Twitter for iPhone Updated With Twitter Picture Support

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Twitter for iPhone has been updated to version 3.5.0 and, aside from the usual bug fixes and minor enhancements, it brings a series of features to iOS device owners who love tweeting.

The new version brings an enhanced sign up experience and support for the Twitter Picture upload support (uploading to pic.twitter.com) for easier sharing. If you haven't received the App Store notification on your phone, make sure you consult the app or your iTunes client in order to install/grab the update.

Source: iTunes

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Why Doesn�t Windows Phone 7 Support Dual Core CPUs?

When some one says their phone has a dual-core processor, that sounds very impressive. It means one side of the processor can be doing one thing while the other side is doing another. It's very advantageous to multitasking scenarios, provided the operating system is designed to handle the two processors well enough to take full advantage of them.

Windows Phone 7 is not designed to take full advantage of multiple processors or multi-threaded applications at this time. Dual core processors take up a lot more electricity than single core processors, and Microsoft has designed Windows Phone 7 to be very fast and fluid on lowly single core, single Ghz processors so that you'll have better battery life and won't feel as much of a need for more powerful processors.

When we asked a Microsoft representative about why Windows Phone 7 Mango didn't support dual core processors, he said that they want to do multiple cores in a big way and that they weren't ready just yet. I?m guessing what he meant could mean a move to the rumored MinWin kernel which will support scaling to any number of processors since it will be the same kernel as Windows 8 and Windows 8 Server. Since the Windows Phone 7 apps are all written using the same tools used to create Windows 8 apps, it will be easier to change architectures AND bring huge performance benefits to all apps globally without the need for specific app optimizations for specific processors. With Windows 8, it sounds like some current Windows Phone 7 apps can be modified to work on multi-processor systems with just one line of code. All of the new Metro style apps being developed for Windows 8 will also support hardware GPU acceleration with no extra effort from the developers. That means with Windows 8 you'll already have the potential for huge amounts of processing power if you want it. Microsoft just needs to bring that kind of scalability over to small smartphone devices along with a user interface that's appropriate for a phone.

Do you think Microsoft will bring the Windows 8 kernel and multi-processor support to Windows Phone 8 "Apollo" or are multi-core CPUs unnecessary on Windows Phone?

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First 64GB microSD Card Here; When Will Smartphones Support It?

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Late this past spring, we heard about the first microSD card that would hit the 64GB mark, setting new limits for how much data you could store on your smartphone. While the cards were announced months ago, they're just now becoming commercially-available products, and SanDisk is the first to bring one to market.

We had guessed back in May that one of these 64GB cards might fetch somewhere in the $200-300 range, and that's pretty spot-on; SanDisk's 64GB card goes for about $220. Obviously, you're paying a premium for getting all that data crammed into one tiny package. An 8GB microSD card with the same speed rating (class 6) can be had for $11, which comes out to about $1.38 per gigabyte. For this 64GB card, you're paying $3.44 per gigabyte, or two and a half times as much.

Then there's the problem of compatibility to deal with. The new 64GB card is a microSDXC device, not just the SDHC we're familiar with. SDHC tops-out at 32GB, and smartphones will need to be able to communicate with SDXC cards in order to take advantage of their increased storage space. We'll absolutely start seeing SDXC support in future phones, both as the prices of the cards drop, and user storage needs grow. For the moment, at least, you'll have to be content at 32GB.

Source: SanDisk
Via: IntoMobile

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Foursquare For Windows Phone Updated With Mango Support

Mango is nearing upon us (we're still yet to see whether rumors about today's announcement turn out to be true or not) and applications are being constantly updated to support the Redmond platform refresh.

The official Foursquare client for Windows Phone just got updated to version 2.5. Aside from the usual fixes, the new version brings Mango support. That means fast app switching so that you are no longer presented with the screen that says Resuming. There's also support for App Connect as well as secondary Live Tiles. If you don't have the notification on your Marketplace Tile, fire up the application or just follow the source link below to update.

Source: Marketplace

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Google Voice Android App Gets Bugfixes, Improved Offline Support

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It's been a couple months since Google last released an update to its Google Voice app for Android. That last one was pretty darn minor, with the most notable change being some more ecological power management. Google's back with a new update to the software, this time actually fixing some annoying bugs.

If you've tried Google Voice out, you've probably noticed some odd behavior when trying to play back voicemails you've received, where the message would stop running shortly after you began listening, requiring you to hit "play" a second time. With Google Voice 0.4.2.34, voicemail playback will now work as planned, no longer requiring that second tap.

Unlike a traditional VoIP app, Google Voice uses normal voice services to connect you, after routing you to an access number to initiate the call. In the past, the app would negotiate this setup with its servers each time you wanted to dial. Now, you'll no longer need an active data connection each and every time you want to call someone ? only that very first time.

There's also a fix for an issue that would delay Android notifications from showing up on time, and new warning messages advising if the phone has no data connection when you go to write a text message. Look for the updated app in the Android Market today.

Source: Google
Via: Android Police

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How to Start an Office Support Service

Office support services can range from basic data entry to a fully-staffed office handling all the details of a client's business.

An office support service company can start very small, offering only a limited selection of services and expanding as you gain the capacity to do so. This modular approach makes office support services very attractive for the talented entrepreneur with limited capital and the motivation to learn and grow over time.

Start Up Costs and Financing Sources:

$500 to $100,000+ depending on services offered

With a strong and well-researched business plan, venture capitalists and angel investors may help with part of the initial financing. Do not depend on this, however, as your source of financing.

Pricing Guidelines for Service:

Set your prices to allow for at least $20-40 per hour (before taxes and expenses), but avoid charging hourly rates. Charging an hourly rate for office support services gives clients the opportunity to demand more and more work for the same price. Before long, it will begin to feel like you are trapped in the very same employment situation which you were trying to avoid by starting a business in the first place! So with that in mind, try your best to set a flat fee (based on volume) for each office support service you provide.

As you become more skilled with specific office support services, you can charge less to a client while actually earning more per hour.

Advertising and Marketing:

Many help wanted advertisements detail office support services which are very suited to your company. Respond to these with a brochure of the services you provide, as well as the benefits of contracting with a service provider instead of hiring an employee.

Temporary staffing companies get many requests for office support services. Sometimes they do not have enough qualified applicants to fill the positions. Rather than telling their clients that they have failed to fill the position, they might be willing to connect you with the client company.

Work with other office support service providers in your area. Identify which services each provider excels at and cooperate to refer those types of jobs to each other. This valuable type of exchange will keep you and your "competitors" working on the projects which profit everyone the most.

Get at least one ad listed in the yellow pages phone directory. Better yet, get listed under the heading for every specific service you offer.

Essential Equipment:

A decent computer with a comprehensive suite of office software is necessary in any office.

At least one telephone line will be necessary. Two telephone lines and a dedicated fax line would be even better.

A three-in-one printer/copier/fax machine can save precious desk space; however, if you do a significant amount of one of those three tasks, it is a good idea to get a dedicated machine for it.

You will need an adequate amount of general office supplies such as printer paper, paperclips, staples, pens, pencils, Post-It notes, mailing labels, etc.

Filing cabinets and similar paperwork storage space will help to keep your work area organized.

Income Potential:

$15,000 to $100,000+

Your income is really only limited by the amount of work you can do in a day. This is definitely a choice business for someone who is good at streamlining and automating their daily tasks. After you have an efficient system in place, you can begin to hire employees to take care of the menial things which can't be automated, greatly expanding your earning capability.

Target Market:

Small businesses which are growing rapidly and have an excess of paperwork to handle.

Staffing agencies which specialize in office support services and have trouble finding qualified applicants for a project.

Tips for Success:

Develop a strong eye for detail. 99.9% accuracy might sound excellent, but that one-in-a-thousand error could cost your clients big money and cost you your contract.

Automate! Identify the areas where you are spending most of your time and determine if it is possible to automate parts of the tasks and save time. Research software which could do some of the dirty work for you. For example, certain data entry projects can be done by an image scanner and optical character recognition (OCR) software, leaving you with just the job of auditing the final data for accuracy.

Training, Skills or Experience Needed:

It is useful to have a background in accounting, business management, etc. Working as an employee for a year or two in an office support services environment is enough to develop the basic skills you will need.

Typing is a big part of the business. Hone your typing skills to at least 70 words per minute with 100% accuracy.

Stay organized. When you need to find paperwork or supplies, they should be right where you expect them to be.

© Copyright Randy Wilson, All Rights Reserved.

Randy currently has a website dealing with Reviews of Coffee Related Products such as coffee makers, espresso makers, coffee, k-cups, and more plus articles on coffee enemas and other coffee and health related topics. He also has a website of Reviews of Small Appliances [http://www.smallappliancebuyerguides.com/] such as ice cream makers, vacuum cleaners, mixers, irons, toasters, food processors, and many other appliances.

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IT Service and Support - How to Choose an IT Service and Support Provider

Choosing an IT service and support provider can be a daunting prospect. With so many players in the market, the choice is bewildering, and there are so many factors to consider. We've created this guide to help you identify the most important factors to consider when choosing a partner for your IT service and support.

Business focus

We mention this first because it's the most important factor by far. Do you feel that this IT service and support provider really understands your business? Do they know how you work, how customers find you and how you meet their needs? Have they really got a handle on your internal processes?

You should be able to talk to your IT service and support provider in purely business terms. In other words, you should be able to explain the issues you face, or the outcomes you want to achieve, without even referring to software, hardware or specific technologies. Your IT service and support partner should be able to build a bridge between your expressed needs and the technical details of their solution, and explain their proposal in terms that you can easily understand.

Cultural fit

There's more to business focus than just the nuts and bolts of operational detail. Cultural factors are important too. Will this IT service and support provider fit in?

Remember, members of this IT service and support team will be visiting your premises, dealing with your staff and possibly training them in how to use new software and hardware. New IT systems bring changes, and change is something that many people find difficult. You're looking for people who can offer the right level of tactful, patient IT support, regardless of how technically literate your team is.

Quality of proposals

If you're considering investing in IT, or an ongoing IT service and support contract, you'll want your potential provider to submit a written proposal outlining the approach they recommend. As you review it, here are some questions to consider:

· Is the proposal readable? Has the supplier made an effort to express their ideas in plain English, so that you can understand it as a general business person? Have technical terms been explained, or can you easily request an explanation from the supplier?

· Are the prices clear? Are you confident that the price you see is the price you'll pay for your IT service and support, with no hidden extras?

· Can you compare? Has the IT service and support provider made it easy for you to compare like with like and confirm that their price is competitive?

· Are the third-party brands included in the proposal reassuring? Is the IT service and support provider proposing well-known, leading IT brands, or proprietary solutions you've never heard of?

· Does it feel tailored? Do you get a sense that the supplier has genuinely tried to build a solution around the IT service and support needs of your business, or are they trying to push you towards the products they favour?

Price and value

Obviously, price is a factor in your choice of IT service and support partner. Obtain proposals from a few suppliers and compare prices between them by all means - but do make sure you are comparing like with like. If prices differ, look carefully at what is actually being offered. You need to get to the heart of the business value offered by each proposal, which usually means looking beyond the price and understanding exactly what will be delivered, and how it will support your business.

As the old saying goes: 'buy on price, buy twice'. Nowhere is this more true than in the area of IT service and support, where choosing a solution that doesn't meet your needs, or isn't futureproof, can lead to significant costs further down the line.

Breadth of expertise

IT service and support is a broad church, encompassing a range of areas including networks, servers, email, mobile communications, backup, remote support, data storage, accounting and operational support, VoIP telephone systems and more. The key point to consider is whether a supplier can offer you IT service and support in every area that's relevant to your business - now, and in the future.

Attempting to buy IT service and support on price, or to focus on one area of their business when choosing suppliers, can lead to awkward multi-supplier arrangements when requirements change or develop. (To be fair, a multi-vendor environment is sometimes unavoidable, for example in situations where a company has committed to a particular software package and its users are completely familiar with it.) So as far as possible, aim to 'future-proof' your IT service and support arrangement by striking up a relationship with an IT service and support provider who can meet all the needs you can foresee. And if you do have legacy arrangements in place, opt for a IT service and support partner who can demonstrate the skills and understanding required to deal with it.

Some IT service and support providers profess to have a broad mix of skills, but are actually specialists in one area. It's easy for firms to put up a web page claiming expertise in many areas of IT service and support, when their actual knowledge is much narrower. Look for verifiable customer testimonials that back up the supplier's expertise in the areas of IT service and support you are interested in.

Accreditation

Qualifications from reputable third parties are an important indicator of a IT service and support provider's skill and application. Accreditations such as becoming a Microsoft Certified Partner are hard-won, only being acquired by firms who can demonstrate consistent, reliable skills and prove their knowledge with the products of a reputable brand. At the end of the day, world-leading companies such as Microsoft take no chances with their brand - yet, at the same time, they need IT service and support providers who can deliver their products to customers effectively. Look to high-profile accreditations for proof that you are dealing with a reputable, committed and highly professional IT service and support company.

Integrated skills

Closely related to the question of breadth of expertise is the issue of integrated IT service and support. Having multiple skills is great, but the real value is generated when they all come together in the service of your business.

For example, an IT service and support provider who can offer a Unified Communications service will be able to integrate your email, fax and phone communications into one seamless system, drawing on a range of expertise in the process. Similarly, an IT service and support company with skills in networks, servers and remote backup will be able to develop a coherent, rounded strategy for managing your business information - rather than putting forward piecemeal ideas that make you feel like you're simply buying a product rather than creating a solution that supports your business.

Size of team

IT service and support providers vary widely in terms of the size of team that they offer, from small teams and one-person operations right up to much larger concerns with hundreds of personnel.

If your enterprise is small or medium-sized, you might be tempted to opt for a smaller supplier, or even a one-person outfit. If you go down this road, remember to make sure you'll have adequate cover in the event of sickness or time off - if you're dependent on a single individual, you'll be without support if they're not working. A small team gives more reassurance, but there still may be capacity issues if all their clients call for IT service and support at the same time.

Conversely, a very large concern will be able to give much stronger reassurances (perhaps at a cost), but with a trade-off in terms of the personal touch. You may not get to know the people who support you, or it may be a different technician who visits you each time.

For many clients, a medium-sized IT service and support provider offers the best of all worlds - enough team members to provide reassurance in terms of service levels, but a small enough enterprise to deliver genuinely personal service.

Location

While many IT service and support functions can now be carried out remotely, the physical location of your IT service and support partner is still important. In an emergency, will they be able to reach you quickly and deal with problems promptly? What commitments can they make in terms of speed of response?

Many IT service and support clients opt for distant suppliers on the basis of cost or expertise, only to find that they can never get to see the people who are supposed to be 'supporting' them. Make sure you're confident that you'll be getting the level of support you've paid for. Ask to see customer testimonials or case studies, and consider contacting your prospective IT service and support supplier's customers directly.

Christopher Burke is a Director of Onyx Integrated IT, an IT service and support provider based in Norwich, Norfolk UK. Onyx provides local clients with IT service and support in Norwich Norfolk, serving a broad range of businesses and organisation throughout Norwich and Norfolk.

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The 5 best third-party apps with Lion full-screen support

Want some great Mac apps that work with Lion’s new full-screen mode and really show off why the new feature is one of the best new additions to OS X? We’ve got you covered. Each of the following apps has been updated to include the telltale little icon of two diverging arrows that indicates full-screen support, and each works very well when in that mode.

Most of us likely do a lot of reading on our Macs. Reeder for Mac is a great way to make that reading even more of a pleasure. The RSS app ties into your Google Reader account, and syncs read and unread status Google and with Reeder for iOS devices. The Mac version was already a lot like the iPad version when it first came out, and with full-screen support in the latest version, it’s even more so. Grab a coffee, but leave the newspaper on the table; Reeder with full-screen active provides a distraction-free environment for catching up with all the latest.

When you need to remotely access your computer, there isn’t always an easy solution, especially when you’re trying to connect from the road. Screens (combined with Screens Connect for hassle-free remote access) is a great way to quickly and easily setup and manage VNC access between Macs. With full-screen support, working on your home computer away from home (or your work computer from home) feels even more like you’re actually working on the target machine, since everything you see is on the remote Mac.

I noted this update when it arrived, just ahead of Lion’s release, but it’s worth noting again. Fluid provides the ability to turn any website into its own, dedicated Mac app by creating a site-specific browser (SSB). Facebook, Google Docs, and Google Plus are all favorite Fluid apps of mine, and full-screen support means I can keep them even more safely contained away from more productive, work-related apps and content.

If you’re a regular blogger with multiple sites on the go, you’ve probably heard of the Mac standby MarsEdit. It’s a blogging client that’s compatible with most major blogging services, including Blogger and Tumblr, and it’s a native Mac app. MarsEdit’s latest update allows you to compose and edit posts in full-screen mode, which means you can get down to writing in a much more distraction-free environment.

Apple’s new Mail app in Lion remedies a lot of the problems many users had with it, and brings some nice new features as well, but that doesn’t mean it’ll feel right for everyone. Alternatives are always appreciated, and none maybe more so than Sparrow, a nice light native email client originally designed for Gmail. Sparrow now works with most other email services as well, and it has a refreshing simplicity that Apple’s own offering can’t match. Plus, now that it has full-screen support, it provides a great environment for catching up on your correspondence in a really focused way.

Those aren’t the only apps with full-screen support, but they are my favorite. What are yours, and which would you like to see get the update that don’t have it yet?

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Next up for Google Plus Hangouts: Sign language support

Google’s new Hangouts group video chat service has been a big hit with early adopters. Now the company is looking to make it more widely available without leaving anyone behind: Google is going to launch a field test with users fluent in American Sign Langauge (ASL) to make Hangouts more accessible to deaf and hearing impaired users.

The field test is spearheaded by Google Technical Program Manager for Accessibility Engineering Naomi Black as well as the Engineering Director Chee Chew, who kicked off the initiative with a post to Google Plus that explained his personal stake in the issue:

“One area that I’m personally quite passionate about is facilitating communications and community for the deaf. My grandfather, aunt, and uncle were/are all deaf. While I’m very much a novice, I find ASL to be a beautiful expressive language. I hope that Hangouts can be awesome for the deaf (and hard of hearing) community as well as the hearing.”

Video chat applications have long been used by hearing impaired users to communicate via sign language. Skype seems to be particularly popular with hard of hearing users, and some users have turned to the service to learn and practice sign language.

Google is asking Google Plus Hangouts users for feedback on sign language support.

Multiuser video chat would be the logical next step for hard of hearing users, but there are also some technical challenges associated with group video conferencing. Google Hangouts, for example, is optimized for audible communication, as it switches its focus between users based on their microphone input. The idea of this feature is to prominently display the video camera input of the user who is currently talking, which has the added benefit of giving users an incentive not to talk over each other.

Gauging participation based on microphone input levels obviously doesn’t work for users who communicate via sign language, so Google is now looking for other cues. “We need an indicator for who has the floor,” explained Chee in his post, adding: “I’m sure there are subtle issues that I don’t know.”

Making its video products accessible to deaf users isn’t just stewardship for Google; it could also help the company avoid future liabilities. Disability advocates have begun targeting online media offerings in recent weeks to force them to adopt closed captions for web video. Lawsuits against CNN and Netflix allege the companies discriminate against deaf and hard of hearing users by failing to provide captions for each and every video served online. Some of the points made by the plaintiffs in these cases could also be used to argue that a video chat service that focuses on audible speech discriminates against deaf users.

Regardless of the motivation, early feedback from Google Plus users about the Hangouts field test is overwhelmingly supportive and even enthusiastic. In a comment on Chew’s post, one user summed up his feelings this way:

“I actually cried with joy at reading this post and finding out that Google and the Google+ team actually care about all of their user base. Thank you very much for just thinking about us.”

Picture of kids learning sign language courtesy of Flickr user daveynin.

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