Computer Support Blog

The percentage of Internet traffic that comes from mobile users steadily increases every business quarter and every year.  People engage with the web on their phones and tablets just as much as they do through a standard desktop or laptop.  In many cases, people use their mobile devices even more than their PCs or Macs. Companies need to do as much as possible to accommodate the growing mobile marketplace if they want to advertise their products, services or content successfully.  While major corporations have the resources to develop mobile applications  for themselves and their subsidiaries, privately owned small businesses find themselves at a disadvantage in the age of mobile technology These smaller companies often don’t have the internal business computer services and resources to easily develop mobile versions of their website.  However, thanks to cool product PadSquad, these companies have another option. Read more »

Screen space is precious to many people when using their phones or tablets.  Most of the appeal of mobile devices is their convenience, but it is anything but convenient to have a giant virtual keyboard block your view while trying to input information into an app or website.  The standard QWERTY keyboards on smartphones and tablets are often clunky and infamously lead to countless typos.  The problems were so severe that all mobile keyboards had to start using artificially intelligent grammar and spelling correction systems. These autocorrect systems and imperfect keyboards have caused many to seek help from mobile tech support professionals in the past. It only makes it worse that mobile keyboards take up so much screen space, making it hard to both input information on the keyboard and read information on the screen at the same time. Read more »

Schools do not generally allow teachers to have direct communication with their students outside of class due to privacy and safety concerns.  Unfortunately, this mistrust of teachers makes it difficult to keep students and parents informed about what is happening in class at school.  Students do not have permission to share cell phone numbers, so mass texting is impossible; despite the fact that many young people use their phones as their main means of communication.  Some services provide an Internet-based hub or website where teachers can post assignments and updates, but there is no guarantee that students are going to visit the site and check their assignments.  It is equally unlikely that parents would check for their children.  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 »

A company’s logo is integral to its identity.  It’s the first point of interaction between a business and its customers in most cases.  It is the symbol of a company and is what comes to mind for most people when that business comes up in real world conversation.  However, for all of its importance, a logo is just a static image.  Even the best-designed logos can only engage so much with their audiences.  Cool product LogoGrab wants to change that fact.  LogoGrab is a tech startup that has developed a technology that links logos to digital content on the web.  When LogoGrab applies its technology to a design, the logo can then work the same way as a QR code might with a smartphone.  People in the physical world can scan the logo and it will take them directly to any web content of the company’s choosing.  LogoGrab adds a layer of interactivity to a company’s logo, making it more than simply a symbol to a business’s customer base.  In a way, LogoGrab makes designs that act as an ambassador to a company’s audience, since the interactive logos connect users to more content from that company.  Any company who wants to use LogoGrab and integrate it with an existing mobile app and mobile site will need sufficient mobile IT support resources. Read more »

It’s difficult for any small business to become profitable without taking credit cards as a form of payment.  So many people pay exclusively with their debit and credit cards that incorporating some sort of credit payment system is pretty much a requirement, even for one-person ventures.  Unfortunately, integrating credit card payments into a business can incur both extra costs and complications.  Flint is a cool product that takes the recent advances in mobile technology and uses them to make adding a credit card payment system to a small business model much easier.  Flint turns smartphones into credit card scanners with no extra attachments.  Rather than forcing salespeople to carry around a separate device for credit and debit payments, Flint simply uses a cell phone’s camera to scan cards visually.  Users simply act as if they’re taking a picture of the front of a card.  The app then scans for the credit card number.   All users have to do after that is input the verification code from the back of the card to complete the transaction.  This system could save many one and two employee businesses much of the hassle that comes with accepting credit cards.  Any users whose cameras are broken will need iPhone repair or Android repair services to use the Flint application. 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 »

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 »

Location-activated triggers are becoming a major part of the future of marketing in technology.  Technologies like GPS and NFC have made it so that specific locations and items can activate smartphones and tablets.  This technology can deliver text messages to mobile devices and even turn on certain apps.  Proxible is a cool product that inserts this technology into a company’s mobile application.  Proxible’s service turns everyday objects and locations into potential marketing tools.  As potential customers travel through the real world and interact with different locations and items, companies can engage them with their brand or product.  Proxible can’t have objects activate users’ phones without permission.  However, they can have objects trigger the sending of text messages or the activation of specific apps when the user has agreed to allow it.  Proxible enhances other businesses’ apps with these features and allows its clients to use the technology as they see fit.  By allowing this customization, Proxible ensures that each brand that can construct their customers’ experiences exactly how they want them.  If anyone has a Proxible enabled application but its features aren’t working correctly, mobile computer support may be helpful.  Read more »

Amos Elliston is, first and foremost, a software engineer.  However, his career has grown significantly over the years and turned him into a highly successful leader as well.  Currently, Elliston is the Chief Technology Officer of PocketChange, a company that rewards users of specific mobile apps with loyalty points.  Elliston’s current position offers him a serious challenge, as he has to work to make the PocketChange loyalty rewards system integrate with hundreds of different mobile applications.  He also has to coordinate teams that work with two different mobile operating systems: Android and iOS.  Fortunately, Elliston has a significant amount of experience handling large engineering and software projects.  This cool person in technology has held upper management positions at two other major software startups besides PocketChange over the last seven years.  This is not a man who would ever need onsite computer support to solve his computer problems like most people.  The evidence heavily suggests that Elliston is a man who knows what it takes to succeed in the tech industry. Read more »