Computer Support Blog

There are many services that provide Internet radio, but the vast majority of these services, like Pandora, focus on the musical aspect of radio as opposed to talk radio or spoken word content.  G.D. Ramkumar and his company Concept.io are looking to remedy this with the release of their new mobile app Swell.  Ramkumar believes that consumers would engage with a discovery platform for talk radio content as much as they have for personalized Internet music services.  That’s why he’s had his company focus on the creation of Swell in an attempt to offer smartphone users an easy way to find great spoken word content tailored specifically to their interests and tastes.  Ramkumar sees Swell as an opportunity to make spoken word content accessible and easy for mobile users to enjoy.  Those interested in Swell that have trouble installing it on their iPhone should contact iPhone tech support.  Concept.io CEO G.D. Ramkumar is obviously a cool person in technology who knows how to find new potential markets and capitalize.  Read more »

Bre Pettis’s company MakerBot is a manufacturer of 3D printers.  3D Printers use three-dimensional product designs developed via computer software programs to “print” out an object made from plastic material.  Most 3D printer manufacturers cater to the industrial market and their products often cost tens of thousands of dollars.  However, Pettis wants MakerBot to buck that trend.  Founded in 2009, MakerBot focuses on developing and selling more affordable 3D Printers that hook up to regular desktop computers.  Pettis is working to make 3D printing a reality in an everyday home setting.  If Pettis fully realizes his dream, it is possible that people will someday be able to design physical objects and print them right at home using their computer.  In theory, this could affect heavily affect the larger manufacturing industry. Read more »

SwiftKey is one of the most successful pieces of Android software in the history of the operating system.  Millions of people have downloaded the keyboard app and used it to replace the less popular stock keyboard of the operating system.  What makes SwiftKey so popular?  The people behind the technology designed SwiftKey to be an effective and convenient program that accurately predicts what you are trying to say as you type it, saving you time as you send your messages by e-mail and text on your phone or tablet.  Dr. Ben Medlock, a computer science expert specializing in Natural Language Processing, is the man behind this technology.  Dr. Ben Medlock is currently the CTO of SwiftKey, which he founded with current CEO Jon Reynolds in 2008.  While Reynolds runs the business side of the company, Medlock is in the man in charge of the SwiftKey program itself.  Medlock’s technology has clearly resonated with Android users, as the app constantly remains one of the most popular in the Android store.  If you need help replacing the Android keyboard with SwiftKey on your mobile device, you should call for mobile support. Read more »

Information is everywhere with the Internet these days, but what if you don’t want to be exposed to some of that information while you’re online?  It may seem like an odd problem, but this issue has affected many people.  The most prominent example is encountering TV show or sports “spoilers” when people post a plot element or game outcome in your social media stream before you get a chance to see for yourself.  Zack Shapiro has created a Google Chrome browser plugin that attempts to solve this problem.  Named Silencer, Shapiro’s software actually blocks social media posts on websites like Twitter and Facebook that contain words or phrases that users want to filter out of their stream.  For example, if you recorded the World Series game on your DVR because you missed it while at work but still wanted to go online without learning the outcome, you could block phrases like “World Series” or the names of the teams on your Facebook and Twitter feeds.  This tool could possibly prove useful if one wanted to use social media without fear of ruining the outcome of a game or TV show. Read more »

It’s a common experience: you turn on your computer, go to Google, Bing or whatever search engine you prefer and you search for local restaurants.  You end up with countless choices to sift through and an immense amount of research to do before even leaving the house.  Tom Copeman, CEO and founder of Nara, is trying to eliminate this problem with his artificial intelligence based restaurant recommendation service.

The most common model for websites and apps that review and recommend restaurants is usually review-based.  There are common listings and individual customers can rate their experiences.  However, this leads to inconsistent data and often times, you’ll enjoy a restaurant that someone else will hate, making their review a hindrance more than a help. According to Copeman, Nara handles recommendations differently. Copeman informed Rescuecom that Nara uses artificial intelligence to mine the Internet for information and make more personalized recommendations for you based on its analysis of your preferences and larger trends.  Read more »

Engaging children with engineering concepts at an early age can often be a difficult task.  LightUp looks to solve that problem with specialized hardware kits and an augmented reality mobile app designed to teach kids about the inner workings of electronics.  Using the augmented reality app, kids view their electronic constructions through a mobile device’s camera.  The app will then superimpose virtual electrical currents over the image of the hardware kits to show kids what’s making their constructions work.  The app can also detect if something is wrong with a construction, indicating what that error is, explaining it to the child, and prompting them to fix it.  The kits themselves actually work as electronic circuits and aren’t just models.  However, since they are designed to teach kids, each piece of hardware connects together easily through magnets rather than through soldering.  This creates a “building block” feel to the kit as kids can easily put constructions together, tear them apart, and tinker with them at their whim.  Read more »

Research firm IDC made a recent forecast regarding wireless technologies in the PC marketplace.  The report opens with a rather dramatic statement about the traditional PC market’s recent struggles.  The document reads that the business for traditional computing experiences is currently “in the midst of an unprecedented slump.”  There is no question that the PC industry is in a transitional period.  Tablet and smartphone sales continue to rise while desktop and laptop sales have dropped significantly.  Rescuecom even added tablets to its reliability report recently to account for this shift in the industry.   What’s most interesting however, is the prediction that IDC makes regarding how manufacturers must adjust to this new paradigm.  IDC believes that the inclusion of new wireless technologies to promote interoperability with other devices will be important in the years to come. Read more »

Kickstarter, the website that popularized the crowdfunding model on the Internet, recently announced that it has surpassed 100,000 total launched projects.  This milestone indicates the effect Kickstarter has had on both today’s creative and startup cultures, as the website gives many would-be artists and entrepreneurs the chance to fund projects when more traditional means aren’t available.  The Kickstarter model is simple.  Someone launces a project in any number of fields that Kickstarter lists on its site, including music, film, technology, games, art, and so on.  Once a creator launches a project, other users pledge specific amounts of money in a fundraising effort so that through many donations, they completely fund the project.  Those who fund a successful project are rewarded by the creator with “perks” for their support, which are often early versions of a product.  Only completely funded projects receive pledged money and Kickstarter itself takes a small cut from those as well.  Of the 100,000 plus projects launched to date, roughly 43% have been successful, putting the odds for a new project to reach funding goals at a bit less than one in two. Read more »

Busywork taking time away from productivity is a problem in many workspaces, but one of the most damaging places this issue pops up in is education.  Teachers waste many hours hand-grading quizzes and tests when they could spend those hours on lesson plans and finding better ways to engage students every semester, both in primary and secondary education settings.  However, the team at Design by Educators, Inc. has developed an iPhone app that they believe could help solve this problem for good.  Quick Key is an application that allows for quick, efficient grading and it only requires a smartphone to work.  In theory, this program could be able to save many teachers’ hours of time grading that they can put back into making the classroom a better space for learning.  Read more »

There has been a major shift in consumer purchasing behavior in the personal computer market over the last two years.  Traditional desktop and laptop PCs, have seen significant decline in year-over-year sales.  In the first quarter of 2013, there was an 11.7% year-over-year drop in shipments for the traditional PC market in the United States.  Meanwhile, US tablet shipments grew 49.6% year-over-year in the same quarter.  These statistics show an important shift for consumers towards mobile computing.  These numbers also made Rescuecom’s decision to include tablets as part of the RESCUECOM Computer Reliability Report for Q1 2013 that much easier.  It’s clear that many users are choosing to take their computing mobile with tablet purchases.  It would be foolish to ignore this trend. Read more »