Spider Silk: The Super Material of the Future

Today's scientists and researchers are more advanced than they have ever been before thanks to the use of highly effective traditional research methods combined with the speed and efficiency afforded by modern day technology. Case in point, one recent discovery in the material science realm, spider silk, has given scientists, medical professionals, the military, and business thinkers alike a reason for excitement because it has proven to be one of the most revolutionary materials science has seen in a long time. Spider silk, which many are calling the "new super material of the future", is over five times stronger than steel, ten times stronger than kevlar, and yet more elastic than a rubber band. It's potential uses span from the automobile, medical, military and construction industry. You can find out more about this amazing new material in this infographic, "Spider Silk: The Super Material of the Future", including what ways you might see this material show up next.

This infographic was produced by Sierra Cases. Find rackmount case solutions from Sierra Cases.

Read More

From Tablet to Tablet [Infographic]

Infographic on "From Tablet To Tablet"

Infographic by Needashredder

Read More

GRAPHENE: A Material That Enabled the Creation of Flexible Smartphones

Infographic By Quib.ly

Read More

The Evolution of the Cell Phone [INFOGRAPHIC]

From Bricks to Brains: The Evolution of the Cell Phone

Source: Computersciencedegreehub

Embed this infographic on your site!

<br /> <a href="http://dailytipsndtricks.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-evolution-of-cell-phone-infographic.html"><img style="max-width: 100%;" src="http://imageshack.us/a/img811/2093/btf1.jpg" alt="From Bricks to Brains: The Evolution of the Cell Phone" /></a><br />Source: <a href="http://www.computersciencedegreehub.com/cell-phone/">Computersciencedegreehub</a></p><p></a></p>

Read More

Women and Computer Science Degrees

Traditionally, women aren’t known for entering technological fields. Tech careers and businesses are oversaturated with a male presence, but there has recently been a change in this regard. Women are starting to get more tech degrees, but what caused this major change? Here are a few things to consider when it comes to women and computer science degrees.

Early History

The truth is that women made up 37 percent of computer science graduates in 1985 when this degree was first offered to the public. While this was a large number, it significantly decreased to 22 percent in 2005, and then down to 18 percent in 2010.

In fact, the number of female graduates in this regard has been on a continual slope from 1985 until 2010. For example, only eight percent of Georgia Tech graduates were women.

Nerd Factor

Computer science students are stereotyped as nerds with thick glasses, pocket protectors and isolated cubicles. Both genders hate this stereotype and it’s primarily false, but it seems to affect women more than men. It’s not so much the lack of fashion, but the isolated lifestyle that seems to affect women the most.

Major Changes

More women have been getting computer science degrees since 2010, but the biggest change has been women getting jobs at IT companies. This figure grew about 42 percent since 2003. Not only that, but women are starting 150 percent more IT companies than men.

Women are Valuable

Looking at the statistics, you’ll notice that tech companies with more women tend to make more money. Most of them will make 34 percent more money on their investments than similar companies that are dominated by men.

No one’s sure if this is because women are smarter, more savvy at technology, or if having a balanced number of both genders just improves overall thinking, but the fact is that women truly are valuable to tech companies.

Women have traditionally stayed away from computer science degrees for many reasons, but that trend is quickly changing. Not only that, but many experts are suggesting that women should be exposed to technology at an early age to further increase the number of women who seek these degrees.

Source: Best Computer Science Schools

Read More

The Benefits of Twitter to Every Modern Business

The dilemma that lots of modern companies face is far removed from the early question of whether employees need to use social media at work. Having seen the far-reaching good effect of social media to firm profitability and success, the one question that should be on the minds of managers is how to effectively use social media within the place of work. One of the accessible social media platforms that aid in enhancing employee’s productivity, abilities and interaction within the organization is Twitter. You may also check followersboosts.com if you so desire to improve your Twitter presence immensely.

Hiring the Best Talent

A survey by the Emerging Workforce Study discovered that 45% of staff considered that a company's presence in social media affects their choice of a new employer. This shows that a company that does not have a meaningful social media presence could be less appealing for many potential employees.

A firm can take advantage of the personal accounts of its employees to help improve its reach in online platforms such as Twitter. Indeed, workers can be great brand evangelists for the company, simply by tweeting on current events within the business. In comparison to the company’s Twitter account alone, it will be simpler to cover different online communities if all the Twitter accounts of your employees are maximized. It's through this that a lot of prospective workers will be reached and give awareness at the same time concerning the company itself.

Giving workers the freedom in making use of their own Twitter account while at work will much more likely attract today’s skilled and talented people. Many such creative minds like venturing into new areas of discovery without much regulatory problems. With that, most skilled workers choose to work in a flexible working environment.



Then again, the level of productivity at work will be compromise if the use of social media is abused. Hence, any company seeking to maintain the benefits of social media should evaluate the best way to utilize social platforms. One way to handle the use of social media may involve greater access by departments that benefit most from its use. The departments that typically benefit most from use of social media include:

• Sales
• Advertising, and
• Customer care

Enhanced Productivity

A new study carried out by Evolv (a company that evaluates the metrics of Fortune 500 companies) found that use of social media actually improves productivity among certain groups of workers. The social interaction offered by sites like Twitter provides the best opportunity for many sales people to achieve bigger reach with prospective clients. As compared to the employees who aren’t benefiting from the usage of social media, these employees are able to close a number of deals and simply bringing their business to greater heights.

There were also companies which took advantage of Twitter in making use of their accounts to offer customer care services. By way of this, any client’s complaints, concerns and queries can be immediately managed by employees. Considering this fast and dependable response, the company can attain customer loyalty that will also guarantee long term sales.

In addition, employees can effortlessly determine the company’s reputation in line with the public’s perception in Twitter. Besides, any misguided opinions can be directly corrected before it actually shed a bad light for the company. Also, wrong information regarding the company can be dealt with by brand managers as soon as it is detected. Thus, the reputation of the firm is left unstained.

Such social platforms as Twitter give a great chance for following up on previous clients of the company. Sales personnel can continually communicate with past clients without appearing to be pushy when it comes to business related deals. With this casual communication, the firm will be able to land more return of sales opportunities from former clients.

Social media recognition that any worker have achieved will also impact the organization in a good way. Many individuals on social media would have a positive perception of the businesses in which well-known professionals work. In other words, if specialists are highly prominent in social media platforms, they would also spread the fame to the companies they're a part of.

Better Relationships at Work

In terms of modern organizations, they offer an open line of communication between entry level personnel and greatest ranking executives. Such active communication could be enhanced further through social media platforms. Such a platform as Twitter facilitates for an unreserved and truthful interaction between workers at different levels in a company. This will also provide lower-level employees a chance to say what they want to say towards the higher-level personnel within the company. This is contrary to traditional memos and emails which provide less opportunity for entry-level employees to express their unreserved opinions.

Twitter really gives a clear line of social communication between employees that promote understanding and appreciation. Moreover, workers can easily share their ideas, perspectives, and how they see life which can help them lead to far better choices. HR managers can make use of this platform into their own benefit. By knowing the current issues that are brewing within the company; they can handle each issues by developing useful strategies and programs that will afterwards eliminate any resistance against the firm.

Countless companies organize team building activities partly to develop closer social interaction among the workers. Such social interaction can be boosted through social media. By interacting with one another on Twitter, numerous workers develop closer relationships beyond the work environment. This can assist develop team work and cooperation within a business.

Once employees and managers are having a good line of communication on Twitter, this promotes understanding not just on a personal level but also to the innate skills and talents they possess. This is one way of getting information that is needed in the deciding which employee deserves a job promotion. Nevertheless, HR managers can determine the ideals and values of the employees which also work as a basis for promotion.

Social media is currently an essential tool in the business operation of countless organizations. No business companies can afford to miss making use of this useful tool if they want to be successful. By identifying and using the advantageous aspects of social media use, both small businesses and large organizations can accomplish greater productivity and long term sustainability.

Author Bio:

An Article courtesy of Followersboost.com - a dependable and reliable source for beneficial information and tools to grow your popularity on Twitter. This site can also help you Buy Targeted Twitter Followers if you want to maximize your account.

Read More

USB Flash Drives and the Digital Age

Professional photographers today are faced with two choices when it comes to digital storage – DVDs or USB flash drives. Clients want to know that the storage device you use will keep their pictures safe and secure, and they also want a device that gives them easy access to those pictures. Given these considerations, USB flash drives are the better option every time. On paper, DVDs might look like the better choice – they can hold about 100 pictures more than a flash drive, and they are certainly less expensive. However, it takes a lot longer to upload large blocks of information to a DVD and DVDs are more vulnerable to damage. Conversely, flash drives allow for a quicker upload of information, safer portability, and they are compatible with all kinds of devices, from smartphones to tablets. And in our digitally connected world, clients truly appreciate the convenience of being able to upload photographs instantly to their social media sites!

Created by the marketing team at Custom USB, this infographic provides detailed information and a comparison between DVDs and USB Flash Drives.

Read More

Five Things You Didn’t Know About Google+ for Business

Since its beginnings, Google+ has had the unfortunate label of being like a step child in the social media family. Social network titans like Facebook and Twitter have always been more popular in the past for individuals and businesses alike.

But for anyone with an online business who wants their presence made online, Google+ has actually become a necessity for online marketing.

So, if you are running a new business and are overlooking your Google+ account, it’s probably because you assume that little to no value can come of it. But that’s the furthest from the truth; Google+ can make a big difference in your overall Google rankings, as well how you engage your target customers.

1) Creating a business page can improve your search appearance:

Have you ever looked up a business you were curious in, and saw the large rich snippet image appearing to the right of the screen? This is all tied to how Google finds your business, which can be easily modified when you create a Places for Businesses page.

Google will favor your business when you have a well-established Google+ page (alongside a Places page)— allowing more accurate search results when people search for your business.

In Google’s eyes, trusted businesses will have their image icon appear within search results; making a good impression on anyone searching for you.

Give your target market the chance to read reviews of your business, and learn more about your products and services.

2) The +1 Button:

Ah yes, the mysterious “+1” button from Google. Believe it or not, it’s actually more straightforward than you think. Users clicking the +1 button, indirectly impact your business.

It’s doesn’t affect direct SEO; instead, it shows how users are likely to interact. Users are more likely to trust businesses who interact on Google+, and have a +1 business or product.

Having user-relevant content on Google+ will improve a business’ SEO rankings; attracting more clicks and +1 shares.

3) Google+ profiles are treated like regular sites:

According to a recent article in Social Media Today, Google doesn’t give special treatment to Google+ profiles; they are ranked with the same factors of any other website.

Individual Google+ pages even have their own PageRank. Providing some extra care to your Google+ profile (including your own interaction, links, as well as user interaction), could mean better rankings for your sites.

Find a way how to monitor employees Google+ interactions; evaluate your findings and plan a strategy to make the most of it.

4) Google Hangouts are more effective than you think:

Plenty of us have used live stream services for meetings and such through Skype and GoToMeeting. These help drive internal matters of your business, but have you thought about what you can do with Google+ Hangouts?

One of the most significant aspects of Hangouts is how you can live stream your sessions with the public, even if they aren’t involved with the Hangout. Take the opportunity to conduct a live interview, webinar — anything you want on camera for your target customers to view and understand.

Nothing beats letting your audience see the faces behind your project. The live streams can be viewed by an unlimited amount of people; so it’s a great tool.

5) Google+ has more users than you think:

Everyone likes to thumb their nose at Google+, believing “no one is on it”; but guess again. This past June, Google+ had more than half a billion active users, with numbers steadily growing.

If you’re looking to reach out to an audience beyond just Facebook and Twitter, it’s time to put Google+ in full gear.

Author Bio:

Andrea Fisher is a published journalist as well as a content writer for ADT Home Security. She has an English degree and political science minor from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Read More

NSA: Best Mobile Phone Trackers Around

During 2005 the NSA began its warrantless wiretap program to look into international emails and calls. It’s come a long way from being an organization that was created to spy on foreign agencies. No one would have predicted that it would one day be deploying mobile phone trackers against citizens of the United States. The NSA folks are so skilled that they even cracked the Blackberry code! Blackberry has boasted of the most secure system around, and even they couldn’t fight the NSA off. Companies like Verizon are routinely handed over customer data to the NSA. Do you think the NSA is going a bit too far?

Infographic By: Mobistealth

Read More

7 Shocking Stats & Trends About The Internet

Below is an Infographic on "7 Shocking Stats & Trends About The Internet"

Infographic By: Staff.com

Read More

The Future Of The Cloud [Infographic]

• By 2016 two-thirds all workloads will be processed in the cloud, which is a two-fold increase on the number on workloads per installed cloud server in 2011. Better make sure you’re getting your work done on time and in budget because your world is going to be no longer private!
• For those of you who don’t know what an Exabyte is, it’s equivalent to 1 billion gigabytes and currently businesses around the world use 268 Exabyte’s when using the cloud. That’s an increase from 124 in 2011 and is expected to increase more than double to 596 Exabyte’s by 2016! That is a hell of a bite!
• Cloud usage is currently measured at 39% in the public cloud such as google drive, 34% is being used in the private cloud which are used by businesses internally and 27% in the hybrid cloud which is where both the clouds are bound together whilst remaining unique entities. Hybrid cloud provides the flexibility of in house applications with the fault tolerance and scalability of cloud based services.
• The value of the cloud services are on the up! They are currently worth $117bn and is projected to increase around $100bn to $220bn with the public cloud alone expected to worth around $110bn in 2016. There’s a lot of money in things that don’t really exist!

Have a look through our Infographic for more great facts!

This infographic has been supplied by the guys at CWCS.

Read More

Which Type Of Apps Are Mostly Used by Smartphone Users?

Check out this cool Infographic on Which type of apps are mostly used by Smartphone Users?

This Infographic is produced by Coupon Audit (provides Abebooks coupon code) and Daily Tips And Tricks.

Please feel free to Add this Infographic on your Webpage using the below code :)
.
<br /> <img style="max-width: 100%;" src="http://www.couponaudit.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Which-Type-Of-Apps-Are-Mostly-Used-by-Smartphone-Users.jpg" alt="Which Type Of Apps Are Mostly Used by Smartphone Users?" /></p><p></a></p><p>This Infographic is produced by <a href="http://www.couponaudit.com/coupons/abebooks">Coupon Audit (provides Abebooks coupon code)</a> and <a href="http://dailytipsndtricks.blogspot.com/">Daily Tips And Tricks</a> </p>.<br />

Read More

5 Bestselling Tablets In India

Android tablets may seem to dominate the global market but they aren’t the only ones out there. Nowadays, Apple, Blackberry, Acer, Dell, Asus, and Lenovo computer tablets come installed with different OS. But what makes a tablet the best? Is it just the OS or performance or sleek design? Or everything mixed in right proportion to create the best? Apple made it to the news for its elegant and classy design and that in turn gave birth to the futuristic concept of ergonomics. Nokia was probably the only company that had unique designs far more futuristic than any, if you remember their 80s and 90s mobile models. Some were even beyond weird. But that aside, let us discuss the best selling tablets in the Indian market.

Google Nexus 7 (2012)

Google is a search engine, as we all know. They introduced their flagship Nexus back in 2009. Nexus devices garnered the attention of a lot of people. After all those years, Google still attracts that kind of attention for economical yet exclusive, beautiful and fast smartphones and tablets. Nexus 7 was one of the best selling tablets in India and gained a lot of positive reviews for offering a lot at a budget price. Asus manufactured the tablet that comes with a 7-inch IPS LCD display screen with 1280*800 resolution at 216ppi. Powering it is Nvidia Tegra chipset with quad-core Cortex-A-9 at 1.3GHz CPU, Nvidia GeForce twelve-core at 416Mhz GPU and 1GB RAM. Internal storage comes with 16GB or 32GB capacity and support for external storage up to 32GB. Making it run is a Li-Ion 4325mAh battery that lasts for 9.5 hours. You can connect via Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth or USB. Best part? It comes with the latest Jelly Bean OS.

Apple iPad (4th Generation)

Apple has been in the spotlight for years now for their smartphones and tablets. You may find it hard to believe but they have been around in this market only since 2007. So, what made them so famous? If I have to say, they offered a different kind of a smartphone design with a technology that has never been integrated before – multi-touch. In the early 2000s, we had the first modern multi-touch device made by Mitsubishi and in the late 2000s Apple introduced to the world its first touch smartphone overshadowing Microsoft’s PixelSense and CUBIT. What does iPad offer that makes it one of the best selling computer tablets in India? It comes with a 9.7-inches IPS LED display with 2048*1536p resolution at 264ppi. Now, that is some display. The processor is a 1.4GHz dual-core A6X CPU, quad-core PowerVR GPU and 1GB RAM. We also get a 1.2MP front camera with 720p HD video recording and 5MP rear camera with 1080p HD video recording and other camera features. This one comes with internal storage options from 16GB, 32GB, 64GB and 128GB. The battery is a huge 11,5660mAh giving at least 10 hours of web browsing and watching videos. You can connect via Bluetooth, USB, and Wi-Fi or choose the one that supports 2G and 3G. We also get the latest iOS6 with this device.

Samsung Galaxy 10.1

Undeniably, Samsung’s Tab 10.1 is one of the best selling tablets since it offers a lot of features to a variety of customers. The latest tablet comes with upgraded hardware and software now. This computer tablet is a 10.1-inches LCD display with 1280*800p resolution at 149ppi. It has a quad-core ARM Cortex A-9 CPU and 2GB RAM. Internal storage options are from 16GB up to 64 GB and this tablet also supports external storage capacity up to 64GB. The front camera is 1.9MP with 720p HD video recording and rear camera is 5MP with 1080p video recording. Power is at 7,000mAh that gives a good enough web browsing and video playback time. Though it comes with Android 4.0.4, it is upgradeable to Android 4.1 The connectivity options are Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB, and optional 3G.

Asus EEE Transformer Pad:

Asus has long joined Google, Samsung, Apple, Microsoft, Lenovo, and Dell to become a part of this ever-growing smartphone industry. Known for their Notebooks and PCs, their advent in the smartphone and tablet market is not inconspicuous to us at all. In fact, they have manufactured devices with Android and Windows pre-installed. But this one, EEE Transformer Pad, was released 2 years back with Android OS pre-installed and has become one of the best selling tablets due to its amazing and premium design, detachable screen and IPS display. This tablet comes with a 10.1-inches IPS display screen with 1280*800p resolution at 149ppi. Nvidia Tegra powers the 1GHz dual-core CPU and 1GB RAM. Internal storage comes with 16GB or 32GB and unlimited Asus Web storage for a year. We also get a 1.2MP front camera and 5MP rear camera with high quality stereo speakers. The 24.4Wh Li-Ion battery gives 10 hours of playback time and 16 hours with dock. Since it is an older release, it comes with Android 4.0 and there is no news of future updates.

Blackberry PlayBook:

Blackberry is making a comeback with their products and even with the intensity of increasing competition brought to us their PlayBook tablet a couple of years back. The initial sale response was very lukewarm as there were others in the market that offered more at the price PlayBook was priced at. It was after the reduction in price that the sales increased marginally but they still have very low market share since most of it is dominated by the likes of Apple, Google and Microsoft. But that didn’t deter Blackberry so let us see what makes this tablet stick around in the market. This one comes with a 7-inches LCD WSVGA display screen of 1024*600p resolution at 169ppi. The processor is a dual-core 1GHz Cortex A-9 CPU, PowerVR GPU and 1GB RAM. It comes with 32GB internal storage and no external storage. We also get a 4,800maH battery that is kind of average battery life. But this tablet has Blackberry’s OS installed and offers good number of applications if not equal to Android or iOS.

Author Bio:

Rohit Reddy is the editor of GadgetResearch. He is a gadget and technology enthusiast and loves blogging about them. In his free time he likes to follow the latest tech news and share it with his friends.

Read More

Mobile Technology's Swift Rise

Over the years, mobile technology's swift rise has made quite a splash on the world. From the clunkier mobile phones that date back to the 1980s up to today's Apple iPhone and Samsung's famed Galaxy line, no other technology has spread as quickly on a worldwide scale to saturate the market to such an extent. The statistics don't lie, and mobile technology has risen to epic proportions over the years. It is worth exploring it in detail.

At this point in time, there are an overwhelming 6.8 billion cell phone subscriptions across the world. This has been a huge and consistent climb since the earliest days of cell phones. Generally speaking, the first mobile phone devices can be traced back to 1918, when these items were used in German military trains. The German Reichsbahn and mail service in 1926 then offered mobile phones to train passengers riding first class. By 1931, there was a children's book composed by Erich Kastner, who included a future utopia with mobile phones in its description. In the 1940s, in large United States cities, mobile phones were available in luxury cars. In 1961, Soviet engineer Leonid Kupryanovich introduced a handheld mobile phone. Motorola, a well known company today, produced its first mobile phones in 1973. Five years later, in 1978, 1G service began. By the 1990s, 2G service was begun and took off in a huge way. In 2001, 3G service got its start, and then by 2009, 4G service began.

For every 100 people on earth, there are now 96 cell subscriptions. Mobile saturation by continent can be measured in subscriptions per every 100 residents. There are 63 cell subscriptions for every 100 residents of Africa, the continent with the least of these subscriptions and 170 throughout North America. Surprisingly, the rural poor from the developing world are leading the charge in terms of individuals who are signing up for new cell phone subscriptions. More of these people are using mobile broadband as well. In fact, 20 percent of the saturation of mobile broadband in the developing world reside in sub-Saharan Africa and in the Asia Pacific area.

One quarter of mobile phone users now do their online shopping from their phones. One fifth of these users rely on their mobile phones with which to do their shopping in general. Mobile payments increased from $105.9 billion in 2011 to $171.5 billion in 2012. The mobile companies are thriving as they are reaping the rewards, which include millions of new cell subscriptions on a daily basis.

For Better View: Right click the below infographic and select "Open image in new tab"

Source: Best Computer Science Degrees.

Read More

Fascinating Facts about Ebay

Ebay is a brilliant place where you can find every weird and wonderful thing imaginable. Here are some fascinating facts about this weird and wonderful space:

• There is a car sold every 2 seconds on Ebay! Not toy ones – the real deal!
• Another popular item sold on Ebay is ladies handbags, one handbag is sold every 3 seconds on Ebay.
• A fascinating item sold very frequently on Ebay an Mp3 player, one is sold every minute. We didn’t think they’d be so popular but they are!
• The most expensive item sold on Ebay so far is a Gulfstream jet which went to the highest bidder at $4.9 mil!
• There is also a wedding dress on sale which is modelled by the seller’s ex-husband. If the model doesn’t put you off – it is a gorgeous dress!
• If you’ve always wanted a cornflake in the shape of the state of Illinois then you are in luck! For $1.350K that cornflake can be yours!
• In total Ebay has over 300 million items for sale with over 1 bn items accessible at any time!

If you’d like some more fascinating facts about Ebay then check out our infographic which is full of them!

UK Packaging created this infographic.

Read More

Five Great Reasons Why Your Kid Should Have A Mobile Phone

Is your child always complaining about getting a new mobile phone? You're not alone. Kids nowadays seem to expect to have a phone by the time they're a certain age. And it's not unusual to see eight year olds with cute pink mobile phones in the school playground. Whilst there are some solid reasons not to let your child have a phone, there are some pretty compelling reasons why they should. So before you dismiss the matter out of hand, you might want to think about some of these things first...

Phones Can Keep Kids Safe...

This is the number one reason that most parents give in and buy their kid a phone, and it's a good one. In an emergency, when the school bus is missed, when you forget about football practice, whatever, you can contact your child and he can contact you. This is a big deal. Plus, there are advantages to having GPS enabled phones too. A simple downloadable app will let you trace your kid wherever they are, as long as their phone is charged and switched on. The security of knowing where your child is, and of knowing that no matter what they can contact you is a great reason why you should think about buying your kid a phone.

Phones are Convenient...

You're going to be ten minutes late to after school pick up? Your daughter's piano teacher just cancelled? The convenience of having a mobile phone works both ways. You can get in contact and change plans or schedules whenever you need to. Plus, there's more chance that your kid is going to call you when their plans change too.

Phones are Cheap...

Mobile phones are simply not the luxury items that they were in the past. You can get a decent hand set for next to nothing, and a few pounds credit a month will do the job. Getting your kid a phone nowadays really isn't about financial concerns at all, it's a lot more about convenience and peace of mind. For the price of a few pounds you can know that your kid is a phone call away, and that's pretty invaluable.

Phones Teach Responsibility...

If it's about time that your kid learned a little personal responsibility, then a cell phone might be the way to teach that. Learning about how to keep track of one' own things, how to take care of something that's precious, will be a lot easier when it involves something that your kid has wanted for a long time and now doesn't want to be without. Plus, it's a good way to learn financial responsibility too, particularly if you choose a pay as you go model...

Phones Encourage Communication...

Teens find it a lot easier to communicate through text than face to face. By letting your kid have a phone you're keeping alternative methods of communication open, and increasing the likelihood that you'll know what's going on at any given time.

So, if you are weighing up the options, then these are some reasons that you might come down on the side of going out and getting your child a smartphone.

Image Credit: Ambro.

Author Bio:

Phil Turner can understand why girls want pink mobile phones. What he fails to understand is why so few manufacturers actually make them.

Read More

How to Convert PDF to Word for Free

The two most popular file formats used on a regular basis in the digital world are probably the PDF format and the Microsoft Word format. They are used in the office, at school and at home by just about every computer user for a large variety of purposes.

PDFs are used because they are universal and compact. This is what makes them great for sending information between people. However, they are hard to edit, which is one of their main downfalls. MS Word files, however, are easily editable. When people receive information as a PDF and they want to edit the information, converting the file into an MS Word file is one of the quickest and easiest ways to do so.

Thankfully, there are some great online converters that can take care of this for you - one is Convert PDF to Word. This online tool is completely free to use and it gives you high-quality conversions that maintain the form and structure of your PDF when converting it into a Word file.

The conversion can be performed with this online tool in three easy steps, with no need to download any type of desktop software.

1. Click “Browse” to select the PDF you want to convert.

2. Enter your email address.

3. Click “Send”.

A link for downloading your newly converted MS Word file will be sent to your email address.

It’s very reliable and quick, and of course, it is completely free. Anyone who needs to perform a quick and accurate conversion from PDF to Word should definitely try out Convert PDF to Word as a highly recommended free online option.

Read More

I Want Super-Fast Broadband - Can I Get It?

Fiber optic broadband is sometimes classified as super-fast broadband. It’s the fastest broadband available to residential consumers and is an incredible service for most. Fiber optic broadband does come in different package speeds. In this article, we’ll look at whether you can get it in your home and the speeds attainable through some different providers.

The Speeds of Fiber Optic Broadband:

Super-fast fiber optic broadband is up 100Mpbs for residential consumers. Virgin Broadband offers incredible speeds that can be enough to do the highest intensity activities and for multiple people to engage with the internet at the same time. With the slowest connections, you tend to get up to 24Mbps or up to 38Mbps as with Sky Broadband. These connections still are very fast considering the fact that you get almost the speed that is advertised.

ADSL Broadband:

With ADSL Broadband you only get a fraction of the speed advertised in some cases. This is because the copper cables of the BT infrastructure are not very good at allowing the internet data to pass and therefore there are bottlenecks and slowdowns along the journey. With fiber optic cables they are optimal for internet transfer. Therefore you get close to your advertised speed especially on fiber-to-the-home offerings.

Fiber-to-the-home is where the entire internet journey is over the fiber optic cables. With fiber-to-the-cabinet, the final leg of the journey is over copper cables of the BT infrastructure. Therefore, with fiber-to-the-cabinet you tend to lose a bit more speed.

How important is speed?

Speed of broadband is crucial to many of the activities you do. If you’re looking to do high definition movie streaming, you may need 5Mbps connections. Indeed, with standard definition movies you may well need between 0.5Mbps and 2Mbps otherwise you’ll end up waiting around while the connection buffers the stream and you may even end up with breaks in your connection during a movie or a video event. It’s important therefore that you have enough download speed to handle the challenges.

Have a look at: Factors That Affect Your Broadband Speed.

What about upload speed?

With upload speed you can be seriously impacted if you haven’t got enough. If you are sending photos to Facebook and there are pretty large files, you could end up waiting for ten minutes for them to upload and not know whether it’s actually progressing or not.

Indeed, if you’re uploading large files to a web server or to Google docs again you could wait for hours and hours. Upload speed tends to be much lower than download speeds. If you have an up to 16Mbps download speed you may only have 1Mbps upload speed. Indeed, with performance issues you may even get much lower speed on upload than this. This can mean waiting around for hours and hours.

Business connections can have symmetric connections, for example, symmetric DSL, SDSL, as opposed to ADSL. With symmetric connections you have the same upload speed and download speed meaning that you can do the things that you want to do upstream just as fast as you want those that you want to do downstream. This is a great benefit for businesses that spend more time sending data than receiving it.

Of course, as residential broadband consumers, we do spend more time browsing, downloading, and generally interacting with data that’s coming to us than sending data away. However, it’s important for you understand your particular activity so you ensure that you get the upload speed that you require.

Latency and Ping Speeds:

Latency or ping is the amount of time it takes to get response from the server. It isn’t the speed of data transfer; it is the speed of response. The ping speed is important for certain activities such as multiplayer gaming, online video chat, and even sometimes video streaming. If you have poor latency speeds you can end up with a jittery and generally poor quality performance of certain activities. It’s therefore important that you have a good ping speed.

This is somewhere that fiber optic broadband can fall down. The fiber optic cables aren’t always the best at getting the best ping rates and where you may get 35milliseconds on ADSL, you may get double or more this on fiber optic broadband. It’s important to consider this when you’re looking at the activities you want to do and it may be that you want to choose an ADSL connection if you are looking to do certain activities.

Can I get fiber optic broadband?

Many of us are wondering whether we can get fiber optic broadband in our area or not. The cables are being run all the time and it may have changed since we last checked. The best way to check is to do a post code search. If you search online for "Can I get fibre optic broadband?" you’ll get a number of search results offering you tools to find out. All you have to do is pop in your postcode and you’ll be shown the providers that are servicing your area.

If they are servicing your area, you’ll also probably be able to see the package details, costs, speeds, and so on. You can then look at the small print, fair usage policies and traffic management to decide whether a particular deal is for you.

It’s also well worth looking at the speed test results that people have done in your area.

Have a look at: Free Softwares To Increase Your Internet Speed.

Speed Test Results:

Whenever someone does a speed test on their connection, they are normally provided with the opportunity to share their results. These results go into the back end of a system where you can search on a map and find out what connection speeds different providers are attaining in your neighbourhood. This is a great way to see actual speeds of fiber optic and ADSL broadband without having to rely on advertised speeds.

Generally, fiber optic broadband gets very close to the advertised level. However, we’ve seen that Virgin Broadband are best on this measure and sometimes you may get 10Mbps slower if you are a long way from the cabinet or if you have a poor infrastructure in your home. It’s therefore really crucial that you do a variety of tests to ensure that you get the best broadband connection available to you.

Do also consider your usage profile to ensure that you manage to get a connection that is appropriate and not superfluous to your requirements. You just end up wasting money if you get an unlimited top level connection and you don’t end up using your broadband for doing anything other than browsing and checking e-mail.

Image Credit: pakorn.

Author Bio:

Sam Jones’s son wanted to make sure his fiber optic broadband was working at its maximum potential. Sites like uSwitch told him how he could do this and saved him a lot of time.

Read More

How Do You Access Facebook?

According to a recent article by The Guardian, four out of five Facebook users log on daily using their smartphone or tablet. Did you know that 24 million people use Facebook every day? Which means that 83% of those people are using Facebook on their mobile. Have a look at How do we spend time online (Infographic) to check how facebook dominates other sites!

Mobile Growth:

The use of mobile phones is growing faster and faster than ever before. There has been a massive shift towards mobile phone use and people are accessing the internet on their phones on a daily basis.

How do you access information on the web? What do you use? The chances are you are accessing websites whilst shopping, on the train, at work or waiting in line at your local coffee shop. Your mobile phone is a pretty important piece of kit. It is what connects you with the world, it is what enables you to find out what is going on in the world of social media and the greater world that is out there. It links you to friends, to family, you can check your bank balance on it, transfer your rent and even check the latest football results.

You can update your Facebook or your Twitter to share your opinions with the rest of the world. You can inform the world of your pending nuptials whilst you are busy being proposed to and you can take a photo of what you ate and where and load it to Instagram in a matter of seconds.

Your mobile phone is a powerful communication tool that is more than just your ability to chat to your friends or to text them as to where you want to meet them.

But is your phone insured? Do you have mobile phone insurance? Have you just come down off your mobile-phone-buzz and thought of what would happen if you lost your phone or if someone stole it?

If your mobile phone is an essential part of your life, an extension of your body and a vital part of who you are, then it is of paramount importance that you have it insured. Mobile phones can be costly if they are not insured. And, if your phone is lost, broken or stolen, it also means that you could be without your phone for a long time.

By insuring your phone you are making sure that you are never really without one. Mobile phone insurance can be the difference between being lost and missing contact with your friends to having a new and replacement phone within a matter of hours. Have a look at Protecting Your Mobile Phone.

Your mobile phone is a key part of your daily life. Whether it be for work, personal use or both, can you really imagine being without your mobile phone?

Well, if that is the case then isn’t it high time you had your mobile phone insured? From cracked screens and lost phones to stolen phones and unauthorised calls, you will want to make sure you are covered.

And, it starts from as little as the cost of a loaf or bread. Go on, use your loaf.

Author Bio:

Bill Turner is a techie at heart, loving the rate at which gadgets come out and how helpful they are, his home is stuffed full of the essential gadgets.

Read More

No Signal On Your Phone?

Sometimes for no reason at all there is no signal on your mobile phone. It could be that you are in an area where the signal is very bad, it may be there is a temporary problem with your nearest cell tower but sometimes the signal just drops off and does not come back. There are a few things you can do to try to get your signal so you can make a call.

Try moving around. It is possible that you have a dead spot in your house where there is just no signal at all, but a few steps either side you might have full signal bars. Stand near to windows and doors to see if that makes a difference. It may be that you will have to go outside to get a signal. If the lack of signal is a constant problem then you may need to change your network provider. It could be that your current provider no longer covers the region where you live, or has reduced the number of cell towers they have in the area so coverage will become intermittent.

Call Your Network:

If you find that this is happening to you, call your network provider to see if they have made any changes to their coverage. If they have and the changes are temporary, maybe work is being done to your local tower, and then they may be able to offer compensation for the lack of network availability. If the change is going to be long term, explain to them that you will need to change your provider and check to see what notice period is required to end your contract.

Search Manually:

You can also try manually searching for your network. This is done through the menus of your phone, but depending on the brand and the model, the instructions will vary.

In your menu there will be a settings icon. In there should be a network option. By clicking on the select network option you will be given the choice of Automatic or manual. Choose the manual option and the phone will search for all available networks in your area. Once the networks come up, choose your provider and the signal should return to your phone.

This is also used to find a network when aboard if one is not automatically selected on arrival in your destination country. If you check with your network provider before travelling, they will have a list of rates for calls and texts from abroad and the network available. That way when choosing the networks you will already know which one offers the best deals.

Change Networks:

If you have tried everything and still have no satisfactory signal then changing provider is really easy. If you are still in contract you may be able to come to some arrangement with your current provider, particularly if the signal problems are their fault. If your contract has expired then you can give notice and join with your new network at your own convenience. Just ask your old network for a PAC number and you can then port your number to the new network provider so that business contacts, family and friends do not need to learn your new number.

Image Credit: FrameAngel.

Author Bio:

Phil Turner has always found that getting a PAC number from his network has been very simple and he changes his network whenever he finds a better deal.

Read More