Computer Support Blog

Health and fitness is an area where technology is in a bit of a boom.  Wearable devices like watches and wristbands count the calories people burn and quantify their daily fitness stats.  There are hundreds of apps that help you track people’s eating and exercise habits, and there are even ones in which the sole purpose is to motivate users to exercise more.  Still, there aren’t many apps that help people with the process of exercising itself.  Cool person in technology Arel English founded Vitogo to change that fact.  Vitogo is an iPhone app that acts as a personal trainer for its users.  Vitogo stores exercise related data to help people achieve specific goals with their workout schedules.  Rather than simply provide users with metrics about how many calories they have burned, Vitogo provides actionable workout plans to help users achieve specific workout goals.  English has incorporated enough fitness data into his app that Vitogo provides users with specific long-term plans to achieve their goals.  This cool person in technology has even made it so his app will adjust a user’s workout plan every 4-6 weeks to ensure that the person’s exercise regimen does not plateau.  While fitness apps that merely track calories are akin to non-actionable computer diagnostic tools, Vitogo tries to be the fitness equivalent of a full-service computer tech support program. Read more »

Have you ever been at a theme park, but been without an easy way to find out when certain shows and attractions occurred?  Maybe you’ve been at a museum and walked through hundreds of exhibits with no way to get more in-depth learning about them.  Venues such as museums and theme parks could invest in more workers to fill these gaps, but the costs are usually too much for them.  Cool person in technology Todd Marks wants to provide a solution to these institutions that will solve these customer-related problems in an affordable way.  Marks’s company viaPlace has developed technology to deliver people useful information on their mobile phones based on their location at a given time.  For example, theme parks could provide maps and attraction times to users’ phones with viaPlace.  Marks’s company could help museumgoers get more details when they’re at certain exhibits.  These use cases are prime examples of when Marks’s location-based content delivery system would be useful.  Read more »

Speech recognition and voice control are quickly turning from a fringe concept into a new standard for user interfaces.  Innovations such as Apple’s Siri, Google Now, and other voice control systems have shown the public how convenient speech recognition can be to control your devices.  However, all these voice recognition systems are platform specific and limited to consumer use.  There are situations where one might want a voice recognition system that works with multiple platforms.  Businesses may also need a system that doesn’t report data back to other companies, such as Google or Apple.  Cool product Verbble addresses these needs.  Verbble uses a platform agnostic system so users can incorporate voice recognition into their technology no matter what devices they use.  Verbble claims that it can work with any established system currently on the market. While it will take efficient business computer services to guarantee the Verbble system works properly, the technology would be a major benefit to many businesses.  Using voice as an input device is not only more convenient, but also more efficient. People speak faster than they type.  This cool product could seriously improve a business’s productivity if used properly. Read more »

Ephemeral messaging—sending messages where the content disappears after a certain period of time—has become a major trend in the tech world ever since the immense success of Snapchat.  Vocal is a cool product that continues this trend by expanding the scale beyond a message between two people.  Vocal is a mobile messaging app that supports chats between large groups of people.  One user starts a live group chat and anyone else can join through the app or by following a link.  Once a host closes a chat, Vocal deletes the text of the chat permanently, leaving no record of it.  This ephemeral approach to communication is likely the product of an Internet age where companies record and save almost everything you do say online.  Many people, especially in younger demographics, prefer the idea that their daily conversations won’t be around to haunt them well into their future.  This philosophy provides users of apps such as Vocal with a feeling of freedom to say what they want without worrying over consequences.  Embarrassing moments are less likely to become viral jokes on the Internet and job recruiters won’t comb through every single statement someone makes in a conversation, unlike what might happen if the conversation was on Facebook.  Users who have had problems deleting data or messages from social networks in the past can call a remote tech support company if they want assistance.  Read more »

Mobile advertising has become an important aspect of marketing in this era, where it seems everyone spends most of their time on their smartphones.  Unfortunately, most mobile advertising is more intrusive then engaging.  Some mobile ads are reminiscent of Internet banner ads, taking up valuable real estate on a phone’s screen while someone uses an app.  These ads distract and annoy people more than anything else, but even worse are the ads that take up your entire screen for thirty second intervals, interrupting the use of an app completely for a period.  What’s even worse about these mobile ads is that when people click on them, they only bring them to the store page of the software they’re advertising.  There is no context or way of knowing how much a user may like the advertised application.  Cool person in technology Tim Cheng has developed technology that he hopes will make mobile advertising more engaging for users.  Cheng’s company Voxel sells cloud-based technology that turns ads into live demos as opposed to static banners.  With Cheng’s program, users can actually demo an app and try it within an advertisement.  This interactivity should encourage users to engage with ads rather than ignore them.  Users who have trouble with streaming on their phone should get smartphone tech support service. Read more »

Auto insurance claims are never fun or enjoyable experiences.  However, cool person Brad Weisberg has created a system that at least makes the process a lot more convenient and easier for auto insurance claimants.  Weisberg wanted to use technology to find a faster way for people to get quotes from auto body repair shops when they need to make an insurance claim.  Weisberg saw that opportunity when smartphones became ubiquitous devices in the public sphere.  With his service Snapsheet, Weisberg has made it so anyone with a smartphone can streamline the process of getting quotes for auto insurance claims by performing all of it directly through their mobile phone.  Users simply take pictures of the car or truck in need of repair and send it to body shops directly through the Snapsheet app.  The body shops then deliver a quote directly over the phone so users can make a claim with their auto insurance.  Users can even request direct deposit or check-by-mail from within the app when the insurance company settles their claim.  Users who have difficulty using Weisberg’s app to communicate with repair shops and insurance companies can get mobile PC support to find the source of the problem. Read more »

Job interviews can be harrowing experiences.  Nervousness can negatively affect people’s performances and cost them the job they want, but it’s almost impossible to avoid getting nervous for such an important event.  Job interviews require people to think fast when coming up with answers while also appearing confident.  In many ways, performing well in an interview is a skill in itself.  Prept is a cool product that lets people work on this skill by contacting professionals who will perform mock interviews with them.  Jobseekers can use Prept to get help from experienced pros that will evaluate users’ mock interviews and give helpful feedback on their performances.  On the website, jobseekers can search through the company’s database of interviewers and select one appropriate to their career field.  They can then schedule a specific time to do a mock interview online through video chat.  In theory, these interviews simulate the experience and pressure of an actual job interview so users can prepare themselves mentally for the real thing.  Users with broken webcams will not be able to take part in the online mock interviews unless they get onsite computer repair to fix their cameras. Read more »

It’s probably safe to say that given the chance, most people would donate more to charity.  However, lack of resources, lack of time to do proper research, and general difficulty get in the way very often. Because of this difficulty, people overlook philanthropy in their busy lives.  Cool person in technology Theresa Preston-Werner has founded a new startup that aims to take all the potential hassle out of charitable giving.  Preston-Werner wants to make it so anyone can donate to well-run, effective charitable organizations without having to give it much thought.  Her organization, Omakase, does all the research on charities for its users.  Omakase researches to find the most effective and helpful charities so that donors never have to worry that a poorly run organization will waste the money they give.  Omakase works on a monthly basis, meaning that all donors pledge a certain amount of money to give every month automatically.  Preston-Werner likely believes this model will appeal to those looking for convenience, as it creates a “set it and forget it” mentality once someone pledges.  Users sign up for Omakase’s curated charities through the web.  Anyone who wants to donate but has Internet connection problems should call for home computer support.  Read more »

It seems there are countless new messaging apps popping up every month for mobile devices.  Mobile chat is currently one of the most popular platforms in consumer technology and many different companies are trying to jump on the bandwagon.  However, most of these apps aren’t very different from each other.  Many use basic text, others use photos, and some even use videos.  However, with such an explosion of options becoming available, it is very difficult to find a messaging app that does something truly different or unique.  Cool product Pingtune is a messaging app that manages to stand out from its competition due to its creative medium for messaging: music.  Pingtune lets users send messages in the form of songs to their friends.  Pingtune users can take music available from SoundCloud and YouTube and embed them in special messages to send to others.  Users who have difficulty getting songs to embed correctly in their messages should seek help from a mobile IT support service. Read more »

Networking is an important aspect of running a business, but finding times and places where one has an easy chance to do so without coming off as pushy or awkward isn’t an easy task.  Cool person in technology Nick Martin believes business professionals are making a big mistake by ignoring one particular place that could be a proverbial gold mine for networking: airplanes.  On most flights, professionals sit quietly or sleep. Some might read, but the hours spent on flights between major cities are usually time idly spent.  Martin thinks these hours are a prime opportunity to develop mutually beneficial business relationships with other professionals and build a list of contacts.  That’s why Martin founded Planely, a startup that tries to facilitate professional networking on flights all over the world.  With Planely, professionals can find out what other people they will be traveling with on their next flight.  Martin’s web app allows users to make connections pre-flight so businesspeople can plan to meet up at the airport or on the plane in order to start discussion and conversation.  If someone has trouble connecting to Planely on the web, there is home tech support available at all times.  Read more »