Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Apple Picking Smartphones

You would have to be a mole not to know the latest news on thieves stealing iPhones, iPads and iPods. Leave it to thieves to pry on innocent victims of cell phones and Apple gadgets.

The Washington Post as far back as April 2012 reported a "voluntary agreement between the Federal Communications Commission and mobile service providers" to stop service to stolen phones. This is a great first-step, however, when your phone is stolen: It's gone missing. The key is to stop theft before you're a victim. You can be hurt or killed during a high-tech robbery.

When your phone is stolen, most of us quickly retrieve a phone replacement. We don't want to lose our connection with our family, friends, business contacts and co-workers. Stopping service is a great idea, but not so much when you think of the victim. Stopping phone service also cuts service off to the victim. It forces the victim to get a new phone number.

The best defense is to protect your expensive phones and electronics. Stop thieves in their tracks by placing locking devices on all your expensive technological equipment. Don't let thieves get the upper hand. Lock your expensive electronics like iPhones, iPads and iPods. Secure your electronics by investing in iPad Counter Mounts, iPad Security Locks, iPad Wall Mounts, and iPak Kiosk Stand --all for a small fraction of what you paid for your Smartphone.

Eliminating the profits thieves enjoy after they've sold your Smartphone by cutting off service to the phone is like placing a Band-Aid over a gaping wound. Thieves haven't only stolen your phone, thieves have stolen access to your personal information like, banking, credit cards, your work phone number, your personal connections; family, friends, etc.

An iPad2 Lock has a hard, clear plastic case to protect your iPad, and the security slot is built into the case. When you lock the security cable around the case and loop the cable's other end to a fixed object, you've secured your iPad. When the lock is on your iPad, thieves can't remove the case and cable without damage to the iPad. The steel cable is the solution to the problem. Best yet, the lock weighs in under a pound, has a sleek cable, lock-head, small diameter, and beats any computer lock on the market. When you get the iPad2 Lock, you'll want to check out the iPad Kiosk Stand.

Stop thieves from "Apple Picking" your Smartphone by applying a lock. Thieves invade your privacy and victimize you once when they steal your phone, and criminals victimize you again when they use your personal information for profit. They are in a position to victimize every person whose number you've stored on your phone. Phone theft is not a victimless crime.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Macbooks - A Review of Apple's Latest Macbook

Apple release MacBook Air that has 13 inch display screen and it has thin, light, and has a decent battery capacity. This is a new technology laptop, the ultrabooks, have become popular based on Apple's pioneering efforts. For mid-2012, Apple has updated its system with a new Ivy Bridge processor from Intel. It has some new features that didn't exist in older laptops, like USB 3.0 ports and the potential upgrade to OS X Mountain Lion. If your MacBook Air is less than a year old, you can skip this generation because the Ivy Bridge processor is only a slight speed bump over the last generation. But if you're running an older MacBook (of any kind) with a Core 2 Duo or Quad processor, now is the time to upgrade. An Ivy Bridge processor in the new MacBook Air 13-inch, with a $100 price drop? That's a pretty good deal.

Design and Features

The new MacBook Air looks very much like the previous model, the MacBook Air 13-inch (Thunderbolt) ($1,299 direct, 4 stars). It has the same wedge-shaped chassis that tapers almost to a sharp point. It even weighs the same as the previous iteration, at 2.85 pounds, like the previous model. The display is a 13.3-inch wide screen show with a 1,440-by-900 quality. This is the same quality as the past two years of 13-inch MacBook Air techniques. For enough moment, Retina show is restricted to the new MacBook Pro. The display is still shiny and obvious, though, and should keep most customers satisfied.

The system has the same aluminum unibody, silver bezel around the screen, and a similar set of physical ports on the sides (with a couple of exceptions). The new MacBook Air uses a MagSafe2 power connector that is shorter and wider than original MagSafe connector. The MacBook Air's 45-watt MagSafe 2 AC adapter has a T-shaped connector; hopefully, Apple has corrected the problems that led to frayed MagSafe cords in the late 2000s. MagSafeand MagSafe 2 are physically different connectors, so current Apple display users or users with spare MagSafe adapters lying around will need a MagSafe-to-MagSafe 2 adapter from Apple (a $9.99 purchase). The two USB ports are now USB 3.0, which are much faster than the previous USB 2.0 connectors. Of course, USB 2.0 (and USB 1.1/1.0) devices will still work with the USB 3.0 ports, though the transfer speeds will not be as fast as those of USB 3.0. The Thunderbolt connector, headphone, SDXC slot, and microphone carry over from the previous MacBook Air.

Performance

Some of the new Air models' biggest changes are found on the inside. For starters, the 2012 Airs use Intel's third-generation Core processors (also known as Ivy Bridge) for better performance, making Apple one of the first vendors to adopt these chips in their non-workhorse lines. Specifically, the 11-inch Air uses a 1.7GHz dual-core Core i5 processor with 3MB of shared level-3 cache, while the 13-inch Air uses a 1.8GHz version; a 2.0GHz i7 processor with 4MB level-3 cache is available as a built-to-order option. Like the previous Core i5 and i7 processors (known as Sandy Bridge), Ivy Bridge CPUs include hyper-threading and Turbo Boost. Hyper-threading lets the CPU's two cores be utilized by the OS as four. When only one core is needed for a task, Turbo Boost lets the chip shut down one of the two cores and bump up the clock speed of the other. Turbo Boost can reach 2.6GHz on the 1.7GHz i5 and 2.8GHz on the 1.8GHz i5. Turbo Boost on the 2.0GHz i7 CPU can reach 3.2GHz.

Last year's 13-inch MacBook Air was an already-stellar battery performer, but this year's version takes another step forward. In our video-playback battery drain test, the new 13-inch Air ran for 7 hours and 27 minutes, which is 41 minutes longer than the 2011 13-inch Air. That's the best battery life we've seen from any current MacBook, and leaves most Windows ultrabooks in the dust -- the Sony Vaio T13112FXS, a thicker ultrabook with an equivalent third-gen Intel Core i5 CPU, ran for only 5 hours and 42 minutes.

Service and support from Apple is always a dual-edged sword. Apple includes a one-year parts and labor warranty, but only 90 days of telephone support. Upgrading to a full three-year plan under AppleCare will cost an extra $249 and is pretty much a must-buy, considering the proprietary nature of Apple products. Support is also accessible through a well-stocked online knowledge base, video tutorials, and e-mail with customer service, or through in-person visits to Apple's retail store Genius Bars, which, in our experience, have always been fairly frustration-free encounters.

The June 2012 version of the MacBook Air doesn't change the equation much from what we saw last year: it's faster, has added USB 3.0, and has longer battery life, but much of the rest has stayed the same. However, the general improvements and configurations that cost $100 less than last year make the MacBook Air an even better purchase than it was a year ago, albeit a less remarkable one.

There are plenty of less expensive Windows ultrabook alternatives to the MacBook Air, but few that have the same build quality and performance. Added screen size, improved battery life, and an SD card slot still give the 13-inch Air an edge over the 11-inch model. In the world of MacBooks, this Air is still the go-to laptop to recommend... unless you have $2,200 to spend on a Retina Pro.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Mobile Apps Help Travel Agencies Acquire More Clients

The travel industry is getting more competitive, and innovations in mobile apps for leisure and tourism are already heating up. Therefore, those travel companies that wish to communicate effectively with their customers, to deliver live updates, sell more tours and excursions, as well as to increase brand awareness, are now faced with the necessity of having their own mobile apps.

From the customer's perspective travel mobile applications can be of great help in organizing travel plans and getting all the required trip information quicker and easier. Such applications can include information about flights, accommodations details, city attractions, taxi and other services. By using mobile apps, travel agencies can increase the number of their customers through retaining old clients and attracting new ones.

In general, the benefits of travel mobile apps can be summarized as follows:

- Easier booking process. Nowadays no one wants to go through a long and complicated booking process. Making it easy, quick, and comfortable will surely attract clients. The apps can, for instance, save a customer's passport information, travel preferences, and payment details. Such features can turn the process of booking a trip into a series of simple button touches.

- Access to discounts. Mobile apps allow travel agencies to deliver information about promotions and special deals directly to their customers' mobile devices. Such alerting via smartphone apps can ensure that travelers will consider booking travels through the app, rather than doing extensive research on the Internet.

- Improved customer service. Clients may sometimes have problems while traveling. They might, for example, miss their plane or not be able to find a place in a hotel upon arrival. A mobile app can let travel agencies stay in closer touch with their customers and resolve their issues in a shorter period of time.

- Detailed local Information. From the customer's point of view, it is very helpful to have all the necessary data concerning their travel destination available right on their mobile phone. This can include information about the local restaurants, hotels, subway maps, some useful phrases in the local language, emergency contact information, etc.

Customers tend to remember really effective apps, and in many cases they also share this information with their friends through social media. This is of particular importance nowadays to travel agencies, when more and more travelers use smartphones in the process of organizing their trips.

For travel businesses, it is sometimes harder to keep their current clients than to get new ones. Therefore, mobile apps can help travel companies in streamlining their business processes and in enhancing sales opportunities.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Mobile Apps in the Focus of Healthcare Industry

Recent findings of healthcare research companies indicate that mobile platforms are redefining the medical industry and the traditional doctor-patient relationship. Both healthcare providers and consumers are using smartphones and tablets as a means to achieve better results in the sphere of medical care.

The practice of using mobile communication devices, such as smartphones, tablets and PDAs, for health services and information has got the name of mHealth (or mobile health). Thus, mHealth applications allow patients to manage and improve health by collecting information about their vital signs and delivering it to practitioners in order to receive the appropriate consultations or treatment. However, not only consumers are taking advantage of mobile technologies, since mHealth applications are to a great extent designed for healthcare professionals, including doctors, clinicians, and nurses that need real-time access to patients' histories, appointment schedules, drug prescription details, billing data, and other practice related information.

A huge number of medical companies and institutions have already recognized the potential of mobile applications for healthcare. They allocate budgets and invest in developing medical apps for mobile devices, such as, iPhone, Blackberry, Android, as wells other popular smartphones, tablets, and PDAs. Nowadays there exist several thousands of mobile health apps. Such applications are intended for the following purposes:

    Mobile apps provide healthcare specialists with real-time access to the medical records of patients and allow tracking their physical state indicators, symptoms, disease flow, nutrition habits etc.
    Healthcare apps enhance such procedures as scheduling and billing, medication prescribing and drug interaction checking.
    Mobile healthcare apps facilitate communication between doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals, for example, through discussions of medical cases in online forums.
    Mobile apps can provide users with the information about local healthcare facilities, as well as with an access to a searchable database of available physicians, dentists, cosmetologists, etc.
    Healthcare applications can help in epidemic outbreak forecast and monitoring.
    Mobile apps may contribute to the promotion of healthcare education and wellness awareness.

In such a way, the positive features of mHealth apps lead to the productivity increase of healthcare businesses, as well as to the improvement of medical information collection and transmission, since such apps allow healthcare specialists to work remotely and still to have access to the critical medical data. This makes it possible to provide customers with diagnostic and treatment support.

The technical level of mHealth applications is increasing and they are getting more sophisticated. Moreover, according to certain studies, it is expected that 500 million people will be using healthcare mobile apps in 2015. Therefore, the development and implementation of such mHealth applications is a business guideline for healthcare companies wishing to successfully operate on the medical care market. More and more traditional healthcare providers are already widening their health services by suggesting consumers an option to make use of helpful mobile applications.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Laptop Computers and Their Uses

If you are currently in the market for a laptop computer, then you've come to the right article. In this article I intend to outline the many advantages of using this innovative computer, along with the many disadvantages that have been reported by users that have had experience with this device, after reading this article you should have a much clearer idea of whether or not this computer is right for you.

Laptop computers or mini notebook computers, as they are sometimes called are very popular, which means, you can always sell the computer after using it for some time. These devices are very portable and compact which can be either a disadvantage or advantage depending on what suits your fancy. There are those that like the small keyboard, as they are easily able to get to grips with the notebook computer, completing tasks etc. They find the laptop to be the ideal system for answering and writing emails and also for carrying out social and business functions.

For those people that are constantly on the move and would like to be able to stay in contact with their clients or office, the laptop is probably their best option.

However, there are those people that struggle to use the small keyboards, finding them difficult to effectively use. These types of people will typically tell you that when it comes to writing big emails and large documents, the small keys on the keyboard make it difficult for them to type at real speeds. In addition to this, the relatively small computer screen can make it very stressing on your eyes.

So when it comes to deciding on whether or not to purchase a laptop computer, the questions asked tend to center on the types of documents and emails that you would like to send either socially or to work colleagues. The size of the display and the size of the keyboard are two components that you should do some background research on, before you commit to any single device.

In order for you to carry out some research, simply type 'buy laptop computer' in any of the major search engines and you should find a plethora of results, many of which should be able to answer any questions that you may have on these devices. Another option that you may want to take is to rent the laptop device, that way you can better examine the system before buying.