Category Archives: General

Apple WWDC 2023 Event Kicks Off on June 5

CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA — Apple WWDC 2023 is the annual Worldwide Developers Conference hosted by Apple Inc. It is a five-day event that showcases the latest innovations and technologies in software, hardware, and services. The conference will take place this year from June 5 to June 9, 2023, at the California HQ. Attendees can expect to learn about the new features and updates of iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and other Apple platforms. They can also participate in sessions, labs, workshops, and networking events with Apple engineers and experts.

Apple today announced it will host its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in an online format with an opportunity for developers and students to celebrate in person at a special experience at Apple Park on opening day.

Free for all developers, WWDC23 will spotlight the latest iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS advancements. As part of Apple’s ongoing commitment to helping developers create innovative apps, the event will also provide them with unique access to Apple engineers, as well as insight into new technologies and tools to help them realize their visions.  

The conference will also feature the Apple Design Awards, which recognize the best apps and games of the year. Apple WWDC 2023 is open to all registered developers who have an active Apple Developer Program membership. Tickets are distributed through a lottery system and cost $1,599 USD each. The conference will also be live-streamed online for free for anyone who wants to watch.

What we should expect to see at the Apple WWDC 2023 event

Here are some of the things we can expect to see at this year’s WWDC:

  • Good chances we’re going to see some new software updates to Apple’s iDevices, including operating systems for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV. We can expect to see iOS 17, iPadOS 17, macOS 14, watchOS 10, and tvOS 17, with new features, bug fixes, software improvements, and more.
  • New hardware announcements may include the rumored AR/VR Reality Pro headset prototype, potentially including advanced set of sensors, HD displays, eye-tracking tech and more.
  • An upgrade to the Mac Pro lineup: Apple has been working hard to complete the transition of its MAC and hardware lineup to to its own custom silicon chips, and the next generation start releasing the rumored M2 Ultra chip which would boast up to 32 performance cores and 128 graphics cores, making it a heck of a monster chip.
  • A 15-inch MacBook Air: Potentially another upgrade to the 13-inch MacBook Air laptop series Apple could launch a 15-inch MacBook Air with an M2 chip and a bigger 15-inch display that would offer superior performance to the current MBAs.

How to Watch the Apple iPhone 14 Event — September 2022

Apple’s about to kick off its latest and greatest iPhone 14 lineup, as well as Apple’s Series 8 of watches and alleged Airpod Pro 2 models. With these new products in the pipeline, you better know where to watch:

The keynote event will take place Sept. 7 at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. and you’ll be able to watch it live in a few different places. But before we elaborate about that, here’s when it will go live around the world:

  • New York, New York – 1:00 p.m. EDT
  • Dallas, Texas – 12:00 noon CDT
  • Honolulu, Hawaii – 7:00 a.m. HAST
  • Halifax, Canada – 2:00 p.m. ADT
  • London, United Kingdom – 6:00 p.m. BST
  • Berlin, Germany – 7:00 p.m. CEST
  • Delhi, India – 10:30 p.m. IST
  • Dubai, United Arab Emirates — 9:00 p.m. GST
  • Shanghai, China — 1:00 a.m. CST – Sept. 8
  • Seoul, South Korea — 2:00 a.m. KST – Sept. 8
  • Hong Kong — 1:00 a.m. HKT – Sept. 8

How to watch the September Apple Event 2022?

Apple’s Website

You can watch the Apple livestream event via Apple’s main events webpage (link), which has a good history of fast and healthy live stream connection.

Apple TV

You can watch “Far Out” event directly from the Apple TV app, either on your Apple TV box or your mobile/tablet applications.

YouTube

Another way to watch the event is via Apple’s official YouTube channel. Here’s the YouTube link for the September Apple Event 2022, down below:

Apple Event — September 7

 In addition to the iPhone 14, Apple will also present the Apple Watch Series 8 and the Apple Watch Pro, as leaked images of the upcoming watches have already gone viral; both are likely to receive a new refresh design.

We can’t wait to see what Apple’s big executives, including Tim Cook, Greg Joswiak, Craig Federighi and others will unveil today.

Finally, make sure your wallet is ready for Apple pre-orders if you’re one of those fans.

 

Apple Announces Sept. 7 Event, New iPhone 14, Watch Series 8 Expected

Apple sent out invites on Wednesday, announcing Sept. 7 as the date of the iPhone 14 launch event, at which the Cupertino giant is expected to unveil a new series of iPhone 14, or whatever Apple might formally choose to call its successor to the iPhone 13 series. In addition to new iPhones, the company is also expected to introduce new iPad models, and 3 new smart watches, including an Apple Watch Series 8, Watch SE model, and a fitness-focused watch model. While the iPhone 14 and the Apple Watch Series 8 are likely to be the official stars of the annual event, other announcements, including the release date of iOS 16, watchOS 9 and others, are also possible but less certain.

iPhone 14 mockups

The coming event is following a March announcement for the Mac Studio, the 5-G iPhone SE, and a new iPad Air, in addition to previewing iOS 16, macOS Ventura, and other new software features at the company’s developer conference in June. While the iPhone 14 lineup and the Apple Watch Series 8 will make the biggest headlines at its annual event, iPhone-maker Apple Inc could be out and about with a bevy of new Macs, iPads, AirPods, and iOS 16 launch dates, and possibly even a mixed-reality headset, who knows?

Apple Watch Pro

In addition to that, Apple is said to be rolling out a new, higher-end smartwatch version, which is likely to be called Apple Watch Pro. This way or another, the September event, is going to be held at the Steve Jobs Theatre, within Apple’s Park campus in the city of Cupertino, Calif.

See you there, folks!

Everything Apple Announced at The Virtual 2021 iPhone 13 Event

CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, Apple officially announced its 2021 new line of updated products including A new iPad and iPad Mini, a new line of the 7th-gen Apple Watch, a bunch of new iPhones with a few interesting updates – iPhone 13, 13 Mini, 13 Pro and 13 Max.  No new Airpods announced. Here are the highlights:

 

Apple Event — September 14

iPhone 13 Highlights:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m43rh-pI0P0

Apple announces iPhone 13 and 13 mini with a pretty similar look and design to iPhone 12, with a smaller notch, A15 chipset, diagonal dual-camera system, larger battery life, and five new colors. Apple iPhone 13 mini starts at $699 and iPhone 13 starts at $799, the same as the iPhone 12, now starts with 128GB base storage  and a 512GB option. More here:

  • – Super Retina XDR display
  • – A15 Bionic chip
  • – Improved power efficiency
  • – 6-core CPU, 4-core GPU

Apple today introduced iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini, the next generation of the world’s best smartphone, featuring a beautiful design with sleek flat edges in five gorgeous new colors. Both models feature major innovations, including the most advanced dual-camera system ever on iPhone — with a new Wide camera with bigger pixels and sensor-shift optical image stabilization (OIS) offering improvements in low-light photos and videos, a new way to personalize the camera with Photographic Styles, and Cinematic mode, which brings a new dimension to video storytelling. iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini also boast super-fast performance and power efficiency with A15 Bionic, longer battery life, a brighter Super Retina XDR display that brings content to life, incredible durability with the Ceramic Shield front cover, double the entry-level storage at 128GB, an industry-leading IP68 rating for water resistance, and an advanced 5G experience.

iPhone 13 Pro Highlights:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKfgdkcIUxw

Apple unveils iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max with the new ProMotion update for 10Hz-120Hz refresh rates, A15 Bionic chip, new camera system with 3x optical zoom, and more advanced updates. Apple iPhone 13 Pro starts at $999 and 13 Pro Max starts at $1,099, same as the iPhone 12 Pros, now with up to 1TB option; pre-order on Sept. 17, shipping Sept. 24. More here:

  • – Ceramic Shield glass on front
  • – IP68 water resistance
  • – Redesigned interior to support the new camera system and the bigger battery
  • – A15 Bionic chip
  • – New 5-core GPU
  • – Super Retina XDR display
  • – ProMotion

Apple today introduced iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in a smartphone. Redesigned inside and out, both models introduce an all-new Super Retina XDR display with ProMotion featuring an adaptive refresh rate up to 120Hz, making the touch experience faster and more responsive. The pro camera system gets its biggest advancement ever with new Ultra Wide, Wide, and Telephoto cameras that capture stunning photos and video, powered by the unmatched performance of A15 Bionic, more powerful than the leading competition. These technologies enable impressive new photo capabilities never before possible on iPhone, like macro photography on the new Ultra Wide camera and up to 2.2x improved low-light performance on the new Wide camera. New computational photography features like Photographic Styles personalize the look of images in the Camera app, and both models now include Night mode on all cameras. Video takes a huge leap forward with Cinematic mode for beautiful depth-of-field transitions, macro video, Time-lapse and Slo-mo, and even better low-light performance. Both models also offer end-to-end pro workflows in Dolby Vision, and for the first time, ProRes, only available on iPhone. iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max also include 5G with more bands for better coverage, big improvements to battery life for the best battery life ever on iPhone with iPhone 13 Pro Max, new storage capacity of 1TB, and the Ceramic Shield front cover, tougher than any smartphone glass.

iPhone 13 Pro Camera Updates:

Apple’s iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max will feature a macro photography mode for close-up shots, a Cinematic mode for more advanced “rack focus” techniques, more

  • – Telephoto (3x optical)
  • – Ultra wide, with a larger sensor to improve low light capabilities
  • – Wide camera with f.15 aperture
  • – Night mode now available on all cameras
  • – Macro mode
  • – New filters dubbed ‘Photographic Styles’ for real time photo edits while rendering

With new sensors and lenses for all three rear cameras, optimized to work seamlessly with iOS 15 and powered by the new image signal processor (ISP) in A15 Bionic for improved noise reduction and tone mapping, the iPhone 13 Pro lineup features the best camera system ever on iPhone. The all-new Wide camera has a larger sensor with 1.9 µm pixels, the largest ever on iPhone, for less noise and faster shutter speeds needed across lighting conditions, producing even more detailed photos. Coupled with the larger ƒ/1.5 aperture, the Wide camera on iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max offers a massive improvement in low-light situations, up to 2.2x when compared to iPhone 12 Pro, and nearly 1.5x when compared to iPhone 12 Pro Max. Sensor-shift optical image stabilization (OIS) — unique to iPhone — is available on both models, stabilizing the sensor instead of the lens, so images are smooth and video is steady, even when the user is not.

iPad Mini 6 Product Update Highlights:

Introducing the all-new iPad mini | Apple

Apple refreshes its  iPad mini lineup with a larger 8.3″ display and rounded edges, Touch ID power button, USB C port, 5G connectivity, second-gen Pencil support; coming next week for $499.

  • – Four color options
  • – Beautiful 8.3” display
  • – TouchID
  • – USB C port
  • – 40% faster CPU, 80% GPU improvement
  • – 12MP camera
  • – Starting at $499, orders start today with shipping next week

Apple today introduced the powerful new iPad mini — with a larger 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display — in four gorgeous finishes. Featuring the brand new A15 Bionic chip, the new iPad mini delivers up to 80 percent faster performance than the previous generation, making it the most capable iPad mini ever. A new USB-C port allows faster connectivity, and cellular models with 5G bring more flexible mobile workflows. New advanced cameras, Center Stage, and support for Apple Pencil (2nd generation) enable new ways for users to capture photos and videos, communicate with loved ones, and jot down their ideas when creativity strikes. The new iPad mini is available to order beginning today, and will be in stores beginning Friday, September 24.

New iPad Product Update

Apple announces an updated entry-level iPad model with A13 chip, 12MP ultrawide front-facing camera, iPadOS 15, basic 64GB minimum storage; available next week starting at $329

Apple today introduced the new iPad (9th generation), featuring the powerful A13 Bionic chip that packs even more performance and capability into the most popular iPad, all while retaining its all-day battery life.1 Starting at just $329, the new iPad features a 10.2-inch Retina display with True Tone, a 12MP Ultra Wide front camera with Center Stage, support for Apple Pencil (1st generation) and Smart Keyboard, the intuitive iPadOS 15, and twice the storage of the previous generation. The new iPad is available to order beginning today on apple.com, and in stores beginning Friday, September 24.

Apple Watch Series 7 Highlights:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMdQ-gWBNZE

Apple unveils Watch Series 7 in 41mm and 45mm sizes, with five colors, thinner borders, 20% larger displays, and IPX6, starting at $399 this fall. More here:

Apple today announced Apple Watch Series 7, featuring a reengineered Always-On Retina display with significantly more screen area and thinner borders, making it the largest and most advanced display ever. The narrower borders allow the display to maximize screen area, while minimally changing the dimensions of the watch itself. The design of Apple Watch Series 7 is refined with softer, more rounded corners, and the display has a unique refractive edge that makes full-screen watch faces and apps appear to seamlessly connect with the curvature of the case. Apple Watch Series 7 also features a user interface optimized for the larger display, offering greater readability and ease of use, plus two unique watch faces — Contour and Modular Duo — designed specifically for the new device. With the improvements to the display, users benefit from the same all-day 18-hour battery life,1 now complemented by 33 percent faster charging.

 

 

 

Everything Apple announced at the WWDC 2021 Keynote

Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference officially kicked off with the main opening keynote event for WWDC 2021, featuring tons of new software updates we’ve been waiting for.

WWDC 2021 — June 7 | Apple

iOS 15

iOS 15 is packed with new features that help you connect with others, be more present and in the moment, explore the world, and use powerful intelligence to do more with iPhone than ever before.

Coming this fall

FaceTime

  • Spatial Audio coming
  • Voice isolation
  • Wide Spectrum
  • Portrait Mode
  • FaceTime links, including with Android and Windows users
  • SharePlay – Watch and listen together with friends, share screen and more

Notifications

Quickly catch up with a helpful collection of your notifications delivered daily, based on a schedule you set. The summary is intelligently ordered by priority, with the most relevant notifications at the top.

Live Text, Focus, Maps, Photos

Maps: Immersive walking instructions with step-by-step directions you can view in augmented reality.

Live Text: Live Text sophistically unlocks rich and useful information inside your images, so you can make a call, send an email, or look up directions with just a tap on the inserted text in a photo

Photos: Memories introduces a new interactive interface, along with new Memory mixes that let you personalize the look and feel of your story and include a song and vibe to match.

Focus: Focus helps you stay in the “zone” when you need to concentrate on something. Choose a Focus that allows only the notifications you want to show up — free of any distraction. You have aa choice to pick from a list of suggested Focus options or create your very own.

iPadOS

iPad enables you to do so much, so easily. iPadOS 15 takes this versatility further, making it easier to get things done, find and organize information, and make iPad even more capable.

Coming this fall

  • Multitasking – The iPad screen is great for working with multiple apps, taking your productivity to a whole new level. And now with iPadOS 15, multitasking is a lot more easier to discover, use, and view.
  • Widgets – Now you can place widgets alongside the Apple apps on your iPad, and  take full advantage of the iPad canvas.
  • App library – The App Library will automatically organize your apps into helpful categories like Productivity and Games, for quick access.
  • Notes – Notes goes system-wide with Quick Note, a fast and easy way to get to a note no matter what you’re doing. Add @mention, #tags and more.
  • Translate – The Translate app is now available on iPadOS. System-wide translation lets you translate text anywhere on your device.
  • Swift Playground – Swift Playgrounds brings a new level of productivity to iPad, and now its capabilities go even further. Learn code, build real apps with Swift UI, and see your ideas come to life on the App Store.

 

watchOS 8

watchOS 8 helps you stay connected, active, and healthy like never before. Share your favorite memories with the enhanced Photos app. Put more fun into your texts. Find new ways to center yourself and be present. And that’s just the start.

Coming this fall

  • Photos & Portrait watch face: Put your favorite photos of friends and family front and center in your watch face, to give the people you care about a lot more attention; now with a dynamic, multilayered effect.
  • Health – The Breathe feature has been refreshed with new graphics and visualizations alongside new tips that help you focus, center, and connect as you breathe.
  • Fitness – New guest trainer and Artist Spotlight

 

macOS Monterey

  • SharePlay – Keep FaceTime conversations going as you watch TV shows and movies, listen to music, or share your screen with SharePlay.
  • Shortcuts – Pre-built shortcuts to get the word done, faster
  • Safari – The new tab bar design takes up less space on the page and takes on the color of the site you’re on. More menu, enables you the access to powerful Safari features .
  • Universal control – A single keyboard and mouse or trackpad now work seamlessly between your Mac, iPad and other Apple devices. You can even drag and drop content from one Mac to the other device.
  • AirPlay to Mac – The power of AirPlay comes to Mac. You will be able to share, play, or present content from another Apple device to the big, screen. You can also mirror or extend your display to enhance productivity.
  • Shortcuts – Automate the things you do most often. Save time by turning something that would take multiple steps into just one.

 

 

 

 

The Hottest Buzzwords in Supply Chain Management Right Now

With something as expansive as supply chain management and as important as controlling the flow of goods in a world where manufacturing, release, and retail needs to be done in record time, there’s no surprise that there is an awfully big drive for innovation in the supply chain management space. With this innovation comes new terminology and jargon that might sound like it has nothing to do with the supply chain, but we’re going to see more and more of it in the coming years.

Just as we got to grips with ‘just in time’ supply chain management, we are presented with terms like ‘door to floor’ and ‘destruction of density’. Let’s have a look at some of these terms and what they mean.

The Internet of Things

This one has been around for a while and might most commonly be known for internet-connected gadgets that enable home automation and improve the lives of consumers with not much technical know-how by turning their homes into smart homes.

Examples of these devices are:

  • Smart TVs
  • Home Assistants (Like Alexa or Siri)
  • Google Home
  • Nest Thermostat Controller
  • Ring Doorbell Cameras
  • Philips Hue Smart Bulbs

In the supply chain, the Internet of Things enables a very different kind of experience for consumers. Products like the Amazon Dash and Alexa enable almost instant ordering, buying, and payment for items for delivery, and that’s going to be important for supply chain management.

Gig Worker

The gig worker is a bit of an anomaly in business today, but it’s one that has quickly become irreplaceable, and in supply chain management, this is particularly true. A gig worker is a freelance employee that is paid for doing a specific job but without contracts or any long-term employee relationships.

Examples of gig workers and companies that offer them are:

  • Taxi or Rideshare drivers (Uber, Lyft)
  • Delivery drivers (Doordash, Postmates)
  • Handyman or task workers (Taskrabbit)
  • Moving (Dolly, Burro)
  • Grocery shopping (Instacart)
  • Property rentals Airbnb, Rentah)
  • Virtual Assistants (FancyHands, Zirtual)

Gig workers from the perspective of a supply chain manager offer very unique benefits, particularly because you’re not hiring staff who might not always have enough consistent work to fill their days because you need them for times of surging business, like holiday shopping or when there are storms and bad weather.

It’s also beneficial from the gig worker’s perspective because they aren’t tied down by specific hours or to a single employer, and they have much more flexibility in their role.

It’s no surprise then that gig worker is one of the hottest buzzwords right now.

Supply Chain Digital Twin

A supply chain digital twin, at it’s most fundamental, is a clone of a physical and digital process of your business. This is used for a number of things in supply chain management, but perhaps the most common is the identification of risks and opportunities based on real data from your business. This offers supply chain managers the ability to understand and interpret data in new and innovative ways.

Some advantages of a supply chain digital twin:

  • Discovering and correcting bottlenecks in your supply chain.
  • Testing new innovations and changes in your supply chain processes.
  • The ability to monitor and report on risks and test contingency strategies.
  • Transportation planning and logistics.
  • Being able to optimize and monitor your inventory.
  • Forecasting your operational capacity and requirements for the near future.

Supply chain digital twin systems are big business right now and are only set to get bigger as time goes by and the power and usefulness of these systems are recognized and discovered by more supply chain managers and incorporated into more supply chain certifications and courses. Click here for a supply chain management program you can study online.

Supply Chain Impatience

This one is a result of our own desire for instant satisfaction, but it’s also one of the biggest drivers of the industry’s need to constantly innovate newer or better ways to deliver to their customers faster. Supply chain impatience is very much what it sounds like – our need to get our orders as fast as possible. In the past, it would be fairly normal for an online order to take a couple of days to reach you, but with companies like Amazon innovating with one day or even same-day deliveries with services like Amazon Prime, and taking advantage of the rise of gig workers (remember those), delivery is becoming quicker and quicker.

Some companies are even testing innovations like drone deliveries to get their products into the hands of their customers as soon as possible. This buzzword is only here to stay because you can be sure as soon as we hit one-hour deliveries, we’ll want them in half an hour.

Destruction of Density

There’s a reason why buying in bulk is cheaper. Buying a thousand of something costs the selling business much less than to sell one thousand individual units. Money can be saved in so many areas when the sales density is higher.

  • Less packaging is needed.
  • Fewer accounting transactions.
  • Less checkout or order processing staff.
  • Only one delivery.
  • Density in shipping.

It’s that last one that leads us to the buzzword ‘destruction of density’. In the past, shipping products and the rates you’d pay to ship these products would be directly proportional to the quantities you want shipped. Filling up a container with a product and shipping it is always going to be cheaper than shipping a few products. The rise of supply chain impatience, however, means more agile and quicker shipping is expected by consumers, which means businesses don’t always have the luxury of time to fill up a full container before shipping. This is where the shipping density decreases, leaving the business shipping costs to go up.

The challenge right now in the supply chain management world is epitomized no better than by the destruction of shipping density. The successful companies are those that embrace the ability for logistics and supply chain managers to use technology like the supply chain digital twin to streamline and improve their logistics practices to drive down the costs of their supply chain and ultimately increase the business profitability.

 

 

5 Simple Useful Gadgets for Your Everyday Life

 

What is an essential gadget, you guys are asking yourself? Usually, it’s a product or an item that will make your life easier, often in unexpected way. The items below are relatively simple, but they truly can solve some daily little problems.

 

Light Up Charging Cables

Sometimes you need to look at your phone in the dark and you basically can’t find it without turning the main lights on (something that you don’t necessarily want to do).

This great idea has the right solution:  You don’t have to fumble around in the dark, and if you need to re-plug your phone in a snap, you can easily find it with the cable and light.

 

Esky Wireless Item Locator

Stumbling around and looking for items you misplaced in your home or struggling to find a last minute product can be very frustrating in times. But with this little gadget from a company called Esky your problems are likely to completely be gone.

All you need to do is simply press the color-coded key on the little included remote and the item locator will activate a sound that will help you retrieve the item you lost. Of course, not losing the remote control itself is a whole other story you are going to have to work on.

 

AquaNotes

Do you often have an idea that comes to your mind while taking a shower? Do you tend to forget it because you didn’t really have something to write on? Well, let me tell you something, you’re certainly not alone. But with this amazing gadget you don’t need to lose your ideas ever again.

It is true to say that if there is a problem, there will be a solution, and AquaNotes is just what you need for this tricky problem. Waterproof paper – simple, but amazing.

 

Compartment Pan

There are times when you want to cook several things for dinner, but you don’t necessarily want to cook more than what you really need for that particular meal you’re making, and Compartment Pan is exactly the idea that will help you with this problem.

 

Tablets

Tablets are great. They’re usually placed somewhere between your phone and your laptop. The best 8 inch tablet will fit easily in your bag, and will always keep you light when traveling abroad.

They are the best choice to make if your phone is just too small and your laptop is too heavy to carry all day long. You can either watch TV or can read a book on the go when you’re doing your way to work or just sitting in your home.

 

Conclusion

These cool little gadgets make great gifts for others, but also solve different issues in our day-to-day problems. They are mostly affordable and accessible to all, so if you think you deserve one it is time to make the call. Not just for yourselves or your beloved ones but for anyone you know. They’re essential and useful so enjoy ’em y’all.

5 Important Things to Know about Arc Flash

Arc flash is a dangerous type of electrical accident caused when current jumps between voltage levels in an unintended way. The result is a powerful explosion that can lead to serious consequences. These are five important things to know about arc flash:

 

Human Error Is the Most Common Cause of Arc Flash

Some estimates say that about two-thirds of all arc flash accidents are caused by human error. The most common of these situations is when a worker doesn’t follow the protocol for ensuring equipment isn’t carrying a charge. When most people make a mistake at their job, they can just fix it. Arc flash doesn’t give you a second chance. This is an unfortunate reality of working with electrical equipment.

While mistakes on the worker’s part—either due to fatigue or simple oversight—are the most prevalent causes for arc flash, there are several other factors that can lead to it. Faulty components are another major risk. It’s important for enterprises to update any equipment that doesn’t adhere to OSHA standards. You can easily get any replacement parts from a company like Schneider Electric, which will help reduce the likelihood of arc flash.

 

Arc Flash Can Generate Temperatures Hotter Than the Surface of the Sun

Some people simply don’t understand the magnitude of an arc flash explosion. Electrical shock actually isn’t the primary danger of arc flash; burns are. On average, there’s more than one death every day associated with arc flash burns in the United States. Thousands are injured every year by these burns.

Arc flash is capable of creating incredible heat. In some cases, it has peaked at over 30,000 degrees Fahrenheit. To give you some perspective, the surface of the sun is about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

You Need to Wear Special Clothing to Protect Against Arc Flash

Based on the previous point, it’s pretty obvious you don’t want to enter a situation where arc flash might occur wearing shorts and flip-flops. It’s essential for people working on electrical equipment to wear arc flash-protective clothing.

Even though having the proper clothes can help prevent burns, it doesn’t protect workers from all the dangers of arc flash. Hearing loss is a major concern in these accidents, as well as projectiles coming from the explosion area. It’s important for everyone within the immediate area of a potential arc flash site to take precaution.

 

Several Arc Flash Accidents Happen Every Day in the United States

Arc flash isn’t some once-in-a-lifetime event that you don’t really need to take seriously. This phenomenon happens multiple times every day in the U.S. All organizations that use electrical equipment need to consider the risks of arc flash.

The potential damage caused by arc flash can be devastating to individuals and organizations alike. Severe burns, broken bones, deafness, blindness, and death are all possible with arc flash. Even in the fortunate circumstances where no one is hurt in an arc flash explosion, it can still cause massive damage to equipment.

 

Arc Flash Is Almost Always Preventable

As mentioned earlier, human error is the most common culprit of arc flash accidents. While this can seem like a negative thing, there’s actually a positive element to it. Since mistakes are by far the most-cited reason for arc flash, there are steps that can be taken in order to reduce the likelihood of these incidents.

Better training for workers is one of the best ways to reduce the likelihood of arc flash. Make sure anyone working on electrical equipment has a thorough understanding of how to avoid an accident. Fatigue is one of the elements that leads to human error. Implementing protocol that limits workers from having to get into situations where they’re prone to making mistakes can help mitigate arc flash. It’s also management’s role to stay on top of updating and replacing equipment as necessary.

No one wants to deal with arc flash or its aftermath. But this is just a reality when it comes to working with electrical systems. Knowing more about arc flash, however, can help to lower its occurrence.

Want to Boost Hospital Margins? Start with the Supply Chain

Most of us probably think of manufacturing and sales when we come across the term “supply chain.” And although that’s a justified association, supply chains play an important role in many other industries, too. The dictionary definition of supply chain tells us it’s the “sequence of processes involved in the production and distribution of a commodity.” And just think about how many industries besides manufacturing and retail deal with products—playing some role in connecting end users with these commodities.

Healthcare is a perfect example here. Hospitals are doing all they can right now to strengthen their bottom lines—an endeavor that requires cutting costs just as much as it does maximizing revenue.

Want to boost your hospital’s margins? Start with the supply chain, a solution that’s easy to overlook but can unlock significant potential gains.

 

Hospital Supply Chains: Missed Revenue Opportunity?

How hospitals source health equipment, products and medications matters big time for their bottom line. Even a slight cost difference between Item A vs. Item B can add up to a significant sum over time when you consider its use across patients on a regular basis.

One management consulting firm studied 2,300 hospitals and found that organizations nationwide could save $25.4 billion “if they improve their supply chain operations and harness data.” As Modern Healthcare reports, this translates to an average expense reduction for supply chain costs of 17.7 percent, or up to $11 million per hospital annually.

This study found that the hospitals leading the pack in terms of supply chain optimization are doing a few things right. First of all, they’re employing data-driven physicians capable of identifying cost-effective items and medications that perform equivalently to more expensive alternatives. This allows hospital staff to standardize the products they use in their care. After all, cutting costs in an impactful way requires getting everyone across an organization on board.

 

Exploring the Relationship Between Cost and Quality

There’s an assumption that products that cost more tend to deliver better results, right? This explains why so many consumers and organizations opt for name-brand products when the generic version performs the same or better.

But the latest wave of supply chain analytics from providers like ThoughtSpot can help organizations dive into data to study relationships between cost and quality. Here’s an example outlined in Becker’s Hospital Review: A hospital starts spending more on a certain product or process, but this increased expenditure is supposed to end up being offset by a reduction in infections. Only data will reveal the relationship here—whether springing for the more expensive initiative did, in fact, result in lowered rates of infection in patients.

This example just goes to show that hospitals today more than ever need a surefire way to study the effects of making changes to their supply chains. Self-service analytics, specifically, equip clinicians, nurses, administrators, pharmacists and more to conduct their own data analyses—asking questions and getting answers in seconds—rather than having to wait for an IT team to produce reports on their behalf. In an environment where time is quite literally money, speedy supply chain analytics can do wonders for a hospital’s margins and outcomes.

Not only does supply chain management matter in terms of cost, but it also affects patient outcomes—something every hospital should be striving to maximize in this healthcare climate.

Although most hospital leaders recognize the potential for supply chain management to ramp up return on investment (ROI), 27 percent of hospitals still have yet to utilize data analytics to evaluate their supply chains for opportunities to improve quality and efficiency. Another 19 percent of hospitals “aren’t even analyzing it at all.”

When you’re searching for solutions to improve hospital margins, consider the supply chain—and how better analytics can help you optimize operations here.

Apple’s Fascinating 43-Year Journey From Small Project To $1 Trillion in Valuation

Is there any more fascinating success story in the world of tech than that of Apple Inc.? What began as a small project in the back of Steve Jobs’ parents’ garage has turned into the first trillion dollar company in the world.

It all started with Apple I, the first Apple product released by Jobs and Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak in 1976. Following the success of Apple’s first two personal computers – Apple I and Apple II – the company went public in 1980, and its founders became multi-millionaires overnight.

The 1980s saw the debut of the first personal computer with a graphical user interface (GUI), named Lisa, as well as the release of the Macintosh computer.

What followed, however, was a series of setbacks for Apple, including Jobs’ resignation in 1985. If you want to know what happened next on Apple’s journey to $1 trillion, take a look at the comprehensive infographic below by The Watchstrap.co detailing the success story of the biggest tech company in the world.

 

How Tech Is Making Homes More Energy Efficient

The United States uses the most energy in the world, responsible for 20% of global consumption. China takes second place, coming in at 15%. The more energy used, the more carbon emissions there are, which is bad news for the planet. Electrical devices, appliances and gadgets are part of life and all require power, as well as the need to heat and cool homes. Tech is finding new, innovative ways to help people live their lives in an energy efficient way without having to make sacrifices. 

Energy-efficient dishwashers 

Ditching washing up at the sink and opting for a dishwasher has many benefits, but you may be surprised to know that it can save you water and energy. Washing by hand can use up to 27 gallons of water per day, whereas an energy efficient dishwasher can use as little as 3 gallons. Using less water means less energy is used to heat the water too. Even dishwashers that have a long run cycle will use very little energy and water, yet get your dishes clean and dry every time. Technology is making dishwashers smarter so that they can detect how dirty dishes are and jets are more powerful, meaning less energy is needed to operate them.

Smart windows

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have teamed up with Pella Windows to create a highly insulated window that uses sensors and microprocessors to adjust how much light, and therefore warmth, is let into a home. It bases this on the amount of sunlight and time of day to give highly efficient lighting and temperatures. Another company, View, have worked on similar technology and claim that savings on lighting, electricity, heating, ventilation and air conditioning can add up to 23% at peak times. 

Magnetized fridges

Currently, refrigerators in the US use approximately 60% less energy than they did 20 years ago, which is down to technology helping to making them more energy efficient. Oak Ridge National Laboratory and General Electric have teamed up to take the energy efficiency of fridges one step further. Their aim is to make a domestic fridge that uses 25% less energy than current modern fridges by using a technology known as magnetocaloric effect, or MCE, instead of conventional vapor compression. Basically, temperature is controlled by a changing magnetic field, which means the use of harmful refrigerants is eliminated.

Technology has been responsible for an increased consumption of energy, but it’s also being used more to look at ways of making appliances and devices work in an energy efficient way. Tech can also take everyday objects and make them smart to help reduce the need for electrical devices to be turned on, such as air conditioning, which further helps to reduce energy consumption.

How Artificial Intelligence is Changing The Art Industry

At the end of last year, a work of art created by an algorithm was auctioned off for the first time ever. It was a painting and, though it was only expected to sell for around $10,000, it sold for a whopping $432,500, further cemented the growing interest in AI art. Artificial intelligence is undoubtedly changing the future of technology and business practices, but it’s making waves in the visual arts sector as well. AI artists are collaborating with machine learning technology to write novels, produce fine art, expand capabilities in the culinary arts, produce music, and even help with choreographed dances.

The idea of artificial intelligence creating art has been met with many divisive thoughts from creators, artists, and collectors alike. Who technically owns the art and should profit from its sale? Can a machine evoke the same creativity that human can? Will it ultimately replace artists? Auction house, Invaluable, explores the capabilities of AI art and answers these questions in their infographic below. You can see the full article here.

Kunpeng 920: Huawei Unveils World’s Highest-Performance ARM-based CPU

Just in time for CES 2019, Chinese tech leader Huawei, strategically unveiled the Kunpeng 920, the industry’s highest-performing ARM-based processor. At Huawei’s headquarters in Shenzhen, China, Huawei released the impressive CPU, intended for handling applications like big data processing and distributed storage.

William Xu, Director of Huawei’s Board and Chief Strategy Marketing Officer, said during the press conference that “Huawei has continuously innovated in the computing domain in order to create customer value. We believe that, with the advent of an intelligent society, the computing market will see continuous growth in the future. Currently, the diversity of applications and data is driving heterogeneous computing requirements. Huawei has long partnered with Intel to make great achievements. Together we have contributed to the development of the ICT industry. Huawei and Intel will continue our long-term strategic partnerships and continue to innovate together.”

William Xu, Director of Huawei’s Board and Chief Strategy Marketing Officer (credit: Huawei)

Kunpeng 920: High-Performance ARM-based CPU

Huawei’s high standards of leading the industry are very clear with the release of the new Kunpeng 920.  The new CPU, similar to Huawei’s HiSilicon Kirin 980 (launched in October 2018), was  designed in-house and manufactured on a 7-nanometer processor. According to Huawei, the gain in performance between these two CPU’s emerges from a series of optimized branch prediction algorithms and an increased number of OP units, along with an improved memory subsystem architecture. The Kunpeng 920 provides both higher computing performance for data centers while decreasing overall power consumption. The Kunpeng 920 is packed with 64 cores, clocking an impressive 2.6GHZ, and paired with 8-channel DDR4 memory allows the Kunpeng 920 to score over 930 on the SPECint Benchmark, 25% higher than the industry benchmark.  For the sake of comparison, the previous industry leader was the Fujitsu 7-nanometer A64X. Beyond its speed is the CPU’s power efficiency, which performs 30% better than its competitors.

Kunpeng 920 performance (credit: Huawei)

In terms of system integration, the new CPU has increased with two 100G RoCE ports. Kunpeng 920 also supports PCIe Gen4 and CCIX interfaces, and provides 640 Gbps total bandwidth.  In addition, the single-slot speed is twice that of the incumbent offering, effectively improving the performance of storage and various accelerators.

TaiShan Series: Huawei’s ARM-based Server Built to Perform

To complement the Kunpeng 920, at today’s press conference Huawei also released its TaiShan series servers, powered by the company’s new CPU. Aimed at tackling three distinct issues, storage,  high-density, and balancing both requirements, the Taishan series designed three unique models. Powered by the Kunpeng 920, the TaiShan servers are built for big data, distributed storage, and ARM native application scenarios. These unique scenarios are ideal for the ARM architecture offering many advantages in many-core and performance per watt. The TaiShan series are ideal computing platforms for enterprises with high performance and low power consumption. Designed especially in big data scenarios, the TaiShan servers are tuned for optimal many-core high concurrency and resource scheduling to deliver a 20% computing performance boost.  

As Mr. Xu stated at the press conference, “The ARM industry is seeing a new development opportunity. The Kunpeng 920 CPU and TaiShan servers newly released by Huawei are primarily used in big data, distributed storage, and ARM native applications. We will work with global partners in the spirit of openness, collaboration, and shared success to drive the development of the ARM ecosystem and expand the computing space, and embrace a diversified computing era.”

TaiShan server (credit: Huawei

Open and Collaborative ARM Ecosystem is Geared for Mutual Success

For years, Huawei has continuously promoted industry cooperation and collaboration among its industry partners in terms of hardware, basic software, and applications. The company’s unique approach is predicated on the growing trend that an intelligent society, with all things connected, and sensing, is well underway. In light of these industry trends and application requirements, a new era of diversified computing is emerging. The ability to process multiple data types and scenarios are the driving force behind optimizing computing architecture.   

Summarizing the company’s vision of serving as an industry leader across all verticals, from telecommunications to servers to handsets, Mr. Xu noted that “With Kirin 980, Huawei has taken smartphones to a new level of intelligence. With products and services (e.g., Huawei Cloud) designed based on Ascend 310, Huawei enables inclusive AI for industries. Today, with Kunpeng 920, we are entering an era of diversified computing embodied by multiple cores and heterogeneity. Huawei has invested patiently and intensively in computing innovation to continuously make breakthroughs. We will work with our customers and partners to build a fully connected, intelligent world.”

11 Important Cyber Security Tips That Will Help Seniors Protect Themselves From Hackers

With the increasing impact of the digital world, an AgeUK study shows that senior citizens are making use of emerging technologies – in fact the number of over 75s using the internet in particular has doubled in the last five years.

Seniors are not only using the internet, but the majority of seniors also own smart phones, online shop and 50% of internet users aged 65-75 have a social media account. The main ways seniors tend to use the internet is to keep in touch with family abroad, for general browsing and for entertainment purposes.

Although seeing the older generation taking advantage of the latest trends and technologies shows the positive impact of these innovations on people of all ages, there are also many potential threats they need to be aware of when using the internet. Only 32% of seniors surveyed claimed they were confident using the internet safely, and 25% of over 75s stated that technology made them feel vulnerable. Seniors particularly need to be aware of how to use the internet safely as they appear to have a lack of confidence and awareness, making them prime targets for cyber criminals. 1 in 5 seniors also don’t have anti-virus software installed on their devices leaving them vulnerable.

This infographic created by Focus Training introduces simple yet effective ways seniors can safely use the internet and protect themselves from potential cyber attacks.

 

3 Tips for Beginners to Capture More Impressive Business Photos

Hiring a professional photographer is the best way to capture impressive photos for your business – but it may not always be feasible. If you’re on a tight budget, you may not be able to afford the services of a photographer, but you will still need impressive business photos nonetheless.

The good news is that there is no reason why you can’t capture impressive photos yourself. Assuming you have a decent digital camera or smartphone, all you need to do is follow a few simple tips:

Make sure there is lots of soft light

Light will play an important part in how your photos turn out, and for business photos it is normally best if there is lots of light that is diffused so that it evenly illuminates the subject.

One good way to use natural light to snap impressive business photos is to position the subject near a large open window. Alternatively, you could look into rigging various types of DIY lighting solutions if you have the time and resources.

If you’re photographing outdoors, you may want to try to time your session to take place during the golden hour – i.e. the hour right after dawn, or right before sunset. The lighting conditions during that period are particularly good, and will help you snap really impressive photos.

Try to use the rule of thirds as a guide

To come up with business photos that have a better visual impact, you should try using the rule of thirds as a guide. It is easy enough to use, and you just need to turn on the grid feature on your camera and then line up the subject and other elements based on the gridlines and intersection points.

The rule of thirds will help you to place the subject slightly off-center and make it stand out more. On top of that, the other elements should be spaced out more evenly, making the photo look more balanced.

Get close or fill the frame

It can help to get close to the subject of your business photos, as it will reveal more details that may not have been visible otherwise. As a rule, you should always move yourself physically closer rather than using the ‘zoom’ feature – as it could affect the image quality.

In some cases, you may even want to fill the frame completely with the subject of your photo. The business photo that you end up with will look very interesting if you do, and it will make the subject the undivided focus of attention.

Be sure to snap lots of photos, and then go over them later. If you need you can use various tools to help you manage and organize your photos, such as Movavi Photo Manager for example.

By applying the tips listed above, you should notice a big improvement in the photos that you snap. Admittedly, they may not match the photos that a professional would be able to capture, but they should look good enough that you can use them for your business.

The more you practice using each tip and the more experience you acquire, the better you’ll get. That is the key to being able to capture truly impressive photos, and it could even turn into an enjoyable hobby for you to pursue.

The Rise and Power of a Comprehensive Customer Driven Digital Platform

What do the tech companies of today and digital-born organizations all have in common?  

Yes, Amazon, Google, and Alibaba all had a keen understanding of the sheer power of digital technologies. Dig a bit deeper.  Many of the digital companies of today disrupting legacy industries are based on platforms. 

The success of these unicorn companies are based on some core elements: the technology platforms they’ve built, and perhaps more importantly, the innovative business models these platforms enable.

As digital businesses shift away from the traditional business models towards interconnected ecosystems, technology is responding in a similar manner by progressing from siloed technical infrastructure to an ecosystem of enabling platforms.

Platform Takes Center Stage

Digital is increasingly the agent of disruption to the old commercial order and in the hyper-competitive digital economy; enterprises that excel are those that are harnessing the power of platform economics. Google, Apple, Amazon, and Airbnb are all platform companies. In fact, in its 2018 report, Gartner ranks digitalized ecosystems among its top five trends. So, as emerging technologies continue to develop, they will require support from more dynamic ecosystems that are based on new business strategies and platform-based business models.  

These platform-based business models are quickly becoming the foundation of business innovation, with emerging technologies providing the means to develop increased value and create new business models performing at optimal levels of efficiency.

While all of these companies have thrived, the challenge has been to define the platform.  Third-party analysts give various descriptions of the platform. Traditional and ICT manufacturers have launched a variety of “platform” models, but the industry, as a whole, lacks a clear definition.

 

Huawei is positioned as the digital technologies enabler and initiator in the digital platform and uses its digital platform to support the partners’ platforms.

In an effort to define and enable a clearer model of successful transformation, Huawei Technologies recently presented the company’s “power of the platform” approach at Huawei Connect 2018 in Shanghai. Huawei’s new digital platform strategy will enable governments and enterprises to accelerate digital transformation and achieve new levels of innovation and growth.

The X Factor in Digital Platform

Digital transformation cannot be achieved with any one single technology, and the value of the cloud cannot be realized without other technologies. To capitalize on the value of the cloud, terminals need to collect vast amounts of data and utilize networks for transmission. For Huawei, it is this collaboration that is dependent on its cloud-pipes-devices collaboration ability. It also represents the company’s most powerful capability.

With the goal of offering customers a long-term strategy to accelerate digital transformation, Huawei offers a “Digital Platform + X + Ecosystem” approach. This unique method puts the digital platform as the foundation, with new capabilities (the “X”) such as AI, IoT, Big Data, security, ICP, and videos.

Lu Qi, President of the Marketing & Solution Sales Department of Huawei’s Enterprise Business Group, stated at the event that the company’s digital platform offers three core advantages. “It is full-stack, open, and supports enterprises across multiple industries; our digital platform can be used in a wide range of scenarios, as it supports both private cloud and public cloud.”

By incorporating their products and solutions with those from other providers, Huawei is actually able to create an open, win-win ecosystem that offers customers the freedom to use the best solutions for their unique requirements.

Huawei’s Digital Platform Enabling Growth

At Huawei Connect, Yan Lida, President of Huawei Enterprise Business Group, said: “Digital transformation is a complex process which requires a systematic approach and convergence of various technologies to integrate the physical and digital worlds. Huawei is committed to enabling our customers’ platform-based businesses with an ICT platform that allows partners to integrate industry-specific applications. In this way, Huawei’s platform serves as the ‘fertile soil,’ enabling the growth of the industry ecosystem, and promoting digital transformation of various industries with our ecosystem partners.”

Partnerships and Design Thinking

For several years, Huawei has been at the forefront of digital transformation. Huawei is committed to working with customers in the long term and takes a future-oriented approach to drive enterprise digital transformation through the power of the platform. So far, 211 of the Fortune Global 500 companies (including 48 Fortune Global 100 companies) have selected Huawei as their digital transformation partner. This list includes SAP, Accenture, Deutsche Telekom, Volkswagen, Oracle, Honeywell, GM, ABB, Intel, Sony, the Russian Federal Savings Bank, and more.

In the digital transformation journey, Huawei has embraced the vision that partnership and collaboration will be a bigger driving force than the technology itself. By partnering and guiding its customers in their digital transformation journeys, Huawei is strategically guiding each enterprise to their destination. The goal is to be connected, intelligent and cloud-based. Huawei is uniquely positioned to take enterprises on this journey because the company is able to provide a holistic suite of solutions from devices, to infrastructure, to services based in the cloud equipped with artificial intelligence capabilities.

Huawei teams up with customers and partners to create a vibrant ecosystem, meeting customers’ requirements in increasingly complex application scenarios, creating value for customers, and achieving a win-win situation for continuous growth.

Customer-Driven Digital Platform

Achieving positive digital experiences serve as the foundation for successful transformation. Customer experiences serve as the impetus for businesses to innovate, create and measure its overall digital platform strategy.

Designing a successful digital business needs to focus on innovating and attaining new business value, aimed at creating an optimal user experience. Consumers today, demand a faster, simpler, and enhanced digital experience that provides the best product and combines it with stellar service and most advanced technologies. These are all digital platforms that can provide enterprises for agile innovations.

Conclusion

In the next three decades, digitization will reshape every industry, and intelligence will have a profound impact on every enterprise. Digital transformation constantly impacts the way in which companies approach and operate their business. The speed and agility that attract many companies to shift towards digital platforms – which Huawei has done – have spawned new business models that have disrupted the way companies approach the consumer, delivering consistent value to the customer, inspiring enterprises to see beyond short-term gain, opting for long-term value.

In the coming years, the digital platform will continue to revolutionize traditional businesses models. While the digital platform model is still young, it is forcing enterprises to make strategic decisions that will undoubtedly impact the future success and viability of their business.

 

Disclosure: The author is a Huawei Key Opinion Leader and has benefited from their products and services. The opinions of this article, however, are completely his own based on experience.

5 Ways to outsource your financial management

Financial Management: The Path To Wealth Or Debt

One of the most common occurrences in life is debt. Many people struggle to stay on top financially. Meanwhile, many often wonder what separates the few people who always manage to keep their cash flow strong.

Most debt comes down to one simple factor: The management of your finances. Correctly navigating the balance between your income and outgoings is often the difference between debt and prosperity.

This is because most loans or bills work through penalizing late or missed payments. This means debts can quickly mount up and become unmanageable.

Loans, bills and other expenses can often be overlooked or forgotten too. So, even if you had the money to pay them initially, they can quickly become too expensive.

A lot of people can be inefficient with their income too. Spending on unnecessary things or impulse buying can quickly leave you short on money. This creates the same problem as mounting debts.

So, the major factor in keeping you financially healthy is managing your money and bills. But, this is easier said than done. Most people are too busy to keep such a close eye on their finances. This is especially true for those who are already in debt and are trying to work their way out.

The best option for many of these individuals is simply to outsource their financial management to another person or organization. This will allow a tighter watch to be kept over your money without tying you up. But, many people are unaware of how to do this.

So, below, we put together five ways you can outsource your financial management to make your life easier and stay financially stable.

5 Ways To Outsource Your Financial Management

1. Financial management firms

Using financial management firms when outsourcing financial management is usually a practice done by businesses. But, some firms also offer a similar service for private individuals. Here, your expenses and income are taken care of by a company.

Your money is either used to pay bills and debts, saved, or provided to you for expenses. The two drawbacks to this are the cost of these firms and the loss of control over your money. But, it is one of the most effective ways of getting your finances under control.

2. Wage garnishment agreements

The use of lawyers to help with wage garnishment is a common occurrence for those already in debt. But, they can be as useful for those trying to avoid debt. Wage garnishment lawyer help draw up agreements to have your employer withhold a certain amount of your wages to pay debts.

This automatic form of payment is effortless and helps you pay your debts quicker to stop them building up. It’s also cheaper than the above option, as you only need to draw up an agreement once. Although you may need to pay again to end the agreement.

3. Use technology

The use of apps on your smartphone is an easy and very low-cost way of having your finances managed. While it’s not outsourcing the management completely, some apps offer analysis of your incomes and expenses. Others even offer a way to pay your bills automatically, so they don’t go unnoticed.

The only drawback here is the work you will need to do to set up the apps and review how they are working now and again.

4. Use an accountant

This is a scaled-down version of the first option and should be considered even if you are good at managing your finances yourself. An accountant can help you get a clear view of your income and outgoings and can help you manage your money better.

They may also help you save some money by showing some tax-efficient ways to spend or save your cash. They can also be hired as-needed for added efficiency.

5. A family member or close friend

This is one of the oldest ways of outsourcing your financial management. But, it is one of the riskiest. Giving financial control to a close friend or family member can help save you from impulse buying and unnecessary spending.

But, if there are conflict arises, related or unrelated, to finances, this can cause a strain on the relationship. So, this method merits careful thought and should only be considered by those who can’t choose any of the above options.

 

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Author Bio: Susan Ranford is an expert on career coaching, business advice, and workplace rights. She has written for New York Jobs, IAmWire, and ZipJob. In her blogging and writing, she seeks to shed light on issues related to employment, business, and finance to help others understand different industries and find the right job fit for them.

7 Simple Steps to Improve Profitability

When it comes to managing a business, ensuring that your company retains a certain amount of profit margin ought to be among your top priorities. Of course, every business model is different and the level of profitability that you will achieve is largely dependent on the scale and structure of your operation. However that isn’t to say that business owners shouldn’t take every step possible to try and achieve the maximum profit levels that they can. This guide presents some suggested simple steps to improve profitability.

Sure you’ve worked on your branding, created an attractive website and developed a strong digital marketing strategy but improving profitability runs far deeper than just external promotions.

Make Clear, Actionable Goals for Your Profit Strategy

You will struggle to improve your business’s success and profits if you just try and proceed with the vague notion that you want to improve your profits but do not quantify your aims. Establish challenging, but realistic goals as to how much you wish to increase your profits by, and by which date. Once you have outlined this high level detail, you can work backwards, creating an action plan of what tasks you are going to undertake in order to work towards your profitability goals, and the deadlines for each task. Assign project groups to different parts of the plan, and hold review meetings at regular intervals to assess how you are progressing towards your goals.

Remove Unprofitable Products and Services From Your Offering

Not every product that you sell is going to fly off the shelves or be a cash cow. Of course, some products may see mediocre sales figures yet they are necessary in order to offer the full product range to customers and match the competitors offering. That’s understandable. However there may be products and services in your offering they are really struggling and which may even be losing money. Assess your range and cut out those items which are not performing.

For instance, you may offer a particular item to your customers, but the amount of sales the product sees is abysmal whereas the minimum order quantity is incredibly high and so you wind up losing money. Sometimes factors like this can slip through the cracks and that is why it is worthwhile to conduct a full range analysis.

Improve the Ways You Target Customers

Without customers, your business cannot exist. Without customers, you have no sales and therefore no profits and as such this is a critical piece of the pie. However, are you being strategic enough in your approach to customer outreach? Have you considered sending your potential clients video messages? This is something that will attract their attention and pique their interest.

Are you working hard to develop a strategic and smart action plan on specific demographics, or are you casting a wide net, sending salesmen out all over the place and hoping for the best? Not only does not having an effective outreach strategy affect your profits, it can also result in additional, unnecessary costs.

Assess Your Client Relations

If applicable, review the way in which you work with your clients and customers – particularly where payments are concerned. If you are operating a B2B business then you may find that some of the businesses that you work with engage in payment terms that you are simply not happy about – i.e. they want to pay 30, 60 or 90 days after the receipt of goods.

Sure you don’t want to turn down customers and sales but this is no good for your cash flow and can result in wasted resources when your account is consistently chasing up payments. Insist upon the terms that you are comfortable with. For instance, consider requesting that customers pay 50% of the invoices due upfront. If they want your services, they will have to adapt accordingly.

Reduce Costs

Assess your outgoings and ensure that you are not overpaying in any particular area. This means assessing your overheads and ensuring that you are not paying for anything unnecessary, as well as reviewing your expenditure at the back end with your suppliers. Consider automating some of your processes to make your work day smoother. This includes, using e-procurement software to keep track of all purchases. Employing a strategic procurement team aids you in being certain that you are consistently getting the best value raw materials and supplies in the market.

If you haven’t assessed your supply base in a while then maybe it could be time. Perhaps you have been buying a material from one particular source for several years, however the Supplier’s competitor sells the same item for a fraction of the cost. Alternatively, perhaps you consume so much volume of an item that you are able to shift production overseas to a lower cost country and enjoy better economies of scale. You could improve your profit margins significantly by sourcing strategically.

Assess Your Processes and Workflows

You should always strive to run an efficient business, but when you’re busy, or your company is large scale, it is easy for things to fall through the cracks. This is why it is worth taking the time to sit down and analyze all of the processes and workflows within your business.

Could it be possible that there are steps within your processes that add costs but no value? Maybe some activities are completely unnecessary and there are savings to be achieved by cutting them out.

Ensure You Have an Excellent Customer Service Proposition

If you want to encourage repeat, long term custom then you need to ensure that buying from you is a painless, straightforward process for your customers. Consider using CRM software to ensure that management of your sales team and customers is organised and you have clear visibility on processed. Work hard to reduce barriers to entry and any headaches that may surround your company’s re-order processes. A happy customer is a loyal one.  

How to Create a Winning Daily Routine

Imagine, for a moment, some of the most famous business people of the recent age. Take Steve Jobs, now deceased, who was the face and genius behind Apple for decades. He was always, always in a black turtleneck and jeans whenever he was in the public eye—and when he was at work, too. The same with Mark Zuckerburg, genius behind Facebook. He’s always in jeans and a hoodie.

At first glance, it might seem like laziness or lack of caring in those decisions; after all, they’re super smart people who revolutionized the world. But there’s more to it than that. By choosing the same thing—by following the same routine—those tech giants eliminated the precious spare minutes that they might have needed to pick a work outfit. Rigorously following that routine gave them more mental space—and you can do the same thing. Use this graphic to find out how.

 

How To Cut Down On Workplace Distractions

Much has been written about the growing problem of the distracted employee who does not complete tasks in a time-effective or focused manner.

There are number of societal and workplace cultural factors at play, and the “problem” of employee distraction can also be reframed as an opportunity to improve employee engagement. For starters, let’s examine some of the reasons people get distracted in the workplace.

People get distracted because they feel bored, they feel disengaged…and often because internal workflow processes are cumbersome, burdensome, outdated, restrictive, inflexible, or otherwise simply do not fit the context they were designed for. They get distracted because their job requires too much multi-tasking, or because they are working longer hours and have external life concerns pressing on them.

Many are under-employed or focusing their time on tasks that others could do far more cost-effectively. Here are some tips for helping employees to sharpen their focus, and for using tech tool to reach performance and output goals.

Encourage them to “eat the frog”

Mark Twain famously said, “eat a live frog first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you for the rest of the day.”

No matter how hard we try to distribute workloads so that our employees are focused on doing what they enjoy doing more often than not, at best we will only arrive at 80-90% (in a good environment). This means that 10-20% of the time, employees will necessarily be engaged in tasks that make them feel physically or emotionally drained.

These are your “eat the frog” tasks – and they different for every individual. Helping employees frame them this way brings a little levity to the situation – and research shows that people are less anxious and distracted when they get their frog-eating out of the way as the first task. They can then get down to the serious business of enjoying what they do for you.

Use process automation software to streamline work

It is highly likely that your employees are accessing some forms of software packages for e-mail, instant messaging, cloud sharing, calendars, to-do list, mind mapping, and other applications they can access from their desktop or phone. Many of these programs have built-in features that allow for prioritization of work.

More sophisticated versions of project management software, can even replicate high-level scheduling and work prioritization. There are also tools that replicate tasks specific to certain industries. There’s different software tools for invoicing, email marketing, data recovery and just about every other tedious task you can think of.

You should implement these if you have the bandwith. Your employees will be thankful.

Let them design the workflow

Many employees struggle with navigating business processes and systems that were designed for them to use – by someone who never did their job. Worse, they were not consulted in the design, or they inherited the system, or the process once worked but outlived its usefulness in its current form.

Tap into your greatest resource, and let your employees help you identify what should be fixed, and be part of the think tank that fixes it.

Let them switch between tasks to reduce fatigue

Mental, physical, and emotional fatigue are serious issues related to employee disengagement, stress, and burnout. There is evidence from the field of psychology that suggests that deliberate switching of tasks at a set time interval is a far superior strategy to randomly switching back and forth.

Your software platforms or other sophisticated tasklist apps can help you set intervals – 30 minutes on a critical report, 15 minutes to respond to urgent email, let phone go to voice and answer on the hour after a brief walk around the office. Then back to the report, and repeat until finished. Lacking an application, a phone alarm clock will suffice. Even better, if you have an employee assigned to a critical report, assign someone else to cover for them for their simpler tasks.

Otherwise, a person trying to write a report spends 2 minutes on the report, 5 minutes on a phone call, 15 minutes recovering their train of thought, 10 minutes on the report, 3 minutes on the phone, 10 minutes recovering train of thought, etc. Ask anyone who has ever written either a novel or a graduate thesis.

The first strategy may have the “disadvantage” of making people wait a half hour to have their phone call returned, but it will get returned. And the report will actually get written, too. Most importantly- the employee will feel in control of his or her situation and can calmly switch tasks, focusing on what is most important at the moment. Barring actual emergencies, which of course do happen, this is a far more productive strategy.

Let them have unstructured downtime

Employees are people, too. They need time to disengage, and recharge. Instead of policing internet usage for example, allow them to take a few minutes to watch a [suitable for work] video that will brighten their mood. Or take a walk with a camera. Or go to the gym at an odd hour. Or grab a cappuccino with their coworker to run an idea by them. You get the idea.

Unstructured downtime is not just good for business, it is good for human beings, too. Remember that employees only function well when they are healthy. Mental health matters for that, too. You need to give employees time to decompress to cut down on stress and anxiety, otherwise you lose them to mental health disability or another company.

Encourage employee collaboration

Allow employees to offer their expertise to others, and seek others to help think or work through something that is tricky stuck, innovative, boring, or otherwise perfectly suited to collaborative endeavors. Also ditch the “only work within your job description” mentality.

You might be surprised what someone whose hobby is photography, or video game design, or calligraphy- might contribute to your corporate culture and customer service. Providing good communication platforms for employees to find and share with each other is an instant productivity booster.

Encourage process feedback

Many times, something is not working for an employee – but the supervisor does not know about it because the employee does not feel encouraged to speak up about it. Or the supervisor does not communicate it to management. Or management does not take action, etc. Creating a culture conducive to process feedback is an effective way to improve employee focus – because those daily frustrations add up.

An employee is likely to continue giving his or her best if their concerns are listened to, acknowledged, and, most importantly, addressed. An easy way to facilitate this type of feedback is to build it into your business process management software function.

How Huawei and Fortune 500 Companies are completing the Digital Transformation Journey?

Yan Lida, President of Huawei Enterprise Business, Huawei Connect 2017 (credit: Huawei)

We live in an era of unprecedented technological innovation.

According to Forrester Research, only 12% of the Fortune 500 companies from 1955 remain Fortune 500 companies today.

Why?

Most likely because, as Forrester research discovered, only 27% of businesses have a coherent digital transformation strategy for creating customer value in place. Yet, many companies are placing digital transformation at the center of their strategies through 2020.

Over the last few years, digital transformation has become an industry megatrend. Legacy enterprises are forced to embrace this critical shift out of fear of becoming obsolete.

Innovation and growth are no longer optional to the enterprise.

Today, enterprises use ICT technology to improve working efficiency, create business innovations, and provide better customer service.
For many of these Fortune 500 companies, the challenge is to develop new business models that increase connection and engagement. What’s needed is a digital transformation platform that connects intelligence, data, and devices, enabling them to increase engagement with partners and develop applications that foster innovation.

Cloud computing, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and other new technologies are driving the human society into the smart era. The most striking feature of a smart society is the connection and fusion of the physical world and the digital world. The problems of the physical world are now being solved by the digital world.

As enterprises are constantly striving to attain new business value, the speed of innovation is crucial.

Companies need to be swift, agile and leverage all aspects of technological innovation. A truly digital enterprise uses emerging technologies as a strategic effort to go leaner, focus on agile business processes and enhance the business analytics of the enterprise. A digital enterprise relentlessly searches out, identifies and develops new digital business models, always ensuring that customers and employees are at the center of its innovation.

Digital Transformation

Digital innovation has become an essential catalyst and a driving force of economic growth. It’s a journey, not a sprint.

Designing a digital transformation framework for success is focused on innovation and attaining new business value, aimed at a creating an optimal user experience. To the point that the needs of the end-user need to be integrated into the service model. Consumers today, demand a faster, simpler, and enhanced digital experience that provides the best product and combines it with stellar service and most advanced technology.

The Digital Transformation Journey for Enterprises

Digital transformation is a massive undertaking, especially for larger, established companies. When done right, it will result in a business that is more aligned with customer demands and resilient in the fast-moving digital future.

Embracing digital transformation at the enterprise level requires a strategic approach that factors in all of the goals, people, technologies and required integration to form a proper strategy.

Digital Transformation, Disrupt and Innovate

A core function of any business is to continually advance and improve its operations, products, and services. Enterprises that adhere to a digital transformation framework are not only focused on improving, they are the key drivers of innovation and disruption. Equipped with disruptive and innovative strategies, these companies can compete in today’s fast-paced market that is being driven by consumer demands, new technologies, and new business models.

Why Embark in Digital Transformation?

Many legacy enterprises have built their business on certain methods of operation. It is these operating systems that have enabled the company to prosper and survive until today. The digital realities of today, however, are forcing these companies to reconsider and reimagine the fundamental systems that have been the keys to their success. The technological environment is changing, highlighting how ill-equipped these companies are to adapt and change.

Speed is essential in digital transformation.

While the speed of digital transformation may vary with industry, stagnation is the antithesis of the digital mindset. A company maintaining a static mindset in the digital era is paving their path to failure.

With external pressures – customer demands, emerging technologies, lean startups and disruptive business models- pushing the business towards innovation, the classic methods of operation are no longer delivering the expected results. As the impetus for change increases the need to design a strategic path towards digital transformation becomes inevitable.

While many companies may opt to slowly tweak specific inefficiencies, a true digital transformation requires a revolutionary approach. An all-encompassing digital revolution can revitalize an enterprise and pave the road to future success.
A digital transformation framework will guide the leaders and direct the business towards a path of progress. Businesses need to be in a state of constant evolution. Building a momentum and a rhythm reflects a shift in the mindset. It is a sign of a new reality and creates a paradigm shift for the entire industry.

Breaking the Silos

Digital transformation with its customer-centric marketing and business processes requires the ability to work across business verticals and silos. In fact, digital transformation focuses on cross-vertical collaboration, restructuring the organization to create methods that break down the silos. In a digitally focused enterprise, the goal is to encourage cross-department interface and to create an environment that is fertile for consumer-focused innovation.

Huawei: Strategic Digital Transformation Partner

Huawei Connect, Shanghai 2017

 

Over the past six years, Huawei has quickly developed into a global leading digital transformation facilitators. The rapidly changing digital landscape has enabled Huawei to take advantage of the new realities by providing new ICT solutions to customers, creating best practices for digital transformation, public safety, finance, electricity, transportation, education, and media.

Before enterprises choose an appropriate digital transformation strategy, IT and CT are now converging and transforming enterprises. There is no single technology alone capable to execute the digital transformation.

What is different about Huawei’s ecosystem?

Yan Lida, Enterprise Business Group, Huawei Connect 2017 (credit: Huawei)

 

During my experience at Huawei Connect 2017, I was able to learn about some of the company’s strategies and gain insights into how Huawei is developing this platform and ecosystem.

During his keynote speech, Yan Lida, President of Huawei Enterprise Business, highlighted Huawei’s ecosystem that is based on three primary characteristics:

  1. Huawei wants to become the customers’ most trusted partner. Huawei’s commercial model chooses to rely on the monetization of technology and services; it does not monetize user data. This is the biggest difference between Huawei and traditional Internet companies.
  2. Huawei abides by its own business boundaries and is committed to becoming a platform for the platform. There are many companies that through their own experience in a specific industry have transformed into an enabler platform for that industry. It is very common to see companies such as GE, which is now providing an industrial cloud platform for the aviation and manufacturing industries. Huawei believes that it must create an open, secure, and reliable ICT infrastructure platform within its business boundaries to become the platform for its customers and partners’ platforms. Huawei’s platform is a cloud-pipe-device collaboration full-stack ICT platform; it provides all-in-one ICT services for customers and partners. The upper layer platform does not need to bother with the lower layer’s complex software and hardware systems; it can focus on its own service optimization and innovation.
  3. Huawei is committed to becoming the ecosystem’s soil (the platform) to help customers grow quickly. This is why its plan for developers is called the ‘Developer Enablement Plan.’ This platform is the presence of Huawei in over 170 countries around the world. Developers and partners could use this platform for their global marketing and services. 

In order to enrich this ecosystem, Huawei has laid out the plan of establishing OpenLabs, which cover all areas of jointed innovation with customers and partners across industries: public safety, finance, power electric, and manufacturing.

In the next three years, Huawei will continue to invest $200 million to build and operate OpenLabs (currently 13 and grow to 20) in Asia, Europe, Middle East and Americas.

Huawei provides a one-stop cloud-side collaboration infrastructure platform that integrates all new ICT technologies to help businesses stay competitive in the digital age. Huawei’s business has achieved rapid growth via industry-leading customization solutions for government and associated industries.

By carrying out joint innovation with partners centering around the business needs of customers, Huawei focuses on creating a win-win ecosystem.

In the transformation process, customers, partners, and Huawei each have their own unique advantages: customers understand their businesses, partners know how to transform the business needs of customers into industry-relevant applications, and Huawei knows how to utilize hardware and software ICT infrastructures to deliver effective business support to customers.

Partnering on the Digital Journey

In the digital transformation journey, Huawei has embraced the vision that partnership and collaboration will be a bigger driving force than the technology itself. By partnering and guiding its customers in their digital transformation journeys, Huawei is strategically guiding each enterprise to their destination. The goal is to be connected, intelligent and cloud-based.

Huawei is uniquely positioned to take enterprises on this journey because the company is able to provide a holistic suite of solutions from devices, to infrastructure, to services based in the cloud equipped with Artificial Intelligent capabilities.

According to Mr. Lida,  “Huawei’s business positioning is to be a pioneer of digital social and intelligent social development processes, the industry’s digital enabler, and the best partner. In 2016, Huawei’s Enterprise business grasped the historical opportunities of digital transformation by focusing on infrastructure”.

Road to Digital Transformation Isn’t Smooth

Of course, the road of digital transformation from traditional ICT manufacturers to the enterprise market isn’t easy, even for Huawei.

Backed by six years of hard work, Huawei focused its ICT infrastructure and carefully chose partners with complementary strengths. By working together with its partners, Huawei has been able to deliver key industries with true digital transformation. The combined results have been to help public safety and government, finance, energy, and transportation enterprises to achieve digital transformation while still generating sales revenue of 40.7 billion yuan (about $5.9 billion) – a  47% increase from 2011 when the business was formed.

Smart Cities

In the field of smart cities, Huawei delivers ultra-wideband network, cloud computing, large data, Internet of Things and other facilities and technologies for cities to create a “nervous system” that enables all things to be interconnected in a smart way. Huawei has also been widely recognized for their participation in the smart city project through the “one cloud- two network- three platform”.

During the 2016 Barcelona Global Smart City Expo, Huawei was also awarded the “Southern Innovation Award” for the construction of a digital health system in Kenya.

To date, Huawei Smart City solutions have been successfully applied to more than 40 countries around the world and more than 100 cities.

Huawei Smart City (credit: Huawei)

At HUAWEI CONNECT 2017, Huawei and the Shandong Weifang Municipal Government ushered in a new generation of information technology. By including Internet of Things, cloud computing, and large data, Huawei is creating a NB-IoT city network and establishing the first city level based on the company’s OceanConnect IoT platform. Huawei has also used the Internet of Things to integrate various types of sensing devices to achieve data collection and management.

Public Security

In the field of public security, Huawei has continued to apply new ICT technologies such as cloud computing, large data, mobile broadband cluster, Internet of Things and artificial intelligence to the public security field. By working together with partners to build solutions to help cities achieve digital transformation, public security has improved and cities become more secure. Currently, Huawei’s safe city solution has served 80 countries, more than 200 cities and more than 800 million people in Europe, Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America.

Technology and the Competition

As traditional industries enter a critical period of digital transformation to drive business innovation and growth, the cloud is at the foundation for enterprise digitization. To meet this growing demand, Huawei has launched a number of industry-leading ICT products and solutions.

Huawei IT products continue to innovate thereby expanding their role as a digital transformation leader.

With Huawei’s IT products and solutions serving more than 170 countries and regions worldwide, the company is setting a new standard for the future of digital innovation and outperforming its competition.

So far, 197 of the top Fortune 500 companies and 45 of the top 100 companies have chosen Huawei as their digital transformation partner. This list includes SAP, Accenture, Deutsche Telekom, Volkswagen, Oracle, Honeywell, GM, ABB, Intel, Sony, the Russian Federal Savings Bank and more.

 

Jobs You Wouldn’t Expect To Be Threatened by Technology But Are

These days, it’s hard to talk about the business landscape without bringing up automation. With technologies as diverse as machine learning, robotics and 3D printing business automation is changing poised to revolutionize society.

At this point you’ve probably heard about the autonomous drones and vehicles coming for transportation and retail jobs. If you’ve used online tax preparation recently, then you have an idea why there’s no hiring glut for tax preparers these days.

At this point, everyone knows what robotics means for factory jobs. But have you heard that your local bakery or news organization could someday be run by robots?

As automation becomes more advanced and more businesses reap the financial rewards, automated processes will take over more diverse roles within business. Here are some professions that may at first glance be robot-proof, but are becoming increasingly automated.

Masonry and Construction Workers

Like any profession, construction work has benefitted tremendously from mechanization. From the nail gun to the crane, it’s hard to imagine construction without power tools and equipment.

These days, robots are manufacturing building components in factories and laying bricks at construction sites. Drones allow one person to quickly survey sites that would have required a helicopter flight and team of personnel in the past.

It’s now even possible to “print” a house using computer modelling, concrete and a robotic “printer.” If people can hook up some cables and tubes and print a house in a day, what does that say about the future of construction jobs?

Farmers

Taxis, trains and drones aren’t the only vehicles that can be automated. It isn’t hard to imagine fleets of robotic tractors and combines rolling across gentle rural hills. However, automation can do a lot more than plow fields on the farm.

Machines are being created now that will allow farmers to weed and prune plants without the help of human workers. There are even robots milking cows in Germany.

Automated farming isn’t expected to really start paying off for another few years, but about 10 percent of farms in the U.S. have already begun switching. That means fewer and fewer jobs for humans in the coming years.

Office Workers

Blue collar jobs have been among the first and hardest-hit types of work to become obsolete at the hands of robots. But factory workers aren’t the only ones whose jobs are being automated away.

Tasks that used to require entire high-rises full of workers are now being done by small teams. Personal computers have already revolutionized business offices, and that trend is showing no sign of slowing down as artificial intelligence makes it possible to automate even more.

Accounting is one area that has benefitted from automation, thanks to the increasing intelligence of software and digitization of documents. It’s now possible to oversee an accounts payable system that would have at one time required a dozen workers and a warehouse of paper with automation software.

Customer service employees are also being increasingly replaced by chatbots and other software designed to mimic human interaction. As more and more clerical and office jobs are automated, the perception that business automation is a blue-collar problem will become increasingly antiquated.

Journalists

It seems like writing would be a profession unlikely to become automated. However, automation is becoming increasingly responsible for the financial reports, sports updates and other content we read and watch each day.

Machines excel at combining data, but what they haven’t been great at is providing context. Thanks to machine learning, language processing is becoming increasingly sophisticated.

Business like the Associated Press, Comcast and Yahoo have been using automation to create reports for a few years now. Content is now being generated at a rate that would have required thousands of workers located around the world in the old days.

Machines aren’t yet able to reliably gather first-hand information and turn it into a compelling human interest piece, so the machines aren’t yet here to replace human writers. However, as machine learning and language processing becomes more advanced, the trend of needing fewer humans to accomplish more won’t be stopping any time soon.

Bakers

Yes, even your local artisanal bakery may someday be automated thanks to automated baking systems that produce consistently high quality loaves. Automation helps bakers to reduce waste and produce a consistent product, so it makes sense for them to adopt it where they can.

Larger bakeries are much like factories and have already been reaping the rewards of automation. In the past, automation has made the most sense for large-scale operations.

But as it becomes easier and more cost-effective to automate processes in small business such as artisanal bakeries, automation will begin to penetrate further into our work lives in unexpected ways.

 

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Author Bio:

Susan Ranford is an expert on career coaching, business advice, and workplace rights. She has written for New York Jobs, IAmWire, and ZipJob. In her blogging and writing, she seeks to shed light on issues related to employment, business, and finance to help others understand different industries and find the right job fit for them.

9 Reasons Why Small Businesses Should Use The Cloud

Small businesses make a big impact. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, 54 percent of all sales are created by 28 million small businesses operating nationwide.

These businesses are facing a new challenge: embracing digital transformation to stay competitive and customer-focused on a global scale. Cloud computing has emerged as one key component in this strategy, with nearly 40 percent of SMBs already leveraging cloud technology, and experts predicting this number to double in the next three years. Let’s look at some of the best reasons for small businesses to embrace the cloud.

Lower Costs

Often tapped as the biggest enterprise benefit, cloud computing can help reduce total IT cost for SMBs as well. How? Instead of purchasing computer hardware that must be serviced, maintained and ultimately replaced, businesses leverage provider hardware and reduce capital expenditure. Software costs also come down — instead of licensing “X” copies of productivity suites or graphic design programs, software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions let SMBs get the tools they need on demand.

Flexibility and Automation

Need more space or bigger bandwidth? No problem. Cloud providers can scale up on demand to meet emerging requirements. And scalability works both ways — increase throughput as needed for high-value projects or high-traffic events, then return to previous resource levels to keep costs down. In-house IT experts also enjoy the benefit automation; patches, upgrades and software renewals are all handled by your vendor, giving your team more time to innovate.

Recovery and Security

Disasters happen — not if, but when. When disaster strikes, what happens to your data? If it’s stored on local servers only, you could lose everything. Using the cloud, meanwhile, lets you make multiple redundant copies and store them off-site for easy recovery if something goes wrong close to home. In addition, cloud security has evolved to match — and, in many cases, exceed — that of local IT protection. Using a combination of regular audits, advanced encryption and remote data wiping, its possible to enjoy the security of data defense with all the benefits of device mobility.

Freedom and the Playing Field

Small businesses need employee freedom — many rely on remote workers who can get their job done anywhere, anytime. With the cloud, you can effectively take company networks wherever you go, and staff can access cloud services from any approved device.

The cloud also levels the playing field, giving SMBs access to enterprise-grade IT infrastructure without breaking the bank. Add a reduced carbon footprint, and it’s no surprise that more SMBs than ever are tapping the cloud to enhance their IT delivery.

Ready to dig deeper? Learn more about how the cloud can benefit your SMB.

 

 

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Author bio: Steve Johnson is President of Maryland Computer Service, and has been helping businesses harness the power of technology for nearly 20 years. His experiences during that time make him uniquely qualified to guide small and medium businesses through the technologies of today into the future.

Guide To Developing A Successful Mobile App For Your Business

 

It’s no surprise that every business, large or small is building mobile apps and looking to cash in big way. Developing mobile apps for your business puts you on common grounds for competing in the new mobile market place. All customers today look for products and services today via their cell phones. The idea to get your customers to notice your app and for that you need the right approach to mobile apps development. You need the right mobile strategy in place – from day one.

Mobile apps development

The very first step is to look for mobile app development services to create a mobile application. Finding the right developer could be tricky. Find a developer with the right skills and experience so that he understands the exact requirements. Check regularly and monitor the progress of your mobile application. Discuss your scope of work and also define the milestones for completion. Discuss your budget and chalk out the most important features and make sure that the app is thoroughly tested for functionality and user experience before it is launched.

App approval and submission

The next step is to prepare your app for submission to the major app stores and approval. For this purpose, make sure that you understand the app submission guidelines and policies. Both Apple and Android have a set of guidelines and checklists for app submission and approval. Take your time to review and understand their policies. Make sure that your app complies with the maximum size requirements and other criteria outlined by the app stores. Failure to comply with the app submission guidelines will result in unnecessary delays.

App store optimization

App stores have their own way of ranking the apps in the search results. The higher your app ranks in the app stores, the better are its chances for getting downloaded. Increased visibility directly translates to more traffic and greater downloads. Hence, optimizing your app is essential. Simple changes such as including your strongest keywords in the description and using the right images and icons can greatly help improve its visibility. It’s also important to use the keywords in the title. Make sure that the keywords you select are relevant for your target audience. Secondly, place a link from your website and take advantage of your customer’s natural affinity to your website and drive them to download your app too. Furthermore, include a download link for your mobile app on your website too.

There’s no denying that we live in a mobile world and at least 80% of our potential customers are looking for our businesses via mobile phones. Especially, if you are a small business, a mobile app or a mobile presence can give the initial boost to your business and help build a strong brand in the long term. With the right strategy in place for going mobile, you can easily capture the initial mobile customers and see a significant growth in your business in the initial phases.

 

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Author Bio: Elite Infoworld is a leading mobile application development company which offering android & iphone mobile application development services aא affordable rates.

CES 2017: The Harman Announcements That Matter

The Consumers Electronics Show has returned back in town, and many of the larger companies have put the time and effort into Las Vegas, Nevada, as a launch pad for their major announcements.

Harman, a leading company that designs and engineers connected products for automakers, consumers and enterprise industries all around the world, has recently announced a whopping $8 billion acquisition by Samsung, although the deal is yet to be closed.

In addition to that, the company has also announced a massive growth among OEMs such as Lexus, Toyota, Hyundai, Lincoln, Kia, BMW, Subaru and more, with a positive demand from the consumer’s point of view, mostly for advanced in-car connectivity solutions.

For instance, Harman has recently announced a collaboration with Ford, to bring the B&O Play system to its cars, sometime in the Spring of 2017.

With the growing experience in innovation and technology, Harman will continue to expand car connectivity – Intelligent, personalized and professional experience, mainly in the sound management solution products.

The company is presenting a new level of innovation and In-Car Experience connectivity:

  1. Harman Summit Next – Is the new generation of a conceptual smart audio solution that offers Harman’s highest level of acoustic performance integrated with intelligent expandable features which are targeted for the luxury market and provides an immaculate way for people to engage and interact with their vehicles and their senses. The new solutions includes: Ambisonics Escape, Dynamic Sound Stage, In-Car Conferencing, In-Car Theater, and more.
  2. Harman Voyager Next – Harman’s award-winning industry’s leading audio solution in one advanced system. Connects your vehicle to your very own lifestyle via the industry’s first all-in-one audio and connected car Head Unit solution, which has been designed to meet the needs of today’s millennial’s ‘on-the-go’ lifestyle. Voyager Next provides OEMs the ability to offer cost effective and easy to implement premium audio solutions for their entry-level vehicle market. It also provides new levels of intelligent personalization and connectivity to the in-vehicle experience through advanced technologies, including the Voyager Next connect companion app, Harman proprietary micro speaker technology, Dual-core micro sub-woofers and a Voyager Next sub.

To highlight some of the company’s milestones from recent months, Harman has won some very notable automobile awards, as well as launching collaborations with myriad of vehicles and industry brands. It is also said to enhance in-car security with the acquisition of Israeli startup TowerSec for around $70 million or so.

Moreover, the company is unveiling at CES the future of mobility and car connectivity with the latest introduction of Rinspeed Oasis Autonomous car, that features the ultimate In-Car experience technologies (HARMAN LIVS). The Oasis, a result of a fruitful collaboration with industry engineering across the pond, is basically a concept car that offers a glimpse at the future of autonomous driving and how advanced, holistic vehicle intelligence will transform the driving experience.

“More than a technology supplier, HARMAN is an inspiration partner to the world’s automakers, and the Oasis is a testament to that vision – a vehicle that is contextual, personalized and highly connected” ~ Phil Eyler, president, HARMAN Connected Car.

“HARMAN believes autonomy should not equal monotony, and this vehicle offers an integrated cockpit and bleeding edge user interface that advances mobility and connectivity while providing an unparalleled user experience. This results in a driving experience that is more powerful, productive, personalized and protected than ever before.”

The Rinspeed Oasis autonomous vehicle user experience includes a series of modes and systems that elevate both the autonomous and manual driving experience including a Full Windshield Heads-Up Display, Autonomous Drive Readiness Check (handover to Manual), Augmented Reality Concierge, Predictive Collision Prevention, Intelligent E-Mirrors.

Bringing technologies from concept to reality, the company has also presented the new Intelligent cockpit (digital personal assistant, car-to home platform. Next gen Compute Platform), with distinct modes and highly connected iOT integration.

Furthermore, the company is said to invest a lot of its own resources in advanced connected in-car services, such as HCS Cloud, HCS OTA, HCS After Market and others.

In that regard, the company is also introducing the Harman Ignite, the first fully-integrated scalable and modular cloud platform for developing, managing and operating in-vehicle applications and services, combining Connectivity, Analytics, Device Management, Application Management, and OTA Updates.

Examples of automotive use cases for the Ignite platform includes Vehicle Connect, Cloud-Based Driver Profiles, Car-as-a-Service, Vehicle Health and Diagnostics features, Content Personalization, and Vehicle Analytics.

With that in mind, the company introduces some new hardware products such as Navdy: augmented reality display, JBL Legend CP100, automotive aftermarket Platform and a handful of interesting services and products which were the front and center at the major floor event.

How To Hold More Effective, Successful Meetings

 

If they were giving out awards for work things you loved, one of the last things to ever get noticed would be meetings. In fact, nearly half of all employees said meetings are their single biggest waste of time. But there’s no way that meetings are going away. We’re dependent on them, and we hold about 11 million meetings each and every day, consuming over thirty percent of employees’ time. The solution, however, isn’t as hard as you might think. Setting an agenda, choosing a meeting type, even limiting attendance and technology can help. This graphic can help you take control and love your meetings more.

What you should do when meetings don’t meet expectations

How to Upgrade Your Smartphone Camera Using Apps

 

Nearly all of us take photos using our phone’s camera; those who don’t are likely pro photographers with separate professional DSLR cameras and some very bulky lenses. For the rest of us, taking a good picture depends on two factors: the quality of our phone and the right apps to fill in the blanks.

Buying a good phone isn’t the harder of the two things to figure out; most of the more expensive phones come with the better cameras. Assuming you’re at the second step, you’d probably like to know which apps to use so you can take awesome photos for your Instagram account or to keep to yourself.

Look no further; here are some great apps to make your photo dreams come true.

Android Users

taking-a-picture

Camera Zoom FX

Of all the photo apps available for Android, few come with higher recommendations from professionals and everyday users alike than Camera Zoom FX. With a host of features and a friendly interface, this app helps avoid common pitfalls that default apps frequently leave our cameras suffering with, including:

  • Reducing blur with image stabilization
  • Maximizing resolution with your phone’s megapixel count
  • Dozens of filters and frames for altering a photo’s mood

Moreover, Camera Zoom FX also hosts one of the simpler control schemes, complete with voice activation and full manual DSLR options to make your camera work overtime. The professional version only costs a few dollars, and it’s sure to be a purchase worth your while. In 2014, it was Lifehacker’s choice and remains the favorite of millions to date.

Open Camera

As a huge fan of open source software, I can’t recommend Open Camera enough because it truly has the best interests of its users in mind. With full support for Android’s Camera2 API, it hosts a variety of features that seem to be growing with every passing day. Its open source nature means that the only limits the app has are the ones you impose on it.

Like Camera Zoom FX, Open Camera allows you to adjust ISO, exposure time, and focus distance manually. It also allows for GPS tagging when you take a shot and comes with a considerably better price tag: free! The downside may be that it seems to have fewer effects, but as an open source app, that’s always something that can be added down the road.

PicSay Pro

Sometimes taking the picture isn’t enough. Having a good photo editing app can complete your photographic masterpiece, and you won’t find one much better than PicSay Pro on Android.

With most of the features that a desktop photo editor has, PicSay Pro allows you to fix issues with red eye, sharpen blurry shots, and apply numerous effects and edits to spice up otherwise dull images. The free version has quite a few options as well, but with the pro version you get a much more complete package.

iOS Users

take-photos-with-iphone

Camera+

Not only is Camera+ an old staple, it also continues to dominate much of the iPhone photo world because it really does work that well. Thanks to Camera+’s manual option, you’ll have considerably more control over how your photos turn out. Even if things don’t look so great at first, the post photo touchup tools are enough to bring any picture you take back to life.

For Apple Watch users, there’s also support for controlling your camera from a distance.

Manual

Users seeking a cleaner, yet more technical, camera app might consider using Manual, as it not only allows you to take total control of your shots, but it also allows you to look at past photos to see the settings you were using at the time. This can be especially useful as you learn to make your phone’s options work for you.

Notably, Manual remains one of the easier to use apps despite having unique technical options.

Snapseed

While it might seem a tad ironic that one of Apple’s best photo editing apps is published by Google, it doesn’t make Snapseed any less powerful. Snapseed is one of iOS’s most popular apps for good reason: It’s easy to use for beginners, yet has features that can be fully put to work by more professional photographers.

Its filters focus on classic, tasteful touchups rather than cheesy effects. As with any editor, it has all you’ll need to fix up color distortion, sharpness and the dreaded red eye.

Best of Both Worlds

Just because Android and iOS run on separate platforms doesn’t mean there aren’t apps that work for both. For those with more than one type of device, it’s nice to be able to transition using the same app on both platforms.

Instagram

Despite being predominantly a social media platform, Instagram has really made strides since its inception in 2010, both as a powerful source of influence in the fashion world and as a genuinely decent camera app.

While Instagram may not be quite as potent as some of the more focal camera apps, it still offers enough filters and effects to liven up your photos. More importantly, Instagram also makes the transition to sharing your works of art with the world that much quicker. If you haven’t tried using Instagram for photos, it’s worth a shot.

ProShot

As versatility goes, ProShot has quite a bit to offer. Not only is it available for iOS and Android, but it also works for Windows devices as well. Like the other services above, it has all the manual options available (ISO, etc.) but also an in-between setting for convenience and less advanced users, which they call “semi-manual.”

While not specifically for photography, I’m a big fan of ProShot’s video options, which support up to 4K quality and even have options for dealing with audio problems.

Adobe Lightroom Mobile

It should come as no surprise that Adobe continues to be one of the best photo editing apps out there. With loads of professional options, Lightroom is especially unique because it works together with Lightroom CC, another excellent tool to use if you bounce between your camera and your PC.

But don’t let the integration keep you from thinking the app itself isn’t feature rich; most of what you’ll find in Lightroom CC is in the mobile version, from gradient alterations to dehazing. The only real disadvantage is the cost, as Adobe runs this app on a subscription.

Final Thoughts

There are many ways to improve your phone’s camera. Camera apps and photo editing apps are a great way to do it on the cheap, particularly if you’re not interested in buying a third-party lens.

Just don’t forget to protect your device. Particularly if you’re using your phone in an urban setting with tons of free WiFi, you should also consider a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to keep your photos secure. Public WiFi is practically a nesting grounds for hackers waiting to steal valuable data, and your photos could be a prime target. Using a VPN ensures you won’t lose out on hard work by encrypting your internet connection and keeping criminals out.

Have thoughts about mobile photography? Tell us how you take great photos on your phone in the comments section.

 

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Author Bio: Cierra enjoys taking photos on her phone daily. Between playing with filters and settings, she also writes about internet security and how best to take care of your devices and accounts in an increasingly mobile world.

The Top Tech Billionaires In The World In 2016

 

For many companies, 2016 has been a riotous year. However, billionaires involved in the tech industry continue to be amongst the world’s richest people. From social media to computer technology, internet security to streaming services, the developments in tech continue to dominate the market. The world famous finance magazine Forbes Magazine recently accumulated a list of the top 100 richest individuals in tech. In fact, the tech industry is so successful that the minimum net worth on the top 100 list is $2.2 billion. If you were to combine the wealth of these tech individuals, it accumulates to over $892 billion.

Using Forbes findings, ERS created this brilliant infographic below. It features the top ten tech billionaires in the world. It reveals their current occupation, their tech achievements, estimated fortune and inspiring quotes. Although these tech entrepreneurs are in different sectors within the tech industry, they do share some commonalities. For starters, there are all based in either China or America. Secondly, they are all men and lastly, they are all heads of major tech companies. The infographic reveals a fascinating fact: out of the 51 billionaires living in the United States, 37 of them live in California. So who will take the top spot? For all the answers, let’s check out the infographic now!

Did you like the infographic? Which of these tech billionaires do you think is the most influential? We’d love to hear from you in the comment section below!

Family and Teen’s Cyber Security [Infographic]

 

Have you ever thought about how teenagers are using the technology at their fingertips? More exposed to technology than any other generation before, 91% of American teens access the Internet through mobile devices on a regular basis. This constant use of their online devices has certain consequences including bad uses of technology such as cyber-bullying, sexting, social media addiction and inappropriate content consumption.

The team at Family Orbit, a locator, and monitoring app to keep your family safe, has gathered some surprising stats and has presented them in the infographic below. You will find out some fascinating facts about teenagers online security as well as some signs to detect Internet addiction.

Infographic: Family and Teen’s Cyber Security - An Infographic from Family Orbit Blog

An infographic by Family Orbit Blog

An open ICT Platform and Ecosystem is Reshaping Business  

 

New Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is slated to disrupt the hi-tech industry and impact many other industries. The future of ICT lies in its ability to enable developers to take advantage the new technologies like Cloud Computing, Big Data, Software Defined Network (SDN), Internet of Thing (IoT) and Mobile Broadband to innovate their products and improve enterprise agility, efficiency and work in a more collaborative environment.

This revolution will only be possible when developers leverage the open platform and ecosystem to build their own solutions and realize their innovations under these technologies.

An ICT ecosystem is a business network that’s aligned among ICT vendor and solution partners to help enterprises work in an efficient manner. The business-driven ecosystem is lead by the enterprises who define their needs and look to solution providers to supply the relevant resources to enable their success.

Take supermarket shopping as an example. In the current system, the supermarket owners attempts to meet the needs of the consumer, often tweaking the solution without a clear vision or focus. The future will bring a personalized consumption model, in which customers choose products, identify purchase and delivery methods, and in real time their optimized shopping experience will be enhanced for future purchases.

Elion Resources Group in China is already testing this model out. The company uses the IoT technologies to bridge a connection between the farmer and the consumer, thereby fostering a collaborative environment that connects various relevant industries. In this new process, customers are transformed to active partners, allowing them to select the type of food that farmers should grow, allows them to track the growth of the produce, and allows the consumer to select the idea e-commerce platform and delivery service.

Similarly, banks are leveraging the new ICT ecosystem. Cloud computing allows omni-channel banking services, which manages customer data to reduce unnecessary steps in the banking process. Rather than going to an ATM or bank to withdraw cash, the connected consumer will be able to search for a vendor and process payments directly to the merchant. The streamlined process reduces any unnecessary steps and fosters direct communication between merchant and consumer.

The banking industry has always depended on data and security. With the new ICT, Big Data becomes an extremely powerful for the larger ecosystems that require responsive analysis of important data. It develops a variety of innovative services and improves the bank’s service accuracy, real-time performance and customer satisfaction. Banks such as the China Merchant Bank are benefiting from upgraded big data platforms, which can provide analysis of detailed queries and offer direct results. This increased accuracy enables a faster investigation of credit history and other important financial data and can provide accurate information in a matter of minutes.

In addition to showing the actual credit score, this data will highlight consumer patterns and behaviors to identify any risk factors. In China, the People’s Bank of China’s credit system uses data from other ecosystems and sources, including carriers and utility companies, to offer a complete overview of consumer behavior. The comprehensive data analysis enables the bank to look across systems and determine an accurate credit rating that is focused and responsive to specific customer trends.

Clearly, new ICT technologies are paving the way for new forms of cross system collaboration, agility and efficiency. This innovative approach is only possible when open ICT platforms and ecosystems are formed. Driving the New ICT technology forward is Huawei Enterprise Business. Their mission is to provide an open ICT platform and ecosystem where developers can benefit from building their solution using new ICT technologies. Once a specific industry has developed an application, it can be easily replicated and deployed on a global scale.

This new process is being accelerated by Huawei, who is working on driving innovation forward by creating strategic partnership with relevant companies. The ultimate goal of these strategic alliances is to develop an ecosystem that is sustainable and mutually beneficial to all partners. As the new ecosystem is formed, other industries including government and other complex enterprises will benefit from its success.

How Powerful is Instagram When it Comes to the Fashion Industry?

 

Major fashion retailers now use Instagram to source niche brands to service customer demand. Take Selfridges, the iconic British department store chain. Instagram has been key to the brand stocking its “Everybody” section, a specialist fitness brand section. Its buyer’s source boutique labels such as Kiini (which does a range of crocheted swimwear) and the Muzunga Sisters (who do a range of beach cover-ups with pom-poms) by viewing Instagram content. For Selfridges, sourcing niche brands on Instagram is about buying into a particular lifestyle to best serve its customers.

Major high fashion luxury brands now use Instagram to create brand awareness and engagement online. Take Chanel as an example. For the French brand’s Fall 2015 fashion show, Chanel erected an over-the-top set design, a supermarket with 100,000 faux Chanel products on the shelves. Audience members were given access to take ‘supermarket selfies’ on the set prior to the show. One image posted by the fashion blogger Susie Bubble, who has more than 272,000 followers on the social platform received more than 2,670 “Likes”.

For more insights into the power of Instagram and its influence over the fashion industry, have a look at this infographic created by Evoke.ie

SMS, Apps or Email? Customer Engagement Strategies Analysed [Infographic]

 

For marketing to be considered effective, it needs to prompt action from its targeted audience to enough of a degree that the brand ultimately recoups more in revenue than what it spent to initiate the campaign. Marketers need to communicate the right message in the right format at the right time, or else consumers will simply ignore the message. It also needs to be done through the most appropriate channel of communication, whether that is via an app, email marketing or SMS.

When making this decision, marketers must consider a series of factors. Do they want to communicate a lengthy or succinct message? Do they need instant reaction from their targeted customer base? What is the main demographic being targeted? If the campaign needs a swift response, the brevity and immediacy of SMS makes this an ideal option. Indeed, research shows that the general populace is far more likely to respond to a text message than an email, as people’s normal behaviour with the medium is to reply immediately.

This infographic from Neon SMS in Ireland analyses the three main marketing communication channels, picking out the main pros and cons of each one. Selecting the most appropriate medium for your campaign could prove to be the difference between enormous success and expensive failure.

REVIEW: Living with a Huawei Smartwatch

 

Even as someone who appreciates tech, coming from the West, the name Huawei is still a bit foreign to me. After testing their smartwatch, however, I’m starting to really notice their brand and their impressive value and attention to detail.   

These guys are serious in the smartwatch, wearable market. They get it and know how to take the strengths of a good device and improve it, ten fold.

For the record, it’s my first smartwatch but having read about others and tinkered with Apple watch, the Pebble, and a few others, I can say that this is a solid watch.

Let’s start from the beginning, the Huawei watch came onto the tech scene and Mobile World Congress in 2015. At the point, most of the specs were simply rumours. It wasn’t until IFA 2015, that the official watch was released. That’s when the watch skyrocketed and earned its place as being one of the best Android wearables last year.

I agree.

Great watch, solid look and feel. Priced right.   

Here’s my review of the Huawei watch after using it for about six weeks. It’s been paired with my iPhone 6 Plus with the Android Wear app.

The Huawei Watch gets lots of things right where most Android Wear watches have struggled, the design. Slick, sophisticated, simple and non-techy.

Great move for Huawei.  

Running on iOS, the functionality is limited. Getting a text on the watch means you can view it but not reply. Essentially, using an Android Wear smartwatch with an iPhone is no substitute for an Apple Watch, at least not yet. Hopefully, at some point in the near future, Apple may consider opening its APIs for a more robust integration experience with iOS apps. Till then, Apple has one thing on its mind and its selling more Apple products.

Sorry Huawei.

Taking Unboxing to a Whole New Level

Huawei clearly worked hard on the packaging. The luxury feeling of this timepiece is clear, it makes the user feel impressively regal from the moment they open the box. The box, if such things matter to you, shows Huawei is making a concerted effort to mimic the higher end watch brands. The box is decked with embossed text and a soft interior.  

CPM3ECtUEAAALzO

It seems that unlike some of its competitors, Huawei gets that this is not just another tech toy.

This is a device that’s meant to be used and deserves the splash of class and luxury feel that is associated with such an investment.   

Display

The watch has a round face with a full 360 display.

Well done.

This small change enables Huawei to outshine and out-display its competition- by executing on the one thing that can be a major pain point for tech gadgets—allowing users to read the display in full sunlight.

IMG_5520

Critical and a big win for Huawei.

Pairing with Iphone

After downloading the Android Wear app, the process of pairing the phone and watch took about two minutes.

Really smooth and seamless.

1C8D4259-A41B-48BF-BD1B-2B4A4886C385

Granted, functionality with iOS is limited but it’s ok. The whole idea of having notifications buzzing on your wrist takes some getting used to.

iOS Integration

Essentially, any notification that’s set up on your iPhone will come up on the Huawei. From Instagram to Snapchat to Twitter. Dismissing notifications is only a simple swipe away (it also gets dismissed on the phone).   

Thankfully, Google Now is on board, so users can use the iPhone app to allow traffic, sports, reminders and much more straight onto the watch.

Runner’s Problem

Like any smartwatch, the Huawei will count steps and offer basic metrics.

For the common person, the fitness tracking is probably extremely appealing. While the Fitbit remains the preferred tracker, at least in the US, the Android Wear option will perform similar functions and will inspire most to get out and move.

IMG_5906

Unfortunately, exercise nuts or running enthusiasts, like myself, will find it difficult to use the Huawei as a viable replacement for their sports watch. With no GPS or other more robust sports tracking metrics, the basic info just doesn’t cut it for me. Additionally, the leather band and exposed charging nodes (more on that soon) also make the watch a bit less sport, sweat friendly.

Hardware

This is probably where the Huawei truly stands out. The processor and memory are arguably the best around and the full screen display is an absolute pleasure. The AMOLED display offers a bright, crisp and sharp color.

Battery

Like every smartwatch, smartphone and smart device, the battery life is a big setback. That being said, the battery on the Huawei is pretty solid. On a full charge, I’ve been able to get about 30 hours, sometimes I was able to stretch a bit more.  That’s good considering the number of notifications I receive daily. While the watch isn’t in multi-day-Pebble level, it gets impressively close and that’s commendable.

This is 1% I’m proud to be part of #smartwatch #wearable #tech #lowbattery

A photo posted by Mordecai Holtz (@mordecaiholtz) on

A photo posted by Mordecai Holtz (@mordecaiholtz) on Apr 27, 2016 at 6:21am PDT

Speaking of battery life, I think the issue isn’t the battery life but the actual way in which the device charges. The charger is a proprietary magnetic cradle that looks like a hockey puck. The fact that the charger doesn’t use more standard charging options is a bit annoying.

Pro tip: Be careful not to lose the charger, since replacing it isn’t cheap.

Summary

So, after almost two months of wearing the Huawei, I’d say it’s wearing well. No scratches on the sapphire glass, not knicks on the finishing, and no marks on the leather strap. While I haven’t tested the full waterproofing of the device, I’ve been caught with a few sprinkles on it with no damage.

Although it’s pricey, the Huawei Watch clearly earns its position as one of the best Android Wear smartwatches on the market. Its stunning design and impressive quality make it a watch worth wearing.  With no GPS or NFC there’s certainly some room for improvement but it’s definitely a great step in the right direction.

All in all, Huawei joined the smartwatch arena a bit late but they caught up quickly. The Chinese mobile and technology company know what they’re doing. They get it. The company understands how to balance function with form.

They know how to work (or do a good job) on multiple operating systems.

The smarter the device the better the digital experience will have to be. Huawei gets that and is working hard on making the overall flow on devices better.

Well done.

Here’s a video review of the design concept of the Huawei Watch

[youtube id=”eiEeveMVTX8″]

Is There a Real Future in TV?

 

Even though online television and streaming services have become very popular, television is still a big part of households across the globe. In fact, revenue for global television actually increased by 5% to $350 billion in 2014. This growth is being led by subscription TV revenues climbing by 5.4% to $179 billion (a little over half of the complete global television revenue).

Television is still the number one source of news for people worldwide. 53% of people choose television as their go-to-source for getting their news. Compare this to those sourcing their news from search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo (at 38%) and those utilizing the news feeds of popular social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter (at 33%).

For more fasts facts on the future of television, how the Millennial generation is watching television and a snapshot of television viewing around the globe; see the below infographic created by Frame Your TV.

Is-There-a-Future-in-TV-IG-Final

Smart Appliances & the Kitchen of Tomorrow [Infographic]

 

Some of us might be slow to adopt new technologies, while others will have the latest gadgets and software as soon as it appears on the market. People in the latter category have most likely embraced the concept of the smart kitchen, where appliances such as fridges, cookers and washing machines are programmed with unprecedented intelligence and can be controlled from your smartphone.

With the smart appliance market growing from $40 million in 2010 to $9.7 billion today, and projected to break $26 billion in the next three years, it’s clearly a market that is rapidly growing. Already there are numerous apps and smart kitchen products on the market, including the Egg Minder, which updates you on the number of eggs you have at home; and the Prep Pad, which detects the nutritional content of any food item placed on it. Meanwhile, apps such as How to Cook Everything and Jamie Oliver’s Recipes come stocked with enough recipes to suit even the fussiest eater.

This infographic from Pennywell shows that smart kitchen appliances can provide numerous benefits and make your household chores a great deal easier. If you want to learn more about fridges that can tell you what’s inside when you’re 100+ miles away, or ovens that know how much cooking time a recipe needs, then feast your eyes downwards to gaze into the kitchen of tomorrow.

Smart-Appliances-and-Kitchen-of-Tomorrow-Infographic

How To Troubleshoot Basic Appliances In Your Home

 

With so many appliances in our homes from your stove to the dishwasher, it’s difficult to figure out what to do when these necessities suddenly malfunction especially if you are living alone. Got a fridge that suddenly stopped working? Don’t buy a new one just yet. Read on and maybe you’ll save yourself from the extra cost with these DIY repairs!

Problem: Fridge not cooling

According to Liz Welch of Real Simple, A refrigerator not cooling can be caused by “The condenser coils found behind the kick plate at the front or the back of the unit, they can easily become caked with dust. A quick fix would be to unplug the refrigerator, loosen dirt with a soft-bristle brush, then vacuum. Another cause could be the gaskets (the rubber strips that seal the doors shut). To install a gasket, take out the old one and screw the new one in, making sure the door is properly aligned. “

 Problem: Leaking dishwasher

Are you faced with a puddle of water after using the dishwasher? A common cause is using too much soap. A recommended amount should be stated in the manual since the amount of detergent varies with each machine. Use less detergent to eliminate the production of too much suds that cause the dishwasher to overflow. Another cause could also be a broken door latch. In this case, you should have a repairman fix this. You might need to pay for labor and extra parts but this sure beats buying a whole new unit altogether.

 Problem: Noisy washing machine

There’s nothing more annoying than a very noisy washing machine. Washing your clothes shouldn’t be this rattling!

A possible cause could be that the washing machine is off balance or the floor where the washing machine is placed cannot support its weight. A quick solution to this is to put a thick piece of plywood at the bottom of your washing machine in order to level the unit. Alternatively, you may also lessen the load or avoid overloading your unit with more clothes than it can handle to eliminate the noise your washing machine makes.

 Bonus tips: 

  • Before attempting any repairs or deciding to buy a new unit, check your warranty if it’s still covered. Doing your own repairs will void the item’s warranty
  • Always refer to the owner’s manual or even try calling their hotline if in case you are unsure of the repair you are about to do
  • If your appliance needs to be replaced, make sure to dispose of the damaged one responsibly. Don’t just leave it anywhere as its wiring may cause home fires. Call your city hall and ask if they do disposal of large items or send it to the junk shop
  • Important: Before doing any DIY repairs, make sure you know what you are doing. If you are not confident in the repair, it’s best to ask a pro to do it for you or you might just cause further damage to the unit, even worse- hurt yourself.

 

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Joel EksteinAuthor’s Bio: Joel Ekstein is an eCommerce retail expert with over 12 years experience in the industry. He has had experience in buyer and inventory forecasting, marketing, and expanding customer base in new markets. Instead of the notion that offering 100% customer satisfaction hurts 20% of profit, Joel has proved that 100% customer satisfaction increases customer engagement and customer base which leads to 25% profit increase. http://protect-o.com/| twitter.com/Protect_O

 

5 Battery Myths Debunked

 

Your Smartphone, Tablet and Laptop all have one thing in common, a battery. Without it, you wouldn’t even be able to use your device. Because of this, taking care of your gadget’s battery should definitely be a priority. Here we debunk all those myths surrounding batteries and we’ll teach you the proper way to keep your gadget’s battery in tiptop shape.

Myth #1

You shouldn’t keep your gadget charging overnight 

False. I’m sure we’ve all heard about batteries expanding, overheating or even exploding but with the latest technology, this shouldn’t happen anymore. According to Popular Mechanics, “Something that’s not an issue is overcharging. Contrary to what you might think (or have been told), leaving your phone or laptop plugged in all the time is not bad for its battery. That’s because your gadgets, the batteries in them, and the chargers you attach them to are actually pretty smart about the way they do business.”

That means your device is now smart enough to determine when its battery is at capacity that even if you leave it plugged in, it will stop charging once it’s full.

Myth #2

You shouldn’t use your device while it’s charging 

False. People believe that using your phone while it’s charging will make the phone explode or even electrocute the user. An instance of this occurrence happened back in 2013 when a Chinese flight attendant died while using her mobile phone. According to The South China Morning Post, Ma Ailun died of electrocution when she answered her iPhone 5 while it was charging. Although, upon further investigation, they discovered that she was using a knock-off charger. So if you’re using the manufacturer-approved charger and battery then it should be safe to use even while it’s charging.

Myth #3

Heat will destroy your battery 

True. Actually, different temperatures can affect your battery’s health. Leaving your gadget in a warm place can overheat your battery especially when it’s charging since Lithium-ion batteries heat up when they charge. Meanwhile, storing your gadget in a cold place can also affect battery life. A cold battery can die faster than in low temperatures. The best practice is to keep your device stored within its recommended temperatures.

Myth #4

It’s best to turn your gadget off once in a while 

True. Your phone or laptop, like a machine, needs to rest once in a while. According to an article from CNET, the best way to prolong a smartphone’s battery is to turn off the device from time to time. With Apple phones, a weekly shutdown is optimal for your gadget to get its much-needed rest while Android phones can do a simple reboot to restore battery life.

Myth #5

Always do full charge before using it

False. People think that when they get a brand new smartphone, the first thing to do is to immediately charge it until it’s full. Actually, the optimal performance of any smartphone is when the battery is between 40%-80%. So the next time you buy a brand new phone or tablet, you’re usually good to go from there. Also, don’t believe it when they say that you should drain your battery before charging it. There’s no truth in that. Again, like my response to Myth #1, our batteries have now become smarter and more efficient to use.

There you have it! Now you’re more knowledgeable about your device’s battery. The next time someone tells you it’s bad to charge your phone overnight, you can definitely teach him or her a thing or two about battery life.

How about you? Any battery myths you’d like to debunk? Share your thoughts in the comments section below! To avoid battery problems, why not invest in gadget insurance? Guarantees repair or replacement for your smartphone, tablet, etc. in case of battery malfunctions. Invest in gadget insurance today!

 

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Joel Ekstein

Author’s Bio: Joel Ekstein is an eCommerce retail expert with over 12 years experience in the industry. He has had experience in buyer and inventory forecasting, marketing, and expanding customer base in new markets. Instead of the notion that offering 100% customer satisfaction hurts 20% of profit, Joel has proved that 100% customer satisfaction increases customer engagement and customer base which leads to 25% profit increase. http://protect-o.com/| twitter.com/Protect_O

 

 

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive – Five Years Later

 

We all know how bad game was CS: GO when it first came out, when we had a show match with the best professional CS 1.6 players. Half of the players from that match retired, probably just because of how bad game it was and VALVE pressure at any cost CS: GO to alter legendary CS 1.6.

Things about CS: GO changed dramatically in the past five years. We had great updates like new guns, guns tremendous changes in the maps even tugging the maps from competitive games.

The fortunately VALVE listen professionals and makes updates to the game that balance, but there are two things that I don’t like in these updates.

  1. In order to be successful you have to follow the Meta. Example before nerf m4a1-s was too powerful and players who played with the other m4a4 were in the background.
  2. Why VALVE with each update makes the CS: GO easier and easier to play or need less and less skill. Example the last update map de_Nuke no longer need strafe jump to climb the silo.

As for the second one VALVE should perhaps consider these changes to put a special section where is unprofessional playing (competitive matchmaking).

CS: GO crosshairs vs CS 1.6 crosshair

The difference is great when comparing crosshairs in CS: GO and CS 1.6.

In CS 1.6 can be selected small, medium or large crosshair and crosshair can be set as dynamic or static.

On the other hand in CS: GO you can choose between six different crosshair styles.

All are different from each other but I will mention only two style 4 and style 5. These two styles are the best and most used.

Style 4 is completely static while style 5 spread while shoot.

If you ask anyone who has experience in both games will say that CS 1.6 has a much better crosshair of CS: GO.

Not sure why VALVE not import it crosshair from CS 1.6 but I think this has to do something with the above “balance” not be same players are on stage.

Time has shown that to some extent succeeded but it is the result of Legends players from CS 1.6 to retire and do not want to adapt to the new game.

If we look now we see that the best from 1.6 remain at the top but they have competition from new players that no one had heard in CS 1.6.

CS: GO graphics vs CS 1.6 graphics

I think everyone here will agree that CS: GO has much better graphics but need a better PC to be able to play.

If to take into account the CS: GO is a better game than 1.6 and is much improved from first time came out.

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This is a guest post by Antonio Dimitrovski. You can read more from him on his blog, GoCrosshair.

The Ultimate List Of Blog Post Ideas

 

I’m sure you all have already asked yourselves where do blog post ideas come from.

Are they simply read off to us by some mysterious all-powerful being that has a list on hand? If that were true, then there could only be so many ideas before we run out.

There are thousands of blog ideas out there, but you don’t want someone to spoon feed your posts, no, you want inspiration!

Haven’t started your own blog yet? No worries! It’s never too late to start a blog.

If you already have one then we need to start thinking ahead, because we’re in this for the long run! We’ve compiled a long inspirational, multi-faceted, mind-blowing ideas that will make your blog extremely popular.

I’ve Already Used All These Blog Post Ideas. How Do I Find More?

Are you serious? You’ve done all of these? Wow, okay, well then I suppose it’s time to take off the training wheels and show you how to find new ideas yourself. As the saying goes, teach someone to fish and they’ll never go hungry. I’ve given you over 151 fish though, so apparently this is a all-you-can-eat fish buffet of ideas.

When you need inspiration and you’ve exhausted all of the ideas here, use these tools and methods to find more:

1. Quora

This website is a great place to have any kind of question you can think of answered. That means it’s a great place to also find inspiration for blog posts, or simply ideas on how to come up with them. You can log in with your social media or create a free account. Once you’re in, try to look for something like “blog post ideas”and see the results.

2. BuzzSumo 

This tool gives you the unique ability to see which of your competition’s posts are doing the best in terms of social shares. By looking at data like this, you can see what people in your niche want to read. 

buzzsumo post ideas

 

 

 

 

 

Those ideas with a bunch of shares will work as great concepts for posts of your own!

3. Keyword Research 

There are numerous tools out there for keyword research. One such example is Keywordtool.io, which is one of the best in my opinion. Head on over there and type in your subject or niche to get a list of keywords that will easily inspire post ideas.

keywords-blog-post-ideas

Right there, I’ve already found some key terms I can use to find more ideas. This is the gift that keeps on giving.  Now, on to the list!

4. Impact Inbound’s Blog Title Generator

I’ve been using this nifty tool for a few weeks now and it’s helped me take a few broad topics and transformed them into concrete blog post ideas.

Plug in the topics you want to write about, you can literally pick anything, and it will spit out a headline that you can use to help spark some ideas. Customize the headline to your liking and save it to the handy notebook they provide.

When you have an idea of what your blog post headline is going to be, then you’ll be able let the words free flow and body of your blog post will be filled in effortlessly!

Now, let’s get to some physical blog topic ideas I’ve come up for you.

Post Ideas That Will Help Increase Traffic to Your Blog

You’re interesting, write posts about yourself!

Blogs were originally online journals, so why not go back to the roots of the whole equation? Create a personal journal, talk about your crush and then invite them to read it for ultimate awkwardness. Share your thoughts, speak your mind, it’s your soapbox, so use it!

1. Start a contest

You don’t have to give away a million dollars or anything, but why not give out some hats or a custom shirt?

People love the opportunity to win stuff, and if you make it fun and exciting, your incoming traffic will skyrocket!

2. Tell a secret about yourself

While this may not be easy, people love secrets. What’s something you’ve never told anyone before? What quiet truth are you hiding from the world?

Make a whole post about it, bring in some pomp and circumstance. Build up to the reveal and make your secret known to the world (If you secret is that you love to blog, maybe skip this one).

3. Examine a quote that speaks to you

Find something that somebody said that gives you chills. Something that changed your outlook on life and the universe, and share it with the world.

Start your post with the quote and talk about what did to you, and what it means to you. Here’s a good one: “roses are red, violets are blue, I love to blog, and I’m sure you do too.” – The guy who wrote this post.

4. Try something new, then blog about it

Ever eaten a bug? How does skydiving sound? Find something ridiculous and crazy that you’ve never done before and, like Nike always says: do it.

When you’re done and you’ve let it settle in, tell us the whole story.

Blogging Ideas + Tips

5. Graph a statistic or create an infographic to start a discussion

Did you know that 70% of modern day people will always stop and look at a pie chart?

Did you know that 80% of them go and eat pie within ten minutes after viewing one?

What about the fact that I just made this all up? People like to see data mapped out in creative ways, so put together a well-designed infographic and teach the world with fancy shapes, cool font, and pretty colors.

6. Interview a famous person, your grandma, whoever you want.

If you posted an interview with someone like Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise, you would probably get a million hits.

Unless you know them though, that could be difficult, and you don’t want to sacrifice your journalistic integrity by making something up, so get creative? Is your great grandfather a war hero?

Did your grandmother meet the president or the queen of England? Everyone has stories to tell, all you need to do is ask, and you’ll find some great material to interview them about.

7. Create new recipes and share them with your followers

I’m not sure how I feel about your pickle and cotton candy sandwich, or your candy cane shish kabobs, but I’m opening to trying them, I guess? If you have a cooking blog, create some awesome new recipes and post them for other people to try. Just make you try it yourself before recommending it to your followers.

8. Create an in-depth guide

Share your skills with a fancy guide that teaches a valuable skill. For example, I wrote a fully comprehensive guide on how to start a blog.

Teach people valuable skills around survival, repair, arts and crafts, whatever blog post idea strikes you.

9. Do a “top ten” list

Since this is number ten, I figured it was a good time to mention this. Create posts where you rank the “top ten” of something.

Examples include “The Top Ten Blog Ideas” and “The Top Ten Blogging Websites.” You can put us at the top of both lists and go from there.

10. Travel the world, post as you go

Take a trip around the world and post pictures and updates as you make each stop. You can even sample the local cuisine or review your accommodations.

San Francisco

11. Stir the pot, bring up an old argument

Bringing up an age old argument and opening an old wound is a great way to get people talking, or yelling for that matter.

You may bring out some passionate individuals, but if one thing’s for certain, this blogging idea is sure to get the traffic flowing.

12. Respond to recent events 

Major events will always bring about a response, but you would weigh in with your own opinion.

If the president made a bad decision, or a major corporation is in hot water, or heck, if a celebrity got a nose job, you should tell the world what you think of it. Every opinion counts, and you can have your followers share too.

13. Write a joke

Since you’re looking for things to blog about, why not create a joke? It can be something simple and catchy, or one of those long ones that comes together in the end with a hilarious punchline.

Even if it’s as simple as this one: “What do you call a cow with no legs?” “Ground beef!” Ah, that’s a classic.

14. Create a poll 

People like to be heard, and they love voting on polls to see what the popular opinion is on a subject. Find something relevant that has multiple approaches and see what people like the best. Asking for their favorite color isn’t good enough, make it creative and relevant to your niche.

15. Share your goals and dreams

Do you want to be an astronaut? Is your dream to be air lifted above a giant blueberry pie and skydiving into it from a thousand feet up? Tell us your wildest goals and dreams, and you never know, someone might be able to make it happen for you.

16. Talk about your life’s successes and utter failures 

We all have ups and downs in our lives, but that’s how we learn. Create posts about the times you really pulled through in a tough spot, and then tell us about the times you fell face first into the proverbial manure.

These things define you, so share them with us.

17. Share your own conspiracy theories

Are postmen really aliens? Who is the milkman, really? Why are all grocery stores slightly different in their layout? Post your conspiracy theories about aliens, gerbils, paper clips, or whatever you think might be a cover for something far more sinister.

You never know, you might be spot on. Just keep an eye out for mysterious black vans outside your house.

18. Encourage your followers to share your blog

Create posts that people will want to share, but more than that, appeal to your followers and ask them to share your blog on their own, or promote it on their Facebook page and Twitter.

These things spread through sharing and word of mouth which is all done on the internet nowadays.

#19 Disprove a theory or myth

If you’ve seen every episode of Myth Busters and you know for a fact that they left out something, that’s a perfect blog post topic! For example, everybody in cartoons slips on banana peels, but would you really slip in real life?

Test it out, blog about it, prove those theories and myths wrong.

Camera

20. Publish comments from your followers

If someone wrote a comments on one of your posts that said “OMG UR T3H BEST” maybe you should showcase it and speculate as to why there is a “3” where the letter “e” should be.

Even if someone just comes by to bash you for no reason, why not have a laugh at their expense?

21. Invite guest posts 

A great way to keep content coming is to feature guest authors on your blog. Be sure to lay down some guidelines though, and review their topic and work before you post it though.

You can find some great bloggers out there to share their thoughts on your blog, so create a post inviting people to submit their ideas. You get more content, they get features. It’s a win-win.

22. Pose an existential question

Are there truly a finite number of blogging ideas in the world? What is the true definition of a carbon footprint? Are we really here for a bigger purpose?

There are so many questions like these that don’t have a solid answer that you could write posts about these for a long time and still only scratch the surface. You’re welcome.

23. Create a memorial for someone/something you lost

It hurts to lose something you love be it a faithful dog or a family member, but they don’t have to be forgotten.

You can write a touching memorial for them and let their memory live on not just in your mind, but in the minds of everyone who reads your blog.

24. Pick a date in history, talk about what happened on that day

Title the post with a random date in history, maybe the day that sliced bread was invented, and talk about all the things that happened that day.

You’ll be surprised how much can happen on a random day in history.

25. Reveal secrets behind your blog’s success and marketing

Help out your fellow bloggers by giving out the ingredients to your secret sauce. It may seem odd to do such a thing, but if it works, then giving it out to help others isn’t going to change that.

When it comes to blogging, everyone is in it together. That it, until money becomes involved, then it’s every man and woman for themselves.

26. Show off your personal possessions

This may seem like an arrogant thing to do, but as far as interesting blog topics go, this ranks pretty high.

Turns out, people like peeking into your life and seeing that you’ve got. Is this a scented candle I see? My, are those hand painted dishes of yours from IKEA? I see you have your bachelor’s degree hanging on the wall next to you so you never forget how smart you are.

Pictures are great in general, but having them in a blog post about your stuff is a great way to show people who you are, and makes for some great blogging material.

Mac and Glasses

27. Share the best lessons you’ve learned thus far in your life

Life is a constant cycle of mistakes and lessons, so maybe you can help out some younger or less experienced people and help them avoid a few pitfalls that you had to go through.

Case and point, sharing the things you’ve learned in life is a great way to generate some good content and help out a fellow person.

28. Create an intricate lie and make it obvious what you’re doing

Pick a truth that everyone knows and challenge it. Or, make up something ridiculous and defend it to the last word of your post.

Crafting an intricate lie and really trying to sell it is one of those good blog ideas that can either make people laugh, or set the comments ablaze with people trying to disprove your lie. Either way, it brings the traffic.

29. Talk about your dream vacation

When it comes to personal blog ideas, this is a great way to showcase your imagination. Create post where you describe your perfect vacation. It doesn’t have to be anywhere on Earth either, maybe you can describe a dip in the oceans of Neptune, or a space trip to the center of the galaxy. You can always do more than one of these too.

30. Publish your resume and experience on your blog

Putting up your resume and a CV is a smart blog post idea that will not only give you some content, but it makes your skills publicly available for potential employers or other blogs to see.

This way you can show a little more about yourself and maybe open up a nice opportunity at the same time.

31. Tell the world about your bad habits, and how you plan to break them

If you smoke too much, hit the bottle too hard, or you just bite your nails a lot, tell us about it. Then, tell us how you plan to fix it.

You can even post about it each day to show your progress and ask you fans for encouragement.

32. Publish a full biography about yourself 

The first line should be the date of your birth and the last should be the present. Tell us your life’s story despite the fact that people usually decline to listen, your followers come to your blog to hear about you, so tell them everything there is to know.

This may need to be structured though, not a single post. Not to worry though, our how to blog articles will show you the best ways to present it.

33. Show off your monthly budget, offer financial advice

We may have given you this blogging idea, but you’ll have to decide if you want to write it.

Obviously you don’t want to divulge anything too personal like bank statements, but you can offer financial advice and examples of your budget when you go to the store, that way people can create spending habits like yours.

34. Post or create Linkbait 

Linkbait is increasingly popular, but using them comes down to finding the right mixture of written and visual content.

There are a lot of ways to do this, but the goal is to create something people want to link to and share with others. The best blog topics find their success through this spread of shared links.

35. Feature your most popular posts

If a blog post idea worked once, it will work again. Find your most successful posts and throw them back up again for an encore. You will be surprised how many new viewers will see it, and some of the ones from last time will probably return again as well.

36. If you won the lottery, what would you spend it on?

Posing questions like this are good because they don’t have a single answer. This is something you can tackle multiple times as you mature and grow.

For example say you answer this question in a post before you’re married and then you answer it again after. The two posts are going to be drastically different.

37. Write some posts in a casual, conversational style

If you tend to write in a boring, stiff style, then switch things up every once and a while. Write a few posts where you’re just talking.

Nothing too fancy, no SAT words, just a nice conversational post that keeps the tone light. It will be a breath of fresh air for you, and your readers.

Productivity Ideas

38. Post the elements of your portfolio

If you’re a writer or a poet, put your work up.

That’s why you get a blog to begin with, to showcase yourself and your topic. Exposure is key and your talents need to be viewed by the world. This is the first step.

39. Teach people to protect their blogs from hackers

There are various ways to keep your blog secure, but many of them sound complicated and none of them piece together all of the possibilities.

That’s where you come in, you can explain the steps in a way that anyone can understand, and in doing so you will help them protect their hard work from people out there who just want to make everyone’s lives harder.

#40 Ask for feedback from your followers

Feedback is the best way to grow, and your followers may be hesitant to give you any, so ask them.

Create posts on occasion where you ask your followers to express their thoughts on your blog and offer suggestions on how it can improve.

41. Summarize other people’s posts, books, or ideas

Some people just don’t have the time or patience to read a whole book or an entire lengthy article, so boil it down and post it yourself, giving credit where credit is due of course. This way, people can still find the content they’re looking for, without having to spend time reading the entire thing.

42. Create a list of common mistakes in your niche

You know everything about your blog topic, but you see people doing everything wrong around you. Why not post about common mistakes that other people make in that niche and offer advice to those who are unaware of what they’re doing wrong.

43. Write and publish a manifesto

Giving away something lengthy for free may not seem like a good idea, but this is a fantastic blog idea that will grant you some serious viewership if it works out the first time. It needs to be somewhat lengthy and it needs to offer a lot of value to the reader. A good cover design will make it stand out as well.

44. Feature specific followers and dedicate posts to them 

Showing appreciation to your fans is paramount. Take some time to feature a guest blogger, or showcase a specific follower. They will appreciate it, and they’ll probably share it as well.

45. Walk away for a week, make people think you disappeared

This is risky, but apparently it has worked in the past. Take a week off, walk-away, maybe hint at something big happening and then take a week off. Rumors will circulating, people will start asking questions, and the air will be buzzing by the time you make your triumphant return.

46. Invite questions, post your answers

To create engagement with your followers, try posting some questions about anything relating to your blog topic or niche.

Once you’ve gathered up some answers, create a subsequent post and see what people had to say. This works for generating content, and it helps keep followers coming back.

47. Write a series of posts

If you start something and you know it’s going to be long. Break it up into a series of posts.

This will help keep the reading level light for people online who have very small attention spans, and you’ll also have several posts worth of content to put up.

48. Publish a short story or poem

A story or poem is meant to be seen, so put it out there and don’t be afraid of what people might say. You’re going to get good feedback, and you’re going to get jerks who can’t properly form a sentence. Still, stuff like that isn’t meant to sit on a hard drive forever.

49. Create a custom 404 page, and encourage people to find it

This is one requires a bit of elbow grease, but if one of your visitors runs into a 404 error, you don’t want the page they see to be the default, trust me. There are helpful tutorials on how to do this, and creating a page that is funny and informative is the best way to handle these kinds of errors.

50. Invite experts to review your posts and comment on them 

They may not come, but if you create posts inviting experts in your field or niche to come and comment on your blog, you may just attract a few, and with them, a lot of new followers.

51. Create an audio post

Something I like to refer to as a “noisy blog.” Doing an audio post just requires a recording device of some kind and your willingness to say out loud what you would normally write.

Doing this enables you to get a new post up quickly and offers some variety.

Audio Blog Post

52. Showcase interesting and useful people to follow

Support the community within your niche and feature other bloggers and maybe some of your followers who have blogs.

This kind of networking benefits everyone involved.

53. Post links to new and exciting technological breakthroughs

In addition to current events, posting links to exciting new breakthroughs is really fun because you get to weigh in with your opinion, and enrich the reader’s life with exciting news about the next gadget or mainstream device.

54. Rant and rave about something that drives you nuts

We all have those things that “grind our gears” so why not let off a little steam is an enraged post that goes for almost 1,000 words about something small and insignificant that drives you up a wall.

55. Create your own bucket list

A bucket list contains all the things you want to do before you “kick the bucket” as it were. Put one together and post it. Every time you cross something off the list, post again and tell us how it went.

56. Explain your blogging origin story

So why did you get into blogging? Did something inspire you? Was it our inspiring article on why you should start a blog today? Tell the world and they will love you more for it. People like to know all they can about the people they follow, so let the information flow.

57. Show off your most successful social media posts

Did post a tweet that had a thousand views? Was there a Facebook post you did that made the world implode? Feature it on your blog, that way you can bring those people right into your perfect trap of excellent writing.

58. Host a live event on your blog

People love to be a part of history, so put together a live blogging event or a video stream and advertise it well in advance. This way people can jump on and tune in.

59. Write a scathing review for something that doesn’t need one

This falls into the category of doing something just because it’s funny. Try writing a horrible review for something that everyone knows is bad.

You could review the common cold for example, or review a gallon of milk that expired six months ago. Take it seriously and it will be all the more hilarious as a result.

60. Enable Gravatar images in your comments

This puts power in the hands of your followers and allows for even more hilarity to ensue. Not to mention it lets your followers showcase their name and profile on your blog so you can connect with them easier.

61. Learn something new and share it with your followers

Have you ever replaced the heat sink over a processor in a custom built PC? Well, why not learn how to do it, and then share the process with your followers. Find something in your niche that needs a step-by-step guide and learn how to do it yourself.

62. Film a video post

Like the noisy blog I mentioned earlier, this is a great way to mix things up, and it allows you to show off that gorgeous mug of yours. See, everybody wins!

63. Post completely useless facts

There are some things that people just really don’t need to know. For example, did you know that it’s impossible to hum while holding your nose shut?

Go ahead and try, I did. This is one of those tempting things to blog about, so give in and do it.

64. Publish your art

I don’t care if it’s a finger painting or a red dot, everything is considered art nowadays. Post it on your blog and talk about what it means. If you have a deep meaning behind your red dot, that’s what makes it art.

65. Share your income and traffic numbers with your followers

Full disclosure is the best idea when starting your own blog. You don’t have to give out your password, but if you keep followers updated with your income and traffic numbers, they will be able to see how they can help improve it, and help give you feedback.

66. Write about common misconceptions in your niche

People always make assumptions, which lead to misconceptions. Blog about the kinds of things people say and think about your niche and prove them wrong. The community will thank you for it.

67. Showcase a small business, artist, or writer

If you have a lot of followers, help out someone who is just starting out by showcasing their work on your blog. It’s free content, and they get the exposure they need. Everyone wins.

68. Write about what you would do with a Time Machine

This is another one that can change as your perception of the world does, but why not start a series of posts where you talk about what you would do with access to a time machine.

Would you right the wrongs of history, or just go back and see what came first: The chicken or the egg? Tell us in a post or better yet, a series of them.

69. Respond to another blogger’s post or idea

Go out and read other blog posts in your niche. Find one that you love, or maybe one you hate, and post your own response to it. You may even get a shout out from the other blogger in the future.

70. Describe your dream girl/guy

Well I’m looking at mine right now, but she doesn’t know I’m writing about her. Whether you’ve found your soul mate or you’re still searching, why not describe them for the world, maybe he/she is already a follower?

71. Solve a problem

Whether it’s the issue of opening a jar when someone closed it too tight, or ending world hunger, find a problem and solve it. When you’ve figured out the solution, post it on your blog. Helpful posts are always welcome.

72. Argue both sides of a topic in one post

People may think you’re certifiable, but this is a fun way to go a little nuts. Find a topic and argue with yourself in a single post. Really get into it too, don’t hold back just because you know the author.

73. Reveal little known facts about a well-known subject

Find something that is commonly recognized and switch things up by revealing a secret about it that most people wouldn’t know. This new spin on an old subject works wonders for creating an engaging blog post.

74. Write a “time capsule” post to your future self

This is a fun one, why not write a message to yourself in the future. Maybe offer some advice, throw out a few reminders, and have fun with it. It’s not going anywhere so you can see it again in a few years. On the flip side, you can do this, but write a letter to your past self.

75. Profile your favorite company or brand

This can be done with a big company or a small one, but try and put together an entire profile of a company and see how much you learn in your search. Showcase the highs and lows, and really dig deep to make this a truly interesting post.

76. Post shocking conversation logs

You wouldn’t believe some of the things people will say when they’re on a chat. It’s like all social norms just go out the window. Find some of these crazy conversations and post them on your blog for a few laughs and an opportunity to throw in your opinion.

77. Offer advice for tough situations

Whether it’s fights with your significant other, or how to best handle a nasty love triangle, why not share your tips for handling the situations people find themselves in? Everything from a broken down car to a bad living situation, you can offer your wisdom.

City Building

78. Have your significant other write posts as well

When starting a blog, you could always bring your other half into the equation and make it a joint effort. This way you can also get a different perspective on some topics as well.

79. Publish an E-book and promote it on your blog

Your blog is a great marketing tool, so make sure you use it! You can generate a lot of buzz by writing an E-book and publishing it online for free. Then you can promote it via your blog and generate downloads plus followers all in one fell swoop.

80. Examine the origins of a major corporation or company

This is a more focused concept than previously mentioned, but you can trace the roots of just about anything back to where it started and in a lot of cases, the origin story is quite fascinating. The legwork isn’t too hard on your part, and your followers will appreciate the research you did.

81. Create a list of your favorite things

It could be anything from your favorite foods, to your favorite movie, throw it all in a list and it makes for a great post. Your followers will love the extra information and that serves to strengthen your bond with them.

82. Write about hypothetical scenarios

Make up something crazy like an alien invasion or a zombie apocalypse and then write it out. Tell everyone what you would say, do, and be willing to sacrifice in that scenario. This can be really fun for a writing blog, or anything else really.

For business, you could speculate what would happen in a crisis situation and talk about how to handle it. Creativity and knowledge is key here to make this convincing.

83. Create alternate history, show what could have happened

When you start blogging, it can be daunting to get that first wave of content out there, but don’t fret. Why not try an alternate history post? Take something like WWII and write about what would happen if, say, Japan won the war? You could talk about how different the world would be. This is something that history buffs go crazy for.

84. Offer dog training tips

If you’ve raised a few animals of your, people are always looking for help training their pets, dogs specifically, and you could offer your expertise. Free advice is always popular when it comes to online blogging.

85. Examine human behavior in specific situations

This is one for the psychologists out there. Take scenarios such as earthquakes, tsunamis, or other disasters and examine how people behaved in those scenarios. Check out third world countries and see what people will do to survive. Understanding the way that people react is a great method of handling situations like that, and a fascinating topic in general.

86. Review your favorite things

After you’ve listed your favorite things like my suggestion above, you can create some specific posts where you examine those things you love so much and tell everyone why they made the cut.

87. Examine different types of addictions

People can become addicted to all kinds of things, so why not talk about the psychology behind it, and warn people of the signs so they can stop themselves from falling too deep into that hole. Informative and useful.

88. Showcase medical research and potential cures for major diseases

We’re all looking for the cure to cancer, and while it may not be here yet, you can keep people updated on medical breakthroughs for various diseases. This is a subject many people want to stay up to date on. You can be the one to keep them in the loop.

89. Create posts about ancestors in your family tree

Research your ancestry and write about all the people that came before you in your family tree. Maybe you’re related to a general or a war hero, you never know. You can find out, and tell everyone the story.

90. Point out ridiculous laws in the world

Somewhere there’s a law where you can’t stare at a moose from an airplane window, not even kidding. Write up some blog posts about these weird and oddball laws from around the world, this could take up quite a few posts actually.

91. List stereotypes that need to go away

Stereotypes can sometimes turn out to be true, but some of them are just plain dated. Point out the old ones and start them on the track to obscurity.

92. Feature humanity’s greatest mistakes

We’re not perfect, not at all. Put together some posts about horrible decisions we have made as a species and talk about the effects they had on the people around us, and the world. Hopefully we won’t repeat these in the future.

93. Offer relationship advice

If you’ve been through a few rough relationships, you know what works, and what doesn’t. Share you knowledge for those who need help. This is an always popular subject.

94. Give tips for talking to your crush

Breaking the ice can be tough, so post some ideas about striking up a conversation with someone else that has struck your fancy. It can be nerve wracking and some people just don’t bother starting the conversation at all. Show them how to make it happen so they don’t have regrets.

95. Showcase the benefits of aromatherapy candles

Aromatherapy is a massive industry, and scented candles fall right in the middle of it. Create posts about how these scents and recipes help us relax and unwind.

96. Describe your worst mistakes and what you learned from them

Choose some of the major pitfalls in your life and talk about what you learned. By doing this, you can help other people (hopefully) avoid the same mistakes.

97. Create lists of must-see art galleries and museums

There are many museums and places of art around the world, but some truly stand apart. Create a list of them for your blog and give travelers the advice they need to make the most of their time abroad.

98. Write about haunted locations around the world

Nothing like a good ghost story to get the blood flowing. Create a list of the most haunted locations in the world for your readers to get them excited, then dare them to go visit.

99. Try to deduce the meaning of life

You could have an entire blog about this, but really sit down and try to figure out the ultimate question. You’ll come up with some profound stuff for your blog and your followers may just find themselves enlightened as well. As far as post topics go, this one is good.

100. Create an ongoing mystery, have your followers decide where the story goes

This is a cool way to turn your blog into an interactive story. Have your followers vote or comment on where they want the next post to lead and make an interactive mystery out of it.

101. Write a post series in which every section is done by a different author

You could take one of these ideas or make your own and run a series where you right the first post and each subsequent one is written by a guest author. This will create a winding road of perspectives and really stand out amongst other blogs.

Beach City

102. Publish your opinions on hot button topics

Find something that people feel very passionate about and proudly place your input into the mix.

There’s a difference between this and stirring the pot though, in this instance, you’re firmly rooting yourself on one side, or the other for the sake of proving your side’s superior nature.

103. Write everything there is to know about your favorite animal

Pick your favorite animal or animals and create posts where you describe everything there is to know about them. This is both fun for you and extremely educational for your followers.

104. Describe your dream house

It doesn’t have to make sense, but you can write about the perfect house and put in everything from hover boards to an automated system voiced by Pierce Brosnan. Make it creative and funny, or you can pick out a real life house and start saving your pennies.

105. Journal your experience with a major life event

Whether you’re recovering from a disease or you are experiencing a pregnancy, an ongoing series of posts about the situation and how you’re handling it is a great way to keep content coming, and receiving support from your followers.

106. Write about your favorite songs

If you like the lyrics, talk about that, if the band’s hairstyles are your favorite aspect that’s fine too. Talk about what makes these songs your favorite and really examine the emotional effect that the music has on you for maximum effect.

107. Feature massive collections of various things

Scour the web or your own home if you’d like and find collections that are just too large to be true. Stickers, toys, movies, you name it, some people really go crazy collecting these things.

108. Roast your favorite celebrities

If you’ve ever seen a celebrity roast, you know they can be hilarious and cruel all at once. Take your favorite celebrity and imagine you’re on stage roasting them and let the hilarity ensue.

109. Showcase cultures that do things differently than you

There are other cultures around the world that we may find odd, but it would be interesting to see an actual examination of them and their practices. This is one of those good blog topics that I haven’t see used very much.

110. Reveal your biggest fears

Don’t tell anyone where you live, because they might come play a prank on you, but revealing your deepest fears can be vindicating and exciting for your followers to read.

111. Describe your favorite memories from your childhood

It’s hard to remember some of our early years, but we all have those great childhood memories. Tell your stories in a series of posts that will make your followers feel closer to you.

112. Post funny pictures of your pets

I have two dogs and let me tell you, they can be ridiculous and hilarious at times. Catch them on camera or film them and upload these to your blog for instant success.

113. Create your own superhero or villain

It doesn’t have to be too serious, but come up with a superhero or villain and write out their whole story in a blog post. Maybe have an ongoing series with them if your followers like the idea.

114. Speculate on the mysteries of the universe

There are things like dark matter and aliens that we don’t know everything about. Why not try and come up with your own theories about what’s out there. These aren’t conspiracy theories, more like opportunities to fill in the cracks that science has yet to fill.

115. Dare your followers to do something crazy (within reason)

Depending on your niche, you can dare your followers to do something crazy or funny within reason and have them send you the results. This can make for some great posts.

116. Pretend you’ve gone insane, see how long you can keep it up

One day just pretend that you’ve snapped and start writing insane blog posts. See what happens when your followers think you’ve lost your mind.

117. Create an urban myth

From scary stories to Slenderman, a lot of urban myths still survive to this day. Why not create one of your own and spread the word of it to see if it catches on.

118. Spread rumors, even if they’re not real

Make up a rumor just for the sake of doing it and try to spread it amongst your followers and beyond. Don’t attack someone’s character, but maybe challenge an accepted norm and see how far the charade will go.

119. Start a blogging war

This may not fall into the category of good blog topics, but you could respond to another blog’s post and take the opposite stance, thereby instigating a blog war. You could also work out a fake attack on each other in the background and see how the followers react to your flying insults.

120. Create posts about your pet peeves

Watch out for people who will use this against you, but you could always write about the things that make your fists clench involuntarily.

121. Showcase the most ridiculous phobias

There are fears out there that, while real, are ridiculous. Point out some of them in a post or several and make the fear of peanut butter being stuck to the roof of your mouth (Arachibutyrophobia) known to the world

122. Write posts from other perspectives

Pretend that you’re a rock, or a dog, maybe even a microwave and write posts from that perspective. This is great for flexing the old imagination and makes for some hilarious moments.

Blogging Ideas

123. Describe the weirdest thoughts you’ve ever had

Our minds tend to have odd moments, so when you have one write it down and create a post about it.

You can pick out one of the strange thoughts that seemed to leap into your head and it makes for great material.

124. Invent your own product, share your idea

Don’t give away too many details before you patent it, but this is a good way to get feedback on an invention or product concept.

125. Criticize things that cannot be changed

Do you hate that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west? What about the fact that winter comes after fall? Try complaining about it even if you can’t change anything. It makes for a fun post.

126. Write a series of posts where you take everything literally

Try taking every figure of speech and idiom at face value and write about it in your post. This can result in some truly hilarious situations. For example, how can you do something every now, and again?

127. Try writing a post in an entirely different voice and tone than usual

In the spirit of changing things around to keep your followers on their toes, why not try changing up your tone and voice out of the blue for a post or two? You could even rhyme like I just did.

128. Chronicle your favorite plot twists

This requires a big spoiler warning, but you could point out some truly great twists in movies, books, and video games that could last for several posts.

129. Promote a cause that you feel passionate about

If you have something like a charity or a cause that you want to help promote and raise money for, blog about it and help raise money for the cause. Just make sure you have a way to show that the money is going to the right place since people will want to ensure they are donating to the cause.

130. Highlight your most insignificant accomplishments

Instead of bragging about major successes, post about all of the little things you accomplished each day. For example: “I got out of bed,” which is hard, so let the world know you’re stronger than that.

131. Describe how something extremely complex works

I don’t know how a microphone works. I can make it record my voice, but I don’t know how it does that. Try breaking down electronics and appliances into their individual parts and explaining how they do what they do.

132. Predict the future, back up your claims

Do some research and really try to predict what’s going to happen either in your life, or the world, and publish your predictions. See how close you were, or how far off you can be as time goes on.

133. Post clever “life hacks”

These are fun things that make your life easier. For example, if you place a wooden spoon across a pot of boiling water, it will never boil over. These make for great topics and there’s a lot of them out there.

134. Write about things you like that other people hate 

Everyone’s got an opinion, but there are some things that people really like that others truly hate. Find out which ones fall into your field of interest and defend the honor of it in your blog posts.

135. Take a picture of your computer desk as it is, then explain it 

Your desk may have a wallet, empty soda cans, a microphone and some bills on it but snap a shot and upload it with an explanation of why all of that stuff is on your computer desk. Make it a weekly thing and never clean your desk for maximum results.

Blog Ideas with a Coffee

136. Write about the last time you cried

If we cried about something, it had to be emotional. Recall the last time you shed tears and write about why you felt so strongly in that moment.

Emotionally charged writing is the best kind.

137. Post about people or things you wish you could switch places with

Maybe you want to be your dog for a day? You could write about taking a celebrity’s life for a week. This has a lot of possibilities to it.

138. Showcase your receipt from your last grocery store trip

Cross out the sensitive info and post a picture of your grocery store trip to show what kind of foods you tend to eat and how much you spend for you other people in your life. This could start a discussion about how to cut down on extra costs as well.

139. Write about the things you would change about the world if you could

There’s a lot wrong with the world, but what would you change if you could change anything? Tell us how you would do it and maybe someone with power will stumble across your blog and make it happen.

140. Transcribe a conversation where your grandmother describes the current generation 

You could set up a blog around this alone. Try asking Grandma to describe Facebook to you, or what a smartphone is and record her answers. I imagine they would be pretty funny.

141. Describe the world to someone who has been in a coma for 100 years

This is a good post prompt. Limit yourself to 800 words and try to describe everything that someone who has been in a coma for 100 years has missed. Good luck.

142. Answer a fundamental question in your own words

Take a really complicated question about life or evolution, or something very fundamental and scientific and answer it without the help of a textbook or fancy wording.

143. Write about illusions that we cling onto

We always imagine that things like money and power are worth something, but they’re all illusions that we’ve given value. Why not tackle some of these fickle things and see how we cling so desperately to them.

144. Create a presidential campaign, describe your platform 

Politics can be a tricky thing, but if you were to run for president, what would you fight for? Would you run as a republican, a democrat, or independent? Put your campaign together and see what your followers think of it.

145. Post a challenge and accompanying photos of your progress

Challenge yourself to grow a beard, lose weight, something that you can measure, and do daily posts with photos to show your progress. These are inspiring to a lot of people and it makes for great content on your blog to boot.

146. Describe how something we use every day is made

It’s amazing that they get all those potato chips to taste the same, but how are they made? Put together posts of common things we use and eat and talk about the process behind their production.

147. Create writing prompts for your guest bloggers or followers

You can post ideas like these on your blog and ask followers or guest writers to submit their ideas on them to you for some great content that you know is fitting for your niche.

148. Post a journal of your nightly dreams and nightmares 

Dream journals aren’t done very often, but it’s always interesting to hear what people dream about. Put together your own posts where you talk about what you saw and did in your dreams and maybe you can piece together what’s all those dreams mean.

149. Create a weekly/bi-weekly newsletter

Throwing together a newsletter of various sub-sections is a great way to keep steady content coming to your blog.

150. Show Off Unique Tools 

Did you notice that fancy image up there where I showed you the results of that Google search? That’s a new tool I discovered called Recordit. It’s a tool that let’s you capture your own recorded screenshots. Did I mention it’s free? Find tools like these and showcase them in a post to your followers!

151. Share Tips For Increasing Efficiency 

We all want to know how to write better, faster, and stronger. There’s plenty of ways to increase your concentration or keep your energy levels up while working. I for one like to use the Pomodoro method because it keeps me energized and focused.

152. Ask Yourself “Why?” Post the Answer

This may cause an existential breakdown on your part, but man, that would make for a sweet post. Ask yourself the big question in life: “Why?” It could be specific, like “why do you blog?” or “why did you pick this topic?” Or, if you’re feeling particularly profound, it can answer a much larger question about you, yourself, or the world we live in.

153. Do a Holiday Post 

There’s honestly a holiday for everything. Why not try to keep track of as many as you can? When you go to write a post, see if it just so happens to be “National Popcorn Day” or something like that, and do a post around the purpose and potential history of that day? Mainstream holidays work too, but finding the obscure or historical ones make this even more fun.

154. Do a Behind the Scenes Post 

Ever wonder what goes on in the daily life of Matt Banner? Well, too bad, I like my secrecy. Just kidding, maybe I’ll try this myself one day, but if you have a large following of fans, why give them a sneak peek into your life outside of blogging?

155. Do an Expert Roundup 

I actually posted an expert roundup of my own recently with great results. All you need to do is find a question that people are asking in your niche, and ask other key people in your sphere what they think is the answer. Compile their answers, along with your own, for an action-packed post!

156. Is a Picture Truly Worth a Thousand Words? 

Take a photo that you took, or one that speaks to you. Write about it, and see if you can make the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” happen in real life.

157. What’s the Weirdest/Funniest Thing You’ve Seen or Heard This Week?

You could make this a weekly trend if you’d like. Say each Thursday you post the funniest or weirdest thing you saw or heard that week. It can be a quote, a video, something you said or heard, anything you want!

158. Debate in The Comments 

If you’re particularly passionate about something, try writing a post where you set some ground rules and state your opinions. Then, tell people you’ll be monitoring the comments and debating your stance with them. Keep things respectful and honest, and you could really start a fire here.

159. Post Comic Strips 

This one requires artistic talent, so it’s off the table for me, but maybe you could do it! If there’s something in your niche that you want to poke fun at, try your hand at a satirical cartoon or comic strip and post it on your blog to see what your readers think!

I hope you got a few ideas for your blog from this long and comprehensive list. If you have any questions or anything else to say about the topic please let us know in the comments below, we’d love to hear them.

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This post was originally published in Onblastblog blog

How To Choose Your Next TV

 

With so many options out there, and technology that changes so fast, it is easy to get overwhelmed by all of the choices.  In this article, We’ll give you advice for deciding on the best TV for you to purchase.

There are three things to look out for when deciding on your next TV set, and those are:

  • 3D
  • size
  • internet connectivity.

In addition to that, with so many 1080p and 4K TVs, and now UHD TVs, choosing  the right size TV is more difficult than ever before.  You also need to consider the size and weight of the TV very closely. However, no matter what television set you have, you can enhance it with Direct TV for your home to get the most out of your viewing experience. Conversely, you must select a package keeping in mind the kind of television set you have. For example, there is no point in paying for 4K content if you do not have a television that can display such such quality.

With older big screen TVs, the clarity was lost the closer you got to them.  Now, technology has advanced so that high-definition big-screen TVs look just as good or better close up.  Screen sizes are getting bigger and bigger.  Now you can get good deals on TVs as large as 90 inches with HD, and 110 inches with UHD.  Consider one of these if you have an extremely large living space to take full advantage of what they have to offer.  You’ll also need a pretty large bank account though.

 

How Do You Measure Up? 

Break out the tape measure before you head to the electronics store.  You need to know just how big a TV your living space can accommodate before you make a choice.  Keep in mind that televisions are measured diagonally, so even a couple of inches can make a large difference in terms of both height and width.

Measuring before you go shopping will also help you in keeping perspective.  It is very difficult to guess which TV will work best when you are faced with an entire wall of them if you have no numbers in hand.  When you approach things in this manner, you are less likely to make a mistake.

In most cases, a bigger screen is better, as very few people spend a lot of time wishing they were watching a smaller screen.

 

Weight 

You need to know if you want to mount your TV, or place it on a stand.  If you are planning on putting it on a stand, you need to know how much surface area you have on the stand, and must be sure that it can support the weight of any TV you have in mind.

If you want the TV mounted on your wall, there are several other factors you must take into account.  You must have a wall mount that is strong enough to support the weight of any TV you are considering.  That mount may also need the wall mount to be anchored to studs in your wall.  The last thing you need is your your expensive new TV to fall and break because your drywall gives way.

In general, you can expect most flat screens to weigh around 45 pounds.  That number can increase with larger screens and display size.  Edge-lit LEDs are the lightest, around 25 pounds, while UHD displays will add more weight to the equation.

Take all of these factors into account when you go shopping for a new TV. There is a number of options out there which is why it is important to act wise.

 

[Image by Adrian Black via Flickr http://flic.kr/p/5ggqca]

The Future is Now – Phone Tracking Technology

 

A couple years back, the best way to track a mobile device was through the usage of phone towers. Truly, phone companies can without much of a stretch find the area of a phone device by decoding information longs got after the target make calls. Beside this, the organizations can likewise track the area of a phone when the cell phone remains on and continues sending radio signs. In any case, when the phone device is off, it is near difficult tracking it.

Cell phone tracking has turned into an ordinary event. In any case, everybody who uses a mobile phone is being or can be tracked. Numerous late studies uncover disturbing proposals about how mobile phone behavior is being used, not to just track individuals but rather keep an eye on regular life.

We all actually need the most recent technology in telephones. Cell phones, every Android phone including the iPhone, incorporate incalculable measures of applications and uses, from playing music, watching movies, taking photos, playing games and more. However when you buy a cell phone, you are outfitting yourself with presumably one of the most complex tracking devices around.

Today, phone tracker software is no more a thing that amazes individuals. Everybody, in this very moment, knows about the way that cell phones can be tracked. To let you know reality, whether you like it or aversion it, everybody who possesses a cell phone is being spied and tracked. As per various studies directed recently, more individuals tend to keep an eye on somebody. As such, they attempt to track their area notwithstanding their online exercises without their authorization.

Regardless of what mobile device you claim, it is fit for sending and accepting radio signs at whatever point you make calls, send text messages or surf the web. Presently, envision that your phone is armed with a satellite GPS tracking device too. Practically all most recent phone devices accompany GPS phone tracking component. Every day, many people get caught on account of the GPS in their devices.

Another disturbing truth is that, researchers have contrived an approach to track human behavior in points of interest, in a trial crossing maybe over two years. The researchers claim to foresee future conduct of individuals through cell phones. Clearly, mobile devices organizations are presently foreseeing if a client is going to change to another service supplier through this innovation.

The researchers were not just ready to distinguish general changes in the changes of individuals, there were additionally fit for deciding data as to the wellbeing of the mobile device client before he could even thought about it himself. This gives us a thought of what the eventual future of phone tracking will resemble. And this will happen with the assistance of the helpful device you can put in your pocket and convey wherever you need to. Give us a chance to figure out what specialists need to say in regards to it.

As indicated by specialists, as innovation gains progress, cell phone tracking innovation with likewise keep on creating. This innovation is helping us from multiple points of view:

  • It is offering folks some assistance with keeping tabs on their insidious children;
  • It is tracking so as to offer cops some assistance with catching criminals by tracking their mobile devices;
  • It is offering husbands or wives some assistance on finding out if they are cheating;
  • It is helping insight organizations in tracking terrorist and so on.

Along these lines, with the help of this innovation, it is trusted that we will have the capacity to cope with the bad guys in a better way.

 

10 Most Popular And Meticulous Mobile Apps

 

Take a look on vast array of mobile apps that simply provides fun & joys with unlimited photos, videos, productivity, news, social networking and much more

Mobile applications are either pre-installed in our phones or simply downloaded from play store or different mobile distribution platforms. These mobile applications are built in with strong development for additional functionality and better performance of smart phones.

If I ask you a simple question that which is the most interesting mobile application you have used in past few days? Then I guess you might get confuse for few seconds, because there are ample of such apps in the digital market which are supposed to be quite helpful and wonderful for every time and for every user. On the basis of this increased popularity, Global web index which is a popular online research firm conducted a survey to collect the findings about most famous apps in the world.

Also have a look at the info-graphic provided by the same firm:

  1. Google Maps: helps you to get around!

Google maps- one of the wonderful apps that help you to navigate the directions like a pro. This app is dynamically re-route and stands on real time traffic information which suggests that which is a correct lane to be get in. It not only helps you to choose the best eating spot around but also provides the opportunity to visit any city in the world and discover highest mountains to lowest valleys on Earth. You can also create your own map, save the home and workplace addresses and keep track of all the places you reviewed.

54% internet usage has been monitored by the research team.Financial analysts estimated the annual net income of Google which is approximately $3.64 billion in net income $56.52 billion in cash and cash equivalents, and operating income of $4.34 billion (29% of revenues), up from $3.76 billion in the same quarter last year. And now it has been expected to hit more figures in upcoming years.

  1. Facebook mobile app: best for social hangouts

Face book mobile app is a most comprehensive application optimized for all phones. According to a rough estimate, there are approximately 125.7 million people in the world are using Face book daily. 44% usage has been recorded by people from age 18-24. App allows people to discover latest news about friends and family, get their latest photos and videos and provide more opportunities to interact closely through different fan pages.

According to financial researchers of US, Facebook’s revenue grew from 7.87 million in 2013 to 12.47 billion US dollars in 2014. That year, the social network accumulated a net income of 2.94 billion US dollars.

film-589491_640

  1. You tube: watch, post & share

You tube mobile app is a world’s most popular site that helps users to find their desirable videos all around the globe. According to a survey team, approximately 25% of YouTube’s traffic is generated by mobile apps and now mobile views have been increased up to 300% since last 2 years. 98.9 million People are using you tube in US and approximately 35% people in the whole world to upload content, to subscribe different channels, activities and friends.

You tube is expected to generate about $5.6 billion in gross advertising revenue worldwide this year, which is considerably higher than previous years

  1. Google + mobile app

Google + is quite different from Facebook or twitter but definitely a sweeter spot than other social networks. In Google plus you can classify your friends and co-workers more easily. It is not allowed for under 18 aged people; moreover no private messaging is allowed as a dedicated part. It has excellent push notification system and privacy is taken care with elegant circles. 30% people are using Google plus daily on their android devices.

  1. We-Chat: free live chat sessions

We chat mobile app integrates with your Android version to give you best experiences with your friends. You can simply select your contact and enjoy instant text messaging with lots of animated smiley. It has a real walkie talkie mode with up to 40 friends. You can also share, comment and like your friend’s pictures, send photos & videos and import contacts directly. 27% internet usability has been recorded in the world and more than 30% usability in US.

The surge in We-Chat’s active users has been a major contributor in driving its first quarter net profit which is up 64%QoQ to US$1.26 billion

  1. Twitter mobile app: most open social network

The official twitter mobile app allows people to use most extensive social network at any place and at any moment. From the main app page, you can carry out several functions such as follow, un-follow, and tweet; re-tweet like etc. the biggest advantage of using twitter is you can receive constant notifications without visiting the main page of website. It has approximately 22% usability around the world.

So according to financial analysts, twitter is generating approximately 3.3 billion dollars in 2015 and expecting to be more in 2016 and onwards.

  1. Skype: a versatile communication tool

Skype is considered to be the official app from video calling program backed by Microsoft, which makes it easier to send text messages and video calling as well. Once you install Skype you can search and communicate with different users and taking into account that there are approximately 250 million users in the world, you can add any of them through their email address in just matter of seconds.

Now Microsoft Skype unit is approaching 2 billion dollars annual income in 2015 which is considerably high than 2014.

  1. Facebook Messenger: keep connected with several users

Face book messenger is considered as an official Face book app that allows users to enjoy text conversations with friends community. Thanks to this app, that enables us to send text messages and video conversations which we can continue later on… We can even add multiple recipients at a same time and then it appears in the bubble look which we can easily move around on the mobile screen.

whatsapp-892926_640

  1. Whatsapp: cross platform messenger

Instant messaging is one of the key features of whatsapp. We can even start group conversations with friends, and can use epic smileys related to daily life concerns. It doesn’t require adding of buddies and available without any International charges. It also doesn’t demand any pins, codes and usernames. It simply works through our phone numbers and integrates with the address book. 17% usability has been recorded according to the survey.

Whats-App has 100m active users who have used it for more than a year. The average revenue split on app stores is 70/30 so in addition to initial revenue from iOS (ca $18m), this gives us around $45m annual revenue through app renewals.

  1. Instagram: enjoy mobile photography on android

Instagram is one of the most wonderful filter photograph applications form androids and I phone. It differs itself from all other apps by creating social network of users. Its main function is to give your pictures a unique frames and best series of filters in which popular ones are XPro II, Earlybird, Sutro, Toaster, Brannan and many more… it also allow users to determine other people to see which pictures they have uploaded to the wall.

Financial analysts believe that Instagram could generate more than $2 billion revenue next year and would quickly overtake Twitter’s revenue.

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Follow latest trends for your business:

Have you ever thought creating your own mobile app? If you are thinking that mobile app creation is solely for reputed brands then you are wrong. Every small and large business is following the latest trend for making more income and benefits because they understand that effective mobile strategies involves more than just a simple mobile friendly website.

I know it sounds quite challenging, but believe me once you decide; you will find different prestigious organizations that are successfully providing you the opportunity to design your own mobile app development system having flash technology targeting Android and iOS etc.

7 Simple Home Remedies to Boost Your Energy

 

Do you feel lazy and sleepy all the time? Are you not able to perform daily routine tasks? If yes, then you need some transformation in your immune system for sure! These are also signs of weakness and tiredness, it is a common problem that many people face. Weakness is absence of physical and muscle strength and when you need to put extra effort in carrying out daily household tasks. Symptoms of weakness includes:

  • Drowsiness
  • lack of concentration
  • loss of appetite and
  • Extreme panicking.

Whereas causes of it can be:

  • Not getting enough sleep.
  • Emotional stress.
  • Skipping meals.
  • More physical labor and
  • A weak immune system.

A person can also suffer from persistent weakness due to several causes:

  • Sleep disorder.
  • Chronic fatigue syndrome.
  • Diabetes or heart disease.

If you want to feel refreshed and energetic the whole day, start exercising on the daily basis at least for 30 minutes, sleep properly, follow a good diet and drink water to keep yourself dehydrated.

There are several simple home remedies you can follow that will boost your energy and help you in performing day-to-day activities.

7- Coffee

coffee

You are in office, have lots of work but you are sleepy already and you do not have enough energy to work furthermore, so it’s a time when you need to order a cup of coffee, a little caffeine can do a magical trick, coffee is a perfect pre-workout drink. Don’t forget to mix some milk in it as it offers calcium, vitamin D and make your bones stronger.

NOTE TO REMEMBER: Do not intake more than 2 cups of coffee a day, because it will increase the risk on anxiety and insomnia.

You can’t buy happiness but you can buy a coffee and that’s pretty close!

 

6- Amla (Indian Gooseberry)

Berry

Amla is rich in the content of Vitamin-C that is why it is beneficial for many health problems. Amla is basically an Indian gooseberry that is useful for:

  • Absorption of food.
  • Brain nourishment.
  • Helps the urinary system.
  • Helps in the health of skin and
  • Promotes healthy hair.

To stay healthy and energetic, consumption of food that are high in protein is the most important thing. Amla is the nutritious fruit that improves the energy level. Eat one gooseberry a day or you can grind them and eat it with honey.

 

5- Spinach

Spinach

Spinach is loaded with nutrients such as fiber, vitamin K and it even helps in making muscle work more effectively during a work-out. These green leaves also contains much more of iron which helps you when you are feeling tired. You can make great breakfast with spinach and eggs together and eat it before going to work. Remember Popeye the sailor man? Whenever he used to have spinach, he was loaded with buzz of energy. This is the advantage of having spinach on daily basis. Also, many people asks that how to lower blood pressure, for that, spinach is the answer, it helps in lowering blood pressure naturally.

 

4- Fruits

Fruits

When you are tired, the first thing that comes in your mind is either Tea or Coffee, surely they are good for boosting you up but they just work temporarily. Next time, when you feel drowsy or tired, try these fruits which will help you in increasing your energy and are also good for your health.

  • Strawberries: Strawberries are really great for your health and in fights fatigue and they are full of vitamin C. You can also have strawberries combined with milk. Strawberries are also good for your eyesight.
  • Pears: It is a great source of energy especially for kids. You can mix the pears with cottage cheese and make the yummy breakfast which will help you in keeping energetic the whole day.
  • Oranges: This fruit is full of vitamin C and natural sugars that helps in raising your energy. You can have a glass of orange juice in the morning or eat a whole orange.
  • Bananas: It gives the instant energy to your immune system and is easy on the digestive system. It also contains potassium which is good for the health of muscle.
  • Papaya: It is a fruit that comes with added energy boost. Also good for fighting the common cold.

 

To eat is a necessity but to eat intelligently is an art!

3- Almonds

Almonds

Almonds contains magnesium and vitamin B that helps in converting food to energy. It helps in fighting the daily weakness while working. You can have 23 almonds which will lessen the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Almonds can be eaten in many different ways:

  • Soak the almonds in water overnight, in the morning, remove its brown skin and eat it.
  • When you feel fatigue, have roasted almonds.
  • Have almonds with honey which will also help in cold.

 

2- Oat Meal

Oat Meal

Oatmeal is good source of vitamin B, potassium, magnesium and proteins. Have oatmeal in breakfast as it is easy to prepare. When starting your day, oatmeal is good to boost your energy. Easy to prepare recipes of oatmeal for breakfast.

  • Oatmeal with blueberries and sunflower seeds
  • 1 cup of oatmeal.
  • ½ cup blueberries.
  • 1 tablespoon of sunflower seeds

Prepare the oatmeal and top it with blueberries and sunflower seeds.

  • Oatmeal with yogurt and Marmalade
  • 1 cup of oatmeal.
  • 2 tablespoons of low fat yogurt.
  • 2 tablespoons of orange marmalade.

Prepare the oatmeal and top it with yogurt and orange marmalade.

 

1- Water

Water

The most important thing to boost up your energy is Water. It keeps the cells of the body hydrated for long time. Water keeps you energetic the whole day. It is necessary to start off your day with two glasses of water.

To keep yourself energetic, follow some of the rules:

  • Get a proper sleep of at least 6 to 8 hours.
  • Eat the right amount of food.
  • Take a warm shower before going to sleep.
  • Don’t skip the breakfast.
  • Avoid drinking and smoking.

Boosting your energy does not mean to need a doctor, you can do it with full fun and it can be delicious and relaxing.

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This is a guest post by Angela Abram, a senior writer for OLWOMEN.com, an avid reader, fashion and make up enthusiast who simply lives to write and talk about all kinds of stuff. Focusing on Fat burning foods especially for women to lose inner thigh fat!

JustHost Review: A Personal Experience with JustHost

 

Over the past few years I have built over five hundred websites manually or CMS on WordPress, Joomla or Drupal.

I tried so many web hosting companies and know for nearly all pros and cons. From all companies I’ve tried, JustHost is one of the best web hosting companies with many pros and one cons which in my case was pros, but from many reviews and customer testimonials their features is cons, probably from those customer testimonials, big percent are not technicians.

JustHost is most affordable web hosting on the market. I will recommend and easily give JustHost 5 from 5 stars for their features, price, ease of use and support. For support and customer testimonials you can read later in this ultimate review of JustHost.

JustHost Prices

From my experience with JustHost you get a lot more from the price compared to other web hosting companies. I should use JustHost earlier that was my fault. Earlier I’ve hosted my website with another hosting company, it was the best web hosting company at least on the reviews that I’ve read and use more money fixing problems caused by the hosting company that I used.

That is not case with JustHost, but I’m here to share my experience with you in this review so you don’t need to check and lose time and money trying which one is better. For best price you can visit our coupon codes review of JustHost coupon codes and get 30% OFF discount or 50% OFF discount.

JustHost have features that can satisfy all users with their great cPanel from shared hosting to dedicate with plugins and ease of use for every users, professionals or beginners. One thing that is true for all business if you sing up for more time you have more discount or bonus in the price.

JustHost right now have promotion for 12 months sign up for only $1.99 per month with Starter shared hosting plan, so you have for $23.88 one year web hosting from one of the best web hosting companies JustHost. Sign up for one month or pay the real price $7.99 with Starter plan.

The only downside of Starter plans is that he is limited to one website. JustHost gives you one domain name for free with sign up no matter which plan you sign up.

JustHost have three main plans:

  • Shared hosting
  • VPS and
  • Dedicated

If you are reading this review you probably need shared hosting but I’m not excluding you are professional and you need VPS or even dedicated plan. I will recommend when you sign up with JustHost check the Site Backup Pro for only $1.99 per month you are completely safe for any data loss with daily backups.

Customer Support

If you mess something or being hacked and everyone who work is making errors you can contact JustHost support and they will restore your site and you are good to go.

On the same page you will have more choices I will recommend Domain Privacy Protection for only $0.99 per month, but it’s up to you, this will protect from checking you private info and give JustHost as owner and not your name, surname, address etc. Back on support from my own experience I would give JustHost support a 5 from 5 stars, but from many customer testimonials we can see that they are complaining about Justhost support. I’m not sure if they are just not professionals which no need to be or I have been just lucky. Every time when I contact JustHost support they were fast in response and fast in fixing the problem.

You don’t need to worry for nothing if you aren’t satisfied JustHost money back guarantee is here, they will refund you within 45 days, but read term of use if you buy more features like another domain beside free they give you. You will not be refunded of course for that.

How Technology Can Help With Your Pets

 

Statistics indicate that global spending on caring for pets continues to increase year on year. Figures in 2014 were $98.3 billion and that figure is expected to rise to $103.8 billion by the end of 2015. While billions are spent on pet food, there has also been a large increase on non-edible spend such as: grooming treatments, holidays, day care, clothes and toys. It is clear that more and more people are treating their pets as family members, and companies are noticing an opportunity to cash in on this.

Euromonitor has identified three different types of pet owner. Mainstream humanisers who predominantly buy premium brands. These make up two thirds of owners. Anti-humanisers make up over 20% of owners and generally buy smaller brands. The final group identified are known as extreme humanisers and make up over 5% of owners. This group tends to treat their pets as personal accessories and favour exclusivity and designer outfits for their pets.

A particular area that has adapted to the growth in pet spending has been the technological sector. There has been a sharp increase in the amount of apps and wearables that target pet owners. Owners can now monitor the fitness of their loved ones, as well as having confidence in the whereabouts of their pets through tracking devices. Feeding and training and has even been made easier for the owner, thanks to technological advancements, while there are also an extensive array of play apps available to ensure that your pet is never bored.

At Greyhounds As Pets the guys are dealing with hundreds of pet owners on a daily basis. Speaking with owners, and understanding the important role that their pets have within the family. Many believe that technology has given them a better understanding of their pet’s needs, while others praise the flexibility and convenience that apps and technology offer them. For example, you can now manage your pet’s meals through your smartphone or tablet, controlling when, how much and how often they eat.

Here’s an infographic to inform and educate pet owners on the excellent selection of apps and wearables now available for pets.

tech-for-pets

10 Professions that Need a Mobile Recording App

Always on the go, almost every professional relies on mobile technology to take care of business whenever and wherever it calls. But when companies and organizations rely on customer data collection, chances are that everything from customer calls to company meetings will need to be recorded and stored for constructive use. The good news is that advancements in the app world have found a way to bridge the gap between mobility and the need for data storage. Professionals no longer need to be tied to a desk to help customers. They can be out in the field using their mobile technology.

Taking a work related call on a mobile device isn’t exactly a new phenomenon in our increasingly on-the-go world, but it does present an issue for many businesses and professions. There are quite a few reasons that businesses record calls—quality assurance, record keeping, and data collection all have their place in the business world. But increasingly, mobile devices in the field are being used to take and send those calls that used to go through company landlines. That’s where mobile recording apps come into play. While these apps can record calls, they can also tag, record, and transmit photos and videos to home office databases.

These apps are used for a variety of reasons, each of them important to the business using their services. So check out just a few of the professions that need a mobile recording app these days.

Insurance Claim Adjusters

From inspecting property damage to interviewing claimants and witnesses, there are a wide range of reasons a claim adjustor would need to be able to record and transmit data on his or her mobile device.

Emergency Responders

When police, firemen, or EMS arrive on the scene, they most often use their cell phones as primary points of contact. Without a mobile recording app, the critical content from these calls would be lost.

Social Workers

In many cases, social workers face situations that require them to make a serious decision regarding child welfare in an unsafe environment. These apps make gathering and sharing information about a situation easier and more transparent.

Financial Institutions

New legislation in several different countries, including the U.S. and the United Kingdom, require financial institutions to record and store calls and SMS messages.

Journalists

Journalistic ethics demand that all parties on the line know they are being recorded during a conversation, but if that’s the case, then mobile recording apps are an excellent tool for making sure the a quote or source is being used exactly as it should.

Customer Service

Recording customer service calls is standard practice for assuring that the quality help is being provided, but in many cases the calls might not be answered from a cubicle, but out in the field on a company issued phone. Mobile recording apps are perfect for maintaining clarity and mediating disputes.

Construction Inspectors

Working in the field is a constant part of construction inspector’s job. Gathering and relaying data from calls and GPS coordinates for future use is a necessary component of the job, made easy with a mobile recording app.

Health Inspectors

You may think of health inspectors as the guys who shut down that shady burger joint on the corner, but they also take on a variety of other fieldwork, such as lead paint inspection and water and air quality monitoring. All of this data from the field needs to be recorded and transmitted as efficiently as possible.

Transportation Inspectors

By definition, this job requires quite a bit of fieldwork. Recording and transmitting detailed data on the various forms of transportation used by the public is a serious job, and a mobile recording app ensures that it’s done quickly and accurately.

Sales

Meeting with clients at their homes or offices requires a level of flexibility that a mobile device is perfect for. Making sure every point is clear and agreed upon is essential, and a mobile recording app ensures they have detail just right.

As you can see, these apps are essential for anyone working out of the office. The ease of recording important calls, photos, and videos for later retrieval makes these apps the go-to for professionals in the field.

**

This is a guest post by Emily Hunter crafts content on behalf of the mobile recording app specialists at Kova Corp. In her spare time, she cheers for Spirit of Atlanta, Carolina Crown and Phantom Regiment, creates her own sodas, and crushes tower defense games. Follow her on Twitter at @Emily2Zen

The Evolution of Learning Technologies

learning-book-glasses

Have you ever thought about how technology affects the way you learn? When we think about learning technologies, we normally tend to think about eTextbooks or tablets used by teachers and students in the classroom, but education in technology is not something new.

It actually dates back to thousands of years ago when Egyptians used hieroglyphics to teach phrases, laws and rules or the abacus was used as a counting mechanism. And it has evolved through the years to what we nowadays know as edtech.

This infographic visualizes the most important historic moments of the evolution of learning technologies to make us think about what will the future of education hold for us.

The Evolution of Learning Technologies
The Evolution of Learning Technologies by Open Colleges

What is Productivity About and How to Handle Prohibitors

office-work

We’ve already written about some of the best productivity apps at work, in case you forgot, but how on earth do you manage to stay productive that long? Well, it’s not an easy question to answer but for the most part it is possible to some extent, as long as you can handle much of the stoppers that stand in your way.

And what are these obstacles that are preventing you from doing more?

For instance, did you know that employees spend 20 hours a week online, and 5 hours a week surfing non-work related sites? And that social media costs employers up to $28 Billion each year? Not to mention all the bad communication, as well as cell phones, co-workers or the countless office meetings that we’re going through the day.

Well, It’s definitely something we all need to address and thankfully, SurePayroll and Ghergich & Co just did. Below is an infographic that discusses productivity, along with some other common things that may have a strong effect on it, and what employers are doing about it.

productivity-prohibitors

What did Back to the Future Manage To Predict About life in 2015

back_to_the_future

We all know this 1985/1989 cult film series Back to the Future, right? If you haven’t seen the movie series yet, go and watch now, it’s great. If you did, chances are you probably remember that 2015 is the year that Marty McFly’s time travelling Delorean arrived in the future.

Dr. Emmett Brown, the mad scientist in Back to the Future, promised a world full of flying cars, automated vending, futuristic Hoverboards, self-tying shoes, and plenty more predictions of what life would be like in 2015.

Here’s our list of what the movies got right about 2015 and what they got wrong:

Back-to-the-Future-Infographic

 

SInfographic is courtesy of Frame your TV