Tag Archives: Tech Trends

How to Use Parental Controls in Windows 8

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Charlie Carerros

It is an ongoing challenge for parents to keep kids safe while using the internet. Microsoft has added some new features in Windows 8 to lock down user accounts called Family Safety. You can see and control what your kids are doing on their computers. You can set Web filtering, monitor and restrict apps and even set time limits on computer usage. To Setup Family Safety for Windows 8: When you create an new user account for your child, you will have the option to select a check box… [Read More…]

Posted in Best Practices, Internet, Security, Tech Trends, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Google Glass: Victory for Virtual Reality, or a Disastrous Distraction?

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Joe Hichborn

What is Google Glass? First announced in 2011, Google Glass is Google’s pet project to introduce wearable computers to the modern age. It fits like a pair of glasses (standalone or over an existing pair), and provides mobile computing functionality as an overlay to your normal vision. You interact with Google Glass using voice commands – “Ok Glass”, brings up your menu options, with activities such as sending a message, recording a video, performing a search, getting directions, and so… [Read More…]

Posted in Internet, Social Media, Tech Trends | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Trending Mobile In a Big Way

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Scott Hirschfeld

Flurry Analytics recently posted statistics tracking usage of smartphones and tablets across both Android and IOS devices. These statics are interesting, and maybe not what one might expect. According to Flurry, the average time spent per mobile device is slightly more than 2.5 hours per day. Of that time, 80% is spent within applications, and only 20% is spent browsing the web. Surprisingly, email only gets about 3 minutes per day. What is the biggest category? You might have guessed… [Read More…]

Posted in Android, Internet, SmartPhone, Social Media, Tablet, Tech Trends | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

How to Best Protect Your Home PC from Viruses

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Charlie Carerros

Every now and then, we will receive a call about antivirus. Typically these are people calling to know which software they should use at home. Is Malwarebytes good enough? I hear that AVG Free  is a great tool? What about Microsoft Essentials? The other day, after over 15 years working in the IT Field, I came up with my final answer. Yes, I’m ready to be a millionaire. The final answer to the home antivirus question is, “What do you use… [Read More…]

Posted in Best Practices, Internet, IT Support, Security, Software, Tech Trends, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Finding a Google Reader Alternative

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Vicki Hirschfeld

As you may have heard, Google Reader will soon be no more. July 1st, Google will be shutting down its popular RSS reader much to many people’s disappointment. Some of you might wonder, why do you need an RSS reader? I have found using a reader makes it much easier to keep up with the blogs I follow. I know when there is a new post, can categorize them and easily save favorites. I am getting desperate in my quest… [Read More…]

Posted in Android, Best Practices, Internet, SmartPhone, Tech Trends | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Distraction of Our Digital Age

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Scott Hirschfeld

We recently posted a quote from Seth Godin on the wall in our lunch room at the office. This quote rings true, I believe, because we live in a society of great distraction. “A big part of doing your work is defending your time and your attention, so you can do your work.” Why is our age more distracted than others before us? I’m guessing the first thing that comes to mind is something related to smartphones or iPads or… [Read More…]

Posted in Best Practices, Internet, IT Support, Social Media, Tech Trends, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A Virtual World – Remote Tools for Everyday Use

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Charlie Carerros

Over the years, I can’t count the number of people, who are amazed at how quickly and easily someone can login to their computer remotely to assist with a problem. In many cases, an end-user can give up complete access to their workstation to someone they have never met in person, and who they may never meet. Ask Joe and no, Joe is not just some fake name, we assigned to a team of engineers who work on issues without… [Read More…]

Posted in Best Practices, Internet, IT Support, Managed Services, Security, Tech Trends | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

One Simple Way to Avoid Workstation Upgrade Pains

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Scott DeCleene

So, you just upgraded to a new computer (or reloaded an old one). Everything is fast and speedy, except there are no iTunes, you can’t open any PDFs, and even some website content won’t play. You realize that you now need to go out, find and individually install all of the utilities that were all working on your old machine to keep you running smoothly. Do you remember which sites to go to download all of those helpful utilities that… [Read More…]

Posted in Backup, Best Practices, Internet, IT Support, Software, Tech Trends | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

We Are All Connected with IoT

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Scott Hirschfeld

Technology is moving at a mind boggling speed, and sometimes it is easy to let it pass us by.  Cloud Computing has been the hot topic for awhile now.  What is next?  Some say it is IoT and M2M.  These two acronyms stand for “Internet of Things” and “Machine 2 Machine”.  Both are terms used to describe technology that has been building for years. It is simply tiny sensors that collect data and automatically transfer the data to servers, where… [Read More…]

Posted in Internet, Tech Trends | Tagged , | Leave a comment

A PC for Your Wrist?

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Vicki Hirschfeld

The StormFly Wristband is more than your average flash drive. It is a super, fast storage device with a Linux Operating System that is bootable on most PCs and Macs.  You can take your operating system and critical files with you, wherever you go and use it on any pc or Mac that is available. No need to carry a heavy laptop. Just your StormFly Wristband. The process is pretty simple; plug in, reboot the computer and redirect to run… [Read More…]

Posted in Internet, Security, Tech Trends | Tagged , , | 1 Comment