Ways to Use Your Smartphone Camera

Did you know that your phone camera can be used for more than just video conferencing and taking really bad pictures that will later get you in trouble? One of the best best ways that you can use that camera is to take pictures of receipts and airline boarding passes. It is very convenient because receipts can be lost and you can use the boarding pass pictures to get your miles credit. And I use my phone sometimes to record where I park by taking a picture of street signs at a nearby intersection. When I rent a car, I take a picture of its license plate or maybe the car itself, so I can find it later, lest I forget what I'm driving that day. You can also use it to document accidents and help you avoid legal trouble. Hope these tips help!

Beaming Internet From Drones

Facebook is reportedly in talks to purchase a company called Titan Aerospace, which makes solar-powered drones that can fly around without needing to land for five years. These drones may be used as satellites to project free Internet to developing nations from outer space. This is part of their philosophy that everyone in the world should have free access to the internet and all the communication services that come with the world wide web. You may be wondering: Is it legal for Facebook to just launch a bunch of flying machines over Africa and have them chill there for five years? Sort of! Because these drones are deemed satellites and they’re being launched to a height above the official U.S. Class A airspace (about 60,000 feet), the country isn’t able to regulate them. Obviously this law will be different in, say, Africa (where Facebook reportedly aims to launch the program first).

The Internet of the Future

So here we are with all this technology at our fingertips and the question becomes, what is next? What will the future of the internet and website development look like? A lot of people speculate that it will be more pervasive but less visible. This might be an indication of the idea that we are always going to be online and connected. To some degree, that should make us a bit more nervous. Speaking of always being connected, it will eliminate the need for some professions, or at least nearly as many open spots for them. With existing resources like Wikipedia and Khan Academy, the Internet currently provides access to education like never before. Many of the academics surveyed believe that these resources will only get better over time, creating a more equal playing field. The internet will also break down geography and at the same time make us more lonely. While our interactions may increase, they will also become more superficial and unsustainable. Any thoughts?

Don't Text and Walk

Researchers at the University of Queensland observed 26 people as they walked, both without a smartphone and with one. They noticed that participants who were texting walked more slowly, hunched their shoulders forward, and didn’t walk in a straight line. Although I don't think that you need research to figure out that paying attention to phone services while you are walking will make you do a face plant in a fountain or a telephone poll. I have written a lot of times about the necessity to put phones and other things away when you are doing something important like for example walking on a busy street or catching up on some sleep. It also makes me wonder just how humanity was able to survive all these years leading up to thirty years ago when the Mac can onto the scene. Either way, it has been thirty years of innovation and now it feels like it is the dawn of a different era in terms of computing. What are your thoughts? And please answer not while walking or driving for that matter.

Increase Responses to Emails

Emails have become on of the best mediums and communication services. From introductions to pitches and proposals, chances are that your initial impression with someone will often be through this medium. Despite the importance of this system, few really take the time to learn it well in order to get better results.So a couple tips that might help you in the long run:

1. Always state what it is that you want in the very first line in the email. No one has time to read through all the other garbage before you get to the point.

2. Write and rewrite the subject. For obvious reasons.

3. Check who the message is going to. This is another one that sounds obvious but is something that nearly everyone is guilty of. Email providers make things easy these days by having an auto-complete feature that will tag your frequent contacts. However, it's easy for things to be sent to the wrong recipient. Then, there's always the people who forget about the difference between "reply" and "reply all."

4.  Read twice, send once. There's an old carpentry adage that says, "Measure twice, cut once." It was intended to prevent costly and unnecessary mistakes. In the world of business communication, it can cost you the chance to make a good impression or even have your email address flagged for spam. Use a spellcheck. Check your links. If it's an important email, surely it warrants a second read.

Second Screens

According to consumer data, the ratio of screens to computers that are bought exceed 1 which means that there are lot of people that have more than once screen for their computer. To be honest, there are some advantages to that such as being able to separate things while still seeing them at the same time. Some might say that it can get distracting but I find it great to be able to separate all the internet fax and email. Now throw this idea into TV watching or game playing and things get ugly in such a way where reasonable people start thinking that the sun might actually rise in the west. Enter the belief that second-screen technology stimulates audiences to behave in new and exciting ways -- that grabbing their phone or tablet while the TV is on makes them do things they've never done before. Researchers noticed. Suddenly, in-depth reports on second-screen behavior breathlessly concluded that people often do two things at once! That got everyone stirred up, even though the critical cause-and-effect part was missing. We've been here before.

Who Wants a Smartwatch?

Do you feel like life would be so much better with a smartwatch? Is it something that you cannot live without? Samsung and Sony have devices out, and Qualcomm has one coming before the holidays. Apple is believed to be making one, and a new report says Google is developing one, too. Why the big push for smartwatches? It’s not coming from consumers. Rather, it’s a product in search of a market – and an expensive one at that. Samsung and Sony executives say they’ve designed their watches to give people ready access to information they would normally check on their phones, reducing the need to constantly pull out the phones. I think that the smartwatch is a solution looking for a problem where there is none. Do you really want to use phone services on the little gadget on your wrist? It will be more of a burden than anything and most people have no problem pulling out their phones to check things on it. Not to mention the distractions that it would bring while driving because it would be right there in the field of view and more tempting than ever to look at it. Any thoughts?