Drivers should swear off texting and thumb-twiddling games behind the wheel, but the smart phone, when safely clipped to the dashboard and out of your hands, can be much more than a dangerous distraction in the car. Mobile apps can give drivers the tools they need to drive more safely and smartly, whether helping then maximise fuel mileage or locate a misplaced vehicle in a sprawling car park. We run down the best mobile apps on the market for the wired, wallet-conscious UK motorist.
My Cars (Android, free)
Feel like your driving costs are spiraling out of control, driven upwards by hefty fuel bills, steep insurance premiums, and endless repairs and maintenance costs? Track everything and learn how to boast efficiency and minimise outputs with this handy app. Can't remember when you last had your oil changed? My Cars knows. Always forget to have your car served after so many miles? My Cars can remind you. Regular servicing keeps your car humming, resolving minor issues before they require pricey repairs (or cause accidents) and maintaining the salability of the vehicle. My Cars also allows you to track fuel efficiency and determine the best--and worst--conditions for your petrol consumption. And unlike similar apps, My Cars allows users to log data from multiple cars at once, making it useful for multi-vehicle households.
Road Trip Lite (iPhone, free)
If you're not a obsessive number cruncher (or an Android user) but still want to maximise your cars performance and minimise costs with some simple math, look into Road Trip Lite. A quicker and more accessible app for logging mileage, fuel economy, and maintenance costs, Road Trip Lite produces streamlined graphs to help you understand how your car eats up petrol and how to improve your stats. The full version of Road Trip (£2.99) comes with a full caboodle of features, including trip expense and tyre installation logs and support for multiple vehicles, but laymen can probably save their pennies and cope well with the leaner version.
Intelligent Marmalade (iPhone and Android, free)
Young drivers face steep insurance costs but a telematics scheme can help them par down costs with safe driving. Intelligent Marmalade replicates the tracking of the insurer's 'black box,' monitoring all the variables (except speed) that the actual box does, and then delivering a score. It's specifically targeted at young drivers but others can benefit from finding out how safely they drive--and if a telematics box could whittle down their insurance costs. Great way to try out telematics even if you don't plan to insure with Marmalade.
AA Parking (iPhone and Android, £1.99)
Sick of creeping through a crowded city looking for a parking spot and finally being forced to shill out nearly a month's rent to shoehorn your car in between four others? This app, boasting data on all paid and free car parks in the UK and Ireland, can help you locate the nearest and cheapest parking spot for you vehicle. In some areas you can even tap into real-time data about parking space availability, with information about opening hours and up-to-date price listings.
Rebecca Jaten has been a freelance journalist for 12 years. With an extra appetite for app and technology related articles and how they can save you money.
Saturday, 16 November 2013
YotaPhone with LCD and E-ink screen
The YotaPhone is having a 4.3 inch LCD screen with HD resolution (720p) in the front. At the rear is an E -ink screen with a resolution of 640 x 360 pixels. That second screen is always on and giving you all the notifications such as, missed calls, the weather forecast, reminders and messages.
One advantage is that you do not have to look, so the battery life will be more. Even though your battery is completely dried; the last viewed information still remains visible on the screen. In addition, one more advantage is with the E-ink screens that is visible even in bright sunlight and is perfectly readable in the broad day light. A bit of a shame is that the E-ink screen is not touch screen.
There is only a capacitive touch- zone below the screen for navigation. The Android 4.2.2 running on YotaPhone and is equipped with a 1.7 GHz dual - core processor, 2GB RAM, a 13 megapixel camera with LED flash, a 1 -megapixel front camera and a battery with a capacity of 1.800mAh. The price offered is not known and the pre order is on the way at their Yota site.
"S.T.R.I.K.E. M" wireless keyboard with NFC
The S.T.R.I.K.E. M is also equipped with NFC to speed up the connection. The keyboard is equipped with a rechargeable battery, illuminated keypad and an optical sensor to navigate with your finger. The Strike M is expected to be available for the holidays in three different colors (red, black and silver).
Google Chrome 31 Browser with more Apps!
The highest premium money goes to "SkyLined” by Google Chrome Security Team for finding a bug in the HTML parser. With the Portable Native Client (PNaCl), the browser gets a new technique offered; Google is working on for years. Even in Chrome 14, Google had presented its translation tool. PNaCl enables developers to write apps using the C or C + +. Let then run in Chrome with the new technology, whether Windows, Mac or Android running in the "background”. This not just an easy task for developers, but also has benefits for users.
Thanks to the low-level programming can be so resource-intensive applications such as 3D games, video and audio editing or CAD programs implemented. What advantages attract future apps from the art, showing the side PNaCI demos. URL handler Chrome Apps may also access memory from the network immediately to forward the local documents, for example, to web-based applications which is more helpful to the users. Directory access with Chrome apps gets the opportunity to access user-defined directories on the PC. This fall, for example, browser applications on the same data as locally installed programs.
Like its predecessors, Chrome 31 also completed the latest version of Google's browser with the sovereign benchmark parkour. While no wins Chrome 31 percentage points over the previous add, however, it is possible to program a surprise coup in the SunSpider benchmark. Dominated here with the Microsoft Internet Explorer for a long time the top position, succeeds Chrome, at least catch up and catch up with IE 11th The SunSpider benchmarks, V8 Octane and check the speed of presentation of JavaScript. The Acid3 test analyzes the conformity to current web standards. Peacekeeper (Pk ) will focus on HTML5 elements . In SunSpider, a low value (in seconds) better - for V8, Octane, Acid3 and Peacekeeper, a high value (in points / runs).
With the implementation of request auto complete Google wants to simplify. Similar to the AutoFill feature for the browser stores your contact information to request payment. Websites use the function; the browser retrieves the stored data from you in the browser and into the respective form fields automatically. To safeguard your data, the function is only to sites with SSL encryption. But the payment processing does not affect the novelty.
Android users get the new version also able to create bookmarks directly on the home screen. Open the desired page and select the menu option “Add to Home screen”, from now on, a finger tip is enough to open the web page in the Chrome browser. In the corresponding blog entry, the developers listen to a whole range of technical innovations, such as the support of SCTP for improved data transmission for WebRTC sessions or an interface for speech recognition for apps and web pages.
With Google Chrome 31, the browser highlights the distinction between local and web applications on. After 19 Chrome has already blossomed into a browser everywhere program slowly but steadily developed an all-rounder. And to the detriment of Firefox, IE & Co. Chrome is also quick to expresses: In the benchmark 31 wiedermal Chrome beats all competitors and attracts obsolete even in the SunSpider test on a par with the IE11.
Although the developers promised major improvements in performance and stability, but at the Chrome browser anyway very fast and stable, the user gets it with not much. Thanks vulnerabilities closed the browser has less of a target. Android users use the browser even faster by using swipe gestures.
Ways to Save Money on Tech For Your Small Business
Ways to Save Money on Tech For Your Small Business
Small businesses need to be careful with how they spend money in order to be profitable and to have the money to invest and grow. To ensure that they are spending wisely and getting the most bang for their buck, small businesses should research purchasing decisions carefully and should be on the lookout for opportunities to maximize the value they receive from each purchase. This is true with any type of acquisitions for the business but especially true when buying tech products.
The Tips
To help ensure your business is getting the tech tools you need without breaking the bank, here are some tips for saving money on tech:
Ralph Billings is a small business consultant who specializes in helping companies trim the fat. If he can’t get our business running more efficiently, no one can! Follow his blogging exploits to gain valuable insight on running your own company.
Small businesses need to be careful with how they spend money in order to be profitable and to have the money to invest and grow. To ensure that they are spending wisely and getting the most bang for their buck, small businesses should research purchasing decisions carefully and should be on the lookout for opportunities to maximize the value they receive from each purchase. This is true with any type of acquisitions for the business but especially true when buying tech products.
The Tips
- Shop around for printer ink. For example, if you use Brother printers in your office, you can look around to find Brother HL-2140 toner cartridges at a discount. By doing your research and comparing prices before you make a purchase, you can get the same high quality printer ink but spend a fraction of the price.
- Use the technology available to you. Many businesses have software and hardware that they are not using to full capacity. For example, if your business purchased the Microsoft suite of office software but you are using it only for Word or PowerPoint, consider exploring the email, calendar and database features for use in streamlining communication among employees and staying connected with clients. Here are some tips to get the most out of Office.
- Take advantage of free and open source software. There are a lot of great free software programs out there that use open source code and that provide close to the same level of functionality that higher priced professional programs do. For example, if your company needs a graphic design program, you could easily spend several hundred dollars buying Photoshop. As an alternative, you could instead use the free software program GIMP that provides many of the same features but that will not cost your company anything at all.
- Look for discounts and buying opportunities for small businesses. Many office supply stores and online companies want to capture a strong market share in the small business market and thus will offer special discounts, deals or coupons for small businesses to use their equipment or services. You should consider looking for discounts on tech products and services from these online and local stores that cater to small businesses before you make any purchase.
- Decide if VOIP is right for you. Phone service is one of the biggest tech costs for many companies. Instead of having dedicated phone lines, some companies can get away with using Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) as their primary or secondary telephone service. Your monthly cost of phone service may be much lower if you use an Internet telephone service rather than having dedicated landlines. You can also look into fax services that operate over the computer rather than having a dedicated fax machine in your office environment that you need to buy toner, paper and ink for and that you need to have connected to a dedicated telephone line.
- Consider having employees use personal cell phones. It may be less expensive for your company to pay a portion of your employee’s personal cell phone bills and have them use these phones for business use than it is to buy dedicated phones that people can use only for business needs and pay for the full cost of the bill. Employees may be eager to embrace the opportunity of using personal phones with a portion of the bills being paid so they do not have to carry around two separate phones.
- Outsource some of your tech services. For most small businesses, it does not make sense to have a full-time IT professional employed by the business. Instead, you can use IT consulting firms or outsource to IT professionals only when you need help. You won’t have to assume the cost of benefits and salary for an IT professional when you only need occasionally assistance.
Ralph Billings is a small business consultant who specializes in helping companies trim the fat. If he can’t get our business running more efficiently, no one can! Follow his blogging exploits to gain valuable insight on running your own company.
