Computer Support Blog

While advancing technology enables us to accomplish things much more simply and quickly than we previously could, there is still a great deal of unrealized potential for it.  We can search for anything online that would have taken much longer to find otherwise, and with mobile technologies such as smartphones and tablets, we can do it wherever we happen to be at any time.  We have applied these advances in almost every imaginable way, and Personify.it looks to employ them for something better by directing them to social good.  According to its developers, Personify is “volunteering made simple, social and fun.” For those who seek to be of help in their neighborhoods or want to volunteer in their communities but are not certain where to start, Personify seeks to make a sometimes long and difficult search quick and easy. Read more »

The advent of the Internet brought an unprecedented ability to communicate and socialize like never before, often with people we would never have met otherwise. The desire to connect with those close to us and the intrigue of building connections with others led to the birth of social media, and it has grown to immense proportions. As such, it is one of the leading focuses of developing technologies. While many products focus on meeting new people and creating relationships, SocialRadar takes the more practical first step of building relationships with those you already know. It is an app that lets you see who among those within your social networks is nearby wherever you go. The main purpose of the product, according to developers, is to take the amount of online information and make it useful in the physical world in order to create a better-connected society. Read more »

There are a lot of different things we use the Internet to do, both for fun and for practical purposes. Stagebloc’s architects created the website and app as a means of combining and organizing our online presence and business from the building to the moneymaking stage. The app’s creators promise that it will save customers time and money, and they advertise it as the best way for anyone to create, promote and sell anything. Read more »

This is the second in a series of articles by RESCUECOM in which we discuss several important online privacy issues.  This article will indicate the privacy concerns surrounding social networking websites and provide advice on how to protect one’s privacy while using them. Read more »

Video has blown up in the realm of social media over the last several years.  YouTube has always been prominent in the area, but now other services such as Instagram and Vine have made an impact on the social video space as well.  With the market growing, new social video companies need to introduce different hooks and concepts to make an impact.  Cool person in technology Jamie Lorenz is doing exactly that with his company FightMe.  FightMe is a social video space that adds a sense of competition to social video.  Read more »

Using existing customers to create more business has always been a key aspect of marketing.  However, the introduction of social media to the equation has created even more potential for more business with each customer.  Previously, customers would refer others to a business purely through word-of-mouth, which has a somewhat limited reach.  With social networks allowing people to broadcast their actions and thoughts to large audiences, each existing customer can now promote a business to hundreds or even thousands of people instantly.  The difficulty in this process from the business side of the aisle is finding ways to encourage customers to promote their products and services online.  Cool person in technology Bob Whitson has founded a company called iSnap to give brick-and-mortar stores a new way to encourage customers to spread the word on social media. Read more »

Brands of all types have made social media marketing a priority in the last several years.  From large corporations to small mom-and-pop businesses, companies have turned to sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram to promote their product and remain in the public eye.  Social networking has become an important part of strategy for many companies in the current environment of the business world.  However, social media presence works primarily as a way to remain in the public consciousness and less so as a direct route to sales or new customers.  Soldsie is cool product in technology that may start changing that situation for many businesses.  With Soldsie, companies can sell their items and services directly from their social media pages on Facebook and Instagram.  Rather than link to outside promotions or simply post marketing material, businesses can pull in new customers right on their social media pages and sell their products directly.  With Soldsie, brands can use Facebook not just as an avenue for advertising and branding, but potentially as a direct source for revenue as well.  Any companies unsure of how to manage their social media pages should make sure they have good business IT support before using this cool product. Read more »

Small independent retails stores local chains face an uphill battle when trying to compete with national chains and large corporations.  Bigger companies can hire large teams to manage social media and email campaigns on the web for branding and marketing purposes. However, many small retail businesses do not have the personnel or time to dedicate to online marketing.  Cool person in technology Ted Teele founded his company SnapRetail to help independent retail stores maintain an online presence without having to dedicate many resources to the task.  Teele’s company provides stores with a social media and email platform that uses well-known promotional tactics and marketing concepts to provide small retail businesses with email and social media campaigns that they can set up easily. SnapRetail actually gives shop owners pre-created promotional templates and social media posts that only require minor customization.  Shops can schedule these prefinished emails and social media posts for weeks at a time using the SnapRetail dashboard.  Using Teele’s product, one person can manage long-term online campaigns with minimal effort and time involved.  Any storeowners who are unclear on the basics of social media sites will want to speak to a business computer services company to learn about the issue before trying Teele’s service. Read more »

It’s becoming more and more difficult to separate yourself from the pack with a video chatting product when Microsoft’s Skype, Google’s Hangouts, and Apple’s FaceTime provide stiff competition.  However, cool product Oovoo is giving users plenty of extra features that distinguish it from the rest of the pack.  Unlike the competition from major corporations, Oovoo offers customers not just chatting but also video recording and uploading tools.  Any users who want to record video podcasts or post video blogs on social media sites don’t have to use any outside programs when making calls on Oovoo.  People can record video calls directly through Oovoo saving them time and effort.  Given the rise of independent video blogs and media on the web, Oovoo is likely appealing to video bloggers and content creators due to this feature.  This cool product even lets users upload directly to YouTube through the software without even having to open a web browser.  People will have to link their YouTube accounts to Oovoo to take advantage of this feature.  Anyone who has difficulty linking their video account to Oovoo will need to find an online computer support service to help them. Read more »

Checking different news sites and blogs is quickly becoming the daily morning routine for many professionals.  More often than not, one can catch many people going through popular entertainment blogs and news sites on their phone over breakfast or coffee in the morning.  However, despite the fact that someone can do it all on a device that fits in his or her pocket, there is still an aspect of inconvenience to this process.  One must always stop what they are doing in order to check new postings or read articles on their favorite blogs.  Outside of those people who use public transportation and have a specific time where their hands and eyes are free during their morning commute, stopping work or travel is necessary for people to check these websites on their phones.  Cool person in technology Espen Systad wants to make it easy for people to get the information they want from entertainment and news sites without taking more time away from them.  Systad’s company Capsule.fm accomplishes this feat by automatically converting the text from blogs and news sites into a personalized audio feed for smartphone users. Read more »