Smartphones are wonderful tools. But there’s one weakness that almost every smartphone shares: short battery life. This is a frustrating problem. As you’re logging onto the Web, reviewing your e-mail messages, and making phone calls, you’re draining your phone’s battery. With many of the top smartphones on the market, you’re lucky to make it home after the workday with enough battery life left to squeeze in one quick call for take-out food.

The issue is that smartphones do so a number of things, and run so many apps at once that their batteries can’t take it. There are several things you can do to make your battery last a little longer. We have outlined a few below.

Dimming that smartphone screen

You might not realize this, but keeping your screen at its full brightness setting drains the battery quickly. An easy way to stop this rapid drain is to lower the screen brightness to a level that is still comfortable for you. Your screen need not be as bright as the sun.

Screen lighting

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

Bluetooth

One more thing you might not know is that Bluetooth devices are a continuing drain on your battery. They actively search for signals coming in and this uses up your smartphone’s power. If you realize you are not going to get calls for a lengthy period, like in a theater or a meeting, turn your Bluetooth off. This will extend your smartphone’s battery, at least until you get home.

Tired of wading through countless spam email messages each time you check your inbox? The good thing is that you don’t have to put up with spam. You can take many simple measures to kick it out of your email inbox and life. We have laid out some of the ways below.

The Power of Filters

You can create a whitelist filter. This means that you use the filtering options in your email to create filters that whitelist all your important emails, keeping them in your inbox, while sending all other emails into a less important folder. After that you can check those folders when you have time to see what is coming in and if it’s important or not.

A More Subtle Serving of Spam

You may not have heard of the less in-your-face type of spam called bacn. This kind of spam includes emails like catalogs and coupons. Typically they are things you opted into at some point but you no longer want to receive.

One easy way to handle these emails is to create a filter that isolates all emails that have the word, “unsubscribe” in it. This works because every email that you can opt into should have an unsubscribe option in it. Of course you could always manually unsubscribe from these emails, but that’s very time consuming.

These two ways of using filters will clean up your inbox. Instead of having to sort through your inbox each and every day, spend a few minutes and set up these filters. It’ll make your life easier in the end.

>

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

It’s not always easy to communicate with IT staff. They are specialists in their field and it’s easy to feel uninformed in the face of individuals with such knowledge. Particularly when the solution to your problem is “Turn it off, wait a minute, and turn it back on again.” It can also seem like they are speaking a different language altogether.

There are some steps you can take to make this communication a little easier. The tips below will not only make communication go more smoothly, they will also get your problem solved faster.

No Reason to be Intimidated

Do not be intimidated by their extensive knowledge. This does not help communication. If you are not confident, it will be harder to describe the problem even if you know the correct terminology. Also, keep in mind that while they are the experts in their field, you are a specialist in yours as well.

Screenshots

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

A Written Report

If you notice that every time you do a particular thing you experience an issue, write it down. Every time the same problem occurs, make a note of the programs you had open and the error message you got. IT professionals want to know the full extent of what they are working with to seriously fix your problem.

Communicating with your IT department doesn’t have to be an intimidating or irritating experience. Just follow these basic rules, and you’ll be computing at full strength in no time.  And if you are lucky enough to be working with the IT professionals at Corporate Network Services, you’ll see that everyone here is friendly and eager to help.

Running a small business is no easy task, and you want to make sure you are doing as much as you can to make it successful. You have a website and a blog, and social media sites. Now you hear that you also need a tablet computer to make your small business a success. But you are unsure. They are pricey and you wonder if tablets are simply another tech fad. Just how can they help your organization?

Reasons You Need a Tablet

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

1. Amazing presentations: In the present topsy-turvy economy, finding devoted clients is no simple task. Consumers today are holding firmly onto their dollars. However, armed with a tablet computer, you can wow the most tight-fisted of customers. Say you have a landscaping company. When you arrive at a potential client’s home for a business meeting, you can fire up your tablet and instantly show them before-and-after photos of your most recent landscaping jobs. This visual evidence—all displayed without needing to boot up a more cumbersome laptop computer—might help you land a worthwhile new client.
2. State-of-the-Art: Being up-to-date in the world of technology can wow possible clients. And, nowadays, tablets seem to be on the cutting edge of technology. This is applicable to most fields, but especially in the fields of marketing or technology. Consumers are reassured when a person who works with technology is up on the latest and greatest.
3. Information at your fingertips: Say you are a real estate agent trying to figure out how much your customers should offer for that house on the corner. With your tablet computer, you can immediately discover that the home three doors down sold for $250,000 a few weeks ago. Equipped with this information, you can confidently advise your clients, and you can rest assured that your clients will tell their friends and family members that you relied on actual market information when advising them.
4. Signing documents is a breeze: To close a deal, you might need your clients to sign necessary documents. Thanks to several easy-to-use applications that you can download to your tablet, there is no longer any need to fuss with reams of paper that can be easily lost. Alternatively, pull up your documents on your tablet and have your clients sign the paperwork right on the screen. You can then simply email it to the people that need it.

If you want to talk to us more about options in tablet computers, contact us today.

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

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

Fax Machines: It seems like this should have been completely replaced by email a few years ago but it’s still hanging on. Most people dislike sending a fax now-a-days, but there was a time when this was revolutionary.

Newspaper Classified Ads: The Huffington Post recently listed newspaper classified ads as an endangered species. That’s mostly due to the online garage sale that is Craigslist. By giving people the opportunity to advertise their used futons for free, Craigslist provided a fatal body blow to newspaper-classified sections across the country.

Film-Based Cameras: People love film, and it has taken a while to phase it out, but there is no denying that the digital camera changed photography forever. Kodak has felt this transition more then most, so much so that the company is no longer making cameras. People like digital cameras because they can save their photos easily and make prints without having to save negatives that degrade. We shall see how much longer film-based cameras last, but they are definitely on their way out.

The Calculator Watch: Remember when geeks everywhere wore calculator watches strapped to their wrists? There was no better way to calculate the tip on that burger and fries. PCWorld, though, recently listed the calculator watch on its list of the 40 biggest losers of obsolete technology. Blame both fashion sense and cell phones. Every cell phone today comes with its own calculator. And fashion sense? Well, those calculator watches never were that alluring.

The Video Arcade: Many people grew up playing games in their local arcade so it’s unfortunate that these may be on their way out as well. But with the frequency that game systems improve and the inherent expense that it takes to operate an arcade, most gamers just go with their home systems where they can play in comfort.

>

The country’s technology leaders rarely stand still and they’re constantly improving their products. It’s why major players such as Apple, Microsoft, and Google remain at the top of a competitive industry.

The Power of the Retina Display

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

Arming the MacBook Pro with High-Tech Visuals

So, what is Apple’s next move? They’re going to release a MacBook Pro with 15-inch display and a resolution of 2,880-by-1,800 pixels. When pixels are increased to this density, the human eye can no longer distinguish individual pixels. Images will have a smooth and continuous look. This achievement will make the screen almost twice as clear as present MacBooks.

Not a New Technology

The technology powering the Retina display is not actually new, according to Digital Trends. The U.S. Military has used it for its flight simulators for years as a way to help train its pilots. Even IBM has used it for some of its higher-end supercomputing systems. The change, however, is that Apple is pushing this technology into the mainstream. You can bet that once consumers get a full look at the images on the screen of the new iPad, they’ll demand even crisper text, video, and images on their desktop and mobile devices. And by doing this, Apple is yet again cementing its place among the world’s technology leaders.

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

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

However, there are things that people who work from home can do to remedy this for their own mental health.

1. Set up a time for your “close of business”: Be sure you set a time to end work. No matter what that looks like for you. It could be a normal 9am to 5pm, or 12pm to 8pm. Just be sure that you stick to it and shut your computer off when your day ends.
2. Do something for yourself: After you shut off your computer for the day, be sure to do something for yourself. This helps your mind switch between work and your personal life. It doesn’t have to be something grand. It can be watching your favorite TV show, or working out. Just be certain you do something so you “reset” your day.
3. Leave the house: It’s easy as a work-from-homer to spend all of your time at home. You look up, see it’s the end of the week, and realize that the only time you left your house was to go to the grocery store when you ran out of cereal. Don’t turn into a work-from-home shut-in. It’s simply not healthy.

Overwork leads to stress. Whether you work from home, in an office, or out in the field, the key to holding onto your sanity is to reserve non-work time for yourself. But what if you cannot force yourself to shut off the workday? Then it might be time to consider returning to the office, where there’s always someone around to shut off the lights and chase you out of your cubicle.

>

Have you ever been curious, in this country of invention, what creative ideas are sprouting? Google has made it possible for you to explore this with Google Patents.

The Wonderful World of Google Patents

Most people haven’t heard of Google Patents, but it is a pretty cool service. It permits you to explore U.S. patents both past and present. As you might guess, not all patents are created equal. They vary from incredibly serious, like medical patents, to unbelievably goofy, like an electronic pickle jar game. Finding unique patents is as easy as searching for something in Google Patents. It’s amazing how many interesting creations are out there!

Organizing the World’s Information

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

A Patent History Lesson

The site also provides a fascinating history of technology advancements. You can view Alexander Graham Bell’s 1880 patent for an automatic short-circuiter for telephones or a patent given in 1889 to Thomas Edison for the incandescent electric lamp. If you have not yet visited Google Patents take a look. The site provides a good look at where we’ve been technologically as a country and where we are going.

Google has been the leader of online mapping with Google Maps for awhile. But that could change as the people behind OpenStreetmap try to compete for the title of the most-used web map service. This has created quite a stir and the company is only 8 years old!

Like Google Maps, OpenStreetMap is a digital world map, enabling users across the globe find out where they are and where they are going. OpenStreetMap is crowd-sourced – a hot trend these days in the computing world – and free. It’s also becoming more and more popular. In mid-March, OpenStreetMap boasted nearly 560,000 individual registered users, an impressive total.

OpenStreetMap’s Growing Popularity

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

Other companies are making the switch as well. For instance, a popular social media service, Foursquare, made the change a few months ago. So, what is the reason that OpenStreetMap is becoming so popular? One advantage that it has over Google Maps is that it allows users to update maps based upon experience. Two heads are better then one, right? And if you look at the results that Wikipedia has had with this philosophy, it points to a bright future for the fledgling digital map company.

Google No Longer Invulnerable?

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