans download the Vivogig app to their phone and upload their gig photos to a band’s profile, where other users can vote on and rate their photographs.  This system creates competition between fans to upload the best photos and get their content featured on the app.  Competition like this ensures that Vivogig only features the best quality fan photos on a band’s profile page.  Fans who use the app but have trouble with their phone’s camera may need smartphone computer repair to fix the issue. Read more »

The Internet has severely changed the state of being for independent musicians and artists.  Having a web and social media presence is essential to maintaining your career as an artist if you want to stay independent.  Most successful musicians on the web stick to social media sites such as YouTube and BandCamp to promote and sell their music.  That was not enough for cool person in technology Jack Conte.  Conte worked for years as an independent musician with a heavy web presence, both with his solo projects and with his partner Nataly Dawn in the band Pomplamoose.  Conte has drawn a significant following of fans on the Internet thanks to his popular music videos on YouTube, which reveal how he creates the unique sounds in his music.  However, Conte was not satisfied with promoting his work on a social network while selling it elsewhere.  This is why he founded Patreon, a website that allows users to patronize specific artists and fund them for their continued work. Read more »

It takes an especially well trained ear to be able to hear a song and learn it from scratch on guitar.  While some musicians master this skill over time, others have struggled and wasted countless hours trying to learn new music from nothing more than a recording.  Capo 3 is a cool product that looks to make learning music from a recorded track an easier and more feasible task.  Capo 3, made by SuperMegaUltraGroovy Software, uses digital audio files to create musical notation so users can learn new music more quickly. The program accepts audio files in MP3, M4A, WAV, and AIFF formats.  Once someone uploads a song into Capo 3, it produces musical notation by automatically detecting the chords played in the audio track.  Users can make edits to the automatically detected notation if there is a mistake or if they want to add to what is already present in the recording.  Those who have trouble managing the audio files on their computer should seek a home computer support service for help. Read more »

With music services so fragmented, listeners often have to inconveniently sort through many options when they want to share music with others.  If you want to share a song or album with someone, do you use Spotify, iTunes, Google Play, or link them to YouTube?  It becomes even more difficult if you don’t know exactly what services your friends use.  Cool product Herd.fm aims to solve that problem with its mobile app.  Herd.fm keeps a database of songs, of which you can add to at any time through your phone’s music library, and lets you send them to your friends through social networking in a streamlined fashion that eliminates worries about different services.  Herd.fm lets users share their music with one unified system that lets them message their friends directly through text message or through services like Facebook. Recipients receive immediate access to the music via streaming and can even receive “mini-mixes” of multiple songs if the sender so chooses.  If you have trouble receiving text messages, find a phone tech support service to help you. 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 »

Have you ever been to a restaurant or retail store and realized the same five or six songs were playing on repeat over the PA?  Cool person in technology Garrett Dodge wants to stop that from happening at restaurants and retail stores.  Many commercial and retail businesses play music while they’re open so their customers can enjoy it, but the vast majority of the time it ends up being a passive exercise.  Businesses simply put on a Pandora station or iTunes playlist and customers eventually tune out.  Dodge created Rockbot to find a better way to use music in commercial business.  Rockbot licenses a database of songs for businesses to use in their stores, but adds a twist to the streaming service model: it also has a mobile app that allows customers to rate and request music played at your business.  This means your customers can help influence your venue’s music selection, incentivizing them to stay longer and engage with your system.  Customers who have issues using the app can get mobile tech support to assist them.  Dodge believes this will help businesses get more productive use out of the music they play. Read more »

Historically, musical instrumentation and composition has always developed alongside technology.  The potential tools at a songwriter and performer’s disposal have always determined the music that people have written and performed.  With mobile technology now such a prominent part of social existence, how can it impact the development of music now?  Mike Butera and his company Artiphon believe they have a possible answer with his newly developed device—“the Instrument 1”. Butera claims that the Instrument 1 combines modern mobile and touch technologies with the form factor of a string instrument to create a new experience for composers and performers.  While many have played with the idea of integrating a smartphone into a musical instrument as a gimmick, Butera and his team have taken a more sophisticated and serious approach.  The Instrument 1 has professional grade components and a hardwood finish that make it clear Butera and Artiphon want this piece of tech taken seriously.  Read more »