Computer Support Blog

Given how fast the smartphone has gone from a novelty to a ubiquitous accessory in the hands of people from every demographic, it might be unsurprising to you how few manufacturers of smartphone accessories have tapped into all of the benefits of the smartphone for their accessories.  While many manufacturers focus on creating accessories that protect your mobile computing device or interface devices that make your mobile device act like a more traditional audio or video player, real innovators continue to create gadgets that use the full range of your mobile device.  Already, there are products that connect your smartphone to a controller to create a new handheld gaming system.  Brookstone wants you to use your Apple mobile devices to control Rover! Read more »

With so many companies making Bluetooth headsets, it can be very hard for some of the innovative manufacturers of such devices to get noticed by the potential customer base.  Many of the smaller companies have discovered that having a cool device that fills the needs of a specific niche is not enough.  Like many tech sector companies, the makers of Bluetooth-compatible devices are rapidly finding that they need superstar-style public relations teams to promote their product and generate the buzz that makes for a successful product release.  Jawbone has that type Public Relations Manager in Katie Boysen. Read more »

The tech sector is, in many ways, the final frontier for driven individuals who have innate talent and simply need an outlet for it.  On the production end, having a great idea and learning to program it can make you the next Mark Zuckerberg or Martin Kleppmann.  On the business side of the tech sector, many companies reward experience and success over formal education.  Tom Jones is an executive who is proof that experience, charisma, and consistent success may be more of a commodity in the tech sector than a formal degree. Read more »

The notion that each person wears many different masks in the course of their lifetime and in different groups, is a very old idea.  How you interact with other people and what you choose to show one group of person in your life changes based on very old social mandates and ideas.  With the rise of the Internet and the subsequent explosion of social networking sites, you put quite a bit of information about yourself online every year.  Unfortunately, all of that information may create a much jumbled view of who you are and may be mixed in with information about other people who happen to share the same name as you.  Now there is a new site that has the sole goal of helping you create a single, focused, online profile that collects all of your disparate elements in one place.  That site is Vizify and it is very cool. Read more »

Following the rise of consumer and privacy activists to defeat the Stop Online Piracy Act earlier this year, the reaction to the defeat both online and in the tech sector has been interesting to watch.  Many of the leaders who organized the fight against SOPA have formed organizations, like the Internet Defense League, to create watchdog positions and communications networks to prevent future SOPA-like legislation from passing.  Many businesses decided to beef up their legal department so they could better understand the potential consequences of such legislation to their specific business.  Amazon.com hired Jamie Gorelick to its Board of Directors. Read more »

Even with the rise of the smartphone, the need for specialized personal safety devices persists.  For sure, a smartphone may be very helpful in a medical emergency or when there is a threat against your life.  However, with so many smartphones running sophisticated programs, one must often unlock their smartphone and wait for it to boot to a menu screen from which you select the applications you wish to use.  The time it takes to unlock your smartphone may be the moments – especially in a heart attack or assault situation – you need to actually be able to make an emergency call.  Fortunately, as communications devices have become more sophisticated, so too have the specialized emergency/personal safety devices.  One useful personal safety device is the ZOMM Wireless Leash Plus. Read more »

Connecting advertisers and potential customers through all of the digital devices the average person has today is a daunting task.  In fact, very few companies have effectively managed to exploit every possible device and network as a viable revenue stream.  Even sites traditionally known for their success using ad revenue on the Internet, like Facebook, have had some issues with monetizing on a mobile platform.  PubMatic is a company that, in 2006, saw how the Internet was branching into a multiplatform media no longer simply utilized on home computers and developed software that allows advertisers to spread their message effectively across every type of computing device.  Mukul Kumar is the software engineer who makes the PubMatic vision work! Read more »

The name Hallmark Cards is virtually synonymous with greeting cards, much the way people refer to MP3 players as iPods or inline skates as Rollerblades.  To its credit in the rapidly changing world, Hallmark Cards has worked very hard to keep with the times and it has a robust online presence.  The physical greeting card manufacturer effectively competes against many online digital greeting card sites and Hallmark Cards continues to innovate.  Seeing the intense interest in mobile computing among many of its fans, Hallmark Cards has released the Hallmark Go Cards application! Read more »

The concept of a social network is actually a very simple one: you log into a network, provide information about yourself and develop a channel to share interests and information with other people in your life.  As well, you may use a social network to expand your circle of friends by starting conversations with likeminded people who share some of the same interests as you.  One of the coolest products on the Internet, is expanding the perception of what a social network can be by offering options that make for a very real photo network!  The service is the Ceiva PicturePlan Photo Delivery Service and it is innovative, fresh, and very cool. Read more »

With the rise of digital photography, people have a vastly easier ability to take pictures and store them than ever before.  Taking photographs is no longer a costly or time-consuming process and with today’s digital storage methods, you can create a virtually limitless repository of images from your life and experiences.  What has not kept pace with the ability to take digital photographs is a normalization of technology used to display digital photographs.  In many offices and even at home, people have prints of pictures or they will furtively look through the images stored on their smartphone when they need to feel connected, but while digital picture frames have existed for years, the market has not grown nearly as fast as the technology by which you take digital photographs has improved.  Aiptek aims to change that and with their P8i26 Portable 3D Display, they make it easy to display and enjoy digital photographs! Read more »