Software posts

As our society becomes increasingly globalized, the ability to speak more than one language becomes increasingly useful. Members of today’s youth population who learn to speak more than one language are likely to have a huge advantage over their monolingual peers in terms of job prospects in the future. Fortunately, technology is making language learning less difficult and more enjoyable for both kids and adults. New apps for tablets and smartphones, in particular, are beginning to break boundaries and revolutionize the way people learn to speak different languages. A Palo Alto-based…

When all considerations are tallied, it’s possible that Salesforce has invested over a billion dollars into social media through the purchase of Buddy Media and Radian6, not to mention the smaller companies they bought such as Rypple and Jigsaw. Is all of this an ego play to be the biggest and baddest in social media, or is this a series of great moves for the CRM company? [caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Image via CrunchBase"][/caption] Social media is extremely hard to predict and the numbers involved are staggering, but the buzz that will surround the company in 2013…

Anyone who owns a smartphone, be it a sleek Apple iPhone or a fully customizable Android device, knows that mobile applications are what brings the “cool” factor to these devices. From small applications that tell the weather or current stock prices, to highly addictive gaming experiences which can suck up hours of your social life, apps are all the rage with smartphone users. This app experience is not just a passing fad, but has become a powerful revenue generating machine for Apple and Google with app downloads crossing the 25 billion and 10 billion mark for these companies, respectively….

I have always taken pride in my HTCphone having a bigger screen than the iPhone. That is one of the few perks Android users have on avid iPhone users. Sorry Apple, but I love my androids; they haven’t steered my wrong yet. Except that one time when I threw my phone across the room. Note to self: put the phone down slowly after receiving a frustrating phone call. I feel bad for iPhone users; every time they purchase a new phone, a newer and better one comes out. I don’t mean to bash the iPhone, the service is good and often works when my 4G decides to take a five hour break. But really?! You’re killing me!…

Collecting data is easy. Storing it is even easier. Taking it in massive amounts and understanding the complex relationships that are created from it all is the tough part. Recent advancements and focus points by large companies have given us a much better grasp on what it all means and how it can be used, but there’s definitely room for improvement. This infographic from Wikibon comes to us via Hartford Dodge and shows how big data as an entity and an industry is being “tamed” by technological advancements. As our ability to collect, store, and retrieve it continues to become stronger, the ability…

Under 7 seconds. That’s how long an SSD-equipped Windows 8 PC takes to boot. It’s something that is unheard of in most light-weight mobile operating systems, let alone a full PC OS. The new-found speed has a comical drawback: one would need gamer reflexes to interrupt the boot process and enter setup or BIOS mode, so the features have been removed. There is currently a 200ms window in which to let the PC know you want to interrupt and enter boot setup. It’s not enough time to flash, so trying to enter these modes means doing so after it’s already booted. Here’s a video that shows the intense speed. Related…

Play Angry Birds with chop sticks. Browse web pages without a mouse or touchscreen. Sign a document within 1 centimeter with pinpoint accuracy. These are just the tip of the possibilities iceberg for Leap Motion, the gesture-control technology unveiled today in the video below. The San Francisco startup says you can “Say goodbye to your mouse and keyboard.” The accuracy of the device may make that claim a reality for some considering that it’s reportedly 200 times more accurate than anything on the market today and can track the movements of all ten fingers inside a 4-cubic-foot space down to…

I don’t know about anyone else, but I think Apple has a huge “underground” stronghold on social media – and they don’t pay a damn thing for it. Apple for some reason or another has an unparalleled ever surrounding hype about itself that just attracts everyone in the technology era. Especially now with the Worldwide Developers Conference coming up the second week in June, I am seeing an increasingly steady trend of Apple product rumors. As a social media marketer, it is unbelievable to me that Apple is able to have users do it on their own for them. That is part of why Apple is as successful…

Have you ever been out and about and wondered, “do we have milk?” It’s a question that gets asked in families semi-regularly almost as much as the same question about toilet paper. What if our milk talked to us via mobile a mobile application? What if all of our food did? What if all of the products that filled our lives kept track of themselves and let us know when they were low? A future of self-aware food may be around the corner and milk seems to be the first step. The Do We Have Milk jug was designed by Teehan+Lax Labs to give us alerts when we’re running low. As you can see in the video, it acts in real time…

This is what social media was designed to do in the first place. Heck, it’s what the internet promised to be able to do all those years ago. It has the right company building it, the right technology supporting, and is coming out at a time when it is not only desired but also needed. Why, then, has Google Hangouts not exploded into a tool that everyone from family members to international corporations use ever day? In a quick survey of friends and business relations, I discovered that only one person out of nearly a hundred acquaintances had used it more than once. Keep in mind that this is a tech-savvy,…