There’s another alternative for those mourning Google Reader

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Do you still grieve the loss of popular RSS reader Google Reader? You’re hardly alone. Google’s reader was a winner among fans. Jill Duffy, a writer with PCMag, says that there’s a worthy successor out there, one that ought to end all the mourning for Google Reader.

A worthy successor

Digg is a community news voting site which has a small development team. Yet, as Jill Duffy writes in her review on PCMag.com, this hasn’t prevented Digg Reader from being an easy-to-use and intuitive service for all those still mourning Google Reader.

Simple

With Digg Reader, your news feeds will appear on the left rail, and the settings are hidden beneath a button on the top menu bar. Duffy gives compliments to the design, saying it’s simple and intuitive.

For business owners

Entrepreneurs and business owners can count on Digg Reader – or any RSS reader that they prefer – to easily track the news that most impacts their businesses. That is why, business owners should think about signing up for either Digg Reader or another RSS reader today.

Why tech-less meetings should be your goal

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Do laptops and smartphones hijack your company meetings? Do employees spend time checking e-messages, tweeting their friends and scanning news headlines rather than paying attention to your plan to boost profits? Well, you’re not alone. Technology has impaired many a work meeting.

Turn off the tech

Jake Knapp, has a answer for you. He’s a design partner with Google Ventures. And in a recent column for the Medium Web site, Knapp suggests bosses forbid employees from dragging technology into meetings. Bosses who do this will dramatically boost the actual amount of work that gets done during these meetings.

Bye-bye tablets

Knapp advocates that meeting attendees not be permitted to bring their laptops, smartphones, tablets, or even their smart watches into meetings. That way, they’ll be ready to concentrate on what you’re explaining, not what’s blinking on a screen in front of them.

A timer

Of course, bosses have to make concessions, too. Knapp proposes that bosses set up a timer that everyone in the meeting can see. Once the timer beeps, the meeting is finished. This stands no matter what.

A 24-hour charging solution

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Most smart phone owners hate charging their devices. And why is that? You have to manage power cords that inevitably get lose or wind up snarled in a jumble in your desk drawer. Maybe it’s time for you to severe the cord and go wireless: You could with the Duracell Powermat 24-Hour Power System.

Positive Press

The Powermat charges iPhone and Samsung Galaxy phones for 24 hours without forcing you to rely on cords you often lose. As CNET, in its review of the product says, the compact kit that is included with the Duracell Powermat features a powerful and portable battery that is perfect for providing power while you’re traveling.

Cases

To work the system, you need to affix a specially designed case either around your iPhone or Samsung Galaxy smart phone. Once this is in position, you can utilize the system’s Powermat to wirelessly charge your phone. Your phone, when completely charged, should have sufficient juice to run for 24 hours.

Backup battery

Is the Powermat 24-Hour Power System a sound investment for you? Probably so, if you’re constantly on the run. With this system you won’t need to keep track of wires. And with the portable back-up battery unit, you won’t have to worry about seeing your smart phone shut down while you’re on the road.

Protecting your smartphone from disaster

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It’s a sinking feeling: You’re showing your new smartphone when it slips out of your grip and falls on the concrete sidewalk below. This doesn’t have to be the end of your favorite mobile device though, not if you’ve purchased one of the newest cases — which have science backing them — designed to protect smartphones from surprise falls.

Powerful protection

The New York Times’ Gadgetwise column just recently covered the growing science behind protect cases for cell phones. According to the column, the new cases are remarkably effective, protecting smartphones from the bumps and slams that could otherwise knock them out of commission.

D30 protection

The Times concentrated on the London-based Tech21, a firm which has created D30, a polymer that it injects in the edges of its smartphone cases. According to Tech21, this polymer absorbs any shocks – from falls or bangs – that smartphones receive. The polymer then redirects the impact of these falls and bangs so that the smartphone it covers isn’t damaged.

A shrewd investment?

Are Tech21′s cases a shrewd investment? Most likely. According to the Times, the company’s Impact Band case costs $30, while its higher-end Impact Mesh case retails for $35. That’s not a lot of money for peace of mind.

The debate over monitoring employees

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Your company provided you a laptop that can be used at home. Say you are using it to watch movies on Netflix. Should your company be allowed to track which movies you watched? Perhaps you do the majority of your work on a company-provided iPad. Should your company be allowed to track the Facebook posts you’re making on it during your off-hours?

Privacy in the tech age

These are the issues that Thomas Claburn, editor-at-large with Information Week, recently tackled in an online feature story. In his story, Claburn wrote about Harvard University administrators searching the e-mail accounts of 16 faculty members to locate the source of leaks to the media about a recent cheating scandal at the school. Faculty members were angered and shocked at the administrators’ actions.

More to come?

But Claburn wrote that it’s naïve to be surprised at this sort of surveillance. Employees, he said, should expect their bosses to monitor their computer behavior, especially when these employees are working on company-provided equipment.

Mixed opinions

The opinions by the experts quoted by Claburn are a mixed lot. These experts say that some monitoring of employees is reasonable, but other tactics are not. For instance, employers shouldn’t monitor their workers’ locations when these workers are off duty. Possibly the best advice in the story? Those companies who trust their employees tend to be rewarded with workers who are harder-working and more loyal.

Don’t forget these business website essentials

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Is your business’ website turning away potential customers? Are customers logging on to your website simply to abandon your online home simply because can’t find what they want? If so, you may need a website upgrade. Don’t forget, the only thing worse than not having a website for your small business is operating a website that is actually turning off your visitors.

Essential ingredients

Fortunately, Entrepreneur Magazine recently offered tips to business owners struggling with their Websites. The magazine’s advice? Keep your business site simple, easy to find and straightforward to navigate. If you do this, your website can be a tool for generating business, not driving it away. The magazine’s first suggestion? Be certain your website immediately tells visitors what your business is and what it does. You don’t want customers to have to research your site to figure out exactly what services you provide.

Not hard to find

Don’t hide your business’ website behind a puzzling domain name. The simpler your website address, the more likely that potential customers will find your company’s online home. As an example, if you’re running Green Bay Hardware, attempt to land the website address www.greenbayhardware.com. That’s a much better choice than the difficult to find www.upperwistools.com. Entrepreneur recommends, too, that your website address end with a .com and you avoid such distractions as dashes or numbers in your address.

A clear guide

Finally, don’t confuse your visitors once they reach your business website. Entrepreneur states that your home page ought to include clear links to your site’s sections. And you need to include a site map that users can depend on to find your site’s most important pages.

Gadget freak who loves to cook? The Sweethome is for you

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You love cooking. You love gadgets. If only there was a Web site combining both of your passions. You know what? There is. It’s called The Sweethome, and you will find it online at www.thesweethome.com. The website, as its name suggests, provides advice on how homeowners can purchase those kitchen gadgets that make cooking an especially sweet experience.

The best-of lists

The site’s most exciting feature? Its best-of lists. If you’re stocking a kitchen and you want the absolute best in everything from Dutch ovens to corkscrews, The Sweethome serves as your ultimate guide. A recent visit to the site listed, for example, the best vegetable peeler, cutting board and ice cube tray available. Yes, there’s a difference among ice cube trays.

Bigger buys

The Sweethome doesn’t limit its advice to small purchases. The site also ranks such major kitchen appliances as dishwashers, refrigerators and electric stovetops. These reviews are especially important; they can save you the financial agony of spending big money on an appliance that’s a dud.

Other tools

Of course, you don’t spend all your time in the kitchen. For this reason, The Sweethome reviews bathroom devices, lawn-and-garden tools, laundry appliances and the best hammers, screwdrivers and drills for your toolbox. Our recommendation? Before you write a check or swipe your credit card, research your purchases on The Sweethome. You just might become hooked on the site.

Turning off the tech

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Our gadgets have made life easier. You can now get the address of that new Indian restaurant with your cell phone. You can instantaneously tell all your friends about your new job through Twitter and Facebook. If you don’t have enough time to watch the news, you can read it en route to work on your tablet. But in some cases our gadgets distract us from the “real” world. And sometimes they decrease our productivity. When we should be working or thinking, we’re checking our e-mails and sending texts. The New York Times recently asked the big question: Would we all gain from brief technology breaks?

Surprising agreement

The Times story focused on some highly unlikely supporters of the take-a-tech-break theory: techies themselves. The Times, in fact, highlighted the case of an author and former Twitter employee. This techie was writing a book. But the constant chirping of his iPhone kept him from concentrating. Once this techie ditched the phone, he found that the words flowed. His advice? Ditching the tech can significantly boost productivity.

Growing support

This writer is not alone. The author of the Times story, in fact, considers himself a techie. But he and his fellow techie fans take their own breaks from their electronic gadgets. As the author writes, when he and his friends gather for dinners, they place their smartphones in the middle of the table. Whoever touches a phone first has got to cover dinner.

Your time?

Is it time for you to have a break from your own technology? Ask yourself this: How many times do you check Facebook each day? How much time do you spend reading and commenting on blogs? Can you get through a face-to-face conversation without glancing down at that incoming text message? Tech might be overtaking your life. Take a break and you will probably find lots of real-world distractions that are equally as interesting.

Be smart. Back up your Evernote notebooks

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How safe do you think your data is when you store them in an Evernote notebook? The surprising answer: Not as safe as you might think. That’s because Evernote isn’t a true backup service. It’s a synching service.

Is it really necessary?

This means that someone or something can wipe out both the data you’ve stored on your computer or other device and the version of the same data that you’ve stored on Evernote’s servers. And if that takes place? That data is gone. Fortunately, the How-To Geek Web site explains how users can back-up Evernote notebooks to deliver the utmost protection to their files, photos, reports and videos.

Protecting yourself

You can add an extra layer of security to your Evernote notebooks – and the data they contain – by backing them up. There are several ways to accomplish this – some, as How-To Geek explains, are quite complicated – however, there is one easy option: You can export your Evernote notebooks.

Exporting

To do this, first right-click on any notebook and select the “Export Notes” option. On top of that, you can export your notes in a wide variety of formats, including Evernote’s native one. Now, if you lose the notebook or the data it holds, you can simply select the “import” option to bring back the exported notebook as a wholesale replacement for the notebook you lost.

Windows restarts don’t have to be automatic

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You recognize that the updates that Windows automatically downloads are important. They frequently contain important anti-virus protections intended to keep cybercriminals out of your computer and software. Nonetheless it can be annoying when Windows automatically restarts your computer after every update. Luckily, the Lifehacker Web site recently covered the way to edit your computer’s registry to keep Windows from automatically restarting after an update.

Stopping automatic reboots

Tech Web site Lifehacker recently listed the steps you need to use to disable Window’s automatic reboot feature. It’s not the easiest – you’ll have to edit your computer’s registry – but if automatic reboots aggravate you, the additional work might be worth the effort.

Editing the registry

To do this in Windows 8, first click on the “Start” menu. Type regedit. Start the Registry Editor when it comes up. Next, find this line in the registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindowsWindowsUpdateAU. Next, click on the AU key and, when you see it in the right pane, right-click on the empty space and select New >DWORD (32-bit) Value. Then, name the new DWORD: “NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers” Finally, double-click on the new DWORD and assign it a value of 1.

Reboot

When you reboot your computer, Windows will not make you reboot after it installs updates. Remember, to eventually reboot your computer. It is the only way your updates will take effect.