Computer Support Blog

Despite the thousands of SAT preparation books and college admissions guides available on the market, the most helpful information for high school students applying to college often comes from either former admissions officers or recently admitted students.  Getting help from a former admissions officer usually means hiring them as a college admissions coach.  This situation can get very expensive for parents and is therefore prohibitive for many students.  However, cool product AdmitSee wants to offer college applicants more affordable help by leveraging information from the profiles of recently accepted students.   AdmitSee obtains information from current university students and recent graduates and compiles that information into admissions profiles.  AdmitSee then stores that information on its site and gives access to those still in the college application process.  By viewing the profiles of successful graduates, high school students can find out what different schools are looking for specifically.  This information can then help AdmitSee members in forming their own successful applications.  This advantage will help kids get in to a great school for whatever career path they choose, whether they want to be a writer, aviation engineer, or even a cloud computer repair professional. Read more »

Anyone who has ever tried to plan a trip as part of a large group can tell you that the process becomes tedious and difficult.  Sending emails back and forth constantly amongst a large group of friends is not the most convenient way of making plans.  That’s why cool person in technology Paul Watts has built Gatherball.  Gatherball is a set of collaborative tools on the web for groups to use when planning either a long vacation or a short getaway.  Watts’s website works at every step of a trip-planning project—from concept to booking.  Users who want to plan a trip or have an idea can use Watts’s service to send invites to specific friends.  Those who receive an invite then read a pitch on the Gatherball about a getaway or vacation idea from the original user.  These new users then agree to join, opt out or send messages to the trip creator to iron out details.  Any user who has had trouble with websites like Gatherball linking with their Facebook account will want to have access to online tech support in case they run into problems. Read more »

Many of us have had our wallets filled passed capacity with a seemingly endless amount of customer loyalty and rewards cards from popular retailers.  Punchkeeper is a cool product that wants to make loyalty cards more convenient for both the companies that promote them and the customers that use them.  Punchkeeper uses a combination of mobile technology and QR code scanning so that businesses can easily set up a digital loyalty card system for their clients.  This service provides businesses with the tools to generate special QR codes that their customers can scan each time they use a service or buy a product.  Once customers scan a designated QR code with a mobile phone, the Punchkeeper mobile app recognizes the code and adds a “punch” to the appropriate digital loyalty card.  This solution prevents customers from having to fill their wallets with plastic cards that they almost never use.  Another advantage to turning loyalty cards digital is that retailers can avoid spending the resources to print thousands of cards or dealing with customers that lose or forget them when they come to shop.  Anyone who has issues downloading the Punchkeeper app or getting QR codes to scan properly can get help from a smartphone PC support company. 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 »

Thanks to sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, many small businesses have made their first products with the help of crowdfunding.  However, due to these popular crowdfunding sites’ openness to the public, those who fund a business’s project cannot get equity from their investment.  Backers can only receive rewards such as products or free services for their contributions.  This practice often discourages backers from offering larger amounts of money to startups since their contribution is more akin to a gift than an investment.  Cool product RockThePost changes the crowdfunding model by applying it to a group of accredited investors rather than the public at large.  On RockThePost, startups that are looking for funding and seed capital can post company profiles and short pitch videos.  RockThePost’s community of investors can then browse through different startup pitches and make funding offers through the website.  This also allows a startup to pitch their company to multiple investors at once conveniently.  This process saves the business important resources in its early stages. The money and time a company saves from finding investors and developing individualized pitches can go into other needs such as office IT support and product development.  Read more »

Passwords are the bane of many people’s Internet existence.  This is especially true in recent years as the number of websites, online services, and mobile apps people commonly use that require usernames and passwords has increased.  That’s why cool person in technology Daniel Robichaud founded PasswordBox.  Robichaud believes there should be an easier way to deal with someone’s numerous usernames and passwords.  His product integrates with users’ browsers so that it automatically stores each password they create.  When a user wants to log in or out of any specific website or service, they open PasswordBox and find themselves presented with an organized list of their accounts.  Users simply click on the accounts they want to sign in or out of, and they can avoid login screens on all the websites they visit.  Robichaud’s solution avoids memorization and record keeping.  It might also save users a significant amount of time while they’re browsing the web.  For those worried about Internet security, Robichaud states on PasswordBox’s website that the encryption he uses for his program is high-level and similar to encryption used for military software.  Read more »

The more employees a company has, the harder it is to keep track of the details of a business.  Many bosses can attest to how important facts or issues don’t make it up the grapevine to them because they get lost somewhere between a regular employee and a company’s owner.  It’s often not even a middle manager’s direct fault, but a series of miscommunications.  15Five is a cool product that looks to minimize these problems in an organization.  15Five essentially acts as a communication tool in the workplace that coordinates designated time for CEOs and owners to learn what’s happening in different departments.  15Five claims they have an effective system that increases the communication up and down a company’s chain of command based on a simple idea.  15Five works off the concept that If every manager can take fifteen minutes a week to report exactly what’s happening in their department and a business owner can take five minutes to read each report, communication and productivity will improve in a company.  15Five’s software lets managers report their bosses and presents those reports in an organized format for the company head.  Businesses that utilize 15Five will want to have strong office computer support service in case certain managers struggle to adjust to the program. Read more »

The video games industry has been experimenting with new business models over the last several years.  These models have included downloadable content to add to already released games as well as “freemium” models where a game is free but users can purchase items or upgrades within a game. However, these models are not foolproof and many game companies have had trouble optimizing their product to get the most out of their market.  Cool person in technology Dr. Dmitri Williams founded his startup NinjaMetrics to give game companies analytic tools that allow them to get the best return on investment for their social games. Read more »

Small companies that require design work but don’t have a graphic artist on staff often struggle to come up with funds to get projects completed by a professional.  Cool product DesignCrowd wants to change that situation for small businesses by using the Internet to help them crowdsource designs for many different types of projects.  With DesignCrowd, companies post projects they need completed with a brief description of the reason for the job and what type of design they are looking to use.  DesignCrowd’s community of graphic artists can then make different designs based on a company’s brief.  The situation turns into a contest of sorts, where different designers post ideas and concepts for a company and eventually the user chooses a winning design.  Companies pay an initial fee to DesignCrowd to post their projects on the site.  DesignCrowd itself pays out money to artists for each winning design.  This system potentially gives companies an affordable option that lets them choose from many different designs when they need work done.  Any company who has trouble posting projects on DesignCrowd will need computer tech support for assistance. Read more »

Email has the unique distinction of being both an essential resource and incredible problem in the workplace.  While it is an essential communication tool for any professional, email often piles up and leads to disorganization.  It’s all too easy to lose an important message when you’re digging through thousands of messages in your inbox.  Cool person in tech Matthew Bellows founded his startup Yesware to help sales professionals not only navigate and handle their emails more efficiently, but also actually leverage email to increase sales conversions.  Bellows and his team have created a Gmail add-on that attempts to tailor the email experience to sales professionals’ needs.  Bellows has Yesware track emails so it can alert salespeople when clients open their messages.  Bellows means for this feature to help keep all active leads fresh in a salesperson’s mind when they utilize email.  It also helps users estimate when clients check and read their email.  This could help users optimize follow-up emails based on when their customers are most likely to see them.  Anyone who has trouble integrating Yesware into their Gmail service can contact office tech support for assistance. Read more »