Best Gadgets of the Last Decade

September 21, 2011 at 7:55 pm · Filed under Technology

Some of the best gadgets of the last decade continue to exist into the present decade. They have changed the world and how people do things to such a degree that they couldn’t ever be possible for them to disappear after just one decade. What gives these apparatuses staying-power is not just the fact that they continue to make improvements, but also because people really enjoy them.

The Jabra Bluetooth Headpiece

Driving and talking on the phone has led to people being distracted and, therefore, many car collisions. In order to reduce the numbers of these car crashes caused by people more engaged in holding their telephones and having in-depth conversations than driving, some states have written laws making it illegal for people to drive while talking on their cell phones. The Jabra Bluetooth headpieces that made their debut in 2000 made it possible for people to be able to keep their hands where they need them and pass the many hours they spend on the highways talking to others, thus lowering their chances of running into the car ahead of them.

Bose QuietComfort Noise-Canceling Headphones 

These headphones are great for keeping the world at bay when people are listening to what they truly would like to hear. They prevent people from having unpleasant discussions with people on airplanes, for example, who aren’t exactly traveling with peace and quiet in mind. Their other good deed is to prevent hearing loss; as unwanted sounds are blocked out and the sounds the person wants to hear can be easily heard, they don’t need to turn up the volume on their headphones unless they want to.

The iPhone

The iPhone has several capabilities that are what people are looking for in a telephone these days. No one uses a phone just to make calls, so they must be able to connect to the Internet and take pictures, two of the most basic functionalities of the newest telephones. But the iPhone doesn’t stop there; it also allows users to receive their email messages, search the web, send text messages and accept applications such as for Skype.

The Amazon Kindle

Amazon has changed the way people read books with the Kindle. The proof of this is the fact that bookstores are going out of business left and right. This technology has made reading a completely electronic experience. People can order their Kindles off of the Amazon website, and then they can order their Kindle books the same way. They will be delivered to the Kindles electronically as well. It’s making the old-fashioned way of taking a book on an airplane just that, old-fashioned!

The Garmin Global Positioning System (GPS)

Aside from making maps obsolete, the GPS ends the dilemma some people have of asking for directions. The GPS will map out the route for drivers and if they follow the directions correctly, they arrive at their destinations without ever getting lost. Rather than having to read a map, people can listen to someone speak the streets they need to turn onto. With this system, people attach it to their windshields where they can easily see it as well as keep their eyes on the road.

The iPod

How people listen to music is no less dramatically different than the way all of the other gadgets have transformed their industries. People can create their own playlists and they don’t need tons of CDs. They don’t have to wait through the many songs that radio hosts play before they can hear what they really want to hear. As far as CDs are concerned, they don’t have to own ten or twelve songs when they really only like two or three.

 

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Rise In Popularity of Video Chat

August 7, 2011 at 9:21 am · Filed under Video Chat

In the past, video chat was relegated to the imaginary worlds of science fiction TV shows like Star Trek and Buck Rogers. However, with the great strides made in telecommunications technology over the past few years, video chat has gone from fantasy to reality. Although it was first created decades ago, video chat technology has improved enough to become a very personal way of connecting with friends and loved ones, as well as for use in business.

1. Easier To “Read” Emotions.

The huge negative with communicating solely via audio or text messages is that often times there are misunderstandings and confusion. Contrary to popular belief, “talking” to someone involves more than just sound. The visual cues and signals can be as important, and in some cases more important, than the words we are speaking. Sometimes a smile can effectively “say” a feeling or emotion more accurately than a thousand spoken words could. Eye contact, or the lack of it, can also project many silent meanings that would be lost over a computer screen, text message, or phone call. So many emotions are better expressed through visual representation than mere sound: fear, joy, doubt, pain, love, and so forth. Saying “I love you” is one thing. Seeing it visually in the face of someone you care about is quite another. Video chat takes communication to a new, intimate level that mere audio and text simply cannot do on their own.

2. Faster Internet Speed Means Smoother Video.

Video chat has made a few false starts in the past. In just about every decade over the past 50 years, someone or some company has tried to bring a reliable, convenient video cat technology to the masses. Unfortunately, the technology was never advanced enough to make it a viable possibility. But that has all changed. With the advent of high speed internet access and the significant leaps in the hardware required for efficient video telecommunications, video chat has gone from the toddler stage and has rushed into the teenager years.

Gone are the days of slow, choppy video transmissions that made normal conversation virtually impossible. With high speed Wifi availabilities, video chat can now occur in a smooth, clear picture. James Bond would blush with envy at how proficient video technology is for not only the elite, the wealthy, or the military. He’d be jealous that the technology was available to everyone, from spies to housewives.

3. Humans Are Visual Creatures.

Another reason for the surge in video chat popularity is the basic fact that humans are very visual creatures. Of all of the senses, it seems that most people tend to favor their sense of sight far and above the rest. They need to see things to actually believe them.

4. Business Applications.

Along with improving the quality of video chat, the internet has also made the world much smaller. Businesses are no longer restricted by geography. Using video chat, having a conference with a CEO in the next state is virtually identical to having a conference with a CEO on the other side of the globe. In today’s high-tech economy, multi-billion dollar deals are transpiring over video chat just as easily as if everyone was in the same room.

Video chat has come to stay. The amazing fact is that this is just the very beginning. In the coming years, video chat technology will continue to improve. There’s no indication of its popularity slowing down. In the future, video chat communications may be as common as cell phones are today. With the importance that human beings place on their sense of sight, the intimacy that is created by “seeing” someone talk opposed to just hearing them, and the growing usage in business situations, video chat demand will remain high.

 

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How to Manage Widgets on WordPress

July 25, 2011 at 10:16 pm · Filed under Website, Wordpress

WordPress widgets and pulgins allow users to optimize the creativity of their site for user friendliness and interaction.  There are many great widgets and plugins including social media, surveys software that lets your visitors answer questions and guiding you visitor to popular areas of your site.  In the early days of WordPress, the blogging platform’s sidebar widgets were manually controlled by using complex and confusing bits of PHP code. Things have since gotten vastly easier to manage and customize, but even these usability improvements come with their own set of confusing attributes — especially for users who are new to blogging and web design themselves.

Luckily, WordPress is an easily-managed system when users are presented with a step-by-step approach to accomplishing their goals within the site’s award-winning Dashboard site management solution. If you’re looking to manage your site’s sidebar by customizing widgets’ placement, visibility and appearance, these simple steps will help you accomplish your goals with minimal work and even less frustration.

1. Navigate to your site’s appearance tab and find your widgets

WordPress comes standard with an excellently-designed administration software. Known as the WordPress Dashboard, this site management solution allows users to manage their site’s appearance in a “what you see is what you get,” click-based way. After logging into your site’s Dashboard, look for the “Appearance” option in the software’s sidebar. Clicking this option will cause the appearance option to expand downward presenting several options.

You’ll be presented with options for Widgets, Menus, Custom Header, and Sidebar. Obviously, at this point, you will want to click the Widgets option. You will then be presented with the available widgets for use with your install of the WordPress software.

2. Review your installed and available widgets, and note their placement.

The widgets control panel area is separated into two columns. On the lefthand side, you will see a box full of available widgets. Each widget is related to a pre-installed WordPress feature or any of the plugins you have previously installed with the site’s control panel.

In the same column, below the listing of available widgets, you will see a column of the same size that lists inactive widgets. These widgets relate to plugins that you have installed but currently have elected to “deactivate” using the site’s plugin management tools. If you reactivate the relevant plugin, these widgets will appear in the “Active Widgets” dialogue and will be available for placement in your site’s sidebar.

On the right hand side, you will notice a much thinner column labeled “Sidebar” or “Sidebar 1.” This is where you can drag widgets in order to have them appear on the homepage. Dragging a widget to this sidebar automatically enables the widget and gives you control of its appearance and preferences. The order of the widgets in this sidebar box also determines the order in which they will appear on your website.

3. Customize Widget Options and Appearance

When you drag a widget into the sidebar column on the right side of the widget control panel, it will automatically expand downward and reveal a list of relevant options. These options allow you tightly control what information the widget displays and how that information appears on your website. When you have finished customizing each widget’s options, remember to save before moving onto the next set of customizations. Failure to save each widget’s options individually will result in those preferences being reset — and you’ll have to start from the beginning.

4. Navigate to your site’s homepage and review your changed sidebar

Finally, navigate to your WordPress front page and ensure that the changes you made in the control panel meet your needs and design sensibilities in the real world. If everything is good, you can breathe a sigh of relief. If not, it’s time to return to the widget control panel and give those widget preferences another shot.

Conclusions

Managing widgets within WordPress is one of the easiest things to do, and it’s the best way to customize your website’s appearance without having extensive programming knowledge. Everything is drag-and-drop, and can be customized intricately with included preferences and settings.

 

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VoIP Versus Regular Phone Service

June 21, 2011 at 8:27 am · Filed under Voip


It’s no secret that phone companies have long overcharged their traditional landline phone customers with expensive rate plans and the requirement to add even more expensive long distance calling options. These companies and their expensive plans have come under increasing fire and competition by all-digital VoIP competitors. These companies use internet connections and a virtual number, rather than traditional copper phone wires, to route and connect calls.

But is VoIP, and a virtual number, worth the cost savings that comes with switching from a traditional land line service? What are the pros and cons when it comes to VoIP versus regular phone service?

The Pros of VoIP Service

First and foremost, VoIP calling services offer a significant savings over traditional landline providers. Not only do they offer their services for a flat monthly fee, but these services often allow customers to call several foreign countries for no additional cost at all — no long distance package, no international calling package, and no per-minute rates. These services typically allow international calls to Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico for free, and many services offer even more international destinations for free.

In addition to the numerous budgetary considerations, VoIP service is all digital and does not use copper wires for its calls. That means calls are clearer and customers don’t have to worry about the effects of “old wires” on call clarity.

Additionally, VoIP plans put their all-digital, internet-enabled calling solutions to work for customers even between calls. Rather than require an answering machine to collect messages from missed calls, VoIP services offer customers voicemail that is quite similar to the feature offered with mobile phone plans. Unlike mobile phone plans, however, these voicemail can be checked via both the phone and the service provider’s website. This type of “visual voicemail” allows customers to see who the missed call is from, how long the voicemail is, and the exact date and time that the message was left.

All told, VoIP phone services are a cost-effective and futuristic way to manage landline calls. It’s a great way to bridge the gap between old-fashioned landline phone companies and increasingly sophisticated mobile telephony options currently on the market.

The Cons of VoIP

All-digital phone services like VoIP are not without a few drawbacks, however, and customers need to be aware of this before they commit their landline service to an internet-based solution. First and foremost, VoIP phone services do require a broadband internet connection. And while that type of connection is increasingly common in most households, it means that a downed internet connection will result in missed and dropped calls — just like a mobile phone.

Furthermore, even a slightly slow internet connection will result in a jarring loss of call quality and clarity that will resemble a mobile phone whose service is cutting in and out. For this reason, VoIP may not be the best phone plan for users who are constantly downloading files and streaming music or movies.

Another quirk of VoIP services is that they do not function in a power outage. Whereas traditional landline phones actually draw their power from the copper phone lines to which they are connected, VoIP services require the phone to be connected to a cable or DSL modem. This modem sometimes comes with a battery backup, but oftentimes does not. That means that a power outage will result in the immediate loss of landline phone service. Even with battery backups, typical broadband modems only last a few hours. And, as most people can confirm, power outages are very rarely only two or three hours long.

Conclusions

On the whole, the pros of VoIP service versus regular phone service far exceed the cons. VoIP’s all-digital, online-accessible service and features are the wave of the future, and traditional copper-wired landline services simply cannot compete. Because of the increased functionality and decreased monthly cost, VoIP is largely a no-brainer for the typical household.

 

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How to Make Your Own Website

May 21, 2011 at 9:37 am · Filed under Website

As social media services expand and the internet becomes accessible to a greeter number of individuals, the demand for personal websites has only increased. This is an important step in “claiming” a piece of the internet and managing your online identity, but it can be intimidating to begin the process and develop a fully-functioning, securely hosted personal website.

In order to successfully navigate this process, most people find they simply need a guide — a list of steps to take — that explains what needs to be done and what order it needs to be completed in. Below are the steps you’ll need to take to get your image online and take command of your identity electronically.

1. Find a web hosting provider

The most important part of developing a personal website is ensuring that you have somewhere to host the files that your site contains. This can be done by searching for a “shared hosting” plan; most personal websites are extremely light on file sizes and resources, and most users are able to find an extremely low-cost plan that meets their needs.

2. Choose and purchase a domain name

Your website is only as personal as the domain name which points to its contents, so this is an important and occasionally challenging step in the process. You’ll want to pick a domain name that represents who you are — perhaps your first and last names, or an interest or quirky nickname that you’ve carried with you for a while. This will be the way everyone arrives at, and identifies, your online presence — so make sure it’s exactly the way you want to present yourself!

After the domain has been settled on, it’s time to check out and enter the appropriate information from your hosting provider to ensure that the domain points to your web hosting account. The instructions for completing this process can typically be found in an email from your hosting provider after signing up. Alternatively, this information is listed in any typical host’s help and “frequently asked questions” section.

3. Find a suitable “WYSIWYG” website editor

You’ll next want to find a software program that helps you design your website. For new personal website owners, it’s important to choose what is known as a “WYSIWYG” program. It stands for “what you see is what you get,” and refers to these programs’ ability to let you drag and drop elements of your website directly onto a canvas. This eliminates the need to know extensive and complex amounts of XHTML programming and will allow you to have a functional website in minutes or hours, rather than days or weeks.

4. Complete your website’s layout and upload it to your web hosting account

After you have completed your website’s design, it’s time to put it online for the whole world to see. This process is typically automated by most WYSIWYG design programs; you will simply need to enter the domain name you chose, your web hosting username, and the password that was assigned to your account by your hosting provider. From there, your design program will upload all of your pages and files and everything will load seamlessly without your having to know anything about web servers or file transfer programs.

If you are looking to build an ecommerce website, make sure to do your research on your competitors.  Take a look at what they are doing and see how you can make it better.  The best ecommerce solution will to be able to integrate all aspects of your brick and motor store and convert it online without losing functionality, theme, or culture.  You want you online visitors to feel like they are at your actual stores location.

Conclusions

Making your market on the internet is easier now than at any time in the past. Web hosting providers are now geared toward the novice user, and domain purchases are easier than ever. In combination with a solid “what you see is what you get” style of website editor, it’s easy to customize your website to your exact specifications and impress your family and friends with minimal time, effort, or internet knowledge.

 

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How to maintain your website

April 12, 2011 at 9:30 pm · Filed under Website

Publishing a professional website takes work, but afterwards needs a long-term maintenance program. Left alone, a website becomes obsolete, making it an eyesore and an embarrassment rather than an asset to its owner. Website maintenance makes sure that online assets remain fresh, relevant and accessible. Although no magic formula will make a website attract visitors, inspire sales and build a brand, a methodical maintenance program will always help. The following are just a few important parts of a website maintenance program.

Update Content Regularly 

Products change, news becomes old and websites become stale. When visitors arrive at a site only to find nothing new, they go away unimpressed and disappointed. When customers find obsolete and canceled products displayed for sale, they may lose confidence that they can safely order from that store. Internet users want information that they can use; they want to buy from active stores. Some webmasters adopt an editorial calendar to make sure fresh content regularly appears on their site. Businesses should always make sure customers find all current products and services for sale online.

Act On Feedback

Webmasters should keep an open channel for visitor feedback. Some may choose to post a web form that accepts opinions while others may post an email address to receive visitor comments. Businesses with physical locations should ask customers to visit their website and then share their opinions. On receiving suggestions or criticism from users, webmasters should act at once to address the issues. They also should quickly act on reports of dead links, broken forms, inaccurate information, typographic errors and other defects.

Make Site Backups

Regular backups form a part of any website maintenance routine. Regardless of the reliability record of a web server, it can fail without notice. Failure can cause significant data loss and the loss of hundreds of hours of work. Crashed servers can leave a web site down for long periods while site owners try to rebuild. Regular backups will protect a site, providing swift recovery when things go wrong.

Monitor Performance

Slow websites lose visitors and customers; that’s a fact. Websites need constant optimization as an essential part of website maintenance. Website owners can use tools that measure loading speed and review server logs to help identify images, scripts and cascading style sheets that increase page load time. Also, some advertising platforms and website gadgets can slow websites down. An aggressive schedule for website performance review will catch problems quickly so the site will continue to attract and keep visitors and customers. Also, search engines often penalize slow websites in their search engine results pages, so optimization efforts almost always pay off.

Review Statistics
Web servers keep detailed logs that contain valuable information that can help with website maintenance. Webmasters can use data about referrers, search terms, web browsers, and visitor tracks to create content more appealing to site visitors. Server logs also contain important error information about missing web pages and server problems that can direct website repair efforts.

After creating a website, owners should realize that their job never ends. To have a successful and profitable web presence, they must perform regular maintenance that will keep visitors coming back for more.

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Duties of Webmasters

March 19, 2011 at 9:14 pm · Filed under Web

Job duties are quite varied from one webmaster to the next. Some may be highly involved in the programming side of the internet, while other may have limited experience in this area. It all depends on the needs of the client and the skills and services a particular webmaster will provide. A very general description would be that a webmaster is a person who is responsible for the marketing, maintenance and upkeep of a website, This is true for some, but not all webmasters. There are several areas and different job duties when it comes to this person.

Website Design

One of the first duties a webmaster would have is the actual design of a website. Many times, a company will come to a webmaster with ideas and thoughts about how they want the website to be set up. It is up to the webmaster to work with the client to turn those ideas into something that can become a tangible website. This can often be a lengthy process when it comes to completely creating a new site solely based on ideas. If the client does not have a clear vision, this can surely make the process go on much longer.

There are some people who solely do this work. They will only create the initial site after working with the clients. After the site is built, it is up to another person to maintain and update the website. The people who just do this work are generally referred to as web designers.

Coding and Programming

The actual work of coding and creating the specific website is what often takes the most time and the most intensive. A good deal of specialized knowledge is necessary to be able to do this efficiently and correctly. In some instances, a webmaster oversees a team of programmers who are the ones doing the actual coding work. This will vary from one business to the next.

Marketing

Search Engine Optimization and the constant pursuit of more traffic to the website can be a duty of the webmaster. This can also be something provided by a separate company that specializes in this. This process is never ending since the Internet is constantly changing and the particular website will often have new content. Because of this, there are many different strategies that are employed by the webmaster to make the site highly visible and high on search engine results. This is through things such as keyword optimization and pay per click or pass through advertising.

Upkeep

The final duty of a webmaster would be to maintain the website and ensure that it is always up and running, there are no errors on the site and no missing or broken links. If a site goes down, there is no traffic to it and there is a potential loss of revenue for the company. A reliable webmaster is someone who will do everything in his power to not let this happen through monitoring and maintenance.

These are the overall duties of a webmaster, but there certainly can be more specific responsibilities or a particular webmaster may specialize in one particular area and not be familiar with another.

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