Bad Tech to Watch Out For

There’s a fine line between cheap and inexpensive, and it can be hard to tell the difference. Why buy a second piece of tech that you’ll probably forget at home? Became a phone photographer, and never look back. Camcorders have long been a part of our culture. For many years, people filmed just about every facet of daily life, generating what must be millions of miles of video tape showing family holiday get-togethers, trips to theme parks and graduation ceremonies. Move over, box of 8mm film — a box of videotapes needs some room. But just as cell phone cameras have been upgraded for still photos, their video quality has also improved remarkably over recent years especially with the introduction of many communication services. Speaking of gadgets that do double duty, back when GPS units first came to the market, they felt like the ultimate in James Bond wizardry. Here’s the thing: You probably already have one of these. No, I’m not talking about the in-dash GPS units that come as an option on your car (which are a huge waste of money). Actually, I mean that smartphone you check obsessively throughout the day. DVD players and name brand HDMI cables are also some old tech that is not worth buying.

Turn it Off

How you ever gone out with your friends and then barely said a word to each other because you were all so busy using different phone services and social networks? Instead of enjoying concerts that we paid big bucks for, we're spending the time looking through the tiny screens of our phones to capture blurry photographs that we'll later slap a Hefe filter on. Instead of catching up with an old friend over some coffee, we're plotting how to describe this moment in 140 characters for thousands of strangers to read. Our memories will be diluted to dissecting timelines on Facebook and I fear we'll just turn there to expose how we feel, how we really feel, instead of saying it out loud in person. Who do you honestly think is going to call you that is so important that they cannot wait? Maybe we need to be able to connect in other ways.

Getting the Most Out of Gmail

If you get a lot of invites in your email–whether they’re for social events or just plain old work meetings–it’s now easier than ever to add them directly to your Google calendar from an open email. Look for any dates or times in the email and you’ll see dashes appear under those words. Click the date and you’ll get a prompt asking if you want to “Add to Calendar.” ne of Google’s recent “improvements” to Gmail is customizable tabs which separate incoming email into categories; Primary, Social and Promotions. Primary is email sent specifically to you, or that you mark as important. Social is email from social networking sites like LinkedIn, Pinterest and Facebook. Promotions is where I find my Groupon emails and other newsletters that I subscribe to. More internet faxing companies should looking into this organizational structure so that it is much easier to sort through all of the important faxes and ignore the junk.

Build Your Own

When you are online, whether it is gaming, streaming videos, or just chatting with internet phone services, a freezing of the system can be the worst nightmare come true. It is frustrating, yes, but when you think about the fact that about 30% of the population does not have internet access, it can put things into perspective. As we have heard from many tech giants, internet access it a human right and it should be treated as such. Maybe it's time to take matters into their own hands. Communities beyond U.S. borders are showing the way. In rural Lancashire, England, the residents of one village have begun digging trenches and installing their own fiber optic cables. To make their homemade network run, the BBC reports, they've enlisted everyone from a "Lancaster University professor who is an expert in computer networks" to a "farmer's wife who has just retired from a career in IT support." "Farmers are being told they have to fill in forms online," Barry Forde of the Lancashire effort told the BBC. "If you haven't got broadband, you are severely disadvantaged." An ocean away, The Times of India reports, the Mexican town of Villa Talea de Castro built its own mobile network after America Movil, Mexico's largest telecommunications provider, refused to hook the town up.

Saving the World: One Connecting at a Time

What a powerful thing the Internet is. We can type out words and then have other people read them instantly as you are probably doing now. It is used for VoIP services so you can connect with people all over the world. Zuckerberg believes that connectivity is a human right. He recently posted, "The more things we all know, the better ideas, products and services we can all offer and the better all of our lives will be.” It might sound great and all that but the truth of the matter is that there is always a business angle. More Internet users mean more data, which can be sold to advertisers (Facebook) or used by the advertiser (Google), and all of which must be transmitted through some device (Nokia, Samsung, Qualcomm). The corners of the world without Internet present vast, untapped markets. On the other hand, the Internet is not magic. The Internet cannot nourish, and it cannot give a homeless person a home. Just something to think about during your meals.

Working for Nothing

If you are like one of the many recent college grads, you are probably still looking for a job or have taken an unpaid internship. The unpaid internship may include answering internet phone calls and even taking out the trash. Unpaid internships are, at best, ethically iffy. A necessary precursor to jobs in certain fields, they act as both a gateway and a barrier to entry. Young people believe they have no choice. Anyone unable to forgo pay risks being shut out. Legally, they’re murky. The Labor Department holds that unpaid internships in the nonprofit sector are “generally permissible." Interestingly enough, the Labor Department does not, for example, routinely monitor job boards for suspicious ads. Nor have lawmakers on Capitol Hill tried to draw attention to the culture of unpaid internships, with task forces or hearings or education campaigns. Have you ever been in this position?

Defcon: How to Hack Safely

At the annual hacker convention, there is a program that encourages kids to hack, safely of course. One of the best things about these types of programs is that it teaches the kids about technology at an early age. It sets the groundwork for future application development and for the kids to be aware of the different type of technologies and how they can be used. It's like training-wheels for learning about the technology … having kids start sooner, getting people who wouldn't normally get into hacking sooner, and spreading that it's not necessarily hacking in the evil sense but a lot about curiosity, finding flaws and sharing knowledge. The r00tz Asylum program provides kids a safe environment in which to break the rules. Learning it in a controlled kind of environment under guidance is much better than people going off on their own and perusing it in any way they please. There should definitely be more programs such as these.

Apple vs. Samsung

The companies are currently embroiled in dozens of high-stakes patent disputes, four of which are playing out in the United States. Billions of dollars are on the line, and the titans are fighting to take each other's products off the shelves. The good news for consumers is that the trial proceedings in such disputes typically take so long that the products in question are often long obsolete by the time a judge rules on the case. The latest ruling is expected to take place on Friday, when a federal court will decide whether to ban the sale of some older Samsung smartphones in the United States. A lot of phone services, especially VoIP because there is less security with it, are being more regulated as far as price goes as well. After the Snowden leak, more people are suspicious of what the government is doing and how they are using the information. It reminds me of a book about a dystopian society where the government monitors data and looks for anomalies. It sounded ridiculous but is that not the direction that we are headed in?

Digital Textbooks

There’s a bunch of freely available education content on the web, so why not round it up and cobble it together into virtual textbooks? That’s the idea behind Boundless, a Boston-based company that turns open-source content into free textbooks that serve as alternatives to the big-name textbooks assigned by college professors. This is probably music to all those college kids' ears. If you’re wondering if traditional textbook publishers might have a bone to pick with Boundless, you’d be right: The company is currently being sued by three of the major players. “That’s not a surprise that they’re trying to fight innovation.” These are the same publishers that are own about 80% of the market. I can tell you from experience that some of the textbook cost an arm and a leg. Some professors are even choosing to use IP telephony to further help the students learn and understand the material. In what direction do you think textbooks and publishing is going?

Privacy in the Digital Age

There are many steps that you can take to ensure better privacy in the internet age. The internet is not going to go anywhere soon so we need to better adapt to in terms of security and privacy. Internet phone services are relatively new when it comes to the different kinds applications and communication services that are provided online. One of the first things that you should consider doing it making sure that your hardware is secure. Set up your PC to require a password when it wakes from sleep or boots up. Same thing with your mobile devices. Not only should you use a passcode to access them every time you use them, install an app that will locate your phone or tablet if it’s lost or stolen, as well as lock it or wipe it clean of any data so a stranger can’t get access to the treasure trove of data saved on it. It is also good to have great anti-malware programs installed on all of the devices. Speaking of passcodes, you can lock down your Facebook, Google, Dropbox, Apple ID, Microsoft, Twitter and other accounts with two-factor authentication. That means that when you log in, you’ll also need to enter a special code that the site texts to your phone. Some services require it each time you log in, other just when you’re using a new device or web browser.

Charging Phones

I am sure that by now, most people have heard about the woman that reportedly died by an iPhone that was charging and then Apple was sued over it. Experts say that the likelihood of being electrocuted by a charging smartphone is very low because the supply voltage is about five volts which is not enough to harm someone. Of course this is assuming that all the devices are up to standards. But the risks become greater when someone powers a phone with a substandard or incompatible charger. Some knockoff chargers don't have proper insulation, potentially exposing users to overheating, fire or electric shock. With all the communications services, there are other options to be able to communicate. You are better off using a bit of common sense with electronics.

Speed of Change

Google has repeatedly made the argument — and the commission agreed — that the speed of change in the technology industry made it impossible for regulators to impose restrictions without stalling future innovations. Enter the mobile device. Nowhere has technology changed as rapidly and consumer behavior as broadly. As people abandon desktop computers for mobile ones, existing tech companies’ business models are being upended and new companies are blooming. The landscape of the mobile application development is changing. On cellphones or tablets, for instance, people increasingly skip Google altogether in favor of apps like Flixster for movie times or Kayak for flights. Apple is taking on mobile search with Siri on the iPhone, which can answer questions about the weather or search for nearby restaurants. With its new mapping service, Apple has also entered local search.

Difference Between Clouds

Typically, the cloud is envisioned as an accessible and low-cost compute utility in the sky that's always available. Despite this lofty promise, companies will need to select and build their cloud environment carefully to avoid fracturing their computing capabilities, locking themselves into a single, higher-cost environment, diminishing their ability to differentiate themselves and gain competitive advantage -- or all three. This is where AB Soft comes in because they will be able to help you chose the right cloud service and make sure that you get everything you need and nothing that you do not. AB Soft will definitely the right company because they build all of the cloud services from the ground up which means that you are in control of the type of internet infrastructure you need. They also offer the best business application development which will set your business apart from all the others.

Poor VoIP Call Quality: Common Problems

Jitter is a common problem of the connectionless networks or packet switched networks. Because the information is divided into packets, each packet can travel by a different path from the sender to the receiver. When packets arrive at their intended destination in a different order then they were originally sent, the result is a call with poor or scrambled audio. A jitter buffer temporarily stores arriving packets in order to minimize delay variations. If packets arrive too late then they are discarded. Many small businesses use their internet connection for both voice and data. This is perfectly fine as long as your router has the ability to prioritize the VoIP service. Without a router that is configured for packet prioritization, call quality can be impacted by the other users on your network. For example, if during a call, another user on your network downloads a large file, without packet prioritization, your call quality could be degraded. A VoIP router prevents this from happening by giving priority to voice traffic on your network. VoIP routers are not an expensive piece of hardware. A VoIP router for a small business ranges from $300.00 for a five person office to under $1,000.00 for a 25-person office.

VoIP and Texting

VoIP and IP telephony providers have always had the power to attract customers with the promise and pay off of saving them money over traditional telephony solutions. But until recently, messaging technologies like SMS have only been available to wireless numbers, and not to landline or VoIP systems. That is no longer true. Just a couple months ago, two California-based companies have premiered new free texting services for business and residential customers.You might be wondering just exactly how you would text to a landline. It requires an application and then you could use your computer. This might save you a lot of time when it comes to organizing numbers and texting is becoming the new normal. It will save your business a lot of time and it will show your consumers that you are up to date on the latest technology making you more available and professional.

Mouse Tricks

The computer mouse is universal and it is not going anywhere anytime soon. It has been around for forty years and while all the technology around it changed, namely the touchscreens of Windows 8, it changed very little and is still just as important. This is something that IT professionals need to keep in mind when working on business application developments and CMS development because people are still using the mouse. Here are some little known tricks that might be helpful:

• Scroll sideways: In many versions of Excel, holding down the shift key while scrolling will take you sideways. That's super helpful in a big spreadsheet.
• Scroll wheel as back button: In most web browsers, if you hold the shift key while using the scroll wheel, it works like the back button: You can fly through all the sites you've recently visited. (Some mice have side buttons that work like back and forward buttons in your browser, too.)
• Scroll to zoom: Holding ctrl and scrolling lets you zoom in or out of the page you're viewing. Ctrl-scroll up zooms you in; ctrl-scroll down zooms you back out. On a Mac, this trick will zoom in and out your whole screen, not just the document you're in.

While most of the tricks I've listed so far work in either Windows or Mac OS, here are a few that are specific to Windows machines:

• To maximize a window: drag the title bar to the top.
• To minimize all windows except the active window: "Shake" the title bar. Then if you want to restore all the windows you just minimized with this shortcut, just click again on the title bar of the window in view.
• To view two windows in a 50-50 split: Drag the title bar of one document to the left edge of your screen, then drag a second document to the right edge; they will snap into position in a nifty side-by-side view.