Procrastinate with Facebook like a Pro

/in /by

We can all admit to spending too much time on Facebook. This is even more evident when you have work to do. Reading that business report or putting the final touches on that important presentation seems to take a backseat to Facebook. As a matter of fact, it’s often when there’s important work to do that it feels like we want to see what Facebook friends are up to, or want to post about that vacation. This may just be inevitable, but this is how you can make your Facebook experience more streamlined.

Filtering Friends

Do you have a Facebook friend that posts far too often? Maybe there’s not a headline that goes by that this friend doesn’t forward. Maybe this friend posts what he ate at every lunch or what she thinks of every reality show on tv. You need to block this friend’s posts. And you must do it without resorting to a de-friending.

There is hope, since Facebook permits you to trim the content you receive in your news feed and filter out updates from specific sources. Find an update from a person you’d like to eliminate from your news feed and click on the arrow that shows up when you move your mouse’s cursor over the top right side of the update. A menu will show on the screen. Choose “unsubscribe from status updates” for that person to block messages.

Extending Messages, not Friendships

Another little known tip is that you can send messages to people who are not Facebook friends – of course, this requires that their settings allow this. To do so, all you need to do is navigate to their Facebook profile page, then select the “Message” button that will be located on the upper-right corner of their page.

Also, did you know that you are able to connect Facebook Chat to other services? It’s true. If you are a Hotmail user, you can link your Windows Live profile to Facebook. This allows you to talk with online friends from your mail window. You can do the same with instant message services such as Yahoo messenger. Simply search Facebook for information about how you can connect your chat programs to the service.

Tips to Extend the Battery Life of Your Smartphone

/in /by

We all love our smartphones, how did we do without them? They can do so much, but the one thing they can’t do is last for more then a couple days without the battery dying, if that. It’s one of the major grievances smartphone users everywhere have.

The problem boils down to this: Smartphones do too much. And by doing so, they consume more than their fair share of power. There are steps, though, that you can take to improve the life of your smartphone’s battery. By shutting off some of your phone’s extra features, you might be able to pull enough juice out of your battery to keep your smartphone humming the whole day.

Dimming that smartphone screen

A bright, chaotic screen display sucks the life out of batteries. By switching your screen’s brightness level to the lowest you can stand, you’ll already be doing a lot to boost the lifespan of your smartphone’s battery.

Screen lighting

You can also change the amount of seconds your screen stays lit after you have touched it. The longer your screen stays lit once you have stopped using it, the more your battery will drain.

Bluetooth

A Bluetooth device is a massive drain on your battery as well. As it is always looking for outside signals, it is constantly draining your battery. So when you are in meetings or not anticipating calls, shutting it off can make your smartphone’s battery last a lot longer.

>

Get Rid of Spam With Filters

/in /by

Most of us get a lot of spam, but we don’t need to waste our time sorting through it on a daily basis. By using filters, we can do a lot to regulate what gets into our inbox.

The Power of Filters

You can make a filter that whitelists all of your important emails. This in turn will send anything that doesn’t meet your qualifications into a different folder that you can explore later.

A More Subtle Serving of Spam

Have you heard of bacn? It is a far more subtle type of spam when compared to discount Rolex emails. These are generally things you have opted into such as catalogs and coupons from stores you frequent. But, while you opted in at some time, you may not wish to receive these anymore.

You can easily stop these newsletters from filling your inbox, though, by building a filter that conveniently sequesters email messages with the word “unsubscribe” in it. This is valuable because email newsletters must give users the ability to unsubscribe from them. Therefore, they all must contain the word “unsubscribe” somewhere within their messages. Naturally, you can manually unsubscribe from email newsletters, too. However, this will take more time and effort.

These are two ways that you can use filters to easily keep spam and bacn out of your inbox. I would suggest that you spend a couple minutes setting these filters up. It will save you time and a headache in the long run.

>

Get Swift Help from Your IT Department

/in /by

We have all experienced our computer crashing. We will be in the midst of an email or a report and everything will turn off. What about when your computer starts freezing or is operating at a snails pace? These computer problems can hinder our capacity to complete our work, so you’ve to call on the IT department for help. This can be a daunting task.

Be honest: It’s not always easy to communicate with your IT department personnel. The staffers working in IT undoubtedly know a whole lot more about computers, Web browsing and general technology than you do. For this reason, it sometimes sounds as if your company’s IT personnel are speaking another language. And when this happens, it’s not always easy to communicate your computer problem so that you can receive quick results.

Fortunately, you can take some simple steps to ensure that your IT department clearly understands the issue. Once clear communication is established, your IT pros can easily and effectively repair your ailing computer.

No Reason to be Intimidated

First, don’t be intimidated. Yes, that IT worker knows more about your computer than you ever will, but bear in mind, you know more about your specialty. Whether it is the law, accounting, sales, or marketing, you have your expertise and they have theirs.

Screenshots

IT professionals love it when you take screen shots. They want to know what exact steps made this happen, and if you got any funky numbers or error messages. They want to see those especially. While it may not mean something to you, it can point IT professionals to the issue at hand so they can solve it more quickly.

A Written Report

Finally, keep a written report of your issues. If you notice that the same problems are taking place when you check your messages, write this down in a notebook. Make a new entry every time the problem reappears. This, too, will help you communicate your computing issues with your IT personnel.

Communicating with your IT department doesn’t have to be an intimidating or frustrating experience. Just follow these basic rules, and you’ll be computing at full strength in no time.

Tablet Computers and Your Small Business

/in /by

Running a small business is no easy task, and you want to make sure you are doing as much as you can to make it successful. You have a website and a blog, and social media sites. Now you hear that you also need a tablet computer to make your small business profitable. But you are not sure. They are expensive and you wonder if tablets are just another tech fad. Just how can they help your small business?

Reasons You Need a Tablet

It may come as a surprise, but using a tablet can be very beneficial to your small business. We have outlined many of the reasons below.

  1. Amazing presentations: Tablets provide you with easy access to your presentation and portfolios. You don’t need to wait for a computer to boot up. You can easily show your prospective client what you do. These un-wasted minutes could be the difference between a new client and a missed opportunity.
  2. State-of-the-Art: Being up-to-date in the world of technology can wow possible clients. And, today, tablets seem to be on the cutting edge of technology. This is applicable to most fields, but particularly in the fields of marketing or technology. Consumers are reassured when a person who works with technology is up on the latest and greatest.
  3. Information at your fingertips: If you have to have instantaneous information about something, for instance, the cost of a house if you’re in real estate, tablets give you instant access to that information. Staying on top of information means that you can confidently provide clients with accurate information.
  4. Signing documents is a breeze: Thanks to the countless applications available on tablets, you no longer need to cart around files of paperwork. You can have everything you need with you at all times and people can sign essential documents right on the tablet. Furthermore, you can email the people who need those documents from your tablet without any hassle. Tablets really do help you enhance your processes.

Tech that will Fade with Time

/in /by

We all love our gadgets. And when new ones appear, we can’t envision how we lived without them. Even so, there’s an ugly truth to the world of technology: Much of what’s hot today becomes obsolete tomorrow. Just consider the humble landline telephone. Sure, many households still have them, but a growing number of people are relying solely on cell phones and ditching the expense of operating a landline. It’s not tough to imagine a future in which landline telephones are no longer mounted on our kitchen walls but are instead filling our landfills.

So we thought we would focus on a few technologies that may be phased out soon. Some of these may even vanish in the next 10 years.

Fax Machines: Don’t you hate receiving or sending faxes? You’re not alone. The fax machine, once the height of gee-whiz technology, is now a pain in the posterior. Don’t be surprised if all our “faxing” in the future is done entirely through e-mail.

Newspaper Classified Ads: The Huffington Post recently stated in an article that classifieds are on their way out. This is primarily due to websites like Craigslist. Sites like this create huge forums for people to search classifieds all over the country and create their own for free. This may put the old-fashioned newspaper classified section out of commission.

Film-Based Cameras: Digital cameras have revolutionized the art of taking photos. Once venerable, Kodak has felt the brunt of this revolution, and the company is no longer making cameras. Consumers like digital cameras as they can instantly print their photos, and they can dump photos that they don’t like without having to pay a cent. This has dramatically decreased the lifespan of the traditional film-based camera.

The Calculator Watch: This little gem didn’t last very long, but while it did it was well loved. It was the perfect strategy to always have a calculator on you. However, it wasn’t very attractive and now people have a calculator in their cell phone. That’s the reason it is on PCWorld’s list of 40 obsolete technologies.

The Video Arcade: The video arcade may be dying also. Older gamers remember hoarding quarters so they could later feed them into Pac-Man and Space Invaders consoles at their local malls. Those times are gone, though. Gamers today prefer experiencing their video adventures from the comfort of their own homes.

Retina Display Advancements

/in /by

In order for Tech giants to stay on top of the industry, they must continually be improving their products. Companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Google bear this in mind and are consistently coming up with new ways to stay ahead of the game.

The Power of the Retina Display

A great example of a business improving their products is Apple. They have made significant improvements to their iPhone 4 and Retina display. With this technology Apple managed to present its clients with the best quality video and clearest images that have been on the market. According to an article on Digital Trends the screen features a 2,048-by-1,536-pixel resolution. But Apple is not stopping there as the company plans on once again improving on this technology.

Arming the MacBook Pro with High-Tech Visuals

What’s Apple’s next big move? It’s now intending to release a MacBook Pro line with 15-inch displays that boast a resolution of 2,880-by-1,800 pixels. This should result in images that are twice as sharp as those of present-day MacBook Pro models. The aim is to increase the density of pixels to a point where the human eye can no longer identify individual pixels. When this happens, images are made of smooth, continuous tones. They no longer resemble a grid of dots.

Not a New Technology

What is really interesting is that this is not actually a new technology. The U.S. military has been utilizing the technology behind Retina displays for a while. They apply it to their flight simulators to train pilots. Additionally, IBM has used it in some of its super-computers. But now that Apple is driving this into the hands of the consumer, it’s going to change the game once again. Tech giants can’t ever afford to stand in place. And with its Retina display, Apple is yet again reaching for new heights.

Working From Home: The Grass is not Always Greener

/in /by

Commuting to work is a drag, and those that do it every day envy people that get to work at home. They don’t have to endure the hassle and cost of a commute. They don’t have to deal with a co-workers annoying habit of singing randomly and they don’t even need to get out of their pajamas if they don’t want to.

What these office workers don’t understand is that working from home has its own difficulties. Specifically, it can be hard for them to shut off their workday. It’s not uncommon for professionals who work from home to look and see that it’s midnight and they’re still creating reports. Maintaining a healthy work/life balance can be a complicated balancing act for many who work from home.

Fortunately, work-from-homers can take steps to improve their work/life balance and retain their sanity.

  1. Set up a time for your “close of business”: Set normal working hours for yourself and stick to them. Whether you start work at 9 and stop at 5, or work from 11 to 7, make sure the hours you set do not intrude too much on your personal life. Giving up that can be very detrimental. You know, all work and no play etc.
  2. Do something for yourself: Whenever you establish your workday is over you should do something for yourself. This can be something simple: Maybe you want to relax on the couch and stream a few episodes of your favorite sitcom. Or it can be a bigger deal, such as a dinner date with a friend or a trip to the movies. This will help get you mentally out of your work.
  3. Leave the house: It’s easy as a work-from-homer to spend all of your time at home. You look up, see it’s the end of the week, and find that the only time you left your house was to go to the grocery store when you ran out of cereal. Don’t become a work-from-home shut-in. It’s simply not healthy.

Overwork leads to stress, whether you work from home, in an office, or out in the field. The key to holding onto your sanity, no matter how you work, is to reserve non-work time for yourself. So what happens if you can’t force yourself to shut off the workday? Maybe it’s time to contemplate returning to the office, where there’s always someone around to shut off those lights and chase you out of your cubicle.

Google Patents: A Picture of the Past and Present

/in /by

Interested in a smartphone that flashes LED lights at you when you have an incoming call? How about a coffee mug that looks like a crayon? Good news. Inventors have filed patents on both of these items. You are able to view them online by going to Google Patents.

The Wonderful World of Google Patents

You might not have heard about Google Patents, but it is quite amazing. It can offer you a glance at what the future potentially holds since you can explore patents that are granted in the U.S. There are plenty of serious patents people have filed for, like new ways to give vaccinations. But there are plenty of silly ones as well, like an electronic pickle jar game. To find these patents you can just search for things that interest you in the Google Patents search engine. Give it a try, you will be impressed by how imaginative and out there these creations can be.

Organizing the World’s Information

Google states that its main mission is to organize the world’s information and Google Patents is one part of that mission. The info that you access when you browse within Google Patents originates from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. All patents issued in the U.S. are public domain, so that makes it very simple for Google to access such a searchable database. And this is no small database; it covers patents that have been issued in the United States from 1790 to the present!

A Patent History Lesson

Due to this huge span of time, with a little exploring, you can get an idea of technological advancements this country has made. For example, you can see the patent that was presented to Alexander Graham Bell for an automatic short-circuiter for telephones in 1880. If you would like see where we may be headed based on recent patents, check out Google Patents.

>

Google Maps vs. OpenStreetMap

/in /by

Online mapping has been dominated by Google Maps for some time. Nonetheless, OpenStreetMap is gaining fast. Though it is only 8 years old, it is apparent that the people at OpenStreetMap are competing for the title of most-used web map service.

Just like Google Maps, OpenStreetMap is a world map where users can plan directions and obtain street views of places they are curious about. It is becoming increasingly more popular. In March, it had almost 560,000 individual registered users.

OpenStreetMap’s Growing Popularity

Early in March, Apple swapped its mobile software from Google Maps to OpenStreetMap for locations outside of the U.S. But more recently then that, Apple cast off Google Maps for OpenStreetMap for their recently created photo management app for iOS. The moves that Apple has made toward OpenStreetMap are probably the largest indicators that it is a true rival to Google Maps.

Also, a popular social media service, Foursquare, moved to OpenStreetMap a few months ago. You may contemplate why OpenStreetMap is growing in popularity. One reason is that its members can update maps based on their knowledge. The reader’s capability to edit and adjust articles is what made Wikipedia so popular. Do you think Wikipedia would have become as popular if not for this factor?

Google No Longer Invulnerable?

It used to be that challenging Google was an unwise decision, but things have changed recently. Google has had a few shots that it has missed lately. For example, while Google+ exists, it is not real competition for Facebook, Twitter, or even Pinterest. Do you think OpenStreetMap is going to surpass Google Maps in popularity? Only time will tell.